Chapter 2

I heard voices wherever I was, but just couldn't seem to drag myself out of my slumber. I drifted away again… back to the memories.

My seven year old self sat on the floor of my little bedroom playing with some old barbies Daryl had found for me in one of the neighbor's dumpsters. I was trying to ignore the growling in my stomach, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. I hadn't eaten all day because Daddy was in one of his moods and I was trying to stay away from him. Before Daryl had left for work in the morning he had warned me. "You stay away from the old man today, Lil. He's in a mood, ya hear?"

"Okay, Daryl." I had promised. After Daryl's warning I had been too afraid to leave the room for fear I would run into Daddy. He was scary and mean.

After another couple minutes, I decided I couldn't ignore it anymore. My stomach was hurting because I was so hungry. I decided I would just sneak into the kitchen and grab something to eat, then scamper back to my room before Daddy saw me. I opened my door, and being careful not to make any noise, began tiptoeing across the hallway. Daddy was sleeping on the couch in the living room, empty bottle of whiskey lying on the floor beside him.

Once I was in the kitchen, I opened the fridge, hoping to find something to eat. My face fell when I saw the shelves were bare except for some old milk and a moldy loaf of bread. Nothing there.

I closed the fridge and stared up at the pantry. Surely we would have some cereal in there, even if it was stale. The problem was getting up there to open the cabinet. I knew I would have to climb on top of the counter to reach the cabinet because I was too short to open it from the ground. Luckily I was well practiced in the art of climbing the cabinets to reach the counter.

I managed to get on top of the counter relatively easily and then I opened the pantry. We didn't have much, but I did see a box of cheerios that felt like it had a good amount left. My stomach snarled in anticipation. The momentary lapse in concentration was all it took for my foot to nudge a glass that was sitting on the counter. I tried to grab it, but the glass fell to the floor, shattering into a thousand pieces. "What the fuck?" I heard Daddy yell. My stomach dropped and I hugged the cereal box to my chest, hearing Daddy's thundering footsteps coming closer to me. When he saw the glass on the floor and me sitting on the counter, his face grew livid. "Girl, yer gonna get it!"

He grabbed me by my arms and lifted me off the counter. I slammed my forehead against the cabinet door but he didn't seem to care. "Daddy, I'm sorry!" I screamed, dropping the cereal on the floor in surprise. Daddy threw me over his shoulder and began walking down the hallway back to the living room.

"Yer not sorry now, but yer gonna be!" He shouted while he walked. I sobbed, knowing he was going to get the belt. Just as we got to the living room, the front door opened and Daryl walked in, a shocked expression on his face.

"What the fuck is goin' on here?" He asked.

"Stay outta this, boy." Daddy dropped me onto the floor, keeping a firm grip on my arm. I was screaming now, knowing it was coming.

"Don' touch her you fuckin' drunk!" Daryl shouted, throwing his bag to the ground and coming into the room to push Daddy away from me. As soon as Daddy let me go, I got up and ran into my room, slamming the door and locking it.

I put my pillow over my head, trying to ignore the sounds of Daryl fighting with Daddy. Daddy always won because he was bigger than Daryl. After a couple minutes, I heard the sound of the door slamming. I curled up into a ball on my bed, praying Daddy was gone. After a few minutes I heard the sound of soft knocking on my door. "Lily?" Came the sound of Daryl's voice.

I shot up and opened the door, jumping into Daryl's arms. "I'm sorry!" I sobbed, over and over again. Daryl's nose was bleeding and he had a bruise on his cheek. "I was hungry… knocked over the glass… Daddy woke up." I managed to mumble.

"It's okay, Lily. Let's get ya some ice fer that forehead. Then I'll make ya some dinner." I put my head on his shoulder and nodded. Everything was okay, Daryl was there to protect me…

It was quiet when I woke up. I slowly dragged my eyes open only to slam them shut again; it was very bright in the room I was in. Wait, room? I forced myself to open my eyes even though the brightness made my head pound. I was laying on a bed, but I wasn't in a room, I was in an RV. How the hell did I get here? I thought to myself. I tried to remember back to last night, but all I was getting were bits and pieces. I remembered being in the truck with Daryl and Merle and falling asleep. After that things were really hazy. The last thing I remembered was looking sideways at a man with a shotgun pointed at me. Where were my brothers?

My heart started beating faster and suddenly I wanted out of the bed. I needed to find Daryl and Merle. First things first though I needed to use the bathroom. I sat up only to double over from the pain in my ribs. Once I was sitting up, I could see clearly the large bandage covering my sore wrist. Trying to ignore the pain, I stood up from the bed and held onto the nightstand next to it to stop the room from spinning. I could tell I had been lying down for a while because my balance was so off.

I made my way over to the bathroom and locked myself in. After I was finished, I stood up and caught my reflection out of the corner of my eye. I turned around to look in the mirror and the girl who stared back at me was downright scary; forehead covered in a large white bandage, thin face streaked with blood and dirt, blonde hair going in every direction, and blue eyes that stared back at me with a haunted expression.

I hadn't realized I had looked this terrible. No wonder Daryl had let me lay on him last night. I could feel more tears coming at the thought of my horrible appearance, but I pushed them away. I had to find my brothers, not sit in the bathroom and cry like a baby. I slowly made my way to the front of the RV and then down the steps, not really knowing what I would see when I left the little space.

I didn't expect to see so many people! There were little kids running around and plenty of adults doing different chores. I didn't see any signs of my brothers. What if they had left me here? I jumped when I felt a presence next to me. "Oh, sweetheart, you shouldn't be out of bed. You look like you're barely standing!" The woman who was talking to me was a tall, thin brunette with long hair. She was standing next to a man with dark hair and I immediately recognized him as the man with the shotgun from the night before.

"Where am I? Where are my brothers?" I asked her, ignoring her comment, and eyeing the man warily.

The woman smiled kindly at me. "You're at our camp, your brothers brought you here last night; you were hurt pretty badly. I'm Lori by the way." She held out her hand and I tentatively shook it, still feeling scared and totally out of place. "Your brothers went hunting this morning, they'll be back soon."

The man held out his hand next. "I'm Shane, nice to meet ya."

"Lily." I shook his hand as well and he grimaced at me, taking in my appearance.

"Why don't you let me help you back into the RV? You look a little pale." I wished my brothers were here, I didn't need this guy helping me with anything.

Why the hell would Daryl and Merle leave me here by myself with a bunch of strangers? Before I could think any more of it, I heard the sound of Merle's voice. "Whatcha doin outta bed, girly?" I whirled around and saw him and Daryl walking towards us. It looked like they had had a successful hunting trip by the looks of all the dead squirrels Daryl was carrying.

"Lookin' for you two." I shot back, hoping to keep the edge off my voice. Merle shot me a sharp glare and grabbed the squirrels from Daryl.

"I'll clean them squirrels, you can go pamper the princess." Merle laughed at his own joke and Daryl just rolled his eyes. He made his way over to us and came to stand beside me. Shane and Lori stared at Daryl and I could tell he was uncomfortable.

"I was just asking Lily if she wanted to go back to the RV and rest." Shane awkwardly stated like I wasn't standing right there.

Daryl nodded. "Whatcha think?" He asked, looking at me.

I shrugged. Honestly I would have liked nothing better than to curl up in the RV and sleep some more, but I didn't want to take up these people's space. My head was aching, my wrist smarted, and I could barely stand up straight with the pain in my ribs, but I shook my head. "I'm fine, I'll just stick with you." Daryl rolled his eyes at me, clearly not believing me. When I could tell Daryl wasn't going to respond to Lori and Shane, I turned to them. "Thanks for the offer, but really I'll be fine."

Lori smiled back at me. "No problem, honey. We'll be around if you need us; we're glad to have you here.

I nodded and Daryl walked away, nodding for me to follow him. I saw our tent set up on the other side of the camp, Merle sitting on a chair next to it, gutting the squirrels. When we were out of earshot he turned to me. "Someone offers you a bed, you should take it, Lil."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not gonna sit in there alone, I don't even know these people. Why the fuck did you leave me alone?"

Daryl shrugged. "Didn't think you were gonna wake up so soon. You were passed out cold all night. Didn't even flinch when the cop put those stiches in yer head."

I touched my head in shock, feeling the stitches through the bandage. "Shane stitched me up?"

"That's what I said." Daryl responded, stepping towards our tent. Merle looked up when he saw me.

"Ya look like a mummy with all them bandages, Lily Bird." He snickered.

"Shut up, it's yer fault this happened. I fell out of a fuckin' tree because of you." I snapped back. I had a splitting headache and didn't feel like dealing with Merle.

He pointed his knife at me, bloody from the squirrel guts. "You better watch yer mouth, girl. I won' hesitate to slap ya around even if yer hurt, hear me?"

I just glared back at him, knowing what he said was true. I wasn't in any condition to fight him off. Of course it was Daryl to break the tension. "Come on, Lil. I'll show you the quarry, you need to clean yer face and I gotta wash my damn shirt from last night." I just shrugged, still glaring at Merle, until Daryl pulled me by my elbow and made me follow him.

As we got further away from the camp, I asked Daryl, "So what the hell happened last night?"

Daryl shrugged. "You were a fuckin' mess, kept passin' out and shit in the car so I made Merle stop when I saw their cooking fire. Thought maybe they had some medical supplies. It took some convincin' to get officer friendly back there to help us, but once I told him I would hunt for em' and we could hold our own, he gave in. Weird ass bunch of people though. Merle already wants to get out of here."

I nodded, mentally agreeing with Merle for once. "Maybe we should. Too many people here."

"Too many people, but it's safer fer us." I raised my eyebrows and glanced over at Daryl questioningly. He shrugged, seeing my face. "It's true, Merle ain't been any help lately, it'd be nice to have more people keepin' watch at night. Won't have to stay up all night every damn night." I had to admit Daryl had a point there.

"Merle's getting bad again." I said, agreeing with him.

"Yeah, best stay away from Merle till he snaps outta his funk. You know the drill." I sighed, nodding. Sometimes I felt like our lives revolved around Merle's drug addiction. We walked the rest of the way to the quarry in silence, and I grinned in excitement when I saw the water. I felt disgusting with all the dried blood and dirt on me.

I practically ran up to the water, trying to ignore the pounding in my head with each step I took. I slipped my shoes off and waded into the water, being careful not to get my shorts wet. Daryl just watched me and laughed, leaning down to start washing his shirt. "Think I can take this bandage off my head so I can clean my face better?"

Daryl looked up from his shirt. "Go 'head, I got a couple extra bandages from the cop. Just don' touch them stitches, that water's not clean, might get 'em infected. I'll boil some water later if you wanna clean 'em better." I nodded and reached up to peel away the bandage. "Don' let yer wrist get wet though, we ain't got an extra one of those. Yer gonna have to keep that wrapped up fer a while, it might be broke, we ain't sure."

After I had wiped away all the dirt and blood off my legs, arms and face I felt much more human. All the movement had really aggravated my injuries though; my head was throbbing, and my ribs were sending stabbing pains through my body every time I breathed. I stepped out of the water and slowly lifted up my shirt to inspect the damage. I groaned when I saw my ribs; they almost looked black, the bruising was so dark. "Shit…" I muttered to myself.

"Damn, girl! Ain't you been eatin'? Can see every one of them damn bruised ribs." Daryl stood up, walking closer to get a better look but I pulled my shirt down.

"I'm fine, Daryl." I groaned, trying to ignore the pain.

Daryl rolled his eyes, wringing out his wet shirt. "Don' look fine to me. I'll get ya somethin' outta Merle's stash when we get back to the tent. Somethin' to take the edge off."

"Thanks, Daryl." I smiled at him gratefully. He nodded and we began walking back towards the camp.

By the time we got back to the tent, I was huffing and puffing. I gracelessly collapsed on top of Daryl's cot and threw my arm over my eyes. I could hear Daryl rummaging around on the other side of the tent. "Where the fuck's Merle?" He grunted. "Never here when I fuckin' need him. How the hell am I 'sposed to know what pills I'm lookin' at here?"

I groaned. "Just forget it, Daryl. I'll sleep it off." I didn't want to chance taking the wrong pill. That would be a fucking disaster. Who knew what the hell Merle had in his stash.

Daryl didn't listen to me. I could still hear him shaking the pill bottles around. The sound of the tent being ripped open had me shooting into a sitting position and I gasped. The pain in my side knocked the wind out of me. As soon as I caught my breath I looked up to see Merle standing in the tent. "Jesus, Merle, why you rippin' the tent open like that? Scared the shit out of me." I said, glaring at him.

Merle didn't even look at me, his eyes were drawn to the bag of drugs in Daryl's hands. "What the hell are you doing?" He asked, his tone scary.

Daryl shrugged. "Lookin' for a pain pill fer Lily. What's it look like I'm doin'?"

I could see Merle's face turning red. "You don't fuckin' touch my stuff!" He shouted. I jumped at the sudden outburst. Merle snatched the bag back from Daryl.

"Fuck's yer problem?" Daryl snapped right back. "She's hurt and you got a whole bag of meds sittin' right there, you can't spare one goddamn pill?"

Merle stepped right up in Daryl's face. "I'll say it again, baby brother. You don't fuckin touch my stuff." After each word he poked Daryl's chest. I saw the anger flash in Daryl's eyes before he forcefully shoved Merle away.

Sensing the escalating situation, I stood up, trying to get between them. "Guys, just stop before you do somethin' –" I got cut off when Daryl shoved me back towards the bed. I plopped down on my ass, slightly losing my balance.

"Stay out of this, Lily." Daryl snapped at me. I fucking hated this shit. "I'm so fuckin' tired of yer bullshit!" Daryl spat at Merle. Merle just chuckled and started to turn around like he was gonna leave. Then, suddenly, he threw a punch, catching Daryl in the jaw.

"What the fuck, Merle?!" I screamed as Daryl was thrown backwards onto Merle's cot with the force of the blow.

Merle put up his hands and I flinched back reflexively. "Now listen here," he said, "we do things my way, got it? So just fuckin' do as I say!" He yelled at us, totally unhinged. As he walked out of the tent, I could hear him muttering to himself. He was definitely losing it.

…

The weeks stretched on, and nothing really crazy happened after that first day at the camp. My injuries slowly healed, and as much as I hated to admit it, I kind of liked being around more people. I felt safer knowing there were a lot of people around keeping watch other than just Daryl and I. And we hadn't seen a single walker the entire time, which was the best part of it all.

"Pass me that water bottle, Lil." I blinked at Daryl, coming out of my thoughts.

"Huh?" I asked, stupidly.

Daryl scowled at me. "The water, dummy. Give it here." I narrowed my eyes at him but passed over the small bottle at my feet. Daryl and I were currently sitting on top of the RV, keeping lookout while the others sat around the fire, probably telling ghost stories or some shit like that. I could hear the old man's voice carrying. It sounded like they were having a grand old time.

"That Dale guy is a weirdo. The way he looks at everyone with those wide eyes?" I turned to Daryl and he nodded in agreement, eyes scanning the forest. I stared at the rest of the group, assessing the different people. The two blondes, Andrea and Amy who were always together, Jim the mechanic who was quiet and to be honest, fuckin' strange, Jacque and T-Dog, the only two black people of the group.

Then there was Glenn, the Asian guy who was my age. Poor guy tried to get friendly with me when we first got to camp. Didn't go over well with Merle when he saw us talking, he put a stop to that shit real fast. I can still picture Glenn's face when Merle said, "You ever talk to my sister again, I'll cut yer fuckin' head off, kid." Yeah, that stunt made us all real popular with the group.

Then there were the families. The Hispanic family whose names I couldn't remember and could care less about, Lori, Carl, and the cop, Shane, who always seemed to be together, and Carol and her kid with her ex-army husband. So many damn people, I didn't even know everyone's name. I felt like I really didn't know much about any of these people and that's how I liked to keep it. "Hey," Daryl interrupted my thoughts again and I looked up. "Maybe you should be watchin' for walkers instead of starin' at those people. None of our damn business."

I felt my face redden, Daryl caught me red handed. "I'm not starin'." I said, defiantly.

Daryl scoffed. "Kay, whatever."

We sat in silence for a couple minutes. I could hear the cop talking about taking a trip to Atlanta. There had been talk of making a supply run to the city for more supplies. "Hey, Daryl, how 'bout that trip to Atlanta?"

"What about it?" He asked, not breaking eye contact with the forest around us.

I shrugged. "I dunno, I was thinkin' we could ask for some stuff. I wanted –"

Daryl cut me off, "We don't need nothin' from these people. Got everything we need here."

I huffed. "Well I can think of a few things I need. Maybe I'll just go with 'em."

Daryl finally turned to look at me. "No way. You ain't goin'. That's it."

I raised my eyebrows. Seriously? "Daryl, I'm a grown woman, I can make my own decisions, you can't just –"

"No, Lily, listen here. We don' know these assholes, I'm yer brother, yer blood. We stick together, I ain't lettin' you waltz into that city. It's crawlin' with geeks. No fuckin' way." Daryl stepped right up to me as he spoke, looking down at me.

"Well, Daryl –" I started.

"That's it, Lil. We ain't fuckin' talkin' about this anymore. It's done." Daryl ended the conversation, looking back into the forest once again. I knew Daryl well enough not to argue anymore. Merle wasn't my only stubborn brother with an attitude problem…

…

A couple days later, Daryl and I were making our way back to camp after a hunt. Daryl dragged me out of bed at the crack of dawn to go out with him. I swear, since this whole walker shit started, Daryl hadn't let me out of his sight for more than an hour. I was lucky I got alone time to shower and shit. I appreciated his protectiveness, but it was fucking exhausting sometimes.

As soon as we got back into camp, we were both shocked to see Merle talking with the group. Daryl looked at me and raised his eyebrows. I shrugged and we walked up to the circle of people. "…could use another gun watchin' yer backs, huh?" Merle was all smiles, talking to the group.

"What's goin' on?" Daryl asked, looking at Merle.

Merle beamed at Daryl. I could tell he was high. "My lil' brother and sister are back!" Merle walked over and slung his arm around my shoulders. He stunk like he needed a shower and I resisted the urge to duck under his arm. "I was tellin' these fine folks what a great idea it would be to let Ol' Merle come to the city with them tomorrow!" My heart sunk. What a shit idea.

I laughed nervously. "What the hell do you need in the city, Merle?"

Merle squeezed my shoulder. "I got needs, baby sis'!" Merle said cryptically. I glanced at Daryl out of the corner of my eye. I was pretty sure Merle's needs included nothing but getting his next fix.

The cop shrugged and looked at Merle. "Alright, man, I guess if you need to go, go. But be sharp, you bring that gun and be prepared to use it." Merle laughed, slapping me on the back, as everyone started to disperse.

I made a split second decision. "I'll go too." I said, loudly.

Shane turned around to look at me and nodded. "Fine with me, but that's it," He said, looking at everyone, "This ain't a damn party." I just nodded and turned to walk back to our tent. I could feel Daryl's gaze burning holes through my head, but I didn't turn to look at him. Fuckin' coward I was.

The rest of the day I did everything I could to avoid Daryl, even going as far as doing laundry at the quarry with the rest of the women like a little bitch. I was wound up so tight I was ready to snap. I hated going against Daryl, but I felt like I had to. Who else was going to watch out for Merle in the city…not to mention all the people going with him. Merle was like a live wire, anyone who got close could get hurt and as much as I didn't want to admit it, I didn't want those people's lives on my conscience.

I was just pulling up my shorts after taking a piss when I heard a twig snap behind me. I whirled around, immediately expecting to see a walker, only to see Daryl. My heart was beating out of my chest. "What the fuck, you perv!" I shouted at him. "How long you been standin' there?"

"You've been avoidin' me all day, chicken shit." Daryl said, scowling at me.

I put my hand over my chest, still catching my breath. "Daryl, I have to go to Atlanta. If I don't, who knows –"

"These people ain't yer responsibility!" Daryl cut me off. "Merle can handle himself."

I threw up my hands. "I don't think he can! You know he's gotten bad with the drugs and shit. He's fuckin' unhinged. I don't want those people's blood on my hands when he goes ape shit and gets them all killed! I can take Merle's shit," I said, putting my hand on my chest, "Those people can't handle him." I said, gesturing wilding towards the camp.

"Lily, get yer head outta yer ass. You don't owe these people anythin'!" Daryl said, stepping up to me.

"Look, Daryl," I said, trying to reason with him, "It's not just about those people. It's about Merle. Our brother. I won't be able to live with myself if he gets himself or someone else killed cuz he's too fuckin' high to watch his own back. I have to go." I pleaded with him, trying to make him understand. "I'll be fine," I said, giving him a small smile.

Daryl kicked at the dirt and turned around, giving me his back. "To hell with it," he said over his shoulder, "I ain't stoppin' you, do whatever the fuck you want. I'm goin' huntin'. Just hope I don't have to say I told you so." Daryl stormed off into the woods, his crossbow on his back.

Fuck I thought to myself. After this trip I didn't know what family I was going to have left…

TBC

A/N: I hope everyone is enjoying this story as much as I'm enjoying writing it! Let me know what you think!