Here's the new chapter and finally Daryl's in it. They don't have a lot of direct interactions yet but they will soon, promise! Hope you like it! Tell me what you think!
Chapter 3
Daryl Dixon
Charlie kept looking at the road ahead, her thoughts centered on Merle and Daryl. She berated herself because she knew she should have done more and, now, Merle was going to saw his hand off and he would be gone by the time Daryl and Rick would come back for him.
"Best not to dwell on it." Morales said from the back of the truck. "Merle got left behind. Nobody's gonna be sad he didn't come back… Except maybe Daryl."
That was probably true but also not a nice thing to say. Merle wasn't exactly the poster child for good behavior but he didn't deserve this.
"Daryl?" Rick asked, curious.
"His brother." Morales answered.
"Fuck!" Charlie cursed once again. "We should have done something! He may be an ass but he didn't deserve this! And his brother didn't deserve this either!"
She noticed from the driving mirror that the others looked at each other guiltily at her words but she was the one feeling the guiltiest of all. She knew what was going to happen and she didn't do anything to stop it.
The awkward moment was interrupted by Glenn in his car. "Whoo-hoo!" They heard from beside them. Glenn sped past in his red sport car, apparently having the time of his life.
"At least somebody's having a good day." Morales commented amused.
Charlie barely smiled, her stomach churning unpleasantly with guilt.
"Hey, it wasn't your fault, okay?" Rick said from beside her, noticing her mood.
Charlie shook her head. "It was. I was the one who punched him."
"And I was the one who handcuffed him. So, if it's anyone's fault, is mine." Rick replied but Charlie shook her head.
"You don't understand. I…" She stopped but then continued, not wanting to say that she knew this was going to happen but wanting to explain why this was her fault more than everybody else's. "I just had this feeling. I somehow knew that something was gonna happen. There was this feeling of dread in my stomach…but I ignored it because I wanted to get out of there as much as anyone else. I didn't think about him handcuffed to that roof because I was thinking about myself, at the fact that I didn't wanna die…"
"And that's normal, Charlie." Rick said in response, an understanding look on his face. "We all wanted to get out of there so we ended up forgettin' about him in our rush to leave. It ain't okay, it ain't right, but it ain't your fault either."
Charlie smiled at him in response, feeling a little reassured by his words.
The rest of the drive was spent in silence. About fifteen minutes later, they drove up a hill and finally reached camp. Rick parked the truck and sighed. The others got out immediately, eager to join their loved ones.
"Come meet everybody!" Morales said to the two of them once he had left the truck before going to meet his family.
Rick didn't move and neither did Charlie.
Charlie felt sad and a little jealous, knowing that Rick was about to find his family again while she was still alone. It had been a comfort, having Rick with her, especially when it had been the two of them alone but now Charlie would have to take a step back to let him be with his family and that hurt.
Rick looked sad too but she knew that in a few moments that expression would change. She tried to be happy for him. Rick was a good man and he deserved to be reunite with his family.
"Hey, helicopter boy, ninja girl! Come say hello." They heard Morales' voice from outside.
The two of them looked at each other with a small smile before Rick got out of the truck, Charlie following close behind him.
"The guy's a cop like you." Charlie heard Morales saying to someone who had his back to them.
Rick started walking slowly while Charlie stopped closer to the truck, feeling suddenly shy at all those people's eyes on her.
Shane was the first to see Rick. He turned around and looked at him, a look of surprise on his face. Then came Carl and Lori's turn.
"Oh my god!" Rick whispered to himself, staring at his wife and son in disbelief. Carl looked at his father wide eyed, Lori not faring any better. Then suddenly, snapping out of his stupor, Carl started running towards him.
"Dad! Dad!" Carl shouted. Rick started running too.
They met halfway, Rick going to his knees to embrace his son. "Carl!" Rick said, still incredulous.
He kissed Carl on the cheek more than once then he finally got up and approached Lori who had looked at the entire scene not believing her eyes. He embraced her, spinning her around.
The others around camp stared too, a smile of surprise on all of their faces. Only Shane didn't look particularly happy though he feigned a smile when Rick looked at him.
Charlie observed the scene too, tears filling her eyes. It was a heartwarming scene and she was happy for them but, in that moment, she felt lonelier than ever.
A while later, after Charlie had been introduced to all the other members of the camp, night had fallen and they were all sitting around a fire, Rick hugging his wife and son close. Charlie had decided to sit close to Glenn, the only one beside Rick she knew a little better.
"Disoriented. I guess that comes closest." Rick was recounting his story since he had woken up in the hospital and met Charlie. "Disoriented. Fear, confusion… all those things but… Disoriented comes closest."
"Words can be meager things." Dale said compassionately. "Sometimes they fall short."
"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever."
"Mom said you died." Carl said to his father in a small voice.
Rick lowered his gaze to look at him. "She had every reason to believe that. Don't you ever doubt it."
"When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened." Lori explained.
"Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell." Rick replied.
"Yeah." Lori replied with a nod.
"And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun." Rick said with a questioning tone towards Shane who replied.
"Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out, you know?"
"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it." Rick said with a grateful look towards his best friend.
"There go those words falling short again. Paltry things." Dale said once again before turning his attention towards Charlie. "What about you Charlie? You met Rick at the hospital, right? What about before then?"
"Well, I had just returned from my second year at Uni and then I started hearing about the strange attacks. My uncle and I left Macon as soon as we could, heading towards Atlanta but we got separated along the way. So, I ended up in the hospital at King County. And then I met Rick about two weeks later." Charlie explained but the conversation was cut short by Shane's words towards Ed Peletier.
"Hey, Ed, you want to rethink that log?" Carol's husband and Sophia's father had just added another log to the fire where he and the rest of his family were sitting around. The fire was now rather high and would have therefore attracted any walkers in the vicinity if there had been any.
"It's cold, man." Ed complained. Charlie glared at him, a hate and disgust so profound against this man that even she was surprised. She supposed she had her reasons though. After all, for her, it was like going back ten years.
"The cold don't change the rules, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance, right?"
"I said it's cold. You should mind your own business for once." Ed said and at that point Shane got up, walking over to him. "Hey, Ed… Are you sure you want to have this conversation, man?" He said, glaring at him.
Ed decided to rethink his position once he was faced against a pissed-off Shane. Coward.
Ed turned to look at Carol. "Go on." He ordered. "Pull the damn thing out. Go on!" Carol immediately did as she was told, risking to burning herself in the process.
"Christ." Shane said, immediately stomping the flames with his feet. Then he turned his attention towards Carol. "Hey, Carol, Sophia, how are y'all this evening?"
Carol looked meekly at him. "Fine. We're just fine."
Shane smiled gently at her. "Okay."
"I'm sorry about the fire." Carol apologized and Charlie gritted her teeth in anger. Ed should be the one apologizing, not Carol.
"No, no, no. No apology needed. Y'all have a good night, okay?" Shane replied gently.
"Thank you." Carol said before taking Sophia and moving away from the fire.
"I appreciate the cooperation." Shane then said sarcastically towards Ed before rejoining the group.
Once Shane was sitting around the fire with them, Dale began the conversation once again. "Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind."
"I'll tell him." T-Dog offered. "I dropped the key. It's on me."
"I punched him so it should be me." Charlie protested.
Rick looked at her in protest. "I cuffed him. That makes it mine."
"Guys, it's not a competition." Glenn said from beside her. "I don't mean to bring race or gender into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy."
"What? You're afraid he's gonna hurt me if I'm the one who tells him?" Charlie asked Glenn with a raised eyebrow.
Glenn blushed but nodded. "Well, yeah."
Charlie glared at him. "I don't need to be protected. I thought I proved that when I knocked Merle out with a single punch."
"No one's sayin' ya need to be protected Charlie." Rick intervened. "But it'd still be better if you stay away from him. We don't know how he'll react."
Charlie glared at him, huffed but relented. "Fine."
"I did what I did. Hell if I'm gonna hide from him." T-Dog added.
"We could lie." Amy – Andrea's sister – proposed.
"Or tell the truth." Andrea intervened. "Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed." Then speaking directly to Lori, she added, "Your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's."
"And that's what we tell Daryl?" Dale asked. "I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you? Word to the wise… We're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."
"We'll just have to find a way to explain things to him as gently as possible. He may have lost his brother after all, he deserves some compassion and understanding for that. It's not Daryl's fault Merle was being an ass."
"I agree." Rick added. "Though I don't know how we can explain things to him in a way that he will accept."
Charlie nodded at him in agreement.
"I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it." T-Dog added then.
"We were all scared. We all ran. What's your point?" Andrea asked, a little harshly.
"I stopped long enough to chain that door." T-Dog explained further. "Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through that… Not that chain, not that padlock. My point… Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us."
Charlie already knew that but hearing it from T-Dog didn't make her feel any better. The others looked at each other, only now realizing how awful the situation really was.
A little while later, after Amy had given her a spare sleeping bag and told her she could sleep in Merle and Daryl's tent for the night, she was just about to go to bed when Rick stopped her a few steps away from Lori's tent.
"Hey!" Rick said, smiling at her.
Charlie smiled at him. "Hey! I told you, didn't I? That you would find your family!"
"You did! I still can't believe how lucky I am. I just wished you had found your family too."
Charlie shrugged her shoulders, feeling sad. "Who says I won't? If my uncle is still alive – and I'm rather sure he is – then I'll find him. And Evan…I don't know. He's not exactly cut out for this life but, somehow, I feel that if he weren't alive, I would know."
"Are you and Evan just friends or there's more to it?"
Charlie laughed at that. "I wouldn't have minded that but I'm a little too…'feminine' for his tastes."
Rick looked confused for a second but then realization set in. "Oh, that explains it."
Now it was Charlie's turn to be confused. "Explains what?"
"How a guy can be friends with you and not desire something more." Rick said like it was obvious.
Charlie blushed at that and Rick cleared his throat, feeling embarrassed himself. "I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't have said that."
Charlie shook her head. "It's okay. I take it as a compliment."
"It was." Rick said before adding, changing the subject. "I wanted to give you back this," and with that he handed her the knife she had given him when they had left the tank.
Charlie shook her head. "It's okay. You can keep it. I already have one, my uncle gave it to me."
Rick nodded, reattaching the knife on his belt. "Also, I wanted to thank you. I don't know if I would be here if it weren't for you."
"I didn't do anything Rick. You'd have survived perfectly well on your own, trust me. I just went along for the ride."
"Still, thank you. I won't forget this."
Charlie smiled at him. "I'm happy I met you." She said sincerely.
Rick smiled widely at her. "I'm happy I met you too."
"Well, it's late. Your wife will be wondering where you are. You should go back to her and your son. I'm sure they're eager to spend time with you."
Rick nodded. "Yeah, I should. Do you have somewhere you can sleep?"
"Yeah, I'm all set." Charlie said, indicating the sleeping bag in her arms. "Good night, Rick."
"Good night, Charlie."
Rick walked towards his tent, feeling a little unsettled about his conversation with Charlie and not knowing why. He joined Lori who was in front of the tent. She didn't look very happy.
"So, you met Charlie when you woke up in the hospital?" Lori asked casually, too casually.
Rick nodded. "She helped me, explained to me what was going on, showed me how to kill walkers. It's mostly thanks to her that I'm here now."
"She's very beautiful." Lori said, her voice still maddeningly casual.
"She is." Rick agreed. There was no point in deny it. "And also, very young." Then he smiled at her, amused. "You're not jealous, are you?"
"Should I be jealous?" Lori asked, eyebrow raised in challenge.
Rick laughed and kissed her sweetly. "Trust me, you have nothing to worry about."
Lori nodded reassured, and together they got inside their tent where Carl was already waiting for them.
The next morning Charlie woke up early, had breakfast that consisted of an energy bar and gummy bears that she had in her jeans' pocket and went to the quarry to wash away the grime accumulated the day before. Amy once again came through when she lent her a clean top since they had a similar size. It was a simple white tank top that was a little too tight on the front (emphazing her breasts a little too much for her taste even with the sports bra she had underneath) but since she didn't have any other clothes at the moment it'd have to do.
The size of her boobs was a curse more than a blessing most of the time. Beside the fact that she was always forced to wear a bra because they were just too heavy for comfort, they were also impossible to hide. When she ran at the park or had cheerleading practice at the football field, men would stop in the middle of whatever they were doing to stare at her chest and openly drool. Not only that would serve to make her extremely uncomfortable, it would also provoke the jealousy of some of her more vain teammates.
Moreover, people – men and women both – tended to have preconceived notions towards her just because she had big breasts. Add to that the fact that she was blonde and some people took a look at her and immediately thought: 'dumb slut'. Sure, sometimes she had fun pretending to be just that before showing them exactly how wrong they were (like what she had done with Merle) but it got tiring really quickly, having people underestimate her just because she was a young, hot, blonde girl.
About half an hour later she joined Glenn in watching Dale turn apart the sports car.
"Morning!" She said to him cheerily.
"Morning!" Glenn replied sullenly. Charlie giggled at his expression.
Rick joined them a few moments later, greeting them with a kind smile.
"Morning sheriff!" She said to him, feeling chipper that morning and not knowing why, especially after the gloomy thoughts of yesterday.
Rick smiled at her brilliantly, her good humor contagious. Then he turned towards Glenn, who still looked upset.
"Look at 'em. Vultures. Yeah, go on, strip it clean." He shouted to Dale.
Dale turned to him and said "Generators need every drop of fuel they can get. Got no power without it. Sorry, Glenn." He didn't seem very sorry.
"Thought I'd get to drive it at least a few more days."
"Maybe we'll get to steal another one someday." Rick said to Glenn. Charlie laughed.
Rick went to find Lori then while Charlie started to wonder around camp, not exactly sure what to do with herself.
Suddenly they heard screaming and everyone immediately went to check what was going on.
Charlie remembered that scene from the TV show very well and a shiver of excitement went down her spine. That was the moment Daryl would appear for the first time. She loved the scene in the TV show and she couldn't wait to see it – and him – in reality.
The adults reached the two kids and immediately Lori went to hug Carl while Carol took Sophia away.
Rick joined the scene soon after Lori and asked, "You're okay?"
"I've got him. I've got him." She said before asking Carl, "Nothing bit you? Nothing scratched you?"
Carl shook his head. "No, I'm okay."
The group finally turned their attention on the walker eating the carcass of a deer. The walker – sensing people around it – turned its attention towards them. Charlie watched the scene a little away from them, knowing they could take care of it without her help. Glenn, Jim and Morales started to beat on it with the objects they had in hand and Dale finished it off by chopping its head with an axe.
"It's the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain." Dale commented.
"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what." Jim said.
Just in that moment they heard branches snapping and the sound of footsteps. Charlie came a little closer now, already knowing who was coming.
Daryl appeared out of the vegetation, looking startled at all the weapons trained on him. "Oh, Jesus!" Dale commented once he realized who he was. They all lowered their weapons at the same time.
Daryl noticed the body of the walker and the carcass of the deer and started to shout. "Son of a bitch. That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this… filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!" He started to kick the headless body of the walker to vent his anger.
"Calm down, son. That's not helping." Dale tried to placate him but all it did was shifting Daryl's anger towards him.
"What do you know about it, old man?" he ranted. "Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to 'on golden pond'? I've been tracking this deer for miles." Then in a calmer voice he added, "Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison." He walked closer to the deer and inspected the bites. "What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" He pointed to the head and torso of the deer.
Charlie looked at the scene and at Daryl with a smile. He was even hotter in person, in a rough, dirty sort of way. Very different from Rick, with his shaven face, combed hair and clean clothes.
"I would not risk that." Shane replied.
Daryl sighed. "That's a damn shame. I got some squirrel…" He pointed with his head to the squirrels tied to his belt. "about a dozen or so. That'll have to do."
Suddenly, the walker's head started to move its teeth, coming closer to Amy and Andrea. "Oh god." Amy exclaimed, retreating a few steps and then leaving the scene with Andrea in tow.
"Come on, people. What the hell?" Daryl exclaimed before shooting the walker's head with his crossbow. "It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?"
When he raised his head to look at the others around him, their gazes finally clashed and Charlie realized she was still smiling like an idiot. She blushed in embarrassment and looked away.
Daryl looked, both curious and confused, at the blonde, green-eyed girl with the hottest body he has ever seen. She was new, that was obvious. He would have remembered her if she had been in camp before that. In fact, he'd never have expected to see someone who looked like that except on the pages of Sports Illustrated or some other magazine like that and especially there, in a world post-apocalypse.
Not that it mattered what she looked like, of course. A chick like that didn't go for the likes of him.
He shook his head and started to walk towards camp, raising his voice to call out for his brother. "Merle! Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up." There was no answer. Merle was probably high, lying around somewhere.
"Daryl, just slow up a bit." Shane ran after him. "I need to talk to you."
Daryl stopped and turned around. "About what?" He asked, suspicious.
Shane sighed. "About Merle. There was a… There was a problem in Atlanta."
Daryl felt dread at his words but it didn't show on his face. "He dead?"
"We're not sure."
Daryl got angry at Shane's words. "He either is or he ain't!"
Charlie and Rick joined the two of them, though Charlie decided not speak for now.
"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." Rick said and Charlie closed her eyes, waiting for the explosion soon to come once Rick would actually tell him what happened.
"Who are you?" Daryl asked, turning towards Rick.
"Rick Grimes."
Daryl snorted. "Rick Grimes!? You got something you want to tell me?"
"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there." Rick said, not mincing his words.
"Hold on. Let me process this." Daryl said, feigning calm. "You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?!" His voice rose at the end of the question.
"Yeah."
At Rick's confirmation, Daryl threw the squirrels at him before attacking him but Rick shoved him off.
"Hey! Watch the knife!" T-Dog warned Rick as soon as Daryl pulled out his knife. The situation was going downhill fast. Charlie wondered what had happened to 'explaining things to Daryl in a gentle way'. That was not gentle or compassionate.
When Daryl went to attack Rick with a knife, Shane came up behind him and put him in a chokehold, arm around his neck, forcing him to kneel.
"You'd best let me go!" Daryl protested.
"Nah, I think it's better if I don't." Shane said, looking like he was enjoying this a little too much.
"Choke hold's illegal." Daryl tried to free himself but without results.
"You can file a complaint." Shane said sarcastically but Daryl didn't seem to want to calm himself anytime soon. "Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day."
Rick knelt in front of him and said "I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that?" Daryl grunted and didn't answer so Rick asked again. "Do you think we can manage that?" Shane tightened his grip and Daryl nodded with his head as best he could.
"Mmm. Yeah." Daryl said, still struggling to breathe. Shane let him go.
"What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others." Rick exclaimed calmly.
"Look, Daryl, is it?" Charlie intervened. "Rick could have explained things better, I suppose, but the fact is that your brother was shooting walkers with a rifle while on the roof, attracting more and more walkers in front of the shopping centre we were holed up. When Morales and T-Dog tried to stop him, he insulted them and started to beat T-Dog. He was high as a kite and was acting crazy. So I punched him…"
"You punched him?" Daryl asked, incredulous, looking at the lithe girl in front of him.
Charlie raised an eyebrow, insulted at his tone. "Yeah, I punched him. He went down and then Rick handcuffed him. We didn't mean to leave him there. It was only supposed to be until he had calmed down enough to reason with him. But then things happened and he got left behind."
"It's not Charlie's or Rick's fault." T-Dog intervened. "I had the key. I dropped it."
Daryl turned towards him. "You couldn't pick it up?"
T-Dog looked apologetic back at him. "Well, I dropped it in a drain."
"If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't." Daryl replied, his voice scratchy like he was trying to hold back tears.
"Well, maybe this will." T-Dog said. "Look, I chained the door to the roof… so the geeks couldn't get at him… with a padlock. It's gotta count for something."
Daryl turned around, his eyes suspiciously bright. "Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so that I can go get him."
"He'll show you." Lori said, pointing towards Rick. "Isn't that right?" She didn't look very happy.
Rick looked apologetically back at her. "I'm going back." Lori shook her head and walked into the RV without saying a word.
A little later, Rick got out of his tent, once again wearing his uniform. Shane followed him, trying to convince him to rethink his decision to go back to Atlanta. "So that's it, huh? You're just gonna walk off? Just to hell with everybody else?"
"I'm not saying to hell with anybody… Not you, Shane…Lori least of all." Rick defended himself.
"Tell her that." Shane said back.
"She knows." Rick turned towards him before starting walking once again. Shane kept following, until they were standing right in front of Daryl.
"Well, look, I… I don't, okay, Rick? So, could you just… Could you throw me a bone here, man? Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douchebag like Merle Dixon?"
"Hey, choose your words more carefully." Daryl immediately defended his brother.
Shane turned towards him. "No, I did. Douchebag's what I meant." He focused his attention to Rick once again. "Merle Dixon…The guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst."
"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst… me. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being."
"So you and Daryl, that's your big plan?" Lori asked from a little away from them.
Rick turned towards Glenn then. "Oh, come on." Glenn immediately protested.
"You know the way. You've been there before… In and out, no problem. You said so yourself. It's not fair of me to ask… I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too." Rick said, pointing at Lori.
"That's just great. Now you're gonna risk three men, huh?" Shane asked, clearly upset.
"Four." T-Dog offered.
Daryl huffed. "My day just gets better and better, don't it?"
"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?" T-Dog asked.
"Why you?" Daryl asked, clearly not keen on the idea.
"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language."
"That's four." Dale commented and Charlie chose that moment to intervene. "Actually, make it five."
Rick turned towards her. "I can't ask you that."
Charlie smiled at him. "You ain't asking, I'm offering. And anyway, my backpack's still there on the streets. I want it back." Rick still looked reluctant so she added, more seriously. "Look, Merle may be a sexist, racist pig…" She ignored Daryl's "Hey!" in protest and kept going, "but he don't deserve that, nobody does. So, I'm going and that's it!"
Rick nodded at her with a smile. "Can't say no to that. Beside, I know you can defend yourself."
"It's not just five." Shane protested yet again. "You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick. Come on, you saw that walker. It was here. It was in camp. They're moving out of the cities. They come back, we need every able body we've got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp."
"It seems to me what you really need most here are more guns." Rick said in response.
"Right, the guns." Glenn said in realization.
"Wait. What guns?" Shane asked, now interested.
"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before Charlie and I left. I dropped the bag in Atlanta when we got swarmed. It's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up."
"Ammo?" Shane asked Rick, now sold to the idea.
"700 rounds, assorted."
"You went through hell to find us. You just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?" Lori protested this time.
"Dad, I don't want you to go." Carl added.
"To hell with the guns. Shane is right. Merle Dixon? He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in. Tell me. Make me understand." Lori pleaded.
Rick sighed before explaining. "I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy. They helped me Lori, just as much as Charlie. It's also thanks to them that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me and Charlie to Atlanta. They'll walk into the same trap we did if I don't warn him."
"What's stopping you?" Lori asked, now more understanding.
"The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag I dropped. He's got the other one. Our plan was to connect when they got closer."
"These are our walkies?" Shane asked then.
"Yeah." Rick nodded.
"So? Use the CB. What's wrong with that?" Andrea asked.
"The CB's fine. It's the walkies that suck to crap… Date back to the '70s, don't match any other bandwidth… Not even the scanners in our cars." Shane explained.
"I need that bag. Okay?" Rick pleaded with Lori.
Lori nodded reluctantly. "All right."
Rick approached Carl then. "Okay?" Carl nodded, looking sad.
Charlie looked at the scene of the three of them together for a few seconds, feeling sad once again, then she turned around to stand near the van she and Rick had left Atlanta with.
Daryl went inside the back and started pacing. Charlie looked at him, feeling guiltier than ever. She knew that going back would be for nothing but she couldn't tell Daryl that. At least Charlie knew that Merle was still alive so that was something.
"I'm sorry, Daryl. I really am. I know that going back for him doesn't erase what we did but I hope it's something." She said to him.
"You sure you can shoot with that?" He asked, ignoring her words and pointing to the bow strapped to her hip.
"Yes, I'm sure." Charlie said with a sarcastic smile, feeling a little insulted.
"Hope for your sake it's true 'cause if ya end up in trouble, I ain't saving you girl!" he merely said.
"Who says I need saving? Trust me, I can take care of myself!"
Daryl grunted in response before turning around and beeping the horn. "Come on, let's go!"
Rick was the last one to get on the truck after receiving five bullets for his python from Shane. Glenn was in the driver's seat while everyone else was in the back. They spent the drive to Atlanta in silence.
They reached the outskirts of Atlanta after about ten minutes.
"He'd better be okay." Daryl said threateningly towards everyone in general. "It's my only word on the matter."
"I told you the geeks can't get at him." T-Dog answered. "The only thing that's gonna get through that door is us."
After that exchange of words, Glenn parked the van. "We walk from here." They all got off and started walking along the railroad tracks.
They reached a fence and Rick used the bolt cutters to cut through it. They all passed through it and then Rick asked Glenn. "Merle first or guns?"
"Merle!" Daryl immediately protested. "We ain't even having this conversation."
Rick turned serious eyes towards Daryl. "We are." Then he turned towards Glenn. "You know the geography. It's your call."
"Merle's closest. The guns would mean doubling back. Merle first." Glenn said in response.
They all nodded and started to walk stealthily towards the department store they had left yesterday.
Once inside the store, they looked around and noticed only one walker on the ground floor. Daryl quickly took care of it with his crossbow. "Damn. You are one ugly skank." He said before pulling the arrow out. They kept going.
They went up the stairs and reached the roof. Charlie already knew what they were going to find and was afraid to look.
"Merle! Merle!" Daryl started calling out. He got closer to the pipe where Rick had handcuffed Merle and started to sob. "No! No!" He screamed.
The others all watched in silence. The handcuff was empty and there on the ground was Merle's hand.
