The Next Day – Morning
"What in the hell is Jim doing?"
"He's been digging since 6 am." Lori answered, shielding her eyes from the sun above. Carol tried to call out Jim's name but Ed's glare silenced her. He was still sporting a black eye from two nights prior, when he'd gotten the living hell beat out of him by Shane at the quarry pond. "Leave 'im be, nosy ass woman. All of ya. Get yer asses back to doin useful things."
"That's it, I'm stabbing him." Andrea started to say but Amy and Jacqui stopped her, shaking their heads as Jacqui said quietly, "We don't want him giving Carol any trouble. Poor woman gets far more than enough from that drunken asshole."
Andrea had been on edge all morning. She hadn't slept the night before, either. Merle being gone.. They'd had one or two late night conversations that no one knew about, but the gist of those conversations was Andrea discovering that despite all outward appearances… Merle Dixon was not the worst man in the world.
He carried himself like a badass, but he could be an actual teddy bear. He was fiercely loyal to his brother and very protective. All were enough qualities to have redeemed himself in Andrea's eyes. Amy asked Shane aloud, "Can't you stop him from digging?" which naturally, got ignored.
Brianne started to stand, to make her way out to Jim but she decided against it. The man seemed off somehow. He'd been pale when he was eating breakfast earlier, he was sort of feverish looking. The last thing she wanted to do was approach the guy; have him attack her.
Carl watched Jim digging quietly. "Mom, he's freaking me out."
"Me too, Carl."
Lori approached Shane when she finally couldn't take it anymore, after they'd gone to the quarry pond to wash clothes and Jim was still digging away at holes. Finally, Shane approached Jim, Ed right on his heels, drunk and looking for a fight. Which he tried to pick with a sickly Jim…
They'd just made it into the bottom level of the department store that Merle had been left behind at. So far, nothing had went as according to their established plan. Three times Daryl and Rick had a staredown and it seemed like they'd kill each other for sure, but Glenn managed to break the two up each time, reminding them that they were here to find the rest of the guns and Daryl's brother.
They were fighting off a herd in the second level when Daryl heard the groaning from a corner… He held his finger to his lips, made his way carefully around a corner.
He'd thought maybe it was Merle, it wasn't. But it was a group of two Walkers. Daryl quickly disposed of the two and the group advanced a level, going out and onto the rooftop. When Daryl saw that hand and the hacksaw, it took everything he had not to get angry and kill the other three men right there on the spot. Rick managed to get him relatively calm and Daryl said in a commanding tone, "He made it offa here."
"He might have bled..." Rick started to say but the fiery anger in the other man's eyes silenced his sentence and it died on his lips. "We'll look for him on the way down. On the other side of the store, maybe he's in one of the rooms there."
"Damn well right yeh are."
The group set off, leaving the rooftop behind them. They'd gotten down to the second level again, on the opposite side of the way they came, near the sporting goods area… Daryl noticed the hot plate, smelled the tinge of burnt flesh in the air and he realized what his brother must have done.
"He's out there, somewhere. We keep lookin."
The group sat down and figured out a way to get to the outside and the guns….
"Jim! Hey, stop diggin a second, buddy, let's talk." Shane approached the man cautiously, something about Jim's eyes, they hadn't looked right all day. He'd looked pale, he'd been coughing… Kind of like the ones who caught the fever in the beginning of the outbreak.
All of Shane's warning bells were going off.
Jim kept right on digging.
Ed lost it, grabbing another shovel, which he was about to use on Jim until Shane got him down to his knees and took away the shovel. "Get yer ass in the RV, Ed. Unless you want me to beat yer ass again."
"Can't stop digging."
"Why not?"
"Don't know… My dream. I have to dig enough holes."
"Look, buddy, let one of us take the shovel. You go lie down."
"No!"
Shane was un nerved.
Jim was stubbornly resisting his order. Shane took the shovel and got Dale Horvath to help Jim into the RV to lay down. Shane dropped the shovel, angry.
That anger only grew when he saw the moving van that Rick and the others left in earlier coming back. If Rick hadn't woken up… The thought, when he had it initially, unsettled him. And he quickly tried to forget that he'd had it.
But then Andrea took off at a run and met Merle about halfway across camp. "You asshole!"
"What, woman?"
"You fucking scared me, okay? I could have stayed with you." Andrea said as she helped the man to a chair, grabbing him a beer. She eyed his missing hand warily and Merle wiped away sweat and mumbled angrily, "Wasn't bit. This is what happens when you give a dumbass the handcuff key n he loses it. Had ta saw off my own damn hand."
"Where the hell is my husband?" Lori asked, getting angry, approaching Merle.
"Took their ride, woman. Figured a walk back to the campground oughta give 'em a nice long time to think about the shit they done to me." Merle waved it off, ignoring Lori's glare, the way she got angry enough to spit nails at him.
Brianne snatched his beer and then said in a very angry tone, "What the actual fuck, Dixon? You seriously went off and left Daryl there?"
"Daryl went with 'em?" Merle's shock showed clearly on his face and instantly, his stomach churned. He'd just stranded his brother in walker heavy territory. He grumbled, damn it, why wouldn't that damn boy just stay his skinny ass at camp? Or in the woods?
Noooo, he had to go runnin in to the rescue. Always had to play the damn hero.
"No, moron, he disappeared without a trace." Brianne snapped, patience at a minimal at the moment. Another rarity for her before the apocalypse happened.. She'd been this mild mannered and quiet girl; she never stepped one toe over the line, she never truly lost her temper.
Not like right now… Not when the man she wouldn't admit to being in love with but was very much in love with was stranded in a walker infested city with no way but his feet back to camp. Daryl was a tough son of a bitch, Brianne thought to herself, but he was going to have to walk… All the way back to the quarry camp.
"I swear to God, if I don't get the hell away from him right now, I will punch him in the throat." Brianne grumbled, swearing as she stormed off. Andrea glared at Merle and then said quietly, "That was an asshole move, Merle. Those people put their asses on the line to go and find you. And you strand them there, in the middle of all those fucking things… I need to calm down." shaking her head as she went to find Amy.
"Let's go fishing. If I stay here I will wind up choking the man I happen to care more about than I should. And I'd really rather not do that.."
"Hey, is there room in the boat for one more? If I stay around up there, between Shane and Lori and their covert eye fucking and how it grosses me out and the fact that the son of a bitch LEFT not only his own damn brother and the man I happen to care a lot about but also my brother to walk back to camp… Yeah, I'm suddenly feeling like I might choke someone."
"Grab a pole, Brie." Andrea said as the three women walked down the hill, leaving Merle to sit there and contemplate what he'd just done… If he'd had any actual idea that Daryl was with the other three he would never have taken the van when he saw it again.
"Just fuckin fail the kid again." Merle mumbled to himself thinking nobody heard him when he said the words.
They'd managed to fight off the Walkers, get the weapons back from another band of survivors in the city and they were setting off to leave when they realized the van was missing. "Merle musta taken it… To get back at ya." Daryl assessed quietly, Rick thinking about it and not saying that Merle might not even be alive currently, though earlier, one of the kids in the other group of survivors said he'd seen the man with one hand.
The four of them started their walk back to the quarry campground. It was mostly silent, definitely a tension filled silence. Rick broke that silence by asking Daryl quietly, "What are your intentions?"
"The hell you mean?"
"With my sister."
Daryl eyed him and mumbled quietly, "Don't matter. Won't ever work out. Nothin in this new world is gon work out the way any of us wants it. Besides, girls like that.. The smart ones stay the hell away. We're friends."
"But Dale Horvath mentioned that you two were kissing each other a few nights ago." Rick eyed the man. Daryl shrugged.
"If you hurt her..."
"Ain't me you gotta worry about there. Like I said. We're just friends, damn it." Daryl practically growled as he gave the man a warning look, thinking maybe that would stop the conversation from going where it seemed to be headed.
"Let's just get back to camp."
"Probably the best idea you had all day, Rick Grimes." Daryl muttered in a dry tone as he and the other men started to walk back towards the camp.
It was getting darker. Lori eyed the road anxiously. Brianne's eyes darted around the campground. No sign of Daryl or her brother and the other two men. This, of course, had her swearing about Merle's stunt earlier all over again.
Just around the time Dale shouted from the top of the RV to get the kids indoors because he saw a herd of Walkers, and not a small one, either.
Merle's head snapped up.
He took out his Bowie knife and sharpened it a little. Everyone else was rushing around for guns, whatever they could get their hands on. Brianne dug around in the back of the truck and she found the baseball bat she'd been using since Merle and Daryl said that her aim with the primitive bow and arrow just wasn't… It was endangering to anyone within a 2 foot radius. When she found it, she also found the necklace of walker ears. She grabbed a napkin, grimacing, and she put it out where she could see it later.
She'd gotten the idea to add an ear or two to it for him.
Maybe to smooth things over after their strange argument and impromptu kissing thing last night.
Mentally, she was thinking of doing it because the necklace being here meant that Daryl would be too.
Shane stopped her just before she went towards the whole thing. "Where 'n hell do you think yer goin? Get yer ass back in the RV."
"Get your fuckin hands offa me, Shane or I'll brain you with this bat. I'm going to help the others.. Because we're short handed. Gonna be an actual man or are you gonna go cower and hide with Lori? It's sad… The Shane I loved once… he actually had a set of balls."
With the words being said, Shane watched in shock for a moment as Brianne caught a Walker about to go for an unsuspecting and reloading Andrea, knocking the thing's head almost clean off it's shoulders in the process.
Merle yelled in the midst of it all, "I see ya found yer bat, sugar titties."
"Mhmm. Still not talking to you right now, Merle." Brianne grunted as she was about to swing the bat at one coming right for her, feeling around, arms out. She took steps backwards, staying out of it's arms reach and she tripped over a root in the ground.
"Fuck!"
Before she had time to try and stand and swing the bat again, an arrow sliced through the back of the Walker's skull.
If she could have done it, without risking herself or him or anyone else in the group being bitten, she'd probably have ran to him and kissed him at the sight of him.
Merle saw the men coming up the hill and he called out to them. "If ya'll got any weapons, might be good of ya to get yer asses up here and help out."
Rick and Glenn quickly loaded guns, T Dogg picked up a shovel.
Andrea's scream had Merle looking around the camp and then he saw it. Amy was down, she was bleeding badly. Andrea was wide eyed with shock but not so much that she didn't empty two bullets into the walker's skull.
Andrea knelt down by her sister about the time that Merle actually got a free hand and clear path. He made his way over, inspecting it. "Was she bit?"
"I can't…. I don't know, there's so much blood and I tried to kill the damn thing! I couldn't get to her in time. She ran out of bullets, it grabbed hold and..." Andrea started to vomit. She was sitting down now, holding her sister's head in her lap.
Amy seized, blood and spit bubbling out of her mouth as it happened and then she was still.
Merle snapped at Andrea, "Get yer fuckin ass away from 'er, blondie." just as Amy opened her eyes and began to reanimate.
Andrea raised the gun with shaky hands and squeezing her eyes shut she kept saying "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I love you, I'm sorry." the entire time she was emptying the clip into her sister.
The walkers were dead. They'd lost Amy, Ed and at least two others.
Everyone stood there in shock.
Daryl realized finally that his brother was back at camp. And he promptly punched him in the gut.
"You fuckin sumbitch!"
"Aww, did ya miss me a little?"
"Fuckin asshole." Daryl grumbled angrily as he noticed Andrea and Merle seemed to be acting weird around each other. He and Merle talked a few minutes and Merle admitted with a shrug, "Yer woman has one 'ell of a slap, brother. She was pretty pissed at me, takin off, leavin ya there. I'm touched.. Didn't think ya would actually make 'em go lookin fer me."
"You're my brother." Daryl shrugged, the whole thing getting too awkward for him. His eyes scanned the camp, Merle smirked to himself and then said, "If yer lookin fer yer woman… She took my bowie knife, hauled ass down to the quarry pond. Said there was somethin she had to do. Probably had to wash off all the mess. Ya know she ain't good at bein dirty."
Daryl made his way down the path to the quarry pond and he found Brianne washing her arms off in the quarry pond. He found Shane watching Brianne with this damn goofy look. 'I'm gon bash him in the face with a boulder, oughta take that goofy look right offa that face of his.' he thought to himself for a moment.
"Thinks she's fuckin Zena with that bat. She shoulda kept her ass inside." Shane grumbled as Daryl spoke up from behind him, "Fuck off, Walsh. Thought I made myself clear the other night."
Shane glared, he was about to step up to Daryl but Brianne walked up to Daryl and dug around in the pocket of her hoodie, holding out the necklace with the Walker ears.
"There's umm… I put two more on."
Daryl eyed the necklace and then her critically. "Yer okay?"
"I had Punisher."
"So yer namin the bat now."
"Might as well." Brianne muttered, shuffling her feet as she looked up at him. She must have stared at him for almost four minutes before finally doing what she'd wanted to do w hen she saw him walking back into the campground.
Daryl raised a brow when she raised to her tiptoes and pulled him into a kiss as she mumbled quietly into his lips, "I distinctly remember telling you to make it back in one piece. If you ever scare me like that again, Daryl Dixon, I'll kick your ass."
"I'm here, ain't I?" Daryl mumbled as he kissed her back, took the Walker's ear necklace and slid it down onto his neck again. He'd left it behind because it was something of his. It was a personal thing.
But from the looks of it, Brianne wearing his plaid shirt, knotted up above her midriff, she'd decided to raid his clothes instead. "I borrowed your shirt, I..."
"It's just a damn shirt, woman. Don't matter."
They'd just finished arguing over whether to burn or bury their own and were now sitting in silence around the bonfire. Rick spoke up and said quietly, "Dale said that he thinks Jim was bit.. Or that he has the fever itself… I think maybe… I know it's a long shot, but maybe we should try the CDC."
Nobody really said anything, nobody felt like talking at the moment. Glenn spoke up and said quietly, "It's not like we have a ton of other options."
"There ain't nowhere else left, really." Shane muttered, though he didn't agree. He went back to silently glaring a hole through Daryl Dixon who was sitting with Brianne and talking to Merle.
"The CDC it is then." Rick said quietly as everyone nodded, still numb with shock.
"We're gon have to set out tomorrow." Shane spoke up, at least trying to regain a little of the status he'd had as group leader prior to Rick's return. When Dale asked Rick, "Should we try to go tomorrow?"
"We can't risk staying here longer. They might come back." Rick answered. And just like that, Shane felt it.. He was officially losing everything.
I continue to be amazed by the support! Aww, you guys are sweethearts. I just want to hug you all! 15 reviews, 23 favorites and 34 follows and I'm just so shocked right now, honestly. So this chapter, I had to make a decision... And I've been wondering... What would the group be like if Merle were still in it? If you think about it, everything goes back to Merle being left behind, that's where things started to go wrong for Merle... Okay, so sue me, he was one of my favorites he evolved a lot in the series and I was proud of him for it.
If you can't tell, I kind of maybe ship Mandrea. So Mandrea will most likely be a thing here. I changed the episode before their journey to the CDC a lot, the biggest change was of course, having Merle come back to the group. The dialogue isn't exactly spot on, I do hope I at least kind of captured each of the characters as accurately as possible.
More little moments between Daryl and Brianne. I hope you guys like this chapter! I really hope that it's not written confusing or anything and that I'm accurately portraying characters. I'm not perfect but I'm putting a lot of effort into it so sorry if anyone's badly OOC.