Hell isn't far behind you now.
A/N: There was no update last week because wee didn't see the prison group in the previous episode and it would have just been filler. So yeah, sorry about that but I felt it would be better if I waited.
Brandy heard a ripping noise, and then another that resounded around the cellblock. She got off of her bed and peeked out of her cell and raised her thin eyebrow.
"What da hell is that?" She mumbled looking around, the cellblock was empty but then she saw what looked like mattress stuffing being thrown over the railing above her. Brandy tightened her lips and walked up the metal stairs and looking in to one of the cells to see Merle ripping open a mattress. "Ay! You ain't gonna come in our house and trash it!" she said putting her hands on her hips. He stopped and looked over at her removing his bladed stump from the torn up bed. A smirk came to his lips as he glanced at her, before getting up and walking over to the doorway. It was the first time that Brandy realized that Merle had the same color eyes as his brother, brilliant baby blue. Merle's eyes reflected the same feeling that she got from Daryl when she first met him, what she saw when he stood over her after he had driven one of his arrows in to her chest. But while she saw Daryl change it was obvious that Merle stayed stagnate, stuck with his ignorance and flaws that haven't become positive qualities.
"Ya got a mouth on ya." He said.
"I do, you got a problem with it?" Brandy cut off put by his closeness to her but she stood her ground. She watched as his eyes glanced down to her chest and then back to her face, she gritted her teeth and fought the urge to slap him for that.
"I can see why my brother likes you." He chuckled.
"Gee, thanks for the compliment." She said sarcastically and rolled her eyes. Merle snickered and stepped away from her.
"Not gonna lie, proud of my lil' brother. He pulled a fine lil' piece of ass with you…well…" He trailed off.
"Ya, well minus da whole 'black thing' I know whatta' drag." She said mockingly.
"Indulge my curiosity will ya, honey? How the hell did ya and my brother be come an item?" He asked sitting down on the cell floor. Brandy shifted nervously.
"First off, don't call me 'honey' and second me and Daryl ain't an item. It's just mutual gain." Brandy said matter a factly. But she stopped as soon as she heard Merle chuckle at her words. "Wha ya laughin at?" She cut.
"Ya really don't know my brotha' then."
"Fuck off, I know Daryl…better then most." She said growing defensive because of the topic. She knew him, she thought of him as her best friend she didn't like being told she didn't know him. He laughed at her again, and Brandy narrowed her eyes at him.
"Ya think it's just fuckin'?" Merle asked, Brandy folded her arms and shifted her weight nervously. "Naw, ya got feelins' for my darlin' brother."
"Aw please. Daryl and me are just friends with benefits. " She said stressing that.
"Whatever, cutie pie." He said and Brandy let out an annoyed hiss at the way he said those nicknames, somehow lacing them with an insult. "I'm all for mutual gain, what ever but ya better not hurt him." Merle said, Brandy was a little surprised at his protective tone when it came to Daryl. Brandy rolled her eyes and went to step away from the door.
"Just clean this shit up." She said feeling uncomfortable and walking down the stairs.
Brandy stepped out side in to the afternoon light. The heat if the summer had faded and now was replaced with the cool breeze of early autumn. She already missed the summer heat, feeling blanked and hidden it her jeans and over sized black sweater that she wore almost all-last winter. She rested her hands on her machetes that were holstered on each side of her belt as she walked to the front gate. The day had gone relatively peaceful it was almost unnerving how calm it was but she knew she had to savior the silence because she knew it wouldn't last long. She heard the door bang shut from the cellblock. She turned around to see Daryl rushing towards gate. She went to open her mouth to ask what the hell he was doing but he spoke first.
"Cover me I gotta go out." He said glancing over at her.
"Wait what?" Brandy asked.
"I gotta go on a run and I need ya to cover me." He repeated growing annoyed with her.
"I'm come with." Brandy said looking at him, Daryl shook his head and put his head up.
"Naw, I gotta go on my own. Now let me through." He ordered but he knew Brandy was as stubborn as a mule.
"Naw, you ain't gonna just run off with out letting anyone know where yer goin." She said folding her arms and stepping in front of the gate.
"Brandy why do ya gotta make shit so difficult!" He yelled growing angry with her.
"Tell me where ya goin or you'll have to move me." She said putting her hands on her hips.
"Ya know I can if I have to." He said but Brandy stood her ground. Daryl paced for a second, she would worry about him if he didn't tell her where he was going he knew it and she would pry it out of Rick eventually.
"I gotta go after Merle and Michonne." He finally said he knew Rick had told him not a word to anyone else but she was in the way and he was wasting time.
"What?" She asked not understanding the whole situation.
"Brandy, Good Lord what don't ya understand? I gotta go!" He said it was obvious to her this was really important and that she needed to step aside and let him do what he needed to do. Brandy nodded and undid the chain.
"Come back, k?" She mumbled before pulling the gate open.
"I will." He said as she pulled open the gate, she watched him run out and dodge walkers, not wanting to waste time killing any. Brandy watched as he ran and disappeared in the brush of the tree line.
"Fuck." Brandy mumbled to her self and yanked the chains off of the gate and readying her machetes. No one goes alone, she knew that. She wouldn't let him just run off. Brandy wasn't the one that that followed orders. Hard head made a soft ass but she didn't care.
Brandy stayed behind him trying to make sure he didn't notice her. She could see him maybe a few yards up a head. Brandy was a shit tracker but she didn't need to be good at it as long as she kept him in eye site. She could only imagine how pissed he would be if noticed her. She would never hear the end of it, so she kept quiet and stayed behind him and to the left. She lost track of him for a few moments and grew frantic but she kept her self together and then saw him through the trees. The farther out they got Brandy wished she would have told someone where she was going instead of just running off. Eventually he excited the woods and on to an open road.
"Damn it." She whispered. She stayed in the woods keeping back and watching him through the trees hoping that the trees would hide her. Brandy nervously scratched the scar that she had under her collarbone, knowing full well that if she startled him he could be a danger to her him self, knowing all too well that if he thought she was a walker hiding in the woods he would shoot.
"Hey!" She heard him yell at some one. Maybe he had found Merle and Michonne. Brandy came out of the woods a little to see who it was. It was Michonne but there was no Merle, she couldn't hear what they were saying but Daryl took off running past her. Brandy waited a few seconds before fully stepping out of the woods and approaching Michonne. She looked at her oddly knowing that she was trying to avoid being noticed by Daryl.
"He said he didn't want anyone coming after him." Michonne said to the young woman. Brandy looked a head; she could still see Daryl through the clearing.
"I ain't comin to stop him. I got his back. No one goes along." Brandy said. Michonne looked at her and raised her eyebrow at the young woman who was looking around for a good place to hide while following him. "When ya go back, tell thee others where I went for me." Brandy she said before continuing on with a jog. She felt a cramp in her side from running, trying to keep him her site. She paused and tried to catch her breath but by the time she looked up he was gone. "Aw fuck." She mumbled to her self, she looked down in the grass and tried to see of she could make out any shoe prints, she couldn't see anything. How the did he even do that? Hell Daryl could make out deer rabbit prints if he looked hard enough. She wished she had asked him to teach her a few tracking things just incase; she could have used the knowledge right about then. Brandy felt her hands grew a little clammy as she came across a few shacks. She could hear wakers smacking their lips on muscle and bones. There wasn't just one body but six or seven some of them ripped up but some had head shot wounds. "What the fuck…?" She mumbled when she recognized one of them; he was one of the men from Woodbery. One of them that beat her and would have raped her. She paused for a second and stared down at his corpus, he was missing half of his head. Brandy thought she heard something, not the moaning and wheezing of walkers, it sounded like crying. She listened and she was right, it was sobbing.
"No…no!" She said to her self, she knew Daryl must have come through this way, what if he got bit? She ran towards the sound and stopped when she saw him. He was laying in the grass weeping. Brandy went on her first reaction, and ran over to him. Something was wrong, maybe he was bit maybe he was injured. She dropped down to her knees not registering anything else but him. Brandy grabbed him her eyes nervously looking him over, she didn't see any blood, and he didn't say anything still hiking with sobs. "Daryl what happened?" She asked only noticing his eyes look past her. Brandy turned around and then she saw him, the gleam on his bladed hand. It could have only been one person. Merle Dixon. Brandy's mouth gaped open when she realized what happened, Daryl's hand was still clinching a blood soaked knife. He had to put him down. "Oh…God…" She whispered looking back at Daryl. Words couldn't describe how painful his sobs were to her ears. His fearlessness had come crumbing down. She did the only thing she could do, she held him. She expected him to push her away but he didn't. She could feel him tremble as he cried on to her chest. The sound of him remained her of her own broken yelps when she had cried for her own brother as she held him in her arms after finding him dead. She thought she had capped those emotions long ago for her family. She thought she had cried for them as much as she could but when she saw Daryl's sorrow for the lose of his own made those once dormant feeling spill over. And once again Brandy was remained that no matter far she would try to push the thought out of her mind the fact came back that once by one they would die young never having the chance to grow old. And there was nothing anyone could do about it.