My goodness I've been away from this site for waaaay too long.

The Spring semester has ended (straight A's..I know, when I'm an accomplished psychiatrist I'll send you all my card. Most of you will need help when Daryl inevitably kicks the bucket. Some of you, like me, haven't gotten over the death of Merle and need to talk about it...I know my dears...it burns).

Anyway, the day after the semester ended, I broke my hand...my right hand (my boyfriend likes to call me Merle e.e). Any who, since it has been awhile since I've updated Cherish and I'm on a lot of painkillers, I thought it would be a good time to continue the misadventures in love of Chris and Merle.

As usual, keep up those reviews! I love reading what you guys have to say =)

The pattern of the lawn chair had eventually imprinted itself on the back of my legs while I sat on the roof and watched Emilie fight to survive outside of the store. The shotgun that nearly ended my life lay across my lap as I silently observed the wannabe celebrity run for her dear life. Curiously, she never left the store front as the beginnings of a hoard surrounded her. I cocked my head to the side as I watched and began to wonder if I should have let her back into the store.

Behind me I heard the loud tsssk of a soda can opening behind me.

"You havin' a change of heart?"

"I don't know yet," I said. "She's kind of a stuck up bitch."

I turned back to look towards Merle as he chugged down his cola in the hot sun.

"You think we should let her back in?" I asked.

He shrugged.

"Don't make much sense to me. We let her back in, she's gonna wind up gettin' herself killed anyway."

I nodded and turned back towards the scene Emilie made below us. Merle came forward and wrapped his good arm along with the soda around my shoulders.

"Miss me?"

I laughed, "Only company I had was the undead and the horse carcass."

He laughed and tipped the can so I could have a drink. The sweetness of the contents made my face scrunch.

"It's tart at first, but you start to get used to it after a while," he said.

"Isn't there any bottled water?" I asked as I wiped the carbonated liquid from my lips.

He cocked his head to the side as if I was speaking a different language.

"Sure. C'mon downstairs."

As I stood up from the lawn chair to follow Merle, I heard Emilie's frantic screams from the front of the store. I walked over to the ledge and saw the walkers tear her apart as her arm stretched up towards me as if I could have pulled her out to save her life. I furrowed my brow and continued to watch the scene unfold. I'm not sure what concerns me more: that I left her outside to die…or that I watched and didn't feel a thing.

Downstairs, there was a small back room with a refrigerator similar to the one in my old dorm room and a round table with a few chairs around it. As I took a seat, Merle bent down to grab a bottle of water from the fridge.

"That thing still works?" I asked.

"There's a generator."

I nodded and stared down at the table. Merle set the bottle of water down and snapped his fingers in front of my face.

"Y'all right?"

"I think so," I said slowly.

He pulled one of the other chairs out and sat down in it.

"Don't feel bad about Mandy."

"Emilie," I corrected.

He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table.

"Who gives a rat's ass? I don't. Like I said before, she was as good as dead anyway. Only thing that matters now is you n' me and finding Daryl."

My eyes widened as soon as Merle finished saying his brother's name. I'd almost forgotten about him.

"He was there, Merle. He was at the explosion."

He dropped his elbows from the table and stood.

"You saw him? You saw Daryl?!"

I had to look away from his excited gaze as I stared down at my lap and shook my head.

"I didn't see him, but I know he was there."

He sat back down and put his head in his hand. After a few awkward moments of silence, he began to laugh.

"If you didn't see him, how do you know he was there?"

"I saw one of his bolts. I don't think they were inside the CDC when it exploded; the cars would have still been there."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as if he was trying to take mental note of what I'd just said.

"Okay," he started. "Here's what we do, we're gonna go back to the CDC and see if we can't find anything that could tell us where they went."

"Merle, everything is gone. Did you see that place? It's a disaster area. That, and I had to hide from that truck we saw a few days ago…," my voice trailed off as I thought of Jim.

My eyes fixated on the ceiling and stared off into space as I thought of the man who shot Jim. That man…he was so familiar. I'd seen him before…but where?!

"Chis?"

I looked back up at Merle.

"On my way here…I found Jim. He was sitting against a tree….waiting to die. He'd been bit. I sat and talked to him for a while. That truck we saw…it stopped in front of him. A man got out…a man I swear up and down I know…and shot Jim."

"A man you know? Who was he?"

"That's just it. I can't remember."

"Then how do you know you know him?" Merle laughed.

"He looked so familiar."

"Maybe he just had one of those faces."

Maybe Merle was right.

"Alright, mama. We gotta get on up outta here."

I took a drink from the bottle of water and capped it back up. Merle started to pack a backpack full of supplies for our run. While I watched him, I noticed that he was filling it with everything he could find.

"We're not coming back here?" I asked.

He shook his head.

"No, we need to keep movin'. We'll find somethin' to drive and figure out where to go from there."

As he packed I checked the ammunition situation of the shotgun.

"Is there anymore shells around here?" I asked.

Merle nodded towards the glass display case that the register sat upon.

"Behind the counter, top shelf."

I set the shotgun down next to him and searched the top shelf. After I'd found what I was looking for, I brought them back to Merle so he could pack the three boxes. Before putting them into the bag, he filled the shotgun's capacity. I picked up my bow and pistol from a nearby display table.

"Okay," I sighed. "I'm ready when you are."

Merle placed the backpack on my shoulders and went to the door to pull the small bell above the door out of the wall. He carefully set it aside. Afterwards, he crouched down next to the door and cracked it open. I followed by bending down next to him and waited for his signal to move. He lifted his remaining index finger to his lips and made the okay to leave the store. The geeks were still distracted by Emilie's half eaten remains frying on the hot pavement.

I must have paused too long to watch; Merle grasped my sleeve and pulled me along. I was obtaining an odd fascination with death.

Further on down the road, as the amount of dead became fewer and fewer, we were able to stand and come to a slow jog. We began to check cars for unlocked doors while remaining wary of the alarms they could produce. Eventually, Merle had located a small old car to hot wire. I stood and watched his back as he worked to start the automobile.

In the distance, I could hear screeching tires. I dropped the backpack and took a few steps toward the sound. Gun fire soon followed.

Behind me, I heard the car start and Merle getting up from the floor. When he began to speak, I placed my hand over his mouth.

"Shhhhh!"

He looked confused until he finally heard gunshots ring through the city.

My jaw hung open and began to quiver.

"Do you think that's them?" I whispered.

"It's hard to tell."

I looked at the tops of the surrounding trees as if they'd magically appear from them before turning back towards Merle.

"Do we go back to the CDC, or do we go towards the sound?"

He thought for a moment.

"The geeks are probably moving towards that area right now. It's a hot zone. We gotta wait. For now, we're going back to the CDC."

The possibility that Daryl and the others were only blocks away from us made me sick to my stomach; but I knew that he was right.

He placed his hand on my shoulder and pulled me towards him. When our foreheads touched, he spoke softly to me.

"I don't like it either. But we're getting to Daryl. Alive."

I stared down at his dirty white t-shirt before nodding and allowing him to lead me into the car. We drove off in the direction of the CDC.

The debris left over from the explosion was still smoldering upon our arrival. We sat and silently watched the smoke rise to the sky as the sun's rays softly toasted our skin through the windshield. Merle pulled the tiny car in closer towards the wreckage to get a better look. There, on the ground was the bolt I'd mentioned that had no doubt been released and left by his younger sibling.

Merle slowly reached towards the driver's door handle and quietly got out of the car. I remained inside and observed him from a distance. He crouched down next to the bolt and slowly picked it up. As he twirled it in his fingers, I also got out of the car. Not to join him by his side, but to look through the rest of the building's burnt remains.

While I tipped over hot cement blocks and doors, he was fixated on the only clue to his brother's existence. Now and then, I would peek over my shoulder to make sure he was only staring at it. Merle was, after all, a very unpredictable man.