A/N: I don't own rights to anyone or anything Walking Dead related. Daisy is my own creation, though.
The sun had just finished rising when Daisy tossed a lit match onto the wall of bodies she'd made. She wasn't sure if the fire would attract more of the dead things, but she hadn't planned on staying to find out. Grabbing her backpack, she made sure her quiver was on her thigh in easy reach and carried her compound bow in her hand. Daisy took one more mental inventory and then started walking down the road, headed south out of town.
Daryl had convinced Merle that they needed to head back into town to see what was going on that all the radio stations were saying to head to Atlanta to a refugee camp. As they were packing up the last of their hunting gear into the bed of Daryl's old blue pickup someone came stumbling out of the woods. Merle, the taller and older brother, had his back towards them. "Daryl," he mistakenly called out, "did ya roll in somthin' dead?"
Daryl stepped out of their little two room cabin just as the shambling person reached for Merle. Merle's reaction time was practically instant, he was out of the person's grasp and ready to fight. "Whoa, whoa, whatcha grabbing ol' Merle for?" he asked, but the person only turned and reached out again, snapping their jaws and growling. "Hey buddy, back off," Merle boomed out as he backed up some more. They continued like that, Merle calling out warnings and backing up while the person stumbled after him, still trying to take a bite out of him.
By the time Daryl had grabbed his crossbow and cocked it, Merle was by the tailgate, and the person closing in on him wasn't slowing or stopping. Wasn't even responding at all to Merle's taunts and threats. So it didn't really come as a surprise when he didn't respond to having a weapon raised at him. Didn't stop advancing. So Daryl, sorta at the end of his rope, shot the guy in the chest. But he didn't go down, he didn't even act like he knew he was shot. Merle had gotten around to Daryl's side, but the advancing man was actually speeding up, unhindered by the bolt sticking out of his chest. Merle knew Daryl would have to stop to recock and reload his crossbow, so he reached into the bed of the truck where Daryl had just put their bags. Merle was digging around frantically as the man got within arms distance of Daryl. Daryl, a look of shock and a tinge of panic on his face, was backing up but his heel caught on a tree root. As Daryl started to tip backwards the strange man reached out and grabbed a hold of his arms and the added weight had both the man and Daryl falling backwards. Daryl's arms were on his crossbow, which was between the man and him, but the scared shit whimper that Daryl made when the man's mouth came close to biting him had Merle finally grabbing his gun from his pack. Merle's arm came around and he shot the man on top of Daryl in the head.
The man finally stopped moving and Daryl slammed him off of him and was back on his feet, crossbow clenched in his hands as he aimed at the dead man. Panting hard, he looked back to Merle who also had a look of shock on his face. "What the fuck?" Daryl panted out and Merle just shook his head a bit.
Forcing himself to relax a bit, Daryl quickly took stock of the dead man at his feet. The man's skin was a pale gray, his brown hair hanging in his face. His clothes were torn and stained with what looked to be blood. One of his camo pants legs was torn at the calf and Daryl could see what looked to be a bite mark there, surrounded by caked blood and yellow puss. What was left of the man's face was clawed at and the eye that didn't get blown away by the bullet was still open. Milky and clouded and staring unseeing at the sky above.
"Think we should head back into town now, little brother," Merle was saying, as if he had just come up with the idea, "see what all this mess is about."
What Daryl and Merle found in their hometown however wasn't what they expected. It was deserted. After the second dead looking person came after them and got back up after being shot in the chest, Merle and Daryl started shooting heads first.
They decided to scout the two stores they were interested in, the outdoor supply and the grocery store. The outdoor supply was ransacked and thoroughly picked over where guns were concerned which had Merle spitting hellfire but there was a large box of bolts. The two brothers gathered what supplies they could scavenge from the little store and stashed it in the bed of Daryl's pickup. They stopped back by their trailer at Merle's insistence and loaded his motorcycle into the back of the truck as well as a bag of clothes each and any food in the cabinets.
The next stop, the small town's only grocery store was surprisingly untouched from the outside. Just to be sure, they scouted the back of the building too. That's when things got weird, or weirder than dead people walking around. There was a large semicircle of smoldering corpses around the back exit of the store. Inside the half circle of dead there were lots of mop buckets, set up to catch rain water was Daryl's guess. Off to the side, closer to the door but not to the concrete yet was a shovel and lots of upturned dirt.
Merle was the one who taught Daryl how to hunt and live in the woods, and to be observant, so he should have known better, but he walked through that upturned dirt anyway. Daryl smiled and had a little chuckle at Merle's expense for it too.
"Damn!" Merle yelled louder than necessary when he stepped in shit. "What the hell?" He kept swearing as he strode to the pavement at the door and scuffed his boots to try and get it off.
"Outdoor toilet?" Daryl teased, stating the obvious.
"Who the hell did it right at the door though? You do that shit out in the woods!" Merle complained with a disgusted snarl on his lips.
"Maybe whoever it was was too scared to leave their little circle of dead bodies here," Daryl again stated what he thought was obvious, just to pester his older brother.
"C'mon then, let's see what's left," Merle ordered and stomped the rest of the way to the door. They left the door open to illuminate the back of the store and noticed all the pallets of stocked food were scattered and picked over. In the small break room set up for employees they could see boxes of trash, empty cans, and food wrappers. Pushing past the double doors that lead into the main store, they took a moment to clear the bathrooms before continuing on. The men's restroom was stacked shoulder high with spoiled frozen food boxes and soured dairy products. The mirrors in the front looked like they'd been used as target practice with the rotten fruit set up in crates closer to the door. The door had had a blanket stuffed under it and the smell of the rank food hadn't slipped out until they opened it. The women's restroom, although clear of food stuffs had a makeshift shower in the last stall made of a large tub and a hose with holes poked in it attached over head with rubber bands and string. A good siphon on the hose from a tub full of water would make for a slow shower, but relatively effective, Daryl reckoned.
"Someone was living here," Daryl spoke quietly as he and Merle walked through the aisles after clearing the rest of the store. Ever single shelf was empty of real food. Plenty of salad dressing, barbeque sauces, and ketchup but not so much as a jar of pickles or peanut butter was left. Even the baking aisle was practically bare.
"Was?" Merle questioned, not arguing just prompting his younger brother to finish his thought.
"Yeah, the bodies outside were still smoldering, but there isn't any food left and no one's here. Any bedding or weapons are gone. Whoever was here is gone now and probably left this morning."
"Well, lefts go see if we can find them. Either they're bunked down somewhere or they've got a trailer. Probably headed towards Atlanta, like the broadcasts were telling us."
So they two gathered what little supplies they found and put it all in the pickup and headed down the road, south towards Atlanta. They had been driving for about two hours when they saw something walking down the center of the road. Merle suggested just running them over, thinking it was just another walking corpse, but Daryl wanted a closer look. He drove around the figure and a good ways up the road and then turned the truck sideways to block the road. The figure kept walking, almost as if it was ignoring them, but as it got closer they realized it wasn't a corpse.
A woman, thin and short, with short cropped light blonde hair was still holding her pace as she got closer to the truck. "Is that Daisy?" disbelief coloring Merle's scratchy voice.
A beat after Merle's question, Daryl's own grunted out as he squinted at the woman, "Is that my shirt?" Merle cast a sidelong glance back in his brother's direction, and eyebrow raised in question. Which went unanswered as the woman got close enough to call out without shouting.
"Merle?!"
He opened his door and she quickened her pace for the remaining steps between them, bounding over to him and wrapping both arms tight around his neck. He returned the hug, stooping for her to reach him and then standing tall to lift her off the ground. He squeezed her tight, pulling her flush against him as she squealed in flustered amusement, and then put her down gently.
"It's been years girl, where ya been?"
"I've been around," she said, evading his question, "Where you boys headed?"
"Looking for the group who held up in the grocery store back in town. Suspect they have quite a bit of supplies with them."
"You're looking at her," Daisy replied. She could feel Daryl's eyes on her, studying her like he didn't remember what she looked like. Her left hand held her bow in a relaxed grip, like it was an extension of her arm. Her quiver full of arrows on her left hip aimed so her right could pull them out as needed. Clipped at her right wrist and dangling into her palm was the release she used. That he used to tease her for using. Strapped on both shoulders, she had a large backpack that looked to be bulging a bit with her supplies. When Merle had let her down, she had felt her sleeveless, faded red-plaid button-up shirt, which was originally Daryl's, ride up a bit and expose her back to Daryl, so she knew he had to have seen her little hand gun resting in the back of her pants. Camo men's pants that she had hacked off and rolled up to make capris out of them.
"Just you?" Merle scoffed at her, "you couldn't have gone through all that food on your own."
"Town was full of back country rednecks and survivalists, you really think that store didn't get looted first chance they got?" She really looked at Merle then, his eyes were clear and he was clean shaven. His hair was buzzed except at the top where a little bit of his curls still lay messily atop his balding head. His clothes were relatively clean and he looked healthy. Not like she had much to compare him to. She hadn't seen him in at least 6 years. The last three he'd spent in lock up for possession and dealing, she'd learned from Daryl three months back when she'd seen him last. The day before he was suppose to pick Merle up. Daisy bottled the emotions those thoughts brought up and picked up explaining to the Dixon men what had happened while they'd been tromping around in the woods. "There wasn't much left when I decided to leave my house and hold up there." She squinted in thought and added, "'bout two weeks ago now. It was well picked over. I think if I never saw another can of turnips, I'd be grateful."
Daryl piped up from the drivers seat, "all those torched bodies?"
"Did that this morning. Figured they'd served their purpose, camouflage and all, might as well be a bit respectful of the dead. Even though they don't stay dead anymore."
"So these things, they are dead then?" Daryl questioned, his head tipping towards Daisy, indicating one creeping up behind them. Merle pulled his gun but Daisy was faster, her bow already in hand.
According to the men, her arrow missed its target, going low and piercing the shambling creature's thigh, but down it toppled and started crawling as it got a whiff of live humans in front of it. "Yeah, they're dead," Daisy answered pulling another arrow from the quiver at her thigh. "Any human or animal would have responded to that with pain or maybe fear, but it just keeps coming." Her second arrow flew and hit its mark. The creature flopping flat with the arrow sticking out of its head. She walked quickly, eyes daring all around as she jerked one arrow and then the other free from the twice dead body. Wiping them on the dead man's back, she slid them both back into her quiver as she trotted back towards the truck. "Haven't you smelled them," she asked, her nose twitching from being close to the dead man, "they're starting to rot, of course they're dead."
The smug look on Merle's face as he smirked at Daisy's back caused Daryl to snarl and start the truck, "We going or what?" Daisy looked from Daryl to Merle and then to the ground, expecting Merle to send her off on her own. The clipped way Daryl talked to her made her sad and angry at the same time, but she buried it deep, she didn't want to deal with him right now.
"Well, climb on in girl, I ain't sittin' bitch," Merle grumped at her. Daisy's eyes immediately raising and looked up into Merle's. They weren't going to leave her. A relieved smile crept over her features as she took in the look on Merle's face. She turned quick and tossed her backpack into the back of the truck and climbed in, her bow settling vertical between her knees on the floorboard. Her thigh pressed against Daryl's as Merle situated himself next to her. It was a rather tight fit, even though she was thin, but she breathed a sigh. She might make it out of this alive after all.
The car ride was quiet for the first half mile as more walking corpses crept out of the wood surrounding the road. When the truck had passed them and no more had been spotted for a while Daryl broke the silence. "All those bodies at the store, you do that?"
"I didn't kill them all, but yeah, I arranged them like that."
"Why," Merle asked, genuinely curious, his trademark smirk in place even if he wasn't being a sarcastic ass.
"Really Merle?" She countered. "Y'all must not have had a lot of them show up at the cabin." Daisy felt Daryl tense beside her, his right hand gripping tight to the steering wheel.
"How'd ya know we were at the cabin?" Merle asked, raising a brow.
"Oh," she hesitated briefly, "just a guess." Daisy chanced a glance at Daryl, his jaw was clamped tight and that grip on the steering wheel was turning his knuckles white. "I set up the bodies like that for cover." She continued, " The walking ones respond to smell, sight, and sound just like any other predator. They aren't very efficient at it though. They don't think, they just react."
"Sounds like you've been hunting them," Merle quipped slightly impressed.
"I didn't have a car before all this. It took me two days to get to the store from my apartment. I slept in the trees." Daisy paused to breathe before continuing, "These things, they don't tire. They don't sleep. They don't shut up neither when food's nearby."
"When'd ya figure out how to kill them?" Daryl mumbled, adding to the inquiry. Daisy knew what she was about to say would cause Daryl to stiffen up again. Apparently he didn't want Merle to know they'd kept in touch. But she wasn't an all out liar, so she answered the question.
"There was this guy at work that tried to attack one to the girls. Tried to bite her. No matter what the bouncer, Mike, said the guy wouldn't leave. Mike grabbed the guy's shirt to physically pull him from the club and he turned around and bit Mike. A customer grabbed a chair and cracked the guy upside the head. Mike bled out before the ambulance arrived." Daisy took in a deep breath, excited to be talking to others again, "But he didn't stay dead for long. He got back up and bit into Carly before we could even process what was happening. I bashed him in the head with my heels until he stopped moving and got the hell out of there. I was scared the police would arrest me for killing him. Even though I knew I saw him die. The power was out by the next morning and those things were everywhere. It was like a horror movie."
Daisy blinked back tears, thinking about her friends at work and the fact that they were probably all dead. She finished up her story after taking another deep breath, "All my neighbors died. Or left. I heard a few people screaming and then nothing. I stayed locked up in my bathroom for a few days - moved all of my food and stuff and locked the door. Had to come out eventually when I ran out of food. I wasn't one to keep a lot in stock," she huffed out a small chuckle, "Haven't seen any live people until y'all drove up."
Merle let out a booming laugh, "Your heels? Damn girl, where d'ya work?"
"The gentleman's club over near the old mill. And they were my favorite pair too. Six inch platform stilettos."
"Shit girl!" Merle laughed again. Daisy could see the upward twitch of Daryl's lips, no doubt remembering her dancing in those heels. "So that's why you wouldn't answer me earlier. You're a stripper. What, didn't want big brother Merle to know or somethin'?"
"Something like that," she smiled back at him. The silence came back slowly as Merle finished chuckling, but not nearly as tense as it was before.
Daisy soon fell asleep, her head lulling over onto Daryl's shoulder. The warm confines of the truck combined with the wind noise from the open windows having soothed her into slumber.
Merle whispered over her to his brother after a while, "Did you know she was a stripper?" Daryl grunted his acknowledgment but didn't elaborate. "Is that why you ain't happy to see her? You've been acting all pissy." He paused thinking about it for a second, "speaking of piss, where'd that bottle go?" He then started digging through the glove box.
"You're not gonna do that in here. I'll pull over," Daryl barked back, his voice still quiet as to not wake up the girl who's head was on his shoulder.
"Bullshit," Merle responded, "No need to pull over, this works just fine. You've never been a pussy about it before."
"You're gonna do that with her in the truck with us?" Daryl asked, thinking that would stall his brother so he could pull over.
"Why not? She's asleep. 'Sides, ain't like she ain't seen one 'fore," Merle grumbled and he unzipped his pants.