Daryl Continued...

Rick got into the drivers seat. Andrea sat shotgun while Daryl and I took the backseat. He was ignoring me in a way that simply made me angry. I had lost Shane; I didn’t need Daryl’s cold shoulder as well.

The only time we spoke was when we were trying to figure out where to go. We had all seen the explosion, but from different angles. Andrea had seen it from upstairs, Rick saw it from downstairs while Daryl saw it from the barn. I kept my input out of it, I was too focused on imagining what we were going to find there to try to help.

Finally after what seemed like hours, we came to a large town. The buildings were pretty tall for not being a huge city like Atlanta. Of course, the roads were deserted except for a couple of crashes. The thing that creeped me out the most, however, was the absence of walkers. Where had they all gone?

Rick suddenly let out a sigh of frustration.

“We’re out of gas.” He announced.

“Guess that means we’ll have to go on foot.” Daryl didn’t seem to mind at all.

We all hopped out of the car; knowing that what we were doing was very, very precarious. If we had to run back into the car there was no way for us to drive off to safety. I hoped my offer to volunteer was the right decision.

“There, you see that?” Rick pointed straight ahead, “Smoke.”

And sure enough, we saw clouds of black rising from the ground.

“Let’s get there slowly, I don’t want walkers to hear us running.” He said.

So we continued our task on foot. As we walked down the empty streets, I noticed Daryl glance at me a couple of times. I was about to walk up to him and ask what his problem was when Andrea came up to me.

“So… what’s up with you and Daryl?” she asked in a hushed tone, glancing at Daryl.

My stomach flipped multiple times as I searched for an answer.

“Nothing.” Was the best I could come up with.

“Oh c'mon, he’s been glancing at you the entire trip here. Don’t tell me there’s nothing going on. Talk to me, we need a little gossip now—we don’t get that anymore.”

I sighed, knowing that she was completely right.

“Oh, okay fine. Well… a couple of nights ago we… kinda kissed I guess…” my voice trailed off. I could feel my cheeks go red.

Andrea’s smile was wide, “And? What, did he hate it?” she chuckled.

“No, it’s… it’s complicated.”

“Well, what happened?”

Butterflies fluttered around as I began to explain…

Flashback

“So that’s why you two are… friendly, but not too friendly?” Andrea pieced it together.

“Well, other factors play into it, but yeah pretty much.”

“Damn,” she muttered looking over at Daryl, “You and Daryl Dixon… never woulda thought.”

“Well he’s attractive; he can be sweet, believe it or not, and he’s protective. He always looks after me and it’s obvious he likes me, but—” I cut off. I was about to mention Shane.

“But what?”

“It’s complicated.” I repeated my reasoning.

“What’s complicated?” Daryl’s voice crept up behind us.

“This life we’ve been forced to live.” I simply replied.

“Right...” He shook his head and continued on walking.

We had made it to the middle of the town oddly not encountering any walkers. It’s not like I wasn’t thankful for it, I just found it strange.

“They still don’t know we’re here… I’d like to keep it that way.” Rick whispered, reading my mind.

I was about to mention something about the strangeness of the town when we came to the cause of the smoke. It was a gas station and it was still in flames. Across the street from it was what looked to be like the tallest building in the town, a giant white sheet hung off the side that said, “SOS”.

“Somebody must be in there.” Andrea stated.

“You think they’re the ones that did this?” Daryl motioned to the flaming building.

“Can’t see what else would.” She looked between the two structures.

“Well, let’s pair off then. Daryl and Lin, where do you wanna head off to?” Rick turned to me.

I glanced at the smoke filled sky then at the SOS sign before picking…

-The Gas Station

-The Tall Building