AN: Hi guys! I hope you like this new story I come up with! I'm having major writers block with my other story but this one just wouldn't leave my mind! So please, tell me what you think and leave a review! Please and thanks. -HayleyJune.

"Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! Got us some squirrel." Daryl said walking into camp. "Where you at Merle? You better not be playin' games with me." I said, placing my hands on my hips. "Let's stew 'em up." Daryl said, waiting for Merle to walk out of his tent. Shane slowly approached us, "Hey Daryl, Melanie, slow up a bit. I need to talk to you two for a minute. Daryl and I instantly stopped walking. I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms as Daryl picked at his fingernails.

"Bout what?" Daryl finally asked as Shane rubbed his shaven face. "About Merle." Daryl and I quickly shared a look full of curiosity and intensity. "There was a, uh, problem in Atlanta." I shifted closer to Daryl, waiting for a snide comment to occur. I looked around, seeing the entire group facing us, looking at us with anticipation. "He dead?" I asked, slowly. "We're not sure," was all he said. "He either is or he ain't!" Daryl said, raising his voice and starting to shift back and forth on his feet. An unfamiliar voice spoke from beside the Spanish man Morales. "No easy way to say this, so I'll say it." He slowly began walking up to us. Daryl swiveled around to meet him. "And who are you?" he said, words laced with anger. "Rick Grimes."

"Rick Grimes? Got something you wanna tell us?" I said, motioning to us two. "Your brother Daryl, was a danger to us all. So I handcuffed him to a roof, hooked him on a piece of metal. He's still there." My mouth dropped open, shocked. Daryl turned away and started walking back towards me. "Hold on, lemme process this." He said, gesturing to his head with his hand. "You're saying you handcuffed my brother on a roof, and YOU left him there?!" All Rick could say was, "Yeah." Daryl's face instantly turned sour. One of two things were gonna happen. Daryl was gonna be quiet and stalk off or he was gonna hit him. It turned out to be the later. Daryl flung the string of squirrels towards Rick and tried to immediately tackle him, but before he could Shane threw himself at Daryl and forced him to the ground.

Daryl immediately unsheathed his knife as I stayed quiet. "Watch the knife!" T-Dog hollered as Daryl swung numerous times. I knew he'd get tired and as soon as I was about to run in and stop him, both Rick and Shane bum rushed him. "You best let me go!" Daryl hollered as I began to get angry. No one touches him like that to not expect any consequences. "Nah, I think it's better if I don't." Shane just said smirking back at him. "Hey, choke-hold's illegal!" I hollered back, throwing my birds to the ground. "You can file a complaint later!" he hollered back at me. "You best let him go. NOW." I said, my words laced with venom. "Come on man, we can keep this up all day!" Shane said, not paying me any attention. "Shane, stop it!" I said, running over and forcibly removing Shane off of Daryl. Shane and Rick's eyes went wide, probably because they wouldn't have expected little ole me to pull him off. "I'd like a calm discussion. You think you can manage that?" I asked Shane, spitting out my words. Daryl was seething with anger as he still sat on the ground, breathing angrily.

"What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others." Rick said, crouching down to meet his eyes. T-Dog spoke up from the back. "It's not Rick's fault. I had the key. I dropped it." Before I could say anything Daryl spat, "Couldn't pick it up?" T-Dog shook his head, "I dropped it down a drain." Daryl snorted and grabbed my hand as he stood up. "Well if that's supposed to make me feel better, it don't." Daryl instantly took off towards our tent but T-Dog stopped him, "Well maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof so the geeks couldn't get at him."

I let out a little gasp. "It's gotta count for something." I rubbed at my eyes, feeling some tears well in them. Daryl did the exact same. "Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so 's me and Melanie can go get him!" he hollered, his voice cracking at the end.

"He'll show you," Lori spoke up from beside the RV. "Isn't that right?" she said, fanning her face. Rick nodded and looked around before saying, "I'm going back." Daryl swung his hands in the air and went stalking off towards our tent. Everyone else looked at me for a moment before quickly finding something to entertain themselves with. "Shane, a moment?" I said, beckoning him over towards me. He looked at me, waiting for me to say the first words. "Look," I started off. "You pissed him off. If you would just let me handle him it wouldn't have been this big of a deal." I placed my hands on my hips and I saw Lori out of the corner of my eye, listening to our conversation. "This big of a deal, Melanie! He tried to gut me in the middle of camp! So if that's your version of 'dealing' with him, you might need to recheck your definitions." I let out a noise that was full of anger. "And choke-hold's are illegal for officers of the law, if we're going that route"

"That doesn't matter!" he said, hollering back. "Oh yes it does! He had every reason in the damn world to throw a fit like that! You just pissed him off even more with the hold. Ain't it something like, 'If a detainee is uncompliant, other means beside a choke-hold and graphling hook' are expected to be taken'? I'm a CO, I know these things, Shane. You need to back off every once in a while." I shook my head and grabbed my bow. "A CO?" he asked, shocked. "Yes," I said. "Now go talk to your best friend, officer." I walked towards Daryl and instantly let out a sigh. "I'm sorry," I said as quietly as I could manage. "He's still alive, I know it." I shook my head, agreeing. "Nothing's gonna kill Merle, but Merle. Come on, let's go get something to drink real quick."

Daryl and I walked back towards the middle of camp where Shane and Rick were talking. "Now why would you wanna risk your life on a douche bag like Merle Dixon?" I let out a scoff. "Hey, choose your words more carefully," Daryl said, calmly back. "No, I did. Douche bag's what I meant." Daryl just gave him a look and sat on the ground. I grabbed a bottle of water and Lori said, "So you, Melanie, and Daryl? THAT'S your big plan?" I didn't pay any attention as I sat down and worked on my bow too. "Four men," T spoke up as Daryl let out another scoff. "My day just gets better and better, don't it?" I rolled my eyes and let out a soft chuckle. "You'll be fine," I whispered making sure no one else heard. "You see anybody else up here, volunteering to save your brothers cracker ass?" he spoke back. "Why you?" I asked politely.

"You two wouldn't begin to understand. You don't speak my language." was all he said back. "Well that's four men plus me." I said, quietly. "It's NOT just you five. You're putting everyone else here at risk. Just know that, especially you Rick. You saw that walker in here, at camp! They're moving out of the cities and coming up here. We're gonna need every able body we got! We need em to PROTECT camp." I let out a long sigh. "We're gonna be here a while." I said to Daryl as Rick and Shane continued to bicker. "Well they better hurry their asses along, we got shit to do." I nodded. "Hey," I said, gathering the others attention. "Give me the keys to the van so I can back it up and y'all can talk some more." Dale slowly walked over to me and handed them to me. "Thank you." I said, patting his shoulder. I threw the keys to Daryl and he started backing up the truck. "Don't know if I want you going Mels." he spoke softly, waiting for the others. "You know it's better if I go. Lord help the poor boys if I wasn't with y'all." He nodded, smirking. "Ain't that the truth."

Daryl and I stood in the moving truck, pacing back and forth before he eventually got restless. He walked up to the front of the truck and honked on the horn. "Hurry up, it ain't like we got all day!" The men hopped in the back of the truck." After a while of no one talking Daryl spoke up. "You better hope he's okay." T-Dog sighed. "I told you the geeks couldn't get at him. The only thing that's gonna get through that door is us." Daryl wiped the corner of his mouth with a dirtied rag and said, "You better hope so." We drove in silence for a few more minutes. I scooted a bit closer to Daryl, letting him know we were gonna be okay. That Merle was gonna be okay. Suddenly, Glenn shut off the engine and said, "We're gonna walk from here."

We instantly got out of the truck and instantly started towards the city being as quiet as possible. We took off in a brisk run, taking turns through fences and trees. After we got into the outskirts of the city Rick asked, "Merle first or guns?" I let out a scoff as Daryl said, "Merle first! We ain't even having this conversation." Rick gave him a side glance. "Yes we are, which one's closer?" he said, talking to Glenn. "Merle's closer. Getting the guns first would mean doubling back. Merle first." We took off into a run again, our footsteps quietly hitting the pavement. After turning countless street corners, Glenn led us into a clothing store. "Up there?" I asked, pointing the roof. Glenn nodded as he slowly opened up the door as quietly as possible. Our footsteps were the only thing that was heard throughout the room. Suddenly, I heard a growl. Daryl quickly sidestepped around me and saw one lone girl walker making her way through the room. "Damn, you are one ugly skank," Daryl said out loud right before sending an arrow through her skull.

I let out a small chuckle as we quickly cleared the room out and began making our way to the roof. Daryl's pace instantly quickened the closer and closer we got. "Merle!" Daryl said as he slammed open the door to the roof, looking everywhere for his brother. "MERLE!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs. I walked across the roof looking for any clues. "Melanie," Daryl said as the rest of the group formed around a metal pipe with a pair of handcuffs on them. A rack saw was laying on the ground along with a hand and tons of blood. Please tell me Merle did not do what I thought he did. Please, God.

Before I could register it more, Daryl's bow was locked and pointed towards T Dog. The click of Rick's python made Daryl's facade falter for a quick second. "I won't hesitate. I'll make sure every walker in the city hears it." His mouth quivered as he tried his hardest to control his tears. He finally brought down his bow, and I stepped closer. "You uh, got a do rag or something?" I asked, bending down. T grabbed one out of his back pocket and flung it towards Daryl. He caught it easily and bent down beside me. He placed the bandana on the ground and picked up Merle's hand with the very tips of his fingers. "I guess the uh, saw blade was too dull for the cuffs. Ain't that a bitch?" Daryl said turning the hand over looking at it. He finally placed it on the bandana and wrapped it before sticking it in Glenn's backpack which he wasn't too happy about.

"He musta used a tourniquet- probably his belt. There'd be way much more blood if that was the case." I nodded. Daryl didn't say anything else as he started following the trail of blood, leading to where Merle must have went. The trail led us back inside the building and down a set of stairs. "Merle, you in here!" I hollered out. After going further down into the building we saw two walkers laying on top of each other, both dead. "Had enough in him to take these two sumbitches out. One handed too." Daryl said bending down to check the walkers. "Toughest son of a bitch I've ever met. Feed a hammer and he'd crap out nails," I said with a soft smile. "Any man can pass out from blood loss," Rick said, slowly moving forwards. "Merle!" Daryl hollered once more as we turned a corner. "We're not alone here, remember that." Rick said, softly. "Screw that. He could be bleeding out somewhere, you said so yourself." Daryl instantly replied back.

I turned into a kitchen and instantly noticed the smell. Someone had left the gas on. I walked over and saw the burners lit along with a belt and flaky pieces laying on the stove top. "What's that stuff?" Glenn asked crinkling his nose. "Skin." Rick said after a few seconds, voice laced with disgust. "He cauterized the stump." Rick said, turning off the burners. "Like Melanie said, told you he was tough. Nobody can kill Merle but Merle." Daryl said, shaking his head. "Don't take faith on that. He's lost a lot of blood." Rick said, peering around the room. "Well oh yeah. Didn't stop him from busting outta this death trap, trying to survive." Daryl said, pointing the open window.

"You call that surviving?" T said, incredulously. "No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks! You couldn't kill him. Ain't so worried about some dead bastard." he said, full of spite. "What about a thousand, dumb dead bastards? Different story?" I let out a small chuckle. They were clearly underestimating Merle. "Why don't you take a tally? You do what you want. Me and Melanie are gonna go get him." Daryl turned towards me, but Rick caught a hold of his shoulder. "Get your hands off me! You can't stop me." I sighed and placed my hand on the small of Daryl's back, instantly calming him just a bit. "Look, I don't blame you. He's family, I get that. I went through hell to find mine. I know exactly how you feel." He took a second before speaking again. "He can't get far with that injury. We could help you check a few blocks but that's only if we keep a level head." I let out a sigh, simultaneously as Daryl.

After a long pause Daryl said, "I can do that." Rick nodded his head, already formulating a plan in his head. "Only if we get those guns first. There's no way I'm strolling the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions." I let out a soft chuckle, "Alright." Glenn and Rick automatically began forming plans and tabulating the best way to get the guns and get back to Merle. "No, that plan is stupid and I don't even like you all that much," Daryl said. Wow, why don't you put it on easy babe. "It's a good plan. Just hear me out, okay. If we go out in a group, we're slow. I'm fast. Look the tank is five blocks from where we are now. The guns not far from them. Daryl, Melanie and I will go into the alley beside the guns. Rick and T Dog will be straight across just in case we need to throw them and dodge."

"You better hope to god this works," I said, hitting the bill of Glenn's hat with a smile. "Hey kid? What were you before all this?" Daryl asked, curiosity lacing his eyes. "Pizza delivery. Why?" Glenn said. We all just shook our heads and grabbed our weapons. We quickly took off our group heading towards the alley. I loaded my bow as the same time as Daryl and let out a shaky breath. "You got some balls for a China man." I let out a chuckle. "I'm Korean," was all he said back. We checked our bows once more before he took off through the streets. "Hope the kid makes it," I said, smiling. A clattering can made Daryl and I turn around, "Who are you?" I asked, smiling. "I'm looking for my brother Merle, ya seen him?" Daryl said. The Hispanic man looked around, shaking, nervous. "AYUDAME!" he began shouting. "Shut up! You're gonna bring the geeks on us." I hissed not wanting this kid to jeopardize a mission. "Answer me, please." Still nothing. "AYUDAME!" he continued shouting. Before I could shut him up, Daryl whopped the crossbow up the side of his head.

"Shut up! You wanna be geek meat!" he said, placing his hand over his mouth. I tried to keep watch for Glenn but everything suddenly went black.

–

"I'm gonna kick your nuts up in your throat!" I heard a familiar voice holler. My eyes were cloudy as I tried standing up. I felt sick to my stomach. As soon as I propped myself up on the wall, I emptied my stomachs contents. "You okay? They took Glenn! That little bastard and his bastard homie friends!" Daryl screamed once more. My head pounded and every noise just made it ten times worse. "I'm gonna stomp your ass!" he shouted again, trying to break free from Rick's arms. "We're cut off! We need to go!" Rick finally let Daryl go as he ran over to me. "You okay Mels?" he asked, picking up the guns. "Those assholes hit like a bitch." I said, rubbing my head. "Let's get the hell outta here." He grabbed my hand and while the others weren't looking, his planted a sweet kiss on my forehead. "Don't scare me like that, okay?" I nodded my head slowly, not wanting my headache to get worse. All four of us plus the hispanic kid took off running away from the infested walker streets.

After running back to the safe building, Rick sat the prisoner down in a chair and began questioning him. "We need to know those men you were with and where they went." I could tell by the look of the kid he wasn't going to give anything up. "I ain't telling you nothing," he said. "Well there's a shock." I said, letting out a sigh and running my hands over my face. "Jesus you two. What the hell happened back there?" T asked. "I already told you. This little shit and his douche bag friends came out of nowhere and jumped me and Melanie." I nodded, "He's right. Hell I didn't even do nothing and got knocked out for it." The man shook his head. "Hey, you jumped me puto. Screaming out about trying to find his brother, like it's my damn fault." I shook my head. "Hey they took Glenn. Mighta took Merle too."

The kid scratched his head. "Merle? What kinda hick name is that? I wouldn't name my dog Merle." I anticipated Daryl's move before he even started. I instantly put my hands on his shoulder as his leg came out, trying to kick the boy. Daryl slowly took his hands off me and reached into Glenn's backpack. "Wanna see what happened to the last guy that pissed me off?" He said, unfolding the bandana. He threw it into his lap, expecting the kid to freak out. Which is exactly what he did. He started freaking out , screaming and hollering. Daryl ran up to him and grabbed him by his shirt collar. "Maybe I'll start with the feet this time!" I walked up behind Daryl and slowly pulled at his shoulders. "Yeah, listen to the pretty woman!" I saw Daryl's face turn sour, instantly. Rick tried to consolidate him. "The men you were with took our man. All we wanna do is talk, try and work something out. Take us where your place is." After much convincing he finally agreed.

After taking the group through countless turns and twists into the suburbs of the outskirts of town, the kid brought us to this run down little building. "Better not be any funny games." I whispered to no one in particular. "One wrong move, and YOU get an arrow in the ass, just so you know." Daryl said, pursing his lips. "G's gonna take that arrow outta my ass and shove it up yours, just so you know." the kid spoke back. "G?" I asked. "Guillermo. He's the man here." I nodded my head and loaded my bow. "Alright, let's go see Guillermo." I pushed him in front of Rick, making him lead the way to their men. Suddenly a door came barreling open. One man in a flannel shirt came walking out, surrounded by two other men. "You okay there, little man?" the man asked, his accent quite thick. "They're gonna cut off my feet, carnal." He shook his head a second before turning his attention to Rick. "Cops do that?" Before Rick could answer, the kid spoke, "Not him. This redneck puto right here. He cut off some dude's hand man. He showed it to me."

"Shut up." Daryl hastily spoke. Another man quickly came out of the door. "Hey man, that's that vato right there homes!He shot me in the ass with an arrow." He cocked his gun, but the first man put his hand on the man, "Chill, ese, just chill." The man instantly backed off. "This true? You want Miguelito's feet? That's pretty sick man." I let out a soft sigh and was about to talk before Rick beat me to it. "We were hoping for a calm discussion." He didn't think twice before saying, "That hillbilly jumped Felipe's little cousin. Beats on him, threatens to cut off his feet, Felipe gets an arrow in the ass, and you want a calm discussion?" I rolled my eyes. "Heat of the moment. Mistakes were made on both sides. Shit happens." I said, somewhat softly. "Who is he to you? Y'all don't look related?" Rick spoke, "They are married and part of our group, more or less. I'm sure you have a few like him."

"You got my brother in there?" Daryl asked. "Sorry, we're fresh outta white boys, but I've got Asian. You interested?" he said with a chuckle. I frowned. He was talking about Glenn. "I have one of yours, you have one of mine. Sounds like an even trade to me." Rick said. Guillermo pondered it for a second. "Don't sound even to me," he said. "G, come on man." the kid whispered. "Look my people got attacked. Where's the compensation for their pain and suffering? More to the point, where's my bag of guns?" "Guns?" I asked incredulously. "The bag Miguel saw in the street. The bag that Felipe and Jorge were going back to get. That bag of guns." I shook my head. "I think you're mistaken. That's my bag of guns." Rick said. "Could have been anyone's. I'm supposed to take your word? What's to stop my people from unloading on you right now, and I take what's mine?" My eyes traveled to the numerous amount of men that had lined their way at the door, each one holding a weapon of some sort.

"You could do that, or not." I said, my eyes traveling to T up on the roof in his sniper position. "Oye!" G hollered. My eyes skittered to the top of an adjacent roof where Glenn was up on it, with a bag covering his head. "I see two options. You come back with Miguel and my guns, and everybody walks. Or you come back lock and loaded, we'll see which side spills more blood. Everyone immediately began going back inside which left no more room for talking. We slowly backed out, before making our way to another building a block or so away. "Look, Rick, those guns are worth more than gold. Gold won't protect your family, or put food on the table." Daryl said, casting his eyes to me. "You're willing to give that up for that kid?" he asked. "If I knew we got Glenn back, I'd agree. Do you think that vato is just gonna hand him over? No. " T Dog spoke from the corner. "Are you calling G a liar?" the kid hastily said. "Are YOU a part of this? Wanna hold on to your teeth?" Daryl bellowed.

"The question is do you trust that man's word Rick?" I asked, touching Daryl's shoulder with my free hand. "Question is are you willing to bet it?" Daryl said looking down at me. "Could be more than them guns. Could be more than your life. Glenn worth that to you?" He said looking back up at Rick. "What life I have I owe to him," he said holstering his gun. "I was a nobody to him, just some idiot stuck in a tank. He could have walked away, but he didn't and neither will I." I rubbed my hands on my face as Daryl said, "So you're gonna hand the guns over?" Rick looked up from the guns and said, "I didn't say that. There's nothing keeping you three here. You should get out and head back to camp." I let out a scoff. "And tell your family what Rick?" He just stood still for a minute before handing me a gun. "Come on this is nuts!" The kid said standing up. I put my hand on his chest and pointed to the ground with my head. He eventually got my point and slid down the wall.

"Let's go," I said as Daryl blindfolded the kid and placed a double barrel against his back. The doors instantly opened as they saw us. Daryl lightly pushed the kid inside as I took in my surroundings. Both groups walked towards each other not saying a word. We stopped about a foot or two from each other. "I see my guns, but they're not all in the bag." Guillermo said, speaking first. "That's because they're not yours." I said. "Let's just shoot these fools right now ese," someone hollered from the back. "I don't think you fully appreciate the gravity of the situation here." Rick shook his head and re-leveled his gun. "No, I'm pretty clear. You have your man, and I want mine." he said.

"I gonna chop up your boy. I'm gonna feed him to my dogs. They're the nastiest sons of bitches you've ever seen. Picked em up from Satan at a yard sale. I told you how it has to be. Are you woefully deaf?" I let out another scoff. "No, my hearing is fine. You said come locked and loaded, and here we are." Rick said as we instantly locked and loaded our guns. "Felipe! Felipe!" A woman's voice broke through the tension in the room. "Abuela, go back with the others now!" someone hollered. "Get that old lady outta my line of fire!" Daryl and I hollered when an old woman came into view. Guillermo turned his head back. "Abuela, listen to your mijo, okay? This ain't the place for you right now."

"You sure as hell got that right." I said, rolling my eyes. "We're gonna be in for a treat.