The tall girl put her brown hair in a ponytail and sighed.
Apparently they weren't the only one with the plan to go to Atlanta, since the whole highway was filled with honking cars. Most of the people had come out of their cars, as they tried to find out what caused the never ending traffic jam.
Lizzy waggled on her feet while she waited outside the car to get some fresh air. Her uncle and daddy were standing behind the car as they discussed what to do next. Lizzy looked at the people around her and felt uncomfortable. For some reason, she always felt tensed in large crowds; she was rather kind of a loner, which was a trait she had obtained from her father. Ofcourse her daddy could handle the pressure, but he prefered the silence over all the hustle and bustle as well.
She startled when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Lizzy turned around and looked into the blue pair of eyes from her uncle. "Ya alrigh'?" he asked while he nodded at the hooting vehicles in front of them. Lizzy shrugged. "I don' 'ave much of a choice, huh? Even if I wouldn' be alrigh', whad'dya wann' do 'bout it?" she sighed. Daryl nodded and let go of her shoulder.
It was already getting dark when the three of them returned to their car. Lizzy sat on the drivers seat while her father and uncle were still debating with hushed voices on what to do. Her tummy growled, and she realised she hadn't eaten since this morning. Lizzy figured her dad and uncle must be hungry by now as well, and she reached for her backpack to grab a few slices of bread and peanutbutter. She used her clean knife to spread the peanutbutter on the bread and walked to her dad and uncle to give them a few sandwiches. "Here," she muttered. Daryl and Merle looked down to her and nodded. "Thanks Liz." Daryl murmered. She nodded and returned to the car to give them some privacy.
Even though Lizzy often went camping and hunting along with her dad and uncle, she wasn't exactly a brave person. Ofcourse, she knew how to survive and hunt, but she only killed a squirrel once or twice when she was about 10 years old. And afterwards she felt numb and guilty. She had gotten out of bed to go to her daddy's room, and climbed into his bed. When Merle had noticed the movements, he had turned around to look at his daughter. Her lip was trembling as if she was about to cry and Merle had turned the light on. He immediately knew why she was about to cry. "Stop it, Liz." he had growled, which caused Lizzy to tremble even more. "Dixon's don't cry, baby girl. Ya know tha'." he had added with a more gentle voice this time. Lizzy nodded while thinking about those words, Dixon's don't cry, and had blinked a few times before closing her eyes. "Dixon's don't cry," she had repeated, while curling up against her daddy's chest.
Lizzy turned around when she heard the familiar heavy footsteps behind her. "'S gonn' be a long day." her father mumbled before he grabbed a beer can and opened it. Lizzy nodded and turned around to look at her dad. "I need to pee." she said sheepish. Merle raised his eyebrows. "Alrigh' then, want me ta come with ya?" he offered, while Lizzy tightened the belt and adjusted the sheath until it felt comfortable enough. Lizzy rolled her eyes. "Thanks, but I think I can manage m'self." she said while she shook her head. Merle chuckled quietly. "Stay close. Dont'cha go wanderin' off into tha woods by yaself. Holler if ya need anythin'."
She turned towards the woods and paced her way through all the cars and people on the highway. A few kids were playing a game, while a different group of people had even managed to warm up a barbeque. The smell of cheeseburgers filled the air and she gasped at the thought of eating one.
When she had reached the edge between the forest and highway, she quickened her pace. 'Stay close' she heard her father say in the back of her mind, but Lizzy looked around and saw no one, so she allowed herself to walk a little bit further. When she was sure that no one would be able to see her, she quickly did her need.
She stood up and buttoned her jeans and walked back towards the highway. When she was halfway there, she heard the groaning sound in the distance. Lizzy held back a shriek and hid behind a tree.
A boy around her age walked a few meters at the other side from her tree. Lizzy frowned, until she realised what was happening in the world and the reason why they had left their home in the first place. Dead, she thought in panick, he is dead.
Liz felt a shiver running down her spine and attempted to calm herself down. Nothing's going to happen Lizzy, you're going to be just fine. In a few moments he will be out of your sight and you can go safely back to the car.
But she was wrong.
More dead followed after the boy; around 40 staggered forward, while they kept groaning and moaning. They walked spread out around the area, and Liz could only pray that they wouldn't notice her.
The young Dixon tried to think of something else. She touched the small diamond that hung around her neck, and thought back to her 17th birthday. Her dad had given it to her, after he had sold half of the drugs he owned. Lizzy had been furious first, but after she rethought it all, she had come to the conclusion it was the start of something good. The girl wore the necklace every day after that and felt naked without it. Lizzy smiled at the memory and of how happy she had been. Even her uncle had smiled back then, because of his older brother; Merle was on his way to be a better father.
Ofcourse, they had been wrong. The happiness had only lasted for 2 weeks, until Merle was starting to become crazy because of the side effects. Daryl had screamed at him to seek for medical help, but Merle had refused because they didn't have the money to do so.
Lizzy shook her head and bit her lower lip. Her dad had been addicted for so long, ofcourse he couldn't just stop right away; that wasn't realistic, sure, she knew that. But the fact that Merle kept making up excuses like 'I'll stop next month' was seriously pissing Lizzy and Daryl off.
Though Merle never actually promised.
A few days ago however, after he didn't show up at her graduation, he had promised her to stop. An actual promise. Lizzy was shocked, but she trusted her daddy on this one. Maybe he finally gets it, now that I'm almost turning 18.
The growls behind her interrupted her daydream.
The cold hands and long nails grabbed her long brown hair.
[A/N] I would love to get some feedback. Not sure if I'm portraying Merle and Daryl the right way, but yeah. I don't think Merle can just ''stop'' with the drugs just because he has a daughter, I mean we talkin bout Merle friggin Dixon here, lmao. But yeah, opinions are very much appreciated. Even a simple word is enough to motivate me to keep writing! I already created a whole plot for this story, so I'm very excited to continue this fic :) X
