"Has anybody seen, Eve?" Lori looked to no one in particular for and answer.

I tapped her on the shoulder and she whirled around, nearly smacking me in the face with her long dark brown locks.

"Jesus, you scared me." Calming down with a hand on her chest, she gave me a mildly amused, tired look.

I smiled apologetically and awaited her reason for needing me.

"Will you go find Amy? She's been gone for awhile now."

Stiffening straight up, I saluted Lori as if she were a general issuing orders.

Chuckling, Lori shook her head at me and I stuffily marched for the forest; Refusing to let any giggles or head shakes make me break character, until I reached the treeline and sped up to a light jog to go fulfill my mother-given mission.

Silently trekking through the forest searching for sunshine blonde isn't as easy as it sounds. Thankfully Amy's easy to spot at a distance. I'm still at odds on whether or not that's a good thing.

It wasn't long before I found her picking what looks like mushrooms.

Coming up behind her, I tapped her on the shoulder and she hadn't even turned halfway before her mouth opened. Foreseeing her scream, I lunged forward, clapping my hand over her mouth.

I smiled and she scowled at me. A look I'm not unaccustomed to receiving. Removing my hand, that scowl was replaced with a polite smile.

"Time to go back?"

I nodded and held my hand out to her. Accepting my hand, Amy pulled herself to her feet, bringing a red bucket of mushrooms with her.

A small glint in the trees caught my vision and my gaze fixed on it, trying to figure out what it was. It's moving, so it's alive…in a manner of speaking.

"Are you coming?" I glanced at Amy over my shoulder, lightly shaking my head. I returned my narrowing eyes to my object of interest.

"Okay, well...see you back at camp." I listened to leaves crunching as she made her way off.

As soon as the glint started moving, I walked towards it until I'd caught up and discovered it was humanoid.

A person? Walker's more likely but I've never seen one up here before.

Silently sliding a knife out from my leg strap, I crept closer. Keeping my movements nimble and silent, I came up until I was a few feet behind it.

When I saw the crossbow, I nearly sighed aloud.

Relaxing, I lowered my knife as I tapped the man on the shoulder.

Daryl swung around, crossbow first. I barely stopped the heavy weaponry with my hand before he hit me with it. He clearly meant to.

He glowered at me and lowered his prized hunting instrument.

"How the Hell do ya do that?" his usual bitter tone never ceases to amaze. At least his volume is lower when he hunts.

These Dixon's…They're both so loudmouthed. So much to say and so many colorful words used to say it.

Movement just behind him caught my attention and a smile pulled across my lips.

"What're you smilin' at?"

Geez, is it a crime to smile?

I put my hand on his shoulder and he flinched but let me turn him around. I pointed through the trees to a deer, quietly minding its own business less than 20 yards from us.

Raising his crossbow, he immediately snapped back into hunting mode and motioned for me to follow. I flipped my knife around in my hand and kept an eye out for other things while he focused on the deer.

I guess I'll be joining him on this hunt.

It's unusual for him to allow it though. He usually doesn't want me or anyone else to follow him. Something must be on his mind. Or maybe it's just the fact Merle isn't here.

I swear this deer could outrun a cheetah. We've been tracking it for hours. It's already getting hard to see, it's gonna be dark before long.

Daryl managed to get a bolt in it a while ago when we caught a break but it's still going. It's gotta be losing blood so it shouldn't be this hard to catch. We'll be lucky if we're able to catch up to it by tomorrow.

I've been out here longer than I planned on. I was only supposed to find Amy.

I hope the others back at camp don't try to look for me again. That was a disaster. I had to personally go find everyone who had gotten themselves lost trying to find me.

I still feel bad for Morales. How unlucky to you have to be to find Merle and Daryl instead of me? At least I showed up before Merle's racial insults caused too much damage.

Honestly, sometimes I feel like a babysitter, or referee; defusing situations with a whistle before things go too far.

My jacket sleeve caught on a branch and I made the mistake of jerking it free. The twig whipped across my hand with a sharp snap. It didn't hurt so much as scare me. Just one of those things that makes you flinch even if it doesn't hurt.

Anyway, we've gotten more than a few squirrels who had the misfortune to scurry across our path, during this hunt.

An involuntary shiver wisped up my spine. I hate squirrel. It tastes like burnt cabbage and has the texture of tough stale jerky. Normally I wouldn't mind that so much but the smell...

Great grave robberies. The first time I smelled this critter cooking, I almost threw up, but I still couldn't keep my stomach contents choked down without coughing.

Daryl let a frustrated sigh slip as he stopped to look around at the surrounding forest instead of at the tracks for the first time in almost an hour.

I stopped next to him with a questioning glance and he rolled his shoulders back, stretching the stiff muscle. I'm no stranger to that focused hunch and the knots it creates around shoulder blades.

"Let's camp here tonight. Pick it back up in the mornin'" he pulled the improvised squirrel lanyard over his head, setting it on the ground next to a tree.

I nodded in agreement and looked up to the fading light from the sky.

The left over baby blue was becoming darker by the minute and the orange hue of the clouds faded to a darker grey, giving the clouds a silver lining.

It reminds me of that saying, 'Find the silver lining'. That's hard to do nowadays.

It almost looks stormy. I'm not a weather forecasting machine but it looks like there's gonna be a storm soon. Hopefully it'll blow over us.

Looking around, I began collecting small to largish sticks. After a few minutes, we had a small fire set up and Daryl was lighting it while I placed a ring of larger rocks around it to hide as much of the glow as possible.

I don't think it'll get too cold tonight so we don't need a big fire, I'm more worried about how bright the light will be.

We sat in silence— well, he sat, I laid on the ground so I could entertain my hobby of watching the sky. The stars just started peeking out from behind the thin layer of clouds.

"Can you talk?"

Furrowing my brow, I looked up at Daryl —no doubt getting leaves mingled in my hair— and nodded.

"Why don't ya?"

I shrugged, fingering the locket around my neck.

"What'd you do?"

The space between his eyes scrunched together and I followed his line of sight to the Band-Aid on my wrist.

Oh, I thought he was talking about the cut on the back of my hand from earlier.

I pointed to the tree he was sitting against and watched him look over his shoulder before nodding. He returned his eyes to the faint glow of the small fire as it crackled grumpily.

This is why I like Daryl. He gets what I'm saying, even though I haven't said it. Now that I think about it, neither of us really do much talking.

Obviously he speaks more than I do, but not much.

The most I speak is maybe once a month? Usually to give a one word answer, like my name, or how old I am. I've been this way for as long as I can remember.

It's not like I'm mute, and it's not that I don't like talking, I'm just…quiet. I prefer not to speak.

Just don't have a lot to say, I guess.

Although, Daryl's brother speaks enough for all three of us. Merle's mouth is like a train full of screaming children. That guy couldn't shut up to save his life. Not that he's ever or will ever try.

"What're ya thinkin' bout?"

I looked up again, for half a second I thought I'd gotten my hair in the fire but thankfully it was just a passing moment's paranoia.

I blinked for several seconds, without an answer. I don't think I've ever seen him this interested in talking. Especially to me. I won't exactly answer, he knows that.

Finally realizing I'd been staring, I pointed up at the stars. A small grunt was all the reply I got as he looked up.

It was silent for another few minutes before the fire crackled and Daryl grunted decisively.

"I'll take watch. You should get some sleep"

I nodded and rolled onto my stomach, pulling a troublesome stick out of my back. I used the twig to draw in the dirt next to the fire. Even though it was only embers, it was enough to feel warmth on my face and provide enough light to vaguely see what I was doing.

I don't know when I drifted off, but I woke up when something poked me.

Stubbornly groaning, I rolled onto my side, burying my nose in the crook of my elbow.

Another sharp jab and my eyelids flipped open, ready to throw Glenn the most life-threatening glare I'm capable of producing but my forming glare slacked into utter confusion as soon as they fixed on a dimly glinting knife.

It was Daryl's knife and he was poking me in the shoulder with my dirt art stick.

"Yer turn to take watch"

Yawning, I sat up and cracked my neck, stretching my shoulders. Sleeping on the ground is never comfortable but I suppose once you get used to it, you can always adjust back.

We traded spots and slowly I became more and more aware, while Daryl became less. Almost like we're trading some sort of 'awake' pass.

It didn't take long for my attention to wander. I've never had a very good attention span.

I pulled one of my knives from it's thigh sheath and mindlessly started carving abstract swirls and patterns into a stick.