Woo! I got another review- you have no idea how much I love it when youreview- anyways, here's the next chapter. Please R&R with your thoughts!
No one had really heard the struggle between the brothers going on, but the knew aomething was going down. Daryl strode out a few minutes later, knuckles bleeding, and nodded to Jamie. Wanna help me? Distract the walkers and I'll work on chainin that gate- Don' want anymore getin in."
From there, they re-chained the gate and called it a night.
It was by the fire that night when they cooked the chili that it happened. Everyone was gathered around, awkwardly trying t figure out what to say around Merle. Merle, to his credit, was toally oblivious the to awkwardness. He'd stabbed his portion of squirelly meat and was currently roasting it over the fire.
He left it slightly bloody and started to dig into it, finishing, before he wondered. He looked up. Jamie had been sitting next to him by the fire, sandwhiched between her and zdaryl. She wasn't afaid of Merle, especially not with Daryl beside her, but that didn't mean she liked him...
Merle looked over at her suddenly. "Where you from, bitch?" he asked.
She didn't look up from where she was eating to answer, acted like she didn't notice him at all. Merle waited for her to finish eating before speaking again.
"I said, where you from, bitch?"
She still didin't answer. If he called her Jamie, she'd answer, but until then, she wasn't going to.
"Hey! I'm talking to you!" Merle said,mslightly louded this time. She stared at the fire- she dodn't want to talk to him about where she was from. She didn't want to talk to him at all.
Merle moved his knife arm so it was right under her chin, forcing her to look up at him. There was a fire burnng in her eyes when she did, but she didn't move, didn't want to slit her throat by accident.
"Where you from, bitch?" Merle asked, giving her a toothy smile.
"None of your business." She snarled, staring at him, eyes hard.
"I wouldn't sass the man who'd got a knife to your throat, bitch."
"I ain't nobody's bitch." Jamie snarled, and there was a click as the switchblade in her hand opened, giving her a clear shot at Merle's midsection incase he tried anything.
Merle looked down, seeing the blade reflect the fire light, and laughed, pulling his knife out from under her chin. "I see how you survived this long, kid." he said. Jamie studied him, and when she realized he wasn't going to make another move, flicked the switchblade shut, sliding it back into her pocket.
"Where'd you get the switchblade?" Daryl asked, a concerned expression on his face.
Jamie shrugged. "I me a man in the woods today..."
"And killed him." Daryl finished.
Jamie nodded. "He was bit, though, he came at me, I swear..."
Daryl nodded, putting out his hand. "Lemme see that knife."
Jamie reluctantly obeyed, and Daryl flicked his wrist, bringing out the blade. He studied it, testing the metal with his thumb, trying to bend it. It was a good blade, strong, he knicked his thumb with it and it drew a bead of blood. He deemed it good- if i were some cheap shit, there was no way he'd let her keep it. The last thing she needed was the blade breaking off in the middle of a fight with a walker or something...
He flicked it shut, handing it back to her. "It's good. Better to scare people away if they try to mess with you, better for slashing."
Jamie nodded, flicking the blade out, studying it in the flickering fire light. It was a good blade, she liked it...
"You know how to use it?" Merle asked.
She nodded. "Put it through there head..."
"That's for walkers. Not people. Lemme see it." Merle extended his hand and she warily handed it to him, since she couldn't detect any maliace in his voice.
Merle nodded. "On people, this sonofabitch works even better. Slash 'em anywhere you can, but I'd go for the torso if they're gunning for you. People tend to freeze up once they been stabbed, it shocks 'em..."
Jamie nodded, taking the knife as he offered it back to her and pocketing it.
It was cold out and, out of habit, she moved closer to Daryl, who put an arm across her shoulders.
She took that as her cue and tried to get as close as possible to the warm body on the cold night, worming her way towards him, and Daryl chuckled, getting her in a headlock and giving her a quick noogie.
Still, she didn't fight the headlock. It wasn't tight, she could breathe, and she fell alseep like that, with her head leaning in the crook of his arm.
Daryl just watched her sleep for a minute, reaching down to stroke a lock of chestnut hair, which was around shoulder length, now, away from her face...
He was so lucky. So lucky she'd found hm, so lucky she was his. And for once, he believed there was a god, because who else could make a little girl so amazing, so perfect...
He noticed her shivering in the cool night, despite his body heat. Today must've been an exhausting day for her, hunting, clearing the walkers, finding out he was back...
He shifted her into his arms, picking her up bridal style. "C'mon, baby girl." he muttered, before standing, starting towards the prison, Merle following uncertainly behind him.
He came up to the perch, laying Jamie down beside him and grabbing the blanket.
"Thought you said it wasn't like that." Merle said quietly, an almost ashamed look on his face. "She's jest a kid..."
Daryl looked up, something burning in his eyes. "I ain't like that." he said firmly.
"I jest... she has nightmares. As in, knock down drag out nightmares, she wakes up screamin'. An I'm the only one who can wake her up from 'em- last time she had one she gave Rick a bloody nose." Daryl said, looking over at her.
Merle chuckled, crouching slightly to get a look at Jamie, who was currently trying to worm her way under Daryl's arm, trying to get close to his warm body, all while still asleep...
"I'm begining to like this kid." Merle admitted, sitting down a few feet away from Daryl, lookingnover at him. "So- where's her parents?
"Dead. Mom got torn apart by a herd, Dad, older brother, and lil' sister got bit. She had to put her sister down. Wakes up screamin' for her sometimes..."
Merle nodded. "Where'd you find her? Atlanta?"
"Nah. That farm Andrea told you 'bout- she came across it, watched her whoop some walkers ass. Rick tried to get her to come with us back to camp, she took off, we followed, she saved Rick's ass when a walker came. Rick carried her back to camp- should'a seen it. She's screaming bloody murder, cussing him out, kicking, screaming, fighting like hell... She even beat Shane's ass when he said her brother was probably dead."
Merle nodded, looking over at Jamie, who was still asleep, now contentedly curled up against Daryl. He looked dubious. "She don't like much..."
"She don', but she fights like hell when she's got her back against the wall." Daryl said calmly. He reached over, grabbing a blanket from where it'd been tossed, tucking it around her gently.
He nodded to Merle before pulling the blanket over to himself a little, moving about for a little before settling down, Jamie asleep beside him.
Daryl was standing beside the fence in the prison yard. They'd been dragging the walker bodies towards the pile they'd burn. He'd just thrown a walker into the the pile, but there was something about the woman that reminded him of Jamie...
Then something jumped onto his back. "Booyah!" Jamie yelled, and Daryl wheeled, surprised, staggering forward. He fell, Jamie laughing, as she was on his back, but he unexpectedly rolled and she lost her grip, squealing and try to crawl away.
Daryl grinned, reaching out and grabbing her ankle, dragging her across the gass towards him.
She screamed, a hysterical, joyfilled scream as she tried to crawl away. She'd been hoping to strike and run...
"Thought I'd let you get away that easy, huh?" Daryl asked, dragging her on over to him and flipping her over, starting to tickle her.
She started to shriek with laughter, and Glenn looked uo from where he'd been working with Maggie, smiling. It was nice that even with them all on the brink of war, someone could still laugh.
Rick heard the shrieks and ran out, gun drawn, but smiled, sliding it into his holster again and smiling at the scene before him.
"D-Daryl... s-stop!" she squealed.
"Say uncle, kid!"
"Uncle! Uncle!" Jamie squeeled, and Daryl finally let her up.
"Next time you start a fight, baby girl, make sure you can win." Daryl said, ruffling her hair.
She shrugged. "Could'a won, ifyou ain't so big..."
"Big, am I? You're playin with fire, kid..." Daryl grinned, and she laughed, taking off running with Daryl hoton her heels.
Rick shook his head as the two ran past him, grinning. She was he only one he'd ever seen who could make Daryl smile, the only one who'd been able to get Carl acting like his normal self after Lori... There was something special about this girl with the traumatic past and green eyes hat seemed to stare right into your soul...
Jamie ran back past him, scrambling over the pile of walkers, which had to be about five feet tall, like it was nothing.
She was almost over it when a dead hand reached out from within the mass of corpses, seizing her ankle. She fell to the ground, head whipping around, shocked, as the walker started clawing it's way out from under the mass with i's other hand, jaws snapping, trying to get toward it's ensnared prey.
"Jamie!" Daryl yelled. He'd been well behind her, but he looked around, horrified, going for his crossbow.
Rick was already drawiing his gun, he couldn't risk the shot, there wasn't much of the walker exposed, just the hands as it dug itself out from the mountain of corpses. It was slowly emerging, hissing and making inhuman sounds as it strained towards her.
There was a click as Jamie flipped out the switchblade, the top of the walker's head wasn't free, yet, and she buried the blade in it's sunken eye. Blood spurted onto her, she hadn't gone deep enough, though, as it still went for her.
No one dared come any closer- seeing more people would make the walker more determind, make it dig itself out faster.
"If it sees you it'll get excited and scatch her!" he yelled. But Daryl couldn't hear a thing over the pounding of his heart in his ears, his desperate screams for Jamie.
"Jamie!" Beth pulled her pistol from her waistband, throwing it towards her friend. The gun went off as it landed feet from her, the blast suceeded in deafening her in her right ear. And the gun was still out of reach. zshe scrambled, desperate to grab it, but it was at least two feet out of her reach.
The noise of the gunshot made the walker even more anxious, though, it was trying to bite her, had almost suceeded in digging itself out.
She took the foot the walker hadn't been grabbing, jamming the heel of her boot into it's mout. It's head was dug out, now, with each heave more of it's shoulders were exposed. She felt like she was in quicksand, where was Daryl?
She was dizzy, nothing was real anymore. The blood was pounding in her ears, she couldn't hear a thing, nothing was real exceopt for the walker that had her in it's grip... Where was Daryl? She turned to the left Beth's gun was a lost cause, her cheek was in the dirt. Maybe this was it...
She saw boots about twenty feet away, looked up, surprised, to see Merle standing there. He said nothing, simply flicked his wrist, and the gun landed a few feet away from her. She stared, rolling, straing to get towards it. The walker took a swipe at her, it's other arm, was free, now,but it missed. She drive the heel of her boot into it's skull, felt somthing within it's head crack.
It was still going for her, the gun... She struggled, twising, desperate to get her hands on it... A few inches. She was a few inches away, now. Merle was ten feet away, why didn't he help her?
She didn't have time to think about it now, a few inches, a few inches... She felt her fingertips brush the cold metal...
She seized the handle, turrning back towards the walker. She didn't even aim, instinct took over, then, and she fired...l