We rushed back in the van, meeting up half way with Glenn, who I could hear hollering in joy as he sped down the highway. I smiled a bit at it, before feeling a little light headed. Jacqui noticed this, and came over to see what had happened.
"Well as I tried to get to Merle," I started, and her eyes dropped a bit. "Morales grabbed me and must have lost his grip on the stairs because I was sent flying and hit my head." I told her as she bent my body forward to get a better look. I cursed under my breath as she touched the tender area around the wound. She turned to face Andrea and nodded to her. Andrea searched through one of the bags and grabbed a small med kit, and grabbed gauze and a bandage from it. Jacqui held the bandage to my head as Andrea looped the gauze around it. I closed my eyes as they did, and started to feel myself drift off as we continued down the road.
When I woke up, we were just pulling into the camp, so I wasn't gone for too long. I heard some talking in the front, but could not decipher what it was. I felt someone grab my arm and lift me up, and hold my bag to my chest which I gratefully took. We jumped out the back of the van and turned around its corner, which I was met by a pair of arms around me.
"I'm so glad you're safe." I heard my mother say in my shoulder. All I could do was nod and say 'yeah' before the pain was back in my head. My mother noticed this and took me beside where the fire was so she could take a look at it. All behind me I could hear everyone greeting each other, with tears of happiness. I looked up a bit and could see Carl and Lori talking to each other, holding back tears. I looked down again as I felt so bad for the two. But all of a sudden, they stopped and looked to where I had just come from, eyes wide from surprise. Carl started running at Rick, calling out to him.
"Dad!" he shouted, running full tilt and into his arms. Lori followed right on his heels, holding onto the two boys. The sight would bring a smile to my face, except for the fact that my head felt like it was hit by a train. My mum left for a minute, only to come back with a needle and some thread. I swallowed hard seeing this, but knew it was coming. She sat down on one of the logs and told me to sit down in front of her. As the reunions went on around us, the needle went through my skin and back out, but not before she cleaned it out. The pain was there, but nothing I couldn't handle. I had this done before, which is how my mum knows how to do this, because I was into parkour. Splitting my knees open, as well as my arms and legs, could use this, especially if we are away from the cities.
A few hours later, we all sat around the campfire, listening to what Rick had to say about his trip into the city. "Disoriented. Fear, confusion, all of those things. But disoriented comes closest." "Words can be meagre things.." Dale piped in. "Sometimes they fall short." Rick continued on. "I felt like I had been ripped out of my life, put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma, a dream. Something I might not wake up from, ever." Carl cut in. "Mom said you died." Both his parents looked down at him. That was the point in time where I decided that I did not need to be there, and so did mum. She helped me up and onto my feet.
"Hey, hope you feel better tomorrow." I heard Shane say from behind me. I gave him a thumbs up over my shoulder and he turned back to the conversation at hand. I hobbled over to my tent, and slowly got in. Mum then gave me a Tylenol from her purse and a bottle of water for the pain. I nodded and gratefully took the two glorious items and swallowed it down fast. I did not stay awake for long, because as soon as my head hit the small pillow, I was out like a light.
The next morning I awoke to my mother shaking me awake. "You should eat something, it'll make you feel better, ok?" I nodded to her and got up. Slowly making my way to my backpack from the day before, I took out some black jogging pants with a purple stripe down each leg, and a long sleeve white sport shirt. Also the under necessities, as well as I grabbed the bandana and tied it around my neck, too. I walked outside and grabbed some cereal my mum made up for me and ate it slowly. I felt my head wound and noticed that it had started healing over quite quickly, which was very good. I watched Rick walk out of his tent, making his way around and past myself, muttering a small 'hey' as he went by. I nodded towards him and continued my small meal. Shane rolled in like the speed demon he was, parking the jeep, and mentioned that the water was here and to boil before we use it. I shook my head at him. I looked to my dad who was making his way towards it, and asked him where Daryl had made his way to. As soon as I finished my sentence, screams rang out into the camp and I grabbed my tomahawk and made my way to its source, along with the others.
I lead the group into a small clearing where Carl raced to his mothers arms, but did not stop until we came around a bend to where a walker was laying in the woods, his brain focused on the dear he was currently feasting on. I readied my weapon as did the others, waiting for it to make a move. I looked over the deadman and his prey, and noticed that two arrows protruded from the small doe. I lowered my eyebrows and came to the conclusion that Daryl had been hunting it, but failed to get to it first.
We surrounded it, and only then did it notice us there, and got up, growling with a gurgle and making its move. Rick took first shot and hit it with the crowbar he had in his hand. It went down and on its way back up, the butt of Shane's gun hit the back of its head. The men joined in, beating it senseless with their weapons. Finally, Dale took a swing with his axe and sliced its head clean off.
They stepped back to look at their work and Dale spoke. "That's the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain." His voiced was laced with concern. "that's cause they're running out of food in the city, that's what." Jim answered. We looked on a bit, but leaves and sticks crunching beneath the feet of an approacher had us all on guard once again. I moved to the front bit of the group and got ready to throw my tomahawk at whatever walked through those bushes.
Daryl walked around a tall pile of rocks, and the rest of us let our guard down. I smirked a bit, good to see him again.
"Son of a bitch," left the rednecks mouth and he looked over his intended kill. "that's my deer." He continued as he came over to kick the decapitated man. "Look at it, all knawed on by this filthy, deceased barren, motherless, toxic bastard." "Calm down son, that's not helping." Dale said, trying to get him under control. "What do you know about it, old man?" Daryl accused, walking over and getting right into Dale's face. I moved forward to intercept him, but Shane had beat me to the punch. "Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to On Golden Pond." Daryl backed off after the insult and went back to the deer.
"Man, I've been tracking 'em for miles. Gonna drag it back to camp, too. Cook us up some venison. What do ya think," he said, pointing to the bite mark with an arrow he took out of the deer. "just cut around the bite mark right here?" Shane shook his head at the idea. "We can't risk that." Daryl gave a grunt of frustration. "That's a damn shame. But I got some squirrel, half a dozen. So, that'll have to do."
We all looked around at each other, then a chomping sound from our feet started up. We looked back down and saw the zombie was still alive. "Oh god." Amy said from behind the group as she turned around so she couldn't see it. "Common people, what the hell?" Daryl said as he took his crossbow and shot it between the eyes. "Its gotta be the brain. Don't ya'll know nothing?" we all just looked at him as he walked away.
I followed him back into the camp, with the others following as well. I flinched when he shouted out Merle's name, knowing what was to come. "Merle! Get your ass out here, got us some squirrel!" he continued to shout to a man who was not present. "Daryl," Shane started. "Just slow up a bit, I need to talk to you." Daryl gave Shane a look. "About what?" he asked.
"Merle. There was a… problem, in Atlanta." Daryl looked around as everyone came to surround the two. I took my place a few feet behind Daryl, ready to intercept if anything went wrong. "He dead..?" Shane took a moment to respond. "not sure." "He either is or he ain't." Daryl's voice began to rise. Rick walked over to the two "There's no easy way to say this so I'll just say it." Daryl glanced over to Rick, giving him a look over. "Who're you?" "Rick Grimes" "Rick Grimes? You got something you want to tell me?" Daryl asked, his voice laced with attitude. "Your brother was a danger to us all. So I handcuffed him on a roof and hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there."
"huh.. Let me process this. You say you handcuffed my brother to a roof? And you left him there?!" Daryl yelled at Rick as he said yes, then the hunter looked to me for confirmation. I nodded my head. He backed away some, then grunted as he threw the squirrels at Rick who dodged them, and Daryl charged at him only to get tackled by Shane went he went for Rick. Daryl unsheathed his knife and took a wild swing at the sheriff, who once again dodged and grabbed his out swung arm and held it behind him as Shane got him into a choke hold. "You best let me go!" "Nah, I think its better this way." "Choke hold's illegal" "ah, you can file a complaint." Shane told him as he slowly lowered to the ground. Daryl resisted still and Shane spoke again. "Common man, we can do this all day."
Rick crouched in front of the two, "I would like to have a calm discussion on this topic, you think you can manage that? You think you could manage that?" he repeated louder to get his point across. He didn't move. Shane let go of him, tossing him to one side.
"What I did was not on a whim," Rick went on. "Your brother does not work or play well with others." "It's not Ricks fault." I heard from a distance. "I had the key." It was T-Dog. "I Dropped it." "You didn't pick it up?!" "I dropped it down a drain." He confessed. Daryl grunted as he attempted to get off the ground. I started to walk over to him to help, but he put his hand up. "Don't." He looked back to T-Dog. "And if you think that's is supposed to make me feel better, it don't." he finished as he walked off.
"Well maybe this will. I chained the door to the roof so the geeks couldn't get at him. With a padlock." Daryl just looked down, but then Rick spoke up. "Its gotta count for something." I looked at Daryl and noticed he was rubbing his forehead roughly, "To hell with all ya'll" he said, swinging his hand for emphasis. "Just tell me where he is. So I can go get him." "he'll show you," Lori spoke, referring to Rick. "Isn't that right?" The two looked at each other. Rick moved his gaze to look at everyone. "I'm going back."
Everyone just stared at him. He went back to his tent and grabbed what he needed. I turned to both my parents as he did. "I can get them there." I told them. "you know I can." They locked eyes and had a quiet conversation, before turning back to me. "Fine." My mother said. I looked to my father for his answer but he said nothing. He went back to our tent, rustled about shortly before walking back out again. He came back to me with a knife, one used for hunting. It had an orange handle and waist and leg strap. He nodded to me then to the knife. "Take it. You might need it." My eyes softened, but I took the tool gratefully. I adjusted it just beneath my tomahawk and made sure both straps were good.
"So you and Daryl, that's your big plan?" I heard Lori speak from beside the campfire. I walked up beside Rick. "No, I plan on going." I announced. She looked to me. "Listen, sweetie, I don't think tha-" "No, you don't think. I know how to get in and out of that city, and I sure as hell know how to get around it. I'm their best chance for survival." That shut her up quickly. Rick then looked to Glenn. "Aw come on." "You know the way, probably better than she does," Rick said, referring to me. "You've been there before, in and out no problem, said so yourself. Its not fair of me to ask, but I would feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too," he said, pointing to Lori.
"Ah, that's just great. Gonna risk four men now, huh?" "Five." T-Dog spoke up, offering himself. Daryl scoffed, "Damn, my day just gets better and better, don't it?" T-Dog spoke once more. "You see anybody else speaking up to save your brothers cracker ass?" "Why you?" "Man you wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language." "That's five." Shane shook his head. "That's not just five. Your putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick. Common you saw that walker, it was here, in our camp. And when they move out of the cities and they come back, we need every able body we got. We need them here, we need them to protect camp."
"Seems to be what you really need most here is more guns." "Right, the guns." I heard Glenn speak. "What guns?" "Two shutguns, two high powered rifles, and over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage over at the station before I left. I dropped the bag when I arrived and got swarmed. Its just sitting there on the street, waiting to get picked up." Shane waited a minute before he spoke again. "Ammo?" "Seven-hundred rounds." "You went through hell to find us." Lori said. "You just got here, and y-you're gonna turn around and leave?" "Dad, I don't want you to go." Carl pleaded. "To hell with the guns." Lori started up again. "Shane is right. Merle Dixon? He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in." Rick walked over to where Lori had now stood up. "Tell me, make me understand."
"I owe a dept. To a man I met, and to his little boy." Lori glanced to Carl before Rick got her attention again. "Lori, if they hadn't have taken me in, I would have died. Its because of them I made it back to you at all." He looked down for a second. "they said they would follow me to Atlanta. They are walking into the same trap I did if I don't warn them."
"What's stopping ya?" Lori asked, watching him carefully. "The walkie-talkie I had was in the bag I dropped. He has the other one. Our plan was to connect one we got closer." "Was it our walkies?" Shane intercepted. "Yeah." Andrea looked over "so use the C.B. what's wrong with that?" "The walkies don't match any other band width; they date back to the '70's." Shane informed us.
"I need that bag." Rick said quietly to his wife. She shook her head and looked down, and Rick took that as his go. He walked over to Carl and spoke to him for a moment. After that, the rest of us got geared up. I took a minute to talk to my parents before we left. "Thanks, for letting me go." I said to them, fiddling with my hands. My father looked at me, "You know if anything like that," he said, pointing to the back of my head, "happens again, you won't be going anymore." I nodded to him and gave him a hug. I let go and gave a small wave as Glenn backed the truck up to the entrance of the camp to get loaded up.
I walked to the back of the truck to see Daryl already in it, watching the cop carefully. I lifted my hand up, and he looked over and rolled his eyes before taking it and helping me into the back. I cursed at my genetics for giving me the short end of the stick, being stuck at 5'4. But I thought to myself, it does make it easier to get around small places. Looking back to Daryl, I asked him a question. "Do you think he'll still be there?" he didn't look to me, but he grunted, "He better be." He said as he walked to the front of the van and stepped on the horn.
"Common! Lets go!" he yelled at the other two who seemed to be borrowing tools from Dale and Jim. They walked to the truck and T-Dog jumped in, but Rick and Shane stopped to have a chat about their existing guns. After their talk, Rick came around the front and hopped into the passenger seat. Daryl brought the door down, Glenn started the car and we took off.
We kept a steady pace going down the highway. I kept my head down, trying to focus on making a route, the easiest way to get back to the building. When we arrived, Glenn drove up on train tracks.
"He'd better be ok, that's my only word on the matter." Daryl stated, looking right into T-Dogs eyes. "I told you, the geeks can't get at him. The only thing that is going to get through that door, is us." And as he finished that sentence, I felt the car pull to a stop. "We walk from here." Glenn said from the front seat. We all piled out, getting our weapons ready for anything. I pulled my bandana over my mouth and nose to help the stench of the undead not reach my lungs. We turned around and started walking to where the nose of our vehicle pointed, determined to get what we came for.
We ended up coming under a bridge, the same one from before, and found our little cut out in the fence. All of us squeezed through, some more easily than others.
"Merle first, or guns?" Rick asked us. Daryl barged through the group stating his opinion. "Merle of course. Why are we even having this discussion?!" "We are!" Rick said defiantly. He then looked to Glenn and myself. "You guys know the geography. What's our call?" I looked to Glenn, making the decision making up to him.
"Merles closest. The guns will be on the way back. Merle's first."
We found our way back to the department store without much difficulty. We walked in very quietly, but Rick held his hand up for us to stop. He pointed at the walker that was walking around the racks of clothing. Daryl moved forward from the front with his crossbow raised, and I moved around to the right of him, getting ready for the distraction.
"Damn… you one ugly skank." He said as aimed, then looked to me and jerked his head towards the walker. I nodded quickly, "Hey bitch!" I yelled loud enough for it to hear me. It turned its head and growled at me, ready for its lunge. As it started to move, one arrow shot right through the brain and it dropped dead. We all walked over to it just to see Daryl pull the arrow out with a sickening sound. We looked at one another and nodded, ready to continue.
We all rushed to the stairwell, Daryl taking point with T-Dog closing in behind him with the bolt cutter. When we reached the top, he got straight to work and slammed the cutters together on the lock. It burst open and Daryl kicked the door down as the others stood out of his way. He ran through the door, me not far after him.
"Merle!" he shouted over and over again. We ran along the grated walkway and made our way to the mans last known location. We rounded to where we would have been able to see him, and as we did our faces dropped. He was nowhere to be found. "No! NO!" Daryl hollered, on the brink of breaking. Upon further investigation of the area, we found a bloody saw, and next to it, Merles right hand. I sat down with my head in my hands, trying to piece together what I just saw and came to one conclusion.
We are going to have to look a lot harder.
Woo another one done! Wasn't too sure I was going to get this one done considering I had a huge English essay due, but voila! Hope you enjoyed it! R+R