Fear the Dead, Fight the Living
A/N: Okay I am way to obsessed with the Walking Dead lol so here is another story but this time it's Daryl/OC. I really do hope you enjoy, both positive and negative feedback are welcome.
"It's late. They should've been back by now." Amy says as she paced back and forth at our camp while I sit with my little sister coloring with her
Just then the radio squawks, "Hello, base camp! Can anybody out there hear me? Base camp, this is T-Dog. Anybody hear me?" We hear over the radio and Dale climbed up onto the roof of the RV
"Hello? Hello? Reception's bad on this end. Repeat. Repeat."
"Shane, is that you?" T-Dog asked
"Is that them?" Lori asked
"We're in some deep shit. We're trapped in the department store."
"He said they're trapped?" Shane asks
"There are geeks all over the place. Hundreds of 'em. We're surrounded."
"Shit" I mumbled
"Language Phoebe" My mom says and I look at her, I'm 27 years old, former cop, yet she still treats me like a child
"Sorry mom." I said and my little sister smiled
"T-Dog, repeat that last. Repeat." Dale says into the radio but it stops
"He said the department store." Lori pointed out
"I heard it too." Dale says
"Shane?" She asked him
"No way. We do not go after them. We do not risk the rest of the group. Y'all know that."
"So we're just gonna leave her there?" Amy asked looking at him
"Look, Amy, I know that this is not easy…"
"She volunteered to go to help the rest of us." Amy pointed out to him
"I know, and she knew the risks, right? See, if she's trapped, she's gone. So we just have to deal with that. There's nothing we can do."
"She's my sister, you son of a bitch." She tells him and ran away from him
"Stay with mom." I said to my sister and followed her
Later on that day I was sitting with my sister brushing her hair when we all hear a car alarm go off, "Talk to me Dale!" Shane hollers at him as we walk over to the RV
"I can't tell yet."
"Is it them?" Amy asked and I put my hand on her shoulder, "Are they back?"
"I'll be damned."
"What is it?" I asked him
"A stolen car is my guess." He says and I see Glenn pull in, "Holy crap. Turn that damn thing off!"
"I don't know how!" Glenn yells over the siren
"Pop the hood, please. Pop the damn hood, please." Shane tells him and he popped the hood then got out
"My sister Andrea. Is she okay? Is she all right?" Amy asked him
"She's okay! She's okay!"
"Is she coming back?" She asked
"Yes!"
"Why isn't she with you? Where is she? She's okay?" Amy continued to ask
"Yes! Yeah, fine. Everybody is. Well, Merle not so much."
"Are you crazy, driving this wailing bastard up here? Are you trying to draw every Walker for miles?" Shane asked him
"I think we're okay." Dale tells him
"You call being stupid okay?"
"Shane knock it off" I tell him and he looked at me, before the world went to hell and I was still a cop me and Shane were from the same department, I became his partner after his other one, Rick, was shot ending up in the hospital.
"Well, the alarm was echoing all over these hills. Hard to pinpoint the source. I'm not arguing. I'm just saying. It wouldn't hurt you to think things through a little more carefully next time, would it?" Dale asks Glenn
"Sorry. Got a cool car." Glenn pointed out and I put my arm around his shoulder
"Eh, I prefer my Chevy's" I tell him and he smiled then I saw my dad look at him and shake his head so I put my arm down. My controlling, abusive son of a bitch father may treat my mom like crap and...do horrible things to my sister but he lost the right to do those things to me when I grew up and became a cop.
"Andrea!" Andrea runs up to Amy and the two sisters hug, "Oh!"
"Oh my god! You scared the shit out of me."
Morales gets out of the truck and his wife and children runs up to him, "Papi! Daddy!"
"Hey. Come here, sweetie. Hey. I told you I'd be back, didn't I?"
"You are a welcome sight." Dale tells him they hug, "I thought we had lost you folks for sure."
"How'd y'all get out of there anyway?" Shane asked
"New guy…he got us out." Glenn tells him
"New guy?"
"Yeah, crazy Vato just got into town. Hey, helicopter boy! Come say hello. The guy's a cop like you two." Morales says to me and Shane, we look and see a man wearing a sheriff's uniform walk out from the truck.
"Rick?" I asked and look at Shane who looks shocked
"Oh my god." Rick says looking at Lori and Carl
"Dad! Dad!" Carl yells and Rick takes Carl in his arms, crying.
"Carl. Oh!" He kisses Carl on the cheek and Lori approaches. He hugs them both, and I looked at Shane, I saw disappointment and a bit of happiness in his eyes.
I was sitting with my mom, sister and father that night and my dad puts another log on his fire, "Hey, Ed, you want to rethink that log?" Shane asked him from over by their fire
"It's cold, man."
"The cold don't change the rules, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance, right?" Shane asked him and I wrapped another blanket around Sophia
"I said it's cold. You should mind your own business for once." My dad tell him and I see Shane get up and walk over
"Hey, Ed… Are you sure you want to have this conversation, man?"
"Go on. Pull the damn thing out. Go on!" My dad says to him and I stand up with a huff pull the log out of the fire.
"Christ." Shane says and stomps the flames out, "Hey, Carol, Sophia, Phoebe how are y'all this evening?" Shane asked us, being his partner for the little time that I was I had told him about my life, he wanted to rip my dads head off but he refrained even though I knew it was pissing him off seeing how my dad treated us
"Fine. We're just fine." My mom tells him
"Okay."
"I'm sorry about the fire." I said to him
"No no no. No apology needed. Y'all have a good night, okay?"
"Thank you." My mom says
"I appreciate the cooperation." Shane told us and walked away
"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon?" I hear Dale ask and I continued to listen in. A week after we ended up here and I met both brothers Daryl was the one I was slowly getting to know, but with his brother around all the time it was hard because he kept hitting on me causing Daryl to step in. Don't get me wrong, Daryl was mostly quiet around all of us but he would make small talk with me, and I won't deny it but he is very easy on the eyes and I was kind of developing a crush on him, "He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind." Dale says and I look at them
"I'll tell him. I dropped the key. It's on me." T-Dog mentioned
"I cuffed him. That makes it mine." Rick pointed out
"Guys, it's not a competition. I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy." Glenn tells them
"I did what I did. Hell if I'm gonna hide from him." T-Dog says
"We could lie." Amy mentioned
"Or tell the truth. Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed. Your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's." Andrea says
"And that's what we tell Daryl? I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you? Word to the wise… We're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt." Dale points out and I stop listening and looked at the fire, this was not gonna go well.
I finished helping my mom with washing clothes the next day and walked over to Glenn as he watched Jim, Morales and Dale tear apart the car, "You know I may prefer Chevy's, but this actually breaks my heart." I tell him and he sighed, I put my arm around his shoulder, "Oh come on now don't pout, least you got to enjoy it." He opened his mouth to say something but we hear a woman scream.
"Carl!" Lori yelled running towards it and Rick followed
"Sophia!" I yelled following as well with my knife my mom followed me, "Sophia!" We get to spot where we have a string full of cans at and Sophia ran behind me to my mom and we kept going to the walker that was eating a deer, I look and saw two arrows in the dear, that had to be Daryl's.
The walker stands up and moved to us but Rick knocked it down and then they started beating on it, Dale finally cut its head off with an axe, "It's the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain." Dale mentioned
"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what." Jim points out then we hear branches snapping and footsteps, then I see Daryl come out of the forest, no matter what the situation was, whenever I saw him my stomach did flip flops
"Son of a bitch. That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this… filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!" He says as he kicks the carcass of the Walker
"Calm down, son. That's not helping." Dale tells him
"What do you know about it, old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to "on golden pond"? I've been tracking this deer for miles. 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 bite marks on the deer
"I would not risk that." Shane tell him and Daryl sighs.
"That's a damn shame. I got some squirrel… about a dozen or so. That'll have to do."
Suddenly, the head of the Walker starts to move its teeth, "Oh god." Amy says
"Come on, people. What the hell?" Daryl shoots it with one of his arrows, "It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?" He asked walking away and he looked at me as he walked by heading back to camp, "Merle! Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up."
"Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you." Shane tells him and he looked at him
"About what?"
"About Merle. There was a…there was a problem in Atlanta." Shane says
"He dead?" Daryl asked him
"We're not sure."
"He either is or he ain't!" Daryl yelled at him
"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it..." Rick started to say but Daryl cut him off
"Who are you?"
"Rick Grimes." Rick introduced
"Rick grimes, you got something you want to tell me?" Daryl asked him
"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."
Daryl started to pace, "Hold on. Let me process this. You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?!"
"Yeah."
Daryl goes to attack him, but Rick shoves him off, "Hey! Watch the knife!" T-Dog warned as Daryl pulls his knife out, but Shane is able to come up behind him and put him in a choke hold.
"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 tells him
"You can file a complaint. Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day."
"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 bending down to Daryl who nodded his head, Shane lets 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 tells Daryl
"You couldn't pick it up?"
"Well, I dropped it in a drain." T-Dog says
"If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't."
"Well, maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof… So the geeks couldn't get at him… With a padlock." T-Dog tried to reassure him
"It's gotta count for something." Rick adds
"Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so that I can go get him."
"He'll show you. Isn't that right?" Lori asked Rick
"I'm going back." He says and Lori walks into the RV shutting the door, Daryl huffed and headed over to his tent and I watched him go.
"Hey, can I come in?" I asked Daryl from outside his tent and he grunted, I walked in and raised my hands in surrender and he looked at me
"Tryin' to be funny?" He asked and I gave a small smile
"Trying? I am funny." I tell him and he scoffed, "I'm sorry, what they did was wrong."
"Yeah well..."
I sighed and reached into my back pocket, "I know you already have some but I was kind of bored the other night and made these for you." I tell him handing him some arrows, "It's just I noticed you were getting low so.."
He walked up to me and reached his hand out grabbing them and our hands touched sending sparks throughout my body, "Thanks Pheebs" He calls me by the nickname he came up with for me.
"You're welcome. Well um...be safe. I hope you can find your brother." I tell him and walk out of the tent, he followed shortly after.
"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 walked over
"Hey, choose your words more carefully." Daryl tells him
"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 says to him
"So you and Daryl, that's your big plan?" Lori asked him and he turned to face 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." Rick tells him
"That's just great. Now you're gonna risk three men, huh?" Shane asked
"Four." T-Dog says and Daryl scoffed
"My day just gets better and better, don't it?"
"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?" T-Dog asked him
"Why you?"
"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language." T-Dog pointed out
"That's four." Dale mentioned
"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."
"Right, the guns." Glenn adds
"Wait. What guns?" I 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 asked
"700 rounds, assorted."
"You went through hell to find us. You just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?" Lori asked Rick
"Dad, I don't want you to go." Carl says
"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." She says to Rick as he walked over to her
"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."
"What's stopping you?" She asked
"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."
"These are our walkies?" Shane asked him
"Yeah."
"So use the CB. What's wrong with that?" Andrea 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 point out and Rick went over to talk to Lori and I walked up to Daryl.
"So um..I was thinking, I need to clean some of my clothes, would you want me to clean yours?"
He shrugged, "If you want to, you don't have to"
"I know but you've been wearing the same shirt for 3 days and you smell like ass." I told him and he lightly pushed me, I looked up at my dad who was sitting on the RV glaring at me but I continued talking to Daryl, "I gotta go, clothes are in my green bag."
"Okay, well like I said before, be safe." I told him and walked away heading to my tent then his.
"Can someone explain to me how the women wound up doing all the Hattie McDaniel work?" Jaqui asked ringing out one of her shirts
"The world ended. Didn't you get the memo?" Amy asked and I see my mom glance back at my dad as he watches us wash the laundry from his vehicle.
"It's just the way it is." She says and I look at her, I wish my mom didn't care so much for that asshole but no matter how many times I tried to convince her to leave she didn't. Mainly I just wanted to get my sister away from him, "I do miss my Maytag."
"Oh I loved that thing" I add and she smiled at me
"I miss my Benz, my sat nav." Andrea says
"I miss my coffeemaker with that dual-drip filter and built-in grinder, honey." Jaqui said
"My computer… And texting." Amy mentioned
"I miss sex" I tell them then I see my mom look at me, "Sorry" I looked down at Daryl's shirt, I couldn't tell how many times I had pictured what it would be like to have him touch me that way or kiss me
"I miss my vibrator." Andrea says breaking me out of my thoughts and we all chuckled
"Oh my God!" Amy groaned
"Me too." My mom says and they all start laughing
"Ok to much info" I said in disgust and I grabbed another one of Daryl's shirts
"What's so funny?" My dad asked walking over
"Just swapping war stories, Ed." Andrea tells him and I glanced at my mom as he comes up to us, "Problem, Ed?" She asked him
"Nothin' that concerns you. And you two ought to focus on your work. This ain't no comedy club." He tells me and I mom, I rolled my eyes and continued scrubbing
"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 but he throws it right back.
"Ain't my job, missy."
"Andrea, don't." I tell her, pushing him only makes it worse
"What is your job, Ed? Sitting on your ass smoking cigarettes?" Andrea asked him
"Well, it sure as hell ain't listening to some uppity smart-mouthed bitch. Tell you what… come on. Let's go." He says to my mom and she stands up, I stand up to going over to her
"Mom.." I whisper and she shakes her head
"I don't think she needs to go anywhere with you, Ed." Andrea tells him standing in front of Carol
"And I say it's none of your business. Come on now. You heard me." He says to my mom again and Andrea faced her
"Carol."
"Andrea, please. It doesn't matter." my mom says to her
"Hey, don't think I won't knock you on your ass just 'cause you're some college-educated cooze, All right?" He says to Andrea then looked at my mom, "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 pointed out 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 warned my mom and I put my hand on my gun as Andrea and Amy try to hold her back
"You don't tell me what! I tell you what!" My dad yelled and slapped my mom, I pointed my gun at him cocking it and he looked at me
"Back the hell up" I warned him and he glared at me
"You gonna shoot me?"
"If it protects my mom and sister you're damn right I will" I tell him and he laughed then let go off my mom
"Phoebe.." My mom panicked but I continued looking at my dad, before I knew it he moved my hands and slapped me across the face, before I could react Shane walked over and grabs him
"Get off me!" my dad demanded
Shane throws Ed to the ground, "It's okay. It's okay." Jaqui said to me as I hold my cheek watching Shane beat up my dad and my mom started to cry
"Shane, stop! Just stop!" I yell at him noticing my dad's face was becoming bloody and swollen, Shane grabs Ed.
"You put your hands on your wife, or your daughter or anybody else in this camp one more time, I will not stop next time. Do you hear me? Do you hear me?!" He shouted grabbing my dads face
"Yes."
"I'll beat you to death, Ed." Shane tells him and stood up
"Oh God! No. God!" My mom cried rushing over to my dad 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." I just shook my head, I'll just never understand why she does this.
"Oh, baby. Will you look at that?" Morales tells us and I see Amy and Andrea walk over with a 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 says to her, "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 asked her
"Sure. I'll teach you all about nail knots and stuff. If that's okay." She says to Lori
"You won't catch me arguing."
"Hey, Dale. When's the last time you oiled those line reels? They are a disgrace." Andrea points out to him as he walked over
"I, uh, I don't want to alarm anyone, but we may have a bit of a problem." He tells us and pointed to Jim on the hill digging
"Hey, Jim. Jim, why don't you hold up, all right? Just give me a second here, please." Shane says to him when we walk up the hill
"What do you want?"
"We're all just a little concerned, that's all." Shane mentioned
"Dale says you've been out here for hours." Morales tells him
"So?"
"So why are you digging? Are you heading to China, Jim?" Shane asked
"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." I pointed out
"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 and I put my hand on Sophia's shoulder
"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 says
"And if I don't, then what? Then you're gonna beat my face in like Ed Peletier, aren't you?" He asked and looked at my mom, "Y'all seen his face, huh? What's left of it. See, now that's what happens when someone crosses you." Jim said to Shane
"That was different, Jim."
"You weren't there. Ed was out of control. He was hurting his wife and daughter." Amy defended
"That is their marriage. That is not his. 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 moving towards him
"No, no, no."
"Just give me the… Jim!" 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!"
"Stop. Shh." Shane comforted as he pinned Jim's hands behind his back
"You got no right!"
"Jim, just stop it. Hey hey hey hey. Jim. Jim, nobody's gonna hurt you. You hear me? Shh. Jim, nobody is gonna hurt you, okay?" Shane tells 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." Jim tells us and I closed my eyes
Later that night we all gather around enjoying the fish fry, "I've got to ask you, man. It's been driving me crazy." Morales says to Dale
"What?" Dale asked
"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."
"I've wondered this myself." Jaqui adds
"I'm missing the point."
"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." Jaqui mentioned
"But there's you every day winding that stupid watch." Morales added
"Time… it's important to keep track, isn't it? The days at least. Don't you think, Andrea? Back me up here. 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 tells 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…" She says and we laugh again
"Phoebe can I have some more fish?" Sophia asked me and I smiled at her putting the extra fish I had on her plate, "Aren't you hungry?"
"Nah I'm getting full, plus you need to eat more so you can grow big and strong" I tell her and she smiled then started eating her food
"We're out of toilet paper?" I hear Amy say from the RV then suddenly she screams, I look up and see a walker biting her arm.
Suddenly everyone screams and scatters, "Get behind me!" I yell to my mom as she protects my sister and I grab my gun out then me and Shane start shooting at the walkers
"Stay close! Stay close!" Shane yells leading Lori and Carl to the RV and I followed but I see walkers attacking a few more people and Jim is hitting them with a bat
"Stay with Shane!" I tell her and run over to the tents shooting more of them then suddenly my gun runs out, "Shit!" I said and just when I was gonna grab my knife one walked up to me and I put my hands on it holding it back but we fell to the ground, it snaps it's teeth at me but is pulled off and I see Daryl stab it in the head, he reached his hand out and I grabbed it
"Stay by me" He tells me and I grab my knife as we head back over to the others while killing walkers. When it was over I ran to my mom and Sophia hugging them making sure they were okay then I looked at Daryl and nodded my head silently thanking him
"Amy. I don't know what to do, Amy. Oh, Amy. Oh no no." I hear Andrea cry and I looked over at her Amy touches Andrea's cheek then she dies. Andrea begins to sob, "Amy! Amy! Amy!"
"I remember my dream now, why I dug the holes." Jim tells us