Lets Start At The Beginning
The group meets up with Merle and Daryl and the rest as they say is history. This concludes my version of Daryl's background. Hope you enjoyed it.

Merle squinted as the sun beat mercilessly down on them. True to his word, Glen had held the gun on them the short path to the camp he and Daryl had been watching and had left them to stand while the other members of the group had circled about he and Daryl. Merle gazed measuringly at each face and dismissed most of the group as lost souls lucky they hadn't been made into walkers already. Most of the group looked uncertain, uneasy and unsure of what they should do. All except one.

Merle cut his eyes in the direction of the one person he thought would give him trouble. Tall guy, lanky, military bearing. Smart mouth on him, but he looked like he could back his talk up. Shane, Merle had heard him called during the days he'd watched the small group. Shane would bear keeping an eye on.

He spared a quick glance beside him at Daryl and suppressed a sigh of impatience. Neither one of them were making a good first impression, but Daryl certainly wasn't helping the matter with that scowl on his face and his downcast eyes. Refusing to meet anyone's gaze and refusing to answer even the most basic questions. Never mind the fact that it was obvious to anyone who looked at them that they'd been fighting each other recently-both bruised up, clothes torn and filthy. Merle bit back a groan of disgust -his plan was ruined before he could even begin to put it into play.

Normally he would just say fuck it all and decamp hastily to move on and make another plan. But his temper was up due to Daryl's increasingly sullen attitude and now that they'd come to blows he was determined to show Daryl that he should never have questioned his plan. Merle came to a decision and immediately launched into a spiel about how they could offer the camp added protection because they were trackers and hunters as well as furnish the camp with much needed food from their hunting forays. He felt Daryl stiffen beside him and fought back the urge to kick Daryl into saying something, anything.

Shane nodded as he listened, his eyes taking his measure of the two men before him. He knew trouble when he saw it-and these two were definitely trouble. Although he had to admit that the camp did indeed need somebody with some knowledge of handling weapons and the ability to forage for food. These other men in the camp were absolutely useless. An old man, a black man, Hispanic man none of whom seemed fit for much physical exertion. Then you had the young Asian kid who'd probably blow his own foot off sometime soon. And that fat bully that couldn't be seen to do anything beyond yelling and slapping at his wife and kid.

Shane sighed in resignation, and glancing briefly at Lori he nodded his head. "Alright, we'll see how this works out. You two can make camp with us for now, but if there's even a hint of trouble from either one of you, you're outta here," Shane said loudly so everyone would be clear what terms these two were on with the group.

Merle summoned up a smile and nodded his head agreeably. "Sure thing. We'll pitch our tents right over yonder and me and my brother can start looking for some kinda meat for all of us-rabbit, squirrel, possum. Something to tide us all over until we get our bearings and can head out tomorrow for a more serious look for game." Merle bit back a sneer at the queasy looks on most of the groups faces at the mention of possum and squirrel. Give them time and they'd be hungry enough to eat anything he and Daryl could scavenge up-God knows he and Daryl had never been too proud to eat whatever they'd managed to scare up when they were hungry.

Shane nodded again and waved everyone to get back to whatever it is they'd been doing while Merle started off toward the area he'd picked out for their camp. He heard Daryl coming along behind him and blew out a sigh of relief. As he stopped he looked up at Daryl to see him scowling back.

"What's wrong baby brother? I just got us joined up with this little camp, seem like nice folks don't they? And there's safety in numbers, right?" Merle laughed quietly.

"Fuck you Merle. What the fuck are you up to? Thought you wanted to rob this camp, and now you're telling them we'll go huntin' for them? When we both know it'll be me doin' all the fuckin' trackin' and huntin'." Daryl huffed out a breath and glared at Merle suspiciously.

"That's still the plan little brother. I just had to improvise a little. Don't worry, won't be but a few days and we can cut outta here and go off somewhere else. Just play along, scare up a few squirrels or rabbits to pacify them, that's all I ask," Merle rasped. He reached out to tap Daryl's arm and Daryl jerked away.

"Don't fuckin' talk to me Merle. I'm goin' out and get my shit and go track somethin'," and with that Daryl strode off angrily in the direction they'd been hiding in.

Merle sighed and sat down on a log to light a cigarette. A few hours alone in the woods would clear Daryl's head and settle him down. Then they could discuss their plans. In the meantime, after he finished this smoke, he'd go retrieve their tent they'd scavenged a few days ago and start setting up their camp.

Merle had just finished setting up the tent and setting out some of the cookware they'd scavenged as well when Glen approached him.

"Hey Chinaman, what ya need?" Merle sneered.

Glen sighed impatiently. "I'm going into Atlanta with a few of the others to look around -see what we can find. We thought you might want to go," he trailed off, looking very uncomfortable and Merle could see that Glen was obviously hoping he would say no. He had no idea why then Glen had come over and extended such an invitation, but he certainly wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to go into Atlanta and see what he could scavenge. Daryl wouldn't be back for a while anyway and he didn't feel like sitting around waiting on his brother.

Merle jumped up and clapped Glen solidly on the back, causing Glen to wince. "Why sure boy, why not? I got some weapons that I need more ammo for, so sure I'll come along with you."

Glen nodded his head and suppressed a sigh. This had been Shane's idea, getting Merle out of camp so that if Daryl came back he would be alone and Shane could press him for more information about where the two had really come from and what they were really up to.

"Okay then, come on. Andrea, T-dog, and a few others are going along," Glen explained as he and Merle headed to the truck.

Shane looked at Lori. "One down, one to go. We just gotta wait til that younger brother gets back here," he said quietly as he glanced around the camp making a mental note of where each person was and what they were doing. Lori nodded back and leaned into Shane's side tiredly. He wrapped an arm around her and squeezed her lightly.

"Look on the bright side Lori, Glen and them might find something good in Atlanta to bring back," he said teasingly.

MistyKat Productions-a collaboration of both LizzieKat15 and Mistyeye/Bubblesbromleigh- is currently revising this story so we can post it as an EKindle version on Amazon. Obviously names and other details linking it to TWD will need to be changed. We hope you enjoyed our story and that you check out the revised version once it's posted on Amazon. We'll post an alert when it is indeed available. Thanks again for all the comments and reviews and positive support for this and our other works.