Chapter Twelve

- Day Seventy Four -

Daryl had agreed. A part of me was surprised that he had. But after I told him why, he understood. We should have left camp at first light, but that couldn't happen. Considering we had to run the idea by Rick first.

"Hey, Rick" Daryl greeted as we walked over to where Rick stood with Carl. "Found some deer tracks yesterday that seemed pretty fresh. Gunna see if I can track the thing down, get us some venison" he said. "Gunna be a few days."

"Are you sure?" Rick asked.

"Yea man" Daryl nodded. "Gunna teach Ally ta hunt."

"Are you sure?" the man asked me.

"Yea, why wouldn't I be?" I retorted. "It would be better if more of us knew the ins and outs of hunting, that way Daryl can take a break every now and then" I added.

We really didn't have to make our case. Rick agreed wholeheartedly and simply told us to be careful. Of course he would, the last time the two of us were out in the woods at the same time we both got pretty hurt and had a pretty shitty time. Hopefully this time would be better.

There really wasn't much Daryl and I had to do to get ready for our trip into the woods, so after we talked to Rick we set off. Apparently the first thing Daryl was going to do was teach me how to use his crossbow. I couldn't go around shooting squirrels and deer with my desert eagle after all.

I let out a shaky breath. This was my shot, if I missed then this hunt was over. I stood stock still as I looked down the barrel of Daryl's large crossbow. As the critters tail twitched, I lined up my shot. The second I pulled the trigger, however, the squirrel moved.

"Fuck" I whispered harshly. How the hell could I have missed?

"Well it wasn't a head shot, that's for damn sure" Daryl told me. "But you still got it" he added.

Looking at where the squirrel had been I saw that the arrow had been fired, and pinned the squirrel to the tree by it's tail. Well shit. Quickly I turned my head as Daryl plunged his knife into the squirrels head, putting it out of it's misery.

Sure I wanted to learn how to hunt, and killing walkers was a walk in the park. But there was something about seeing the knife go into the squirrels little head that I was still a bit squeamish about. It was stupid. Especially considering that I was cutting into one just yesterday.

"Hows that ankle?" Daryl asked as we settled in for lunch. With a small groan, I stretched my leg out in front of me and rotated my ankle.

"It still kinda stingy, but I'm good" I told him. "I'll be good to go by the time we're done with lunch." Daryl just grunted in response as he checked on our squirrels.

The meat was done cooking not too long later, and the two of us dug in not too long after that. It wasn't much, but it would tide us over for now. Hopefully we would be back at camp in another day or two with an entire deer. And maybe some extra rabbits and squirrels.

Daryl decided to train me to use the crossbow while on the move, we were burning daylight by staying still. He even said that tomorrow he would help me learn how to use a regular bow. I wasn't surprised to learn that the redneck knew how to make one.

The crossbow was heavy in my hands, and I was almost surprised that Daryl had let me hold it for this long. I don't think that there was ever a moment that I had seen the weapon out of Daryl's hands. At the very least it was always within reach.

Suffice to say I felt pretty fucking honored.

Suddenly, the sound of moans and growls found our ears and I rose the crossbow in preparation. The walker was too close to make a run for it.

"You got this" Daryl told me, pulling his knife just in case.

Slowly the walker hobbled into my sights and lined up the shot. The thing was getting closer. Too close. Any minute now it would be right on top of us. I was panicking and I knew that, if I missed then it would be game over.

Not even a second later the walker was on the ground, an arrow between it's eyes. As soon as it hit the dirt I let out a breath that I didn't even know I was holding.

"Damn girl" Daryl whistled as he inspected my kill. "Any closer and this nasty son of a bitch woulda had a nice big meal."

I just sighed in relief. "Honestly" I told him "I didn't even know I pulled the damn trigger." And true to his character, Daryl just grunted and back to his deer tracks.

"C'mon, we're loosing daylight."

The sun had dropped lower in the sky and we still hadn't found the damn deer. Daryl and I only had one more walker encounter. And it was at the abandoned farm house we had stumbled on when it was decided to make camp for the night.

While I skinned the two rabbits we had caught before making sure the farm house was safe, Daryl began carving at the thick branch of red cedar. He really wanted his crossbow back tomorrow. I had almost forgotten that he said that he would teach me how to use a regular bow. And apparently so did he. There was nothing around that we could use for bow string.

"Looks like we'll have to wait till we get back to camp" Daryl shrugged as he put aside the limb he was whittling.

"By the way" I started as I sorted through my bag "thanks for letting me come with."

"You had a point" the red neck shrugged once more. "This groups falling apart, if your gunna stay with them, gotta have someone who's gunna feed 'em" he added. "And I rather show you how to survive than Shane."

"What, you're not gunna stay?" I asked when I finally found what I was looking for. Dinner meant that I was going to split up some of the baked beans I had packed for the trip. Daryl just shrugged as he stroked the low fire we had started.

We ate dinner in silence. I mean what could we possibly talk about. The weather? not a fucking chance. So we sat in silence. Daryl took first watch and while he did, I curled up on the couch and thumbed through one of my books. It was a boring read and I found my self tiring out.

Before I knew it, I was fast asleep.

AN: Okay so that last little scene was random and absolutely out of fucking no where. But I needed something to up the word count lol.

Also I apologize for not updating the past few days. Life and a mild case of writers block got in the way. lol

So I feel like this is the real beginning to Ally and Daryl's friendship. Its obvious he feels something towards her, otherwise he wouldn't have agreed to teach her and stuff.

I will admit that there were some errors in this chapter. For instance the bow. I realized late in writing this one that, well, how could Daryl teach her how to use a regular bow without any string. All they had was wood. Soooo...yea lol.

Anyways

As Always, Leave Love

)0( Iris RainbowWolf )0(

PS: is it wrong that i'm starting to like this story better than my other one? lol