Fear is as ubiquitous as sunlight on the cracked streets. It comes in all shapes and sizes and takes refuge in everyone and anyone. People who watch for the end they know must come... Who in this new lifestyle grows old? It is fear of the prey or fear of the soldier you don't want to be but become anyway. Being scared is so normal, so inescapable, that it is ignored by the majority and crumbling is pilloried as a weakness. The strange thing is that the rare ones who get out fall apart anyway, as if the sudden release of pressure did more harm than good.
As Scarlett Redding strolled North up the river bank of the Yellow Jacket Creek, two men were marching their way through the forest; tensions high in the air around them. One looked a considerable amount older than the other, with hardly any hair on his head and wrinkles that had taken up refuge on his face with age. There was simply nothing about him that screamed anything other than fierce. His face looked as though it had never softened for anything or anyone. The younger man looked far different from the older. His head full of hair was darker and longer and though his face was softer, in that particular moment, he looked as though every guard he contained had been put up in order to block his emotions. However, both the men had the most calming shade of blue eyes; giving off the impression they were related in some way.
"We ain't never even come close ta' Yellow Jacket." The oldest of the two stated, rolling his eyes as he took in the surrounding area with annoyance that he simply wasn't afraid to hide.
"We didn't go West... Jus' a lil' bit South, that's wha' I think." The youngest suggested, looking off towards the North before he spun on his heal and began to make his way South.
"Know wha' I think?" The oldest scoffed a dry laugh. "I may have lost my hand, but you've lost yer' sense o' direction."
"Yeh'?" An eyebrow was quirked slightly. "We'll see." Meanwhile, a little further South, Scarlett was fastening her arrows to her back while trying to keep herself moving in a straight line heading North, unknowingly, towards the two men. It was a few moments later, however, when Scarlett and the youngest of the two men's ears perked up to the sound of a crying baby. Scarlett was quick to take off running, raising her bow and loading an arrow, keeping a tight grip on it. Being a considerable amount away then the two men, the sound had hit them first. "Ya' hear that, Merle?" The youngest man asked.
"Ye', wild animals gettin' wild." Merle chuckled, purposely snapping a twig beneath his boots.
"Na'... It's a baby."
"Oh c'mon, Daryl." Merle growled, shaking his head as he contained his chuckles. "Why don't yeh' just piss in my ear an' tell me it's rainin', too? Tha' there's the sound of a couple coons makin' love, sweet love." Merle grinned as he watched Daryl jog away from him. "Know wha' I mean?" He hollered, quickening his pace to catch up with Daryl.
Scarlett was just coming along the riverside when the sound of gunshots mixed with the cries filled her ears. Only this time, the sounds were much louder. As she ran towards the noise, her eyes widened at the site of the small bridge she had spent days looking for. She froze for a moment, a small amount of happiness filling her before she could hear people shouting in a different language from up on top of the bridge.
She began the short climb up the small hill towards the left side of the bridge. Almost as soon as she had made it onto the bridge, she froze and watched the scene before her curiously for a few seconds, trying to figure out what was actually happening. Scarlett shook herself from her trance and pulled her bow up. She squinted her eye and bit her inner cheek before releasing an arrow that landed in the skull of a walker. The walker stumbled away from Merle whose neck was about to have a chunk bitten out of it. The sudden movement caused him to spin around with a slightly spooked look on his face.
While trying to figure out where the arrow came from, he let out a string of curses. "The fuck!" He exclaimed as his eyes feel on Scarlett's form, watching her release arrow after arrow.
Scarlett ran out of arrows rather quickly and bent down to pull a small knife out of her left boot once she had realised that fact. She held it in her left hand and advanced on a walker from behind as she drove it through the back of its skull. With a small grunt, she pulled her knife back out before advancing on another and pushed her knife through its skull.
"Daryl, I got ya'" Merle spoke up, noticing a walker that had gotten a little too close to Daryl for his comfort.
In no time at all, the remaining walkers had been put down and Daryl noticed Scarlett for the first time. She was moving through the corpse's smoothly as she bent beside them and collected her arrows, wiping the unwanted blood onto her trouser leg.
Daryl shook his head slightly, scoffing under his breath as he turned back to his brother. However, when he turned around, Merle had gone. He frowned slightly before he noticed a commotion going on a few feet away by some abandoned cars.
Swearing under her breath, Scarlett twisted an arrow, scowling as she noticed that it had snapped. Before she had a chance to even breath, a voice broke her from her annoyance. "Let 'em go." She looked up, half expecting whoever it was to be talking to her.
"Nah, the leas' they can do is give us an enchilada or something huh?" Merle rhetorically asked as he rummaged through the car that looked as though it belonged to the family in which they had just helped.
"Enchilada?" Scarlett spoke up, her eyes landing on Merle. "Wow, no dude what the heck are you doing?" She protested, making her way towards Merle whose body was now half-way inside the car.
Just as she had come to a stop beside the car, Scarlett was nudged out the way by Daryl. He lifted his crossbow up to the back of Merle's head. Scarlett's eyes widened slightly as she bit the inside of her cheek in order to keep any words of wisdom from slipping out. "Get outta' the car Merle." Daryl demanded, nudging him with the end of his crossbow.
"I kno' yer' not talkin' to me brotha'." Merle growled. Scarlett eyed each of the men for a moment before deciding that they must be brothers. What from the way the pair spoke and the resemblance the pair took to each other.
"Get in your car an' get the 'ell outta here!" Daryl told the men as Scarlett moved around the car and began to nudge the family towards the doors.
She watched as the car began to fill up, the family rushing to get to safety as the panic showed deeply on their faces. The engine started on the second try and in seconds, the car was speeding across the bridge and out of sight. Scarlett shook her head before moving and looking around to locate and collect the rest of her arrows. Once she had all fourteen of her hand-made arrows, she turned around and walked the same way she had come from, preferring not to use the bridge knowing that the two men were probably using it as well.
"Hey princess, where ya' goin'?" Merle called out, watching the brunette walk off.
"Leave it, Merle."
"Nah, no way!" He growled out, pointing after Scarlett's retreating form. "She comes outta' nowhere, arrows flyin' this way an' that way? Man, I wanna know a lil' more 'bout that beauty." Merle replied, turning on his heal and opting for following Scarlett into the trees, Daryl unwillingly trailing behind.
"Wha's yer name sugar?" Scarlett sighed and continued to walk on through the tree's without responding. "Yeh' ignoring us sweetcheeks?"
"Merle just leave it!" Daryl said once again, his voice barely a mumble.
Scarlett rolled her eyes as she bent down towards the ground and squinted her eyes at the dirt, looking for any tracks she could use to her advantage. She smoothed her palm gently across the dirt on the ground as her eyes narrowed while she picked up some of the dirt and ran it through her fingers. Daryl watched with squinted eyes knowing exactly what she was doing.
"You track?" Scarlett looked up, annoyed, but was surprised to see Daryl looking down at her.
"Brother was." She mumbled, deciding to give him half the truth. "Used to take me out when I was younger." Scarlett replied instantly squeezing her eyes shut with a sigh as she waited for what she knew was about to come.
"Well, rob me blind brotha'!" Merle exclaimed brightly, his eyes widening ever so slightly. "We got ourselves a tourist!"
"You've got yourselves a nothing!" Scarlett growled, standing from her kneeling position and throwing the dirt towards Merle. "I don't even know why you're still following me? If I recall correctly, I'm the one who saved your ass from being roamer lunch!"
"Ya' sure do got a mouth on ya', huh." Merle insisted, ignoring her statement.
Scarlett stood with narrowed eyes for a few moments, trying to force herself not to punch Merle in the face before she shook her head and took off for the left. She breathed freely for a few moments before she groaned upon hearing the noise of crunching leafs behind her. She walked like someone who'd been in the armed service for most of her life, there was a marching quality to how she moved through the trees.
"So, what... Are you two brothers or something?" She knew they were, she wouldn't admit it but it felt good talking to people, even if it was Merle.
"Yep, this here's ma' baby brother. Worthless if ya' ask me could've got us some dinner, but no he 'ad to 'elp the family."
"He did the right thing."
"Ya' gon' tell us yer' name?"
"You gonna tell me yours?"
"Dixon. Merle Dixon. This 'ere is Daryl, But I'm guessing yeh' already knew our names?"
"Redding. Scarlett-Evelyn Redding. Scarlett's cool though.
"So... Where ya' from anyway? Australia?" Merle asked Scarlett after she had ignored his invitation to go into the trees and bump uglies' with him.
The trio had been walking together for the last hour towards an unknown destination. Scarlett had decided that the Dixon brothers weren't as bad as she had initially thought, and so she had decided to take a risk and stick with them for a while. However, she was beginning to get the impression that Merle enjoyed annoying people. Daryl, she could deal with. Merle was quickly becoming a nuisance.
"Why do you care?" Scarlett retorted, smirking as she heard Daryl fail to contain a snort.
"C'mon Sugar, I thought we were all happy friends now? After all, yer' still with us."
"Well, for a start, you two are the ones following me..." Scarlett lied. If they were to turn down a different route, she would follow them. "Besides... I'm waiting for a pack of roamers, then I'm going to sacrifice you and save myself and your brother from your annoying ass voice." Scarlett informed him with a straight face while Daryl looked away, knowing how Merle was.
"Tha' only person who'll be walker food outta' tha' three of us is you sweet cheeks."
"Wanna bet?"
"Got nothin' to give ya'"
"Where are ya' from anyway?" Daryl questioned Scarlett, wanting the subject to change before either of the two broke out into a fight that held more than just words.
"England." Scarlett said simply. "It's in the UK." She added on after seeing their blank stares.
"Ya' got a thing for my baby brotha', huh?" Merle asked, squinting his eyes.
"Why, you jealous?" Scarlett provoked him.
"No." He snorted, clenching his jaw lightly. "Ya' answer his questions, but not mine! They're tha' same damn questions!" Merle growled.
"Awe, is Merle feeling left out? What a shame. I think there might be a nice squirrel somewhere that can keep you company, huh? How would you like that? If you're nice enough, it might even stick around!"
"Bitch!" Merle exclaimed as Scarlett frowned, backing away from him as he got in her face. "Acting like you're too goo-"
"Merle, stop!" Daryl demanded, moving towards the two and pulling his brothers shoulder back.
"Saving ungrateful bitches as well as family's now, huh Daryl?" Merle forgot about Scarlett and turned on Daryl instead. "Tha' something yer' Sheriff Rick taught you?" Scarlett moved off towards the side, knowing this was something much deeper than her not answering his questions.
"There was a baby!"
"Oh? Otherwise, ya' would've just left them for the bitters then."
"Man, we went back for ya'!" Daryl shouted, throwing his hands in the air and looking as though he had given up with trying to justify himself. "You weren't there. I didn't cut off yer' hand neither, you did that. Way before they locked ya' up on that roof. Now, you asked for it."
"Yeh' know wha's funny to me?" Merle asked, his voice steady though his face had reddened. "You and sheriff Rick are like this now, huh?" Merle said while crossing his pointer finger over his middle finger. "I bet ya' didn't tell them that we were planning on robbing that camp blind huh?"
Scarlett was still standing a little away observing the scene and making a decision on if she should leave quietly while she still had the chance or see how it planed out between the two brothers. Though she knew it was highly doubtful that the two brothers would end up killing each other, she felt the need to be there in case something went wrong.
"It didn't happen." Daryl replied with anger bubbling up.
"Yeah. It didn't." Merle agreed, leaning towards the younger Dixon as he pointed towards himself using his thumb. "Because I wasn't there to help ya'!"
"What like when we were kids, huh? Who left who then?
"What!" Merle shouted, making Scarlett jump and quickly compose herself. "Is that why I lost my hand?"
"Yeh' lost yer' hand because you were a simple-minded piece of shit!" Daryl protested, spinning on his heal and beginning to walk off.
The next sequence of events happened in a blink of an eye. Merle grabbed Daryl as Scarlet came back into the picture and began shouting profanities at Merle, who in the end managed to rip Daryl's shirt and one quite female gasp was heard coming from Scarlett's mouth as her eyes landed on the scars on Daryl's back.
"I- I didn't know 'e was-" Merle stuttered.
"Yeah, ya' did." Daryl whispered, cutting his brother off. "He did the same to you. Tha's why yeh' left first."
"I had to man... Would've killed 'em otherwise." Scarlett began picking her bag up of the ground and walking towards the two while Daryl began walking towards the trees. "Where ya' going?" Merle questioned."
"Back where I belong."
"I can't go with ya'! I damn nerdy killed the Chinese kid." Merle protested.
"He's Korean!"
"Whatever! Doesn't matter man I jus' can't go with ya'."
"Ya' know... I may be the one walking away, but you're the one tha's leaving... Again." Daryl said with a hint of sadness he masked every so quickly. "You gonna come or wha'?" Scarlett's eyes met Daryl's where she slowly nodded and began following Daryl, turning when she was a few feet in front of Merle.
"You're supposed to be his brother." Scarlett whispered with sadness behind her eyes. "My brother would've died before he ever thought of abandoning me... You never abandon family, But you did. You don't deserve him." And with that, Scarlett turned and followed Daryl to where ever it was he called home.
A/N; This story is also posted on QuoteV