Sorry for all the racial and homophobic slurs but you know Merle. Personally, I love both the gays and the Irish, especially Irish men ;-). This is very AU.

Chapter 6

Merle noticed almost immediately that Emily was gone. He was pretending to listen to blondie babble about her theories on how this whole mess started Really? Who gives a fuck? It's done. His romp in the woods with her was decent, she had a nice set of tits on her, but damn she thought a lot of herself, strutting around in front of him like she was God's gift to men. Emily's ass was much better and her tits just as good. He was about to go check the tent for Emily when she came out of the woods with none other than that Irish fuck, the one that looked too damn much like Daryl. Looks like the little bitch didn't waste any time getting herself another arrangement. He turned back to blondie, doing his damnedest to listen to her, looked like she'd be his bed warmer for a while, at least there was no chance of falling for this one. He ignored the way his heart clenched at the thought of Emily with that potato sucker, he didn't have a right, he'd chosen for it to be this way.

Murphy walked Emily to a log near the fire.

"I'm going to talk to me brother, be back soon love." Emily swallowed and nodded.

"No need to be nervous, he'll say yes." He winked and walked off.

Connor was smoking a cigarette and leaning against a tree. "I see you found her brother." He told him in Gaelic.

"Ay, sad story there brother." Murphy answered back in the same language, earning them strange looks from Dale who was closest to them.

"What's that then?"

"Said she'd been selling herself for help from those two brothers."

"Rape?" Connor fingered his gun.

"Naw, more like a deal, nothing we can punish them for. Still not the nicest men." Murphy glared at the older brother. The poor girl had fallen for that bastard and he couldn't understand why.

Connor scratched the side of his nose with his thumb "What are we doing brother, adopting her?"

"Why not?"

"That all it is? The girl is cute but vulnerable."

"Ay, I won't be trying anything, just want to help her…don't want you trying anything either." He added.

"I won't, I know you Murph. I know you're interested." Connor laughed and smacked his brother on the head. Murphy ducked and hit his brother in the gut.

"Not the only reason asshole." He defended his motives.

"I know Murph, I know." Connor hugged his brother roughly with one arm. "You know I'm with you, no need to ask."

Murphy hugged his brother back, he'd known Connor would help him, help Emily, he and his brother were two halves of a whole. The worst thing about this nightmare they were living in, was the constant worry that something would happen to his brother. He couldn't survive without Connor, the thought alone was unbearable. It was another reason he felt for Emily, she'd lost her sister, he couldn't imagine the pain of not knowing whether Connor was dead or alive and that was exactly what Emily was going through.

Merle tracked the hugging brothers as they walked back to Emily and then proceeded to sit one on each side of her, making her the meat in a mick sandwich. He glanced at his brother who looked just as miserable as he felt, mini-blondie was yapping his ear off. Must run in the family

Blondie started bitching that he wasn't paying attention to her, he sighed loudly, his lip twitching up into the tiniest of scowls. She was already on his last damn nerve and they'd only fucked once.

"I'm going to the restroom." Andrea huffed. Merle gave her the barest of nods.

Mini-blondie started giggling and Merle noticed Daryl rubbed his inner wrist across his eye, he looked about ready to lose it. He got up to go rescue him when an ear piercing scream rang through the camp. He turned towards Emily, she was standing and the Irish brothers were on either side of her, each had guns in both hands as they searched for the source of the scream. Merle turned around in a circle, then he saw it, Blondie getting gnawed on by a geek. Mini-blondie ran by him strait to her sister, before he could stop her he spotted more geeks coming out of the woods. They were in a full scale attack, with all the jabbering in the camp, they hadn't heard them coming.

Daryl came up beside him letting bolts go, taking down geeks, like he was shooting ducks at a fair. Merle had his gun out taking down anything that got remotely close to them and whenever possible he got anything that got close to Emily. He hated to admit it but the Irish brothers were damn good with those guns, made him wonder, there was something about those two. Emily was in-between them with her knife up ready to kill anything that got near, he smiled, he'd learned well.

In what felt like hours but was probably only around 10 minutes they had cleared the geeks out. He slapped Daryl on the back and grinned.

"Eleanor! Eleanor! NOOOOOO!" Emily's scream ripped through him, his grin fell off his face and he turned to the sound of Emily's sobbing.

Shuffling towards the hysterical girl was the reanimated corpse of what had to be Emily's sister. Her throat was ripped out but her face was still intact, she looked just like Emily. That's what she would look like as a biter. That's what I will see if she gets turned. Just like that. Merle's stomach lurched, he wanted to throw up but fought the urge. He felt Daryl put a hand on his shoulder and it steadied him, anchored him in the now.

Emily tried to run towards the walking corpse of her sister only to be held back by Murphy.

"It's her, it's Eleanor!" she tried to get away, squirming and kicking with all her might. She'd nearly succeeded when she heard a gunshot to her right. A bright red dot appeared on Eleanor's forehead right before she collapsed.

"Sorry love." Connors soft voice came from her right. She turned in time to see him lower the gun in his hand. She opened her mouth to scream, in her head she was screaming, screaming and screaming and screaming, then everything went black.

Merle was walking towards the distressed girl when the lighter haired brother shot the geek. He didn't blame him, Emily was wiggling so much that the darker haired brother was having a hell of a time holding her, she would have gotten bit for sure if she'd gotten away. He expected more hysterical screams, but Emily didn't scream. Her mouth opened in a perfect O, her mouth wide, chest heaving, but nothing, not a sound escaped her lips, and then just like that she went limp.

"Lay her in the RV Murph." The lighter man suggested.

"Ay be careful brother."

The lighter haired man nodded looking down at the body he'd just shot.

"I mean it Connor, enough lost today."

Conner and Murph what a couple of fag names Merle stopped in his tracks letting Murph carry Emily to the RV. He turned back to his brother, the dead girl at Connors feet just proved he was right to distance himself from the girl. He wanted to puke at seeing her sister dead, what would happen if he ever had to see Emily with her throat ripped out? He began helping his brother clean up the bodies, neither brother said anything as they loaded up the blond sisters to be buried, looked like Andrea got Amy sometime during the fight, he didn't know who put the girls down and didn't care, he was only grateful that neither him nor his brother had gotten attached. If this night wasn't a sign that he was making the right choice with Emily he didn't know what was.

He saw Connor head inside the RV, at least it seemed she'd found other people to care for her. His conscience was clear. Ignoring the need to go in and check on Emily he continued the work of putting holes in the heads of the newly dead.