A/N: So, I posted the prologue to this story yesterday, well day before yesterday you guys' time, yesterday for me as I work third shift and it is still Sunday to me. Here's Chapter One.
Chapter One:
"Who the fuck is this pansy ass motherfucker?" Daisy choked on laughter at Merle's words when the police officer came up behind the rest of their group.
"While he may have worded it better, Merle has a point. Who is this guy? He's practically trapped us up here with the bullshit he pulled, and you helped him Glenn!" T-Dog rolled his eyes,
"All four of you red-necks stick together, he's the one shooting bullets at those things down there and drawing them to us!" twin glares fell on T-Dog,
"One, I wouldn't have let him shoot the damned gun if it was going to draw them to the building. Two, this high up with the wind and nothing above us means the shot echoes, there's no way for any of those things to pinpoint us. Three, your little stunt with this stupid sonovabitch is what is going to trap us up here! How could you be so damned stupid?" She paused and all but bared her teeth at T-Dog, "And T-Dog, if you ever and I me ever call me a red-neck again, I'll break your fucking neck. I lost all three of my team keeping y'all's asses safe. Henry Williams died protecting Sophia; James Parker died protecting your ungrateful ass and Vincent Jacobs turned into one of those things trying to keep the entire camp safe!" With every word she took a step closer to T-Dog, her eyes narrowed sharply until he hit the edge of the building.
"Dais... Back up off the nigger." Merle snapped,
"The fuck did you just call me?" T-Dog pushed past Daisy and swung at the bigger man, Merle slammed the butt of his rifle in his face and began pounding on him, Daisy grabbed him roughly and tried to pull him off of the smaller man,
"Merle, stop! Stop, please Merle, stop!" She pulled at him, but his was too big for her to pull him away. He stopped instantly when he was cuffed to a pipe, his face turned red with rage while the cop talked to him softly, his gun in hand.
An hour later they were all gearing up to leave when T-Dog dropped the key down a pipe on accident.
"Daisy! Come on, we have to go!" Andrea shouted from the door,
"I'm not leaving him here by himself Andrea. Go, we'll join back up with you when we can." She snapped, kneeling next to her friend. Merle stared at her in utter shock,
"Get out of here Daisy-chain."
"No." He huffed and glared at her,
"Daisy."
"Daryl would never forgive me if I left you up here by yourself to become food for those things."
"Poppy's gonna kill me." She snorted as she pulled a bobby pin from her hair and grinned at him,
"Nah, she's too gone on you to kill ya." Merle rolled his eyes,
"She's eight years younger than me, she'd be better off with Daryl, not some broken old man like me."
"In this world, I don't think age matters much, now shut up while I pick this lock." She bent the bobby pin straight and started picking the lock on the handcuffs. The door keeping the Walkers out rattled violently and she hissed under her breath. Her hands were shaking with adrenaline and her chest felt tight until the lock clicked and the cuff fell free of Merle's wrist.
"We gotta get off this roof." He rubbed his now free wrist and shot a glance at the door as it rattled again in response to his voice,
"Daryl and Poppy are gonna come for us, we should stay here, at the far end of the roof, keep our voices down and lay low until those things leave.
"Dais... I don't think that's a good idea."
"What else are we supposed to do?! We can't just leave! They won't be able to find us if we just disappear." She snapped, shoving his chest roughly in frustration.
"We can't stay here either. We keep quiet and make our way through the buildings towards the edge of the city then make a break for it. Once we're out of the city we can head back towards the quarry, is your radio working?" She huffed and pulled the radio off her belt. She still wore most of her uniform, despite the months it had been since everything went to hell in a handbasket; the only new additions to it were the strips of camo cloth that were tied around her left bicep, each one of them had the names of her fallen comrades on them,
"I'll try to get ahold of Poppy or Daryl. I'm gonna tell them to stay put, and not to come after us." Merle nodded and kept a wary eye on the rattling door.
At the Quarry
"Dad!" Carl ran forward and embraced Rick while Lori and Shane stared in shock.
"Where are Merle and Commander Phillips?" Dale asked quietly, cutting through the happy reunion harshly,
"Merle lost it up there, tried to beat T-Dog to death, Rick cuffed him to a pipe and well..."
"I-I dropped the key down a pipe," T-Dog stuttered, guilt filling his eyes,
"Daisy... she refused to leave him up there, there wasn't enough time." Andrea finished as she stepped away from Amy, wringing her hands nervously. Dale sighed and put his head in his hands before looking up at the group,
"Who's going to tell Daryl and Poppy?" A strawberry blonde stepped off the back of a military covered van,
"Who's going to tell Daryl and Poppy what? Where's Daisy? And who the fuck is that?" She shouldered her bow and cocked her hip to the side,
"Miss, we had to leave Merle behind, Daisy stayed with him." Poppy's face went carefully blank as she pulled a walkie talkie off of her hip,
"Dais, you copy?" Everyone waited with bated breath, all of their eyes glued to the radio in Poppy's hands,
"Copy." A sigh of relief went through the whole camp,
"What's your status? Is Merle okay?"
"We're both uninjured, I managed to pick the lock on the cuffs and get Merle free. We're gonna make our way towards the city edge. I need you to make sure Daryl keeps a level head. Over."
"Ten-four, keep your head down sis, I'll make sure Daryl doesn't go off half-cocked. Over." She turned the radio off and clipped it back to her belt before turning a heated glare on the newcomer, "You sir, have got to be one of the luckiest sonsabitches alive. If Merle had been left alone, or god forbid, Daisy... Daryl woulda killed you before you had the chance to blink. As it stands, he still might kill ya. You left his brother and his best friend up there." Her voice was a deadly hiss.
"He gave me no choice; he wouldn't get off of T-Dog."
"Yer lucky Daisy was a member of the MSRT, otherwise they'd probably be fucked. Oh, and you get to tell Daryl that you left them up there. I'm not saving your ass. You've already gotten on my bad side." Poppy stalked off into the woods surrounding the Quarry, pulling her bow from her shoulder.
Atlanta
Daisy and Merle crept through the abandoned buildings as quietly as possible, both of them barely breathing until they saw the fences that marked the edge of the city. Daisy took a shuddering breath and glanced at Merle as she stepped closer to him,
"We're gonna need a car if we want to get back before nightfall. There's one sitting right at the edge but I need you to cover my back while I hot wire it." Merle smirked,
"Where'd you learn to hot wire a car, or pick a lock for that matter?"
"The internet." She ghosted down the stairs silently, ducking around Walkers with Merle hot on her heels. They got to the car with little trouble, but Daisy had to break the window on it which set the alarm off. She hissed as she pulled the fuse that controlled the alarm, and went about starting the car up.
"Daisy... I need you to hurry." Merle hissed, eyeing the group of Walkers closing in on them,
"I just need a minute Merle, buy me some time." Merle huffed and started shooting, knowing that they'd be out of there soon enough, so the noise didn't really matter. He almost cried in relief when he heard the engine roar to life, "Get in!" She pulled herself into the driver's seat and flung the passenger door open for him. Merle dropped himself into the seat and slammed the door shut right as Daisy threw it in drive and took off. Once the city was finally behind them, they looked at each other and burst out laughing as the adrenaline tapered off.
"God that was terrifying..." She gasped as tears streamed down her face. Merle huffed an agreement as he took a deep shuddering breath.
"Ten to one Daryl and Poppette are gonna be pissed when we get back." Daisy shrugged as she pressed down harder on the gas, causing the car to shoot forward,
"Probably, but they'll be happy we made it out in one piece." She pulled her radio off her belt and handed it to Merle, "See if you can get a hold of one of them, if they don't answer try the cop's frequency. She turned her gaze back to the road and let the rest of the tension fall away, they were on their way back, safe and sound, and in one piece. In her mind that was a win, though she knew she was going to get a stern talking to from her favorite Dixon brother for being stupidly brave. Poppy would just be grateful they were both alive and unharmed.
Merle tossed her radio at her as they drove silently up the curved road that lead to the Quarry, he had managed to get the cop's CB, but apparently Daryl and Poppy were out hunting, separately, which caused Daisy's blood to boil; she hated it when Poppy went off on her own, though the logical part of her knew that the only thing she herself had under her belt that Poppy didn't was almost twenty-five years of military experience.
Everyone gathered around the car as she and Merle pulled up. Daisy threw it in park and got out of the car, her eyes locked on the newcomer, she was royally pissed off and needed to hit something. She swung the moment she got close enough, knocking him to the ground. Merle grabbed a hold of her and locked her arms to her side,
"Of all the stupid irresponsible things to do, you handcuffed my best friend to a fucking roof! What if I hadn't of been there to get him out of those cuffs? Huh?! He'd be dead, actually no he wouldn't because he's a tough sonovabitch, but in this world being at a physical disadvantage is just as good as pulling the trigger yerself! What were you thinking?"
"I was trying to diffuse a dangerous situation; I didn't see another way out." Rick growled as he got back to his feet, Lori was glaring at the soldier,
"I was handling it!" She snarled struggling against Merle's steel grip on her arms,
"You couldn't pull him off of T-Dog." She glared at him,
"And handcuffing him to roof in the middle of the end of the world with flesh eating monsters surrounding us is any better?!"
"Enough! What's done is done. There's no use arguing about it, especially since you're both back, safe and sound." Dale stepped between the two arguing parties, causing Daisy's steel colored eyes to lock on him,
"You're right, ever the voice of reason, eh Dale?" She relaxed into Merle's hold, though the man knew better than to let her go, he could still feel the tension in her legs where his body was pressed to hers' in his efforts to hold her back. The cop backed down quickly and went back to his family. Merle made sure the two were far apart before he finally released her.
"You good?" He grinned at the glare she shot his way,
"No, I'm pissed. He could have gotten you killed! He's lucky I was there, otherwise who knows what would have happened! And if I hadn't of killed him when he got to the Quarry, Daryl would of. I'm honestly shocked Poppy didn't knock him out." She seethed, her hands shaking with anger.
"Daisy-chain... You were there, we're both fine. Everything is fine." She huffed at him and stalked off towards the lake, stripping her shirt off as she went. Merle sighed and walked over to the sheriff, "Ya know, you're lucky all she did was hit ya, normally she shots first and asks questions later. Honestly the fact yer kid was sitting right there was probably the only thing that saved yer ass." Rick glared at the redneck,
"She's dangerous, and unstable."
"Daisy Phillips is probably the most stable one of us here. She's hotheaded, and yes, she's dangerous. She was a Coast Guard sniper; she earned her rank and probably has more experience in dangerous situations than anyone here, and I was a Marine." Heads snapped towards the woods as the "alarm system" rattled. The kids darted towards their mothers while the men picked up weapons and started towards the noise. Merle stepped back while the rest of the men beat the Walker to death, well back to death. Daryl stormed out of the woods and shot the damned thing in the head,
"Don't y'all know to go fer the head?" He snapped, tearing his bolt from the walker's head and the deer. All while cussing the now dead walker out for tearing into the deer he managed to kill.
"Maybe Pop will bring something bigger back, she's out huntin now too." Merle drawled as he helped his brother drag the carcass away from the camp,
"Is Dais with her?"
"No, Dais and I just got back about twenty minutes ago, we had to make our way back to camp by ourselves because the Sheriff cuffed me to a pipe on a roof." Daryl dropped the deer carcass and stared at Merle,
"He did what?"
"We're fine. We are fine, we made it back safely. She's fine. Pissed as all get out, but otherwise fine." He spoke slowly and clearly, making sure his baby brother understood. Daryl was extremely protective of Daisy, and to a similar degree Poppy, though it was lesser than the older sister.
"I need to see her." He huffed and darted back towards the camp,
"She's taking a bath in the lake!" Daryl's steps stumbled slightly but he continued on. Merle could see his cheeks turn red as he darted away.
A/N: So, this chapter is about 2500 words and it was pretty fun to write. You guys didn't think I was sticking to canon, did you? I hope not, cause I totally threw canon out the window in this chapter. I will be keeping most of the major canon events up until about season four. Seriously f*ck the Governor. Bye for now guys! Chapter two should hopefully be up soon.
