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RJ's POV
The night air colliding with the heat from the low burning fire felt amazing. It was almost the perfect temperature. Nothing had happened, and I wasn't expecting anything to happen. Nothing besides the sound of Daryl's snores and an owl hooting in the distance was heard.
The moonlight bled through the trees, making everything around me visible. Even though I knew there was no danger, my hand was still gripping onto my KA-BAR. Considering I had nothing else to do, I picked up a thick, broken branch from the ground and began carving my initials into it. I was leaving my mark, something I had a habit of doing. There's a tree back at camp that has mine, Carl's, Sophia's, and the Morales' children initials carved into it.
R.J.G was carved into the ground, and since I finished, I tossed it behind me, allowing it to land wherever it wanted.
The sound of leaves scurrying across the ground with the wind had me both calm, and at the edge of my seat. I wasn't sure if the sound was calming, or if a demon was gonna come out of nowhere and kill me while Daryl was asleep.
My job taught me how to kill metaphorical demons, not real demons.
I anxiously played with the knife, tossing it and stabbing it into the ground until the sun began to rise. I let out a sigh. It had been maybe three hours and based on the position of the moon when I woke up, Daryl had let me sleep maybe four or five hours, so I decided to pay back the favor.
Without waking him up, I walked over to a tree with a low trunk and a lot of climbable branches.
I took up Mother Natures' offer and began climbing the tree to get a bird's eye view. Watching over the little camp would be easier that way.
We still hadn't seen any geeks up or around the mountain, which was kind of shocking but it made sense since most of the dead were loitering around Atlanta.
My mind went to Merle and the Atlanta group. I hoped that they'd made it back okay, and I really hoped that if not anyone else, Merle made it back.
After another hour of letting my legs swing off the sides of the branch, I began breaking twigs from the smaller branches and throwing them at the sleeping hunter below.
The first one, I had missed and cursed myself for doing so, the second one hit his shoulder, and I held my breath as I waited for a reaction.
A disappointed sigh left my mouth when he didn't move a muscle. I broke another few twigs before turning back towards Daryl and throwing the fourth one. It hit his face, and his cheek twitched a bit, but he didn't wake up. With a huff, I threw all three that were in my hand, and they all hit him in the face.
Angrily, the hunter began swatting around his face before sitting up. His eyes looked to where I should've been, and I took that as my queue to speak up before he started yelling.
"You're a pretty heavy sleeper." His eyes snapped over to me with a scowl etched onto his face. Annoying and fucking with people used to be my specialty, especially with Rick and Shane.
"The hell ya doin' up there?" He growled as he stood up, dusting off his clothes that had twigs on them.
"I got bored, and I figured I'd have a better view of the camp from up here." I shrugged, before using my hands to grip onto the branch and swing myself down. I landed on my feet and made my way over to the little camp.
Daryl scoffed. "Let's just get goin. The sooner we start lookin', the sooner we can get back."
Amen to that.
We began heading towards the tracks and immediately found them. They were still pretty deep, so we began our trek through the woods.
It'd been maybe thirty minutes before I remembered my snares. I cursed under my breath, not sure if I should leave Daryl or not.
The redneck turned towards me with a raised eyebrow. I knew with the silent gesture, he was asking what was wrong.
"My snares. I forgot about them." I had a hand in my hair as I tried to think if it would be best to check them now or after we found the deer.
"You check em'. I'll find the deer."
His words shocked me for a moment. I thought he'd just call me stupid and then we'd continue on our mission to find the deer while I continued to wonder if my snares caught anything.
"You sure?" I asked skeptically, my eyebrows furrowed.
"Jus' track your way back to me when you're done." He shrugged. "Can't carry the deer back to camp by myself."
You could probably drag it.
I nodded my head, and we parted ways. I tracked our footsteps back, knowing that they'd lead me straight to the snares.
I wasn't really trying to look for anything, so I allowed myself to have fun with the leaves. A small smile made its way onto my face as the sound of leaves crunching under my combat boots was heard.
As I neared one of the snares, I frowned upon seeing that nothing had fallen into my trap. I bent down and retrieved the wire in hopes of being able to use it again before continuing on to find my other snares.
It was maybe another hour before I was heading back towards Daryl. Sadly, I caught absolutely nothing, which was very disappointing considering I usually caught at least one squirrel. I had collected all of the wires, knowing that I could reuse them later.
As I was tracking my way back, I heard what I thought to be the sound of distant screams, but it was so far that I played it off as my mind playing tricks on me. My mind loved to do that, especially when I'm alone.
It was when I heard distant gunshots and yells that I knew I had probably hallucinated the screams. I sighed and held my head in my hands.
"Shut up," I whispered to my mind.
I could hear the sound of my fellow soldiers yelling, gunshots echoing, bombs going off, boots hitting the ground as they ran. My ears began to ring as I leaned against a tree trunk.
I hadn't had an episode like this in a long time, and I had no idea what caused it, but it was annoying nonetheless.
I did what the shrink told me to do when I came back from my second tour. I began breathing in and out, telling myself that I was in Georgia.
I had no idea how long I was sitting there, but something in me told me to go back to camp. I wanted so badly to ignore it, to head back to Daryl and keep my word of tracking him back, but my gut feeling was so strong that I got up on my shaky legs and began making my way west, back to camp.
My feet walked until I felt stable enough to run, and when I began running, I refused to stop. The closer I got, the louder the yells got. It didn't sound like screams of terror, more like angry yells, like someone was fighting.
They were distant, but I could hear them.
My legs pumped as I pushed myself to run faster. My lungs heaved but I did my best to keep my breaths at least a little controlled. My arms worked back and forth as I held my head high, breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth.
As I neared the edge of the woods, I unsheathed my KA-BAR and broke through the trees. My eyes searched each and every shocked face, my heavy breathes coming out quickly as I tried to catch my breath.
My eyebrows furrowed in confusion when I saw Daryl Dixon. His eyes were already on me, and a man in a white shirt was facing away from me. Daryl looked to the man before scoffing and making his way past him.
"Some brother you got." His voice sounded angry and hurt as he sped by. My eyebrows furrowed further before they snapped back over to the man in the white shirt who wasn't facing me.
My mouth dropped slightly, and my breath hitched. I'd know those stupid sweaty curls anywhere, and when he turned around . . . there was no mistaking those eyes.
"Riley..." Rick mumbled as he began walking towards me, but I broke into a sprint, my arms wrapping around the tall asshole I called my brother.
I couldn't believe it. Shane said he was dead. A part of me thought that this was all a dream, and the other part prayed that it wasn't. I hadn't even realized that tears began to stream down my face until a salty tear reached my mouth. Rick had one arm wrapped around my shoulders, and his other hand was pressed into my hair.
"I—I thought—"
"It's okay, I know," Rick spoke as he kissed the top of my head, the way he'd always done. It was so comforting, so calming, but it wasn't okay. My emotions soon turned from relief to anger. Shane had said that Rick was dead because he knew that I'd go back for him. I ripped myself away from Rick, and once my eyes landed on Shane, his eyes widened slightly and he put his hands up.
"Shit.." someone mumbled from the crowd, but my mind was only focused on the asshat that had me believing that my brother was gone.
"RJ, calm down, Shane did what—"
"Yeah, I know what he did." I snapped at my brother before going to take a step towards Shane.
"RJ, listen to me. If you—" Shane stopped as soon as I started to raise my voice.
"Why the hell would I listen to you?" I was in shock, had he expected me to be okay about this? "You had us believing that my brother was dead for damn near two months and you expect me to listen to you?" I scoffed, digging my hands into my hair as I turned around. How could I have been so naive? I should've gone back and checked myself. I was taught to never believe it until I see it with my own eyes and I went against my own rules for what? For my so-called best friend?
"The place was swarmed!" Shane tried to defend. "The military was shooting civilians, RJ, civilians!"
I could only handle my anger for so long and then I realized something. Andrea was back, T-dog was back, Glenn was back, Jaqui was back, Morales was back, but a certain annoying redneck was still yet to be seen. Normally he'd be egging on my anger, especially since it was directed at Shane.
My eyes searched around the group until I turned towards Glenn who was looking anywhere but at me, and the same went for Morales.
My heart dropped as I took a step back. Out of that whole group, Merle was the one who didn't return?
"Where the hell is Merle?" My head turned towards Shane, knowing that he'd have to tell me the truth. He lied about my brother being dead, he wasn't allowed to lie about anything else ever again.
"He was left behind." My brother's cowboy voice echoed through my mind. Left behind?
"He was being Merle. Rick had to handcuff him to a piece of metal on a roof." T-dog said from where stood, which was far away from me.
"You couldn't have brought him back?" I growled.
"We're going back for him." My brother said as he raised one of his hands, trying to calm me down.
That was why Daryl was so pissed. I let out a sarcastic snort. "Great job, Shane." His eyebrows furrowed and his head jerked in shock and confusion. "I told you to let me go. If I would've gone then this would've never happened!" I shouted before storming off towards my tent.
I had to get ready to go back to Atlanta with Rick. I should've told Shane to shove it and gone with the Atlanta group anyways.
Quiet curses began shooting from my mouth as I angrily tore open the zipper. I made my way inside before forcefully zipping the tent back up. I knew that my gut was always right, and I knew that I should've followed my gut and went with Merle, but I ignored it and rolled over like a little bitch.
I tore off my dirt and sweat-covered clothes and put on some grey skinny jeans, a black tank top, and a jacket. I put my weapons belt back on before shoving a handful of rounds into the inside pocket.
My hand reached for my beretta and pulled it from the holster before I began my quick check-up. I checked the barrel and made sure the safety was on before placing it back into my belt.
I frantically searched through my backpack before I found another KA-BAR in a holster. I attached it to my belt before putting my other black boots on that I'd worn on countless missions.
When I exited the tent, I made my way towards where the rest of the group seemed to be waiting by a burnt-out campfire. I made the mistake of leaving one of my best friends behind once, and I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. Not only that, but Rick was going, and if Rick was going then I was going. I wasn't going to lose my brother again.
I stood by the campfire with my arms crossed, waiting for my brother so we could hurry up and get Merle.
"Could you throw me a bone here, man?" Shane's voice said from around a bush Where he and my brother came walking out from behind. "Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?"
My head snapped over to him. Shane had always been protective of the ones he loved, and often times it led to disagreements like this one. My eyes sent daggers just way. He knew how fond I was of Merle, he knew that if anyone in the camp were to go back for him besides Daryl, it would be me. Not only that, but my brother had a big heart, so naturally he'd be the third, and Shane knew this.
"Hey, choose your words more carefully," Daryl growled from a few feet to the right of me. I shifted my weight as I stood glaring at Shane.
"Oh no, I did. Douche bag's what I meant." I had to admit, that was a little funny, but it still pissed me off.
"Because he's still human, Shane," I spoke up, my voice rising as I said it.
Shane and Rick both looked over to me, and Shane began to shake his head. "No. No, you're not going. Not you too."
"Like hell I'm not," I argued angrily. "The last time I didn't listen to my gut, Merle was left handcuffed to a roof!" I shouted.
"I get it, alright? You two were friends, but Merle Dixon?" Shane scoffed as he shook his head slightly.
"Clearly you don't. Considering you left your best friend for dead." I countered, causing Shane's entire mood to falter. He sighed as he looked to the ground, knowing that I'd never let him live it down. Rick had always been my rock, no matter how many times we argued, no matter how many times we got on each other's last nerve, we were still siblings. We were still blood.
"Point is, the guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst." I rolled my eyes. No, Shane, he wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst.
"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst—me. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap." My heart dropped slightly at his words. Merle must've been so scared at first, but now I was sure that he was pissed off. My hand made its way to my forehead as I began to believe more and more that me going was the right play. "That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being."
I couldn't have agreed more.
"So you, RJ, and Daryl, that's your big plan? Lori asked from where she sat with Carl. I'd say it was a great plan. I know of my skills, and I know that Rick could get us out of a sticky situation. He's done it for me countless times.
Rick turned around to face Glenn, our expert scavenger. He looked confused for a moment before realization hit, and his entire mood seemed to shift.
"Oh, come on." The Korean kid sighed exasperatedly.
"You know the way. You've been there before—in and out, no problem. You said so yourself." If anyone was good at putting a team together, it was Rick, and if anyone was good at putting together plans and plays, it was Glenn. A match practically made in heaven.
"C'mon, Glenn, please." I stepped forward beside my brother. "I know it's not fair of us to ask, but we kind of owe it to Merle. How long has he helped keep this camp fed? I mean look around, none of us have exactly been starving. Please, it would make us feel a lot better if you went."
"Especially her," Rick said, gesturing towards Lori.
Glenn seemed to actually be contemplating my words. He sent a small glare my way, and I knew that my little speech had worked. That was the most I'd ever said to him, so I'm sure he knew that I was serious about this.
"You two are the most convincing people I've ever met. . ." he mumbled as he begrudgingly leaned back against a red charger. Where the hell did that come from?
"That's just great. Now you're gonna risk three men plus RJ, huh?" I was a little offended that Shane didn't include me and made me a separate person but I ignored and turned towards him with an annoyed face.
"Four," T-dog spoke up. Was nobody gonna include me, even though I was going?
Daryl scoffed. "My day just gets better and better, don't it?" He said as he continued to clean his bolts where he sat.
"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?" I immediately raised my hand with my eyebrows furrowed. Was I really that invisible? ". . .besides RJ." Thank you.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Shane begin to pace. He was extremely stressed about us going to Atlanta, and I had no clue why. We were just going to go get Merle back. Yeah, the place is swarming with geeks but it was nothing that we couldn't take—at least I hope.
"Why you?" Daryl glared as he began to angrily clean his bolts.
"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language." T-dog concluded, finishing their little bitch banter.
"That's five." Thank you, Dale. I sent him an appreciative nod, telling him that I was glad that he didn't separate me from the group of guys that were actually less capable than me. It was starting to piss me off.
"It's not just five. You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick." My eyebrows furrowed. What the hell was Shane on about? "C'mon you saw that walker. It was here. It was in camp." My eyes widened.
"A walker was here?" I asked frantically.
"Just outside the alarms." By alarms, he meant the pieces of metal on a string that Daryl and Merle set up. Another reason we owed it to him to bring him back.
"And who set up those alarms?" I asked spitefully. Shane rolled his eyes, digging his hand in his hair.
"You're not listening. They're moving out of the cities. They come back, we need every able body we've got—"
"And who told you that we needed to train these people?" I shouted over him. I had been telling Shane for weeks that these people couldn't just be helpless little shits that relied on others to protect them. It was what would end our group.
"We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp!" Shane yelled over my voice. We were in each other's faces, and if we got too rowdy, Rick knew that I would swing. It wouldn't be the first time. It was just how we were. Any time we argued it would always end up with us yelling in each other's faces. There were only a few times where I got angry enough to swing, but Rick was always there. Always.
"Alright, calm down, calm down." Rick hissed as he got between us. I turned away, walking away from the situation before I got angrier than I could control. "It seems to me what you really need most here are more guns." I paused, turning back towards my brother with a confused expression.
"Right, the guns," Glenn spoke up, and I could practically see the lightbulb above his head turning on.
"Wait, what guns?" Shane and I asked simultaneously. Dipshit.
"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left." My eyes widened. I was so calling dibs on one of the rifles. "I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It's just sitting there on the street waiting to be picked up."
The thought of Rick getting swarmed had my blood running hot. I could've prevented that. I could've prevented all of this, but Shane had a habit of getting in my way and making things harder for our future selves.
"Ammo?" The man himself asked.
"Seven hundred rounds. Assorted."
?
After another heated argument—this time with Lori—and Rick calming me down, the group had pretty much learned that I was the hothead of the siblings. Rick explained that he needed his walkie from the bag to contact and warn a man and his boy that saved him when he woke up, and that was the first time that Lori and Shane finally agreed to let us go without any more of them talking our ears off.
I sat in the back of the cube van along with Daryl and T-dog. The whole time, Daryl had been glaring daggers at T.
"He better be okay. That's my only word on the matter." The angry redneck finally spoke.
"I told you the geeks can't get at him. The only thing that's gonna get through that door is us." I almost asked how he could be so sure, but finally, the van came to a stop.
"We walk from here," Glenn spoke as he turned towards us before turning to hope out.
Daryl threw open the sliding door before jumping out and I soon followed. We all followed Glenn through the train tracks that led towards the city.
My gut twist and turned, and I knew something wasn't right. I unsheathed one of my KA-BAR's as I jogged beside Rick, getting ready just in case. Firing a shot in the city was a mistake, and as I said before, mistakes get you killed.
It took us maybe ten minutes to jog all the way under a bridge where a hole had already been cut in the fence.
Glenn opened it, and Rick ushered for me to go in first. I wanted to roll my eyes, and seeing as how I'm an amazing multi-tasker, I rolled my eyes while I pushed myself through.
Rick followed soon after me, and he turned towards the others as he asked, "Merle first? Or guns?"
"Merle, we ain't even havin' this conversation!" Daryl growled from beside me as we were already walking towards the direction of the department store.
"We are." Rick quickly countered to both of us. He knew that we were both on the same wavelength, and I wanted to go for Merle too. I shook my head as we all began to jog again. "You know the geography, it's your call." He said to Glenn.
"Merle's closest. The guns would mean doubling back. Merle first." Thank you, Glenn, thank you for proving that I am never wrong.
The streets of Atlanta were just as I remembered. Absolutely littered with walkers, aimlessly walking around, waiting for food.
We ran through alleys and hid behind walls or dumpsters. We were silent, praying to not be heard, seen, or smelt by any of the dead creatures. Luckily we were fortunate enough to slip by them and make it safely inside of the department store through the back.
We crept inside, my knives held up in each of my hands, my eyes searching for any sort of movement or indication that we weren't alone. It made me anxious that Rick was upfront, but there wasn't much I could do about it, considering he forced me to be in the middle of the group.
As we entered the clothing section that led to the stairs, Rick gestured towards Daryl and pointed in the direction of a walker. He had the silent weapon, as did most of us, but his, you could actually shoot.
God, I need a crossbow.
Daryl stepped forward with his crossbow raised and aimed at the female walker. She was softly growling as she stumbled around, barely moving.
"Damn...you are one ugly skank." Well, she's decaying, Daryl.
A crossbow zipped through the air, causing the walker to fall to the ground almost immediately. It was then that I actually took a look around at the store. I had been looking, but I wasn't really paying attention to the state of the store.
The glass doors had been shattered, the clothes were knocked to the ground, everything that'd once been neatly placed on shelves was now on the ground or knocked over from the group of walkers that made their way through this place. It looked like a tornado had spontaneously formed inside of the store.
After we were sure that the coast was clear, we all ran for the stairs. It was dark inside, the only light being from the occasional window every few flights.
Despite my legs burning and begging for me to stop, I picked up my knees and continued to push myself further.
When we got to the door, T stepped forward and cut the chain that held the door closed with a bolt cutter. Daryl kicked it open with as much force as he could muster before running through the door. I was right behind him, running and ready to apologize.
"Merle!" He shouted. "Merle!"
As Daryl jumped from the metal ladder, I ran down but stopped dead in my tracks when I didn't see anything but a small pool of blood, surrounding what looked to be a hand. My jaw dropped and my eyes widened. We were too late.
"No!" Daryl screamed at the sight of the lone hand. "No!" He paced around and looked towards T, but despite his tears, I could remember his threat to T ringing in my mind. "No! No! No!"
His screams fell upon deaf ears as I backed up into the edge of the building. My back leaned against the concrete as I realized that even despite my efforts to not leave him behind, I was still too late. Despite me trying to make it right, I was too late. Daryl's angry cries made me feel all the more worse.
"We were too late.."