The Characters belong to The Walking Dead, I just own the plot! Please leave comments and tell me what you think!

I just needed to escape. I needed to get away from the happy smiles and people acting like nothing's happening on the other side of the fence, like people aren't fighting for their lives out there. Like we did. While we were fighting for our lives, they were having tea parties. When we lost the prison, they were worrying about dinner parties, and when…. when we lost Beth, they were acting like everything was normal, like flesh-eating things and monstrous people weren't ransacking our lives and tearing us apart, inside and out.

So yeah, I have trust issues, who wouldn't. I trusted that the Governor was gone, that he was dead or gave up on the prison, look how that turned out, the prison gone, Hershel dead, Beth dead, and so many others, all because I trusted.

But this time, I'm not trusting anybody, I'm not getting close to anybody else, and I'm for damn sure not losing anybody else. I just hope Rick has our family in mind when thinking about staying here, because none of us can take it not working out, we almost died on the road, it wouldn't be long before we all perished off if we go back to the road. I have faith in his judgments though, so I'll give this place one chance.

I knew someone was following me, as soon as I left the shelter of Alexandria, I heard the big stomps of living feet, so I slowly brought myself to a stop and right when they were getting close I swung around and pointed my crossbow at whoever decided to trail me.

"Show yourself! I know your following me!" I shouted.

Slowly, the guy that "recruited" us, Aaron I think his name was, came from behind a bush. He had a shot gun hanging on his back by a strap, and his hands up.

"You can tell the difference between a walker and a man?" He sounded actually interested.

"Can you tell the difference between a good guy and a bad one?"

Once I deduced that he wasn't going to make a move I slowly lowered my crossbow and he slowly lowered his hands.

"Why are you following me?" I ignored his question and put up my gruff exterior look, I don't trust anyone.

He laughed, "I wasn't following you, I came out here to hunt some rabbits." He looked like he was telling the truth.

I just nodded and started to walk away when he called out.

"Mind if I tag along with you?" I don't know why, but for some reason, I said yes, with a gruff nod.

As soon as we started walking along the trail I was following, a wild horse came running past us and started grazing in the field right in front of Aaron and I.

Aaron started pulling a rope out of his pack," I've been trying to catch him for awhile now, his name is Buttons." He must've seen the odd look I gave him, because he went into a description about the horse's odd name.

"One of the children saw him and gave him the name; he does look like a Buttons though."

"Here let me see that," I took the rope from Aaron, "Some people in my group showed me how to wrangle a horse a while ago."

"Okay." Was Aaron's quiet reply as I inched closer to Buttons, when I was an arm's reach away from the beautiful steed, I started shushing and soothing the horse, so I wouldn't startle him,"Hey beautiful, it's okay, we'll take good care of ya'."

Right when I was about to tie the rope to Buttons, I heard a gunshot go off and when I turned around a walker lay on the grass dead, then I saw the small herd coming my way and Aaron shouting at me to move. Buttons took off further into the forest, but I wasn't giving up yet, Aaron and I quickly dispatched the walkers and started chasing Buttons.

We stopped at a small field and there were about four walkers, Buttons sped past them. When we went by them we took them down, still chasing Buttons.

Soon we came upon a clearing and there were six walkers after Buttons, one was about to take a chunk out of Buttons neck when Aaron shot it square in the head. We took out the rest of them, shooting them from far away, but this time Buttons didn't keep running, he started grazing on the grass.

I took my chance and slowly approached him, my rope was ready and when I was close enough I didn't hesitate, I quickly tied the rope to Button's leg and pulled to make sure it wouldn't come loose. I gently tugged the rope and Buttons obeyed and started walking beside me.

"Yes! Oh my god, I can't believe you got him. The kids will be so happy to have him around, thank you." The way Aaron was looking at me was unnerving, so I just shook it off.

"It's nothing, anybody could've done it." I said quietly, brushing off his compliments, but he was not having that.

"I couldn't get him," He laughed, "Just take the compliment, you did good." I kinda liked when he laughed, his whole face brightened up and it reached his eyes, which were a nice dark blue. Wait! What the hell am I thinking, I don't like the way he laughs! God, it must be the heat.

I just scuffed at him and started walking back to Alexandria, I could hear him following and thought about how he really didn't have loud footsteps, I just might take him hunting more often. I always had to do the hunting by myself on the road, because everybody was too damn loud.

When we got to the gates leading into the town I started to wonder where we were going to put Buttons. The town was big, but we couldn't have a horse running around.

"I know what you're thinking, where are we going to put Buttons, right?" Aaron said with a contemplating look on his face.

"Yeah." Was all I replied. Aaron looked like he was about to say something else, but got cut off by the person opening the gate, who happened to be Diana.

"Is that a horse?" She was looking at Buttons quizzically.

"Yeah! Daryl caught him; his name is Buttons, the horse I was telling you about, the one the kids saw."I just nodded along.

"Oh, that's great Daryl, I'm glad that your finally socializing with our residents, but where are we going to put a horse? I'm all for him staying, he just needs a home, one that we don't have."

"We could always build a fence in the town, give him a small barn, take him out during the day to run around?" I said, trying to convince her to keep Buttons. Why? I don't know, I don't care about the damn horse, I thought, trying to convince myself.

"Yeah!" Aaron agreed, sounding over excited.

"Well, I can't spare anybody right now to build all that; they all have their jobs to do."

"We could do it, build it ourselves, I mean there's that pile of wood by that old house, Daryl and I could build it, if that's alright with you, Daryl?" Aaron gave Daryl a hopeful look.

I mean I wouldn't mind spending more time with him, but he couldn't know that.

"Sure, I guess." I said reluctantly, but really I jumped at the idea. Damn, why do I want to spend more time with this guy, I barely know him.

"I guess it's settled then, Buttons stays," Diana made to walk away, but then turned around and added,"Oh, and Daryl, you should come to a little get together that I'm having tonight for your group, it would be nice if the people got to know you better." With that, Diana left with a smile.

As we walked Buttons into Alexandria, Aaron spoke, "You really should try and go to the party."

"S'not my thing." I said leaving it there.

"Okay, I'm just saying, it's good to show the people here that there's nothing to be scared of."He spoke like he had experience with that, but I wasn't going to pry.

We decided on tying Buttons to the fence outside of Aaron's house for now, until his own place is built.

"Well, see you tomorrow." Said Aaron as he retreated up his steps, I just nodded and walked away.

Once that was done, I started back towards where we were staying, I saw Carol sitting on the porch.

"Hey! Where have you been all day?" Carol asked.

"Hunting." Was my curt reply.

"With Aaron?" Even though she already knew the answer, "It's good to see you making friends."

"He invited himself." And with that I walked into the house and plopped down on the couch.

I found myself being anxious to work with Aaron tomorrow, why? Why the hell do I want to see him more? Maybe it's because I haven't talked to a new person in months, yeah, that's defiantly what it was, but I wasn't going to get close, that's for damn sure. I would never get close to another person, that's a promise.