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“When you look at me, what do you see?” That took balls, Daryl thought to himself. But if there was one person on this apocalyptic planet that would answer him honest and true, it was Carol.
“I see you,” her soft voice cracked with the intense sincerity and simultaneous emotional overload of the previous few days. She reached out to him, gripping his arm in such a manner that he’d know she meant what she said. To drive the point home, and let him know she was there, even when she wasn’t all there. She was drowning. They all were. It was almost a damn guarantee they would all die a violent death at some point. Long gone were the days you could die peacefully in your sleep surrounded by loved ones.
No more. It was bloodshed and horror, and if the timing were off, you risked your own life in the presence of the dying, and the not-so-Dead anymore. Gnashing teeth, torn flesh… it was a blessing if someone had a gun and functioning ammunition and could put you out of your misery. Ease the inevitable, and end the pain sooner.
Carol was tired. She had grown weary of the losses ages and ages ago. She’d become numb to it. They all had.
“I’m still here,” Daryl’s eyes had never left her face and her lips twitched into some semblance of a smile.
“Me too,” she sighed, putting forth more effort, and bending those however many muscles it takes to smile to give him a genuine smile. She withdrew her hand, tucking it back into the long folds of her overcoat. Winter had come, the winds were cold and raw, and snow was threatening. Still, they trudged on hoping to beat the storm, or at least obtain secure shelter before the flakes fell from the sky.
Daryl hummed to himself, biting his lip as he got lost in his thoughts. He was worried, about Carol. The survivors. The few that were left and the communities that were just starting to come together again only to be torn apart by vilest of evil. He wanted to say that they had survived worse, but that was a lie. Every battle since Atlanta had gotten progressively more complicated, would it end? Just when you thought it couldn’t possibly get any worse, it did. The spark in Carol’s eyes had dimmed yet again, and this time he feared it might never come back. Losing Henry, was like Sophia all over again but at least she’d gotten to witness Henry grow from a stubborn towheaded boy, into a respectable young man. There had to be some comfort in that, he presumed.
Comfort? He scoffed at himself. What an asinine thing to think. So instead, he bumped her shoulder with his own, keeping his eyes on the road ahead as if he was not aware of knocking her slightly off step. A huff, and she did the same to him.
I’m still here…
Me too.