I am so so so so so so sorry! I have no excuse for being so late on posting this chapter other than pure laziness. But here it is chapter 13! Again I am so sorry for the wait. I just watched the trailer for the second season of The Walking Dead for the 20th time and just had to post an update. The second season looks so AWESOME! I can't wait! What did you guys think about the trailer?

I have made a new and much better banner for my story. You guys should definitely check it out. All the links for this story are on my profile. This chapter is a little shorter than I wanted it to be but you all deserved an update, so here it is. I hope you enjoy! :D

Morning came much to soon. As I stepped out of my tent I saw Glenn standing over by the Red car he had brought back from the city. He looked miserable. Rick was standing beside him, probably offering words of comfort as his new car was being stripped clean. He soon walked away, leaving Glenn with a pat on the back. I shook my head and chuckled. I met up with Amy and Andrea and helped them hang out some laundry. They smirked, seeing Rick head towards his wife, Lori.

"Me and my dad are talking again." I told both Amy and Andrea. They looked up in surprise and their faces beamed.

"That's great!" exclaimed Andrea.

"Why the sudden change?" questioned Amy

"We just talked about it and -" I was cut off by the sound of Shane's quickly approaching jeep.

"Water's here y'all! Just a reminder to boil before use." He instructed as he stepped out of his vehicle. Glenn, Amy, Andrea, Shane, and I all approached the back of the jeep and proceeded to help unload the containers of water.

"Anyway, like I was saying before, we just talked about it and -" I was interrupted again, but this time by horrified screams, one of them unmistakably belonged to my little brother. Everyone became silent but only for a second before we all jumped into action. Rick and Lori were the first ones to run into the forest, calling out Carl's name, closely followed by Shane and I. We found them. Lori and I stayed by Jacqui and the kids as the men ran ahead of us, weapons in hand.

"Ben, Kevin, you guys okay?" I asked looking them over, they nodded silently, their breaths coming in quick short gasps.

"Your dad, he's still out there." Jacqui told me, as she pointed in the direction they had come from. I gave her a nod of thanks and instructed Ben and Kevin to stay with her as I ran in search of my dad. I didn't have to go far. I reached a small clearing of trees and saw the men looking at a walker hunched over a dead deer, stuffing it's face. The noises it made as it ate made my stomach churn and the smell was awful. He slowly got up, the deer now completely ignored, as he sensed the new company. He turned around, his face covered in blood and I knew that face, like all the others, would haunt me til the day I died. He growled and came toward us, his dirty, stringy, greasy hair swinging slightly as he did. Rick delivered the first blow, making it stumble back a little. After that they all joined in, including my dad, beating the thing until finally Dale chopped it's head off with an ax. They all panted and looked at the decapitated corpse in disbelief.

"That's the first one we've had up here." Dale informed Rick "They never come this far up the mountain."

"They're running out of food in the city, that's what." Jim reasoned quietly. Suddenly there was some rustling up ahead and everyone was on edge again. Shane had his shotgun trained on the noise, but put it down after seeing it was only Daryl that had been making all the noise.

"Son of a bitch! That's my deer!" Daryl yelled "Look at it, all gnawed on by this filthy," Kick. "disease bearin'," Kick. "motherless," Kick, kick. "poxy bastard!"

"Calm down, Son. That's not helpin'." said Dale, being the peacemaker that he was. Daryl wasn't having any of it.

"Whadda you know about it old man!" he yelled as he charged towards Dale. "You take that stupid hat and go back to 'On Golden Pond'." He was being especially mean today. This had to be one of the worst times to tell him about Merle. He was mad enough as it was. Daryl sighed heavily as he walked back toward the mauled deer. "Been tracking this deer for miles. Drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison" he said as he pulled out the arrows I hadn't noticed before, sticking out of the deer's abdomen.

"Whadda ya think, think we can cut around this part chewed up part right here?" he asked, looking up at everyone. I cringed. There was no way in hell I would eat that after it was mauled by a walker.

"I would not risk that." said Shane. Hallelujah! For once I could agree with the guy. Daryl sighed in disappointment.

"'s a damn shame. I got some squirrel 'bout a dozen or so.'ll have ta do." he said as he shouldered the string of squirrels. The severed head began to move then, opening and closing it's mouth in a chewing motion.

"Oh god." I heard someone say behind me. I turned in time to see Amy's disgusted face as she and Andrea quickly turned and headed back to camp. I hadn't even noticed them come up behind me.

"Come on people, what the hell?" Daryl said as I turned back around just in time to see him take aim and shoot a bolt into the severed head, straight through it's left eye, making a sickening gushing sound. He then went over to it, keeping it still with his foot as he pulled the arrow out. "It's gotta be the brain." he stated "Don't y'all know nothin'." he berated everyone's inability to properly take out the walker as he began walking towards camp, calling out his brother's name, and completely ignoring me.

"Merle! Merle! Get ya ugly ass out here! Got us some squirrel! Stew 'em up." he called for his brother.

"Daryl, slow up a bit. I needa talk to you." Shane said after he put his shot gun away.

"Shane maybe I should -" I began as I walked quickly, trying to keep up with Shane's long strides, but was interrupted for the third time that day.

"'bout what?" Daryl asked, seemingly uninterested.

"'bout Merle." Shane had his full attention now. "There was a... uh... there was a problem in Atlanta." Shane told him, trying find the best way to tell him without setting him off. They were smack dab in the middle of camp now and everyone at camp was watching, waiting for his reaction. I could practically see them passing the popcorn around. Daryl knew something was up, as he looked suspiciously at all the people surrounding him and Shane.

"He dead?" Daryl assumed.

"We're not sure."

"He either is or he ain't!" I could tell he was getting fed up with the tip toeing and wanted some straight answers. Rick chose that moment to step in.

"There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." Rick said as he walked up to the agitated man.

"Who're you?" Daryl questioned.

"Rick Grimes."

"Rick Grimes." Daryl mocked. "Ya got somethin' you wanna tell me." My heart was racing now. I knew that this was not going to end well and I feared for their safety.

"Your brother was a danger to us all." Rick reasoned. "So I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal, he's still there." This was bad. This was very, very bad. To say Daryl was pissed was a huge understatement.

"Hold on. Let me process this." he said, as he began pacing. "So you handcuffed my brother to a roof AND YOU LEFT HIM THERE!"

"Yeah." Rick confirmed lamely. Daryl's breathing was ragged. He reminded me of a raging bull getting ready to charge. And that's exactly what he did. He threw the squirrels at Rick and then charged at him only to be tackled by Shane before he could reach his target. Daryl then pulled out this huge hunting knife out of it's sheath, got up, and proceeded to swing it at Rick, which the latter skillfully dodged. Shane came up behind him and put him into a choke hold as Rick disarmed him. This only served to further enrage Daryl.

"You best let me go!" Daryl raged as he tried to slip out of Shane's grasp.

"Nah. I think it's better if I don't." Shane replied calmly as he brought Daryl to the ground. I went to take a step forward wanting desperately to help but was stopped by my dad's hand on my shoulder, keeping me in place. I looked up at him questioningly, but only received a stern look that told me not to argue with him. I huffed and turned back to look at the scene.

"Choke-holdin's illegal." If I wasn't so worried about someone getting hurt I would have laughed at this. Now I could only watch helplessly on the sidelines. It was only now that I realized how much I had actually come to care for not only the other survivors in the camp, but for Daryl as well. It bothered me greatly to see the way Shane was handling him, even though Daryl was a threat to both Rick and Shane at the moment.

"File a complaint." Shane quipped. I shook my head. Now was really not the time to make smart ass remarks. He was only managing to rile, the hot headed southerner, up even more, judging by the way Daryl continued to struggle and the angered noises he made. "Come on now, we can keep this up all day." Daryl's efforts to break free began to relinquish as he continued to pant. Rick got down on one knee, eye level with Daryl.

"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Ya think we can manage that?" Rick got no reply so he asked again. "Ya think we can manage that?" Again there was no reply. Rick and Shane shared a look and the latter roughly released Daryl, shoving him to the ground. I had the strongest urge to run up to Shane and give him a good solid kick where the sun don't shine, but I of course couldn't do that. It would only cause more unnecessary drama. "What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work or play well with others." Rick explained to Daryl as he sat in the dirt recovering from his tantrum. I again shook my head in disapproval. Anybody who took the time to really get to know Daryl, would know that the guy worshiped his big brother, like most other younger siblings do. Sure Rick was new and all, but pointing out all of Merle's flaws was not helping the situation.

"It's not Ricks fault." T-Dog spoke. We all turned to look at him. "I had the key. I dropped it." I could tell he felt bad. T-Dog was a nice guy and even though Merle was a complete douche to him, as well as everyone else, the fact that he was left for dead on that roof weighed heavy on his shoulders.

"You couldn't pick it up!" Daryl yelled at him.

"I dropped it down the drain." T-Dog explained. Daryl scoffed at his excuse, apparently not caring if it was true or not. He slowly got to his feet.

"That was supposed ta make me feel better it don't." He said as he threw a handful of dirt at T-dog's feet as he walked by him.

"Maybe this will." Daryl stopped and looked at the him, wanting to hear what he had to say, that could possibly make this fucked up situation any better. "I chained the door to the roof, so the geeks couldn't get at him, with a padlock." This piece of information, obviously didn't make Daryl feel any better, I thought as a pained look came over his face.

"That's gotta count for something." Said Rick. My heart broke as Daryl hung his head and wiped the sweat from his face, or were they tears. I couldn't tell, but I did know that he was hurting, judging by the way his voice broke. "Ta hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is, so's I can go get 'em."

"He'll show you." Lori, who was standing by the RV, Spoke up. "Isn't that right?" She directed this last part at her husband. He simply stared at her for a moment. Everyone was silent, waiting to see what Rick would do. He looked away from Lori and looked around at everyone before nodding his head, agreeing to his wife's request.

"I'm going back."

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