AN: So we're getting off to a slow start here, but at least our characters (some of them) are meeting. We've still got a few chapters before we hit the quarry.
And I know I'm great with action chapters…but I do my best. There will probably be a few of them to suffer through in this story, so sorry about that!
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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Daryl could only hope that Merle was enough in his right mind to throw himself into this, because if they were going to do anything about the massacre that was taking place, it was probably going to take both of them.
And they needed to do something. Because they had already learned from the experience of running up on unlucky people that when someone got torn up from one of the creatures, the person had the potential to turn into one of the creatures themselves if they weren't torn up beyond a certain point.
Since they'd stumbled into a little bed of what looked to be four of the creatures any number of people who might soon become creatures themselves, something had to be done.
Daryl kept his distance far enough not to draw the attention of anything not feeding at the moment and shot an arrow through the skull of one of the creatures. Satisfied with himself, he loaded another one and dropped one of the other creatures, but he suddenly had the attention of the other two…and of a third that he hadn't noticed before.
"Shit!" He spat, his hands shaking slightly as he tried to load his crossbow again. "Lil' damn help here, Merle!"
He fired off the arrow and hit his mark, but there wouldn't be time to shoot the other two using the crossbow and he wasn't wearing a gun. He yanked his knife out of his belt and squared off, trying to figure out how to get the best go at the one nearing him.
Around them it was hard to tell if there was anyone that might live. There was a good deal of yelling and noise, but Daryl couldn't focus on any of that at the moment.
He lunged toward the nearest creature, hoping to get the best of it, but he still wasn't entirely sure how to handle the creatures yet. They were oddly stronger than people…and stronger than they looked like they would be. It also didn't help that nothing hurt them beyond shooting them in the head or stabbing them in the head…so you couldn't even wound the assholes to get the upper hand. It was either a kill shot or you were fucked.
Daryl rolled with the creature that he'd tangled up with, trying to get in the position to stab it, and he was surprised when it suddenly stopped struggling back at him, snapping at his face, and fell forward on him.
Merle heaved the body off of Daryl and stood over him chuckling, licking at his teeth while he stared at him.
"Damn lil' brother," Merle commented. "You was just about dog chow…woulda been your ole brother hadn't been here ta save ya sorry ass."
Daryl could barely breathe.
The thing he was learning, faster than anything else, was that he wasn't nearly in as good a shape as he thought he was.
Daryl pushed himself up on his elbows, heaving to get his breath, and he reached an arm up toward Merle. Merle jerked him upward and slapped him hard enough on the back to have taken away his air if he'd had it to begin with.
Looking around and taking inventory of the situation, it looked like there was very little movement left.
One woman up on her knees, and she was crying over the body of someone on the ground who was barely moving. Daryl started toward the other bodies for the moment, collecting up his used arrows and using them to make sure that the dead people stayed that way.
"Help him…can you help him?" The woman pleaded.
Daryl started in her direction, but Merle got there first.
"Just about to," he said. Less than a moment later he pulled out the pistol he'd been wearing at his hip and fired a round into the head of the man the brunette was leaning over.
And she screamed out in shock or anguish…maybe both.
"You killed him! You asshole! You killed him!" She yelled at Merle.
Daryl closed the distance between them as quickly as he could, not sure what might happen or what condition his brother was in. When Merle wasn't strung out, he wouldn't ever hurt a woman for anything in the world…but when he was strung out he could do all kinds of shit that his brain, had it been functioning, would have told him were bad ideas.
"Get your ass up or you gonna be dead too, sweetcheeks," Merle growled at the woman.
At least he wasn't lashing out at her for yelling at him. That was a good sign that whatever he'd taken had either been in a small enough dose or of limited enough potency that he wasn't completely out of his skull.
Merle reached down and snatched the woman up from her kneeling position on the ground with the same force that he'd used to pull Daryl up and she flew upward whether she wanted to or not.
"You bit?" Daryl asked coming over to check her. "Chewed up? They get their hands on you at all?"
The woman looked back and forth between them, tears streaming down her face, and Daryl suddenly worried that she might die from not breathing instead of from the creatures. He reached over and hit her in the back just hard enough to shock her into inhaling and she let out a pathetic cry following it.
"Stop ya damn cryin'!" Merle spat. "Did you get chewed the hell up?"
Daryl started searching her for himself, but for all the places he was finding blood, he discovered when he ran his hands across them that the blood wasn't hers. She'd come out of this unscathed.
"You ain't got a damn gun? Knife? Nothin'?" Daryl asked.
She had stopped crying at this point, but she was clearly in shock. Merle had let go of her arm and stepped away from her just a piece.
She shook her head at Daryl.
"I had a...knife. I had a knife…" she stuttered out, looking around at all the bodies and carnage at their feet. "I had a knife…"
"You said that shit," Merle said, looking around at the ground. "Where the fuck is it?"
The woman shook her head.
Daryl sighed and tried to figure out what the hell to do. This woman was shook up…and he could understand that. The creatures were enough to shake just about anyone…and he imagined women were a lot easier to get shook up than men were. After all…one of the fuckers had damn near made him piss himself.
"Look for ya damn knife," Daryl commanded. "Don't go no damn where. We ain't huntin' ya ass down…"
The brunette looked at him, nodded, and then began to scramble around, looking through the leaves. She was calming down.
Daryl pulled Merle off to the side by knocking him on the arm and gesturing for his brother to follow him. Merle did follow him, though as they walked he kept casting glances back toward the brunette who was on her hands and knees, crawling around the dead bodies.
"What the hell we do with her?" Daryl asked.
Merle chuckled.
"I know what the hell I got a mind ta do with her," Merle mused.
Daryl smacked him on the arm.
"Merle…get'cha head outta ya ass…this is serious," Daryl said.
"She ain't our damn problem, Daryl," Merle said.
"You're gonna leave that woman out here alone, Merle?" Daryl asked.
Merle smiled again and glanced over at her. She appeared to have calmed down and she had found some sort of weapon because she was examining it.
"Not if she plays nice," Merle said. "Hell…I ain't unreasonable."
Daryl rolled his eyes at Merle.
"We takin' this damn woman with us or what?" Daryl asked.
He didn't want the responsibility of this woman around and he certainly didn't want another mouth to feed…but if the woman could take care of herself, she could very well be good to have around…and even if she wasn't, Daryl wasn't sure he had the stomach to leave her there alone.
But Merle wasn't with him enough to be any damn help at all.
Daryl growled under his breath at his brother and Merle laughed at him lightly before he followed Daryl back toward the woman.
She looked different than she had even moments before because she was obviously calming a great deal.
"You found ya knife?" Daryl asked.
She shook her head.
"No…it isn't mine, but it's better than mine I think," the woman responded. "Although…I feel bad taking Jonathan's knife right out of his hand…"
"If the fucker's here, he don't need it," Merle said, looking around.
"You know how the hell ta kill these things?" Daryl asked.
"Do you mean…people…or…the corpses?" the woman asked, furrowing her brow.
"Whatever the fuck you need ta kill," Merle spat. "You got the balls ta do what the hell you need ta do or we just as well shoot'cha right now an' leave ya with ya boyfriend?"
"Merle!" Daryl spat.
The woman looked at both of them.
"I can kill if I need to," she said. "Not this damn many…they just came at us…out of nowhere. It was like they weren't there and then Carrie screamed…and they were already…ripping her damn throat out and they were at all of us!"
Daryl looked around again at the bodies and then back at his brother who was ogling the woman without apology while she was standing there, slick with other people's blood, still trying to figure out what the hell had happened to her and whoever the people were that were with her.
Even if they weren't going to keep her with them, it would be only decent to keep her around through the night. If she slept at all she might be more able to make some decisions for herself. He might able to make some decent decisions himself.
"I'm Daryl…this here's Merle," Daryl said.
"Alice," the woman said.
None of them offered the other any customary gesture of greeting. It just seemed out of place at the moment or something.
"You got supplies? Shit you travelin' with? Anything?" Daryl asked.
Alice nodded.
"We…uh…have a camp, sort of…it's about…I don't fucking know…it's over in that direction," Alice said. "We were coming down here for water. There's a little river right over there…"
"Ain't no damn river…creek maybe…took all you damn people ta come down here for water? Daryl an' me's been on our own this damn long an' you take everyone you know ta get water?" Merle grumbled.
Daryl shook his head at the woman. She looked at Merle, furrowed her brows and then spoke, as much to Daryl as to Merle.
"None of us were great at killing these things…strength in numbers…" Alice said.
She looked around, a little of the shocked look returning to her face.
"Strength in numbers and…I'm the only one left…everyone else is dead," she said.
And Daryl could tell she was on the verge of it hitting her for real this time. She was on the verge of understanding the words that she was saying…since right now he figured her ass might be set on autopilot.
"Let's go to ya damn camp," Daryl said, starting in the direction that she'd signaled with her and his brother both following him. "See if there's anything worth takin' with us. We got our damn truck an' bike in that direction…tonight we'll sleep in the damn truck an' tomorrow we'll figure out what the hell we're gonna do with ya ass…"
"What you're going to do with me?" The woman asked, her tone of voice and facial expression changing for the first time from somewhat blank into obviously bothered. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
And Daryl suddenly wondered if they might not have done better to just leave her ass alone out there.