"Air, get up. We got shit to do." Daryl nudged my side with his foot.

"When did ya get up?" It was weird. I normally could hear when my brother woke. He was a foot away from me, how could I not?

"When ya fell asleep." He exited the tent without another word. I quickly slipped on my shoes and followed him outside. Last night, I didn't bother changing, so I was in the same clothes as yesterday.

"What?" I called to him.

He stopped and turned to me. "I didn't bother sleepin' last night. I knew I wouldn't, so I didn't. I walked and got the truck instead." He pointed over to his blue truck. It was sitting with the rest of the group's vehicles.

"By yourself?" In the beginning of the plague, we agreed to never go anywhere alone. It was too dangerous. We only had each other left and we weren't going to risk losing that.

"Yeah." Daryl turned and walked. He was headed to one of the remaining axes. Everyone started the clean up from last night and Daryl was in a rush to join in.

"Why? I thought I was gonna go with ya." I was clearly confused. I never liked to show confusion much because I didn't want to be viewed as the dumb redneck. But, this was important. He left me and I didn't even know. What if something happened to me? He would have never been able to forgive himself for leaving me by myself. Honestly, I don't know if I would have been able to forgive him. Our bond was tight and it hurt that he didn't fill me in on his whereabouts.

"Ariel, I'm not in the mood. We'll talk later." Whenever he used my full name, I knew he was serious. It wasn't very often when he called me 'Ariel'. This mood he was in also was very familiar. He didn't get into it much, but when he did, I steer clear. It gets about ten times worse when he didn't get any sleep. It just made me wonder what he was so peeved about anyway.

The camp was busy with removing their loved ones. The only one not moving was Andrea. She leaned over her sister Amy, holding her. I heard someone said she'd been there all night. I felt for her. She was now left alone to fight this world. She lost the one person she loved dearly.

Someone had lit a fire to burn all of the dead walkers. We all helped each other throw them one by one into the flames. The smell of the burning flesh filled the air. It made most want to vomit. I was able to keep it down, but it still turned my stomach upside down.

After about an hour, we took a break to discuss what we should do about Amy. Lori and Rick told us to leave her be.

"Y'all can't be serious? Let that girl hamstring us?" Daryl was not in the mood for their bullshit today. "The dead girl's a time bomb."

"What do you suggest?" asked Rick.

Daryl took a step towards Rick. "Take the shot. Clean, in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."

"We ain't talkin' about a turkey." Daryl looked at me, shocked. Normally I would be all for taking out a future walker, but this one was personal. Her sister hung over her, clinging to her for dear life. To shoot Amy would be disastrous.

"For God's sakes, let her be." Lori didn't want to disturb the girls either. She knew exactly what I knew.

Daryl stormed away, defeated, leaving Shane, Rick, Lori, and me in a circle. It was awkward. None of us knew what to say. We all just quietly slipped into a piece of work that needed to be done.

Daryl walked past Jim, who appeared to be dozing off. "Wake up, Jimbo. We've got some work to do." He then walked to Morales and helped him with a body he was struggling with.

"What are you guys doing?" Glenn asked as he approached them. The men continued to pull the body to the flames. "This is for geeks. Our people go over there." He pointed to a row of bodies that were to be buried once the burning was done.

"What's the difference?" Daryl questioned. "They're all infected."

Glenn was not giving up. "Our people go in that row over there. We don't burn them! We bury them. Understand?" Daryl didn't chose to argue. Glenn was upset to see them taking one of our own to the flames and he fought to stop it. That has always been something Daryl admired in some people. He liked the way some would fight for what they believed.

The only problem was Daryl didn't like to show that. "You reap what you sow," he called to Glenn.

Morales dropped the body. "You know what? Shut up, man."

Daryl walked on to retrieve another body. "Y'all left my brother for dead. You had this comin'." Maybe he was right. They did leave Merle to die on that roof. Maybe this was just bad karma.

I walked over and helped Daryl with another body. This one was a girl. It appeared she had been decomposing for weeks. It was way before her time.

A loud yell from Jacqui stopped us in our tracks. "Then show me." We truned our attention to her and Jim as he whispered something to her. Suddenly, she was shouting again. "A walker got him. A walker bit Jim."

Everyone slowly approached him as Jim backed away. "I'm okay. I'm okay," he kept repeating.

"Show it to us," Daryl demanded. "Show it to us." He had his axe raised, trying to threaten Jim. Jim grabbed his shovel for protection.

"Easy, Jim," Shane called from a distance, attempting to calm the man.

Daryl turned to T-Dog and I. "Grab him. Grab him."

"Jim, put it down. Put it down." Shane was jogging to Jim, begging him to drop the shovel.

T-Dog snuck up from behind Jim and wrapped his arms around him. Daryl ran over and lifted the man's shirt. There it was, clear as day. There was a circular red mark on Jim's right side that was slightly bleeding. "I'm okay," Jim repeated over and over again.

Daryl and T-Dog both released him and backed away. Daryl stopped about a foot or two infront of me. I, along with most of the group, hung my head in sorrow. Poor Jim was either going to die or turn.

Shane convinced Jim to sit by the back of the RV as we all discussed what we needed to do. This was a discussion that everyone, except Andrea and Jim, was involved in. Everyone's opinions needed to be heard.

Daryl's was first, like always. "I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it."

Shane didn't like it. "Is that what you'd want if it were you?" He was clearly expected a different answer from Daryl.

"Yeah, and I'd thank you while ya did it."

"I hate to say it," Dale added, "I never thought I would, but maybe Daryl's right." That wasn't expected either. I had never met anyone, besides Merle and me, that would agree with Daryl on this. They were both going to become walkers and I had my brother's back. I'd rather not kill Jim or Amy, but if Daryl thought it needed to be done to protect us, then I was with him.

"Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog." Rick was offended that Dale agreed.

"I'm not suggesting-" Dale was cut off.

Rick was in Jim's defense. "He's sick. A sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line?

Daryl was not going to allow Rick to put our lives at risk. "The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be."

"What if we can get him help?" Rick was desperate. "I heard the CDC was working on a cure."

"We all heard that and tons of other shit before the world went to hell," I said, staring Rick in the eye.

He didn't keep his on me, though. He continued his argument while looking at every face in the group. "What if the CDC is still up and running?"

"Man, that is a stretch right there." Shane knew as much as we did that there was nothing guaranteed anymore. Everything went down and there was no way of knowing if the CDC was still up.

"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the CDC at all costs, wouldn't they?" Rick knew that he was losing. "I think it's our best shot. Shelter, protection-"

Shane interrupted him. "Okay, Rick, you want those things, all right? I do too, okay? Now if they exist, they're at the army base. Fort Benning."

"That's a hundred miles in the opposite direction," Lori commented.

"That is right," Shane confirmed. "But it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to me. If that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed. We'd be safe there."

"The military were on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun. We've all seen that." Rick was right. The military didn't stand a chance against the monsters. "The CDC is our best choice and Jim's only chance."

My eye caught Daryl looking back at Jim as Rick spoke. Something was burning in his mind. Once Rick was done talking, Daryl started. "You go lookin' for asprin, do what you need to do." He started running in Jim's direction, lifting the pickaxe he still had in his hand. "Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!"

Before he could bring the axe back down on Jim's skull, Rick cocked his gun and pointed it at Daryl's head once again. "Hey hey hey!" Rick called. "We don't kill the living." Daryl turned toward Rick as Shane stepped between Jim and Daryl.

I walked slowly over to the men with my knife at my side. If Rick killed Daryl, I was going to kill Rick. Shane saw me in defense mode, but didn't bother to come near me and retrieve my weapon. He was too concerned about Daryl killing Jim.

"That's funny comin' from a man who just put a gun to my head." Daryl was right. We don't kill the living? Put the damn gun down and prove it.

"We may disagree on some things," Shane added, "not this. You put it down. Go on."

As Daryl slammed the axe on the ground, Rick pulled back his gun. Daryl stormed away and I put my knife back in my pocket. This small fight was over as Shane picked up the axe.

I followed Daryl as Rick took Jim into the RV. He walked over to his truck and dug out a pack of chewing gum. It wasn't as good as a cigarette, but it would have to do. "Got one to spare?" I asked him. Without speaking, he tossed me a piece. It practically melted in my mouth.

Before I had a chance to ask him if he was okay, he started to walk away. "C'mon. We gotta finish this shit." He walked over to Shane who gave him back his axe and went back to work.

I knew that it would be useless to ask now. He didn't want to be bothered. All Daryl was focused on at the moment was getting these bodies cleared out of camp. He would probably break down later and tell me what's bothering him when we were alone. Or he would run off again and pretend he was going out to hunt. He usually did that when even I can't help him get through something. There was something about that forest that allowed us Dixons to get our heads clear. It almost always seemed to work, too. It was a place we could be alone. We all also understood that if one of us went out there, then that means somethings wrong and we don't want to be bothered. It was our one and only sanctuary.

Daryl and I moved a few more corpses into either the fire or the row of our dead camp members. Daryl was about smash the head of Ed when Carol appeared, tears softly falling down her face. "I'll do it. He's my husband." We both understood where she was coming from and Daryl handed her the axe.

We stepped back and watched. It was heavy for her, but Carol managed to lift the pickaxe up and strick down on Ed's head. The tears were following down her cheeks more rapidly now, but she didn't stop. She struck Ed several times. Carol knew that he was dead and wasn't coming back at this point, but this was the only time she was able to fight back.

Once Carol had nothing left in her, she handed the axe back to Daryl and walked away. "Jesus Christ," I whispered to Daryl.

"I know," he whispered back. It was amazing to see the strength in that woman. If only she showed it more when Ed was still alive. She could have shown him that she wasn't worthless and weak. If only, if only.

After some time when most of the bodies were properly disposed of, Daryl and I took a break and sat by the fire pit. The Georgia sun was hotter than hell today, of all days. Daryl handed me a water bottle and I took it happily.

During midsip, I stopped. Dale and Carol were looking at something. I followed their gaze and saw Andrea with Amy. Amy was trying to tear Andrea's flesh from her bones while Andrea spoke softly to her. Andrea held her sister's head, preventing her from taking the bite she most desperately wanted.

Rick and Shane could see that Andrea was struggling and they walked her way. They froze when they heard the gunshot. Amy fell to the ground, dying a second time. Andrea dropped her gun and resumed her position over Amy.

While watching the sisters, I felt sad. A woman who would have done anything for someone was gone. People would mourn her. No one but Daryl mourned Merle. He didn't deserve people's grief like Amy did. She brought happiness to this shithole of a world. Why did it have to be her? I'm sure there are shittier people alive in this world that should have been taken. She was so young too, barely even lived. If there was a God, he played some pretty sick jokes.