"You guys done good." Daryl said tying a rope around the boar's back legs. "Better n I expected. I wasn't planning on goin after no wild boar. Things are meaner than a wet skunk at the best of times."
"It was a good shot, right Daryl?" Carl asked looking down at the boar.
"It was a lucky shot. You don't bring these bastards down right quick they'll gore you. You gonna mess with one of these things you have to make damned good shot every time." Daryl tossed the end of the rope over a branch. "Okay let's get him up, need to drain the rest of the blood out."
With everyone pulling on the rope the boar's head was soon hanging about a foot off the ground. Daryl cut the hogs neck allowing the blood to start flowing. He then built a small fire.
"You know, you can pretty much eat every part of a pig." Daryl said as he began cutting the animal open.
"Ewww, Gross!" Carl said as things began spilling out.
Daryl rooted around inside and removed the heart, kidneys and liver. He skewered them with a stick and suspended them over the fire. "Don't knock it till you've tried it. That's lunch. Now lets get this thing dressed out."
"Well you don't look no worse for wear today Carol. Guess you was able to pull patrol after all." Merle said.
"You can't make me do that again." Carol said.
"Why, cause you were scared?" Merle asked. "You got through it didn't you? Look at Glenn over there. He's been pullin guard for you guys for how long now? Glenn get your Chinese ass over here!"
"I'm Korean, not Chinese." Glenn responded.
"Okay so get your Korean ass over here then." Merle retorted.
"What do you want Merle?" Glenn asked as he came up to them.
"You scared of them walkers? Tell the truth now." Merle questioned.
"What?" Glenn asked in confusion.
"Are ya scared? It's a easy question. I want Carol here to hear your answer." Merle told him.
"Well yeah, I guess I am. I mean they want to eat us." Glenn said. "It's not like you can talk to them or anything. All they want to do is kill you."
"See Glenn's scared of em too. Truth is if ya ain't dead, ya fearful of em. If ya ain't fearful, you're stupid as hell.."
"Daryl's not scared of them." Carol said. "You aren't scared of them."
"That what you think, Carol? That Daryl and I don't feel any fear? Daryl and me went through some rough shit comin' up. We just done learned how not to let being afraid control us. We ain't as scared of em like Glenn, but believe me we got enough fear to be damned respectful of what those bastards can do."
Daryl plunged his knife into the ground beside him. He laid the tusks out on the ground in front of him. "You boys ever learn about primitive people?" He asked. "You know like how they still lived in some jungles and stuff?"
"Not really." Duane said.
"Well a lot of them people still held on to old ways of doing things, Like they been doing since the beginning. They was strange ways to us because we had all these machines and technology, but a lot of people around the world didn't. Those people are probably doing a damn sight better n we are right now. They lived different and they believed different."
"Sound's like you're going to give us a history lesson Daryl." Rick said.
"Just shut up and listen, Grimes. These people still hunt their food, ain't no Walmarts in the jungle. They put a lot of store in the hunters, respect em and stuff cause they keep em fed you know?
And the hunters set themselves apart. Mark themselves so everyone knows they are hunters. Even we did that here. People with stuffed fish on the walls, animal heads, racks from a buck; shit like that."
He picked up the tusks. "We just took down a boar. That makes us the hunters in our group, so we earned the right to these. It marks you." He said handing the tusks around. "But that tusk is more than just a tusk. See these ancient people believed that taking somethin from a kill like this gives you the power of what you killed. So long as you have that tusk with you, you carry all that boar's power too."
"Is that why you made that necklace out of walker ears?" Carl asked. "When Hershel's horse threw you. You had those ears when you came back to the farm. Do you really believe those ears gave you power or they were like magic?"
"It won't the ears themselves no more n the tusks are 'magic'. It's what they represent. I had just killed two walkers. I had a arrow through my side and a knot on my head the size a Texas. Somehow, bad as things were, I did it. Those ears were something to remind me of that. Every time I wanted to quit and give up climbin up that ravine, they was there to remind me.
Those tusks are the same thing. No matter how bad things get, they gonna remind you of that moment you took on somethin meaner and nastier than you, and you won."
"Michonne, can we talk?" Lori asked seeing Michonne alone in the little kitchen washing blackberries. "We really haven't had a chance to just talk you know."
"I guess that depends on what you want to talk about." Michonne said.
"I'm just wondering how you feel about what's going on around here. I mean Merle giving orders, stuff like that."
"You know Lori when I first joined you guys, it looked like Rick was leading you guys but he was leaning really heavily on Daryl. Didn't take me too long to figure out which way the wind was blowing, those two figured it out. Rick was the best leader in situation A and Daryl was the better man in situation B. Those two figured this out, they co-exist with Rick out front and Daryl stepping up when he needs to.
Rick trusts Daryl's judgment and the two of them have been doing their damnedest together to keep us all alive. And they haven't been failing us much. Merle was in the military, so he's been taking over security around this place with the same goal, keeping us alive." Michonne dried her hands and turned around to face Lori. "So why don't you just stop beating around the bush. What's really on your mind?"
"Carol isn't as strong as the rest of us. Merle is torturing her for God's sake. You can't be alright with that!" Lori said exasperated.
"Should she be exempt from torture? Is she so special that she doesn't get to suffer like the rest of us? I helped Daryl bury T-Dog. And afterwards when we sat there by that grave, that's the closest I have ever seen Daryl Dixon come to breaking down. T-Dog was dead, and Daryl felt like he had failed a member of this group, a friend. Then he swallowed it, bottled up all that pain and all that guilt and walked around like Billy Badass without a care in the world. He wouldn't let any of you see how much he was hurting.
Carol was no help to any of us that day, your own son put down a walker. And she just stood there. Every time we lose someone it's a devastating blow to this group. The smaller this group gets the weaker it gets because we've got one less person to fight.
T-Dog was not a loss we could afford. And Daryl walks around here carrying guilt he has no business carrying. It's Carol's guilt, but he's carrying it for her. There's not much in this world that terrifies me, but the way Daryl looked that day terrified me. If he breaks, we may as well all just put a bullet in our heads. Every one of us has Daryl to thank for saving our asses at some point.
So you ask how I feel about Merle dealing with Carol? I just pray he can succeed in making her tougher. I don't care if he has to break her in half to do it."