AN: Here we go, another little chapter.
I feel the need to reiterate, if you need it, that characters are going to be adapted to my vision of this story, so they may be a little "OOC". Also, soon we'll be meeting the quarry group, so again they may be slightly different and I'm already certain that the storyline/plot is going to be quite different than that of the show, only resembling it in some places. I just don't want anyone to be too surprised.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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Daryl woke to the sound of a loud groan coming from the woman that they'd ended up with through no choosing of their own the day before. They were all crammed, very tightly, into the cab of the truck and her groan was about twice as loud as that coming from any of the flesh eating creatures throwing themselves against the outside of the vehicle.
Daryl would have rolled over and ignored her, but in their current conditions there wasn't much rolling…and there wasn't much ignoring.
"Fucking hell…this is a nightmare," Alice declared.
"Shut the fuck up…" Daryl growled, go back to sleep.
The night before she'd hardly said anything. She'd been in a type of shock, but much like Daryl had suspected, it had faded with a night's sleep. And apparently now she was feeling opinionated instead of like the sheep she'd practically been before.
"Who the hell smells like vomit?" Alice asked, crammed against her will between Daryl and Merle. Merle was snoring loudly, clearly sleeping off something that he'd taken when Daryl wasn't looking. Daryl had tried to get rid of some of Merle's stash here and there, but for the most part it was hidden well enough that he simply couldn't find any of it.
"You do," Daryl responded.
It probably was just as true as it was untrue. They all stunk. Everything in the world stunk now. That's what the hell happened when animated and decaying corpses were running around eating people who either became other creatures or, if they were destroyed badly enough, simply stayed where they were to rot. That, coupled with the fact that it took a lot of guts to drop your pants to answer the call of nature, less likely to strip down with the intention of bathing, made for a pretty putrid smelling environment.
"Holy hell…seriously…can I move…can…anything? I've gotta piss…I mean like you're about to get the bath you never wanted…right now," Alice declared.
"You want out there with them?" He asked, shifting enough to see that they were currently holding the attention of at least three of the creatures.
"Given my choices?" Alice responded. "Yeah…I want out there with them. You want me to pee all over you? Because I wasn't joking about that."
Merle groaned, waking then from his peaceful slumbers.
"What the fuck are you bitchin' about?" He growled to neither of them and both of them at once.
"I want out of here…I've got to piss and I've become the filling in a noxious redneck sandwich…" Alice responded. "And I don't even want to know what the hell is digging into my leg right now."
Merle leaned closer on her.
"Good damn mornin' ta you too, sugar tits," he crooned at her, his voice gravelly from just waking up. She scoffed.
Daryl growled to himself. They were going to have to get up eventually. They had to eat and the food that they'd gotten from the half ass camp that the brunette had taken them to was all in the back of the truck for the night since the creatures had no interest at all in actual food. They were going to have to hunt too because the pathetically cooked coon from the night before, split three ways, hadn't exactly left them with anything for today.
Daryl shifted around enough to go for one of the knives on the dash, the other weapons stored in the back for the time being as well, and rolled down the window enough to get an arm out and stab the most curious of the creatures as it tried to stick its head through the crack provided.
He pulled the knife out and gestured with his head toward the dash.
"Get a damn knife then," he said. "I open this door ta let your ass out an' you're killin' at least one of these fuckers."
The woman shifted around enough, curling her lip at Merle who was laughing at the whole situation…and probably at the fact that he was taking more advantage of it than he had to for rubbing himself against her…to get one of the knives. When Daryl could see that she was armed, he pushed the door open and dropped out of the truck quickly, realizing as soon as he almost fell over the creature that he'd recently killed that he had to piss as bad as she was complaining that she had to.
He sidestepped out of the way as quickly as he could and put a hand up to ward off one of the creatures that dove at him. The brunette spilled out the truck beside him and he barely sunk his knife into the creature's head that he was fighting with before he turned and walked a few steps in her direction, where she was now wrestling with the third one, thinking that he was going to have to save her sorry hide again.
But she downed the creature before he could get there, stumbling forward with it and spilling herself into the thick blanket of leaves on the ground.
Daryl reached out a hand and heaved her up without saying anything at first. She took advantage to dart off and he watched her as she ran behind a tree not too far from them.
He wasn't that modest and he could give a damn if she saw him take a piss, so he simply turned his back and took care of his business right where he was.
Merle was the last to spill out of the truck, rubbing his face.
"Where the hell the woman go?" He asked, obviously having missed her run for the tree.
"Pissin' behind that tree," Daryl replied.
Merle, not being modest, didn't go anywhere either.
"What the hell we doin' with that woman?" Merle asked. "Keepin' her 'til she gets herself killed or what?"
Daryl grunted.
"I don't know…hell…she done alright with that one she killed," Daryl said, coming over to lean against the truck. "Gotta learn how ta stay on her damn feet, though…they too heavy for her…pulled her clean over."
"Funny thing is," Alice called out, coming back toward them, "that she can hear. And she's not a pet…you can't just decide to keep me."
"You wanna go off on ya damn on…get then," Merle growled, slinging an arm in her direction. "Don't need ya damn ass taggin' around no way."
"Are you always like this? Or do I just really bring out the prince charming in your ass?" Alice barked back at him.
Daryl just stood there, leaning on the back of the truck, wondering how long it might take the two of them to kill each other. He let them yammer back and forth for a moment, knowing Merle well enough to know that he enjoyed someone who would bicker with him, even if he pretended he didn't, before he figured it was time to get control of the situation.
"What the fuck we doin'?" Daryl asked. "'Cause you come with us or you don't…we got shit ta do."
"I'm sorry?" Alice responded. "Were you late for something?"
"Gotta hunt you wanna eat," Daryl said. "Gotta hunt you don't wanna eat…'cause I sure as shit do. Who the hell are you, anyway?"
Alice scratched at her head. She was as filthy as both of them were, even if she didn't realize it. From the looks of her she was wearing some pretty disgusting pajamas…but it was hard to tell with the nice crust of blood, guts, mud…and whatever the hell else she was wearing.
"Who are you?" She asked. "I've got a lot more reason to be wary of you two then you've got to be scared of me…I am a woman, if you haven't noticed and I don't really want to add rape to my list of fun filled shit I've done in the past month or so…"
"You think pretty damn highly of yourself," Merle commented. "Dixon men don't have ta rape women…you'll be beggin' for it 'fore long."
Alice made a gagging noise and Daryl wasn't entirely certain if it was real or fake.
"We ain't gonna rape you," he said. "I'm Daryl…this is Merle…we're brothers…they ain't too damn much more ta tell."
"I'm Alice…Dr. Alice Walker," Alice responded. "I don't know what you want to know…I'm from Atlanta and I got the hell out of there when they started blowing up places and killing everyone that was moving."
"We ain't been in the city yet," Daryl said, scratching his own itch as he watched her scratch at hers.
"Don't waste your time," Alice said. "It's all gone…and if it isn't, it will be soon. Do you have any ideas what the hell these things are?"
"Dead people," Merle said blankly.
"Well hell…there you go," Alice said, waving a hand at him. "All the answers I dreamed of having. They're dead…but they're not dead. They've got brain function…well…some of it at least."
"Fuckin' walkin' corpses…" Merle growled.
He was more interested in his bike now than anything else and Daryl was watching him out of the corner of his eye, hoping to catch him in the act of going for a hit of something…hoping to figure out where the hell he was hiding it. He couldn't take it from Merle without a fight, but if he could find it when Merle was passed out, he might be able to convince him that he didn't have a damn clue where it had been or where it had gone.
"Walking corpses…living dead…and we're human chew toys," Alice commented. "But…not all the corpses get up. Why don't they all get up?"
Daryl sucked his teeth.
"Only damn way ta kill the Walkers, or whatever the hell you wanna call 'em, is ta fuck up their brains," he said. "Ones that stay put musta already lost their brain function or some shit…"
Alice sighed.
"I guess," she said.
"This is a fun ass lil' party we're havin'," Merle commented, coming back over from his bike. Daryl cursed a little under his breath because he'd looked away from his brother for a few moments and now he wasn't sure if he'd taken anything or not…and only time would tell. "What's next? We gonna braid each other's hair? Talk about our first damn fucks?"
Daryl shook his head. They needed to get to hunting…they needed to move on to wherever the hell they were going to stay the coming night.
And they probably needed to move away from Atlanta a little more, just in case the trickle of new Walkers decided to catch up with them.
"We movin' on…" Daryl said. "Get a lil' more distance between us an' that city."
Merle chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder.
"Look at you, lil' brother, usin' that knot above ya ass for somethin'…let's get the fuck outta here…smells like piss any damn way…" Merle commented. He went toward his bike again and threw a leg over, waiting on Daryl to make a move toward his truck.
"Time for makin' decisions," Daryl said. "You tag along with us you pull your own damn weight…or you can go skippin' off like damn Goldilocks, but we about ta move out."
Alice stared at him a moment, her hand on her hip, and without responding verbally she walked around to the passenger side of the truck and yanked open the door. Daryl got in the driver's seat, taking that as his answer, and cranked the truck, ready to roll down the fairly abandoned back road that they'd been following for at least a week's time and keep them heading toward whatever the hell they were heading for…not that any of them had any idea what it might be.