Out of the Woods (The Walking Dead)
The Lion and the Gazelle:
The temperature had to be a hundred degrees at that point. A whole day passed with rain, heat, humidity, and no shelter from any of it. Merle's wrist from the handcuffs was risking infection from the amount of friction he gave it from struggling. Suzy still hadn't regained consciousness from hitting her head and just lied in front of Merle, her head in a small pool of blood. The heat didn't help. Merle had been talking to her for hours due to his own heatstroke.
"I was in the bar tryin' to pick up this chick once. You shoulda seen her, quite the Georgia peach." He said, "I was sneakin' some of my stuff when I got a few beers in. I was all kinds of fucked up. Next thing I know this son of a bitch bursts through the door and starts tryin' to start shit. I said...I said we can either take it outside or settle it right then and there. He said, what did you say? And I said, that's right. You heard me, bitch. You got a problem? Then bring it on if you're man enough, or take it up the chain if you're a pussy. You heard me, you pussy-ass noncom bitch. You ain't deaf. Take it up the damn chain of command or you can kiss my lily-white ass."
Merle laughed, not even feeling the main in his open wrist anymore. He laughed as if Suzy responded, "Yeah, for real. That's what I said. You heard me."
He laughed more at the memory like Suzy was laughing with him. He didn't even notice she was still not moving on the rooftop floor in front of him.
"And then this idiot," He laughed, "He takes a swing, you know? And well..."
He was laughing so hysterically he couldn't even finish his sentence. After a few breaths he continued, "Oh, Suzy. You should've seen the look on his face when I punched out his front teeth! Yeah, five of 'em! Pow pow, just like that! Oh my god. Sixteen months in the Stockade, that's what them teeth cost me. That was...That was a hard time...But it was worth every minute of it, just to see that prick spit his teeth out on the ground. Yeah, worth every minute..."
A moment or two passed of silence. The wind blowing provided no relief from the heat because of how humid it was from the constant cloud bursts. Merle closed his eyes and opened them again and looked ahead, seeing Suzy's body in front of him. He felt the pain in his wrist again and saw where he was.
"Oh no. No no no no!" He screamed, yanking on the cuffs that just wouldn't break away from the pipe. "Jesus, help me! Come on now! Suzy! Suzy wake up! Wake the hell up! Help me."
Just then half a dozen walkers tried bursting through the chained door. They were growling something fierce from the noise Merle was making, little did he know the door was chained enough so they couldn't get through. Overwhelmed and terrified, Merle began to cry and beg to Jesus himself. The only thing he was happy about was no one had to see him finally feel weak.
"Jesus, please." He cried, "I know I didn't behave. I know I'm being punished. I know...I deserve it. I deserve it. I've been bad! Show me the way, help me. Tell me, tell me please. God!"
Suzy felt her head pounding like it had its own massive heartbeat. It was hot, too hot. Everything was fuzzy. What happened? She blacked out? Where even was she? Her eyes fluttered open and saw the blue sky above her. She wasn't sure if she could get up because she felt so dehydrated and weak. To her right she heard what sounded like Merle screaming for help and behind her the moans from the dead trying to get in. She gazed over and saw Merle on his back using his belt to grab a fallen hacksaw to no avail. From the pain in her head, her vision was blurry and she wasn't sure if she could stay awake any longer. She tried to ask what he was doing, but she couldn't make her voice work. As soon as she tried to speak again, all she saw was black...
After a few minutes, her eyes began opening again, but she could barely hear or see anything. It was all a blur. She was able to lift her hand and feel the back of her head. There was definitely an open wound, which was confirmed serious once she saw her hand covered in blood. She sat up and looked down, indeed seeing a pool of blood where her head had been. She saw the door to the staircase off the roof open on a crack with a group of biters desperately trying to get in. Seeing them made her come to her senses. She and Merle were on the roof of the department store in Atlanta. The rest of his group had left. They were alone and Merle was still handcuffed to the pipe. She remembered T-Dog running over with the key, but nothing after that. When she turned her head and saw Merle trying to use the hacksaw to cut through the handcuffs, she knew something happened and T-Dog left them.
"Merle?" Suzy called out to him. The adrenaline from the panic settling into her system made her suddenly forget about the pain in her head so she could see clearly.
"Suzy! It's about time you got up!" Merle shouted, "Now help me out with this! It won't cut through!"
"That-That's impossible, a hacksaw should be working fine on cuffs." Suzy crawled her way over and tried herself to get the blade to cut through the metal. "M-Maybe the pipe itself? Have you tried that?"
"If this thing can't cut through these cuffs, what makes you think they can cut through that, girly?" Merle snapped.
"It's no use, Merle. The blade is too dull." Suzy said. The banging on the door from the biters made them panic more. It was only a matter of time before one of those things was going to squeeze their way through. "We're gonna have to find something else, something that can cut through. Maybe my knife-"
"There's no time! I-I know what I have to do." She could've sworn she saw him shaking when he said that, "Take my belt and wrap it around my arm."
"What?" Suzy looked at him confused. However, the realization hit her pretty fast, "No, Merle no. You can't possibly-"
"Just do it! Do it now, you hear me?" He commanded
"O-Okay." She scrambled for his belt he left on the ground next to him. She did as he said and wrapped it around his forearm, just above his wrist where the cuffs were. She wrapped it as tight as she could.
"Good." He said, "Now I need you to hold it there, as tight as you can and don't let go, you hear me?"
"You should let me. I can't just let you do this to yourself."
"Does it look like I have a choice right now? We need to get outta here, and if this saw is too dull for the cuffs, then it'll have'ta cut through me." Merle lifted the hacksaw and put it to his wrist opposite the tourniquet. "Remember. As tight as you can and don't let go, no matter how hard I'm screamin'. You hear?"
"Yes, yes I hear you." She complied and held the belt as tight as she could. She didn't think she could watch the next part and looked away, shutting her eyes. His scream pierced her ears like nails on a chalkboard. She felt some of his blood splatter on her hands and her face. The smell of it riled up the geeks at the door even more. He couldn't stop himself from screaming and crying from the pain. Seconds later, it was over. She opened her eyes and saw his right hand plop onto the rooftop floor. The hacksaw took it clean off.
"I got it, I got it! Let's go!" Merle shouted, grabbing the belt and holding onto the tourniquet himself. Suzy helped him stand and the two ran to the opposite door on the roof, drops of Merle's blood leading the way. The running down the steps made Suzy's head pound harder than before. The clanking of the steps made her ears ring. Her vision was becoming blurry again. The fall definitely caused a worse injury than she suspected.
"Here!" Suzy brought him over to a stove in a kitchen area. She could see it was a gas stove, so it should still work. She turned the notch all the way and little blue flames appeared. "You need to cauterize it."
"Look out, honey! Geeks on your tail!" Merle turned around and saw a couple of dead making their way toward them. She didn't have it in her to aim with her knives. She took out her hunting knife and watched the two geeks morph into a blurry four. Now seeing double, she just started swinging her knife at them while Merle groaned in the background at the feeling of the fire under his open wound. It took Suzy a moment to gather herself until she could make herself see clearly and take out the two corpses with her knife.
"We gotta get outta here, now." Merle stumbled his way over to a window across from the stove and opened it all the way. "Come on, girl. We'll go down the fire escape!"
"What about the dead outside in the streets?" Suzy asked, making her way towards the window.
"I don't see much of any on this street. We'll take a straight shot upward and get outta here. The farther away from this city the better. Let's go." Merle continued holding onto his belt and climbed out the window. Suzy followed, not bothering to close the window behind her. They climbed down the fire escape and jumped down onto the Atlanta street. Merle took a look at Suzy and saw the blood from the back of her head.
"Here," He pulled a bandana out from his pocket and handed it to her, "Cover that up before it gets infected, if it hasn't already."
"No, you should use it to cover yours, you're still bleeding." She replied.
"Don't worry. I got another for me. Now take it."
Reluctantly, she took the blue bandana from him and tied it around her head at the front so the bandana could cover the back of her head. Her black hair was short, making the material cover most of it. He took a red one out from his other pocket and used it to cover his stump. Then they began running up the street until they reached the end.
"You see that?" Suzy pointed up ahead. "There's a van."
The two ran for the cube van and Suzy saw that the key was still in the ignition once she hopped inside.
"I should drive, girl." Merle went to grab the wheel.
"I think the person with two hands should drive, don't you think?" Suzy replied in a more passive-aggressive tone than she liked to admit.
"Listen, girl. I may have just cut off my hand and it hurts like all hell. But you hit your head pretty hard and probably have a pretty shitty concussion. I saw you with the biters in the buildin'. I should drive."
"No. I'm fine." Suzy replied, holding her ground. "Besides, if it is a concussion, then I can't risk resting in the passenger seat. The driving will keep me awake. I'm doing it."
Merle nodded, backing away from the wheel and settling into the passenger seat. She thanked him and she started the van then drove off to get as far away from the city as possible.
Suzy wasn't sure how long she'd been driving. It was nighttime now, and when she finally looked at the gas meter and saw how low it was, she knew they had to stop.
"Merle, we're almost out of gas. Running on fumes at this point."
"Pull over and we'll hit the woods tomorrow." Merle replied.
"You don't wanna go try to find some gas to salvage this thing? We don't even know where we are, if the woods are even safe-"
"Do you know how much gas big vehicles need, girl?" Merle snapped at her, "We don't have anything to put the gas in if we do find it, and we can only fit a gallon in at a time. It's dead. Better off in the woods."
"We need to at least find somewhere that has medical supplies." She pointed to his stump covered by the bandana, "You're still bleeding, you didn't cauterize it long enough. You need gauze, stitches, pain killers and I do too. We won't last out there."
"You got any other options Mary Sue?" Merle rolled his eyes, "We're fucked either way. We have no gas and no way to get more. If we want to get anything, we'll need to go on foot and the woods have good cover. We're goin' or I'm leavin' you here."
"Don't you say that to me." Suzy snapped, "I could've left like everyone else on that rooftop. I stayed to try and help you out."
"Because you owed me."
"No, not just because I owed you. Because I wouldn't have been able to live with myself and I knew it was the right thing to do." Suzy sighed and looked away from him and focused her eyes on her lap instead. "I would've stayed even if I didn't owe you."
"Oh I see," Merle smirked and licked his lips, "I'm growin' on ya, aren't I?"
"Shut up." She couldn't help but laugh. She looked back at him and saw how pale he had gotten. They both needed medical care, and they needed it desperately. She would be surprised if they even lasted the night. "We'll stay in the back of the van for the night so we're safe. We'll go on foot in the morning and see what we can find. How's that?"
"Sounds good to me. Could make ourselves pretty well acquainted back there." He smirked again.
"Not happening." She rolled her eyes and climbed her way to the back of the van. It was dark now, so she pulled a flashlight from her bag and turned it on so she could inspect further to see if there was anything she could use to hold them over until the morning.
"We shouldn't sleep if we plan on surviving 'till tomorrow." Merle said, making his way to the back of the van to join her.
"Agreed." Suzy replied. She pulled out two bottles of water, five packs of granola bars, one can of pineapple chunks, and a bottle of rubbing alcohol 91%.
"So," Suzy said, "This is what we're working with until we find more supplies.
"You're kiddin' me." Merle let out an annoyed breath, "Better than nothin' I guess."
Suzy decided to use the alcohol to pour on their wounds to stop any possible infection. It did nothing for the bleeding though. Hers had stopped for the most part, but Merle's was already in really bad shape. He didn't want to risk undoing his belt in fear he would bleed out "quicker than a mother fucker", so he used the bandana he had to roll up in a ball and press onto the wound in order to try to get the bleeding to stop. They split the granola bars, Merle getting three and Suzy getting two. Even though it was still incredibly hot, even at night, they only took small sips of water to make it last. They decided to save the bars and split the can of pineapples for the night. Merle wasted no time making a comment at how pineapples make one's "hooha taste better", a comment Suzy definitely could've went without. Due to Suzy's request, they sat at opposite sides of the van to make her more comfortable. They decided to talk all night in order to keep each other awake and pass the time, even though Suzy thought he was the most obnoxious person to try making conversation with.
"So where are you from? You from around here?" Suzy asked from across the room.
"I'd rather not talk about that." Merle replied. She could tell from his tone that his home life was a touchy subject. Suzy shrugged.
"Then, I guess I can go first." Suzy sighed, thinking of what to say, "I'm originally from New York. Average childhood, there's not much to go on there. You think Atlanta's bad? I don't think anything can be worse than what I saw up there. My niece was staying with me and mom at the time. My friend also happened to be with us at the time. We got into my car and we drove. Made it all the way to West Virginia. There was a refugee camp there that was pretty big. I guess you can imagine how well that went. Lost my mom in it. Lucy got bit while out trying to hunt for food. Then it was just me and my niece Maggie for a bit. She died the day before you found me."
"That's quite the story." Merle said, "I'm sorry to hear that. Losing family is the hardest thing in this world. Ain't nothin' thicker than the blood in your veins. My sympathies."
"Thanks." Suzy gave a small smile with the corners of her mouth. She didn't think he could actually be serious and give actual sympathy. It surprised her to say the least. "Now you."
"Ain't much to tell with me either." Merle replied, still holding back, "In this world, you're either the lion or the gazelle. Even before all this shit hit the fan. Let's just say, I decided to stop being the gazelle."
"You sure are quite the mystery, Dixon." She had absolutely no idea what he meant by what he said, but decided not to pry further. "Fair enough."
He replied, a sly smirk creeping up onto his face, "Yeah. I'm a damn mystery to me."
As soon as the sun peeked back into the sky to shine some light, the two abandoned the cube van and started their journey on foot. There was nothing as far as their eyes could see. They didn't have a map, Merle was starting to lose blood at a faster rate right through his belt tourniquet. And with Suzy's head injury being made worse by dehydration from the heat, they couldn't move very quickly. There were geeks slowly wandering far behind them, but didn't pay them any mind. They had been walking for hours at this point. So far, there was nothing but woods to their right, open grass fields to their left, and the road ahead of them. Why weren't they finding anything yet? Not a single building? No neighborhoods? There was only straight nothing.
"How many bullets you got in that gun of yours?" Merle asked. He didn't sound good at all. He sounded so weak, he was barely trudging along. He was sickly pale and his bandana was drenched in his blood.
"Two." Suzy replied. She didn't sound so good herself. Her vision was blurry again, the pressure she felt in her head was too much to bear, and they were both so dehydrated and hungry. They had no more food, were on their last few sips from the same bottles they started the day before, and it was definitely over a hundred degrees that day with humidity. The air was too thick to breathe, making them feel like they were suffocating.
"Save 'em for us." She heard him say. She was starting to think that maybe Merle was right. There was nothing for miles at this point. They had already been walking for hours, and their injuries were out of time. They weren't getting medical care any time soon, and they were getting weaker by the minute.
"Merle?" She called his name, but he didn't answer. "Merle?"
She looked to her side and didn't see him walking beside her. When she looked behind her, she saw he had collapsed on the ground. His body was giving out. He had lost too much blood and his body couldn't take anymore."
"Merle," Suzy went over to him and tried helping him up by his good hand, "Get up...You need to get up...Get up...Come on."
He wouldn't budge and was way to heavy for her to lift and carry by herself. She kept asking him to get up yet didn't realize every time she did, she was gradually collapsing to the ground next to him. Her body was giving up too. She thought about what he said about the bullets; to save it for them. Why not? They were pretty much dead already.
Suzy reached down for her .38, the gun that had no choice but to see nothing but hard times. She wasn't even sure if she could. She felt herself losing consciousness once more and she wasn't sure from what. Perhaps it was a combination of everything wrong with them at the moment. She was tired, really tired. If she closed her eyes, she was a hundred percent sure she wouldn't be able to open them again. With all the strength she had left, she attempted to lift her arm to point the gun at Merle's head beside her. She cocked the hammer back so it was ready to fire. But when she went to pull the trigger, she just couldn't find it in herself to do it.
"I'm sorry." She sighed, lowing the gun and resting it at her side, "I can't..."
She closed her eyes, ready to go to sleep and never wake up. It was pure silence around them now. There would be nothing to worry about anymore. She could already feel the pain starting to go away. She never thought death could really be so peaceful.
Just then, she could've sworn she heard the faint sound of a running car. Her eyes opened upon hearing the sound. It was coming closer. She cocked her head back and indeed saw a car making its way down the road. Finding strength she didn't think she had left, Suzy rolled over and stumbled her way back on her feet. She raised her hands in air to get the car's attention so they would pull over. It worked, as she saw the car get closer and pulled over across from them.
However as soon as they did, Suzy's body gave out and she blacked out where she stood, not getting to see who their saviors even were. That is, if that's even what they were going to do with them. After all, they were pretty much dead already...