You Found Me

Rick and I drove slowly along the walker infested highway not saying a word about what just happened, I felt terrible about leaving Shane behind but what happened could not be helped. What he did was terribly wrong, and I didn’t want him to be anywhere near Sarah or anyone at the camp.

I didn’t want to admit it, but I truly did care about her. She’s the only person in a long time who has actually taken the time to get to know me even though I basically treated her badly. No one else in my life would have stuck around for that.

“What do we do now?” I asked Rick.

“Get back to the farm, and tell the others Shane didn’t make it.” Rick replied.

“So we lie?” I asked skeptical.

“It wouldn’t be lying; we didn’t see him after we ran off, and so something must have happened to him.” Rick said.

“And if he does come back?” I asked him.

“I will make SURE that he doesn’t harm anybody at the camp, you keep an eye on this as well.” Rick replied.

“Thanks man, I really appreciate what you did for me back there.” I told him.

“He was getting out of control, he had to be stopped. I had enough; I know you’ve had enough of him even before this situation happened. I couldn’t deal with him anymore; he was turning dangerous, something needed to be done. He didn’t belong with us.” Rick explained to me.

I kept those words in the back of my mind as Rick and I made our way back to the farm.

*Sarah’s POV*

“Whose pants are these?” Savannah asked me grabbing a pair of black jeans out of the laundry basket.

“They might be Daryl’s pants, I’m not sure. Oh well, when we get all this laundry washed we’ll sort through everything and see what’s what.” I replied going through more of the clothes.

We had begun dividing up chores throughout our camp, every week or so two different people would get the laundry done, every day we would have different people doing the cooking and cleaning, as well as the garden being done and the chickens being fed, and so on. It was a way to keep us busy throughout the day, so we weren’t preoccupied with outside distractions.

“They’ve been gone for hours, I hope they’re okay.” I said looking out onto the road, hoping Rick and Daryl would return any moment.

“I’m sure they will be just fine, they’ll be back soon.” Savannah said.

“What if something happened? What if Shane got really angry and what if he----“I said panicking about all the “what ifs” about the situation.

“Relax, there they come now.” Savannah said pointing towards the dirt road, where Daryl and Rick where driving through. As well as there was no sign of Shane, I was crossing my fingers everything fell into place, and that he was gone. I was ecstatic to see them, and ran up to Daryl as he parked his truck in the front of a wooden fence, him and Rick got out of the trunk and walked towards me looking like they had something important to mention.

“How’d it go?” I asked catching up to Daryl.

Daryl nodded at Rick wanting him to explain what had happened.

“We got into a little mishap down the highway; a few walkers interrupted our chat. Daryl and I got
away but as for Shane… we aren’t sure what happened to him.” Rick said.

“So is he alive or dead?” Savannah asked.

“He could be alive, or he could be dead.” Daryl replied. “But, if he as so much THINKS about coming back here, I’ll take care of it; so don’t worry too much.”

“I don’t know what to say, thank you very much.” I said stepping up to hug him, but as I did he took a step backward and pulled away.

“Sorry.” Daryl apologized turning and walking away from me.

I stood there not knowing what to say, I was confused as to why he didn’t accept my hug. I just assumed he wasn’t the touchy feely type that I sort of was. I figured I had better leave him alone for a while, just to let him cool off.

Savannah and I wondered back to doing the laundry, and as I sorted through the clothes I pondered in the back of my mind about Daryl and why he didn’t go in to hug me back; I told myself to leave it alone for the time being and not let it bother me so much.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Two weeks later-

“I don’t recall ever being able to catch a fish before.” Savannah said throwing her rod back out into the lake, frustrated at the lack of results.

“My grandfather taught you, remember?” I said reminiscing on old memories of going on long camping trips with my grandfather and Savannah.

“I’ve never actually been able to catch one though.” She said.

“You did before, at the fourth of July fireworks night.” I said laughing.

“That small little thing I caught? That wasn’t a fish, it was a fucking tadpole!” She said pulling at her fishing rod.

I put bait on the hook of my fishing rod, I hated the feeling of worms squishing my fingers but I guess it was less disgusting than the sound of a skull crushing beneath a tire. I threw the rod out into the lake and sat it in between my legs as I dipped my feet into the cool water and felt the warm breeze through my hair.

“You know, this new world; it’s not so bad if you think about it. I mean, yeah we’ve lost people we care about; we’ve had to leave our old lives behind and start over. There’s also danger lurking around every corner we walk past, and not just the walkers but trying to survive. But, at the same time…it’s been a chance to start over, to meet new people; create a different life.” I said to Savannah.

“I agree, these last few weeks haven’t been so bad. I’ve enjoyed cooking in the kitchen with Carol, Lori and Maggie! They’re pretty damn good cooks!” She replied smiling.

“Daryl’s still been avoiding me lately. It’s been difficult to get him to talk to me; he seems distant and on his own a lot lately.” I said thinking back the last few days of him ignoring me completely, except for the other week when T-Dog, Rick, him and I all went out to go hunting and he saved me from another walker. Yet, he didn’t say a word to me after that incident. I mean, he hasn’t been an asshole like he was doing before; he was just distant.

“I wonder what’s been bothering him lately.” She said. “Maybe he’s on his man period!”

We both burst into a fit of laughter for about 10 minutes, just thinking of the possibility that the reason Daryl was so distant lately because of a ‘man period’ made me crack up. It would explain all of the males at the farm lately, I thought laughing to myself.

Suddenly Savannah started pulling on her rod and getting excited, she seemed to have gotten a bite and it was pretty big too as she was having difficulties pulling on the rod.

“HELP ME OUT WOULD YA?!” She shouted standing up on the deck.

I took the fishing rod from her hands and I yanked on the rod as hard as I could to try to bring the fish out, but it didn’t seem to want to move at all. Suddenly as I was pulling the rod began to break, and I slipped and fell into the cold water. It wasn’t that deep, but I swam to the bottom to see what the rod had gotten stuck on, and when I opened my eyes I was face to face with a walker.