I followed everyone up the stairs, making sure we weren't follow by unwanted people or walkers. We hadn't seen a single walker since the one Daryl killed and it seems like a good thing, but I just had this bad feeling about this. Going after Merle is dangerous, but I can't help but feel like that isn't what is scaring me. It' something else. I feel something bad was going to happen because of this trip and that's what is scaring me. "You okay?" I looked over and saw Daryl looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Fine... just making sure nothing sneaks up on us." I lied.

"That isn't what's worrying you." Daryl noted.

"No it's not." I looked around before heading up the steps. "Come on, we gotta better things to do." I said before walking the rest of the stairs and up to everyone else. T-Dog was just cutting the padlock and pulling the chain free as Daryl and I reached them. Daryl shoved T-Dog out of the way. He kicked the door the rest of the way open and started screaming his brother. "No! No!" I suddenly heard Daryl yelling. His voice filled with grief, causing it to be hoarse and rough. I could hear all the rough emotions from his yells. Feel his pain.

I shock my head clear before hurrying onto the roof. What I say made me stop right in my tracks. It was as if in slow motion. Daryl swung his crossbow at T-Dog, ready to fire, blaming it all on him. Rick aimed the gun at Daryl. I could Daryl shaking and I knew he was just hurting. "Enough both of you." I snapped. I stormed over to them. "It wasn't T-Dog's fault and Rick put the goddamn gun down, Daryl your crossbow too." I said. Both looked unsure. "Now!" I yelled. Daryl glared at me, but put it down. Daryl sighed and looked back at T-Dog.

"You got a do-rag or something?" T-Dog handed a blue rag to Daryl silently. I frown and watched as Daryl rested his crossbow against a pipe and headed over to the severed hand. Daryl put the hand in the rag and looked at it. He gave a loud sigh. "I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs." He said. "Ain't that a bitch."

He stood and looked around before beckoning to Glenn. I almost could have laughed at how pale he was. Daryl moved behind Glenn and put the hand in his backpack. "Glenn is going to complain about that later." I whispered to T-Dog causing him to give a silent laugh.

"He must have used a tourniquet-maybe his belt. Be much more blood if he didn't."

"Then he's probably alive." I said.

"Mmm." Daryl agreed as he picked his crossbow up and started long the rooftop. I followed him as he followed a trail of blood droplets. The trail lead across the roof and right to a second access stairwell. The door was wide open and the trail led right inside. I didn't have a good feeling about this. I glanced at Daryl. He was determined to find his brother and I knew he wouldn't listen, but still. I had a bad feeling.

"Be careful." I said so only he could hear me. He glanced over at me. "I have a bad feeling about this, so just be careful." He nod as he started down the stairs.

"Merle, you in here?" He called as he went down the stairs. As we went down the stairs there was a walker waiting there. I moved forward, machete in hand, and cut the head in two, going along sideways, causing the top of head to fall right off. I slid the machete back in it's holder. I turned to see everyone staring at me shocked.

"Are we going or what?" I asked. Daryl snorted and started walking through the office that we had entered.

"Show off." He muttered to me as he walked by. I smiled and walked beside him.

"Hypocrite." He glanced at me and I saw a small smile on his lips. I found it an improvement. The smile made him seem softer, more handsome. It lit his whole face up, just that small smile.

We came out of the office and entered a white walled corridor. Papers were spread all across the carpet and every single door hung open. I didn't see anymore walkers as I followed Daryl as we neared the corridor. Rick walked behind us with Glenn and T-Dog behind him. We passed through another open door and into another office. I frown as I saw a dead walker laying close to the doorway and another only a few meters away. The two walkers were killed very messy, with blood soaking the carpet in pools around their beaten heads. A crescent wrench only a few feet from one.

"Had enough in him to take out these two sumbitches." Daryl said as he sidestepped them. "One handed." He reloaded his crossbow before going on to say, "Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother. Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails." I bit back a smile and looked ahead.

"Any man can pass out from blood loss." Rick said as he met Daryl's gaze. "No matter how tough he is." Daryl didn't respond back. Rick walked passed us and through the office, stepping over the pool of blood left behind by Merle. Daryl looked at me before standing and following Rick. I met his pass.

"He just doesn't want you to be disappointed." I whispered softly.

"I know."

I walked out of my tent to see Andrea and Amy were back. They had a big haul of fish causing me to smile at how proud they were. Morales walk over to them with a face filled with excitement. "Oh, baby, will you look at that?" He call back to his wife. "Hey, check it out." He laughed. Andrea handed off a fish to him with a proud smile. "Ladies, because of you, my children will eat tonight. Thank you." Morales said as Lori gave a soft applause.

"Thank Dale. It's his canoe and gear." Andrea said. Jacqui walked up to them and held her hand up for a high five. Andrea obliged and Carl smiled.

"Mom, look." He cried. "Look at all the fish." Morales swung the fish towards Lori, almost hitting her arm, which made her edge away.

"Thank you."

"Whoa." Carl said as he remained staring at the fish as if he never even seen a fish before.

"Yeah, whoa." Lori smiled as she watched Carl reach out and prod the fish. "Where did you two learn to do that?"

"Our dad." Amy answered Lori as she took a gulp from her water bottle.

"Dad's tend to teach a lot." I said quietly, but they heard. Amy smiled.

"Ya, they do." Amy agreed.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Carl asked.

"Sure." Amy's voice was bright and cheerful, making me smile. I liked seeing her so happy. This world can really tear people down and I hated how it was starting to on her. "I'll teach you all about nail knots and stuff." Amy said as she looked at Lori. "If that's okay."

"You won't catch me arguing." She said as he eyed the fish.

"Hey, Dale." I looked over as Andrea said that to see Dale walking over. "When's the last time you oiled those line reels? They are a disgrace." I rolled my eyes. Always has to complain.

"I, uh, I don't want to alarm anyone but... we may have a bit of a problem." Dale said ignoring everyone and looking around at us all. He turned in the direction he had just came from and pointed. I look up and was able to see Jim through thick vegetation. He appeared to be digging. It was strange. Why would anyone dig in this heat? It was so hot I had no shirt on and was in just my jeans. i didn't even have my boots or socks on.

Everyone started up to Jim as Amy laid the fish down somewhere safe. I gave a sigh before going into my tent. "You coming, Danny?" I heard Amy's voice call.

"Ya, just getting a shirt." I called back. I picked up a navy blue muscle shirt and some socks.

"I rather like you without one." I heard her mutter under her breath. I snorted.

"You do know I can hear you without you yelling." I said as I stepped out with my boots back on.

"You... You heard that?" She turned as red as a tomato causing me to laugh.

"Ya, Amy, I heard ya." I pulled my shirt over my head. "Come on." I said once my shirt was over my head. I picked my bow and quiver up and put it over my head.

"I'm worried about Jim." Amy said as she laced her hand with mine.

"He'll be fine. Let's go check it out."

"Merle!" Daryl called as the blood droplets stood out more, and was in more places. He seemed to be bleeding more heavily.

"We're not alone here, remember?" Rick said quickly and quietly.

"Screw that. He could be bleeding out- you said so yourself." I gave him a comforting smile before he moved further into the kitchen. I walked behind him and saw someone had lit several sterno cans, with one still burning, flickering of blue-cored flames. I made a face as I saw a bloodied belt laying on a cooktop with an iron steak weight beside it, it was crusted with something burnt and bloody.

"What's the burned stuff?" Glenn asked noticing my pale face.

"Skin." I said quietly.

"He cauterized the stump." Rick added. Glenn looked as bad as I did. It made me sick that he did that.

"Told you he was tough." Daryl said with a proud smile. "Nobody can kill Merle, but Merle."

"Don't take that on faith." Rick said as he eyed the blood that coated the kitchen. "He lost a lot of blood."

"Yeah?" Daryl asked as he started investigating the rest of the room. "Didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap." I walked over to Daryl and saw a large window, set into the left wall, had one of the panes smashed. This left a rather large hole, large enough for him to get through.

"He left the building? Why the hell would he do that?" Glenn asked.

"Why wouldn't he?" I frowned as Daryl said this. "He's out there alone as far as he knows, doing what he gotta do. Surviving." He was blaming us. I felt guilty. It was our faults. It was and nothing is going to change that.

"You call that surviving?" T-Dog asked as he gestured to the window. "Just wandering out in the streets, maybe passing out? What are his odds out there?"

"Not much." I said. Guilt pressing down on me.

"No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks." This only made me feel worst. I turned and walked away without a word. I stood by the stairs with my arms tightly around myself. We shouldn't have left them there. We should have tried to get him out. I know there wasn't much time, but we should have done it as soon as we started to go off. We shouldn't have waited. He may have been still with us if we had. "You okay?" Daryl's gruff voice said from behind me. I jumped, quickly wiped my eyes, and turned around.

"Fine. What's the plan?" I asked as Rick walked up.

"We're getting the guns and then going to look for Merle on our way to the van." I nod as Rick answered me.

"Okay, let's go." I walked up the steps with them following close behind. I needed to get this guilt off me. We'll find Merle and I won't have to feel guilty anymore... I hope.