"You gotta be fuckin' kiddin' me." Merle shouted as he slammed the door of his beat up truck. Daryl climbed out the passengers side and shook his head. "He said she's here."

"Fuck." Merle muttered, rubbing the top of his head furiously and started towards the run down building with the words 'Show 'N Tails' flashing in neon lights. Daryl followed close behind his brother.

Pushing through the door the Dixon brothers were hit with the smell of alcohol and tobacco. It was dark but the small spotlights that were on allowed them to see that the room was packed with men, all facing the stage that was fully lit up. The speakers
were blasting out 'Pour Some Sugar On Me' and all the men's voices were mixing together into one loud roar.

"Merle! My man! Ain't seen you round here in a while!" A stout man walked towards the brothers, his arms outstretched and a smile on his face. Merle did not return the welcome, his face was set in a grimace and his fists were clenched by his side. Daryl
stood behind him, his head bowed and chewing on his lip as he nervously watched his brother.

"Don't gimme that bull Joe!" Merle raised his voice to be heard over the pounding music. "How comes you never told me my sister worked here you son 'a bitch?!" As Merle took a threatening step forward Joe took one back, his expression changing instantly
to confusion and fear. His welcoming gesture turned into one of surrender as he held his hands in front of him, palms facing towards Merle.

"I don't know what you're talking about man!" He pleaded. "I'mma kick yer ass so hard you'll have to clear yer throat to fart Joe. Our old man says our sisters been workin' here for months and ya didn't think to tell your old pal Merle?" His voice had
dropped into a far more sinister tone as he continued to advance closer to the portly man. Joe tried to back up further but bumped into the counter of the bar behind him.

Joe was beginning to sweat. "I didn't even know you had a sister! Just...just...give me her name and we'll sort this out." He pleaded but all it did was rile Merle up further, grabbing the front of Joes shirt and pulling his face closer to his own. Daryl
decided to break the tension and come between the two men. "Name's Angel." He shouted as the crowd of men let out a louder roar and started pounding on the tables.

What remaining color Joe had in his face drained away. "A...A...Angel? Fuck man I didn't know..." He trailed off and shakily pointed one of his stubby fingers at the stage. The Dixon brothers turned to look and could just see the back of the woman entertainers
head, her light brown hair bobbing up and down. The rest of her was obscured by the sea of men.

Merle released the man, who quickly scuttled away from the two brothers. Daryl and Merle made their way to the side of the stage where there was less of a crowd. They could see more of the woman now but they still couldn't make out her face, her hair,
a mass of light brown curls, was thrown over her facial features as she supported herself against a pole, pointing her ass towards the crowd of men and shaking it provocatively to the beat of the music.

She was wearing a black bra with pink trim, a tiny imitation of a school girl skirt with a black g-string on underneath. And the men were lapping it up, pounding on the tables, throwing money onto the stage, wolf whistling and shouting lewd comments at
her.

The two brothers didn't need to see the dancers face to know it was their sister. Covering the majority of her back was the black tattooed details of a set of angel wings. "Fuck!" Merle shouted again, slamming his palm down on the stage infront of him.

The girl threw her head back, sending her mass of curls off of her face and cascading down her back. She sank down low against the pole and turned herself to face the customers. They began throwing more money at her as she got down on all fours and began
crawling towards them. Just out of reach of the men she sat back on her knees and threw her head back, running her hands all over her body and making the men shout louder.

As Angel tilted her head to the right she felt her heart beat slow and a cold feeling come over her. Her eyes locked with two sets of pale blue orbs, identical to her own. "Shit." She had completely lost control of her body and was frozen like a deer
in headlights, unsure of what to do.

"Angel Dixon you get down here now!" Merle shouted at her. Veins were visible on his temples as he tried to contain his anger. The crowd started to become rowdy with their lack of entertainment and a large bouncer, noticing who was causing the problem,
came towards Merle. Before the bouncer could say anything Merle landed a punch under his chin and he fell to the floor.

It was like that one action caused a sea of chaos. The cluster of men started to shout, overturn tables, throw punches and climb onto the stage. Angel was still stuck in shock, now watching as everything erupted around her. A man wearing a suit had got
himself on the stage and heading straight towards her. Before she could act she felt a muscular arm wind around her waist and lift her up off the floor and out of the mans reach. "Hold tight Ang." Daryls voice spoke into her ear and she felt herself
relax slightly with the trust she felt for her brother. He scooped her legs up and carried her and she instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Merle, com'on man!" Daryl hollered over his shoulder as he kicked one of the men out of his way and jumped off the stage, ignoring the distraction around him and heading straight for the door. He kicked it open and headed out into the sunlight.

As Angels eyes adjusted to the natural day light and the thumping music was replaced by distant sounds of car alarm and voices, Daryl gently let her legs slide to the ground. He was about to head back into the club but Merle burst through the door.
There was blood trickling down from a cut above his right eye and his lip looked swollen but he wore a smile of victory. That was, until his eyes flickered back to his sister. A seriousness came over Merle and he stomped towards her.

"Hell you playing at Ang?! Workin' in a dive where men play pocket pinball under the table while watchin' ya?!" Angel span around to meet her eldest brothers eyes. "Good enough for you to come to though, ain't it Merle?! The other girls tell me you've
been comin' here for years and blowin' money on girls and booze!" "That ain't the same and you know it!" Merle replied.

While they argued Daryl unbuttoned the flannel shirt he was wearing, exposing a wife beater beneath. Once the shirt was undone he shook it off and gently placed it over his sisters shoulders, trying to cover her exposed skin as much as possible. Once
again he was reminded of how small she was in comparison to him and Merle. Angel was born too early, the doctors said, that was why she had been so tiny as a baby. Even as she grew up she was always just that little bit smaller in height and weight
than the other girls her age.

The shirt sat on her shoulders and almost came down to her knees. Still arguing, she thrust her arms through the sleeves of the flannel but didn't bother to button the front.

Merle took a breathe and bit back some of the anger that was inside himself "I thought you were still workin' in that pharmacy, tryin' ta make a career for yourself?"

"I worked there so I could get you ya fix of prescription pills whenever you wanted!" She pointed her index fingers into his chest. "Once ya left and I realized you weren't comin' back I had to chuck that job in. Neither one of you were livin' at home
anymore, I needed more money to buy food, keep a roof over mine and Pops head and keep him off my back. This" she gestured at the neon lights of the strip club, "was the easiest way to make the kinda money we needed. Plus some extra put away so I
could get my ass out of that hell hole, just like you did!" She finished and realized she was out of breathe, pent up rage and words she'd wanted to say for months finally coming out into the open.

Merle was taken back by the outburst. It was true, he hadn't been around in a long time. He always meant to but he'd always end up somewhere else; at a bar, a friends house doing drugs or stuck in the local jail.

"Com'on, we gotta go" Daryl interrupted, stepping between the two of them but keeping his eyes on his brother. "My stuffs in there." Angel muttered and started to make a move back towards the club. Merle stepped infront of her and blocked the way. "Oh
no baby girl. Whatever's in there you can leave it. We'll head home, pack up ya things and head towards Atlanta."

Her head snapped up to look at her eldest brother, but before she could argue she thought she heard far off sounds of gun shots and peoples voices shouting. She realized that the chorus of car alarms still hadn't stopped.

"Worlds gone to shit Ang," Daryl took her arm in his hand and adjusted her so she was looking more at him. "People killing people, eatin' people. The streets are overrun. We gotta go and we gotta go now." He tugged at her sleeve one more time and budged
her towards Merle's truck.

She looked up at Daryl. His face was soft but serious. "Them men came in sayin' the world was ending. They were throwing their money around like there really would be no tomorrow. You tellin' me all that shit on the news is real?" She asked, feeling so
unsure of what to do in this moment. She noticed a woman over Daryls shoulder running through the parking lot. The woman's summer dress was ripped and splattered with blood from a large gash on her arm. The sound of glass breaking echoed in the distance.

Angel pulled the flannel shirt around herself. Merle placed his hand at the base of her spine and guided her towards the truck, Angels eyes never looking away from the distressed woman. Merle opened up the drivers side door and stepped aside so Angel
could hop in. Daryl climbed in the other side, Angel wedged between her two brothers.

Merle started up the truck and weaved out of the parking space, pulling out onto the main road. On either side of the streets shop front windows had been smashed in, the store alarms were blaring. People were scrambling in and out carrying whatever they
could get their hands on. As the three Dixons got closer to the outskirts of the city they saw less pillaging and more fighting. Some people throwing punches, some running away from others. So much blood...

"You good?" Daryl asked, grabbing the back of Angels neck and giving a gentle squeeze. She managed to draw her eyes away from a man bent over a woman's body and met Daryls concerned gaze. She mustered up a small smile to try and reassure her brother.

Now outside of town they drove down streets where the houses were more rundown. Merle looked over at his younger siblings. "We go in, collect ya stuff and leave." "What about Pops?" Angel asked. As much as she hated the old man for everything he had put
them through she couldn't imagine all four of them going on a family trip together. "Fuck 'im. He ain't been there for us before why should we be there for him now?" Merle was quick to respond.

"He's still our dad. We can't just,MERLE LOOK OUT!" Angel had looked away form her brother to see a woman standing in the middle of the street. Her eldest brother responded to her shouts, snapping his eyes back on the road and slamming on the brakes.
Both Daryl and Angel gripped the dashboard but the beat up trucks brakes didn't stop them in time. They hit the woman with a loud THUNK and she disappeared under the car.

They finally came to a halt and all three of them were frozen in place. Angel was still gripping the dashboard and just as she was about to speak a hand slammed down on the hood of the truck. A small squeak escaped the youngest Dixon as the woman they
had just run down pulled herself back up. The accident didn't seem to have caused her any damage, the real damage was caused a while ago.

Her eyes were hollow, her jaw hanging at an odd angle. There was dried blood all over her clothing. The woman was now standing back up as if they truck had never hit her, and she limped her way over the the driver side window.

"Go,go,go,go,GO!" Angel repeated, with each word she gave a small slap on Merles arm. His eyes were still on the woman but he started up the car and floored the gas peddle. They lurched off and out of the woman's grasp.

The rest of the journey was in silence. Angel was still trying to process what had happened. The vehicle began to slow and Merle swung it around into driveway. Stopping the truck, Merle and Daryl climbed out. Angel was about to slide out as well when
Merle slammed the door. "Ya stay here Ang'. We'll get ya stuff and be right back." Before she could protest Merle locked the trucks doors, leaving an angry Angel hammering on the window and spitting obscenities at him.

Her brothers disappeared inside and Angel sat back, slamming her feet on the dashboard in front of her, arms crossed over her chest. She could hear noises from the house but tried to ignore them. She leant her head back on the headrest and stared at the
roof.

The voices began to get clearer. Angel drew her eyes back to the house and saw Daryl had her old backpack slung over one shoulder and his hunting crossbow over the other. Walking round the back, he threw both items in to the bed of the truck beside Merles
motorbike and waited at the passenger side door. Merle and their dad were the ones raising their voices in the entrance of the house.

Will Dixon had a bottle of beer in one had a cigarette in the other. He was always arguing with his two sons, sometimes resulting in actual fights. For Angel he never just used words and fists. He was a twisted man and had made her life hell for the past
25 years.

Angel could hear they were fighting about her. The argument ended when Merle knocked the beer bottle out of their dads hand and it smashed to the floor. Merle moved quickly towards his siblings and unlocked the doors, letting Daryl climb in beside her.

Merle hovered at the drivers side. "You deserve everything you get old man!" He shouted before sliding into the drivers seat and slamming the door. Will Dixon just stood in the doorway watching his three children reversing out the driveway. Angel gave
a middle finger salute to him through the window just before Merle drove down the street and towards Atlanta.