Surviving the Dead: The Prologue
Three weeks ago...
"Come on Darlina grow some balls and talk to her." Merle says to Daryl as we sit at the local bar in town
"Merle quit being an asshole" I said to him and he looked at me
"What?" He asked and clapped Daryl on the back, "Ah come on he knows I'm playing around don't you Darlina"
"Back of Merle" Daryl grumbled and Merle took a shot of whiskey then continued laughing, just then we hear screaming outside.
"The hell?" Merle asked heading to the door and we followed, when we walked outside we saw people running throughout the streets scared, I looked and saw two people kneeling down by a body with their hands covered in blood and I almost threw up when I saw that they were eating the body
"What the hell's going on?" I asked them as someone ran past us bumping into me nearly knocking me over
"I don't know" Daryl answered and we see military trucks pull up and men get out
"Who the hell cares come on!" Merle shouted at us pulling on Daryl's shirt and Daryl pulled on my wrist and we ran to the truck, I felt something grab me so I turned around seeing, well I'm not sure what the hell it was, but I screamed as it grabbed me but was quickly pulled off by Daryl. He punched it but it just kept snarling at him as he hit it again and again, I saw that it was getting close to biting his arm so I grabbed the crowbar from the bed of the truck and stuck it through the skull and whatever that thing was fell to the ground dead.
"I...I didn't..."
"Come on you two lets go!" Merle shouted from the truck and we got in driving off back to our house.
After we gathered up what we could and both me and Daryl grabbed our bikes loading mine up in the back and he drove his following me and Merle.
"Where are we going Merle?" I asked
"Gettin the hell out of town" He tells me and skidded to a stop as another car pulled out in front of him and he honked his horn, "Get out of the way asshole!"
"Merle!" I shouted at him and the guy gets out of the car
"What did you just say to me redneck?" The guy asked and Merle opened his door
"Merle! Don't!" I called after him, me and Daryl went over to him, Daryl held him back while I stood in between them
"Merle knock it off!" Daryl tells him as Merle tried to push past us
"Just go!" I told the guy and he huffed before getting in his car and drove off, "Are you out of your mind Merle? Now is not the time to start anything."
He pushed Daryl off him and huffed, "Whatever you say little sister" He tells me and gets in the truck and we drove off.
Now...
I wanna say it's been 3 weeks since this began, we ended up at a quarry with a few other people that Merle and Daryl were reluctant to go with but I eventually was able to convince them that there's strength in numbers against the things that a member of our group, T-dog, calls geeks.
Me and Daryl went out to hunt while Merle went on a run with some others, after being gone for a few days we were heading back following a deer, Daryl ended up shooting it but it got away so we followed it.
We made our way out of the trees seeing our group standing there with Shane pointing the gun at us, me and Daryl both flinch then he lowered it, "Son of a bitch. That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this…filthy," He started to say kicking the walker, "disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!"
"Daryl" I tell him and he gave me a quick glance
"Calm down, son. That's not helping." Dale says to him and Daryl walked over
"What do you know about it, old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to "on golden pond"? We've been tracking this deer for miles." He pulled his bolts out of the deer, "Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" He asked pointing to the deer
"I would not risk that." Shane tells him and he sighed
"That's a damn shame. I got some squirrel… about a dozen or so. That'll have to do."
"You got the squirrel?" I asked and he looked at me
"She got the squirrels" He corrected and I smiled
Suddenly, the head of the Walker starts to move its teeth, "Oh god." I hear Amy say and Daryl goes over to it
"Come on, people. What the hell?" He shoots it with one of his arrows, "It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?" He asked walking away and I followed him as we headed back to camp, "Merle! Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! We got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up."
"Daryl, Sam, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you both" Shane tells us and we look at him
"About what?" Daryl asked him
"About Merle. There was a…There was a problem in Atlanta."
"He dead?" I asked him, I hoped he wasn't, I may not be that close with Merle but I still don't want to lose him
"We're not sure."
"He either is or he ain't!" Daryl yells and a guy who I hadn't seen before moves forward
"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it..." The guy started to tell him
"Who are you?" Daryl asked him
"Rick grimes."
"Rick grimes, you got something you want to tell me?" Daryl asks
"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there." Rick tells us and I looked at him with shock and anger clenching my fists as Daryl started to pace
"Hold on. Let me process this. You're saying you handcuffed our brother to a roof and you left him there?!" Daryl yelled at him
"Yeah."
"Daryl goes to attack him, but Rick shoves him off, I see Daryl grab his knife out and face him
"Daryl!" I yelled at him
"Hey! Watch the knife!" T-Dog warned but Shane is able to come up behind him and put him in a chokehold.
"Okay. Okay."
"You'd best let me go!" Daryl says to him
"Nah, I think it's better if I don't."
"Choke hold's illegal." Daryl points out
"You can file a complaint. Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day." Shane tells him and Ric bent down to look at Daryl
"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that? Do you think we can manage that?" Rick asked him and Daryl hesitated then nodded his head and Shane let him go, "What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others."
"It's not Rick's fault. I had the key. I dropped it." T-Dog says to me and Daryl
"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl asked him
"Well, I dropped it in a drain."
"If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't." Daryl says to him
"Well, maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof…So the geeks couldn't get at him…With a padlock. It's gotta count for something."
"Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so that Sam and I can go get him."
"He'll show you. Isn't that right?" Lori asked Rick and I looked between them shaking my head
"I'm going back." He says and Lori walks into the RV, Daryl walked away and picked up the squirrels and I followed him
"Daryl"
"What?" He asked with a tome of anger in his voice as we reached our tents
"Look be pissed off all you want, I am too, but that guy Rick is right, Merle does not play well with the people here and probably did something stupid to risk their lives."
"You sayin' that you agree with what he did?" He asked walking over to me getting close and I pushed him away
"No I'm not, they could've done things differently but what matters now is you going and getting our brother back."
"You ain't comin'?" He asks and I shake my head
"No, I think one hard headed Dixon going to get our brother should be enough, besides I can get the squirrels ready for the stew." I tell him and he sighed
"Alright"
"Well, look, I…I don't, okay, Rick? So could you just…Could you throw me a bone here, man? Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?" I hear Shane ask Rick as they walk over to the rest of us
"Hey, choose your words more carefully." I warned Shane and he looked at me
"No, I did. Douche bag's what I meant. Merle Dixon the guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst."
"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst… me. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being." Rick tells Shane and walked over to Lori
"So you and Daryl, that's your big plan?" She asked him and he turned to look at Glenn
"Oh, come on."
"You know the way. You've been there before…In and out, no problem. You said so yourself. It's not fair of me to ask…I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too." He tells him indicating to Lori
"That's just great. Now you're gonna risk three men, huh?" Shane asked
"Four." T-Dog adds and Daryl huffs.
"My day just gets better and better, don't it?" Daryl asked out loud and I punched his shoulder making him look at me and I shook my head
"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?" T-Dog asked him
"Why you?" Daryl asks
"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language." T-Dog pointed out and I sighed closing my eyes, Damn it Merle
"That's four." Glenn pointed out
"It's not just four. You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick. Come on, you saw that Walker. It was here. It was in camp. They're moving out of the cities. They come back, we need every able body we've got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp." Shane tells him
"It seems to me what you really need most here are more guns." Rick pointed out and I looked at him
"Right, the guns." Glenn says
"Wait. What guns?" Shane asked Rick
"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up."
"Ammo?" Shane asks
"700 rounds, assorted.
"You went through hell to find us. You just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?" Lori asked him
"Dad, I don't want you to go." Carl says to him and I looked at the young boy
"To hell with the guns. Shane is right. Merle Dixon? He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in. Tell me. Make me understand." Lori says
"I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy. Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta. They'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn him." Rick tells her
"What's stopping you?"
"The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag I dropped. He's got the other one. Our plan was to connect when they got closer." He pointed out
"These are our walkies?" Shane asked him
"Yeah."
"So use the CB. What's wrong with that?" I asked
"The CB's fine. It's the walkies that suck to crap…Date back to the '70s, don't match any other bandwidth…Not even the scanners in our cars."
"I need that bag. Okay?" Rick asked Lori and she looked at him
"All right."
"You be careful out there." I tell Daryl and he nodded his head, "I mean it Daryl, I can't lose both of you." I said and he looked at me
"I promise."
"Can someone explain to me how the women wound up doing all the Hattie McDaniel work?" Jaqui asked as we all sat by the water washing our clothes
"The world ended. Didn't you get the memo?" I asked her with a smile as Ed, Carol's husband, watches from his vehicle.
"It's just the way it is." Carol pointed out, "I do miss my Maytag."
"I miss my Benz, my sat nav." Andrea says
"I miss my coffeemaker with that dual-drip filter and built-in grinder, honey." Jaqui tells us
"Nice" I said to her
"My computer…And texting." Amy points out
"I miss sex" I said and they chuckled a little
"Well girl Jim sure seems to be eyeballing you a lot." Jaqui tells me and I looked at her shaking my head slightly while smiling and she nudged me
"I miss my vibrator." Andrea says and we all giggle
"Oh my God!" Amy groaned
"Me too." Carol says ducking her head and we crack up.
"What's so funny?" Ed asked us walking over and I rolled my eyes
"Just swapping war stories, Ed." Andrea tells him and he comes up to us standing behind Carol, "Problem, Ed?" She asked
"Nothin' that concerns you. And you ought to focus on your work. This ain't no comedy club." He says to Carol
"Ed, tell you what…you don't like how your laundry is done, you are welcome to pitch in and do it yourself. Here." Andrea tells him and she tosses a shirt at him, Ed throws it right back.
"Ain't my job, missy."
"Andrea, don't." Amy begs her
"What is your job, Ed? Sitting on your ass smoking cigarettes?" I asked him standing up and facing him
"Well, it sure as hell ain't listening to some smart-mouthed bitch. Tell you what…come on. Let's go." He says to Carl and she started to stand up
"I don't think she needs to go anywhere with you, Ed." I tell him standing in front of Carol
"And I say it's none of your business. Come on now. You heard me."
"Carol."I tell her putting my hand on her shoulder
"Sam please. It doesn't matter." She says to me putting her head down
"Hey, don't think I won't knock you on your ass just 'cause you think your tough, all right?" He asked me and I clenched my fist as he looked at Carol, "Now you come on now or you gonna regret it later."
"So she can show up with fresh bruises later, Ed? Yeah, we've seen them." Jaqui says to him and he laughs
"Stay out of this. Now come on! You know what? This ain't none of y'all's business. You don't want to keep prodding the bull here, okay? Now I am done talking. Come on" HE tells us and grabbed Carol's arm but both me and Andrea move to stop him
"No no."
"Carol, you don't have…" I started to tell her but Ed cut me off
"You don't tell me what! I tell you what!" He yells and slaps Carol, at this point I had enough, Andrea and Jaqui try to pull Carol free as Ed continues to grab at Carol, Shane walks over and grabs Ed.
"Get off me!" Ed demands
"Ed?" Carol asked as Shane throws Ed to the ground
"It's okay. It's okay." I reassure her
Shane pummels his face multiple times. Ed's face gets bloody as Shane continues to punch him. We watch in horror as Shane mutilates Ed's face.
"Shane, stop! Just stop!" Andrea yells at him
"Stop it! Stop!" I yell at him and Shane grabs Ed and tells him something
"Ed!" Carol cried
"I'll beat you to death." Shane hits him one more time and then kicks him in the stomach.
"Oh God! No. God!" Carol bursts out in tears and kneels over him, "Ed, I'm sorry. Oh my God. Ed, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Ed. Ed, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Ed."
We head back to camp and I walk over to my tent, "Sam?" I hear someone ask and I turn around seeing Jim standing there, God damn it, "I um found this in the car Glenn brought back and thought you'd like it." He tells me handing me a knife that had a small black rope wrapped around it
"Thanks Jim." I tell him and he gave a small smile and started to walk away, "Hey Jim" I stopped him and he looked at me, "Can you help me with something?" I asked him and he smiled, hell it's the end of the world I might as well take advantage of it, he walked over to me and I grabbed his hand and we walked into my tent. After I woke up when we were done I looked over and saw he was gone, "Typical" I sighed and got dressed.
"Oh, baby. Will you look at that?" I hear Morales say and I look up seeing Andrea and Amy walk over with a whole bunch of fish, "Hey, check it out. Ladies…Because of you my children will eat tonight. Thank you."
"Thank Dale. It's his canoe and gear." Andrea tells him
"Mom, look. Look at all the fish." Carl tells Lori, "Whoa"
"Yeah, whoa. Where did you two learn to do that?" She asked them
"Our dad." Amy answered
"Can you teach me how to do that?" Carl asks
"Sure. I'll teach you all about nail knots and stuff. If that's okay." Amy says to Lori
"You won't catch me arguing." She says and I see Dale walk over
"Hey, Dale. When's the last time you oiled those line reels? They are a disgrace." Andrea says to him but I look at the expression on his face
"I, uh, I don't want to alarm anyone, but we may have a bit of a problem." He tells us and Shane comes over as Dale points over to Jim who looks like he's digging holes.
"Hey, Jim. Jim, why don't you hold up, all right? Just give me a second here, please." Shane says to him as we all stand there watching him, he stopped digging and looked at Shane
"What do you want?"
"We're all just a little concerned, that's all." Shane says to him
"Dale says you've been out here for hours." Morales pointed out
"So?"
"So why are you digging? Are you heading to China, Jim?" Shane asked him
"What does it matter? I'm not hurting anyone."
"Yeah, except maybe yourself. It's a hundred degrees today. You can't keep this up." Dale urged, Jim looked at me then back at Dale
"Sure I can. Watch me."
"Jim, they're not gonna say it so I will. You're scaring people. You're scaring my son and Carol's daughter." Lori tells him
"They got nothing to be scared of. I mean, what the hell, people? I'm out here by myself. Why don't you all just go and leave me the hell alone?"
"We think that you need to take a break, okay? Why don't you go and get yourself in the shade? Some food maybe. I'll tell you what… maybe in a little bit I'll come out here and help you myself. Jim, just tell me what it's about. Why don't you just go ahead and give me that shovel?" Shane asked him
"Or what?"
"There is no or what. I'm asking you. I'm coming to you and I'm asking you, please. I don't want to have to take it from you." Shane points out to him
"And if I don't, then what? Then you're gonna beat my face in like Ed Peletier, aren't you? Y'all seen his face, huh? What's left of it. See, now that's what happens when someone crosses you."
"That was different, Jim." Shane tells him
"You weren't there. Ed was out of control. He was hurting his wife." Amy mentioned
"That is their marriage. That is not his." Jim says and I put my hand on Carol's shoulder as she comforts Sophia, "He is not judge and jury. Who voted you king boss, huh?"
"Jim, I'm not here to argue with you, all right? Just give me the shovel, okay?" Shane asked walking over reaching for the shovel
"No, no, no." Jim tells him holding it back
"Just give me the…" Jim shoves Shane away and then threatens to hit him with it. Shane tackles Jim to the ground, "Okay, shh shh."
"You got no right!" Jim yelled at him
"Stop. Shh."
"You got no right!" Jim repeated
"Jim, just stop it. Hey hey hey hey. Jim: Don't! Shane: Jim. Jim, nobody's gonna hurt you. You hear me? Shh. Jim, nobody is gonna hurt you, okay?" Shane tells him handcuffing him
"That's a lie. That's the biggest lie there is. I told that to my wife and my two boys. I said it 100 times. It didn't matter. They came out of nowhere. There were dozens of 'em. Just pulled 'em right out of my hands. You know, the only reason I got away was 'cause the dead were too busy eating my family." He tells Shane and I put my head down feeling my heart break for him.
Jim is tied to a tree to protect him from hurting anyone or himself. Shane and Dale go up to him with some water, as I sat with Lori, Carol and the kids while they taught them lessons and I sharpened my new knife.
"Sorry if I scared your boy and your little girl." Jim says to Carol and Lori
"You had sunstroke. Nobody's blaming you." Lori says to him
"You're not scared now, are you?" He asked Sophia
"No sir."
"Your mama's right. Sun just cooked my head is all." Jim said to Carl and I looked at him giving a small smile and went back to my knife
Jim, do you know why you were digging? Can you say?" Dale asked him
"I had a reason. Don't remember. Something I dreamt last night." He said and I looked over at him again, that's why he left before I woke up, "Your dad was in it. You were too. You were worried about him. Can't remember the rest. You worried about your dad?" He asked Carl
"They're not back yet."
"We don't need to talk about that." Lori tells Jim
"Your dad's a police officer, son. He helps people. Probably just came across some folks needing help, that's all. That man, he is tough as nails. I don't know him well but… I could see it in him. Am I right?" He asked Shane
"Oh yeah."
"There ain't nothing gonna stop him from getting back here to you and your mom, I promise you that." Jim says and I stand up
"All right. Who wants to help me clean some fish, huh?" I asked the kids and Carl looked at me
"Sweet. Come on, Sophia." Carl says and they both follow me.
We all sat around that night enjoying the fish and laughing telling stories, I was sitting next to Jaqui laughing about a story she was telling me when Jim sat next to me, Jaqui raised her eyebrow and left.
"I'm sorry" Jim mumbled and I looked at him, "About my behavior, and that I was gone when you woke up I just..."
"It's fine" I said with a smile and he looked down at his plate
"Are you worried about Daryl?" He asked me
"Yeah, him and Merle, asshole that he is Merle's still my big brother I don't think I can..."
"Hey," He cut me off grabbing my hand, "I'm sure they are both going to be ok, the 3 of you are tough and strong headed. Nothing is gonna slow you down." He says and I looked at him then leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek
"Thank you Jim" I tell him and he let go of my hand and I listened to the conversation that was going on with Morales and Dale.
"I've got to ask you, man. It's been driving me crazy." Morales says to Dale
"What?" Dale asked him
"That watch."
"What's wrong with my watch?" Dale asks
"I see you every day, the same time, winding that thing like a village priest saying mass." Morales points out
"I've wondered this myself." Jaqui added
"I'm missing the point." Dale says to us
"Unless I've misread the signs, the world seems to have come to an end. At least hit a speed bump for a good long while." I tell him and shivered, Jim wrapped his arm around my shoulder and I gave a side glance, I didn't quite know what I wanted the outcome of this to be but for now I would enjoy it
"But there's you every day winding that stupid watch." Morales says
"Time…it's important to keep track, isn't it? The days at least. Don't you think, Andrea? Back me up here." Dale asked her, "I like… I like what, um, a father said to son when he gave him a watch that had been handed down through generations. He said, 'I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire, which will fit your individual needs no better than it did mine or my father's before me; I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it for a moment now and then and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it.'"
"You are so weird." Amy says to him and we all laugh
"It's not me. It's Faulkner. William Faulkner. Maybe my bad paraphrasing."
Amy gets up from the campfire, "Where are you going?" Andrea asked her
"I have to pee. Jeez, you try to be discreet around here…" Amy says and walked away, a few minutes later she steps out of the RV, "We're out of toilet paper?" I hear her ask then I hear her scream, I look up and see a walker biting her arm, and everyone else screams and scatters.
"Lori get him down!" Shane yelled picking up his rifle and started shooting them while I moved over to Carol as she holds Sophia to her, I kill a walker that made it's way over us.
"Follow me!" Morales yells
"Come on!" I tell Carol grabbing her hand leading them to the RV and I see Jim swing a bat at the walker that bit Amy then worked his way around the fire.
"Make your way to the Winnebago!" Shane yells to Morales and everyone
"Stay with Shane!" I tell Carol and go over to help Jim and Morales, I took my knife and stabbed about 3 or 4, just then another one sneaks up on me and before it could grab me I see Jim hit it with a bat then grabbed my hand pulling me towards the others and I see Rick and the others
"Sammie!" Daryl yells and I look at him and rush over to him killing another one and Daryl pulled me into a hug, I pulled away and nodded my head letting him know I was ok.
"Amy. I don't know what to do, Amy. Oh, Amy. Oh no no." I hear Andrea cry and I look over at her as she touches Amy's cheek and Amy remained still, she was dead, "Amy! Amy! Amy!"
"I remember my dream now, why I dug the holes." Jim points out and we all look at him.
