Characters are from TWD. I am just writing for fun :)
Merle's Motorcycle
Author's Note:
Thank you for the continued interest and support :) I hope you enjoy this chapter-I had a lot of fun writing it!
Dinner was a quiet affair that night with only a few words of thanks said to Carol for her cooking to break the silence. Merle didn't say much either, he just wolfed down his food in a series of grunts.
It was already dark with stormy clouds blocking the rapidly setting sun. The sky had darkened an hour ago and now the wind was beginning to blow. But, Rick, Alice and Glenn weren't back yet. Daryl chewed his lip in annoyance, straining his ears to pick up the sound of an approaching car.
Nothing.
"Maybe we should untie Jim," Jacqui said, breaking the silence.
Daryl supposed Shane knew what he was doing leading this group, but he didn't like the asshole. And today, apparently Jim had set him off. Now, Jim was tied to a tree because he had been digging up some dirt patches.
"Yeah, I'll check on him," Shane sighed.
Shane's exit was interrupted by the grumbling sound of a failing automobile engine. Daryl could see the approaching headlights in the distance.
"That's them!" Amy exclaimed. She rushed over to the approaching van, her sister at her side.
"Dad!" Carl cried, ready to rush after Amy and Andrea but Lori held him back, her eyes darting towards Shane.
Daryl also stood up, ready to walk over to the approaching car. When he saw Carol staring at him, he scowled and sat back down, waiting for the van to stop.
Then a piercing scream reverberated through the night air.
"ED!" Carol screamed, recognizing her husband's voice. She turned towards her tent, but Merle grabbed her arm before she could even move.
As if out of nowhere, several walkers began stumbling out of the woods. Daryl quickly grabbed his crossbow. But, he was too late to prevent a walker from sinking its teeth into Jacqui's bicep.
"Alice!" Andrea yelled.
Suddenly, all he could picture was Alice surrounded by walkers, tearing into her skin with bloody teeth. He heard people screaming, but he could barely hear them over the roar of the blood pounding in his ears. He felt a surge if adrenaline spike inside him.
Daryl aimed his crossbow at the hissing walker gnawing on Jacqui. The arrow lodged itself deep into the creature's eye, killing it instantly, but Jacqui was now on the ground in a spreading pool of her own blood, screaming in agony.
Merle and Shane were now standing side by side, firing shots with incredible accuracy. Carol, Lori, Sophia, and Carl were cowering behind the two men.
Satisfied that Merle had the situation under control, Daryl turned away from Jacqui and began to make his way towards the van where he could hear Rick calling for Lori and Carl. He walked past Jim who screamed and struggled against his restraints as a walker gnawed at the side of his neck. He quickly shot at the walker, and then Daryl adeptly reloaded his crossbow and unleashed another bolt, this one directed at Jim.
Daryl killed two more walkers with his crossbow, but there were too many to even count. He couldn't see Glenn or Alice in the dim light, but throughout the confusion, Daryl searched for Alice's form, hoping he wouldn't find it crumpled somewhere in midst of the dead figures.
He began to sprint towards the van when he heard Glenn's yell. He stopped only when he saw a walker with a throat full of blood, snarling and twisting towards him, its blood-soaked hands lashing out at him. He was out of arrows, so he swung his crossbow at its head. The walker stumbled slightly backwards, its lower jaw now disconnected and hanging askew, but only took a moment for it recover before it charged at him again. He raised the crossbow again, ready to strike.
Then he heard a whizzing sound coming towards him through the air. Out of instinct, he ducked. Swinging fast in a long arc, he saw a bat connect with the side of the walker's head, its skull splintering before him.
And then he saw her. Her face was covered in grime and blood. Her hair was wet with sweat, brown braids starting to come undone. He noticed that her tank top was splattered with blood stains and that her bat was dripping with blood, but she was alive.
She thrust a gun into his hands. "Look alive, Dixon!" Alice called to him. She threw him a quick grin, which might have been a grimace, before turning back to the walkers swarming towards them. He began to fire rounds upon the approaching walkers. Glenn was at Alice's side, fending off walkers with a crowbar.
After several shots, he was out of bullets. But, that didn't matter because it was all over in a matter of minutes. A flash of lightning lit up the sky, and rolls of thunder followed, but all that Daryl could hear now was the anguished sobbing and screaming of the group.
And then it began to rain.
He saw Carl and Lori run over to Rick, tumbling and tripping over the dead bodies. Daryl grimaced as he took a look around the camp…the corpses littered the ground, some still lightly twitching.
He could see Sophia standing next to Merle, gripping onto his shirt as if she was scared to let go. Merle knelt down in front of the girl and began to inspect her for any bite marks. Carol was at her daughter's side, looking desperately at his brother as if searching for reassurance.
He turned just in time to see Alice stumble slightly, clutching at her side. His heart continued to slam against his chest even faster than before.
"You alright?"
Alice nodded, breathing heavily, "I'm fine."
"Did you get bit?" Daryl demanded. He stepped forward, grabbing her around the waist in order to inspect her.
She tried to shrug him off, wincing at the movement. "Daryl, let go! I said I'm fine! I wasn't bit! Ow! Daryl! That hurts!"
Daryl didn't remove his hand from around her. Using his free arm, he yanked her shirt up to reveal her right side. Aside from a large bruise, there was no scratch or bite marks.
"I hit myself with my bat, happy?" Alice grumbled, pulling her shirt back down.
"That's possible?"
Daryl almost laughed at the absurdity of what she had done, but after a few minutes, the sickening feeling of the adrenaline rush left and the reality of the situation sank in.
"I also think I banged my ankle on something," she replied testily as she readjusted her footing, causing her hip to grind into his upper thigh as she stumbled into him. He tightened his hold on her in order to keep her upright. Daryl felt his neck heat up.
"Sorry," she muttered shifting again.
"Sorry," he echoed, feeling like a douchebag for enjoying how closely pressed up against him she was, especially with the piles of dead bodies around him. But that didn't prevent him from noticing that her green tank top stuck to her breasts. He hadn't forgotten their last dispute, but his body apparently was not immune to her touch.
Her response was drowned out by Jacqui's renewed wailing. Alice detached herself from him. She managed a weak smile, as though to give him reassurance and began to limp over to where Jacqui was lying. Glenn was at Jacqui's side, staring at Alice with wide eyes.
"I'm going to have to amputate her arm," Alice told Glenn. She sounded removed, as if she might have been talking about the weather and not about the removal of a woman's arm.
"NO! Please!" Jacqui sobbed, "just kill me!"
Alice looked around the camp, searching for guidance. Rick was on the floor, embracing his wife and son. Shane was standing a few feet away, eyes trained on the family. Andrea, Amy, and Dale were huddled together. Amy was slightly shaking, gripping her sister's arm for support. He couldn't see Morales or his family. Only Glenn and Alice were paying any attention to the sobbing woman at his feet.
Daryl turned away and walked towards Jim's disfigured corpse. Daryl grimaced as he put his foot on Jim's neck and slid the arrow out of his eye before reloading his crossbow and walking back towards Jacqui.
Thunk. He shot the arrow straight into Jacqui's left eye.
"Oh, man…" Glenn breathed out as he looked up at him.
"S' her choice," Daryl answered curtly.
Alice was still holding Jacqui's arm. She dropped her face into her hands and groaned before standing up.
"We have to dispose of the bodies," Alice told Glenn, "I don't want to risk them waking up."
Glenn nodded in agreement. Daryl turned away from the pair and walked towards his brother, passing Ed's body on the way. Merle bent down to pick up Ed's gun before wiping the blood off on his shirt. Carol and Sophia turned away when Merle pointed the gun at Ed's head.
"Let's burn this son of a bitch down," Merle announced, looking around at the camp.
Merle pulled the trigger and the silence after the gunshot was deafening.
Disposing of the bodies had taken all night. Her muscles ached from dragging the corpses. Ed, Jacqui, and Jim were buried, but the walkers were burned. Now there was nothing but the smell of burning flesh and ashes left…even thinking about the smell of burning flesh made Alice want to gag.
She sat next to Dale on the top of the RV, looking blankly at the skyline, replaying last night's events in her head, wanting to forget the sound of Jacqui and Jim's cries of agony.
Her mind drifted instead to one of the first patients she had lost when she first began her residency program.
She could hear the sound of his ribs cracking underneath her hands as she performed CPR. She could smell the vomit and urine from the dying man—his body was shutting down, but it was fighting to survive, eliminating any unneeded waste. He was almost naked, his clothes cut off by the nurses to allow her to resuscitate the man.
"If there's no improvement in the next round of CPR, call it," Dr. Brenner, the attending physician told her. He was standing over her, looking down as she continued to press desperately into the man's chest.
She was out of breath, her chest heaving and her arms ached as she continued to compress his chest. After every single compression, she could hear his cartilage popping.
She looked at the heart monitor, begging it not to flat-line. He was too young to die. The man had a family. He was a father and a husband. How was she supposed to call it? How was she supposed to let him die?
"Patient was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome and died of acute respiratory failure. Time of death is 0400." Dr. Brenner announced for her.
The nurses filed out of the room, but she stood next to the body, unable to walk away. Alice watched as a white sheet was placed over the corpse in muted silence.
She didn't leave as she heard the low pitched, tortured wail of the man's wife. It was a gut-wrenching sound that Alice would remember for the rest of her life.
"You have to let it go," Dr. Brenner had told her afterwards. "If you don't, you'll be swallowed and consumed by grief," he explained as he put a hand on her shoulder. "You're young and you have a promising career ahead of you. This isn't the last death you'll see. Not even close. Don't let it worm into every aspect of your life or you will drown."
He straightened the collar on her doctor's coat and looked her in the eye. "Now, go check on our myasthenia gravis patient, Dr. Lane."
From that day on, she learned that it was easy to let oneself be consumed by grief. But, she also learned that she had to put her personal fear and anxiety aside because there were other patients relying on her.
She knew that Jacqui and Jim's deaths wouldn't be the last deaths she witnessed. This wasn't over. This wasn't even the beginning. There would be other losses, but she would move on like she always had.
"There's always someone else relying on you," Dr. Brenner had told her, "you can't afford to let death weigh you down."
She took a deep breath then exhaled as she looked around the camp. Morales had already left with his family this morning, deciding he didn't want to go to Fort Benning or to the CDC. Merle and Daryl had also disappeared before sunrise to go hunting for food. Shane and Rick had been arguing all morning about the group's departure to Fort Benning.
She stretched her leg out gingerly. She held onto her shin and rubbed her ankle with a grimace. She moved her foot around a little before sighing in annoyance.
"Your ankle okay?" Dale asked her.
"It's just a little sore," Alice replied, "but the wrap is helping though."
"You think it's a good decision to go to the CDC instead of Fort Benning?" Dale asked her, not unkindly, "there's safety in numbers and Rick said—
"To hell with what Rick said," Alice interrupted sharply, "my sister is supposed to be at the CDC… so that's where I'm going. My participation in this group is not mandatory."
"And what about Glenn?" Dale continued, unfazed by her outburst, "is it safe for him?"
Alice flinched at his insinuation, but she trusted herself that she wouldn't let Glenn down.
"Glenn decided for himself that he's going with me."
During the trip to Atlanta, Alice, Rick and Glenn had discussed their options. After some argument, the three decided that Alice and Glenn would head to the CDC. Rick and the rest of the group would head to Fort Benning. If something went wrong—in either group— they would meet halfway between the two locations.
Initially, she had been livid at Rick for dragging Glenn to Atlanta, but after Glenn had been "kidnapped" by the Vatos Gang, her and Rick had worked in synch to get Glenn back in one piece.
And as it turned out, it was Rick that understood her wish to continue to the CDC. He had found his family despite terrible odds and he sympathized with her wish to find Nancy.
"And the Dixons?"
"They're grown men. They can decide."
Truth be told, she didn't know if Merle and Daryl were planning on continuing towards the CDC with her and Glenn or if they were going to go with the rest of the group to Fort Benning. Maybe they wouldn't go with either group…she hadn't asked Daryl yet. The anger she had felt about his comment about her sister being dead had simmered down after the death of Jacqui and Jim. And now she just felt guilty again. The list of things she had to apologize for was growing.
She sat with Dale a little while longer, scanning the area for any more potential walkers. Glenn was near their tent, packing up their things. She gave him a small wave, which he returned before resuming his task.
"You plannin' on sittin' there all day or you gonna help?" she heard Daryl's voice call up to her. She peered down at him. He was standing near the RV, squinting up at her with a slight smirk. He held up several squirrels and a rabbit up for her to see.
"Sorry, Dale," Alice said, scrambling down off of the RV, excited that Daryl was now communicating with her instead of snapping at her or worse, ignoring her.
"I bet they didn't teach ya this at Hopkins," Daryl told her as he handed her a knife.
Alice gave him a self-assured shrug, "don't be too sure, Daryl. In lab, I dissected mice and in medical school I worked with cadavers. I've got the hands of a neurosurgeon," She held up her hand and wiggled her fingers. "Skinning a squirrel can't be that difficult."
Alice couldn't believe it. An hour later and she was barely halfway through skinning the second squirrel. Daryl hadn't spoken since his last sarcastic comment about her ineptness and Alice was almost wishing he'd start in on her again. She probably deserved it. At least then she wouldn't be so bored. She rotated her head back and forth to relieve the tension in her neck.
"Y'know, the longer you sit on yer ass, the longer we're both stuck here," Daryl said irritably.
"Oh, give me a break, Daryl. You're just doing this to punish me. I already said I was sorry," Alice shot back, but picked the knife back up and resumed her work.
Daryl didn't respond. Instead, he stood up, leaving her alone. She sighed but didn't stop her work. A minute or so later, a bottle of beer was thrust at her. She looked quizzically at Daryl.
"Just drink, alright? Yer worried 'bout headin' to the CDC and I'm sick of your nervous twitchin', got it?" He thrust the bottle at her again.
Alice was about to say something clever…well relatively clever…about alcohol killing brain cells, but stopped at the last moment. She hated the taste of beer, but he was actually being nice and she was thirsty. She grabbed the bottle and took a long swallow before passing it back to him, grimacing at the warm taste.
"Thanks." She muttered, looking down at the skinned animal, "Merle got this from Atlanta?" She glanced up and noticed he was staring at her with a somewhat puzzled expression on his face. He jerked his head in affirmation. He offered her the bottle again, wordlessly. She took another sip and passed it back.
It felt strange to be sitting so close to Daryl, drinking a bottle of beer, leaning against the tree trunk with a pile of dead animals between them. They sat silently but every time Alice risked a glance up from her work, Daryl was looking directly at her. He was already done with his share of the skinning. She could feel herself flush and looked down at her hands. He offered her the bottle and she took it, still avoiding his gaze.
Daryl was slouched against the tree, propping himself up with his forearm. Alice found herself looking at his fingers, splayed against the mossy ground. She recalled how they'd looked wrapped around his crossbow. They probably gave him more control. Or was it his muscular forearms that enabled him to make such quick movements and accurate shots?
"Quit gawkin'," at Daryl's words, Alice flushed, realizing she had been staring at his arms for too long. She searched desperately for a way to cover her embarrassment. She came up short.
"I wasn't gawkin'," she told him, "just looking and thinking."
"See something you like?"
Alice's eyes shot up to fix on his face, a shocked expression passing over her own face. He looked surprisingly relaxed and self-confident, smirking slightly as his eyes lazily trailed over her. After a second, Alice realized he was joking.
"Daryl!" she gasped in mock-shock, "are you flirting with me?"
It was Daryl's turn to blush. He sputtered in indignation, "I ain't flirtin' s' you who was shootin' me glances."
She tried to hide her grin behind her hand, "If I didn't know better, Daryl, I would say that you are trying to get me drunk."
"Ain't that the truth," Daryl grumbled, but the corners of his mouth turned slightly upwards at her comment.
"Jesus Christ, you still ain't doin' it right. Ain't difficult my ass." He reached for the animal and began skinning it for her.
She grinned at Daryl, silently thanking him, happy that he was finally interacting with her.
"You know…I really am sorry," she told him seriously.
"I's used to it," he shrugged, "being treated like shit by the likes of you ain't nothin' new."
"The likes of me?" Alice asked softly.
"Fancy education, big house, rich family, spoiled…the kind who thinks their better than everyone else."
"What makes you think I was rich?" she asked carefully, trying not to be insulted by his comments.
"Ya tellin' me you weren't?" He challenged.
She shook her head. "No, I was. My parents were rich, but they earned every penny and then some. And that didn't mean that I didn't work hard. If anything, I worked harder. My sister and I wanted to prove to them that we could do it too. They didn't have to pay a single cent for my college or my medical school. And they never treated people poorly… and I'm sorry for doing that to you."
He didn't reply so she continued. "And Daryl, all of that doesn't mean anything anymore. Me, you, Dale, Glenn, Merle, everyone…we all lost everything. Money, houses, fancy cars, etcetera…that doesn't mean anything. Survival skills are what matter now, so if you want, you can look down at me for not knowing how to hunt, shoot, or track."
"I told ya I'd teach you t' shoot," Daryl told her, finally meeting her eyes.
Alice could not help herself from grinning, "so we're okay?"
"It's a long trip to the CDC and I don't want ya poutin' the whole way there, so yeah, we're good."
Alice beamed, realizing that Merle and Daryl had chosen to go with her and Glenn to the CDC instead of Fort Benning.
"And you'll still take me to the zoo?" she asked.
"Yeah. That too," Daryl answered, "but I'm keepin' tally of the favors ya owe me."
"Stop grinnin' at me like some seventy-year old pervert," Daryl added when he noticed her smiling at him.
Her small smile flared into a full-blown grin, "alright, Daryl. I'll do all my perverted grinning in private from now on."
He finished with the animal and bent down to collect the rest of his catches. He stood up, stretching. His shirt rode up, exposing his hip bones and the trail of hair leading from his belly button to his pants. He smirked down at her when he saw her watching him again and in that exact moment she realized that she found him attractive.
Was she allowed to think someone was handsome after everything that had happened? Was she allowed to think that Daryl was attractive?
She stood up a little too quickly, feeling shaky on her bad ankle. "Well, we should get back to the group and help with the packing," she told Daryl, suddenly wanting to get away from him.
He shrugged, oblivious to her change in behavior. She limped back to camp with Daryl, feeling aware of his presence at her side.
"I didn't do a very good job, sorry!" she told Merle as she handed him the skinned animal.
"Ain't as bad as Darylina's first try," Merle cackled as he inspected her work.
"Fuck off," Daryl grumbled.
Alice gave Merle a slight smile before walking quickly towards the small lake, trying to shake Daryl from her mind.
She found washing her bat to be cathartic. She scrubbed her bat with soap until her hands stung. She examined her work, pleased that the metal glistened in the sun. There were several indentations in the bat, but they could have easily been caused by hitting a baseball…and not from bashing in a walker's skull until there was nothing but a bloody mess left.
Alice had always loved baseball. When she was in lower school, her parents had attended every single one of her little league baseball matches. And in high school, they came to all her softball games. Her Dad would shout from the baseball stands, embarrassing both her and her mother. Now, she'd give anything to be hitting baseballs in the batting cages with him. Her favorite possession had been her Dad's worn out, ratty Yankee baseball cap. She wondered where the hat was now. Probably in her apartment in Baltimore… if the building was still standing. She shook her head not wanting to wallow in misery.
She jumped slightly when she saw Daryl approaching her. When he noticed her staring at him, he stopped and chewed on his lip a bit as he observed her from a distance. She waved slightly at him, hoping it didn't look too forced.
Daryl's eyes darted away from her face and looked to be focused on a nearby shrub when she began to approach him. She stopped in front of Daryl and waited for him to say something.
"Sorry I was so harsh 'bout your sister," Daryl finally mumbled.
Her baseball bat hung loosely in her fist at her side. She tapped it against the outside of her leg as she continued to stare at Daryl, surprised he had followed her in order to apologize. He narrowed his eyes a bit at her and scowled, shifting his weight to his other leg, looking rather annoyed and uncomfortable.
"Just forget it," Daryl muttered, thrusting his hands into his pockets like a kid who'd been told by his parents that it was time to head home early from a birthday party.
She realized that she had been quiet for too long. "Thank you, Daryl" Alice replied. She gave him something that she hoped resembled a genuine smile. Just because she suddenly found herself attracted to Daryl didn't mean that she had to be weird around him.
"Nancy might not be there," Alice added, "but that doesn't mean she's dead. I'm not blindly optimistic, Daryl. There'salways a backup plan…if she's not there, I'm going to find her."
"Alright," Daryl told her, his shoulders relaxing slightly.
They trudged back to camp in comfortable silence, his arm occasionally bumping into hers as they walked up the narrow trail. When they arrived, Daryl made his way towards Carol.
Jealousy, hot and sharp, pierced her. The feeling was all too familiar—she had felt it every time she had seen Derrick with his ex-girlfriend. But today, it came out of nowhere, shocking her with its intensity. She had no right to be jealous, she reminded herself. No right at all.
She paused for a second before deciding to find Glenn.
She found him standing next to Rick, Shane, and Merle.
"I don't want the vultures to take my car apart," she heard Glenn grumble as he eyed Dale and Jim who were hovering near the red sports car.
"Good morning!" Alice called to the men as she came to stand near them, "what's this I hear about Glenn's ride being used for parts?"
"Vultures," Glenn repeated, not looking away from the car.
"We're trying to decide what to do with the car," Rick replied, "the RV needs parts and Merle's truck needs gas. Neither of us will get far without it."
"Well, we need a car," Alice explained slowly.
"We got a bike n' a truck." Merle told her, "and sweetheart, you'd look great on the back of my bike."
Alice turned to eye his motorcycle warily. "We—in the medical profession—call them donor cycles because so many riders end up dead…And then we use their organs for transplants."
Merle scoffed, "live a little, princess." She scowled at the older Dixon and turned towards Glenn.
"Why isn't there talk of Glenn being on the motorcycle?" she asked, throwing an accusatory glance at her friend who held up his hands in mock surrender.
"I ain't havin' a man ride behind me," Merle protested, "n' s' my bike. Darylina ain't gonna be ridin' it. S' me and you, sugar."
Alice looked at Glenn, silently asking him what he thought. When he nodded his agreement, she sighed in resignation. "Alright. We'll get Merle's bike and the truck all packed with all our stuff."
She realized that now, her and Glenn were tied to the Dixon brothers. But, Alice trusted Daryl and Merle. They were rough around the edges, but if it came down to it, she knew that she would fight for them and they would do the same for her and Glenn.
In a few short hours, everybody was ready to depart. Saying goodbye to everybody was hard. It was especially difficult to part with Andrea and Amy. But, now everyone was ready to leave. Lori, Carol, Carl, and Sophia were already in the car. Amy and Andrea were in the RV, waving at her through the windows.
She waved back before she walked over to Rick and Shane. She gripped Rick's hand, "Rick. I hope to see you again."
"Likewise, doctor," Rick told her with a slight smile.
She gave Shane a small sympathetic smile, knowing that it probably wasn't easy on him to see Lori with her allegedly dead husband.
"We leavin' or what?" Daryl called to her, shifting impatiently. His truck was already packed with all of their stuff and Daryl was now adding gas to the truck, Glenn at his side.
"Stay safe," Shane told her, shaking her hand, "you know where to find us."
"Come on, let's go!" Daryl shouted at her, "car s' fueled up n' ready t' go."
She gave Rick and Shane one last parting smile before she walked over to Merle, eying the motorcycle carefully.
"You'll go slow, right?" she asked Merle as he threw his bag in the back of the truck and straddled the bike. Daryl and Glenn were standing near the truck, not bothering to hide their amusement.
"Yeah, sure…I'll go real slow," Merle promised, but his tone and grin did little to calm Alice's nerves.
She walked up to Daryl and shoved her backpack into his arms, giving him and Glenn a slight glare. "I'm glad you both are enjoying my misery," Alice told them. "I expected this from you, Daryl. But you too, Glenn?"
And then it happened. Daryl smiled, and it was breathtaking. His smile lit up his face, and Alice felt herself returning the grin. She gave them both a small wave before limping back to Merle's side.
She climbed on behind Merle, steadying herself by settling her hand on his shoulder. She tried to get comfortable for a moment before Merle grabbed both her wrists and pulled her arms around his waist.
"Hold on, sweetheart," Merle cackled. Alice saw him give his brother a large, wicked grin before revving the engine. Alice yelped and gripped him all the more tightly.
Wind whipped her hair so that it slapped her cheeks and forehead, but she didn't dare brush it back. She relaxed only after several long minutes. Eventually, she began to enjoy the sun on her face and the wind whipping her hair. She was finally on her way to the CDC. She placed her head onto Merle's leather-clad shoulder and watched the countryside zoom by. Alice smiled at the thought that she would soon be conducting research again, hopefully the Dixons, Glenn, and her sister at her side.