AN: I have the theme song from Sonic's Hilltop Zone in my head. Yes, shut up.

-Into the Fire-

I followed Uncle Daryl across the yard to where Uncle Merle stayed. He'd cleaned up the back side of the yard and had taken up a whole cell block to himself. He'd cleaned out all the walkers and started to rebuild the broken wall alone. No one really went over there, almost everyone was too afraid of Merle Dixon. But he was useful and I liked to hang out in his workshop whenever I could. He always had something cool to show me.

Uncle Merle was scary because he was always alone. He didn't do well with the whole concept of family. But he respected my dad well enough. And Uncle Daryl always seemed to know exactly how to keep his brother from losing his shit. He made a great enforcer, according to Carl, and he would have been a cop in the order of things, if there'd been much need to have those kinds of things around anymore. Dad was still considered a police officer by most people, but we'd sort of moved beyond the point of stealing. The group we'd ended up with wasn't as petty as what society seemed to have been like way back when.

Sometimes, Carl spoke of Uncle Merle like he was a bad guy, though. He talks about being scared of him, and about how mean Merle used to be. He says that Merle used to hate everyone who wasn't Daryl, or who wasn't white-skinned. I don't understand why, and I've never really seen anything to even support that kind of talk, but Carl insists that it was true.

All I knew was that I would rather have Uncle Merle backing me up than pretty much anyone else in all of Hilltop, or Woodbury... or the prison for that matter. I'd rather have Uncle Merle at my side than even my dad. And dad was pretty bad ass when it came down to it.

I bounded ahead of Uncle Daryl and slipped into the lean-to that Uncle Merle built for working kind of outside.

Uncle Merle greeted me with a big smile. He had been cleaning hides, until I walked in.

"Hey there kid." Merle drawled. "You here to help clean all a' these?"

I shook my head and wrinkled my nose. I still wasn't big on the whole hunting and cleaning game side of things. It was pretty gross.

Merle laughed at the look on my face. "Fair enough." He agreed easily. "What can I do for you?"

"Merle." Daryl called as he stepped into the shade of the lean-to.

The look on Daryl's face told his brother everything he needed to know.

"Shit." Merle hissed. "Who's ass needs kickin'?"

Daryl shrugged. "Something's happened at Hilltop." He explained. "Sounds like there's been a Walker outbreak. Someone killed someone else and now the town's been compromised."

"Well I'll be damned." Merle said with a shake of his head. "And you remember that Ol' Officer Friendly wanted to lock me away for fear a' that."

I smiled to myself. 'Officer Friendly' was the nickname Merle used for my dad when he wasn't happy with him.

"Do we have a plan?" Merle asked further.

Daryl shrugged again. "I convinced Rick to let us go have a look, take a scout. See if things can't be salvaged. Send the scout back with whatever information we choose."

"And if it's no good?" Merle asked, and I noticed a mean kind of glint in his eye.

"I promised that I'd torch Hilltop." Daryl said.

Merle glanced at me. "You shouldn't be listenin' to this."

"I already heard it all." I assured my uncle. "And I wanna help."

Merle snorted and smiled. Daryl shook his head.

"Seriously?" I pressed, more whiny than I should have been if I expected to be treated like an adult. "I can shoot! I can sneak! You know I'm pretty good at that."

"And your dad will lock me away for even entertaining the thought that you could come with us." Merle told me, ruffling my hair with his good hand.

"You wouldn't have treated Carl like this." I pointed out, giving Uncle Daryl my best puppydog eyes.

"Sorry, Jude." Daryl said apologetically. "I can't risk you on this one."

"What if you take Glenn as a scout?" I asked. "He'll be able to keep me safe!"

Merle shrugged.

"And you don't call me Little Ass Kicker for no reason!" I added.

Merle outright laughed at me for that one. "Kid, you've gotta stay here." He said quietly. "This isn't something that you need to deal with."

"And don't even think about sneaking out after us." Daryl warned. "Your brother pulled that shit all the time and it never ended well for him." He frowned, like there was a story that still haunted him, like there was a death that he could never forgive himself for allowing. "Or us, as a group, for that matter."

I grumbled under my breath, a few words that my dad would definitely not have approved of.

Uncle Merle laughed again. "She learn those ones from you, little brother?"

"I was just gonna ask you the same thing." Daryl replied with a smirk.

"Okay, I promise that I won't follow you." I said sincerely. "But can I at least stay on watch?"

Daryl nodded. "Yeah, I'll tell your dad." He agreed. "And maybe Carol will let you use her rifle this time."

"Awesome!" I exclaimed.

I didn't see the look of worry that passed between the Dixon brothers as I bounded off to tell my dad and Aunt Carol that I could be on watch while they were gone.