Disclaimer - I do not own The Walking Dead or any of its characters. I only own my original character Rayne and anything else that seems out of place.
WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS MENTIONS OF RAPE, ABUSE AND TORTURE. IF THIS IS NOT YOUR THING PLEASE DO NOT READ.
Thank you to all of you who have followed or favored myself and my story. I would love some reviews, let me know if you guys are liking my character and my interpretation of the series.
So being in a good mood I decided to post 2 chapters today. Enjoy :)
xoxo Tiearney
Rayne watches Daryl as he fidgets back and forth on his feet, his breathing is rapid and shallow as his eyes dart between her, Merle and the Governor. 'He's scared.' The thought hits her like a rock, she's never seen him resemble anything close to fear.
Andrea shoves her way to the Governor, "Let them go. Philip. They're my friends." She grabbed and held back by a soldier, the Governor doesn't even look her way, "It's not up to me anymore. The people have spoken." He points to Merle as one of them cut Daryl's bindings. "I asked you where your loyalties lie. You said here. Well, prove it. Prove it to us all. Brother against brother. Winner goes free."
"No!" Rayne yelps as he grabs her hair pulling her back against him. "And gets her." He shoves her to one of the guards next to Andrea, "Fight to the death!"
The two friends eye one another before Andrea tries to reason with him, "Philip, please. Don't do this. Don't do this."
Merle gazes at his brother then tosses up his hand to the crowd, "Y'all know me. I'm gonna do whatever I got to do to prove…" Merle punches an unsuspecting Daryl in the stomach, he grunts falling to the ground, coughing. Rayne struggles against the guard holding her, she's gonna tear Merle apart if she gets loose.
"…that my loyalty…" He kicks Daryl in the stomach rolling him onto his back. "Is to this town!" He kneels over Daryl hammering him with blows.
Rayne and Andrea turn to see walkers being brought in on catch poles. Merle leans down to hit Daryl again and is rocked by a right cross from Daryl knocking him back enough for Daryl to get back up. Daryl gets up charging his brother but Merle knocks him onto his back kneeling over him. The walkers are being brought closer now, closing in a circle around the two.
Daryl has his hands around Merle's throat choking him, "You really think this asshole's gonna let you go?"
"Just follow my lead, little brother. We're getting out of this, right now." Merle picks Daryl up and together they stand back to back against the walkers.
"Philip, no. Stop this! Stop this!" Andrea can't bare to watch this any longer.
The two brothers beat the walkers back, but the soldiers keep moving them forwards. Daryl punches the walkers, then shoving them into the crowd causing the people to scream and run.
Suddenly shots ring out, the walkers falling to the ground, their heads pierced through with bullets and a few of the humans too. A smoker is tossed in the center of the circle, Rayne is set free by the man holding her when Daryl grabs the man from behind choking him out, he pulls her into the center of the smoke. The building erupts in gunfire, people are running, and screaming. Daryl grabs Rayne's arm, "Merle, come on!" Daryl grabs his crossbow back from one of the guards as he heads for the door.
Rick meets up with them at the door ushering them out of the arena into the center of town. Maggie meets up with them as they reach the buses guarding the wall.
"Will somebody please cut me loose!" Rayne sighs in frustration as Maggie pulls out her knife cutting her bindings. "Thanks Mags. Nice shootin'." The brunette smiles, "Nice rifle." She hands Rayne back all her weapons they had managed to find while scouring the building for her and Daryl.
"They're all at the arena. This way!" Merle heads in between the buses.
"You're not going anywhere with us."
"You really want to do this now?" Metallic sounds are heard as Merle opens a panel of the metal fence.
"Come on, man." Daryl yells back to his brother, looking back as Merle makes a hole in the fence. "Rick, come on. We've got to go."
Merle takes a walker coming for them, Daryl and Rayne take out two more with arrows, while Maggie and Rick shoot more. Merle yells for them to follow him, as he heads up the street.
It's daylight by the time they reach the edge of the woods, Rayne can see Glenn and Michonne sitting with the cars on the side of the road.
"Oh, thank God." Glenn runs up to them, "Jesus, Rayne. Are you alright?" She just nods not speaking at the moment due to the pain coursing through her body as she leans against a tree to Daryl's right.
Rick stand in front of Glenn, "Now we got a problem here. I need you to back up."
Glenn pulls out his gun as Michonne draws her sword as they see Merle, "What the hell is he doing here?!"
"Put it down! Put it down!" Daryl yells to the two of them.
"He tried to kill me!" Michonne says never wavering her sword, the two are backed up by Maggie with her gun.
"He helped us get out of there." Daryl defends his brother.
"Yeah, right after he beat the shit out of you." Rick snaps holding his gun at Michonne.
"Hey, we both took our licks, man."
"Jackass." Daryl snorts replying to his brother.
Merle steps towards Daryl, "Hey, shut up."
"Enough!" Rick barks with authority as the group stands arguing.
"Hey, get that thing out of my face." Daryl swats Glenn's gun out of his face but Glenn doesn't waver.
Behind him Merle laughs, "Man, look like you've gone native, brother."
Daryl whirls around, "No more than you hangin' out with that psycho back there."
"Oh, yeah, man. He is a charmer, I got to tell you that. Been putting the wood to your girlfriend Andrea. Big time, baby." Merle moans wiggling his tongue, sending shivers through Rayne as he looks at Michonne.
"Andrea's in Woodbury?" Glenn asks.
"Right next to the Governor." Daryl replies.
Michonne moves towards Merle, but Rick stops her from advancing, "I told you to drop that! You know Andrea? Hey, do you know Andrea."
"Yep, she does. Her and Blondie spent all winter cuddling up in the forest. Mm-mmm-mmm. Yeah. My Nubian queen here had two pet walkers. No arms, cut off the jaws, kept them in chains. Kind of ironic now that I think about it."
"Shut up, bro!"
"Hey, man, we snagged them out of the woods. Andrea was close to dying."
"Is that why she's with him?" Maggie questions.
"Yeah. Snug as two little bugs. So, whatcha gonna do now, Sheriff? Surrounded by a bunch of liars, thugs, and cowards."
"Shut up!"
"Oh, man, look at this. Pathetic. All these guns and no bullets in them."
"Merle, shut up!"
"Shut up yourself! Bunch of pussies you roll—"
Merle is shut up by Rayne as she knocks him out with the butt of her rifle. "Asshole." Everyone gives her a look as she falls to the ground, leaning back against the tree. She's become very pale, Maggie sits down next to her eyeing the wound on her stomach. Glenn comes back from the car with a rag, Maggie tears it into strips, tying it together and binding Rayne's wounds the best she can. "How the hell did this happen, Ray?"
"That fucker on the ground. Everythin' ya see, is from him." Her voice is soft and her breath catches between words.
After a few moments they move to the middle of the road minus Michonne and Merle for a small meeting.
"It's not gonna work." Rick says.
"It's gotta."
"It'll stir things up."
"Look, the Governor is probably on the way to the prison right now. Merle knows how he thinks and we could use the muscle."
"I'm not having him at the prison." Maggie says, Glenn backing her up, "He had a gun to our heads. Do you really want him sleeping in the same cell block as Carol or Beth? Look what he did to Rayne, Daryl."
"He ain't a rapist." Daryl says earning a scoff from Rayne which angers him, "You got somethin' to say."
"Yeah, I do Dixon. I hate to break it to you, but I didn't end up shirtless for my health. Let me give you a play by play. Your dear brother pinned me to a wall, ground himself against me, cut my shirt up the back, then turned me around, ground himself against me again, rubbed his hand down the length of my body before grabbin' me 'tween the legs. He was goin' to rape me, Daryl. The only thang that stopped him was me breakin' his nose. Oh, and you know what he did after that, he stabbed a knife through my stomach. Oh, and the fun didn't end there, no, then he punched me in the face repeatedly, I can't even tell you how many times, but I think my face serves a good example, you take a guess, and I'm sure it won't even be close. Oh, and he kicked me in the ribcage a few times too."
The sarcasm and anger were flowing through her voice strongly, it was as if the more she talked about it, the stronger she became. By the end she was breathing heavily, her chest heaving as she stared a hole through Daryl. She saw him roll his eyes, of course he wouldn't believe her over his own flesh and blood. "Did I mention my hands were tied the entire time? I couldn't have fought back if I wanted to."
Daryl's eyes dropped from hers, he couldn't hold her gaze after hearing everything his brother did to her. He didn't believe her, she had to be lying, he wouldn't do that to a woman.
"There's no way that Merle's gonna live there without putting everyone at each other's throats." Rick tells them.
"So you're gonna cut Merle loose and bring the last samurai home with us? She's too unpredictable. But Merle, Merle's blood."
"No, Merle's your blood. My blood, my family is standing right here and waiting for us back at the prison." Glenn tells him.
Rick sighs, "And you're part of that family. But he's not. He's not."
"Man, y'all don't know. Fine. We'll fend for ourselves."
"That's not what I was saying." Glenn tells him.
"No him, no me." Daryl's words hit Rayne like a rock, she had been expecting them but it hurt to actually hear them out loud.
Maggie sees the look on Rayne's face, "Daryl, you don't have to that."
"It was always Merle and I before this."
"You serious?" Glenn glances between Daryl and Rayne, he can't believe he's gonna let Rayne go for his brother. "You're just gonna leave like that?"
"You'd do the same thing."
Glenn shakes his head, "What do you want us to tell Carol?"
"She'll understand." He looks around at the group, "Say goodbye to your pops for me."
They follow him not believing he's doing this, they try to talk him out of it but he's not listening. Rick looks back at the crestfallen look on Rayne's face, he runs up to the hunter. "There's got to be another way."
"Don't ask me to leave him. I already did that once."
"We started something last night. You realize that, huh?"
Daryl opens up the back of the car grabbing his bag, "No him, no me. That's all I can say. Take care of yourself. Take care of Lil Ass-Kicker. Carl. He's one tough kid."
He steps past Rick to the driver's side of Rayne's truck, she's sitting in the seat, her eyes glance down at him as he stands before her.
"Don't." She tells him weakly, as he starts to speak. "You don't have to say anythin'. He's family, I get it. But he's no good for you, you know that just as well as I do. Him being left on the roof wasn't your fault, you don't owe him a thang." She hands him her bandana. "Just a reminder."
She takes a slow shaky breath, "You know what hurts the most, he was right."
"About what?" He took the bandana folding it and placing it in his pocket.
"He said you'd never pick me over him." He could see the tears gathering in her eyes, but she wouldn't let them fall. She wouldn't cry, not for him. "You really didn't mean what you said that night on the tower."
"I meant everythin'."
"No ya didn't. You said you'd never hurt me."
Daryl didn't know what to say, his heart was in his throat, he couldn't speak even if he wanted to.
"Goodbye Daryl."
The finality in her emotionless voice killed him, she had put her walls back up, she was an empty shell like she was when they first met and this time it was all his fault. He felt as low as the man who had made her that way to begin with. He sighed as he walked off into the woods towards his brother, he knew he was doing what was right, but why did it make him feel like his heart was ripped from his chest.
Merle gladly wrapped his arm around his brother as they headed off into the woods together.
Maggie climbed into the truck with Rayne, someone needed to be with her right now. They drove back to the prison in silence, Rayne was trying to shut herself off again, but as Maggie took her hand holding it she felt her resolve slip and the tears flowed down her face. No words needed to be spoken, the girls simply knew they needed one another right now.
As they arrived at the prison Rick told Carol that Daryl was gone, as expected she took it about as well as the rest of them. After finding out they had guests, Rick makes them leave, he's not ready to take in any other people, especially ones they don't know?
Rayne retreats to the farthest tower in the dog run, Maggie finds her there trying to sew up her side but she's shaking too much. The brunette sits down beside her gently taking the needle and thread from her shaking hands. She sets out sewing up the entrance wound first, she pierces the needle through the first piece of skin noticing Rayne doesn't make a sound or move.
"Am I hurting you?"
"No. I don't feel anythin'. I can't feel anythin' anymore."
Maggie frowns at the break in her friends voice, "I'm sorry Ray."
"Don't be. I knew I shouldn't have let him get close to me. History always repeats."