A/N: Sorry it's been so long since I last posted, so I'm going to post Chapter 6 and 7. My laptop broke and it took me ages to get another and be able to access the story again. All rights to AMC Walking Dead, except for my OC's

Outside in the walls of the Community, I let the fresh air hit me, feeling the sun soak into my skin, helping me to forget everything that had happened outside the walls, out in the world beyond. It was a nice release from constantly being on edge, waiting for the day the dead sneak up and attack.

I couldn't help myself, just froze on the spot, watching people go by, and suddenly I felt overwhelmed, fear filling me. There were too many people here, too many people that could cause a ruckus, that could bring the dead onto us.

"Hey, you okay?"

It was a young woman who spoke to me, and I could move again, breaking out the fear I had placed myself in. "Hey... Uh.. yeah, I think so," It felt so much like a lie, but when I saw the woman beside me, I felt a little at ease, she was happy, and it helped me to relax too. Why should I be scared if everyone else isn't?

"I haven't seen you around before," She smiled, reaching her hand out to shake mine. "Karen," I took her hand and shook it, smiling weakly. She was a gorgeous woman, with deep shoulder length hair and warm brown eyes, "Maddison, but call me Maddie," It felt so normal, seeing her here, like she was just passing by the street.

"You seem uncomfortable, are you sure you're okay?"

I nodded again, pulling my hand away from hers and resting it by my side again, just staring off down the street. "It's so weird, I'm not used to being so safe." I eventually confessed, relaxing a little bit and feeling my shoulders detense. "I've been on the road since the outbreak really, it's been hard but we've done all we can." I tried to figure the best way to word what's in my head as I looked back at her, seeing how sad she looked.

"Don't tell Merle, Jackson or Martinez, but the last time I slept on the road with them after that horde, I felt it was best for us all to have a full meal, so I had to eat dog food." Karen gasped, her hand covering her mouth as she stared horrified at us.

"You hadn't got any food?" Karen seemed so surprised at that, it was almost startling to me, "That's so ludicrous, you won't have to worry about that again." I smiled as she did too, and both of us went back to standing silently, watching others around us.

Even kids were playing in the streets, running back and forth with a football, it was almost like normal, that the world hadn't ended. Parents chatted and had drinks, some moving back and forth with ongoing tasks they were doing. "This place is amazing," I broke the silence between us and just sighed. "It's a shame it won't last."

Karen nudged me a little and I glanced over to her, seeing what she was doing. "Do not think like that, not around the kids." She warned me, and I realised I must have spoken out loud. The last thing I wanted to do was make a comment like that, start up some panic and have Phillip come after me. He already gave me the creeps as it is.

"Sorry," I was sincere, but decided it was best to keep going, explore the area a bit and look for Jackson. "I'll head off." Karen chuckled and as I walked away, she followed, falling into line with me as I walked further on into the Community.

"Don't be stupid, it took a few of us a bit of time to learn it's safe here."

"You think that I can do that too?" I hated the fact I couldn't seem to relax anywhere. I never wanted to feel this way, but it was a side effect of being paranoid. "I'm a little bit paranoid..."

"We all have reasons why we don't feel safe," She reassured me, and we just continued our walks, when I approached a quiet area filled with soil. I was surprised it wasn't being used, it looked perfect for a garden.

"Do you have a garden?" I frowned, walking further into the area, leaving her behind as I looked around it. "It would be a perfect place here to set one up, grow food if we could find the seeds." I couldn't believe this space wasn't being utilised at all, it was perfect. All it needed was someone to help build planters and we could start it off.

"We have a small garden, but it's mainly flowers, stuff that was already in when we got here." Karen watched from afar, and I glanced over to her smiling, feeling like maybe this was what I needed to relax a little. "We should ask The Governor if he has any problems with it, we could work on it together."

I grinned, feeling happy, already plotting the garden out in my head and planning what vegetables were to go where, even a few trees would be nice. I heard snarling and jumped a bit, immediately grabbing my knife and kicking myself for relaxing too much. It sounded close and ready to get us, but when my sight finally landed on it, it was on the other side of the wall.

Adrenaline had flooded my system, and I realised that despite the wall being boarded up and gapless, there was still an occasional chain link fence that was visible throughout it, where the dead can see in. Whether it was purposeful or not, it still allowed this Walker to notice us talking. Approaching the gap, I readied my knife and stabbed it in it's head, watching it drop to the floor before I backed away, trying to calm myself down as I pushed past Karen.

"I can't be here." I told her, walking away, "Where's my friend Jackson?" The sun was now starting to set, hiding behind some clouds whilst it descended, Karen running up beside me and trying to talk to me.

"I can't be here, Karen," I sighed. I had almost fooled myself into thinking this place was safe, almost fooled myself into forgetting the outside world. She took my arm and I tried to shake her off, my breathing shaky as I remembered my mother and the nurses, or Mike and the walkers.

"What's going on here?"

"I don't know, Merle," The first voice belonged to Merle, who must have heard something going on as he came over to check, whilst the other was Karen. "She just became agitated after a biter made her jump." I set my knife back into its holster and rubbed my face, licking my lips before I looked around the streets, trying to find the familiar pretty boy face that I had seen for so many months before this.

"Where's Jackson?" I asked Merle, my voice almost commanding. "I need to see Jackson." Merle took my arm gently and nodded, gesturing down the street towards the building further up, it's almost burnt looking bricks shining in the remaining sunlight.

"Come on then," Merle smiled softly trying to reassure me at the same time. "He went to get some sleep." I nodded a bit and relaxed a lot more with Merle around, starting to feel safer knowing that he had a weapon on him. No one else here seemed to have one on.

I bid Karen a goodbye, Merle doing the same as he led me off, his hand resting on my upper back as he walked with me, keeping me following him in the same direction. "He asked where he was going to sleep, and I showed him, that's where I was." Merle tried to reassure me again, telling me what he had been doing. "I also found him a job as The Governor wants you both to be working."

"Working?" I questioned, unsure what he meant by that. "You guys have set jobs here?" Merle helped me up the stairs and down a hallway, stopping outside a door. "He's asleep in here, but I can take you to your room." A room to myself, that sounded nice, at least that way I wouldn't be causing any problems for Jackson or anyone else if I had another night terror.

"It's next door to mine too, so if you need anything, then you can always knock." Smiling, I felt my fear dripping away, leaving me feeling exhausted and ready to sleep. Merle stopped outside my apartment, unlocking the door with a key before flinging it open, stopping long enough to give me the key before he headed inside, wanting to show me around.

"It's a nice place, got a bed, basics, there's no fridge or anything, but other than that everything is here." He explained, showing me around the tiny apartment, but I didn't care. It was mine and it was big enough for me, it almost felt like home.

"Thank you, Merle." I told him eventually, touching his arm as we stopped by the bedroom door, a double bed inside, waiting for me to crawl into it and pass out. "Do you get electricity here? Or is the electricity only for the important places?"

"No you get basic electric, but it gets shut off after sundown, so you got maybe a few more hours," I nodded my head, glancing over to where I could see the door to the bathroom, my heart almost jumping for joy when I realised I have a shower, cold or not. "You get hot water too, but limit it to short showers, so everyone gets some, we have to run it through a cycle."

It was almost like he was reading my thoughts, yet I couldn't care. "Thank you, Merle, for bringing us here." I sighed, feeling sad for a moment. "I don't know whether I will really be able to settle in, I need time for that."

Merle seemed understanding, nodding his head and smiling down at me from where he towered over me, both of us just staring at each other. "You should go, I'm gonna shower and get some rest." Eventually telling him my plans, I tore my eyes away, feeling a heat wash over me as I attempted to reduce any embarrassment I might get from it.

"Alright then, I'll get you tomorrow for rounds, I want to introduce you to some work I think you would be good at." I nodded my head, smiling again and watching him make his way to the door and glance back once more.

"Goodnight, Maddie."

"Night, Merle."

Merle couldn't believe just how excited he had seen Maddie when he showed her around the apartment. It was almost as though she had never had her own space, something which Merle understood, especially when his mother died, and he stayed with his brother, protecting him.

It hadn't been easy for him either, the way he had to settle in after he got separated from his brother, Daryl. He just knew he was lucky enough to have been found by Martinez before the dead burst through the door to the roof back in Atlanta.

Not a day went by that he didn't wish that thing's had happened differently. He blamed the man, T-Dog, for his troubles, for dropping the damn key down the drain and leaving him on the roof to the mercy of the undead, but the whole thing was his fault, and it took a while for him to process that.

Closing the door to Maddie's place, he made his way further down the hall and towards the final door here, before letting himself in, shutting it behind him as he stripped off his over-shirt, scrunching it up before tossing it to the chair in the corner.

That woman, Maddie, she was something else. Merle remembered back when they were in that house by the dealership somewhere in Macon, the way she was so stubborn and seemed to dislike him for the way he spoke. Merle understood why, he was terrible at making friends, most females here hated him, he had his own way with words.

Smiling to himself, he removed his vest top, tossing that to the side too and making his way for the bathroom, undoing his belt as he walked, wanting nothing more than to shower away the day, to remove Maddie from his mind.

Yet even as he started the shower and fully stripped, climbing into the warm water, she was on his mind.

He had seen the fear in her eyes when he approached her and Karen earlier, it was almost instantaneous when the biter had attacked the fence, sensing them there. Maddie had been through something.

The more that Merle began to think of the young woman down the hall, the more he remembered back when they were scavenging together, the way that she fought against him when he tried to help her, stubborn, yet when she needed help, she switched into someone kinder.

Merle felt a twitch when he remembered the fact he helped to remove her top, how his eyes skimmed over her torso and body. She had such a good body, and the fact that she had these perky tits too, he wanted nothing more than to just grab them, not to mention her ass.

Merle groaned, finding himself a little flustered, shaking his head as he let the water run over his face. "Come on man, thought you were tryin' to change." He told himself, but it was already too late.

After the shower, Merle found himself lying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, the sun had gone down now and all electricity had been turned off to the places that didn't require it as much, which meant that he was just led in the dark, unless he wanted to get up and grab a candle, which he didn't.

Merle enjoyed whenever he could masturbate, the feeling of release he got from it was amazing, he just wished he could actually go and fuck something, it was so much better, yet he found himself feeling a little guilty at the fact it was over Maddie, the young woman who he had been rude to.

She had to have been in something traumatic, half of the nightmares Merle had woke him up but he never ever found himself reacting the way she was. It irked him through, that night, when her friend woke up but just stared at her. If he hadn't have come running in, Merle doubted that she would have ever woken up from the nightmare she was having.

She tries to play it off as well, but it's not an easy thing to shake off.

Almost as though she was listening to his inner thoughts, a shrill scream filled the room, and Merle shot up, grabbing his gun off the bedside table as he jumped out of bed, wearing nothing but the sweatpants that he had procured a few weeks back and running out into the hall.

No one else seemed awake, even her friend Jackson hadn't even glanced out his room. Pig. Merle scowled and rushed to the apartment he had shown to Maddie and tried the door, surprisingly finding it unlocked.

He rushed in quickly and ran to the bedroom, seeing the woman led onto the bed, she was pale, sweaty and seemed in distress. Merle disliked that and went over to her, being careful not to wake her too suddenly as he led down before pulling her into a hug, her back to him as he ensured her arms were trapped and safe as she writhed beneath him.

"I've got you,"

I was crying when I finally woke up, arms wrapped around me, trapping against a warm body, trying to make me feel safer. It was working, and I can't imagine that it was easy for Jackson to listen to me screaming. Maybe it was time to finally admit that I had a problem, one that needed fixing.

"Just breathe."

I went white cold, ice filling my veins when I realised it wasn't Jackson who was holding me. It was in fact, the one person I didn't want to admit to that I had problems. Merle. My mind raced, trying to come up with something plausible regarding whatever had happened, but I had no idea what, drawing a complete blank.

Eventually I managed to stop myself from crying, finding it hard not to feel safe when I was encompassed in his arms and his heat. Studies did show that a hug does help to relax someone... Trying to shake that from my mind, I tried to work up the courage to say something, knowing I had to or he wouldn't let me go.

"T.. Thanks." My voice was hoarse, words stuttering out my mouth as I tried to slow my ever racing heart and mind. "I... I'm sorry..." I rested my head back against him, sighing a little.

"Don't be sorry," Merle released me slowly, giving me the chance to move and sit up, where I kept myself covered with the sheets, cursing the fact I decided to sleep without any trousers on, just thankful that I kept my underwear on. "You can't help it."

"It's dangerous," I scowled, turning to face him and just flushing white hot, realising that he was half naked. "I got you out of bed." I was shocked, not expecting to see Merle without a top on, seeing as the most I've seen on him he has always had something on.

"Don't be sorry for that."

We shared a silence for a moment and I glanced around my room, half expecting Jackson to be here freaking out again as he usually does, but I couldn't see him. Merle picked up on this, glancing back himself and sighing. "When I come in, I expected to see Jackson here helping," He explained, moving to get off of the bed.

Don't go... The Words almost came out of my mouth as I reached a hand for his arm, wanting him to stop and stay with me, knowing full well that If I tried to sleep again, I'd have another nightmare. Merle stood up and noticed my hand stretching for him, and I could see his face soften up a little, the façade he usually used dropping slightly.

"I'll be right back."

The words weren't reassuring when he left the room, and I heard the door to the apartment shut, leaving me in the silence, uncomfortable and overpowering, so I got up, headed for the bathroom and over to the sink, watching myself in the mirror.

I looked a mess. My hair tangled and stuck to my face, my eyes looked like they had sunk into my face, almost the way a walker looked, like I was decomposing. I felt like I was anyway. Every nightmare I had, felt like it was taking years off my life, dragging me down. I wasn't the same bright shiny person I was before the apocalypse.

Looking away from the mirror, I glanced down and chose to wash my face with cold water, hoping to wash away any grime that I had picked up from the night, or what little of the night I had managed to sleep through. "Maddie?"

Merle's voice filled the room again and I let off a sigh of relief, drying my face and coming back to meet him in my bedroom. He was dressed now, his usual white woman beater top now covering up his torso, plus he brought in a bag of something else. "I'm here..." I told him and sat on the bed again, watching him as he eyed me up the entire time.

"Eyes are up here too,"

I tried to be snarky but I really wasn't feeling it, my head spinning from the nightmare that seemed to replay over and over. "Why don't you lie back," Merle grinned, setting the bag onto the bed before he disappeared again, coming back almost instantly with two small glasses. Frowning, I looked into the bag, pulling it closer and seeing alcohol, a few beers and a bottle or two of whisky.

"Jeez, Merle."

He laughed and almost jumped onto the bed with me, reaching in the bag for one of the cans of beer before he cracked it open with a hiss before he took a swig of it. "Helps me relax, grab one." I just stared ludicrously, completely shocked by him. "Come on sugar-tits, relax."

I hadn't really drunk alcohol before, I wasn't old enough when I got the job as a waitress, and then I spent most of my money trying to help my mother pay for her treatments when she got diagnosed, so I didn't really have any savings to fall back on to go out with friends.

"I couldn't-" I tried to say but he cut me off, reaching in and grabbing one, passing it over to me, this stupid grin on his face. So rolling my eyes, I shifted and readjusted myself, ensuring the sheets on the bed were covering my lower half before I finally took the can from him. "Fine."

The first taste of the beer as it touched my tongue almost made me gag, it was such a horrible taste, but for once I wanted to feel normal and if this was the way to do it, so be it. "God that's.. urgh." A shudder went through me and Merle just laughed again, taking another sip of his as he leant against the headboard to my bed.

"First time is always like this," He raised an eyebrow and I gave him a dirty look, feeling a little disgusted by his behaviour. "It gets easier, but it's what friends do." That word, one I never really had. Friends. I had heard friends go out and have drinks and fun, but I hadn't ever really had the opportunity to do it.

"Alright then, so we're friends," I sat back too and tried another mouthful, feeling the taste as it slid down my throat. Even I knew this probably wouldn't get better. "Thank you, again, for coming in to me."

"You were having a pretty bad nightmare, you get them a lot?" I glanced down at the sheets, debating again whether I wanted to tell Merle, but at least if I did, I wouldn't be bothering Jackson with it. I also didn't expect myself to stay in Woodbury for too long.

"Yeah, they have been happening more constant for the last week or two." I sighed, rubbing my head, but I couldn't stop the fact that I could see my fathers face. The look of terror and pain that crossed his features as I was held back from him, haunted me, followed me everywhere. At times I could tune it out, but when I tried to sleep, I really couldn't.

"What caused them?"

The question I dreaded to hear, I really didn't want to answer it, but knew I needed to. "I was born and raised in Augusta," I told him, swallowing the lump in my throat, feeling it sitting there, trying to choke me. Trying to wash it away, I took a few gulps of the drink in my hand, wincing at the taste before I attempted to continue.

"I was with my mother at the Hospital, she had been diagnosed with a tumor in her brain, she was there to have it removed." I could already feel the emotions kicking in, rising to the surface and ready to spill out whenever I said the magic word. "She.. She flatlined, and they tried to bring her back, but it was too late. She turned and began to attack the nurses, I was right there when she killed one of them right next to me... the blood hitting me in the face," I was trailing off now, barely noticing the shaking in my hands. "I didn't know how warm blood could be..."

"Maddie," Merle's hand on my arm shocked me back and I flinched from him, tears in my eyes. "It's okay, you're safe." I nodded my head and swallowed again, my throat feeling dry and scratchy, and before I knew it, I had finished my drink, and was reaching for another.

"It was the beginning of them, but they were nightmares, I wasn't screaming myself awake every night I closed my eyes." I sighed and looked away from him.

"But then something happened recently that upped it to you screaming didn't it?" I nodded my head and wanted to leave the conversation there, not wanting to be remembering all of this, needing to recover a little first. Merle seemed to realise this, and after he finished his drink he chose to, instead, pour himself a glass of the whisky he had sitting in the bag.

"I understand that completely, it's not easy when you suffer from something traumatic." He started, taking in the scent of the whisky after putting the bottle back in the bag. "I was raised in a home where you did what you could to survive, and I protected my little brother as much as I could, even dragging his ass out the house when the damn thing went up in flames."

The way he said it, with such a 'matter-of-fact' tone, and barely batting an eyelid shocked me. Something like that you don't just brush off. Not the way he did. "My father was a dick, he beat down on me and I took it, wanting to protect my brother from it all, and I hoped that me going away to be in the Military or heck, even when I got arrested, that he wouldn't turn on Daryl," Merle downed the drink almost instantly before he grinned at me.

"We all got our demons, sugar, it's just the way we process them."

I smiled at him, feeling slightly better about what I had experienced before deciding to talk to him about the other half. "Just over a week ago, we were sleeping in a wooded area, it was the best place we had at the time, and we even had an alarm sort of set up." I told him, gesturing to him that I wanted a glass of the Whisky myself.

I continued to talk as he poured me a drink, watching it flow into the glass smoothly. "We woke in the middle of the night to screaming, there were four of us at the time, my father, a pregnant woman called Bella, me and then Jackson." Sighing, I sniffed the whisky, recoiling at how strong it smelled before I took a sip, this one was worse than the beer.

"My father was being surrounded and torn into, the look on his face is now etched into my memory, the way he was, and the screams of Bella," I shuddered and teared up, closing my eyes and biting my lip. "I just can't get it out of my head, and it's the thing that's been haunting me."

Merle didn't say anything, just held out his glass and chinked it against mine before we both took a sip, sitting quietly for a moment. "It gets better," Merle stated eventually, giving me a grin as he looked over again, "I promise ya that Sugar-tits." Rolling my eyes I finished the drink in my hand, lying on my side facing him.

"If ya say so, old man."