[I do not claim to own any of these characters or plots. I sometimes put a few quotes from the episodes and blend them on my chapters. I simply want to mesh two beautiful human beings together. Read, enjoy, review!]
Just another twenty steps and Katniss would have arrived to Daryl's tent, but the newcomer grabbed her arm.
"Now just hold on a minute." Lori's husband calmly said. He had a sheriffs uniform on, shirt unbuttoned to the middle, and just a few blood stains along his arm.
"Look, I'm a little busy at the mome-"
"I know what you're about to do. Let me." The guy had just been reunited with his family and already he was stepping in the way.
"I got it, Rick." Shane was already walking towards them.
Katniss rolled her eyes and looked at both of them. "What's the big deal in me telling him?"
"You weren't there." Shane responded.
"And neither were you." She was quick to comment.
"Alright, let's not do anything rash. I'm the reason why Merle got stranded -" Rick got cut off by T-Dog.
"Nah, it's my fault. Look if anyone is going to take the fall for it. It's going to be me. I lost the key."
"I don't think it'd look too good coming from someone that isn't white." Glenn cut in.
The whole group seemed to have merged over towards the rest of the group when Daryl stepped out.
"The hell are y'all doin' outside my tent?!"
The group remained silent for a good few seconds before Shane opened his mouth.
"There were a few complications in Atlanta."
Once the city was mentioned, Daryl searched through the groups faces in hopes to find his brother. Any families worst fear is listening to the death of your loved one.
"He dead?" Daryl cleared his throat to cover the crack in his words.
"Not so sure." Shane responded.
"Hell does that mean? Either he is or ain't." Daryl's tone rose.
"Look, there's no easy way to explain it so I'll be frank," Rick stepped in now. "You out of all people should know that your brother was a handful... Well, uh, push came to shove and I handcuffed him to a piece of metal up on the roof. He's still might be up there."
Daryl rubbed his head, blowing steam out of his nose as he paced back and forth.
"Let me process this. You're saying that you left my brother up on the roof? And left him there?!"
Rick nodded in silence.
Daryl stood still, calm but quickly ran towards Rick. But in a blink of an eye, Shane had a tight lock on Daryl's head. The two wrestled until Shane had him on chokehold. Katniss almost wanted to step in and defend Daryl. If the tables were turned, Katniss would have hit anything that passed her.
"We're gonna have a calm discussion here." Rick bent down to eye level with Daryl while he breathed heavily. "You can't sit there and tell me that your brother plays well with others. He didn't give me an alternative."
Maybe it was the chokehold that calmed Daryl's breathing but all he did was sit on the ground when Shane let go of him.
"Hell with all of y'all!" Daryl pushed himself up.
"I'm the one that dropped the key." T-Dog said.
"You couldn't picked it up?" He asked.
"It went down the drain. But I put a padlock so the walkers couldn't get to it."
"It has to count for something." Rick added.
Daryl took deep breaths and rubbed the back of his head. "Just tell me where he is so's I can go get him."
"He'll show you. Won't you?" Lori interrupted Rick before he opened his mouth. All of the group looked at her and surprisingly, Rick nodded.
"Yeah, I will."
"Hurry it up!" Daryl yelled once he loaded his crossbow the new U-haul they brought from the city.
"I don't want you to go." Prim was holding on to Katniss for the passed half an hour.
"I have to, Prim." Katniss said for the millionth time.
She didn't necessarily have to but she wanted. If it were Prim out by herself, she'd want all the support she could get. The others didn't seem really supportive that there was a rescue team for Merle Dixon.
"Can't you stay?" Prim followed her sister around while Katniss stuffed her extra arrows inside her quiver. Now she regretted putting the extra five arrows inside her safety pit.
"I'll come back. You can play with Carl and the others." Her sister and Carl had a very unique friendship that it was almost cute to watch them run around.
"But-"
"I'll be back, don't worry. Stay close to mom and the others and don't go into the woods without an adult present. Alright?" Prim nodded which gave Katniss the okay to leave.
"You comin'?" Daryl asked when Katniss stepped behind the U-haul.
"You don't want me to come, Dixon?" She asked.
"Do whatever you want." He sighed and sat on the floor.
"It's not me that you should be mad at."
"I ain't mad" Daryl placed his crossbow next to him.
The drive to the city took a good hour from their camp. T-Dog was sitting in between Glenn and Rick in the front while Daryl and Katniss sat in the back by themselves.
"Would you be mad?" Daryl asked Katniss. They were the first words he's said since they left camp.
Katniss thought long and hard of her answer. Finally she said-
"I'd be pissed." That was the truth. The whole reason of them all 'sticking together' and becoming a group was having each others back. Merle was a complicated man but he was still a person. They might as well have killed him instead of stranding him on some rooftop, padlock or not.
Daryl sighed loudly and placed his head against the truck.
"We'll save him." Katniss whispered.
Daryl looked over at her, grabbed his crossbow as he felt the U-haul coming to a stop.
"Never make promises you ain't sure of." Katniss stared at him for a moment before taking the bow into her hands.
"This place is probably crawling with walkers since we last came. We need to be smart about this. No one storms into a room alone, understood?" The new sheriff gave them all instructions. While the rest nodded along, Daryl huffed and stood up.
Glenn parked a couple of blocks away from the building saying it wouldn't cause a distraction that would lead the walkers towards them. They jogged for a few minutes, hiding from any geek they came across. Rick said it'd be better for them to keep all the ammo they could.
Two minutes later they arrived to the backdoor of the building. Rick glanced around before opening the door and looked at each of his group members.
"No one tries to be a hero. We all stick together. Daryl and Katniss, I trust you take down any walkers we see. Glenn, you stay by me and T-Dog, I want you on my other side." Katniss rolled her eyes at the directions she was given.
"Do you have a problem with that, Ms. Everdeen?"
"No, sir" The hint of sarcasm almost made Rick Grimes to put her in her place but time was running short.
"Ready...1, 2.." Rick nodded the mumbled the last number as he opened the door. As planned, Glenn and T-Dog followed next to Rick's side as they made their way through the first floor.
Three shots came from Daryl's crossbow to different walkers that appeared. Katniss took out two that had a little more speed. Katniss retreieved her arrows from the victims head and proceeded upstairs along with the rest of the group. She had Glenn and the rest of them behind her as she walked up the stairs backwards. She shot a couple of more arrows at a few walkers down below and reached to her quiver to only feel less than twenty arrows. Katniss drew a long breath and glanced back to check how many steps there were left and decided to stop from shooting.
"What the..." Katniss turned around when she heard Daryl's words and saw the padlock. Broken. How the hell was that possible?
"I swear I locked it!" T-Dog yelled as Daryl gripped his shirt.
"Now calm down. Let's all take a dang breath here." Rick came between the two men.
"Y'all better hope he still alive. That's all I'm saying." Daryl threatened and stormed through the door.
"I'd get to running if I were you." Katniss said, following Daryl and had the three guys right behind her.
"Oh no! No! NO!" Daryl was screamed and kicked anything in his path. It wasn't long until the rest of the group saw a freshly cut out hand on the ground along with the handcuff.
"I'll kill you!" Daryl raised his crossbow to T-Dog, ready to shoot.
"Put it down" Rick was quick and drew his gun towards Daryl. "I said put it down!" Rick walked closer.
Katniss glanced back and forth, wondering what the hell she could do to calm everyone down and not have anyone get killed in the process. She could have just taken Prim's advice and stayed home. Then she wouldn't have to worry about this.
"Killing each other won't help. Daryl, we'll find Merle. I'll stay until we do. I promise." She walked a step closer with every word until her hand was placed on his crossbow, pushing it away from T-Dog.
"I didn't mean t-" T-Dog started to speak and would have caused Daryl to raise his firearm again but Katniss spoke first.
"I'd stay away and keep quiet if I were you. In fact, you all should leave."
"What?" All the men were overlapping and growing confused together.
"Look, it's obvious none of you want to be here. Plus, I'm sure Daryl doesn't want T-Dog here and Rick's family is probably worried as hell. Glenn, you'll only slow both Daryl and I down."
They all stayed quiet. Which meant that she was most likely right.
"Daryl, you want us to leave?" Rick asked.
"Yeah, do me a lot better."
After a long discussing on the roof, the three men climbed back on the U-haul and drove back to their campsite. Katniss and Daryl watched in silence until finally-
"Ya didn't have to stay" Daryl said
"I know. Now come on, let's get started." She tugged on his arm, walking back into the building and follow the blood trace Merle left behind.
"What 'bout your sister?"
"I told Glenn to keep an eye on her. I trust him."
"I guess" Daryl muttered behind her.
Together they followed the blood to a room where the window was wide open with splatters of blood continuing on.
"Your brother is a tough son of a bitch" Katniss sighed, making Daryl smile.
