AN: OH WOW. A new chapter in just under two weeks?! PRRRRAISE BE! It's a miracle! What can I say, I've had some more time on my hands. ;) I wanted to get better at updating and I'm hoping this'll make up for the last wait. Teehee.

And a last note, since this has been asked for a bit: YES. WE ARE FINALLY GETTING SOME DIXON ACTION.

WOOooOOoOooOOoOOoOoooO

Lock up your daughters ya'll! The Dixons are in town. ;D

Ok. I'll stop now.

EN~JOY.

Murphy came to an abrupt stop at the foot of the stairs, staring up at the doors of the police station. He'd been pretty confident about his plan to break into the building at first, but the more he dwelled on it, the more he began to realize it might not be such a good idea. He hadn't gotten a chance to get a proper look inside the place; he didn't know for sure how safe it really was.

Sophia stood silently by his side and he could see out of the corner of his eye how she was watching him closely through narrowed eyes. She hadn't spoken a single word to him since they'd left Connor behind at the gas station and he got the feeling she didn't like him very much, for whatever reason. He couldn't really understand her dislike for him. She didn't seem to have any problems with Connor; he'd seen them chatting as he'd come back up the road. But as soon as he'd reached them, she'd completely clammed up.

He sighed inwardly and clambered up the steps to the front doors, Sophia wavering a moment before she followed after him. He quickly located the broken window and stuck his hand inside, being careful to avoid the shards of glass. He hauled the window up with such force that the remaining glass shattered, raining down on him. He swore, leaping back and hastily brushing away the fragments on his sleeve. He heard a muffled giggle from behind him and whirled round to see Sophia, who was barely able to hide her mischievous grin.

Murphy raised an eyebrow. "Somethin' funny?" he demanded. She shook her head vigorously, the smile instantly wiped from her face. As if the silent treatment hadn't been bad enough already; now she was laughing at him...

He grumbled to himself, sweeping the residual glass of the sill and glanced inside the darkened office.

"Looks alrigh'." He remarked, turning to Sophia who peered past him into the gloomy room, looking doubtful.

"Are you sure there's nothing in there?" she asked.

"Aye, course m'sure." He lied. He was certain he caught her eyeing him again, no doubt all too aware he wasn't being entirely truthful. Even so, she took a steadying breath and ducked under his arm, clambering up on to the windowsill and jumping down into the room. There was a thud and she reappeared a moment later right beside him, glancing about warily.

"It's pretty dark in here..." she said quietly, her voice trembling slightly.

"S'fine." Murphy reassured her. "You jus' focus on getting t'front door unlocked. Through there, see?"

He pointed across the room towards the door and she turned around, picking her way carefully across the room. She held her hands out in front of her to help feel the way; bumping into the desk sitting in the middle of the room as she stumbled towards the door. Murphy found himself squinting, struggling to see her in the gloom. He took a step back from the window to let in more light, glancing over his shoulder to check the street behind him was still clear. When he turned back to the window, the room was empty and the door on the opposite wall had been left open. Looking closer, he was able to make out the words 'Sheriff Barkley' printed in black on the frosted glass window. He strained his ears, listening out for any sound of the girl, but could hear nothing.

"Hey, kid?" he hissed. "Talk to me. Y'alright?"

There was no answer.

"...Sophia? You ok?"

For a long moment there was only silence, then abruptly a loud clatter, hurried footsteps and a muffled shriek. His heart fell down to his feet and bounced back up again in the space of a few seconds. He leaned as far inside as he could but was still unable to see very much in the gloom. He called out for her again as loud as he dared, but didn't receive an answer. He was gripped by a sudden overwhelming sense of dread and guilt; he had no idea where the kid had gone to and if something awful had happened to her, as something undoubtedly had, he was completely at fault for it.

There was a loud thud from behind him and he leapt about a foot in the air, smacking his head on the window as he whirled round, coming face to face with Sophia. She was standing there, shaking, her face colourless. More disturbing than that was the blood spattered on her leg. For a long moment he could only stare at her in silence, horrified.

"Jesus Christ..." he spluttered. "What t'fuck happened?"

He stumbled forward, grabbing her by the shoulders and she flinched at the contact.

"What t'fuck happened?" he repeated.

She didn't reply, staying silent. His gaze fell on her bloodied leg and he forced himself to ask the one question he was terrified of having answered.

"Did something...happen t'you. Did you get hurt? Did...You didn't get bit, did you?"

Sophia still refused to speak up; she only shook her head numbly.

"You're covered in blood! What-"

"I-It's not m-mine..." she stammered, in a voice so small he had trouble hearing her.

"What?"

"There...there was a m-man in there. He...shot himself."

Murphy found himself struggling to process the information; he just stared at her, speechless. She started crying quietly.

"I-I saw...there was b-blood...everywhere. It was all over the f-floor and I...I-I slipped in it..."

"Where was that?" he asked. "The room y'were in was empty."

"It was in the other room...across the hall. I-I saw his shadow...through the glass. I thought...maybe...there was someone alive."

Murphy took a step back, releasing his grip on her shoulders and glanced towards the doors behind her which had been left slightly ajar when she had exited the building. He stepped around the girl, pushing the door further open and peering inside. There wasn't much to the place, considering its size; just a wide corridor running the length of the building. Doors were placed at regular intervals along the walls, leading onto other rooms. He was already vaguely aware the front two were offices of some kind, but he was still unaware of what the other rooms contained. He could only hope one of them was an armory The lack of light meant he couldn't see much of anything. The corridor just led off into darkness. He hesitated in the doorway, before taking a cautious step forward, into the building.

"Don't!" Sophia protested, reaching forward and tugging on his arm to pull him back. "You can't go in there!"

He brushed her off, dismissively. "What're you so worried for?" he asked. "Nothing's in there, s'fine."

"I-I don't wanna go back in there. I can't!"

"Then y'don't have to. S'fine. I'll just go in."

She glanced over her shoulder. "Can't I just go back to the gas station? Please?"

"Not just yet. I need you t'stay where I can see you. We'll only be five minutes and then we can go back, alright?"

She still seemed more than a little unsure, but managed a timid nod. "Ok..."

He turned and reached forward, tugging open the second door, flooding the dim corridor with more light. He surveyed his gloomy surroundings with a certain amount of wariness.

"Where about did y'see..." he hesitated, "...Y'know."

She pointed with a still trembling hand toward the first door on the right. "It...He was in there..."

"Righ'...You stay here, at the front. Keep yer eye on the outside an' yell if you see anything, yeah?"

"Yeah..."

He turned away and moved cautiously over to the office door, which had been left hanging open. As he moved closer, he was abruptly hit with the intense, cloying stench of blood. He wrinkled his nose, covering his face with his sleeve in an effort to keep out the smell. Peering around the room, it became quickly apparent that it was another office, almost identical to the one on the others side of the hall. A number of steel filing cabinets had been shoved into the corner of the room and there were various framed photographs and credentials hung up on the back wall. The only furniture in the room was the large wooden desk placed in the center. Seated behind the desk was the figure of a man, dressed in what he assumed was police uniform. The room was pretty dim, but not so much that he wasn't able to make out the massive cavity that had been carved out of the back of his skull by the shotgun he clutched in his hands. The wall behind him was caked in blood and Murphy found himself recoiling from the sight of such carnage. With the work he and his twin had done, he'd already seen his own fair share of corpses, but even so this mess was pretty hard to stomach. He could hardly blame the kid for freaking out like she had...

He eased back a step, scanning the room one for anything useful and catching sight of something lying on the desk, only a few feet from the police officer. Looking closer he was able to identify the small object as a set of keys. He eyed the figure of the man seated behind the desk, wary he might come back to life and attack him, even though he knew it was ridiculous. There wasn't any reason for him to be afraid. He could tell by the sizable hole in the back of his head that there was no chance he was going to come back. Even so, he remained overtly cautious as he crept closer to the desk, keeping his gaze fixed firmly on the dead man. In one swift movement he snatched up the keys and rapidly backed away from the desk. He was gripped by a sudden intense need to get out of that suffocating room, away from the overpowering stench of blood. He escaped out into the hallway and yanked the door closed behind him, breathing out a quiet sigh of relief. He glanced up to see Sophia was still hovering anxiously by the front doors.

"Can we go now?" she asked desperately.

"Not yet." Murphy replied. "We'll take a quick look around first, see if there's anything useful in here."

She shook her head. "I-I don't want to-"

"Y'don't have t'come into the rooms with me, alright? Just...stay close by. Where I can keep an eye on you."

She was clearly still reluctant, but she nodded in agreement; following behind him as he continued further into the gloomy building. With both front doors open, there was more light to see by, making the place seem a lot less eerie than it initially had. As well as the two front offices, there was a large comfortable looking lounge area, with a few vending machines (which Murphy proposed they could take from afterwards), an administrative center of sorts containing four or five desks placed in the middle of the room and computers with missing keyboards and shattered screens, as well as a janitorial closet that had nothing of any real value in it.

It was only when they reached the end of the hallway that the younger twin was able to find what he had been looking for. The last door on the right of the hallway was marked 'Armory' and had a cautionary sign on it, reading: 'Danger: No entry for unauthorized persons.'

"Bingo." Murphy said quietly, reaching for the keys he'd placed in his pocket. After fumbling with them for a few seconds he was able to find the right one and successfully unlocked the door. He shoved it open and carefully peered inside. The room was small, but despite its size, there was quite a substantial artillery. The entire left wall was stacked with shelves and shelves of pistols and handguns and rifles and an abundance of other lethal weapons. Murphy let out a low whistle.

"Christ." He remarked. "We hit t'fuckin' jackpot in here!"

"Uh huh..." Sophia said, a little uncertainly.

The younger McManus crossed over to one of the shelves, carefully pulling down a long rifle situated on one of the top shelves, inspecting it carefully before dropping it down on the large wooden table sitting in the middle of the room. Sophia jumped, startled by the sudden noise, but her unease went entirely unnoticed by Murphy who was crouched near the floor, busily examining a shelf of pistols. He picked one up, turning it over cautiously in his hands, checking the magazine before ramming it back in. This time he noticed the girl's flinch and turned to look at her, puzzled.

"Somethin' wrong?" he asked her.

"No..." she looked away quickly, but he didn't miss the flicker of fear in her eyes when her gaze fell on the gun in his hands.

"You ever used one before?"

She glanced up. "Huh?"

"A gun?" he elaborated. "Y'know how to shoot?"

"No." She said, aghast. "I'm only twelve."

"So? Me an' m'brother were younger than that when we were first taken to a firing range with m'Uncle Seamus. Fuckin' crazy he was. Our Ma just about had a fit when she found out about it."

Sophia stayed quiet, thoughtful.

"Could teach you. F'you like." He offered. "T'shoot, I mean. S'probably useful to know, considering how the world's gone t'shit an' everything...An' y'got dead people wandering about..."

"No, thanks." She replied quietly.

"Fine. Suit yourself." He moved around to the other side of the room, towards a steel cupboard in the corner, opening the doors and rooting through the contents. Abruptly, Sophia turned to the corridor behind her, frowning. She could've sworn she heard the distinct rumble of a car engine. Glancing back to Murphy, to check he was still paying her no attention, she eased back a step, out of the doorway and into the hall. Taking a few cautious steps closer to the front doors, she was able to hear more clearly the sound of an idling car engine. She found herself grinning and very nearly laughed aloud in delight. Connor must have been able to get the car to work! He must've come round the corner to get them. Once they'd gotten the guns they could head for the interstate. She could see her Mom again!

She bolted down the corridor, skidding to a halt at the front doors. But when she peered out into the street beyond, she couldn't see any sign of Connor anywhere or the familiar SUV. Instead, in the opposite direction, on the other side of the road there was a rusted red pick up truck, parked by the sidewalk. A group of around five or six men were crowded around the vehicle, talking in hushed voices. Sophia stayed frozen in the doorway, watching the group from afar, warily. They didn't look at all familiar to her in any way. She thought she could detect an air of hostility surrounding the group; something about them made her instantly anxious, and not just because they were strangers to her. Connor and Murphy were strangers too, but they didn't scare her like these people did. She knew, somehow, that the brothers had no real intention to hurt her.

With those people across the street,something told her she couldn't be so sure.

"Hey!"

She jumped in fright at the sound of an angry shout; glancing up to see one of the men was suddenly pointing an accusatory finger at her.

"Mason! There's a fuckin' kid!"

Another member of the group, still standing by the car, looked up at the call, his gaze instantly falling on her and for a brief moment, his cold grey eyes locked on hers. Something she saw in his gaze, something she couldn't explain, terrified her. He gestured to two of the others and together the three of them broke away from the group and strode at a brisk pace across the road towards her.

She turned and fled back into the building, stumbling up the corridor. Murphy glanced up in surprise as she burst into the room, in a panic.

"What's wrong?" he said, straightening up. "What's happened-"

"We have to go!" she said breathlessly.

"What's going on? S'it walkers?"

She shook her head. "There's people outside. A group of them! I don't know who they are a-and I don't t-think they're gonna be friendly."

Murphy frowned, taken aback. He considered dismissing the girl's fears. After all, it did seem to him that she was overacting a little, but the real terror in her eyes made him stop. Every survivor he and his brother had come across, though they had been few and far between, had been decent people as far as he could tell. But he was all too aware of the kind of evil people were capable of and how much worse it could be now the world was lawless.

Before he could do or say anything, there was the sudden sound of approaching footsteps and a moment later a man appeared in the doorway. He looked to be around the same age as Murphy himself, give or take a few years, it was difficult to tell. He was relatively pale, with light hair and icy grey eyes that were narrowed slightly in scrutiny as they observed him. Something about him that he couldn't quite explain instantly put him on edge. He'd seen that same coldness, he realized, in the eyes of many of the murderous criminals he and his twin had put down. Sophia was right, he realized. Whoever these people were, they were bad news.

"Who the fuck're you?" the man demanded crudely.

Murphy scowled back at him. "Could ask you the same fuckin' question." He said.

The man stared at him a moment longer and then turned and called loudly over his shoulder. "Hey, Carlos! Tony! Get your asses in here!"

There were more footsteps and Sophia shrank back as two more men appeared in the doorway; a skinhead Latino with what appeared to be a permanent scowl on his face and a dark haired man who, paid little attention to Murphy and Sophia; immediately turning to the weapons lining the wall.

"Jesus Christ, Mason!" he said, grinning. "This place's a fuckin' goldmine!"

"Fuckin' called it." The Latino said. "Backwater towns like this're usually untouched."

"What I wanna know," the blonde man, Mason, said, gesturing to the younger McManus, "is how the hell these two got in here."

The other men glanced towards the pair hovering in the corner, varying degrees of suspicion on their faces.

"How the hell did you get in here?" the brunette asked. "That front door's fuckin' solid."

"Came in through the window." Murphy replied, somewhat reluctantly. He gestured to Sophia, who remained by his side, surveying the other men warily. "She got t'door open from the inside."

"Ah." The blonde man said snidely. "I see how it is. You get your daughter to do your dirty work for you."

"She's not my daughter." Murphy protested, but he might as well have not spoken at all.

The other man ignored him, continuing on relentlessly. "So, what brings you two to Oak Hill, anyway?"

His tone was conversational, but the younger McManus was sure he could detect a faint underlying hostility in his words.

"We...were lookin' for a car. And guns." he replied. "We don't have anythin' t'defend ourselves with and y'know, I don't really want t'get stuck in a crowd f'those fuckin'...things without a way t'defend myself."

Mason laughed, but it sounded false. "Yeah, guess you've got a point there." His voice became suddenly harsher. "But I'm afraid you'll have to look elsewhere. This here's our spot."

Murphy could answer for a moment, too stunned. "S'cuse me?" he said, struggling to contain his irritation.

"These guns are ours. We were here first, that makes it ours."

"Funny." The younger McManus sneered. "I don't see your fuckin' name on 'em."

"We've been scavenging here for months now. This is our spot. We got a big group to take care of. What've you got? S'just you and your kid. There's no contest."

"Aye, we're a smaller group." Murphy said desperately. "That's why we need it more."

The Latino shook his head. "Nah, man. Mason's right. We've needed a break like this for months. We're down to our last bullets."

"And we've got nothing."

He just shrugged. "Sorry, hombre. That ain't our problem."

"Shove it up yer arse!" Murphy snapped.

The other man scowled. "Hey, fuck you puta!"

"C'mon Carlos." Mason said, grinning slyly. "Who knows, maybe we can reach some sort of agreement here." He turned to Murphy. "Tell you what." He crossed over and picked up the pistol the McManus had been admiring earlier and placed it on the table. "I'm in a generous mood. You can have this and...another extra round. That outta be enough to take care of you and the girl, don't y'think?"

"An' what? You'll just take everything else for yourself?" the younger McManus said, seething. "I don't fuckin' think so!"

"What the hell're you gonna do 'bout it, man?" he sneered. "You gonna try and stop us?"

"Nah. I'll just take what I fuckin' want to. You're doing it, why can't I?"

"I already told you why, asshole. This stuff's ours."

"Fuck you."

Mason took a step closer, his expression suddenly thunderous and Murphy resisted the urge to move back, knowing it would only make him seem weaker. He met the other man's icy gaze, forcing himself not to look away, not to show the fear he was feeling. He knew picking a fight was a really, really bad idea at a time like this. He was ridiculously outnumbered.

Where the hell was Connor?

Surely he should've known something was wrong? Surely he should've come running by now.

Unless something had happened to him...

"You know what?" the blonde man snarled. "I think it'd be better for you and the girl if you leave. Now. Before I get really pissed off."

"Yeah? An' what happens then?" Murphy sneered.

The punch came seemingly out of nowhere.

He was struck on his cheekbone and he staggered back, hitting the wall hard. He clutched his cheek, glancing up in shock at the blonde man and his temper flared when he caught sight of the smug smirk on his face.

"You fucker!" he spat.

The smile was instantly replaced by a scowl and he grabbed for the younger McManus, catching the front of his shirt. Sophia let out a sudden cry of a terror and darted for the door. The blonde man abruptly released Murphy, shoving him away and reaching out as she raced past him, catching hold of the scruff of her neck and hauling her back.

"Where the fuck d'you think you're going?" he sneered. She sobbed in fright and tried desperately to pull away from him. In that second, something inside of Murphy snapped and his vision became tinted by red.

"Let her go." He snarled, in a voice that hardly sounded like his own. Mason turned to him.

"Or what?" he snapped.

Murphy lunged forward and there was a sickening crack as his forehead connected with the man's nose. Mason let out a yell of agony, clutching his nose as it spurted blood. He hardly had time to recover as the younger McManus was on him again in an instant, shoving him hard and forcing him to release his hold on Sophia, who stumbled and fell, dropping her rag doll. Mason lost his balance and toppled to the floor with a yell of rage, bringing Murphy down on top of him. The younger twin threw in as many punches as he could, before he was grabbed suddenly by the back of his shirt and shoved aside by the Latino. He landed hard on the concrete floor, the breath knocked out of him. He caught a glimpse of Sophia, who was curled up in the corner, tears streaming down her cheeks, before he was kicked in the side. He groaned in pain, rolling over to see Mason looming over him, blood still flowing freely from his nose; his eyes blazing with fury.

"You're going to pay for that, you cunt."

He only just had enough time to curl himself up into a protective ball before the blows started raining down on him. He was kicked and punched with brutal force in the head, in his back, in his stomach, everywhere. Each hit felt a hundred times worse than the last and every attempt he tried to make to protect himself didn't seem to be working. There were three of them and only one of him. He tried to cover his face with his hands, but they were torn away from him and he was suddenly kicked hard in the nose. His head jerked back and he heard a nauseating snap which he assumed was the sound of his nose breaking. He yelled out, covering his nose with his hand, which quickly became sticky with blood. He could feel himself getting weaker and weaker and was finding it increasingly difficult to hear anything over the deafening ringing in his ears.

"Stop it! Please, stop it! You're going to kill him! Don't!"

A voice. A girl's. Crying. Sophia, he quickly realized.

"Shut up!" Mason bellowed. She whimpered in fear.

"Hey!"

He stiffened. There was a new voice. It took him a long moment before he noticed that the punches had stopped. Tentatively, he opened his eyes, but was unable to see very much. Everything was blurred and hazy and he was unable to make much out. The relief he felt was overwhelming but it was quickly overtaken by the encompassing pain and he groaned aloud.

"What the hell's goin' on in here?" That new voice again. He heard footsteps behind him and a sudden low gasp.

"Son 'f a bitch! Mason, you fuck!"

There was a thud and a yelp of protest. It sounded to Murphy like another fight was breaking out. Something clattered noisily to the floor.

"Merle! What're you-"

"That's my lil' brother, you asshole!"

There was a sudden silence.

"You, what?" The Latino's voice.

"You heard me, spic!"

"C'mon man. Don't-"

"Don't nothin'! What the hell've you done to him!"

"He came for us first, man!" Mason's voice again. He sounded a lot less sure than he had before.

"I don't believe that for a fuckin' second! Daryl got more sense than that."

"Merle, we're sorry alright? We...We didn't know."

There was a heavy pause.

"This ain't over." The man's voice shook with barely controlled rage. "This ain't over, you sons-a-bitches."

Murphy flinched when someone grabbed his shoulder and hauled him up into a sitting position, making his head spin horribly. A face hovered into view and he blinked, trying desperately to clear his head.

"God damn, brother. Ain't you a sight for sore eyes?"

He frowned, struggling to make sense of the situation. Who was this man? And why the hell was he calling him brother? He wasn't his brother. Connor was. Where was Connor anyway? He should've been here. He pressed his bloodied hand to his aching head, struggling to keep it together.

"I...I...w-what?" he stammered.

Abruptly from the corner, he heard a whimper from Sophia and his head jerked slightly in her direction. He could only make out a small blob of blue in the corner though; his eyesight was still blurred hopelessly. The other man's head turned in the same direction.

"Hey!" he said in surprise. "I know you!"

Sophia stayed frozen where she was, cowering in the corner. She curled up even smaller as Merle approached her, recoiling away from him. Ever since he had joined their camp along with Daryl she had always been overly wary of him. He was too big, too loud, too violent and reminded her too much of her own father. The fear must've shown on her face as he came to a sudden halt, holding out his hands to her in a placating manner and giving her what he must have thought was a reassuring smile.

"Whoa, now. What's with that look, huh? I ain't gonna hurt you." He paused, surveying her curiously. "You're one of them from the Atlanta camp. Ed's kid, right? What was it?" He snapped his fingers, trying to remember her name. "Sally? Sarah?"

"S-Sophia." She said.

"Right." he grinned. "That was my next guess."

She found herself smiling back, in spite of herself, but the smile was quickly wiped off when her gaze fell on Murphy, who was still slumped beside the wall, his face a bloody mess.

"You here with the rest of the camp?" Merle asked her quietly.

She tore her gaze away from Murphy. "Huh?"

"I wanna know where the rest of your camp is." He insisted. "Me an' the others here, they was kind enough to take me back to Rockdale but the place was cleared out." He tilted his head to the side, regarding her enquiringly. "Care to tell me what happened?"

"T-There were walkers." She said softly, shuddered at the memory of the night. "We...a lot of people got killed."

"That so?"

She nodded.

"Huh. Where ya'll holed up at now then? 'Cause I've been...just dying to meet up with ya'll again. We ain't exactly parted on good terms, since those bastards left me chained to a God damn roof to die."

The girl's gaze drifted to his right hand, which ended abruptly in a bloody stump wrapped in gauze bandages and she shivered.

"I...I heard about that..." she murmured.

"So." Merle said. "Where about's your camp at now?" She remained silent and he sighed. "You ain't got no reason to be so tight-lipped 'bout it. It ain't you I'm mad at. I'd just like t'have a few choice words with that Sheriff asshole."

"He's Carl's Dad." She blurted out.

"That's real interestin," Merle said. "But what I really wanna know is where your camp's at now."

"I...I don't know." She said softly. "I don't know where everyone is."

He frowned. "How come?"

"I-I got lost. We were on our way to Fort Benning a-and we got stuck on the Highway when a-all these walkers came and I got chased into the woods."

"And what?" Merle said, scowling. "They sent Daryl out to find you? Like he's their pet bloodhound or some shit like that?

Sophia hesitated, unsure what to say. On one hand, she could tell him the truth: that the man sitting there wasn't actually Daryl, that he was just somebody she'd run into by chance that happened to look exactly like him, or she could simply let him think what he wanted to. It was pretty unlikely that he'd believe her anyway if she told him that Daryl was actually called Murphy and he had a brother called Connor who was waiting round the corner for them.

"Well?" Merle insisted, staring hard at her. "That what happened?"

She nodded tentatively and he shook his head in disgust, turning to Murphy who was now watching them both through one cloudy blue eye, his other having been swollen shut.

"Can't believe those fuckers." Merle said to him. "They think they can get away with treatin' you like their pet. Ain't nobody treats my lil' brother like that. Ain't nobody."

Murphy sat up a little straighter at that, his one visible eye suddenly narrowing in irritation. He sighed heavily.

"Listen." He said to Merle. "I-I dunno what...t'fuck you're on about, but I'm not yer broth-"

"Walkers!"

The sudden cry startled everyone in the room into silence and Murphy's confession was quickly forgotten. Merle clambered hurriedly to his feet.

"What the hell was that?" he said.

There was the sound of frantic footsteps and a teenage boy, no older than seventeen, appeared at the door, panting heavily. Mason strode towards him, furious.

"Randall! What the hell're you doing here! You're supposed to be at the car!"

"There's walkers!" he said excitedly. "T-They just came out of nowhere. Out of the woods. I-I swear there's like a hundreds of them." He spotted Murphy still slumped on the floor. "Who's that?"

"Doesn't matter." Mason replied quickly. "Get your ass in gear. Back to the car. We'll be right behind you."

"What about the guns?" Carlos protested.

"Another time! We gotta go now!"

"Son of a bitch." Merle said. "S'couldn't come at a worse time." He reached down and pulled Murphy to his feet, with some difficulty. "C'mon lil' brother. Time we hauled ass outta here."

"I told you, m'not yer-" Murphy started to say, but he winced when he felt tiny fingernails digging into his palm and looked down in surprise to see Sophia staring up at him, both her hands clasping his. She said nothing, but he didn't miss the slight headshake and read it's meaning loud and clear.

Don't. Say. Anything.

He couldn't understand it. He couldn't go with these people. He couldn't leave his brother. Connor was still at the gas station. He needed to get back to his twin. But now he was on his feet, he was hit suddenly with a wave of dizziness and his legs wobbled so much he was barely able to stand upright on his own and he was just so tired and all this thinking was too exhausting for him right now. Black spots danced in front of his eyes as he was led out of the police station and across the road to a red car parked at the side of the road. There were hurried footsteps, raised voices and a sudden gunshot made him jump.

"Randall!" he heard Mason yell. "Don't waste your fuckin' ammo!"

Then he was being shoved into the back seat of the pickup, Sophia thrown in next to him. There was a small part of him screaming to get let out of the car, that he couldn't leave his brother behind that he couldn't leave his brother to die but the much larger part was too hurt, too tired to do anything about it. He couldn't only sit there, growing steadily weaker from the pain, as the rest of the group clambered into the car and the engine roared to life as they pulled away from the sidewalk.

Next to him, he heard Sophia whimper and realized very abruptly that she was still clinging frantically to his hand, as if her very life depended on it.

As the rusty pickup drove on down the road and away from the streets which were quickly filling with walking corpses, none of the inhabitants of the car noticed the lonely figure of a man hurtling down the street towards the police station.

OH NOES. IT'S ATTACK OF THE CLIFFHANGER

ASIDOJASIDJAOSJDIOASJDOAJSD

WhaT?

Just as a final, final note: as much as I am loving season three right now, I can't write it just yet as it wouldn't really work with the whole timeline with Sophia only been missing a day or so and yadda yadda. Meaning, the Governor WILL most likely make an appearance.

Just not yet.

As of now I've kinda had to improvise a bit and put Merle with another group that you see a bit of in Season Two, which is where we're at now. Can you guess what group it is? ;)

FREE CHOCOLAAAAAATE FOR WHOEVER GETS IT RIGHT :D

Because I'm feeling generous. ;)

But anyway, I gotta leave now. I got school tomorrow and it's already way past my bedtime. NEEHEE ^^

Adios, amigos

-pirouettes into the sun-