Wow you guys! All those reviews were awesome. You are all so amazing. This chapter brings a little bit of drama just for you. Then we start off on an unknown journey where anything can happen! Enjoy :)

Chapter 11:

It was dark all around as Amber tried to focus once again. A brisk breeze hit her in the face as she leaned back against something hard a cold. She was outside.

"I don't care. I have to go back in there." Glenn said angrily. "Daryl is in there looking for her and if he finds Merle.. We don't know what he will do."

"She isn't okay, we need to get her back to the prison." Rick said calmly in return, reaching down to touch the girls forehead for a second time. "She's burning up. I'm not a doctor, but I can see as well as any that she needs a doctor."

Glenn ran his hand through his hair and sighed. "You have to go back in. I'll take her back. Find Daryl before he figures out that Merle is here."

"No.." Amber murmured, trying to speak louder. In fact she was sure she was whispering no matter how hard she tried to speak up.

"Okay, I'll go back in. You get her home. Watch out, go slow if you have to." Rick agreed.

"No." She said again, this time she began coughing, leaning forwards as she tried to catch her breath.

"Amber?" Glenn got down quickly and helped her lean back again, "Breathe." He told her, stroking her hair. "You're okay, you're free." He said, "But we have to go now, get you back to the prison."

"Daryl.." She muttered again, this time the two men were becoming clearer to her. "We need to help him get Merle out of here. We can't leave him here." She said. She cringed, pinching the bridge of her nose to try to put pressure on the pounding there. The idea of saving Merle wasn't something she felt okay with. But she had done all this just to get the stupid man back to Daryl and she wouldn't let it all be for nothing.

"Rick will go back in Amber, but Merle won't be coming home with us." Glenn said, shocked that she would even suggest it. He hadn't seen much of what had happened to her, but he had heard most of it. He wasn't easy on her. He was cold, and brutal. He was surprised that she was even alive. Anyone else would be bleeding out on the floor of that dungeon.

"You don't get it." She pushed Glenn away from her and began pulling herself to her feet. "I came here for Merle. We can't leave him behind."

Rick stopped, looking at her. "How could you know that he was even here?"

"I.. I just saw him out there in the road and I knew who he was." She lied, catching herself before things went to crazy town. "Daryl does to much for us to just leave his family behind." Glenn moved towards her again but this time she shoved him off. "I'm not going back."

"This whole place is out searching for us. You can't just waltz back in there.. You shot their leader Amber." Glenn knew he wouldn't be able to reason with her, not now. She was riding on some sort of adrenaline high and for some reason the idea that Merle and Daryl could be saved. But he wasn't sure she would make it through the night if they went back in. "Look.. If you stay out here, stay hidden. Rick and I will go get them." Glenn sighed as he spoke, knowing he would regret his words.

"But I-"

"No, look.. You can barely stand Amber. You stay here, we go in. Otherwise Glenn take's you back to the prison." Rick told her. "There ain't no negotiations here. What will it be?"

She dug her hands into the dirt below her and sighed, closing her eyes. She was tired.. She couldn't keep her eyes open much longer. If they found her out in the woods, it would be because she couldn't keep her eyes open.

Glenn had been right about Amber being really hurt. Her stomach ached and she couldn't move it much without searing angry pain running through her body. She forgot just how many times Merle had slammed his gun into her, but she could certainly feel it's effects. She wouldn't likely heal quickly.

"She ain't alright. You let her stay out here?" Daryl's voice floated into Amber's ears as she was grabbed by someone. "She can't even walk." He grumbled, leaning down to look at the small blonde. Glenn shook her a bit, waiting to see if she would wake up.

"Get off!" She shot out, waving her hand in front of the two. "I'm fine." She said coldly. Her eyes trailed over the group of five. Wait five? She blinked, as she pushed up off the dirt floor. "Lori?" The small brown haired woman stood awkwardly, that familiar look of concern on her face that Amber remembered. A small wail took Amber by surprise. "Is that?"

"We need to go, now. Once they realize that I am gone they will come looking Rick." Lori said worriedly, cuddling the small bundle to her chest.

"I agree." Rick nodded, "Can you walk?" He asked Amber, looking her over. She looked bad, and he knew once they were far enough away from the town that they would need to have a little talk about it. But for now he needed her alert and okay with the current plan.

"I'll be fine." She snapped, her voice still calm. She stumbled forwards past the two brothers. She ignored Daryl and she ignored the stupid shit eating grin on Merle's face. She assumed they would follow behind and didn't look back.

"This is crazy Rick. We need to stop. We haven't slept and Amber is starting to sway on her feet." Glenn whispered, watching Amber with worry. She looked pale. He was sure she wouldn't make it much farther if they didn't stop soon. The sun was peeking it's head up beyond the trees and as it did so he could tell they all saw what he did.

"I can hear you." Amber slowed to their pace. "I'll stop fora bit, it's okay." Glenn reached out to touch her arm and help her to the ground but she tugged her arm away just as quickly, "Don't." She said shakily, eyes going to Merle a second. "Just.. Please don't."

Daryl watched the two carefully. He wasn't sure what had happened back in Woodbury but he could see it wasn't good. Someone had hurt Amber. Bad enough that she had changed.. She was cold and distant. There was something in her eyes.. He couldn't place it.

The group sat down, taking a drink here and there. Silence the only thing keeping them together.

"Y'all always this quiet?" Merle asked them, laughing as he spoke. "I seem to remember all of ya having trouble shutting up."

"It's a little awkward don't you think?" Glenn asked him, raising his eyes carefully to the redneck.

"Oh come on, water under the bridge or whatever." He waved his hand at Glenn, "Ya left me behind.. I survived. Water under the bridge."

"This is insane." Glenn shook his head, "You cannot tell me we are actually going to let Merle come back with us Rick."

Rick took another drink and looked at Merle, "Give me a good reason." He asked the man.

"What are we even talking about here?" Daryl said, raising his voice at Rick. He was growing annoyed with his group always judging people. His brother wasn't easy, true. But he could be useful.

"We are talking about what he did to us back there.." Glenn grew silent a moment while he waited for Daryl's response.

"He did what he had to so's he could save y'all!" He shot back, "I can't believe this." He scoffed.

"He told you what he did?" Glenn's voice became deadly as he watched his friend, "He told you what his leader did?" He wiped his face in exasperation, "Have you seen Amber?" Everyone's eyes turned to the small girl who lay still and pale, watching Merle. "He beat the shit out of her for FUN!"

"I saved you!" Mere said, trying hard to convince his own brother that what he had done was for the good of all of them. "I needed to find out where you were little brother and I needed to make sure they didn't catch on. If they knew you were there they would have made me kill ya."

"Right." Amber continued to watch Merle, not believing any of his shit. She knew who he was and he would be. Could she hold on that long?

"You let that man.. "

"I don't want to talk about this anymore." Amber cut Glenn off. "He comes with us. What he did was wrong, it doesn't mean we have to be friends." He was going to die soon.. She could live with him until then. For Daryl.

Daryl felt his fists clench tight as he watched the scene. He was kidding himself if he thought Merle was innocent. But to see Amber like this and to know that his brother was the cause made him question if taking Merle back to the prison was really the best for his group. At the same time he wasn't so sure he could leave them all behind. They needed him and in some strange way he needed them. He needed her. Why did he need her?

Standing up to Merle wasn't something Daryl did often, if ever at all. Merle was his only family. The only one who had ever really been around.

Glenn leaned over and looked at Rick while the others got up and began to get ready to move again, "She's hurt. She isn't thinking right Rick. What happens when she gets better and realizes what happened back in Woodbury was worse then she had thought?"

"We don't decide now." Rick said back, "We'll bring him back and vote on it..." They didn't normally vote on things, but Rick was in a tough spot with Merle being Daryl's brother. Not to mention he had cuffed the man to that roof back in Atlanta and almost killed him. Maybe he owed Daryl? Maybe not.. But right now, with Lori and his child all he could think about was making it back to the prison safely. Then they would discuss what happened with Merle.

They made it back by mid day, Glenn making sure that Amber went straight to Hershel. It wasn't unnoticed that she walked towards the man's cell without so much as a hello to any of the others. But Amber didn't have anything to say. Everything she wanted was accomplished. All she wanted now was to heal.. Whatever that meant she wasn't so sure. Yes, she had many wounds scattering her body. But was it physical healing? Or mental?

Hershel watch the young thing putter around in the open cell door. He grimaced as she turned to look at him. Her face was pale, her lips white. She swayed to and fro, doing what he could tell was her best to stand stalk still. "What happened?" He asked her, motioning to the bed. She complied, taking the thing without waiting, sighing as she did so. Her head touched the metal of the bunk and she felt calm.

"Just hit some snags." She muttered as he took her temperature.

"You have a high fever." Hershel told her, a look of worry spread over his face as he called Beth over. "I need a flashlight and some antibiotic." He told the other small blonde girl. Her eyes went from her old man to Amber's tortured body. She nodded, leaving the cell.

"Lay down now." He cooed, helping her down. "I need you to show me where you were hit." He hadn't been a people doctor until recently. He was used to animals. But something like this was obvious to any man. He could guess just by looking what had happened to the poor thing. She winced, pulling her shirt up high above her stomach.

Hershel looked her over. There were scattered bruises here and there, but there was also one big one, the size of a soccer ball, splayed across her lower abdomen. "I need to check for internal bleeding." He said as he began prodding at the girl. She passed out soon after as he finished his examination.

"Is she alright?" Rick asked Hershel who finally joined the group for dinner.

"Should be okay.. Lotta healing to do though I suspect." He sat down across from their leader. "Whatever happened to her in that town.. I'm not so sure it'll be an easy thing."

"You saying.." Rick's voice lowered, "You saying they raped her?" He asked, heat filling his body as anger began washing over him.

"Couldn't say. What I am sure of is that we shouldn't be pressing her for answers. For now she should heal." Hershel really didn't know the answer to Rick's question. In a way he wasn't sure he wanted to know. "These people are dangerous." Hershel said knowing that look on Rick's face well. The man nodded in return. "They gonna be coming for us?"

"We'll be ready in case they do."