FINALLY! Some time to work on something fun :) Hope you enjoy!
Sinclaire waited impatiently for the Dixon brothers. She'd told Nate that they seemed to be missing a person and then she'd sat down on the back porch while he investigated. He was good at getting answers without freaking people out. He'd integrated himself into the group rather well, better than Sinclaire had, actually. It wasn't surprising. She simply wasn't great with people.
Speaking of people she wasn't good with...
"Found Daryl," Merle barked out as he pushed his brother up the porch steps.
"I see him," Sinclaire agreed when Daryl nearly fell onto her. "Nate's asking questions."
"Why'd ya let him handle it?" Merle demanded.
"Because I thought he'd be better at avoiding a scene," Sinclaire began when they heard a shriek from inside the bar.
"Thought wrong," Merle pointed out.
"That's just unnecessary," Sinclaire retorted as the door was flung wide open and Lori came barreling out of the bar.
"And this shit ain't?" Merle's expression seemed to ask.
Daryl, who was directly in Lori's path, seemed unsure of what to do. He took a half step out of her way, but then Rick grabbed her arm and jerked her back so he decided to stay where he was.
"What good is it going to do if you go running after him?" Rick demanded. "We don't need more missing people here. What we need is-"
"Someone who cares!" Lori hissed. "What is wrong with you? Maps? Teams? Search parties?" She transferred her angry gaze to Nate, who only shrugged. "You expect me to sit around and do nothing while my son is out there? God knows what's happening to him right now!"
"And we wouldn't have known if Sophia hadn't said something," Sinclaire pointed out as she stood up. "Where were you this morning Lori?"
"What?"
"Where were you?"
"I was...I was sleeping." Lori's face blanched white and she sat down on the top step Sinclaire had just vacated.
"And the day before?"
Lori didn't answer, but it had shut her the hell up, which had been Sinclaire's aim. She felt like shit for doing it that way though, so she hurried on.
"We can get search parties together pretty fast, right Nate?"
"I've got a plan," Nate said. "If I can have everyone's attention."
They all gathered around as Nate explained the information he'd gathered and outlined the search parameters. Carrie and Glenn had seen Carl heading toward the road about an hour before so they would concentrate the search in that area in wide circles.
"Let's go," Nate said five minutes later, when everyone understood what they were doing.
"I want to help," Marie said as Sinclaire checked her gun, spinning the silencer down quickly.
"Why didn't you tell Nate?"
"Nate intimidates me," Marie admitted.
"Okay, well, find someone without a buddy."
"The only one without a buddy is Merle."
"Then there you go. Merle's your man."
"Not quite," Marie said dryly.
"What about you and Merle?" Daryl asked as he walked over.
"Nothing! He's my buddy, apparently."
Daryl snorted. "Have fun sweetheart."
"Don't call me sweetheart. Jerk."
Marie walked over to Merle.
"Hi. We're buddies."
"LIke hell. Who even said I was goin'?"
"Sinclaire."
"Who put Yank in charge? Last I saw it was pretty boy."
"Nate?"
"No. Daryl," Merle drawled sarcastically. "Anyway, Nate made all them circles and I ain't in one. I'm supposed to stay here and guard the bar. Fine by me."
"Oh come on. You know you want to get out there. Besides that, Andrea and Dale are staying. Andrea's the best shot here."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means exactly what it sounds like. People around here are good with guns. Andrea is better than good."
"Quit pickin' on her," Daryl ordered as he walked by. "And what the hell's yer problem anyway?"
"Maybe I don't wanna die lookin' fer some dumbass kid."
"Why don't you join our circle?" Sinclaire asked. "Bowhunter and I will go in one direction, you two head in the other. We'll cover more ground faster."
"Makes sense to me," Marie said.
Daryl nodded and looked at Merle who sighed heavily.
"Fine. Fuck it. Guess we're all dyin' anyway."
"You're so perky. I love that," Sinclaire muttered.
"The Princess Bride," Marie said when Daryl didn't call it. "And it's actually "they're so perky." He's talking about the MLT."
"Nicely done," Sinclaire said with a quick grin. "Okay, let's move."
"Wonder why she wanted to come," Daryl said as they headed for their search area.
"She's a good person," Sinclaire said. "She's damn good with the kids too. I guess she's worried about Carl."
"Why'd ya put her with Merle?"
"He was the only option. Unless you want to trade with me."
"Nah, I'm good. It's just...ya know. He's kind of an asshole."
"Marie handles him just fine. I think she's been through worse than what your charming brother is putting out."
"Yeah. All right." She watched Bowhunter shrug off the worry and begin to examine the ground.
Nate had assigned them to a very likely area because he knew that Daryl was the best person for the job. Sinclaire walked quietly and kept silent so that she wasn't a distraction.
"See that?" Daryl asked after a while. "Think this is it."
Sinclaire didn't really see much, but she trusted him so she nodded. He picked up the pace and she followed.
"He covered some ground," Daryl muttered under his breath. "And not by himself either."
Sinclaire jumped when he whistled suddenly.
"What the fuck?" she demanded.
"Sorry. It's fer Merle. He's close enough to hear it."
"Hell, half the damn population was close enough to hear it!"
"Whistlin' bothers ya?"
Daryl saw that her fingers were trembling slightly as she put her gun back into her pocket.
"No."
"Liar."
"I am not a liar! You just startled me. So you guys whistle for each other? Like dogs?"
"Easiest way to keep track," Daryl said with a shrug. "Wasn't like I could just call him on the phone when we were kids ya know."
"Does he whistle for you?"
"He can't whistle," Daryl said with a half grin over her head when Merle walked up.
"And I still managed to live a good life," Merle said sarcastically. "Find anything?"
"Yeah. There's been Walkers through here, same time as Carl."
"So we should hurry," Marie said.
"Yeah. You oughta go back to the bar though," Daryl said to her as he cocked the crossbow.
"Why?" she demanded.
"Ya have a gun?"
"No."
"Knife?"
"Sort of." She held up a small pocket knife.
Daryl sighed. "Any way of defendin' yerself?"
"Just you," she said pointedly.
"I'm gonna be busy. Get yer ass back to the bar."
"I"m not walking back all that way by myself!"
Sinclaire handed Marie one of her M9's and showed her the safety as they walked in the direction Bowhunter pointed out.
"If you shoot me in the back with my own gun I will haunt the shit out of you," Sinclaire said seriously. "Do not shoot unless you have a clear shot. We don't have extra ammo lying around."
"Too bad this isn't a video game," Marie said as she took the gun in a careful grip. "We'd find it just lying around."
"And we'd have multiple lives."
"Hell," Merle said with a grin. "We already got those. The second time around just ain't too pretty."
"Good point," Sinclaire said. "All right, so should we keep..."
A terrified yell from the left cut off the end of her sentence. Sinclaire broke into a run and Merle followed. Daryl wasn't quite sure what to do. Marie started after Merle, but Daryl yanked her back.
"Ya stay here."
"Yeah but I-"
"But nothin'. Ya stay here unless they head this way and then ya get yer ass back to the bar or up a tree or somethin'. Ya listenin' to me?"
"I am. I will."
Sinclaire ran as fast as she could in the direction the yell had come from. It was actually too fast. This time though, she wasn't lucky enough to fall onto a socially awkward redneck. This time she ran nearly headlong into a herd of zombies.
"Fuck!" she shouted as she moved backwards just a little bit. There wasn't far back to go. She scanned the scene for Carl and didn't see him. A shot from behind her dropped a zombie to her left and Merle stepped up beside her. When the echo had died she called Carl's name. They were near the edge of the road and when he answered, at first she couldn't figure out where he'd answered from. Then she saw him perched on the top of the only truck on the road. She wasn't sure how many zombies were between them, but it was a lot.
"What are we going to do?" she asked.
"Don't look like there's nothin' we can do," Merle said. "What the fuck was he thinkin'?"
"This isn't the time to apply child psychology," Sinclaire snapped. Goddamnit, she didn't want Merle to be right, but she didn't see any way through the herd that didn't involve at least one of them taking one for the team.
"Where's Nate's circle?" Daryl asked.
"Out past us," Marie answered, making them all do a double take. "So I didn't listen," she said to Daryl. "Sorry. So what we need to do is draw them toward Nate and hope the firepower they're packing is enough to handle this."
"Yeah," Daryl said. "That's what I was gonna say."
"So then someone has to draw them away. How are we going to do that?"
"It's pretty easy to catch their attention," Marie pointed out. "And I'm a fast runner."
"No," Daryl said flatly.
"You think I'm totally incapable of helping don't you?" she demanded, hands on hips.
"I think it's a batshit crazy idea!" he said in a tight whisper.
"It's your idea too!"
"Okay," Sinclaire cut in. "It's the only plan that doesn't involve immediate death so it's pretty much our only option. It won't be as bad since it's winter and they're slower. Two people have to run. It's better to boost Nate's firepower as much as possible. Bowhunter, you go with her."
"Why me?"
"You're faster than Merle and I have a tendency to trip when I run fast. I'd rather my life not end in an awful B-movie scene. Hurry up. Make some noise over there and then run."
Marie's shriek caught the zombies attention and the majority of the herd headed toward her. She ran lightly backwards taunting the zombies in a voice that shook only slightly with fear. Once most of the pack had shuffled away, Sinclaire and Merle took care of the stragglers.
"Ya wanna tell me just what the hell ya was thinkin'?" Merle was demanding when Sinclaire was jerked to the ground and halfway under the car.
She didn't even have time to scream before the teeth clamped onto her leg. She kicked out with the opposite leg and connected with the zombie's head. It didn't cave in, so it was a fresh one. That explained the strength. She kicked again and stretched her arm out for Merle to grab. She knew he'd be reaching for her by now.
His fingers wrapped around hers and he dragged her out so fast that she swore at the pain of the pavement burn. The zombie snarled and scrambled forward eerily. It was missing one leg so it moved in an odd crawling run on both hands and one leg. Sinclaire had seen a lot but that was some unnerving shit.
Merle jerked her to her feet and Sinclaire put a bullet between its eyes.
"Ya all right?" Merle demanded.
"I...I...it bit me," she said. "I don't know. I don't know."
"What the fuck ya mean it bit ya?" he yelled. Without giving her time to answer he started searching her.
"My leg!" she snapped. "It bit my-" her sentence ended in a gasp as he jerked her off of her feet and smacked her down in a sitting position on the hood of the van.
"Where?" he barked.
"Here," she said, pointing with shaky fingers. There was a hole in her boot.
Merle took it off with a jarring wrench to her leg, but she didn't care. She swallowed hard as he pulled her pants leg up.
"Nothin'," he said after he'd taken a thorough look. "Not a scratch."
Sinclaire let her breath out slowly. "Okay," she whispered. "Okay."
"No the fuck it's not okay!" Merle bellowed as he practically threw her boot back at her before he grabbed the front of Carl's shirt and nearly jerked the kid off his feet. "What the fuck is wrong with ya? Ya little shit! Ya fuckin' run off like a goddamn moron because ya feel guilty about Shane Walsh? Didn't ya never think 'bout the fact that ya might have killed other people that had to go look fer yer sorry ass? Where were ya gonna run to get away from that?"
"I-" Carl said, but he gave up trying to speak when Merle shook him.
"Shut the fuck up! If ya'd've got Yank killed I'd've fed ya to the next zombie I saw peice by fuckin' peice! I ever catch even a hint that yer thinkin' about leavin' camp I'm gonna cut yer fuckin' foot off!"
"Merle," Sinclaire said, putting her hand on his shoulder and feeling his tension. "Merle, he's just a kid."
Merle let go of Carl's shirt so suddenly that the boy stumbled against the van. He turned and looked at Sinclaire and her breath caught in her throat. She hadn't ever seen Merle look like that. His eyes were blazing and the muscles in his shoulders and chest looked painfully tight.
"He nearly got ya killed," he said, his voice dropping lower and going rougher. "Right here in fuckin' front of me."
"I'm sorry," Carl squeaked.
"Ya better be fuckin' sorry," Merle said. "Let's get yer sorry ass back to camp. Two shots, Yank."
Merle walked away as Sinclaire pointed her pistol to the sky and squeezed off two shots in a row. Then she took Carl by the arm and marched him home in total silence.
