Ch.53

In the middle of the day, Maggie and Glenn were kind enough to let me come with them to get more supplies. Beth is back at the prison with the baby. I was starting to get cabin fever and had to get out. Plus I needed something to keep my mind off what Daryl said.

As soon as I step out of the truck, I see the two lovebirds kissing and making googly eyes at each other. "Aww. You two are sweet." I break the silence laughing at them. "Hey. You and Daryl do the same thing." Maggie confronts me laughing as well.

"I know. It's cute seeing couples together these days." I smile pushing my hair out of my face and staring at the young lovers. "Come on. Let's just go." Glenn chuckles cutting the chains off the doors.

When we enter the store, we split up to make finding supplies faster. We each take an aisle and scrounge through it. Then Maggie comes up beside me as I grab a toy off the shelf and throw it in my shopping basket.

"I got this aisle." I say shuffling through some random junk that we have no use for. "I know, but I wanted to ask you something." Maggie smiles at me as we walk and talk. "Okay. Shoot." I glance at her as she clears her throat.

"You've been quiet during the car ride. Is everything okay?" Maggie asks scooting along right behind me. "Yeah. Why?" I retort picking another thing up off the shelf. "Are you sure? What was with earlier?" she asks fumbling with some junk.

"What do you mean? How far back we talkin'?" I scrunch my eyes at Maggie's random question. "Back in the prison. You and Daryl. You two kinda seemed upset with each other." Maggie movies to the other side beside me stopping me in my tracks.

Maggie looks at me worried before I let out a sigh. "You saw that?" I question raising my eyebrows at her. "Yeah. What was that about?" she asks again. "It was nothing." I say briskly walking past her.

"I don't think that was nothing, Maezy. It didn't seem like you were joking either. You looked kinda hurt." Maggie confronts me again stopping me before I could walk off. "What is it?" she asks placing her hand ontop of mine that I left on the shelf.

After what felt like forever, I let out a big sigh as I tell Maggie my worries. "He told me not to get too carried away about having a baby in the group. He says I act different now. He thinks I have baby fever and that I should cut the crap basically." I say staring off in the distance.

"Oh, honey." Maggie starts but I interrupt her. "Knowing what happened to Lori, I still wish I had one of my own. To have a life form grow inside me from the love that me and Daryl share. The thing is, I don't think he wants one, though." I sigh staring at the junk left on the shelves in front of me.

"Mae, listen. I don't think, and I'm just guessing, but I don't think that he doesn't want one. I just think that he's afraid of the same thing happening to you. You saw what that did to Rick. Imagine what it'd do to him. Think about it." Maggie finishes giving me a small smile.

"Maybe you're right." I say dejected and continuing down the aisle to look for more supplies. "Come on. We have a baby that needs our help right now." Maggie urges pushing me to the baby section.

Several minutes later, we gather our supplies to take to the car. "Wow. We really hit the jackpot on baby formula, didn't we?" I say giddy at how much loot we found. This outta last us a while.

"Yeah. We found a lot. Why haven't we come here sooner?" Glenn laughs carrying a couple baskets of formula and canned goods. "It's a straight shot to the prison from here. Probably make it in time for dinner." he says dropping them to the ground.

"That would be nice. I'm starting to get hungry. Plus, I can't wait to see the look on their faces when we show up with all this stuff." I laugh making fun of the possibility of expressions covering their faces.

"I like it back home. It's nice and quiet. You can always hear them, the walkers, outside the fence no matter where you are." Maggie says smiling at the mention of home. "Yeah, you're right." I agree with her. We're lucky to have found that place.

Then out of nowhere a familiar voice that I haven't heard in a long time shouts out to us. "And where is it y'all good people are calling home?" the man asks pointing his gun at us. We turn to find Merle walking up on us and all turn to stare at him in shock.

"Merle?" Glenn asks out of shock at his reappearance. Then Merle starts laughing like a manic as he throws his gun down in front of him. "What the...you're still alive? But how?" I squeak out of surprise. "Yeah! Damn right I am!" he shouts.

We all have our weapons drawn on Merle as he walks towards us slowly. "Hey! Back the hell up!" Maggie shouts at Merle afraid for our safety. "Okay, okay, honey. Jesus." Merle laughs raising his hands high above his head.

"Well if it isn't little asian boy. And...doll face, is that you? You gotta be shittin' me." Merle grins at me as he walks closer to us. I ignore his last remark and go straight to questioning him.

"Where the hell have you been? We thought you were dead." I grunt lowering my weapon a little. "Can you tell me, is my brother alive?" Merle asks me knowing how close I was to him. "Yeah, he's alive." I answer without letting my finger off the trigger in case he tries something.

"Hey, you take me to him and I call it even on everything that happened up there in Atlanta. No hard feelings. How 'bout that? Huh?" Merle tries to convince us to take him back to the prison with us.

"What the hell happened to you? How did you survive?" I ask staring at the contraption hooked to Merle's arm. "Oh, you like that, huh?" he laughs raising his arm to show us a knife attached to a rig.

"Well, I found a medical supply warehouse. Fixed it up myself. Pretty cool, huh?" Merle waves his metal hand as he tells us his story. I look over to Glenn to ask what he thinks we should do and he clears his throat.

"We'll tell Daryl you're here and he'll come out to meet you." Glenn explains to Merle without lowering his gun. "Yeah, that's if he still wants to see him." I softly say rolling my eyes in the process.

"Whoa. Hold on. Just hold up. I wanna see my brother." Merle whines to us. "What makes you think he wants to see you?" I spit at him out of annoyance. "We're family. The fact that we found each other is a miracle. Come on, now. You can trust me." Merle says inching closer to us.

I slowly raise my gun as Merle continues forward. "Come on. What do ya say, sugar lips?" he asks walking closer to me this time. "Don't call me that! You expect us to trust you?! I don't think so." I snort at him backing up further.

"You trust us. You stay here. Got it?" Glenn commands. "I don't think so." Merle says shouting at us and lunging for Maggie. When I come around the car, Merle has ahold of her with his gun up to her face.

"Put the gun down!" Glenn screams freaking out. "No! Merle, stop!" I yell at the same time as Glenn. This situation just turned for the worst real quick. "Merle, please. Just let her go." I plea scared for Maggie's life.

Merle completely ignores me instead. "Hey, hold up, buddy." he says grinning at Glenn. "You let go of her! Let her go!" Glenn screams pointing his gun at Merle's head. I hold up my gun as well.

"Come on, sweets. Put that gun in the car right now. Do it!" Merle yells making me flinch in terror. I do as he says for Maggie's sake. Glenn, on the other hand, hasn't moved an inch this whole time.

"Glenn, just put it down." I urge out of fear. I know Merle. He wouldn't hesitate shooting her. "I'd do as she says, Glenn. You don't want your girlfriend, here, to have her head blown off do ya? Put it in the car, son." Merle threatens digging the barrel of his gun into Maggie's cheek.

"Glenn finally puts the gun down in the back next to mine. "Now, we're gonna go for a little drive." Merle tells us still sitting on the ground with Maggie in his arms. "We're not going back to our camp." Glenn states glaring at him. "No, we're going somewhere else." he retorts smiling at me like a vicious predator.

"What's with that grin? Where are you taking us?" I grunt angrily at Merle. "You'll find out soon enough, sweetheart." he laughs at me then turns to Glenn. "Glenn, get in the car! You're driving!" he says pushing Maggie into the backseat.

After Glenn does as he's told, Merle looks to me glaring at him. "Now. Get in the car." he gestures to the open backseat. "No!" I say crossing my arms in front of my chest. I look to see Maggie shaking her head and whispering not to do it.

"Get your ass in the fuckin' car, woman!" Merle screams angrily trying to force me in. "I'm not getting in there! You can't make me!" I yell standing my ground. Imagine that - another reckless thing I'm doing once again.

Merle stands there laughing at me for a few seconds then speaks up. "Okay. Have it your way, then." he says walking closer. I try to back away, but he grabs me by my arm with his good hand and drags me to the car.

"Hey, stop! Let me go, you jerk! What are you doing?!" I scream trying to break free. "You're coming with me." Merle says picking me up with his good hand cradling my butt. "Hey! Don't touch me! Daryl will get you for this!" I squirm roughly in his arms.

"Easy there, darling. I don't want to accidentally stab you in your pretty little face." Merle laughs throwing me in the car beside Maggie. "You son of a bitch!" I scream as he slams the door in my face.

"Damn. Still so feisty, that one." Merle comments winking at me and laughing as he climbs into the passenger seat. "All right. Everybody ready? Fun time." he laughs checking on me in the backseat. "Now drive." he points his gun at Glenn with a serious look on his face.

As soon as we start out on the road, Merle decides he wants to chit chat. "So, I've been wondering. Are you and my brother a thing now?" he laughs turning around to look at me. If he's not careful I'm gonna slap that filthy grin off his face.

"Why does it matter?" I bark from the backseat. "Because he's my baby brother. I'm happy for him. He's finally getting some ass." Merle laughs again as I send him a look of disgust.

"By the way, was he the first one to make a move or was it you? Ahh. Did you go down on him? Is that what made him flip? He always was the sweet one, my brother." Merle grins again staring me down. It's like he's undressing me with his eyes.

"We're done talking about that, got it?" I growl glaring at Merle and trying to smack him in the back of the head. "Hey, watch it. Remember I'm the one with the gun." he says holding up his gun so that I can see it. I quickly shut my mouth and retract my hands to pout for the remainder of the car ride.