Chapter Text
It was that time of the year when she travels to Northern Georgia very specifically so that she could visit her cousins in the Americas.
Well usually it would be around Autumn that Ophelia visited, it's what she's been doing for years now since she was 10 with her father. It was her mother's dying wish that she got to know her family in the US so that's what they been doing and she started going by herself when her father died when she was 19. Her father only planned to do it the one time but when he noticed how their visit helped the brothers he's been doing it regularly. Every year even when Merle had been in juvie or the time period he was in jail for like 5 years.
It was a fixed yearly schedule that they never once change. That was until the day she saw someone rip a police officers throat out until another officer shot it in the head — because that thing wasn't fuckin human anymore, it's guts were hanging out if it's body and it was still moving— and she was not having it.
Ophelia really didn't want to be caught up in whatever shit was going on so she packed up all her shit, starting with her small mementos she's collected throughout her life, her necessities, her chosen compound bow and a quiver of arrows into one corner of her suitcase, putting on her dog's harnesses and then booked it to the closest airport to knavesborough and grabbed a flight straight to America, going to her cousin's neighborhood in Georgia, praying against all hope that whatever the fuck was going on here hadn't started yet there.
Her gut said GO and she was not going to ignore something that had saved her arse multiple times throughout her 27 years of life.
Besides, the two maybe cunts but they were blood and she really only had them and her dogs left after her dad died to cancer. It wouldn't hurt that she'd also planned to gift them Amelia's remaining pup, Ruby, it was supposed to be much later but due to her circumstances, she had a feeling the brothers would rather she kept Ruby. The labrador retriever would be very useful to them considering it's a hunting breed but those two were stubborn.
The whole flight she was on edge waiting for something to happen.
For someone to start growling, jumping at people and ripping off flesh from bone.
Thankfully nothing truly did. But she couldn't bring herself to sleep at all, only able to take cat naps throughout the flight and on the ride to her cousin's neighborhood, Atlanta had made her antsy from the sheer number of people there.
She got there around noon, and to her luck Daryl was there skinning a squirrel having just gotten back from hunting.
Daryl had a split moment of surprise before greeting his younger cousin with a hug, Merle was at work apparently, it's why his bike wasn't there. Wasting no time at all once she settled in the living room, she burts out, telling Daryl all that she saw.
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The Dixon brothers would grumble and complain whenever Ophelia visited but they would never admit that they were happy to see their cousin whenever she visits.Ophelia had always been kind to the two so they try their best to reciprocate, the two knew what kind of fucked up shit they've done but she never needed them to change their rough and tumble ways, she went along with Merle's crassness and never once forced Daryl into talking, over the years their red headed cousin from across the pond became someone they looked forward to hunting with every fall but at the moment Daryl was confused.
Because right now Ophelia Quinn-Dixon was sounding a whole lot like those doomsday preppers, which was unbelievable since she was the calmest of the bunch when together (they credit it to her being not raised like they were).The brit talking about people ripping cops throats and not going down until greeted with a bullet to the brain sounded like shit you see on TV and he said as much.
"Wait wait so yer tellin me tha' people there are wha? Eating each other all cannibal like? Seems like bullshit ta me" Daryl hesitantly spoke, interrupting the woman, she was on the verge of a panic attack and Daryl was no good around cryin women or people crying in general. Actually- neither Dixon was any good at all. Good thing her dogs were insistent on sitting near her, calming her down and it didn't hurt that the woman very rarely cried too.
He ended up rubbing circles on her back, trying to keep her from the edge.
Their cousin burst out in what he could only describe as a crazed giggle, "I know!, It sounds like I'm making shit up and pulling it out of my arse, but I know what I saw Daryl! Tell me when 'ave I ever made up a prank like this?!"
While Daryl couldn't exactly deny her statement her outburst had made him even more shocked and nervous hoping Merle gets back soon so that he wouldn't suffer their cousin's emotional outburst by himself because her own blue eyes were looking suspiciously glazed and her breathing was becoming just a tad uneven...
As Daryl was about to reply he hears the unmistakable sound of Merle's bike, pull into the driveway.