A/N: Sorry for the long wait yall. I had some technical issues -_-"
anyway Enjoy :D
Men from the camp were surrounding the walker and beat it to death as if it could feel it. I scoffed at their methods. One of the guys went to hold the walker down when I slammed my knife down in its head.
"Damn people gotta get its head, dont yall know nuthin'?" he grumbled
"Damn that was gonna be our dinner!" Daryl complained "think we can cut 'round it?" he suggested inspecting the meat. The woman in the camp shuddered.
"Wouldn't risk it" Shane commented crouching down to look at the meat.
"Damn shame" he muttered. "Oh well I still got these squirrels. EY MERLE!" he shouted walking back to the camp. "Come help me skin these squirrels 'ere!" he up to him to shout when rick walked over to him accompanied by Shane.
"Hey uh Daryl, can I talk to you for a sec?" Rick asked him.
Daryl turned to face him and gave him a suspicious look. "Who the hell are you?" he asked him accusingly. This Daryl was different from the one I met in the woods; it seemed almost as if he was threatened. I noted his change of behavior around groups of people. Everyone had made basically a circle around the tree men. It was almost like we were going to watch a boxing match.
"My name is Rick Grimes and I-" he began saying when Daryl cut him off.
"Aight Mr. Rick Grimes you got somethin' you wanna tell me?" He drawled out taking a step towards him.
"Alright Daryl I'm gonna need you to tone it down and stay calm while we tell you this" Shane said coolly.
"Are yall just gon' stand there and twiddle you thumbs or are ya gonna tell me whats got yer panties in a twist?" he asked harshly.
"Merle... he's not here" Shane admitted not even slightly stung by Daryl's demeaning words.
Daryl stiffened "Is he... is he uh dead?" he asked trying to maintain his composure.
"Well not exactly-" Rick moved onto explained.
"Well he's either dead or he ain't which is it?" HE asked furiously his voice raising.
"I don't know! We left him hand cuffed to a roof in Atlanta!" Rick Admitted causing Daryl to stop moving.
He pinched the badge of his nose and sighed, then proceeded to look back up at Rick. "So... yer tellin' me ya left my brother on a roof to rot!?" He exclaimed lunging at Rick. Shane had been expecting this because he quickly grabbed Daryl. The 2 men rustled slightly, but Shane had the upper hand by attacking him from behind and he proceeded to put him in a chokehold. A part of me wanted to help him, but I knew better and stayed in the shadows.
"Ey man chokeholds illegal" he said breathy as he tried to maneuver his way out of Shane's grip. He fails and goes slightly limp in Shane's arms.
"Are you done?" Shane asked him. He sounded a little wore out as well from rustling Daryl.
Daryl grunted in response and Shane let go of Daryl.
"It was my fault I had the key and I dropped it" T-dog admitted
"What ya couldn't pick it back up?" He asked his voice rough.
"... I dropped it down a drain" T-dog elaborated.
Daryl looked up at him incredulously and let out a dry chuckle.
"But I padlocked that door! No walkers can get in!" T-dog told him "He could still be alive!" T-dog reasoned with him.
Daryl stood up dusting off his ants grabbing his bow heading towards the vehicles.
"Where do you think you are going?" Shane asked him
"Where tha' fuck do ya thank?" He asked him his voice dripping with sarcasm.
Shane glared at his back, "Nu uh, not by yourself you are not. That is suicide!" he argued
"Rick will show you" Lori said, her voice was flat. Rick nodded
"I'll come with you. It's my fault" he told Daryl causing the little boy Carl to let out a sob. "I also dropped my guns there"
"DAD!" he complained "you just got back!" Carl said. Rick had a guilty look on his face but kept going.
"They were guns form the station Shane, good guns! And ammo!" He argued to Shane. Shane ran his fingers through his Black hair and sighed.
"Me too" T-dog joined in.
"Glenn you know the cities..." Rick reasoned causing Glenn to groan. I was still focused on the look on Carl's face. He looked broken. He just got his dad back and now he was going to have to worry all over again. My heart tore at the sight. If something happened to that boy's dad... I groaned mentally at myself as I made my next move.
I raised my hand causing a few people to look at me confused. Rick seemed to understand my gaze and nodded.
"Ok now that's 5" Rick reasoned.
"I don't need y'all! Especially not some mute to fuck it up!" he growled harshly causing my heard to sink. 'Some mute' kept rolling in my head. His eyes meet mine right after he said with a glare.
"You better keep your mouth shut! You're lucky she's even volunteering for this stupid stunt!" Shane argued angrily.
"Listen Shane it's my fault I need to go-" Rick tried to reason
"And what? Take half our man power with ya? Why you gotta risk your life for some douchebag like merle?" Shane asked him angrily.
"Hey watch your mouth" Daryl warned
"I know, I was. I meant what I said" Shane retorted.
While they were arguing I walked over to Lori taking off the satchel and handing it to Lori and Carol. They looked inside interested.
"What are these?" they asked
I gestured to the kids and their eyes widened. I motioned for them to try some.
"They safe?" Lori asked. I gave her my book and flipped to the page. She nodded and they both took some eagerly.
"That's great! God I can't remember the last time I had anything so sweet!" Carol chirped causing me to smile.
"These are really great uh... oh god I'm really embarrassed. We never got your name" Lori said face palming. I gave her a reassuring smile. On the inside I was tore up. I hate my name, it meant nothing to me. It's not who I am anymore. I smiled as I grabbed the stray crayon on the table and wrote 'Alex' on a piece of paper left untouched by the kids. It was perfect for me, it was simple.
"Alright Alex. It's nice to meet you" She said smiling grabbing my hand shaking it.
"Hey why don't you give these to the kids? I'm sure they'll love them! And it will help fill them up" Carol encouraged. I stiffened slightly; they wanted me to give the berries to them? I nodded anyway even though it terrified me to walk up to the small children.
Sophia looked up at me with her calm blue eyes. She smiled brightly causing me to smile back. I handed them the bag and gestured for them to eat. They obliged acting like they hadn't eaten in days and stuffed their faces.
"Ohmygoddisissogood!" Carl moaned his mouth full of them. I chuckled at him using the fabric of my shirt to clean his chin from the dripping berry juice. I used to want to be a teacher back before all this. I loved kids, but that didn't mean I wanted one of my own.
Carl's smile disappeared as he looked behind me. I saw Rick Standing there.
"Hey buddy I'm heading out now, I'll be back as soon as I can ok?" He told his son.
Carl nodded numbly not looking at his dad. Rick looked at Carl heartbroken but patted his head and looked to me giving me a nod and walked away.
I tapped Carl's shoulder and he looked up at me. I pointed to my eyes and then to his dad's disappearing figure and gave him a thumbs up. A small smile made its way across his face as he nodded to me. I rubbed his and Sophia's hair and walked away. I grabbed my 2 favorite knives and began walking towards the car. Shane stopped me on my way.
"Here, thought you might need this. Ya know just in case" he told me as he handed me a gun. I shook my head 'no'.
"Listen, I have 3 others. Keep everyone safe okay? Watch yourself" he insisted handing it to me. I nodded grabbing it from him. I felt a pair of eyes on the back of my head and turned to see Daryl standing against the truck staring at me but quickly looked away like nothing happened. I got in the car with Glenn, t-dog, Rick, and Daryl. The guys sat in the back while Rick and I sat in the front. While we drove I saw Rick's eyes shift to me a few times. The car was eerily quiet causing a type of tension you could cut with a knife. I looked out the window noticing the surroundings. The scenery was gorges, but it was stained by wandering bodies. I sighed in defeat as we rode to Atlanta.