In the Sound

Daryl’s face turned like he tasted something sour.

An awkward tension lingered between us. Hushing our bones into an uncomfortable hold. Somebody told me once that rednecks liked to joke and laugh. Guess they were wrong. Guess he really did want to murder me someday. I pursed my lips, tapping the pad of my finger over my chin. Leg bouncing in thought.

There was a little grumble in my throat. I coughed, snapping his unwilling attention back towards me. “So the older woman- is she?”

“She what?” His voice was poison. Stinging me into an awkward mumble.

“I just mean,” I drew a long breath. The cool air kissed my lips as I sucked it in, making me shiver in the slightest way. “Well she said that you’ve been lookin’ for her daughter. And you went to this extent when you were out there,” I weighed, nodding to his wound before nodding at the edge of the forest.

It was as quiet as ever. The bushy trees brushing up against each other, whistling pretty songs as they did. A soft shattering murmur told me that the trees were lines with insects.

“And?”

I raised a brow hesitantly, “well are you the Dad?”

It didn’t take me long to imagine it. His life before the new world. Holing out in some kind of cabin or caravan. Left high school when he knocked someone up. Turned sour by the world. Turned dark when the light shunned him. And eventually, eventually he’d turn when he got bit.

Daryl shifted his jaw, as though he were shaking his head. “Nah, she aint mine. ‘N’ neither’s Carol.”

Single. Childless. My head bobbled strangely. Unsure. Why was I asking?

“Why?”

As soon as his words left his tongue, my heart anchored within my stomach. I didn’t care if he was alive. Dead. Armless. Legless. Undead. Single. Or mighty swell. I didn’t care that he was the most arrogant person in the world, or that he hated me with all of his guts. But the thud rattling against my chest sent tingles sparking at the tips of my fingers. My brows were fixed in a puzzle.

“Uh,” I fumbled. “No reason. I’m jus’ tryna understand this group.”

“Why would ya needa do tha’ when ya leavin’?” He was quick. Much quicker when he wanted to be.

I felt the heat swell against my face, turning them red. My fingers twiddled achingly. I wanted to wring them around his stupid sun burnt neck.

“Jesus, you can be shitty sometimes. I wanted to know, is that alrigh’ with you?”

Daryl scoffed and shuffled in his chair. His head was barely turned, but I could feel his gaze was on me. “Was kiddin’, take a joke will ya?”

“Why don’t you?”

We were like snakes battling to the death. Quick tongues. Short tempers.

“You know what, you been on my back the secon’ you got here. Jus’ leave me the fuck alone. I aint ya god damn doll.”

“Nah, you’re just a god damn stupid hick. And you aren’t anywhere near pretty enough to be anyone’s doll.”

He was almost up, almost striding into my face. Pointing at me with those hard fingers. The way he did when Rick was wedged between us. But instead, a gruff scoff rumbled in his throat. And for some reason, he met my eyes with something I’d never seen before.

His voice was harsh, “well ya mus’ be pretty desperate to try ‘n’ get with me then.”

“Yeah cause ‘getting with you’ sounds like a real bargain,” I said, a mocking smile plastering against my face. Voice laced with sarcasm. “Lookin’ after stupid redneck children who roll around in mud and can’t tell the difference between race and religion.”

Another one of his scoffs. “Aint as bad as havin’ ugly ass kids who never done anythin’ in their life but pick the fleas from their dog’s ass.”

“You know what?” Digging my nails into the sides of my chair, I pushed myself onto my feet. Edging over to him. Heat swirling up in my head. “I’ll kill you.”

Daryl stood up too, matching me in anger. He towered over me, even when his stand was slanted.

“Yeah? Come on an’ try it, see what I do.”

I edged over, balling my fingers into tight fists. Our feet shuffled on. Almost chest to chest. Eyes held tightly. Our anger meshing like waves going in and out. My eyes glazed over him, sizing him up.

“Show me then, huh. Show me what you’d do.”

Daryl’s eyes flickered downward, his eyebrows furrowed. Mine did the same. His body was locked in an awkward hold, like he just noticed I wasn’t an alien.

In that moment, I realised three things. That Daryl was a man. That he was less than an inch away from me.

And that in this new world, I was fucking lonely.