Nothing or Something

by Marta1854

At ten Nai is alone, at sixteen she's adopted by a farmer, then at twenty-five the dead woke up and she ends up getting more than she bargained for after finding and helping a one-handed redneck. Now it's a one-handed redneck and a stubborn woman against the world as they make their way home. What could go wrong? Merle/OC sibling relationship, Daryl/OC eventual romance.

2. Chapter 2-Journey with the Eldest Dixon

Nothin' or Somethin'

Chapter 2-The Journey with the Eldest Dixon

Day One

"I never did ask what happened." I muse motioning to his stump that was now fashioned into a weaponized prosthetic after coming across a medical supply warehouse as we searched for a decent car causing Merle to say "Got carried away, got cuffed to a roof, got left, and cut it off to get off the roof." "Ya do all this high off yer ass?" I ask causing him to give me a look that answered the question so I explain "Don't take it personal. I worked at a bar in a not so nice part of the city and could spot an addict, no matter what stage, a mile away. And I'm saying this now because yer gonna get hit with the worst of the withdrawals soon unless ya don't stay sober." "Naw, I gotta stop before the shit kills me. Might as well do it now." He states so I hum before I spot something shiny in a decomposing body's hand. I stop and pick it up saying "Hey." He stops and looks at me so I shake the keys as I smirk asking "Wanna go on a treasure hunt?" He grins and chuckles out "Peepers ya might have just have the best luck." "No, ya do. Cuz ya got me on yer side." I say winking and walking past him.

When we find the white Volkswagen Beetle the keys were to I chuckle out "Looks like we found Herbie." Noting how someone decided to vandalize the car with the number fifty-three in spray paint. "Just unlock it." Merle growls annoyed so I chuckle as I do so. I check inside it, never know if a deadhead is chilling inside, before reaching in and popping the trunk. Walking around to the back with Merle he opens it up and reveals a small box with food and water and an empty gas can. That's when my watch beeps signaling that the sun was about to set. I shut it off as Merle asks "What was that?" "Alarm when the sun's about to set." I tell him showing him the watch causing him to ask "Why?" "Sometimes the deadheads get more active at night." I explain causing him to grunt out a "Huh." As he grabs a bit of food and water from the trunk before shutting it.

"What do you think we should do?" I ask going to the driver side as he goes to the passenger side causing him to look at me a minute before saying "Its yer call Peepers." "We should probably rest while we can since there isn't many around these parts of the city anymore. We'll get out of here in the morning." I tell him so he nods as he gets in the car. Sighing I take my bag off and put it in the back before getting in myself. "Here. I haven't seen ya eat yet." He mutters dropping one of the bottles of water and a couple granola bars in my lap. "Don't worry Dixon I won't keel over anytime soon." I tell him causing him to scoff and put the seat back, his feet on the dash, and close his eyes. I chuckle then and eat and drink before locking the doors, putting the key under the visor, lean my seat back a little, and close my eyes listening to Merle's light breathing and quiet world outside.

Day Two

"Are ya sure he's still here?" I ask as I drive up the dirt path towards a camp at a quarry, according to the Merle. "No, but I know he's alive. Ain't no one can kill a Dixon but a Dixon." He answers holding up his weaponized stump so I say "Maybe that's cuz they keep doin' stupid shit." This causes him to grumble before we notice faint smoke raising into the sky. "Dixon…" I trail off causing him to say "I see it, Peepers." I park the car once we get to a clearing with nothing but a pile of still burning bodies and a stripped out red sports car. Getting out I wonder aloud "It looks like they got attacked by deadheads. But the question is where did they go?" looking around at the black and red dried blood on the ground.

"Morgan. Going to CDC. This area not safe. Rick." Merle growls from in front of the side of the sports car so I go over asking "You know this Morgan?" "No must be Officer Friendly's friend." He scoffs walking away so I sigh and follow him back to the car. "My brother didn't leave anything behind 'an took my damn bike too." He growls slamming his flesh hand on the trunk so I place my hand on his arm asking "Would he go with them though?" "Who knows?" He scoffs shrugging me off so I roll my eyes and say "Well if he did they won't find much. The CDC is sure to be a pile of rubble any day now if it isn't one now." "What're ya talkin' 'bout Peepers?" He asks giving me a glare so I explain "The CDC is home to some of the most dangerous diseases, half of which we, the public, don't even know about, thus in the result of a fallout, government takeover, power failure, or terrorist attack HIT's, or high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives which consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear, are deployed to prevent them from getting out. It basically sets the air on fire and blows up the building. Once the generators runs or ran out of fuel or people to fill it, boom. Bye, bye building and anything inside within seconds."

This causes him to stare at me for probably a good three minutes and I could almost see his brain overheating before he gives up and asks "Whatever. What direction is the CDC and yer Old Man's place?" "My Old Man's place?" I ask with my eyebrows raised causing him to state "Answer the question Peepers." "Okay…" I say and point in the general direction that they were in adding "The CDC is in that direction if it hasn't been blown to smithereens and my Old Man's farm is in that direction." "So we'll go that way, better to keep going than go back." He says so I ask "Ya sure? My family's not holding their breath for my return. I'm sure they think I'm dead."

He glares at me then saying "Yet ya were gonna head their on yer own." "Look, I'm not saying we shouldn't go there. I'm saying that I don't mind if we look for yer brother first." I tell him causing him to huff and say "Ya said so yerself, they won't find much so who knows where they went after. It'd be better for us to go there instead of where Daryl might have gone." As he walks up to the driver's side. "I guess that's true. Here." I tell him before tossing him the keys and walking up to the passenger's side. Sure, it might be a bad idea for him to be driving with his withdrawals looming but he was angry and needed something to get his mind off of the fact that he was forgotten, again, so fuck it. With that he gives me a nod and we both get in and we're quickly on our way.

Day Three

"Could ya at least act like yer not doing it on purpose?!" I shout after Merle purposely swerved to hit another deadhead with the car but he just grunts at me in response. I sigh and shake my head but don't take it further. He needed to vent, and if that involved roadkill deadheads, so be it, especially with anxiety, depression, agitation/irritability, restlessness, delirium, paranoia, mental confusion, disorientation, and racing thoughts all being symptoms of withdrawals. These accompanied by the fact that he was abandoned by the group he had been with twice… I couldn't begin to imagine the thoughts swimming around in his head.

Day Four

Not even a mile from where we'd stopped for the night black smoke started billowing from under the hood, the car sputtered, and quickly died. Merle angrily grunts as he gets out of the car before slamming the door shut and stalking to the front of the car. I get out and get hit with the smell of burnt flesh and hair along with the smell of the dead and now I have a pretty good idea of what the problem was. He opens the hood then, which releases a cloud of black smoke and makes the smell stronger. I wave the smoke out of my face as I join him.

"Ya killed Herbie." I mutter staring at the blood, guts, etc. now clogging the engine, to which he just grunts angrily again. He slams the hood shut so I go and collect my bag before he grunts out a "Come on." And stalks off into the woods. Groaning I quickly follow him as there's the faint sound of vehicles approaching from the way we came. "It's about a two day walk to the farm from here." I tell him after I catch up to him to which he growls "Then let's get going." So I just sigh and follow him, knowing that he was probably starting to be increasingly irritable both from already being angry from being left behind and from the symptoms of his withdrawals. The last thing I needed was for him to direct that anger at me now that he could no longer vent by hitting deadheads with a car.

Day Five

It was unnerving how noisy the forest was from the sound of deadheads even after the sun came up. It wasn't until one fell out of the bushes from in front of us that I stopped. "It's just one." Merle growls stopping himself and looking back at me as two more stumbled out from behind it so I shake my head saying "No it's not." He looks back just as more stumble out and another that wasn't in the group in front of us roars. A small group was easy enough to evade and or re-kill, especially with two people, but this wasn't a small group. It seemed that for each one, three more emerged from the trees, meaning that we had stumbled upon a horde. Unfortunately, Merle wasn't thinking right and just points his bayonet at them. Growling out a "Damnit Dixon! Come on!" then, I grab his flesh hand and start running in the opposite direction, dragging him behind me.

And it wasn't until we're back on the road that I stop running. "What was that Peepers?! We could have taken them!" Merle shouts at me as I turn and look down the road for any indication that the deadheads were still following us. "That was a fucking horde, ya Moron! They would have torn us to shreds!" I shout, whirling around to face him. And as I expected, I was then greeted by a growled "What did ya just say?!" "Ya heard me Dixon." I growl standing my ground as I glare up at him causing him to return the glare and get in my face as he growls "Don't test me Girl." "Do ya want to die? 'Cuz if ya continue this tirade against the world yer gonna." I tell him causing a low growl to come from the back of his throat but I continue anyway "Just so ya know, the next time ya go to do something stupid like what ya did back there, I'll let ya. I'm not gonna die because of ya."

"Should've known that's what ya'd say." He scoffs then causing an involuntary laugh to escape my throat before I shake my head saying "Ya don't know me Dixon." "I know enough. Yer just like every other chick out there. Think yer better than everyone else." He retorts so I scoff and nod saying "Yeah. And yer just like every other guy out there. Ya pretend to care until it's no longer beneficial to ya." He steps back, like I slapped him, before his face is one of rage as he growls "If that's how ya felt, why'd ya come with me?!" "I don't fucking know! For whatever reason I thought I could trust ya!" I exclaim before turning it back on him with a "Why'd ya want me to come with ya anyway? I remember leaving ya and ya following me. Not the other way around." With that another growl comes from him as his flesh hand tightens into a white knuckled fist.

I was pushing my luck right now but I wouldn't back down. Hell, I couldn't back down, if I did, I would be like every other woman in his life. I would just be the thing my biological parents wrote me off as and I've worked too hard to prove them wrong. And the tension right now was so thick I'm sure that even the deadheads could feel it. After a good ten minute stare down he backed down with a huff before he drags his flesh hand over his face. So I smirk, turn on my heel, and say "Come on Dixon." As I walk back into the woods.

Day Six

"I'm sorry about yesterday." Merle suddenly says causing me to stop, turn to look at him, and tell him "Don't worry about it. I'm a big girl." "That ya are." He replies looking me up and down so I roll my eyes and state "Not a chance Dixon." That was when the sound of a gunshot rang through the forest causing both of us to drop to the ground in a crouch. For once I was annoyed that the trees bounced noise around, making it impossible to tell the direction it came from, if there was more than one it'd be possible but with just one it bounces around too much. We didn't have the weapons to defend ourselves versus a gun, with just a knife/bayonet, our wits, and our hand-to-hand, it'd latterly be bringing a knife to a gun fight.

"What do we do?" I whisper harshly to Merle who just says "We need better weapons." "No shit!" I growl so he huffs before saying "We should go somewhere where we could get them." "And where would that be genius? It's a small town and I doubt anyone left weapons behind. Even if they did it wouldn't be that beneficial." I state annoyed causing him to huff again before saying "The highway." "The highway?" I ask unsure if I heard him right so when he just nods I growl "Oh come on." Before I have a light bulb go off as I remember the housing development causing me to breathe out "That's it." Merle gives me a pointed look then probably wondering if I'd finally lost it so I smirk and say "They built a housing development maybe ten years ago. If we're going to find anything useful in the words of weapons, it'd be there. Probably even find another car."

Day Seven

As expected it seemed that most of the residents bugged out the second they could, since there was little destruction and little trash. It also meant that we could take our time searching the buildings. But going building to building was easier said than done. Most of the residents took the time to lock their door, so did I, but still. I did it so I would have a semi-secure place to go back to if needed while these people did it to protect what they left behind. And each time we came upon a locked door I had to stop Merle from physically breaking in via the door or one of the windows.

"Stop that!" I hiss having done just that for what felt like the hundredth time causing him to huff out a "Why?" ""Cuz! I'd like the fact that there aren't any deadheads around to stay true." I growl gesturing around at the emptiness of the neighborhood causing him to huff again but this time he follows me to the back without another word. And like all the others the back door was unlocked. However, when we walked in, the inside was significantly different than the others. Inside everything was in place and nothing seemed to be missing or taken.

Cautiously we move to the hall to check the rooms. Opening one of the doors we discover a blood spattered child's room. In the bed laid said child, with a single gunshot wound to the head. I frown as we slowly shut the door leaving them alone before going to what must be the parent's room and opening the door. There the walls were also blood spattered. The mother and father were both dead in the bed, and like the child had a single gunshot wound to the head, with a pistol in the father's hand and a bloodied note on the side table. "Murder suicide?" I wonder aloud as Merle picks up the note so he nods as he reads it off "Dear stranger, I did this out of love. Better for them to die in their sleep then to die due to those things. May God forgive me."

Day Eight

"Why can't anything be easy?" I groan when our search for weapons, so far, only yields a few pistols, maybe three handfuls of ammo, and more hand-to-hand weapons as we sat in the middle house of the abandoned houses of the neighborhood causing Merle to chuckle out "It's not that bad Peepers. We're only half-way done." Now that he was done being pissed off at the world it was now like I was traveling with an overgrown and annoying child. Though I guess overgrown and annoying child was better than pissed at everything redneck. Not that that helped me not get annoyed with him, about almost everything he says or does to purposely annoy me. Which he did more often than not now, so much so that I was seriously questioning my sanity by sticking around instead of just leaving him.

Day Nine

"Ya hear that?" I ask having heard the faint sound of a car approaching while looking over at Merle. He nods so I walk over to the window and watch as a blue car drives into the circle. "Merle." I hiss when it stops and motion for him to come over as I wait for whoever to come out of it. "Bastards." He instantly growls when a bald man and a blonde woman steps out of it causing me to look at him and ask "Ya know them?" "Yeah." He scoffs turning away from the window before saying "They're part of my old group." "Why don't we ask them for information about yer brother?" I offer but he just shakes his head saying "Naw. They'd just lie or might just kill us." "Exactly how much of an ass where ya to yer group?" I ask then causing him to huff and mutter "What do ya think?" So I sigh out a "Come on. Let's get out of here before they attract deadheads."

Day Ten

"I swear yer a child." I mutter after Merle suggest checking out the bar that wasn't obviously looted. "It's the only place we haven't checked yet." He defends causing me to sigh out a "Fine." Before glaring at him and stating "It'll start getting dark soon but we're not sticking around there." Which causes him to mutter "Yeah, yeah." So I sigh again and run a hand through my hair, attempting to untangle it, as I trail behind him. The small town was relatively untouched by the destruction that plagued the city but there was a clear sign of the deadhead's presence. Half of the windows were broken or boarded and there was still evidence of blood stains on the pavement.

And like I theorized there wasn't any useable weapons to be found here but it was worth a shot. With the fact that we saw two people from Merle's old group and heard the gunshot the other day, better have as many options as possible. And I had a feeling his paranoia about the two from his group wasn't entirely unjustified, as from what I saw from the window the guy was a loose cannon and starting to blur the lines between right and wrong while the girl was full of herself and was bound to get someone killed, if she hadn't already. Though this time spent looking took away from me getting home it wasn't like they were anxiously waiting for my return, like I told him back at the quarry. My guess is that they thought I was dead after the first month that I didn't get there.

However, what I didn't expect happened when Merle opened the door to the bar and we stepped inside. As soon as our foot hit the floor inside gunshots went off causing both of us to crouch to the ground and draw our respective pistols. "Holly shit…its Merle." A male breathes out from in front of us before the door slams shut behind us causing Merle to bolt up growling "Chinaman." I grab his arm before he could raise his pistol when I just barely hear Hershel breathe out "Nai." There sitting at the bar was Hershel Greene, my adoptive father, white as a ghost. "So ya really thought I was dead. Huh, Old Man." I say running a hand through my hair, again, and putting my pistol away, causing him to all but scream at me "What were we supposed to think?!" "Maybe have a little hope!" I snap before I get pulled behind Merle as he growls "Officer Friendly."

But before anything else could happen the distinct sound of a car approaching is heard causing who must be said Officer Friendly to harshly whisper "Car. Car. Get down." We all drop in a crouch and move to the front with the others as the car stops, people get out, and a man's voice asks "Dave? Tony?" "He said over here?" Another asks causing another to say "Yeah. I'm telling you man, I heard a shot." "I saw roamers two streets over. Might be more around here." the second one says as the first says "It's hot. We gotta get out of here." "Dave! Tony!" the third calls causing the first to say "Shut up, you idiot! You wanna attract 'em? Just stick close. We're gonna find 'em." as we hear them walk closer. "Dude, he said to stay close." The second says then as we hear them walk away. This was not gonna go well, I just knew it.

Officer Friendly stood and checked out the window carefully before crouch walking over to all of us. "Why won't they leave?" The Asian whispers causing me to roll my eyes as Hershel whispers "Would you?" "We can't sit here any longer. Let's head out the back and make a run to the car." Officer Friendly whispers before pausing and adding "That includes you two." I place a hand on Merle's arm and give him a 'You can settle your issue later.' Look before nodding at Officer Friendly. We all get up to go when we have to quickly get back down again hearing gunshots. "What happened?" the first man asks causing the third to say "Roamers, I nailed 'em." "They disappeared, but their car's still there." The second informs so the first says "I cleared those buildings. You guys get this one?" "No." "Me neither." The second and third state causing the first to say "We're looking for Dave and Tony and no one checks the damn bar?"

We then hear footsteps approach and Officer Friendly readies his gun as I redraw mine. However when the door opened the Asian quickly scooted over and blocked the door, and thus alerting them of our presence. "What?" the first asks causing the second to say "Someone pushed that shut. There's someone in there." Before calling "Yo, is someone in there? Yo, if someone's in there, we don't want no trouble. We're just looking for our friends." "What do we do?" the first asks then so the third offers "Bum rush the door?" "No, we don't know how many are there. Just relax." The second says before calling "We don't want any trouble. We're just looking for our friends. If something happened, tell us. This place is crawling with corpses. If you can help us not get killed, I'd appreciate it." "Dude, you're bugging. I'm telling you nobody's in there." The third says so the second says "Someone grab the door. If they're in there, they might know where Dave and Tony are."

They start walking away but Officer Friendly announces "They drew on us!" causing me to give Merle a 'Is he serious?' look. Merle nods giving me a 'He's serious.' Look as they come back and the second asks "Dave and Tony in there? They alive?" Officer Friendly looks conflicted but tells the truth and says "No." "They killed Dave and Tony." The second says then so the first says "Come on, man, let's go." But the second says "No, I'm not leaving, I'm not telling Jane. I'm not gonna go back and tell them that Dave and Tony got shot by some assholes in a bar." "Your friends drew on us! They gave us no choice! I'm sure we've all lost enough people, done things we wish we didn't have to, but it's like that now. You know that! So let's just chalk this up to what it was, wrong place, wrong-"Officer Friendly announces only to get cut off by gunshots blowing out the window above the Asian's head.

Officer Friendly gets up and fires back ordering us "Get out of here! Go!" So I grab Merle's hand and pull him with me as I follow the Asian and Hershel to the back of the bar, since I knew if I didn't he probably would've just shot Officer Friendly himself. Hell, at this point I might do it because of his damned stupidity. And we all duck for cover as they fire back, breaking some of the bottles on the tables. When there was a lull in the shooting Officer Friendly empties his casings onto the floor and refills his gun as he calls "Hey! We all know this is not gonna end well! There's nothing in it for any of us! You guys just-just back off, no one else gets hurt!" That's when there's a sound of garbage cans rattling from behind the bar. "Don't do anything stupid." I whisper to Merle before I get up and follow the Asian to check it out as Merle quietly grumbles out a "I know, Peepers. I know."

And it's a good thing I did because I have to stop him from doing the stupid thing and opening the door with his hand. Looking at me shocked I motion to the shotgun he had before holding my pistol ready. He gets the hint, has it ready, and uses it to open the door. Walking down the stairs, side by side, we both internally cringe and freeze when one of the stairs creaks beneath our feet. When no obvious sound happens we continue and make it to the middle of the back room before a bottle clatters outside. "Shit!" a man harshly whispers causing us to both look at the back door as he cocks his shotgun, causing me to sigh realizing that it wasn't cocked this whole time. We watch and raise our guns as the doorknob slowly turns, both of us probably hoping that it was locked. But that wasn't the case as the lock clicked causing us both to shoot a single shot that shattered the widow.

"Glenn!" "Nai!" the others call then so we both announce "We're all right." Before we go to opposite sides of the door and look from our spots out the broken window as we both re-cock our guns. A few minutes go by and we hear footsteps from behind causing us both to spin ready, only for it to be Hershel. I sigh and lower my gun as he pushes the shotgun away causing the Asian, or I guess Glenn, to apologize "Sorry. Sorry." "Rick wants you two to try for the car." Hershel says causing Glenn to ask "Try?" "You'll try and succeed. I'll cover you." Hershel says and I sigh again as Glenn nods and sarcastically says "That's a great plan." "It's as good a plan as any. Besides yer not doing it alone." I say looking at Glenn before back at Hershel and adding "Dixon?" "Covering Rick." Hershel informs causing Glenn to breathe out "You're kidding me." "We're all trying to get out of this alive. Whatever issue Dixon has with Officer Friendly isn't priority." I scoff before going over and pushing the door open.

When it wasn't shot at I ask "Ya coming or what?" before slipping out the door. I'm soon joined by Glenn and after a few more steps we duck as gunshots ring out. Bullets hit the brick wall as we ran towards cover, but I stumble when one hits me in the leg. Glenn pulls me behind the dumpster with him as a man starts groaning. "Damn it." I hiss when I touch the wound and realize the shot didn't go through as Glenn is low-key freaking out. "Are you hit?" I hear Officer Friendly, or I guess Rick, ask as he joins us behind the dumpster causing Glenn to answer "Not me, she is." They both look at me so I growl "I'm fine it's just a graze. Get to the damn car so we can get out of here." Neither of them believe me as they look down at my leg but they get up to go anyway only to have to get back quickly as gunshots hit the side of the dumpster.

Rick glances out from behind the dumpster as there's the sound of tires squealing before a man yells "Let's get out of here! Roamers all over the place! Hurry up! We gotta get out of here!" "What about Sean?!" another yells as I shrug off my backpack causing the first to yell back "They shot him. We gotta go. Roamers are everywhere." "We're leaving?" another asks causing the previous one to yell "Jump!" "Hurry up, jump already." They yell as I get my already ripped shirt out of my bag, thankful that I didn't toss it, and use my knife to cut strips to bind my leg, for the time being, before there's the sound of someone screaming in pain. "Dude didn't make it." Glenn whispers as the guy starts yelling "Help me!"

But his buddie just yells back "I've gotta go. I'm sorry!" before driving off as the guy yells "No, no, don't leave! Help me! No! No! Help! Help!" "Get Hershel and Merle." Rick tells Glenn before he runs off towards the yelling so Glenn stands and looks back before yelling "Hershel! Merle!" I pull myself up then, having finished my temporary binding and pulled my bag back on, in time to see deadheads swarm a guy on the ground, who was unfortunate enough to still be alive as he started screaming. Hershel shoots one of the deadheads as Merle makes his way over so Glenn yells again "Hershel!" "Ya alright Peepers?" Merle asks when his eyes land on my leg, during his look over, as Hershel finally stops staring and comes over so I just say "We can worry about it later. Let's just get out of here."

The two others nod and start moving but Merle isn't happy about my answer as he growls and steps closer to me. "I'm fine." I repeat only for him to growl "Yer not." Before he picks me up, bridle style. "Damn it Dixon. I'm fine." I growl only for him to sarcastically say "Yeah, sure." As he carries me towards the other two before they run across the street with Hershel yelling "Rick!" We watch as they argue about the fate of the guy, who was just shooting at us and who had managed to impale himself on the fence. They ultimately agree to save him but looking to the side, there was deadheads everywhere. "These idiots." I mutter as I decide to commence target practice and drop a few deadheads along with Glenn and Rick. Within seconds it was obvious there wasn't any more time so Rick makes the ultimate decision and forces the guys leg back the way it came causing him to emit a scream that probably alerted every deadhead not already coming.