I gotta admit when that smallish hoard of walkers was limping towards me and Merle, I thought I was gonna do most of the work, but Merle was pretty useful with a gun. He shot the ones that I wasn't paying much attention too, and I would have been eaten alive if he wasn't there, covering my ass. After a little bit, Merle's gun (well... my gun which I expected to get back.) he ran out of bullets. I saw the situation at hand, and said the only thing that came to mind. "Forget the goddamn walkers; we gotta get the hell out of here!" I yelled. Merle nodded in agreement, and we ran for the gate that separated the train tracks from the city. I saw that the gate was already cut, big enough to fit both Merle and me, but it was closed by bungee cords. I unlatched the gate and re closed it after Merle got to the van.

To my surprise, the keys were still in the ignition when I got to the driver's side. I tossed my bag in the back and sat in the driver's seat. "Whoa, what do you think you're doing?" Merle shouted. "Oh, don't even start Merle! You're in no condition to drive! Just get into the passenger's seat and stop you bitching! Christ!" I snapped back at him. He hesitated for a moment, and then got in the passenger's side. I turned the van on, and then drove away. After leaving the city a few miles behind I looked at the acquaintance that was in the passenger seat. I didn't really know what to say, I mean we went through a lot together, even if I've only known him for barley an hour. I wanted to break the awkward silence like you wouldn't believe, but I just kept focusing on driving, mainly because I didn't really know what to do, driving for as far as I did was all touch and go.

One thing I did want to do was ask Merle what happened with his hand. I may do crazy things sometimes but cutting off your hand? That's just plain crazy, I was trying to get the guts to ask, or say anything for that matter, but something in the back of my mind said just shut up and keep driving, and that's what I did. A few hours or so after dark I saw a fork in the road, and that made me realize that I had no idea where we were going. I stole a glance at Merle, who has been deathly quiet since we left Atlanta, and saw he saw asleep. "Hey, Merle?" I asked quietly. When he didn't answer I thought for a moment on what to do. I sped up real fast then stepped on the break, hard. That got him up; though his reaction told me that maybe I should have found a more subtle approach on how to wake him up.

"What is wrong with you?!" Merle yelled in anger. "I have trust issues, or so said my therapist, but enough with the details on my personal life we have bigger problems. Where do we go?" I said, motioning my hand to the fork in the road. "How the hell am I supposed to know?" Merle barked at me angrily. "Okay that's helpful." I said, glaring at him, though I don't think he saw it in the dark. "Y'all seem to have all the ideas, you figure it out." He said sarcastically. There and then, I was starting to get fed up with his smarmy attitude and sarcastic demeanor. I put the van in park angrily and glared at him, that time I had a feeling that he saw my expression. "Why do have to make things so difficult?! Why can't you for once just help me get a heading of some sort? I've barley known you a few hours and I'm ready to handcuff you to a roof!" I yelled at him.

I meant every word of what I said, but I wished after I did to have left the part of the roof out of it. I could see it was still a sore subject to bring up. He glared at me with a glare that even started to scare me a little. "Then why the hell are you still with me then." He said with his voice tight and controlled. "Because of the give and take transition that happened in the department store." He looked at me after I said that with a look of confusion and anger on his face. I saw immediately that he didn't know what I was saying. "Ok, let me dumb it down for you; a life debt." I said trying to get my voice to stay calm, but it wavered a little. "What are you talking about?" Merle asked, the anger in his voice simmered down a bit but it didn't leave. "I saved your life. If it wasn't for me, you would have died. So that puts you in my debt. The rules are simple; you follow me around this undead infested world, give me someone to talk to every now and again, and you cover my ass. The debt is repaid when you save my life." I explained. The rage left Merle's face and was replaced with his usual glare. "And why should I?" he asked, I heard him smile when he said that, the same tone he used when I pointed out the cube van back in Atlanta.

"Because one, you're in no condition to be on your own, with your arm still in bad shape, and two, this life debt is a two way street Merle. You cover my ass if we're backed into a corner and I cover yours. You're pretty good with a gun, and I'm pretty good with my sword, that's a good combination. We can't make it out in this world alone; even you saw that at one point." I said, but the truth was I knew if I was gonna still have some sanity left, I needed someone around. But I wasn't ready to actually say that to him. He looked surprised, but I couldn't place why. "How did you know I was with people?" he asked. His voice wasn't angry just curious and sounded a little accusing. "Well I don't see why you would hand cuff yourself onto a roof so I put two and two together." I said. After a thoughtful expression on his face, he sighed. "Fine. What the hell, it ain't like I have any other options." He grumbled. I took a small victory fist pump, took the van out of park, and started driving, and then I stopped the car one more time. "Where do we go then?" I asked. Instead of the sarcastic answer that I was expecting, he gave me a straight answer.

"The group I was with said somethin' about Fort Benning." Merle stated. "I don't think that's an option. I've been to Fort Benning before. It got overrun, so there isn't an option anymore." I said. Merle didn't say anything he just breathed loudly. "Then go left." He simply said, pointing up the road. I nodded in agreement and did what he said. We were silent the rest of the way. We kept moving left until we saw a convenience store. I stopped the van there and reached for my bag and sword. "We stopping here?" Merle asked while looking at the small building. "Yeah, we'll figure something out in the morning. For now, this will do." I said. I was kinda grateful that we found this place, I almost fell asleep behind the wheel twice, and I wasn't looking to recover from a car crash.

We walked inside, first looking into the store to make sure that there weren't any walkers. I gave Merle a knife, not the one Troy gave me, but another one I had, that I found in Fort Benning. I put down one that I saw in the bathroom, and from the thud that I heard in the next room, I had a feeling that Merle took down one as well. I locked the front door, and walked back to the counter. I didn't have a sleeping bag or anything so I just set my stuff by the counter, and walked into the back office to see what Merle was doing. When I walked in I saw he had a bottle of vodka in his only hand. Sadly enough seeing him with that didn't surprise me one bit.

"What are you doing?" I asked. A little annoyed that he'd drink at a time like this, he needed to keep his wits about him. "What's it look like I'm doing?" Merle said with amused look on his face. "Something stupid." I said lightly. "Care to join?" Merle asked, holding the bottle towards me. My first intention was to say no and tell him he shouldn't either, but something stopped me. I have been way too uptight lately. Some might say you have to be in this type of situation, but I remembered the old me; who would have jumped to this offer immediately. What the hell had happened to me? With that thought, and a little hesitation, I took the bottle from Merle and took a seat next to him. "So, do you have any thought on where to go long term?" I asked, hoping we could at least think up something. "No, I ain't seeing a point talkin' 'bout it right now. Worry 'bout that later." Merle said in a laid back tone. "Well, you sure are the optimistic, considering the circumstances." I said with a bitter tone, as I started drinking the contents of the bottle. "Yeah, well enjoy the little things in life. You seem pretty dower for someone your age." He said as he took the bottle from me. "Yeah well it's not like this world has changed into fairytales and glitter." I said. After a little bit of small talk and both of us getting pretty buzzed, I decided to dig a little deeper into his old group.

"Did you leave anyone behind at your old group? Like a son, or daughter, or girlfriend or sister… or brother" I asked. I had to choke out the last part because of the possibility of Troy being dead. I glanced at the man sitting next to me, he was glaring into space, but it wasn't a glare filled with anger, more like sorrow, anguish, regret even. "I have an older brother." I began. "or, at least I hope I do. We got separated at the beginning of the outbreak, he said that he was in Atlanta, but when I saw that pipe dream go up in flames, I thought he was dead. But something told me that he was still alive, ya know? In fact it was the same little voice that told me to go find you after I saw your severed hand on the roof. I don't know whether he's dead or not, and it's the not knowing that's slowly eating away at me." I said.

I didn't realize until I was don't talking, and feeling Merle's eyes on me, that there were tears in my eyes. I expected him to say nothing, or just walk out of the room, but instead he just took a sigh of self pity and looked directly at me. "Yeah, I have a little brother. He's with the group of people I was with." He paused to take another sip of vodka. "Unlike you, I know my brothers alive, if he's my kin, ain't nothin' gonna kill 'em but me." He said with a small smirk on his face. "I wish I had that kind of confidence in the possibility that my brother's alive. But he' more like that part in that Michael Jackson song; "The Girl Is Mine" Where Michael says "I'm a lover not a fighter." My brother could barely open a can of tuna without my help, so there is a very small chance that he could have survived this mess." I said thinking about how pathetic my brother was.

"If it wasn't for the height difference between us people would have confused me with being the older sibling." I said chuckling silently as I took the bottle out of Merle's hand. "Sounds like a powerful guy." Merle said sarcastically. "You remind me of him." I said, my voice starting to sound slurred. Merle looked at me with his eyebrow raised. "I'm not meaning in terms of strength, more like personality." I said defensively. "He has the same sarcastic demeanor as you, the thought that he's the oldest he's stronger, and everything in between." I said while handing him the emptying bottle. He took the bottle and laughed a little. I started to feel more eased with Merle like this. But the weird thing was when I mentioned how Merle reminded me of Troy the more I saw it. "Either you guys would have been best friends, or you would have strangled each other, though I think I know who would win if it came to the latter option." I said smiling at the older man who was getting as drunk as I was.

"Yeah." Merle said smiling and with that we continued the small conversations, until eventually blacking out from drunkenness or whatever you want to call it. But one thing I can say I picked up from Merle from the first night alone; is to enjoy the little thing in life, no matter how small.

Thank you for reading this long over due chapter, sorry that i didnt update as much but i guess im just freaking out that school is starting. real life sucks i can just say that :P. anyway if we are going timeline wise comparing my story to the show, i think where we are right now is the night Amy died (Andrea's sister for those of you who don't remember because she had such a small part in the show.) I was wondering if you guys knew, how long the streach was in the show between season one and season two was; because im getting to that point in the story. if you know comment or whatever, that would be greatly appreciated. Favorites and reviews also something that gets me out of bed in the afternoons, tell me if there is anything I can improve on or if Merle is getting too OOC. thanks ;)