AN: Here we go, another little chapter!
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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The sun was just coming up and Daryl knew that no one had slept more than a few moments. He'd already taken his round in the RV with Alice doctoring up his busted knuckles and musing over the possible bruises on his "pretty face" as she said while she stared back at him with the crusted blood drying on her own.
She'd doctored up the woman, Carol, and her daughter and then she'd left the little girl sleeping in the RV with her mother to keep watch over her in case she might have nightmares surrounding all of the chaos.
And the man that had caused all the problems was tied up at the moment and stored in the tent they'd torn down and put back up to keep him out of sight and out of mind.
They weren't being lynched, but they might not be able to say that as time went on. There had been a good deal of whispering and hushed conversations that got coupled with sideways glances in their directions.
Part of the group was supposed to be going on some kind of run today and they were being delayed by the now obvious problem of what to do with the man that was yelling through his gag and trying to escape his tent prison.
"I think we oughta just shoot the fucker an' be done with it," Merle muttered from where he was sitting near Daryl in the dirt, leaning against the tire of the RV.
"With what, Merle?" Daryl asked as he watched his brother examine his gun. "You ain't got no damn bullets an' I don't think they gonna let me just go an' get my damn crossbow ta put an end ta this asshole. Prob'ly ain't our place no way."
"Prob'ly not," Merle muttered. "Made it our fuckin' business, though. You know good an' damn well he'll kill that woman he gets his hand on her again."
"I ain't lettin' that happen," Daryl responded.
Merle chuckled to himself.
"Got yaself a hard on for her, lil' brotha?" Merle mused.
Daryl rolled his eyes.
"How can you be so damn disgustin' right now? They might shoot us, Merle…Alice…they might run us all up an' down the damn fence for this shit," Daryl said. "There's a lot more of them than they is of us," Daryl said.
"That's why the hell I wanna shoot the fucker," Merle mused. "If I'm goin'…he's sure as shit goin' with me. That's all the hell I gotta say about it."
Daryl was confident that wasn't all that Merle had to say about it. As far as he knew, Merle had never said everything he had to say on any subject whatsoever. Merle always had plenty more to say, all he needed was the opportunity to say it or a willing ear to listen to it.
Daryl heard the sound of the RV door swing open and Alice stepped down the steps of the thing. She walked around and kneeled down in front of where he was sitting like she was stooping down to talk to a small child.
"What the hell have you heard?" She asked.
"You mean besides Merle's big ass mouth?" Daryl asked.
Merle chuckled and Alice echoed it.
"Are they gonna shoot us? Hang us? What's our sentence?" Alice asked, her voice cooler than anyone's voice probably should be when asking such a question in full sincerity.
Daryl shrugged.
"Hell…I can't hear shit they're sayin' an' when I got up ta piss about half an hour ago they damn near killed each other tryin' ta stampeded away from our asses," Daryl said. "I figure the best that's comin' outta this is we hit the damn road."
Alice stayed in her stooped position a moment, considered this information and nodded her head definitely.
"Good," she said. "Fine."
She stood up straight.
"Carol and Sophia are going with us," she said.
Daryl cocked an eyebrow at her.
"The hell you on about?" He asked.
Alice shrugged.
"We leave, they're going with us," Alice said. "If we don't kill him, I'm not leaving them here with him. And if we do kill him and they run us out? Who have they got?"
"Damn…" Merle muttered. "Both of ya got a damn hard on for her."
He laughed to himself.
"This is gonna be a damn dick measurin' contest if ever there was one," he said, still examining the empty gun in his hand.
"Fuck you, Merle," Daryl spat, Alice's voice blending with his as she muttered the same words. Merle chuckled.
They didn't have much time to discuss anything else because it seemed that whatever conversation the others was having was ending. They were breaking out of the football hurdle they'd formed at a distance and heading in the direction of where Daryl and Merle were sitting. The only ones absent at the moment from that group were the young blonde girl, though Daryl couldn't remember her name, and the boy.
The black man and the police officer swung their steps toward the tent where the man was tied up and appeared half dragging him and half leading him out, the hobbles Merle had made for him making it difficult for him to really walk if he wanted to, a few moments later. They brought him not too far from where Merle and Daryl remained sitting, Alice leaning against the RV between them.
Alice didn't say anything. She walked around Daryl and went up the RV steps, disappearing inside. She appeared a few moments later leading Carol who looked horrified as she clung to Alice's hand and let her lead her down to the ground. The girl apparently wasn't going to be present for all of this either, whatever it might be that happened.
"We don't know you," Shane, the police officer, said. "We don't know any of you. You invited yourselves into our camp and since then you've started a fight with Ed. What are we supposed to do about this?"
"Kill 'im," Merle commented.
The man's muffled protests didn't need to be clearly heard to know that they combined profanity with the pleas even the most worthless of individuals would make for their sorry lives.
And Daryl flinched, his gut turning almost, at the sound of the battered woman cry out, her cries muffled by Alice wrapping her up in something of a bear hug.
"We don't just kill people," Shane commented, though Daryl wasn't sure that his words went with his tone of voice or his facial expression.
This was a world where they were going to struggle with what was right and what was wrong when the old law didn't stand any longer. Where did they draw the line?
"If we start killing people…who are we?" The blonde woman asked.
No one had a response for it. It was clear that for all their hushed whispering, the group that had huddled together hadn't really arrived at any point of agreement. Every one of them looked like they wanted to speak now but none of them seemed to dare to do so.
"Maybe it'd be best if you just moved on," Shane offered. "Go back wherever the hell you came from or go on to wherever the hell you're going."
Merle got to his feet and Daryl followed suit.
"We justa damn buncha road dogs anyway," Merle said. "Do us just damn fine ta hit the road again."
"Fine," Daryl offered, echoing the sentiments of his brother. "Don't matter ta us. We'll move out right now. Leave you an' yours alone. Al? Get the girl?"
The tied up man protested as Alice started to move, not removing her arms from around the woman who was caught between protesting, crying, and wanting to give into the support being offered to her by the brunette woman who had voluntarily lead the charge into the tent only hours before.
"Wait!" Bird woman called out. "You can't just take people. Carol…do you want to go with these people?"
Daryl glanced, not sure what was happening or what to do, at the direction of the bruised woman. She looked terrified, but not as terrified as she had the night before.
She stuttered out something and Daryl saw her clearly flinch when the tied up man crawled forward a little on his knees.
"Carol…you don't know them," bird woman insisted. "They're…they could be dangerous."
"We are dangerous," Alice said with all sincerity. "Just as dangerous as you are."
The tied up man continued his muffled protests and the police officer reached over and ripped free the choking gag that they'd created. The man spit out something and Daryl realized it was underwear…most likely dirty…that his brother had crammed into the man's mouth before tying the gag. He almost laughed when he heard Merle chuckling behind.
"Son of a bitch! I'll kill your ass! Every damn one of you! You get the hell away from my wife and my daughter!" The man spat.
"You care about them so much, you should have shown it," Alice spat back.
Daryl wished he was close enough to slap her in the back of the head for having as little knowledge as Merle of when to shut the fuck up.
But he didn't have time to say anything because he cringed again when he heard the woman she was clinging to start to cry again and insist that she was sorry.
And then the snarling asshole on the ground turned his attention to her and spat words at her that Daryl could almost hear coming out of his mouth with the same voice his old man had used to throw the same insults at his mother…words that had come to him early enough he was sure that he was still "draggin' on the teat" as Merle would have said.
She was a whore. She was a bitch. He would teach her. He would talk with her later.
Daryl never heard the whole whirlwind of words that mixed with her crying and her protests that she was sorry. He never heard everything the man had to say.
And neither did everyone else.
Because everyone in the camp jumped at least a foot when the cracking sound of the pistol went off and then in the swimming passage of the next few seconds they were left trying to figure out what had happened in the aftermath of the crack and the hard thud of the man falling to the ground, his words silenced.
Merle's laugh rung out next and Daryl turned his head sharply toward his brother just as everyone else did. Standing over to the side, almost leaned against the RV where he'd been for the whole of the conversation, Merle was examining the gun in his hand.
"Whatta ya know," he commented. "Reckon I had a bullet left after all…ain't it my lucky damn day."
And with those words the shock began to break over everyone. Daryl saw as the police officer hurled himself at Merle, taking him to the ground suddenly, and Daryl went at the officer.
"Get the fuck off my brother!" Daryl insisted.
But he was caught too as the black man wrestled him back, no one apparently knowing what to do. Merle didn't fight with the officer, something Daryl hadn't been expecting at all. He allowed the man to roll him over and cuff him, leaving him lying there in the dirt, still chuckling to himself.
"Easy there officer," Merle called out. "Said I ain't had but one bullet left. Ain't no damn body else gotta die today."
Daryl panted and looked around, not fighting anymore against the man that held his arms behind his back. Alice was screaming something, though he couldn't make out what with it combining with the sounds of the other woman. Merle was on the ground waiting to find out what they'd do for him. Everyone else was standing around still in shock and not making a move without some kind of command being thrown out or a whistle being blown…sheep who couldn't act without direction.
And the man, who'd probably never brought a single decent thing into the world beyond the little girl who was shut up in the RV and hadn't tried to come out yet, was gone now from all the chaos that he'd left behind, what was left of his head leaking into the red Georgia clay not five feet from Daryl's boots.