Double Crossbow (Daryl Dixon) [The Walking Dead]

Chapter 33 ↣ Any change?

"The thing about chaos, is that while it disturbs us, it too, forces our hearts to roar in a way we secretly find magnificent."

— Christopher Poindexter

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Daryl

"PANTRY'S BACK HERE," the leader said, whose actual name was Tomas.

"You never tried to break out of here?" T-Dog asked.

The prisoner referred to as Oscar said, "Yeah, we tried to take the doors off. But if you make one peep in here, then those freaks'll be lined up outside the door growling, trying to get in. Windows got bars on there that He-Man couldn't get through."

"Bigger than a five by eight," Axel, the one who had the moustache, said.

The biggest guy, who was known as Big Tiny, spoke up, "You won't find me complaining. Doing fifteen. My left leg can barely fit on one of those bunks."

"Yeah, they don't call him Big Tiny for nothing," Oscar said.

Tomas reappeared. "You done jerking each other off? Sick of waiting back here."

I heard Kathryn scoff from beside me before we followed behind Rick. The inmates led us to the pantry where there was food spilling off the pantry shelves.

"Only a little left my ass," Kathryn said.

"Yeah, this is what ya call a little bit of food?" I asked Tomas.

"It goes fast," he retorted.

Kathryn and I pushed past him. She glared at him and hummed, "Mm-hmm. Sure."

"You can have a bag of corn, some tuna fish—"

Rick cut him off. "We said half. That's the deal." After a moment, he then asked, "What's in there?"

Oscar quickly said, "Don't open that."

I turned over my shoulder to see Rick open a door at the other end of the room. He quickly started coughing and slammed the door shut again. The smell hit Kathryn and I a second later.

"He wanted to know," Tomas said, laughing.

"Can't wait for my own pot to piss in," Axel muttered.

Looking down at Kathryn, I saw a crease had formed between her eyebrows. I knew there were already a million different equations running in her head pertaining to the new food that was about to enter our possession. She glanced up at me, and a knowing glint crossed her green eyes.

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"Food's here!" Kathryn practically sang as we entered the cell block, causing me to smirk.

"Whatcha got?" Carl asked, his expression lighting up.

T-Dog grinned. "Canned beef, canned corn, canned cans. There's a lot more where this came from."

"Any change?" Rick asked Lori.

She replied, "Bleeding is under control and no fever, but his breath is labored, and his pulse is way down, and he hasn't opened his eyes yet."

Kathryn and I walked back to a cell we had cleared out for food storage and set the boxes inside. "Okay, spill," I said as I turned to Kathryn.

"What?" she asked.

"What plans do you have formulating in there?" I tapped her forehead.

She shrugged. "I was just thinking of numbers. Given the number of people we have, the income from game coming back, and a standard one month supply run. We could have a system going on instead of living squirrel to squirrel...or owl."