A/N This chapter gets a little dark at the end. Let me know what you think of the newbies, there's a few directions I could go with them.
Daryl sits in the living room listening to the same broadcast that has been playing since the night before, telling everyone to go to the city and wait for the military.
"Bunch of bull shit. Cramming everyone into the city. We look out for our own." Merle kicks one of the cabinets shut. " We don't need the damn military. Right little brother?"
Half of the houses on their street were empty, their neighbors fled to the city for safety. There were a few stubborn people refusing to leave their houses, older people set in their ways, and people like them. Don't trust the military or government. So far the looters had left the neighborhood alone, but it's clear by the few shots on the news that people are starting to get desperate and crazy. Daryl stares out the window at the few people wandering the streets, one of the older neighbors is just standing at her door step, her back to the street staring at the door. Slowly the door opens and a shriek of delight comes from inside as the woman's grown daughter embraces her. The screams suddenly change and Daryl can see the woman frantically trying to escape her mother. Blood starts pouring down her shoulder and arm as her mother rips her throat out, every one of the people out on the street turns towards the screaming woman and before he can fully process what is going on there is a feeding frenzy across the street.
"Yo Merle. Get in here." Daryl gets as close to the small window as he dares "We should probably consider moving, or fortifying this place or something."
Merle joins him at the window and stares at the bloody mess that used to be a woman and the mass of people continuing to rip her to pieces. "Just lock the door an don't let any of those sick bastards in."
One of them looks up and those dead eyes make Daryl's skin crawl. The woman, judging by the clothes, slowly pushes herself to her feet and starts making her way over to his side of the street, the others slowly follow her. Daryl quickly closes the make shift blinds and backs away from the window, knocking over a floor lamp and shattering the bulb in the process.
"The hell was that?" Merle storms in, hunting rifle ready to fire.
"I, uh, sorry" Daryl tries to right the broken lamp "they started coming across the street."
The pounding starts on the door and the window. Merle pulls back the curtains slightly "Go get your keys. And whatever else you can grab. We're leaving."
They both head off, the first think Daryl grabs is his bow and quiver.
Sam walks through the deserted hotel, searching rooms for anything she can use. No luck. People left like crazy when they were told to head to Atlanta, but it seems they were all pretty thorough with their packing. She comes to a locked door, most of them were just left open in the rush.
"Hello?" she knocks on the door "Is anyone in there?"
The door opens a crack, "Who are you? Are you military, come to save us?"
The voice sounds male, but still somewhat young, despite the attempt to make it deeper, she responds in a calm voice "I'm not military, but I'll help you if I can. My name is Sam, Samantha."
The door opens a bit wider to reveal a kid, probably not even twenty years old, "I'm Kyle" he steps aside to let her in and Sam sees the girl curled up in a chair on the far side of the room "That's Christina. We tried to get to the city, but we don't have a car, and no one would give us a ride. We figured the army would be around eventually and we could just wait for them."
"I don't know that that's the best idea. I don't think the military is coming." Sam tries to break the news to them gently.
"What do you mean?" Christina sounds close to tears.
"I think they're trying to focus on the city. But the city isn't safe, you're better off here."
"What are you talking about?" Kyle steps in front of Christina protectively "They said the city would be safe, shelters and everything."
"I know, but I don't think they fully understand what's going on," Sam tries to explain.
Christina shouts from the chair, her short dark hair flying around her face as she tries to push Kyle out of the way, "Oh, and you do? You know more than the government and the Army? Please tell me what the hell is going on!"
"Chris!" Kyle stares at her in shock.
"It's ok, I know how you feel. I don't know what's going on, at least not for sure. I wish I did. I wish I could tell you something that would make you feel better. But I can't." she takes a deep breath and calmly tries to explain to them everything Andy had told her. "That's all I know. The city is no good, and I doubt the Army is much help either."
The three of them sit in silence for a few minutes. Kyle finally speaks up "So where does that leave us?"
"I don't know," Sam sighs heavily, "I guess we can stay here as long as we can, or make our way around Atlanta. I think my friend was trying to tell me to go to the woods before his cell cut out."
"You've got to be kidding me. You seriously expect us to camp in the woods? We'll be completely unprotected." Chris is starting to get hysterical again.
"I never said you have to come." Sam snaps back, fed up with her constant criticism "Feel free to stay here and keep waiting to be rescued."
Kyle moves to put an arm around Chris, "You heard what she said, we're on our own. She's only trying to help."
Sam leans against the wall and watches them whisper back and forth to each other. Kyle keeps stroking her back, trying to keep her calm. All of this is so crazy, but they'll all have a better chance if they join together.
Daryl pulls the heavy blanket back over the window and secures it. "Man, the streets are crawling with em."
With his truck, Merle's bike thrown in the back, they had been able to avoid physical confrontation, even if they did have to run a few of them over. They have been in this house for a few days, windows covered so they can't see the movement inside, one of them always on watch. Luckily most of the houses they have found have been empty of people, but pretty well stocked. Despite Merle's griping, he still helps himself to any booze in the houses.
"Tomorrow we get out of town. Hit the woods, do some hunting." Merle says "Sick of running around these damn neighborhoods. We got skills, can survive in the woods, we should be using em."
"Can't take your bike into the woods." he simply states, cleaning the bow in his lap.
"We make a camp somewhere off the roads, hunt our food. You an me man. We take care of our own."
He listens as Merle continues to talk about how they can make it on their own. Maybe he's right. Maybe they will make it on their own. It certainly wouldn't be the first time they've had to take care of them selves.
"There is so much stuff in here," Chris exclaims as they look around the hotel kitchen "I don't think many people thought to look down here for stuff."
"No" Kyle says with a grim expression "they all thought they would be taken care of in the city."
Sam just keeps looking around. They finally came to the agreement that it would be best for them to stick together, at least for a while.
"Grab as much as you can, focus on canned foods, stuff that doesn't go bad," Sam instructs, hanging onto anything that could be used to carry the food "try to find some of those buffet burner things too. We probably won't have electricity for much longer."
"You don't sound like you're from around here." Chris bluntly states while tossing fruit to Kyle.
"I'm not, I was supposed to be visiting my friend, the one who let me know about all this." she explains
Her thoughts drift back to Andy. She can't count how many times she has tried to call him, but it did nothing more than drain her battery, and with the uncertain electricity that isn't a good thing.
She tries desperately not to think about it, "So what's the deal with you two?"
"Kyle's my brother, he came down with me to check out some of the colleges. We don't live too far away, so we just took the bus." Chris explains, leaning against one of the prep tables.
"Why not just drive? You just said you're not too far away."
"Kyle was only visiting for a few weeks, so he flew back from Cali instead of driving, and I didn't want to leave my parents without a car." she suddenly gets an absolutely devastated look on her face and turns to her brother "Kyle. Mom, Dad, what about them?"
She dissolves into tears as her brother wraps his arms around her, "I'm sure they're fine Chris. You know how stubborn they can be."
The look he gives Sam holds almost as much pain as his sisters, but he has to be strong for her. Sam turns away, giving them a little privacy and continues gathering what food and supplies she can.
Finally they return to Sam's room, their make shift base, and start sorting out what they brought back and adding it to the supplies Sam had already gathered. Chris mopes around the room, still not convinced about their parents, despite Kyle's best efforts. Sam hasn't had time in all this to think about her mom, or her sister, or if they're ok. She can't afford to now either, not how that she's got two other people to look out for.
"There's so many out there. Where the fuck they all coming from?" Daryl lets the curtain fall over the almost dark window, "How are we getting out of here?"
"We start bustin skulls little brother, it's us or them now. Kill or be killed." Merle sets aside his freshly oiled hunting knife and starts on his rifle "We fight our way out, only way we know how."
"That's good and all, but where are we gonna go? As much as I hated that place, it was home." he steps away from the window, farther into the room.
"You questioning me, brother?" Merle stands up, gun pieces fall to the floor, "You think I can't keep us alive? You think you have a better plan? Little brother knows best, is that it?"
He watches his brother storm towards him, hands balled into fists at his side. He should have knows better than to voice his doubts. Merle always knows what's best for them, how to get out of any jam. Merle is right in his face now, shouting and shoving him against the wall. Daryl doesn't fight back, that only makes it worse, even when the hits start coming he just waits it out. Eventually Merle steps back and turns away from him.
Daryl licks the blood off his busted lip, already starting to swell. "Sorry Merle. You're right, you know what you're doing. Sorry."
"You're damn right I do. You'd best not forget that again. We move out tomorrow." Merle picks up the scattered pieces of him gun and goes back to work without another word.