Theme Song: "Whatever It Takes" - Pillar

We had only stayed at the creek for a night before getting up early the next morning and heading out. There was a new sense of hope that resonated in me and I could tell Daryl was trying his best to reciprocate that hope as well.

The days that passed with Daryl were interesting ones to say the least. I learned more about him during those quiet nights and vice versa.

I learned he hadn't listened to much music as a kid seeing as they didn't have anything to play it, but when he followed Merle around he had learned more about hard rock and some of the old country legends.

He learned that I enjoyed the disco era with a penchant for AC/DC. I even got him to smile as I talked about how I'd go out dancing with some of the girls from the circus and when I requested the oldies I got weird looks.

The bugs would make noises around us and sometimes the faint crack or split of a twig would sound out, but for the most part, it was quiet.

And if I told myself we were safe enough times, then one day I would believe it.

However, some nights I would tremble in my sleep and the dreams would take me to a place that I didn't want to go. Sometimes I saw Hershel, other times I saw Glenn reaching out for me, but I couldn't move my feet and take his hand.

Those were the nights that I would wake up and find Daryl beside me, his body heat so very warm and contently lulling me back to sleep.

We had a good thing going as far as being surviving buddies. We took turns hunting, even though he was better at it than me.

Sometimes we went an entire day without food and he would end up finding a rodent or a snake at night.

I didn't complain, but my stomach sure did. Sometimes it would growl loud enough for Daryl to hear and he would give me a pained look.

"I'm fine." I would reassure him, but sometimes the look in his eyes said he didn't believe me. I knew he felt a way about protecting me and making sure I was okay, but he never said this aloud. His eyes told me what he couldn't bring himself to say.

Our water supply was limited, but anytime we found some source of water, Daryl made sure to do what he did at the creek and made it drinkable.

The ironic part was that we were now fighting to stay alive in nature. The walkers we came across were limited, but they were not to be underestimated.

We had made it to a road and walked down it silently. The sun's rays high above us, but nearing the afternoon just yet. I peered up at Daryl and eyed him cautiously before asking, "You think we'll ever find those tracks?"

There was a faint sadness to my voice and it didn't go unnoticed by Daryl. Though I held hope for finding others, my hope for finding the safe place was wearing thin.

He turned his eyes back to the road before us, looking down and mumbling, "Gotta' have hope, right?" He pointedly turned to look at me, his long locks threatening to cover his left eye.

Time had taken a toll on his hair and it seemed to be growing out. I did a double take at him and realized just how long his hair had gotten.

I smiled faintly at his words and nodded before turning to him on the road and pointing at his hair, "I like the hair." He furrowed his brow as their boots silently padded the road to nowhere.

I cleared my throat and added, "It's gotten longer." He grunted, but I saw the hue on his cheeks change color.

As we walked I could feel his eyes on me and I turned to look at him, "I'm sure my red is already faded out completely by now..all that sunlight." He eyed it, from my hairline to where it fell to my mid back, his eyes now noticing what I was saying.

I smirked lightly, "Guess you can't call me Red anymore, huh?"

He looked back to the abyss of forestry and road before shaking his head, "Nah, Red still suits ya'." I looked over at him now and his eyes met mine before we both looked back to the road.

We had walked for hours down this road until it opened up to a four way stop. The only open section was the left corner where what used to be a gas station had stood. The gas pumps were gone and the place looked completely run down.

But, the rule of thumb for us was to check everything. You never knew what you could find. I looked to Daryl as he hesitated in the road, staring at the convenient store that looked worse for wear.

"Check it out?" He asked, looking from me and then back to the building. I grinded my teeth in consideration before nodding, "Yeah, never know what we'll find."

"Or who." He stated optimistically and I smiled lightly before following him to the store.

See Dixon..you do have a bit of hope left in you.

We scoped out the exterior, looking in the windows. My heart sank though as I noticed the store was ravaged already, the shelves bare. Some of the windows were broken and the front door to the convenient store was no longer there.

Glass littered the area, but nothing here was fresh. This had been ransacked a long time ago. He nodded silently towards the front and I flanked him like she always did.

My eyes were guarded and my sickles were out, ready for anything. I followed closely to him, stepping over the lip in the door and cracking the glass beneath our boots.

The cash register to the left was littered with old blood and I frowned as it looked smeared across the glass holding what would have been scratch off tickets. I peered over the counter, but the coast was clear.

The silence had my heart pounding like a drum as the anticipation of a walker popping out was rising in my veins. My focused green eyes turned back towards Daryl as I followed him farther into the store.

A knocking stopped us both in our tracks and I noticed someone had propped what looked like a small desk against a bathroom door. I looked to Daryl as the knocking grew more pressing, but the tell tale moan from the other side of the door confirmed both of our suspicions.

A walker. Not a person.

Daryl nodded to the desk and I nodded back in understanding. I stood far enough away as he pushed the desk away. The door creaked open and out stumbled a male walker.

He was dressed in a polo shirt and khaki pants, his jaw was hanging off of him and his face looked to be half eaten. Without hesitation I put a sickle to his brain and it was lights out forever.

The man fell to the ground and Daryl nodded at me in silent praise before I retrieved the sickle. "Wonder who left him here." I asked aloud before looking around at the empty store. Daryl shrugged, "Someone who couldn't put him down."

There was an unsteady feeling in the air as I looked to Daryl and wondered if I would be capable of putting him down if he got bit.

My stomach churched with those thoughts and I quickly cast them aside before walking back out with Daryl after one more inspection of the convenient store.

We didn't find anything of use and once outside I looked back behind the store, but stopped short as I noticed part of the woods was cleared away and it looked big enough to fit a vehicle down it. I saw the remnants of old tire marks and whistled to Daryl and he came back over.

"Think this leads somewhere?" I arched a brow and he looked at the tire marks, crouching on the ground and looking back to the convenient store. "Gotta be somewhere.." He trailed off before slinging his bow back over his shoulder and nodding down the dirt road.

We walked down the dirt road for a very brief moment before watching as the woods cleared away to reveal a stretch of land behind the store that someone had made home.

"Maybe the person who owned the store lived here?" I asked, taking in the run down double wide trailer before them. "Maybe." He offered quietly, but his eyes were distant and he was staring at it with a far away look.

I didn't ask him what he was thinking about because I had a feeling I knew. Instead I murmured, "Come on, let's go check it out. My feet are killing me..we haven't stopped in a while."

He didn't say anything, but he nodded silently before we trekked our way across the land to the trailer. I inspected it on the exterior, just as  we had done at the convenient store.

Everything we did was hesitant, smart and carefully calculated when we came across something unknown. I walked behind it and ended up meeting Daryl on that side.

There was a large tree behind the trailer and a tire swing hung from one of the branches. I smiled thoughtfully up at it, reminding me of my childhood.

His gruff voice brought me out of my memories, "C'mon, let's check the inside."

We walked around and hesitantly, Daryl entered first. Our weapons were drawn and again the adrenaline spiked and my heart pounded wildly.

However, this time we didn't encounter a single walker, nor a person. The double wide looked pretty cleaned out for the most part, but a small seating area remained.

Daryl checked all the small spaces and even under the bed before standing upright, "Ain't no one here." I smirked lightly at him and chuckled, "Checking for monsters?"

He rolled his eyes before walking back over to the cabinets where I was already scavenging.

"Whoever was here is long gone now.." He murmured, looking around before eyeballing a broken picture on the ground. I watched as he bent down to pick it up, carefully wiping the dust off the picture and moving the old glass from the frame to get a better look at it.

I didn't know why he was so careful with his actions, as if the person who owned this place might come back for that picture. However, it endeared me that he took his time wiping it down. He was silent before I stopped looking in the cabinets and watched Daryl, "Who is it?"

He looked up from the picture and handed it off to me and I took it in my hands. The flimsy picture had been bent at some point and she straightened it out in her hands until my eyes recognized the man.

"The guy from the convenient store." I dead panned before a familiar ache in my heart came back to haunt me.

The picture was such a nice one too. He was with, what I assumed, his wife and they had a little boy that was no more than five or six. All of them were smiling, happy and unaffected by the shit storm that had befallen Earth.

"He had a family.." I muttered sadly to myself before handing the picture back to Daryl who set it down on the counter top. Daryl was scratching the back of his neck uncomfortably.

I dropped the subject of family as it brought my own troubles to the surface that I didn't even want to talk about. And I knew Daryl felt the same.

As I searched the cabinets I found a few canned beans for us to munch on. In the far corner, something caught my eye and I reached for it, brushing away the cobwebs before pulling out a half empty bottle of bourbon.

My eyes lit up and I pulled out the bottle all the way for Daryl to see and I wiggled my brows, "How about a drink, Dixon?"

Daryl watched me and something akin to a spark lit up in his blue eyes and he grabbed the bottle from me, unscrewing the cap.

"Hell yeah, don't mind if I do."

I smirked, watching him take a swig before handing it back to me. We sat together in that double wide, sipping the old bourbon which didn't seem like it had much kick to it anymore.

On the bright side, it was enough to take the edge off of both of us.

We had collectively decided to stay the night before we figured out which way would be best for us to continue heading.

During the afternoon, I wandered way out to the tire swing and feeling nostalgic, I hopped on and swung herself back and forth.

The dry Georgia air hit against my skin, but I didn't mind. My hair billowed around me until I tired of the swing.

All the memories of Henry and I as children swarmed to the back part of my mind again and there I kept them under lock and key, until I decided to bring them out again.

Daryl had found a very old, but still working key map in the man's trailer and I watched that afternoon as he peered over it until the beginning of the evening started to creep up on us.

The bottle of whiskey had a quarter left now and through the day we had taken turns sipping it off and on. I loved the burning sensation as it touched her throat and somehow, the feeling of the alcohol made me feel alive.

Nighttime had fallen on us and we hung out in the trailer, facing each other on the only sitting area. Our legs stretched out as Daryl fumbled with his hands.

There was silence around us, the bourbon calming our nerves, but keeping us alert at the same time. It wasn't exactly dangerous to be drinking, but it certainly wasn't the brightest idea.

However, we earned a night like this. The simplicity and quiet. The walls and shelter the trailer brought us.

Even though everything was temporary, it was still nice to appreciate these moments.

Author's Note: Next chapter coming up tonight or tmw..this is a two parter chapter, so I was not going to leave you guys hanging for too long! ^^