Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize. Although I don't know a fangirl out there that wouldn't love their own personal Daryl Dixon.
AN: So I debated for quite a while with myself on whether I was going to post this chapter today or not. But decided that I would in celebration of Season 4 starting up again tonight. But after this chapter I don't know when I will post again. Probably not til next weekend that was I can get a few chapters again.
P.S. If you are reading this, then prepare yourselves. I have quite a surprising treat for you in this chapter.
Chapter 32
The next afternoon Glenn, Maggie, and Adrian were getting ready to go on a short supply run. "Are you alright enough to be goin'?" Daryl asked as Adrian counted out her arrows. Daryl took in her outfit and had to admit he liked it. Hair in a braid, a light blue spaghetti strap tank top, faded dark blue jeans, scuffed up boots, gun tucked into the back of her jeans and her large hunting knife strapped to her leg.
"I'm fine Daryl, I swear. I'm not gonna break down. What happened to Lori, T-Dog, and Carol was shocking and traumatic but I can't dwell on it. Today is a new day. Time to make new memories." she said giving him a soft kiss. Daryl grabbed the back of her head before she could pull away and kept his forehead against hers.
"Be careful an' come back to me." he said seriously. "Always." she said giving him one last kiss before left.
Glenn, Maggie, and Adrian pulled up to a boarded up shopping center not far from the prison a while later. Glenn got out on the drivers side and checked for any walkers, while Adrian and Maggie did the same on the passengers side.
After declaring the area clear, Glenn pulled a bolt cutter from the backseat of the SUV and cut the chains. A few birds quickly flew out when Glenn opened the door, which startled them all.
Adrian had her ready to fire at a moments notice, and while more relaxed than normal, was still on guard. Adrian heard Maggie and Glenn talking in the background but paid their words little attention. Something was wrong, Adrian just knew it, she just didn't know what. And she hated not knowing. A few minutes later Glenn proclaimed their run a success after finding not only some food but lots of baby formula and even a toy or two for Ass Kicker.
Adrian was standing at the back of the SUV with Maggie when they heard a voice. Glenn and Maggie pointed their loaded guns while Adrian pointed her bow in the direction that the voice came from. "Merle?" Glenn asked, clearly shocked to see the older Dixon brother. After realizing it was Glenn, Merle put his gun down on the ground.
"Can you tell me if my brother is still alive?" Merle asked Glenn. "Yeah. He's still alive." Glenn said. The news seemed to truly excite Merle. "You take me to him, and I'll call it even for everything that happened in Atlanta." Merle said slowly inching forward.
"Fat chance of that, junkie." Adrian said glaring at the older Dixon.
"You stay here, and we'll tell Daryl you're here. You trust us." Glenn said, backing up Adrian's claim of not taking him back to the prison. After being told no multiple times, Merle grew angry and pulled a gun from behind his back and shot at the back of the SUV. Glenn and Adrian dove to the right, Adrian firing an arrow but not knowing if it hit it's mark or not, while Maggie dove to the left.
Adrian and Glenn ran to Maggie only to find Merle holding her in front of him while pointing his gun at her head. "We're not gonna take you back to our camp." Glenn said, holding firm on the decision.
"No. We're goin' to mine. Now get in the car!" Merle yelled at them. Glenn had been forced to drop his gun in the back of the SUV along with Adrian's weapons.
A while later they pulled up to a gate that was lined with armed men and drove through after Merle identified himself to the guards. After they stopped they were each dragged out of the car and brought inside a building where they were each searched for weapons.
Adrian was clearly the most hostile of the three and she made it clearly known to their captures.
"You watch where you put those hands or I'll cut them off with whatever I get my hands on first." she growled at the man searching her for weapons, who seemed to be enjoying it a little too much to her.
"Yeah. Yeah. Now shut it and move." the guy said shoving Adrian and Maggie towards one door while Merle shoved Glenn towards another.
"Where the fuck do you think you're takin' him?! Glenn comes with us, Junkie!" Adrian yelled at Merle, starting to fight to get to Merle so she could free Glenn. "Go where you're told, bitch, or I'll gag you after you get tied down." Merle threatened. "I dare you to try. I'll bite the first body part I can get a hold of and rip it off!" she said fighting being jerked towards the room with Maggie.
"Tie that bitch down good will ya? She looks like a real fighter." Merle said to the guys as the dragged her into the room with Maggie. Maggie sat down and they duct taped her wrists together, Adrian was forced to sit down and then really taped down. After the men left the room Adrian calmed down for Maggie's sake. She knew Maggie was scared and she looked it.
"It'll be okay, Maggie. I promise." Adrian said to her as she scouted out the room. It was a bare room with only the chairs they sat in, plus one across the table from them, and the table in front of them. Adrian could hear what was going on in the room beside them, which she assumed was the room that they took Glenn to since it was Merle's voice she hear.
Adrian had disliked Merle when she had been spying on the group in in Atlanta, but she her dislike for him grew more and more the more he taunted Glenn. She heard him calling him as asshole for not only keeping his gun trained on him earlier, but also for leaving him in Atlanta.
Glenn had explained that members of the group had went back for him but Merle had built up so much resentment at being left behind he didn't care. She heard Glenn tell Merle that T-Dog hadn't made him. Then she heard Merle, crystal clear through the wall, tell Glenn that he hoped he went slow.
That made her blood boil! There had been so few men like T-Dog in the old world, much less in the new one! "I'll show you a slow death, you junkie asshole!" Adrian yelled as she made her way over to the tin section of the wall connecting the rooms and slammed her feet against it repeatedly as she continued to curse Merle's exisitance.
"Oh, sounds like someone over there is angry. That one's got fire in her, I see." she heard Merle say to Glenn. "She your girlfriend? Nah, she don't seem your type." Merle said, continuing to taunt Glenn. Adrian had gone quiet to hear what was going on in the next room.
"Now. I wanna know where my brother is, an' you're gonna tell me." Merle said a second before Glenn started to grunt. Maggie heard him and whimpered. Adrian became worried and angry. "Glenn!" she shouted as she slammed her feet against the tin wall again.
Adrian then heard something happen and Merle then yelled out in pain. Then they heard Merle start to beat on Glenn. The more Adrian heard, the angrier she got. She could also tell that the more Maggie heard her boyfriend get beat, the more scared she got. So to help both her and Maggie, Adrian began to take out her frustration on the tin wall.
Adrian hoped that the more she kicked the wall, the more it would frustrate Merle. Either he was too busy enjoying beating Glenn or he was more stubborn than his brother.
Back at the prison everyone was in shock. Not only had Daryl found Carol alive after everyone had thought she's been dead for days, but Rick had found two live people in a line of walkers against the outter prison fence. Both had been covered in walker blood and gore but what had really caught Rick's attention was the bright red shopping basket that the black woman had been carrying.
Rick and Carl had killed a number of walkers to get the injured black woman with a sword and the young man with a machete into the gates. Rick had to carry the woman inside due to her passing out while the boy, who said nothing, just followed along.
Once inside Rick had managed to wake the woman and tried to she her name, which she never gave. The boy either when asked. The boy and the woman kept looking around the room they were in, as well as the people inside. The people had left, locking the young man and woman out of the cell block.
A while later Rick, Hershal, and Daryl went back to the room where the boy and woman were. Rick explained that Hershal would patch them up, the bullet would on the woman's leg and the knife wound on the young mans' arm, give them some food and water and then they were free to leave, only after they told rick how they had found the prison, and more importantly, why they had been carrying baby formula.
The woman explained that the basket had been dropped by an Asian guy with a pretty young girl and a paled, red headed woman. Hershal asked if they had been attacked but the woman explained that they had been taken by the same bastard who had shot her and sliced her friend.
Rick then became aggressive for information and had squeezed the woman's wound. The woman got up, angry, and told Rick to never touch her again. The boy got up from his spot on the table and stood beside her, shoving Daryl's crossbow away from her when Daryl pointed it at her.
"Do that again boy and you'll both have bigger problems then a you already got!" Daryl growled at them. After a minute Rick had Daryl lower his crossbow and pointed out that they showed up at the prison for a reason.
The woman then told the men about the town they had escaped from called Woodbury. Told them the town had more than seventy survivors and told them about the man who ran Woodbury, The Governor.
When asked about security the woman said that there some military wanna be's and it was fortified against walkers. Rick asked if she knew a way in and she said that they could sneak them in.
"How'd you know how to get here?" Rick asked her. "They mentioned a prison. Said which direction it was in, said it was a straight shot." the woman said.
"This is Daryl. The red head is his girlfriend. That's Hershal. The other girl that was taken is his daughter. He'll take care of your injuries." Rick said to them. Rick and Daryl started to walk away when a voice stopped them.
"We have to get Adrian out, Rick. The longer we wait, they worse it will be for all of them." the voice said. Rick and Daryl stopped and turned. Nobody had mentioned Adrian's name. Rick and Daryl turned and walked up to the boy.
"How do you know who Adrian is?" Rick asked the boy, finally looking at him, as did Daryl.
The boy just snorted. "I know more than just her damn name. What I don't know, is why wasn't she with you?" the boy said, glaring at Daryl. There had only been one person that had ever glared at him when it came to Adrian. "Kale?" Daryl asked, amazed that the boy had managed to get off the farm alive.
His hair was longer, more shaggy than it had been eight months ago. He was a little taller, was still skinny but one could still see the lean muscle the boy possessed. And still eight months later, giving Daryl death glares and giving him attitude.
"Yeah." he said, still glaring at Daryl.
It had been about three hours since they had been kidnapped by Merle. Merle was still trying to beat information out of Glenn. After an hour of slamming her booted feet against the tin, Adrian had finally stopped, deciding that it was a waste of energy she was more than likely going to need later.
She hated that the more Maggie heard, the more upset she got but there was nothing for it now. All she could do was save her energy and listen. Glenn still hadn't given up the prison but had tried to bluff how members were in the group now. But something in Merle's voice told her that he knew on some level that Glenn was lying.
Adrian heard movement and then hear the door to Glenn's room open and close. A minute later the room to her's and Maggie's room opened. Merle stood in the doorway looking at them. Maggie looked scared though she tried not to show it, while Adrian smirked at the bloody bandage across his nose.
Merle looked at them for a second and then point the long knife that now served as his right hand at Adrian. "Drag her into the other room. Chair an' all. Can't chance lettin' her loose." Merle said to two guys behind him.
The two guys walked into the room, one grabbed the back of Adrian's chair, tipping it backwards, which caught her by surprise just long enough for the second guy, instead of grabbing onto the chair as well, grabbed her legs, behind her knees. Which pissed her off because with the way they had her meant that she couldn't cause injury or pain to either man.
Adrian shrieked her outrage the entire way to wherever it was they were taking her. They finally dropped her in a room that looked like it was used for storage, but there was a table in the middle of the cleared space.
"Thank you, gentlemen." Merle said to the men as they left the room. Merle walked inside and closed the door behind him. After a minute of looking intently at each other Adrian smirked.
"Looks like Glenn wasn't as compliant as you were expecting him to be." she said, taunting the man. "Can't say that he was. Lot tougher than I remember him bein'." he said as he walked closer and propped himself up on the table but far enough that she couldn't reach him.
"Eight months on the road will do that to a person." she said, no harm in giving him some past details. "So I've heard." he said looking at her.
She was attractive, he would give her that. Toned up nicely from what he could tell, and tough too if the numerous scars that littered her skin and the dangerous gleam in her eyes was anything to go on.
"So how long you been with the group? I don't remember seeing you in the group when we were camped outside of Atlanta." Merle said, seeing if he could maybe get her to slip on some information. Adrian smirked.
"No, you don't remember me, but boy do I remember you. Strung out junkie, always looking forward to his next fix. Didn't take me long to understand why nobody but your brother liked you." she said looking him in the eye.
Hearing her call him a strung out junkie wiped any amusement he had had on his face clean off. "And how would you know somethin' like that, little darlin'?" he asked, genuinely curious.
"I believe Daryl used to call me 'The Creeper'. Not a very nice name, I must admit, and I told him as much when he and Shane tracked me down after Carl had went missing. I had been spying on you people for weeks before we finally got close enough on the group to be caught. Oh the secrets in that camp. Especially you and Daryl." she said continuing to smirk and taunt the man.
"And what exactly is it about my baby brother that you found out?" he asked, wondering what she could possibly know. "Oh I know things about your brother that you sure don't. Like for instance, your brother is a damn great lay." she said still smirking. But then the smirk was gone, as was her mocking amusement.
"But that's not what you want to know, so lets cut the bullshit ad get down to brass tacks, shall we?" she said wanting to get down to business. "Business it is then. How 'bout we start off in you tellin' me exactly how many people is in ya'lls group." he said. Adrian tsked. "You know, I just don't know. Hard to keep count sometimes, ya know." she said.
"How 'bout my brother? Where's he at?" he tried. Adrian smirked with a fake dreamy look on her face. "Hmm. Hopefully he's back at camp keeping my bed warm. Like I said before, he's a really good lay." she said laughing. The backhand caught her off guard. If wasn't hard enough to break skin but it certainly surprised her.
"Ohh. Didn't think we'd start gettin' rough so soon." she said turning back to her lover's brother.
"I wanna know where your camp is. I wanna know who many people are in your group. I wanna know where my brother is, and somebody here is gonna tell me! I don't care who I gotta beat it out of, but somebody is gonna tell me what I wanna know!" Merle yelled at her.
Adrian laughed at him but it was a cold, hard laugh. "We're not gonna tell you shit. And there ain't nothin' you can do to me that hasn't been done to me before. So try your worst." she said, clenching her teeth, her face wiped of emotion, and her eyes going as hard as stone.
This time though, she saw the hit coming. As well as the others she received.