Five months.....

That's how long it has been since the night the farm got attacked. That is how long ago we lost several members of our group. And that is just how long it took for all of us to loose just about all the hope we could come up with....

It was February, and incredibly cold. Snow was covering the ground by at least a foot, and game was extremely hard to find this time of year...But they were easy to track since footprints in the snow were easy to see. The group was held up in a small shack we found in the woods a month ago, and over a dozen people in one tiny shack was making everyone on edge....even more so then normal.

Lori was almost over due, and I was expecting the baby to come any day now. The stress of not having a permanent place to hunker down, lack of food and restless sleep was putting too much stress on her already fragile state...and not just her, everything was seriously wearing down all of us. Dale had gotten sick a couple weeks ago and he wasn't getting any better, and we were dangerously low on medical supplies...I had been meaning to make a run to find more soon.

Carl had grown up way too much in the time we were given...He had been hardened by extraneous circumstances, and I think he felt it was his duty to protect his family, and it was sad that was his job as a twelve year old boy. He and his dad had formed some sort of unbreakable bond lately, and I was glad  they were spending so much time together, seeing as how we were never guaranteed the next day.

Daryl and I were rarely ever at the shack with the rest of the group, we spent our days trying to find game to hunt, patrolling the area and basically staying as close to each other as possible. Daryl was true to his word when he said he wouldn't ever leave me, he rarely left my side. Where you found Daryl, you found me and I cant say I was complaining. Daryl and I weren't the chattiest of people, But i could tell there was something special between us.

Lately we had been thinking we wanted to scout out to a town nearby and find somewhere new to fortify  the group for a while..the only reason we hadn't done that before is because of the snow storms that kept showing up. But spring was right around the corner, and I knew the snow would start to melt in the weeks to come. Daryl and I now were currently hunting in the woods around the shack, just like every day before. 

We desperately needed to find meat for the group, we ran out of anything canned two days ago. Daryl and I were the last to get food, which meant we both got the smallest portion. But I wouldn't take food from a child, the elderly, or a pregnant woman no matter how hungry I got...I would just suffer in silence just like I had always done.

Daryl held an arm out to stop me form walking any farther, and I couched down to the ground and followed his lead. He pointed to a tree that held a squirrel..one single squirrel was sitting on the branch of the tree, snow covering his feet. Daryl put down his crossbow and nodded at me, silently telling me to take the kill. I pulled back the string on my bow and closed my right eye, my arm shook slightly from lack of eating lately, but I quickly steadied it. The squirrel was licking its foot, oblivious to the fact it was about to become dinner. I took a deep breath and let my arrow fly through the air, hitting him directly in the eye. Since knowing Daryl I had become a much better shot with my bow, not that I couldn't shoot well before.

The squirrel fell to the ground without a sound, and Daryl ran up and yanked it up ripped the arrow out of it's head and tossed it back to me. He tied the squirrel to his belt and smirked at me while walking in the direction of the shack. I sighed, looked around for any other predators and quickly followed Daryl back to the group.

Shane and Glenn were on watch outside when we made it back, both had eyes peeled with rifle's in their hands. "Dinner" Daryl said holding up the squirrel and placing his crossbow onto his back. "That ain't much" Shane said scoffing at the pair of us. Daryl became suddenly infuriated "You want something bigger, find it yourself" He said shoving his past, but not before grabbing my hand and dragging me behind him.

"Thank you" Carol said weakly as she took the squirrel from Daryl's fingers. Daryl nodded and put his crossbow on top of his sleeping bag, that was directly beside mine. I set my bow and arrows down next to his crossbow and went to help Carol skin our tiny dinner. It didn't take long, as it wasn't much meat but when we finished I looked around our group of survivors.

Hershel was listening to Dale's raspy breathing through his stethoscope, Dale trying his best to stay awake. Maggie and Beth were huddled in the corner trying their best to stay warm, but I knew it wasn't working as both were shivering intensely. Carl was next to me sharpening his knife on a cheese grater, and making idle chit chat with T-dog who was cleaning his pistol. Lori was rubbing her stomach while trying her best to make conversation with Rick, he just seemed distracted.

The shack had about a three inch hole in the ceiling, and we haven't been able to find any tools to fix it lately. It happened last month when it hailed really bad one night. There was a small tent set up in the corner, we set it up for Lori, as she was the one who needed to protection from the cold the most. She tried to get Carl to stay with her, but he liked to take night watches with his father. Sleeping bags were unrolled randomly across the floor, and it didn't look like the type of place Lori wanted to give birth in...I needed to fix this.

"Ill be back Carol" I said softly, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder and walked over to Rick. "We need to get the house in order" I heard her say to him when I walked forward. "What do you think Im doing!?" He responded. The pair hadn't realized I arrived to their private conversation yet, so I coughed to let them know I was here. "Hi Emma, need something?" Lori said looking down at her stomach. I smiled slightly at her before turning to Rick "Can I talk to you for a second?" I asked. He nodded and directed me away from Lori, who just crawled inside of the small tent. 

We stood by the window and watched as the snow started to fall again, I could see Glenn and Shane's dark hair become flaked in white. Shane occasionally reaching up and wiping it out of his hair. It didn't take long before Daryl appeared at my side like he normally did. "Whats going on?" Daryl asked crossing his still muscular arms across his chest.

Rick looked at me expectantly before I finally spoke up, "I think now is a good time to make a run to that town we saw" I said quietly, trying not to give false hope to other members of the group who were within ear shot. Rick ran a hand through his much longer hair and closed his eyes. "Do you think there's a place to live there?" Rick asked, looking out the window to his best friend who was chatting with Glenn. "I do, this place is falling apart, and too small for all of us" I said shaking my head, looking to Daryl for help. He nodded in agreement.

"I just don't want to have this baby on the run, we did that too long" Rick said loudly, earning looks from everyone around the room. He was right, we were on the run for months before we found this shack to live in. We slept in the cars, I even spent a couple nights sleeping in the trees when there wasn't enough room, that was fine in the summer....but the winter was different. We found a house we thought was safe a couple towns back, but that was a bust as a herd who was following us shortly showed up once we unpacked our gear.

"A few of us can go, scout the area...see if there's any buildings worth living in" Daryl said quietly, leaning against the wall beside Rick. Rick looked to contemplate this plan before reluctantly nodding his head. "Ok Daryl, you Emma and Carl can go in the morning....He needs to get out of here" he said chuckling slightly. We nodded before Rick left to go tell his son the news.  "Didn't think we would be babysitting" Daryl mumbled, biting on his thumb nail. "Carl's a tough kid, he can handle himself" I told him. Daryl grunted before going to plop inside of his sleeping bag, not even caring that Carol was now handing out small portions of squirrel.

Everyone got a bowl with a small amount of meat inside, typically everyone would eat slowly to savor the luke warm meat that had received, but I think everyone was too hungry right now to care about that. Carol handed me two bowls with a few pieces of squirrel, one for myself and one for Daryl. I thanked her quickly before heading over to Daryl and I's corner of the room. "Eat" I said shoving the bowl in front of him. He raised an eyebrow at me and watched as I quickly demolished my small amount of squirrel.

"Am I gonna have to force you to eat Dixon" I mumbled, picking some of the meat from my teeth with my knife I cleaned earlier in the day with the snow. "Maybe" He grunted, rolling onto his side and propping his head up with his elbow. I grabbed some of the meat from his bowl and held it above his mouth. "Open wide" I said teasingly. He glared for a second before opening his mouth, I dropped the meat in quickly. I don't even think he chewed it, as he now had his mouth open waiting for more. I laughed and quickly fed him the other three pieces of meat that were left. 

"That's it" i mumbled, stacking our bowls and setting them to the side. "Damn" He mumbled laying his head back down. "Sorry" I said and laid back down beside him, pulling my sleeping bag around me as tight as i could, but I still shivered to no end. "Come here" Daryl said, I opened my eyes to look at him. He then unzipped my sleeping bag and zipped it back together with his. He wrapped his arms around me and rubbed my back trying his hardest to warm me up. Just Dary's touch was enough to make my body temperature rise to no end. "Better" He asked. I mumbled a yes before the warmth and comfort of Daryl took me over and I fell asleep....