I apologize for this being so short, most of this was cut from the last chapter...but a bad case of the winter blues had me. I've been struggling with it, so I decided to put this little mini chapter out and give myself permission to move on. I'm hoping to get some writing done in the next few weeks while this virus runs its course...but I also might spend my time under an electric blanket watching Netflix. As always thanks to Athlete Girl for cutting down on the typos and misplaced commas.
Lalochezia (n) the emotional relief gained from using
Abusive or profane language
Beth thought that her best chance of saving Merle would be to put her body between the two men, trying to distract Joe enough that she could get off a shot. Joe was an unpredictable, unstable, angry little man with a gun in his hand. But he was just a man, and Merle had given her enough confidence and knew how to take him down given the opportunity. So she tread lightly, knowing without a doubt that Joe would kill them both if that is what he felt he needed to do.
"Handling" Joe would be akin to handling an old stick of dynamite. She would need to move slowly, hold her breath...and pray the whole time she was doing it.
Slowly Beth managed to place her body between the men, blocking Merle's head and as much of his torso as she could as she worked to redirect Joe's focus to her, thinking if she could get Joe to relax just a little, she would be able to take him down by surprise. She had gotten him talking, she watched for him to relax just enough to lower his gun so she could make her move.
When he shot Merle in the leg, she knew there would be no second chances, especially if Joe thought that she was choosing Merle over him. Because if he did, then in his eyes she would be a cheat, a liar and in his eyes she wouldn't be worthy of his time or 'protection'. And if he thought that, then he would have no reason to keep her around. She had no doubt that he would kill both her and Merle without a second thought. She couldn't leave the kids to fend for themselves, or worse leave them to Joe's tender mercies.
She almost refused to believe her own eyes as she watched Dexy appear from around the bumper of the Jeep. "Why? How? WHY?" Were the only thing that she could manage to ask herself, confused as to how he had gotten there. Disconcerted she could only watch as he willingly ran into Joe's arms.
As if he had actually missed that monster disguised as a man.
The image of Dexy pulling the gun from his waistband, would forever be etched in her mind. Terror, she was filled with absolute terror. Like ice was running through her veins, seeping into the very marrow of her bones, freezing her in place. Had she been able to move she would have at least tried to stop him. Pulled him into her arms and shielded him from what was about to come. She would never allow the small boy to put himself into a situation like this, but she would be forever grateful that he did, because Joe never saw it coming.
As they went down, she screamed his name. But Dexy was up and running towards Merle without even looking her way. Struggling to make her muscles unlock, she staggered behind him. Beth fell heavily onto her knees as she clumsily hugged him to her as even as she began checking on Merle.
Merle was bleeding profusely from the gunshot to his left thigh, both his jacket and shirt torn torn to ribbons, showing the road rash that was covering his side and stomach. Above the gunshot, blood was turning his jeans a deep purple...growing and blossoming like a deadly flower. She hesitated as she reached to pull his waistband down, afraid of what she would find there. She noted that the riding gloves he was wearing were bloody in places where they had been torn from sliding across the asphalt.
Merle moaned, cracking his eyes open to look at them, "Good thing ya' made me wear my helmet or my brains would be outside ah' my skull right now." His voice was mild, but somehow still managing to sound more put out than grateful.
"Oh, thank God!" Beth whimpered, burrowing her face into his neck, her body pushing Dexy's face next to his in her attempt to get closer.
"This is how ya' know you're doin' something right, son," Merle panted as he reached up and gave the boys cheek a pat, smearing his blood there. "When ya' gotta' beautiful woman cryin' over ya'."
This only made Beth cry harder, pulling his hand from Dexys cheek, he cupped the back of her head. "We aint got no time for waterworks, gotta get ya'self together Lil' Bit." He brushed a rough kiss at her temple.
"I remembered to breathe, just like you told me!" Dexy bragged through his tears.
"Ya' did real good Dex. Real good. I think ya' earned the right to call that gun yours. You take good care of it, don't you let anyone ever take it from ya'." Beth could hear the pride in his voice just over the pain.
"I'll be careful, and I won't ever forget it's not a toy." He promised.
"Walkers are coming, we need to get you out of here." Standing, Beth stepped around the Jeep, motioning for Carl to drive back to them. As she walked back to Merle she took off her jacket, tossing it aside to get to the flannel shirt of Merles that she had over her t-shirt. By the time Carl had pulled up, it was folded and placed over his gunshot.
"Goddamn it Dex, you scared the Hell out of me!" Carl said in-way of greeting as he pulled up. "Don't you ever take off like that again!"
"I...I'm sorry, Carl." Dexy stammered uncomfortably as Carl jumped out of the truck. "But I had to help! Then I saw Joe...and couldn't let him take us! You wouldn't have wanted him near you or Judith." Dexy tried to justify his actions.
"You knew him?" Carl asked, looking curiously back at the body that lay a few feet away.
Dexy looked back at Joe's body and nodded. "Yeah, we knew him. He was a bad, bad man, he would have hurt all of us." Dexy told him.
"Take care of those walkers." Beth interrupted, pointing Carl towards the two walkers stumbling their way as she took off Merle's helmet. The black paint had been ground off and it was embedded with gravel from his long slide.
After a few minutes Carl came back, and helped to get Merle into a sitting position. "Fuckin' son of a whore!" Merle exclaimed vehemently.
"Merle?" Beth asked worriedly, scooting behind him to help support his body.
"God damn it! Would ya' just look at my bike!" Merle bitched.
"For just this once, can you forget about your bike? We have bigger things to worry about." There was an edge of panic in her voice, as she tried to come up with a plan.
"Fuck me...it's bad aint it." Merle said through a dry humorless laugh.
When they attempted to get Merle up and on his feet, he passed out cold. Beth started to panic knowing there was no way that they were going to be able to get him up and into the truck. It was Carl who came up with the solution, grabbing a blanket from the truck he laid it on the ground next to Merle. Together they carefully rolled his prone body into it, then sweating and swearing they managed to use the blanket to drag him up onto the trailer ramp, leaving a trail of blood in their wake.
"Stay with him, hold on tight and yell if you need me to stop." Beth instructed Carl as she sent the kids to get into their car seats. Driving as fast as she dare, she prayed all the way there that Daryl would still be alive and well in his cabin.
About forty minutes later she pulled the Suburban into what she thought might be the driveway to Daryl's place. Getting out she walked to the gate and found it chained up securely. An overwhelming sense of relief flooded her at the sight of fresh tire tracks in the dirt going under that gate. Hurriedly, she walked back to the trailer to check on Merle.
"There blood coming from somewhere other than the gunshot." Carl told her, looking grim as he applied pressure to Merle's leg..
"Okay, hold onto him, I'm going to have to bust through the gate." Beth said as she jogged back to the truck. She revved the engine a few times before pushing the gas pedal to the floor, busting through the gate at full speed. They had only gone a span of a few feet when she felt the left front tire go, then a moment later the left back one blew. She had to fight with all her strength and kept the trailer from flipping.
Daryl was sitting at the table with Carol and Sophia when they heard the far off revving of an engine followed by what he assumed was his perimeter fence going down. The boobytraps that he had placed would give them a few precious moments to prepare. He quickly grabbed one of his rifles and handed it to Sophia, ordering her up into the loft and not to shoot unless he gave her the go ahead. He and Carol each took a window on either side of the door and watched until a truck limped its way down the driveway.
A young blond girl jumped out of the cab, screaming his name. "Daryl! Daryl Dixon! Merle's been shot, we need you!" As she ran to the back of the truck.
Inside Daryl turned the doorknob, pausing for a moment, "Keep ya' guns up." He instructed. "Girl got a military grade weapon on her back...even if she does know me and my brother's names, we still treat her like she's a threat. I'm going out, if it's Merle out there and he ain't the one driving, then he has to be pretty fucked up." Uneasily Daryl walked out the door onto the porch, he kept his bow on his back and his gun in his hand as he approached the truck cautiously.
He wasn't expecting to see small children watching him out of the open back window. The sight of the young boy giving him the stink-eye while holding a Smith & Wesson 9mm in his blood smeared hands made his feet stumble to a stop as they took each other's mesure.
What the actual fuck? Leave it to Merle to make himself a militia of child soldiers.
Hearing his brother's voice cussing up a blue storm started his feet moving again. Putting the safety on his gun, he jogged the rest of the way to the back of the truck. His brother was lying inside the motorcycle trailer attached to the back of the truck. "Merle? What the fuck?" Daryl asked as he jumped into the trailer next to the teenaged boy who was holding a blood soaked rag to his brother's leg.
"Baby brother! Look, Darlin', he's alive and well just like I told you we would. I can die a happy man, now that I've seen him with my own eyes." Merle said to the blond girl as he reached a bloody hand out to her. She pushed his hand out of her way, as she tried to look under the bandage on his leg without taking it off. "Merle Dixon! Don't you dare talk about dying, you are not allowed to go anywhere." She told him sternly before turning to Daryl and demanding. "Well, what are you waiting for? Help us get your brother into the house."
Daryl could feel his eyebrows raise in surprise at the casual way the woman was talking to him, like they had known each other for years.
"Carol! We need you out here!" Daryl yelled jumping out of the trailer and opening the gate in preparation of sliding Merle out that way.
"Ain't ya' going to tell ya' own brother that ya' happy to see him." Merle demanded, as his eyes greedily took his brother in.
"Fuckin' took ya' long enough." Daryl told him distractedly, noting all the blood pooled under Merle. "What, you get caught up sightseein' on the way here?" He asked to hide his unease.
"Nah, brother, I only had eyes for my Beth. Ain't she a beauty?" Merle's eyes went back to the blonde at his side. "Most beautiful woman God put on this earth." He said as he reached for her. "Give me a kiss, little darlin', that's all I'll be needing to make me feel better." Merle teased her, but Daryl could hear a desperate edge in his voice.
This time the girl stopped what she was doing, bending down to kiss Merle fervently. 'I love you too...now, please shut up and cooperate with..." The arrival of Carol interrupted the conversation, as she jumped into the trailer and pushed the others out of her way to to assess Merles wounds.
Merle's attention went straight to her, and despite the dire situation, he still managed to grin slyly at Daryl. "Well, now Little Brother who is this? Ya' finally went and got ya'self a woman?" Merle eyed Carol curiously. "Looks like the end of the world has been good to you...been good to both of us."
"Ph-shhh." Was Daryl's eloquent reply.
"Papa?" The small boy from the back of the truck was pulling himself into the trailer. Confused, Daryl glanced between the boy and his brother. Merle's eyes were locked on the small boy affectionately, giving him his undivided attention.. "Doin' good, you stand back and let the women do their work. I'mma be fine, ya' Mama already tol' me I ain't allowed to die."
"Me too, I say you're not allowed to die too." The boy told him, a few tears escaping to run down his cheeks.
"Well then, looks like I really don't have any other choice but to get better." This time his smile was more natural. "Not much I wouldn't do for you or ya' Mama."
Working together they managed to haul Merle into the cabin, quickly and without any problems. They got him situated in the guest bed, where he floated in and out of consciousness as Carol examined him more thoroughly. His normally ruddy face was pale, almost the same shade of the pale yellow pillow case. Daryl watched in awe at the flurry of activity, as the two women seemed to come together in an unspoken agreement that introductions could come later.
The girl...Beth? Seemed to have at least a little medical knowledge, because she and Carol were speaking to each other some sort of medical shorthand that he only half understood. Sophia, under her mother's direction had gone to the kitchen, where she had pots of water on the stove to boil as she was ripping one of his white sheets into long strips to make bandages.
It wasn't long before the small boy appeared in the doorway, letting them know that Carl and Judith were on watch. "Not me, 'cause Papa might need me." Dexy told them as he walked to the side of the bed. "You need me, right Papa?"
Merle reached his hand out to the boy, pulling him in closer. "I always want ya' around. But I got the women taking care 'o me and I'm worried about Daryl over there." Merle gestured towards his brother, lowering his voice he added. "He tends to do stupid shit when he's upset...think you can take care of 'em for me,,,keep 'em out of trouble?"
"Yeah, I can do that." Dexy assured him.
"Where is the person who shot my brother?" Daryl wanted to know. "We need to worry about them shown' up here?"
Beth glanced up at him, before her eyes fleetingly went to the boy before answering. "No, you don't have to worry." She dismissed, turning her attention back to Merle.
Daryl glanced over at the kid and saw him stand straighter and his hand dipped down to touch his gun. In that small gesture, Daryl could see the man that this boy would someday become if he lived that long. Not just a man, a man to be reckoned with. Then he blinked and the vision of that man was gone, and only a scared little boy stood in front of him.
After some time, Daryl found himself standing next to the boy, both pushed to the far wall, out of the women's way. Merle was in and out, more out at the moment and he found his eyes wandering from his brother sleeping form to examine the child at his side. Dexy's large blue eyes vigilant, seemingly taking note of everything that was going on in the room. Daryl wasn't quite sure what to make of the boy, but he had to admit that there was a chance that this could be his brother's kid. But if he was, then why hadn't Merle ever said anything?
Why would he keep the kid a secret?
Daryl looked down at his hands, they were covered in dried flaking blood, he noticed that Dexy's hands were worse. The boy also had what appeared to be a large bloody handprint on his face.
Kneeling down and put his hand out hesitantly towards the boy. "Come on kid, lets go get cleaned up." When the boy didn't respond he added. "Merle will be out for awhile, we will be cleaned up and back before he needs ya'." Daryl waited until Dexy, seemingly as apprehensive as he was, reached out and took his hand. Slowly standing as not to startle him, he slowly guided him to the bathroom.
The kid balked at the doorway, so Daryl let go of his hand and continued on into the sink, where he scrubbed the blood off his hands. Satisfied that they were clean enough, he took his time to thoroughly dry them on the towel hanging next to the sink. Turning back to the boy, he found him still standing in the doorway looking around at the large bathroom/laundry room with the large glass sliding door leading out to the rear of the cabin. He waited patiently as the little boy examined everything with curious eyes. Daryl couldn't help but to look around the room himself, wondering if the boy would understand that the slider was so he could go straight to the shower from cleaning a kill without getting blood all over the house. That no curtains covered the windows because who would come all they way out here into his woods just to peep at his naked ass anyway?
When he turned back he found the boy studying him speculatively. "Come on in kid, I ain't gunna' bite." Daryl said gruffly, wanting to just get it over with so he could get back to his brother.
The boy's gaze was unwavering "I'm not afraid of you." slowly he stepped through the threshold as if to prove the point.
"I didn't say you were, still there ain't nothing wrong bein' wary of people ya' don't know." Daryl maintained in a sour voice.
He saw the boy's lip twitched like he wanted to smile, before he told him. "Papa trusts you, so I'm going to trust you too." The boy cocked his head, his eyes screwed up in contemplation. "You sound like my Papa...kinda look like him too." Dexy told him decidedly.
"Been told that a time or two." Daryl agreed, sitting down on the closed toilet lid. He was surprised when the boy willingly came to stand in between his open knees, raising his arms so he could pull his bloody shirt off. Clumsily he attempted to get the kid out of his shirt. The arms came out without a hitch, but the head got stuck somewhere inside the collar. After a few tries Daryl decided the boy must have an abnormally large head, and spent so much time trying to figure out how to make the boys ears lay flat, that the kid was starting to panic trapped inside the stiff, bloody shirt.
Frustrated Daryl finally just pulled the shirt back down with one hand, as he reached over with the other to pull a small pair of beard trimming scissors out a drawer. Once he had the shirt pulled away from his body, he warned. "Don't move, gotta cut the damn thing off." The boy froze like a statue as Daryl started cutting. "Blood wasn't gunna come out anyway." He found himself justifying his actions as he tossed the ruined shirt into the trash can. "I'll get you something else to wear when we're done."
He used the washcloth to wash off the boys face, stopping to rinse it out before moving the cloth to his chest. "You're my Papa's brother?"
"Yep". Daryl affirmed. "Merle is my brother and I'm his."
"You're Baby Brother?" The boy asked, his face screwed up in confusion.
"That's one of the nicer things that Merle calls me." Daryl agreed.
"You got another brother...a younger one?" The boy seemed to be trying to work something out in his head, asking what Daryl thought was the same question..
"Not that I know of...but I guess anything is possible." Daryl shrugged.
"You're…". Dexy seemed to falter, before opening his arms wide. "much bigger than I was thinking you were gunna be."
"I could say the same thing about you. At least ya' was expecting me, I didn't know Merle even had a kid. Where'd my brother pick you up at?" Daryl asked as he moved the washcloth down to get the blood on the boys little potbelly.
"Asheville." The little boy said earnestly.
"Asheville, huh? Where in Asheville, Walmart?"
"7-Eleven." Dexy said in all seriousness.
Still examining Daryl critically, Dexy told him. "Papa says I'm Daryl in-ah-garment."
"Wha'?" Daryl asked him confused by the whole conversation.
"Papa said that I look just like you. I got your eyes, that I'm sweet, just like you." The boy explained to him.
Darly was silent while he washed off the kids hands, before admitting. "Merle always did say that I was the sweet one. Comparatively, it really ain't much of a compliment, at least not coming from the family we had. Buncha' fuckin' assholes, the lot of 'em."
"Told me I ain't no limp-dick." The boy told him proudly.
Daryl gave him his first genuine smile since they had met. "Well now, coming from my brother, that definitely is a compliment."
"He was wrong, you know." Dexy told Daryl in a somber voice.
"Wrong about?" He asked distractedly as he tossed the washcloth into the laundry basket,
"Papa was wrong." Dexy insisted firmly and Daryl couldn't help but think that he had the most stubborn set to his chin that he had ever seen on a child. "I'm not like you." Patting his heart, he said proudly. "I'm just like him."
Carol and Beth worked quickly cataloging all Merle's injuries, deciding what needed to be done first. Carol found the source of blood that Beth had worriedly pointed out, too far up to be coming from the gunshot. There she discovered a piece of metal that was just poking out above his hip bone.
"Daryl, help me roll him." Carol ordered. "Right there...hold him tight. Well, this isn't good." She said tersely, discovering a piece of thin metal that had gone through the small of his back at an odd angle. About an inch and a half was left, bent and pressed firmly into his back..
"Looks like a tire spoke from a kids bicycle." Daryl observed.
"Well, whatever it is, it needs to come out." Carol told him distractedly.
"He must have picked it up on the slide across the blacktop." Beth said, giving them a brief explanation of what had happened.
"Fuck!" Merle screamed coming to, as Carol dumped a good amount of whiskey over the wound on his back. "What a fuckin' waste." Merle managed to get out through his clenched teeth.
"You won't be thinking it's a waste if it stops you from getting an infection." Carol informed him, crisply.
Daryl was thinking that Beth must know Merle pretty well, when she took the bottle out of Carol's hand and brought it to Merle's lips letting him take a healthy pull straight from the source before giving him a quick kiss on his forehead.
"God damn...fuckin' shit! That burns like fuckin hell fire." Merle yelled as Carol, took the bottle back, poured whiskey over the other side of the wound.
"That's a good sign." Carol told him distractedly.
"How the fuck is that fuckin' good?" Merle yelled, spit flying.
"Well we know that nothing important was severed. And while it may not feel like it right now...it really is a good thing in the long run."
"Bullet is a through and through...another good thing." Carol said directly to Merle, examining the gunshot. "Means we don't have to go digging for it." She added.
"Well ain't I just one lucky son-of'a-bitch."
"I'd say you are." Carol agreed with him.
Standing up, Carol usered Daryl and Beth to the other side of the room. "I think Daryl should take the kids out of here for a little bit."
"No." Beth immediately protested. "The kids stay with me and Merle."
"I get it, I do. You really don't know us. But I have to see what I can do to get the wire out of his hip and stitch up the gunshot. With the amount of pain he's in, and judging by the swearing he's already doing, it might not be a good idea to have them here."
"No...no, I want them where I can see them." Beth insisted.
"Do you really want the kids to see him in so much pain? I can't give him a big enough dose of the painkillers to knock him out...we need to hold some back for the days to come." Carol tried to reason with her.
Daryl agreed. "Hell, I don't want to see Merle in pain, especially knowing that there was nothing that I can do to help him. Ain't gunna be pretty, and I can already tell that every scream is going to hurt that boy."
Beth's shoulders slumped, "You take care of them."
"I'll take good care of 'em." Daryl promised her.
"You better come back with them, or you don't bother coming back at all." She would have sounded intimidating if her voice wasn't watery with unshed tears.
Nodding he told them. "Gunna take 'em to help fix the front gate. I'll feel better tonight knowing it was up and standing between us and the dead."
"Okay, give me a minute to talk to the kids." Beth finally agreed while walking out of the room.
"Let me talk to my brother alone for a minute." Daryl said as he walked past Carol.
Merle eyes slit open as Daryl approached the side of the bed. "Ya' look good Little Brother...happy to see ya'." Merle told him as he reached out to grab his hand, a grin stretching his lips. "Knew ya' had the skills to survive this thing. But 'I's worried ya' might ah moved on before I could make it here."
"Took ya' sweet ass time...but, I'm glad to see ya' too." Daryl griped.
"No need to piss and moan...had to train my family up, make sure they were ready for whatever we found on the road gettin' here."
"About that.." Daryl started.
"Later, Little Brother. Not enough time to give the story justice. All you gotta know is I'm counting on you. Just go ahead and promise me that before ya' woman comes in and starts prodding me again. You tell me that ya'll get them where they need to go, keep 'em safe if something happens to me." Merle demanded in a low voice
"Ain't nothing gunna happen, so ya' can just take take of them ya'self." Daryl objected heatedly.
"Yeah, ya' probably right. But just the same, I'd feel better if ya' promised me." He said tightening his grip on Daryl's hand, anchoring him there as he waited for his answer.
"Yeah, I'll take care ah' them. Of course I will, family is family." Daryl swore and he could feel Merle's grip relax in his.
"When we do talk, I wanna hear all about ya' woman. She's a pushy little thing...bet ya' like that. Her pushin' ya' around in bed."
"Shut up...she ain't even my woman." Daryl insisted as the two women walked back into the room.
"Jus' a matter of time Little Brother, just a matter of time." Merle said tiredly as he
lay his head back on the pillow.
By the time he and Carl had loaded up the back of his truck with lumber, wire and tools. they could hear Merle's foul-mouthed cursing from the yard. Daryl rushed to get the kids into the truck. "Merle's gunna have every Husk in earshot headed our way, looking to make him one of their own." He muttered unhappily past the cigarette between his lips.
Driving carefully around his homemade security, buried 2x4's studded with nails, he made his way to the useless front gate. He helped the kids out of the truck and surveyed the damage with a critical eye. "Bes' get it back up as fast as we can.
"Up you go." Carl said pointing at the truck, Daryl watched as the two kids scurried up into the truck bed to the top of the truck. Once they got there they sat back to back looking in opposite directions as if this was something that they had done hundreds of times, Dexy pulled his gun out from the holster at his hip, safety on but holding it at the ready.
"Shit." Daryl drooped his cigarette on the ground. "How worried should I be about the kid accidentally shooting me?" He asked Carl petulantly.
"Oh, if he shoots you it won't be an accident." Carl told him smugly, adding. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, He mostly just kills walkers...I only know of the one man."
"Only the one man, huh?"
"Yeah, but he only shot him after he ran Merle over with his car before shooting him. So I think you're safe, as long as you don't piss him off."
"I knew it..my damn brother's building and army of fuckin' children soldiers." He told Carl peevishly.
Carl, used to Merle's prickly personality, just picked up the toolbox and walked towards the fence, saying. "He ain't training us to be anyone's foot soldier, he's teaching us to survive. So if you don't mind, I prefer the term "Fuckin' warrior."
In the short time they had known each other, he and Sophia had already formed a good working relationship. It didn't hurt that Carl seemed to have some familiarity with carpentry. Thankfully for Daryl's sanity, Carl also had enough intelligence to pick up Daryl's nonverbal guidance. So thankfully it took almost no time to get the gate back up.
When they were done he took the kids and scouted around the area for any signs that any Husks had crossed over onto his property. It was clear that Merle had been working with the kids, their tracking skills weren't half bad. He felt a smug sense of satisfaction when he noticed that even though he had only been working with Sophia for a short time she was better at it then the other kids.
After not finding anything to indicate that anyone or anything had, he still wasn't willing to take any chances. So they walked along the inside of the property line taking the time to check his traps. By the time they had made the full loop ending back at the truck, it was completely dark outside. On the short drive back to the cablin Judith and Dexy were nodding sleepily on the laps of the older kids. Getting out Daryl walked around the front of the truck, opened the door to take Dexy out of Sophia's arms.
They were climbing the steps when Carol opened the door and stepped out onto the porch. "We got dinner on the table, go wash up."
"Merle?" He inquired.
"Asleep. Dexy you can see go on and take a peek at him real quick before dinner...but after you wash your hands. He'll probably be out the rest of the night." She told the sleepy boy as Daryl put him down on his feet, they watched as he hurried in with the other kids following closely behind him.
"I'm glad you took them out of here. It was not pleasant. I gave him as much morphine as I dare…and it didn't seem to even have any effect on him." Carol complained.
"High tolerance, I expect ya' would hav'ta give him enough to down a horse to see any results." He dismissed.
"Good to know, however I only brought so much with me and at this rate what I have left will only get him through the night if we are really lucky and really, really stingy. I have a little more at the house, but even that won't last for as long we might need it to. Tomorrow, you're going to need to run to my place...take Sophia with you for backup. Get all our medical supplies, she knows where they're hidden." She sighed heavily. "I guess you can have her grab all of our stuff too. You were right, we're not safe out there on our own."
He gave her a curt nod. "Took you long enough ta' figure that out. Need anything else?"
"Rude." Carol told him. "Fine. You can take all the kids, that way Beth and I can concentrate on Merle. Hopefully the kids will be more help than hinderance, and you can get done faster. Bring back the cow, and the chickens and as much of their feed as you can fit in the trailer."
'Yep." He agreed as she turned to walk back into the cabin.
"So what was your favorite?" Daryl asked, stopping her. At her bland look he prompted. "Your favorite curse that you learned from Merle today?"
He could see her eyes sparkle in the dark. "Oh...that is a hard one, with so many good ones to choose from I don't know if I could narrow it down to just one." She stepped back to the door, putting her hand on the knob before turning back to him. "But, I guess if I really, really had to pick, "Son of a syphilitic whore" was the one I filed away should the need ever arise."
