TTWH Chapter 8

i.

Daryl woke up, yawning and stretching, shaking off the arms wound tightly around him.

'Get off me, Merle.' He said but smiled because he liked to wake up with his brother's arms around him, after what had happened at Woodbury, it made him feel safe. Maybe some people in the group didn't understand but Fuck them, he thought to himself.

'Fuck. Head's thumpin'.'

'Yeah, what was in that shit ya gave me last night?'

'No fuckin' idea. Moonshine – who the fuck's knows what's in that shit.'

'Ya tryin' to poison me?'

'Come on. Let's go get some breakfast and go huntin'. Fine day out.' Now Merle was yawning and stretching.

They went to get the porridge dished out by Carol and Maggie. As usual, the older Greene girl refused to serve the older Dixon, just glared at him. 'Still here?'

'What's it to you, sweetheart? I'm here for my brother.'

'Don't bring me into this.' Daryl interrupted. 'You got a problem with my brother, ya got a problem with me.' He told her before he turned heel. 'Come on, Merle. Let's get our own breakfast.' He threw his bowl into the bushes.

'Why did ya have to do that?' Carol rounded on Maggie. 'We can't have one Dixon without the other and besides, I really think Merle is trying to change.'

'Yeah, right.' Glenn's wife scoffed.

'You attack his brother, ya jus' end up upsettin' Daryl and he doesn't need it after what he's been through.'

Maggie blanched at that and looked away guiltily.

'Why can't ya just be civil and hold your tongue in future!' The older woman continued to harangue her.

'OK, OK...I can do civil. Don't mean I'm ever going to like that redneck sleazebag...'

Andrea came bouncing up in gym clothes, blonde ponytail flying. 'Hey, guys, what's up?'

'Oh, just talking about Merle.' Carol sighed, clearly sick of the subject.

'Yeah, that traitor. He's a complete creep, comes onto anything female – any woman who goes with him must be a complete brainless whore. Can't believe they're related – Daryl's so sweet – well, except when he's angry.' Maggie ranted.

Andrea turned her head away as she blushed despite herself. 'Well, I'm going to check the perimeter.' She jogged off in a hurry with her pistol.

'How about your breakfast?' Carol called after her.

'Er...I'm not hungry. Maybe catch up with you at lunchtime.' Andrea replied without looking back. She suddenly didn't want breakfast anymore.

ii.

Daryl

I was raging and fuming about how some people in the group were still treating my brother – OK, I knew he had made mistakes but they weren't perfect, even Maggie and Glenn. I could understand that they didn't trust him but then they had left him handcuffed to a roof to be eaten.

I sighed as we jogged along, trying to sweat out my frustration. I wondered why we bothered to hunt and protect them sometimes, they were so damn ungrateful.

'They forget everythin' ya do for them...' I hissed at his back. 'Yeah...somethin' bad happened to Maggie and it was ya fault but ya didn't do it. 'Sides, it was a year ago...why don't they jus' get over it...'

'Yeah – what he did to her ain't nothin' compared to what happened to you, baby brother.'

I flinched and he saw. Shrugged his shoulders apologetically. 'Didn't mean to bring all that shit up for ya again.'

'Yeah, I know.'

My stomach growled hungrily and I regretted throwing away my breakfast to make a point. It had taken me a while to start to eat regular, full meals again – when I'd been imprisoned, they'd only fed me once a day, if that. Thin, watery soup and a lump of stale bread if I was lucky. Merle said that he had to basically hand-feed me in those first few days, not that I could remember much about it. Now I was ravenous all the time. Herschel said it was my body replacing the food I'd missed out on, like vitamins and stuff now that I was safe again. I'd put on a little weight too.

'Keep that down, will ya?' My brother hissed at me.

'Can't control my stomach now, can I?'

'Shut up otherwise we ain't never gonna catch anything.'

We went deeper and deeper into the forest, tracking in silence. Saw a couple of stray squirrels but they were too fast – scampered up the tree before I could train my crossbow on them. I cursed at them under my breath.

Sh...' Merle waved to me a hand-signal to let me know he'd spotted something. Despite myself, my mouth started to water at the thought of cooked breakfast – squirrel or better - a big buck.

'Come on.' He whispered but as we came into a small clearing in the middle of the forest, we heard voices. Men's voices and ones that I recognised and made my blood turn to ice in my veins.

I heard their voices in their my head again and shook it to try and clear it. I knew all their names, they were burned into my memory. The fuckers must have escaped the fire, fled like the rats they were from the sinking ship that was Woodbury. Scum like them didn't have loyalty to anyone, not even to each other.

'Who whipped ya? Was it ya Daddy?...Because ya were bad?' Their laughter then merged into their laughter now. They had a campfire going, roasting a few squirrels just like we intended to.

'Did he fuck ya like this?' Then the pain and shame. My hands chaffing against the ropes, the tears leaking from eyes and the occasional sob or whimper slipped out from me when I couldn't stop them as the hours went on and on without even a break or a sip of water. They'd taunted me about them too.

'Look – the slut's crying! Thought you Dixons were tough...ya brother begged for mercy when we fucked him bothways.'

'No, he didn't! Merle wouldn't!' That was Jones – the most sadistic of them all. He didn't even use lube like the others did at least, pounding into me as hard as he could so I would feel like I was being ripped apart. 'Ya wanna see him? Think the Governor wants to kill him soon, use him in a show tonight and you'll never, ever see him again unless ya please us. But not you, no, he wants to keep ya around.' Then that cruel laughter from all of them. Their greedy hands roughly groping me everywhere even as they fucked me at both ends.

Merle turned to look at me, icy eyes glittering. - it was obvious, judging by my reaction. 'Sh..' He whispered, tried to lay a hand on my arm but I jerked away. He knew them too. He'd worked with them and done...other things with them but I didn't let myself dwell on them.

I could hear Mendez's voice, calling me a pretty boy and sleazily stroking my cheek. I'd flinched away but they'd held my head. 'What's the matter, baby? Ain't hurtin' ya.'

I'd spat in his face. 'Ya put that in my mouth and I'll bite it in half, mother-fucker.' I was glad that I'd got in a few punches, making one of the asshole's nose spurt blood and kicked another in the groin so that he moaned in pain, doubled-over but there were just too many of them. They'd beaten me to the ground for that, knocking me unconscious and I'd woken up, my wrists bound and groaning in pain before I knew where I was.

He'd laughed at that. 'Hold him down.' Turned to me. 'If ya don't, sweetheart, we'll kill ya brother. Yeah, we got Merle here too.'

'Liar! Where is he then? Lemme see him, asshole!'

They'd slashed my inner thighs then with the knife 'to add to the scars already there'. I couldn't see them do it – they were forcing my head to look straight ahead and that was the worst thing, never knowing what to expect.

In the end, I'd submitted but hating myself all the time for it. Because I could never be sure that Merle wasn't their prisoner...Never having sucked another man's dick before, apparently I was quite good because I soon had the bastard moaning and bucking in my mouth. Threatening to choke me.

And all that was before the Governor gave them permission, the go-ahead for them to do everything they wanted, not just oral. He'd been the worst by far.

We got behind a tree, getting a grip of the situation. How were were going to take them down.

I saw that bastard Mendez piss against a tree, then would have been a good time to attack. There were five of them we could see unless there were others not there at the moment – hunting or scouting but we had a feeling this was all of the group. These five rats, Mendez, Jones, Louie – a big black guy who had crushed me with his huge bodyweight so that I felt like I couldn't breathe, Smithy and Valentino.