Sorry for the delay. This story had me stumped for a while. Thank Halohunter89 for throwing ideas at me constantly. I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter but at least it got me moving. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading, even when I'm unreliable about posting!

Chapter Eighteen

A week passed before Merle found himself standing in the woods next to a cul-de-sac surrounded by homes that none of them could have ever afforded in the old world. The road was long but at the end there were only a hand full of houses. They were large brick structures made to please the eye. Him and Cassidy had left out to scout that morning and it was already pushing noon. They hadn't found anything that looked safe enough to settle in for the long term just yet and they needed to get on that soon. She had insisted on moving further away from the city and he had agreed.

Merle studied the houses with a scowl. If not for the damn windows then he would have had to say that these houses would have been near perfect. They looked sturdy. People paid a pretty price for homes like this. It didn't really matter much how much they had spent, though, because as soon as the world turned to shit the houses ended up being worthless. The people that needed to live in houses like this were so damn vain that they also needed to put the inside on display. There were too many windows, too much glass, too many ways for anything to bust in.

It was enough to piss him the fuck off. They sat well away from the road, deep overgrown lawns flanking smooth paved drives. He spit in the bracken at his feet, hands on his hips as he stared.

"There's walls," Cassidy said. Her arms crossed over her chest as she squinted against the sun, following his gaze.

Merle grunted. It was true enough. Every one of the houses in question were surrounded by either ornate brick walls or wrought iron. The houses sat close enough together to show off one anothers goods but far enough apart so the rich folk could have their privacy if need be. "What I don't get is, why the hell do three of these places look like they've been ransacked all to shit but those three over there," he pointed, "Those don't look to have been touched at all."

He watched her as she studied the houses in question, her eyes narrowed. "I'd put money on the fact that those houses are sealed up tighter than Fort Knox. I mean, I'm sure they've been looted, but the reason those windows are still intact, is probably because they're shatterproof. I had windows just like that. My house was just a little bigger."

He eyed her skeptically. "Bigger, huh?"

She nodded. "My husband and I owned a few houses similar to these. One out in Anaheim California, which was where we lived most of the time. Another in Colorado. One in Main. We were actually looking into real estate on the outskirts of Atlanta because he was working on a movie here. He liked the scenery."

"Your husband was an actor?" Merle asked, not really believing this little tale she was weaving.

She shook her head. "Producer," she said, still eying the houses in the distance.

"And what did you do, other than live the good life of a rich girl?" He asked sarcastically.

She smiled grimly and finally looked up. She wasn't half as bad as she had been, thank fuck. "I was a trophy wife. He married me for my looks." A bitter laugh escaped her before it died away and her smile faded. "Ironic, huh? He was a cheating pig. He got a kick out of mind games, which resulted in me drowning out his bullshit with cocain and heroine. That rush and then the fall. I miss it sometimes."

He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, unsure what the hell to say to her. He wasn't as quick to trash talk this one. "I was more prone to the poor man's poison. Fuckin' toilet crank." He laughed.

She wrinkled her nose. "Yuck. I was way to high up on the ladder for any of that."

"You know, when you're not bein' a blood thirsty psycho bitch, you're pretty damn interestin'," he drawled.

She rolled her eyes. "And when you're not acting like a neanderthal asshole, so are you."

"You wanna head back and fill them in on this find or you wanna check it out first? We can't be the only folks with the idea to fortify a place like this."

She eyed the bigger house thoughtfully. "You think somebody could be in there?"

He nodded. "I'd give it 50 50 that somebodies settled the place already if it's as secure as you say."

She gave him a stiff nod. "It wouldn't do for both of us to go in. You take my rifle because the scope is better and you're a more accurate shot than I am. I look a lot less threatening too. Some scrawny scarred up damsel looking for a safe haven is less likely to cause a stink than a dour faced hard jaw with a buzz cut. You got a mean look about you, Dixon. It makes folks antsy. And I'd hate to go all the way back to camp and get the others if we aren't sure that this is a good enough spot to turn into home."

Merle shook his head. "Nah. Sendin' you in alone ain't sittin' well with me. I can go in and you cover me."

She sighed. "That's because you're letting your dick call the shots for you. My idea is smarter. Your idea sucks. You won't look less manly by letting me go alone. It's smarter because I don't look like a threat."

"And if the place is full of men?" He asked, knowing that it was a little cruel but needing her to understand that it very well could be the case. This world was a cesspool of madness with more than one kind of monster around every corner.

"Then I expect you to come save my ass... again," she said with a roll of her eyes. "But I don't really think anybody is here. We missed the fact that the gate is standing wide open and no one would have left it that way. We're so amateur."

He looked up and then nodded. "Damn. I 'spose we need to step up our game then."

She checked the clip in her handgun and then shrugged the rifle off her shoulder. "Don't pull any punches, Merle. If you see anyone looking fishy, shoot and ask questions later."

He grinned. "Woman after my own heart."

She snorted as she walked out of the shadows of the trees. "Like you even have one."

With one hand it made things a little more difficult but he'd learned to get by pretty well. Being unable to grip the barrel properly wasn't too big a problem if he could find something to brace the gun on. He didn't have to look very hard before he found a sturdy sapling that branched out at nearly eye level. He braced the rifle and looked through the scope, able to see the house better now. As far as he could tell, there was no movement. The grass around the front of the house was weighed down heavily to one side and didn't look as though it had been trampled. That didn't mean a whole lot though. If someone was there they could easily just use the back. A high privacy fence insured that he wouldn't be able to scan that far back though.

She was slow about her movements, which was smart. If someone was there they could think she was just some pitiful creature. She looked the part too with her dirty clothes and slight frame. But Merle knew better. She was a grade A freak. As dangerous as they came.

He watched her carefully, scanning the grounds around her and the house that loomed in the distance but he kept his ears sharp, listening for the slightest sounds that would indicate that there was trouble coming from his blind side. She disappeared through the back fence and he cursed, raising up and squinting in the distance. She was suppose to stay in sight and she damn well knew it.

He shouldered the rifle and stepped out of the trees. He was halfway down the drive when she came back around, running towards him. He tensed, stopping and bringing the gun around, his eyes scanning the house. When she was a few yards away she skidded to a stop and the look in her dark eyes was a rare look of excitement.

"What the fuck were doin' goin' out of sight like that?" He barked, lowering the gun now that he knew there wasn't likely anything or anyone about to come after them.

She grinned, glancing over her shoulder. There was dark blood on the sleeve of her shirt. "I was right. Someone must have traveled through here a long time ago but they didn't bother with that house. Whoever owned it must have evacuated early. It was locked up tight. Same with that one." She pointed towards another house sitting back a little further.

"What's with the blood?"

"There were a few walkers in the back. The back wall has a breach but I'm telling you, Dixon, we've struck gold here. We'll have walls, a roof over our heads. I'm sure there's enough room in that place for all of us to be comfortable and so we won't ever be subjected to your brother and Carol again like at that warehouse. I took a lawn chair to the back window and it bounced right off. This is it."

He snorted. "Don't get all ruffled there, woman. We gotta vote and then see where it goes from there."

She nodded. "I know it, but I think everyone will end up seeing what I'm seeing here. It's perfect."

He nodded, looking up at the looming structure of the house. "Weather is gonna turn soon and we ain't found anything else."

"Let's get back to the others then. We can fix the back wall easily."

~H~

Daryl hadn't really expected to bond with any of these women. It was hard to trust other people and if he didn't already have some sort of connection to them from the start, it wasn't easy to see them as anything more than dead people walking. He kept quiet around most of them. He wasn't interested in small talk.

But it was different with one of them. One of them other than Carol anyway. For some reason, the youngest of the bunch, Mercy, had become his shadow. He didn't mind it much either because it wasn't like he had to listen to her ramble on about anything. She was just as silent on her feet as he was so when she'd motioned that she'd wanted to go with him on a hunt he'd simply shrugged and let her tag along.

When they had returned she had taken the rabbits from him and went to work on cleaning them. While she worked he could almost recognize the kid that she had probably been. "You got any idea why she can't talk?" Daryl asked when Carol sat down next to him in front of the fire.

She shook her head. "I've asked but she never says anything. We only know her name and that she's young. She won't even tell us how old she is. I'm guessing between fourteen and seventeen maybe."

He nodded. "That's what I was thinkin'."

"I was afraid that she'd be scared with you and Merle around but she seems to have taken up with both of you," Carol smiled faintly but it didn't reach her eyes. He knew that it wasn't concern for the girl that was eating at her. It was the fact that they were actually talking about settling down somewhere.

"You think they found somethin'?" He asked, watching her eyes.

She nodded. "It's Merle and Cassidy. The demonic duo. I'd say they won't come back till they find something. Merle's worried about a cold fall sneaking up on us so I guess this is the smartest move."

He glanced around camp but no one was paying any attention to them so he slid his hand into hers. "You don't plan on stayin' put, do you?"

She stared down at their hands, fingers linked together tightly, and then smiled. "What do you think?"

He sighed. "I think it's gonna be a long ass winter, out in the cold, looking for Rick goddamn Grimes while the rest of these candy asses are livin' it up somewhere warm," he grumbled.

"It isn't Rick I care about and you know it. I want to make sure the kids are okay," she said softly. "And wherever our next home is going to be, I swear we won't stray too far away from it. You'll be back every night."

He sighed heavily and leaned his head back, staring up at the blue sky overhead. "I could probably hunt them down better without you. You dont' know the first thing about tryin' to track someone down."

She looked up sharply. "You aren't going anywhere without me. This isn't your battle, Daryl. It's all mine."

He didn't argue with her, even though he could have. This was as much his showdown as it was hers. He had his own questions for the man and he was going to get answers. If the answers weren't the right ones then he was going to break Rick's jaw. But he didn't say any of that. Instead he forced the anger back. "I wonder what the hell those two come up with," he mused. "Knowin' my brother we'll be spending the next few months bunked down in a chicken coop in the middle of nowhere."

She laughed lightly, drawing the attention of a few of the other women, who smiled indulgently, causing him to roll his eyes.

The two men had managed to gain the trust of the women in this group and Daryl was glad for it. There had been a few days there that he had been sure that one of them would end up trying to kill them in their sleep. Or wait until Carol wasn't around and gun them down. But that was over now. They trusted them. Even Merle, which was damn strange since Daryl didn't even trust the man half the time. But it made life a little easier. That ever present tension was gone.

"You know that there's a big chance that we ain't gonna be able to find them, right? We don't even know if they're alive."

Her head hit his shoulder and she sighed. "They're out there. But I'm only giving it a month. If I don't find them by then I'll give up the search. Merle could very well be right and this could be a hard winter."

A thought came unbidden to the forefront of his mind and he chuckled, causing her to look up at him with a smile.

"What?" She asked.

He shook his head. "Just thinkin'. Merle is probably hoping for a cold winter. You know he's already day dreamin' about all the women here having to use him for body heat. Merle Dixon getting to sleep in a sea of women every night." He snorted.

She sat up and looked out over the camp and then she laughed. It was a real one that shook her frame. "I can see him getting the idea that he should do his part in repopulating the world. Could you imagine? Out of all of us, there is at least five that he has a chance of seducing. It wouldn't take him long to create an army of... Merles."

He grimaced. "Don't ever bring that shit up to him cause that's exactly the type of shit he'd be all for."