A/N I promise they will meet up soon. I'm trying to orchestrate it just right, not rush things. Hopefully next chapter. Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any reviews. 3
"Rise and shine mother fucker." Merle kicks the small bed Daryl fell into the night before.
Daryl opens his eyes with only mild difficulty with the left one, his lip is still a little swollen and tender. He gathers what little he has in the room and throws it in his oack, threads his knife into his belt and slings his bow over his shoulder.
"So where we headed?" he asks Merle, leaning against the door frame.
"I figure our hunting spot ain't far from here. Ya know that park, they've got some trails even your poor old truck should be able to handle." Merle plans out the route they have to go.
"What's it looking like outside?" Those geeks still hanging around?" he heads over to the window.
"Of course they are. Few of em wandered away couple of hours ago. Don't worry little brother, there's still enough to fight through." Merle's eyes get a sick little glint in them when he brings up the fighting.
"Don't look like there's many between here and the truck, maybe we should head out soon." he says, counting only a small handful between the door and the truck.
"We can take out a few of em, no problem." Merle hoists his gun onto his sholder.
Daryl opens the door and steps out into the early morning fog. The first geek's facing away from them, he sends an arrow through the back of it's skull. Merle fires of a round into one just making it's way around the truck. The sound of the gunshot echos through the neighborhood, and before they know it, twenty more are starting to surround them and the truck, emerging though the mist. Merle raises his gun to take out another one.
"No." Daryl hisses at he lets another bolt fly. "Sound draws more. We'll be over run if you shoot again."
Merle shoots him a glare, but slings his gun over his shoulder anyway and picks something up off the lawn next to the steps. An aluminum bat.
"Let's go, little brother." he doesn't try to hide the delight in his voice as he swings the bat full force into the head of the geek shambling towards him.
They fight their way to the truck, throw their bags in the back and take off. Merle hangs out the window of the truck swatting away and of the geeks that get close to them with the bat, laughing and hollering as he does.
Sam wakes up before anyone else and just enjoys the early morning quiet. A few floors up, the noise from the creeps walking through the streets doesn't quite reach them, but scavenging yesterday, there were a few spots that were pretty bad, they sounded so close. The lobby is by far the worst. They're right outside, and the glass doesn't do much to keep the sound out. That freaked them all out. Sam tried to keep them as far away from the lobby as they could be, fortunately they have yet to actually be confronted by any of them, right now the hotel is the ideal safe house. Plenty of food, still has running water for now, and it's secure. But who knows if the old custodial supplies through the handles can keep out someone who is determined enough. She sighs and looks down at the street. There aren't a whole lot down there, but none of them are brave enough to leave yet, not to mention they have no way to get anywhere, other than walking.
Kyle approaches her quietly "This still doesn't feel real."
"I know," she looks at him "We're gonna have to leave here soon, or at least start looking outside the hotel for supplies. We've almost tapped this place out. We can last a while, but we'll have to leave eventually."
Kyle looks at the still sleeping Chris and sighs, " I know, maybe we can find a car or something. She's just so young. I have to think of her before anyone else."
"We'll do what we can, I promise"
The sound of Chris stirring draws their attention away from the window. She sits up and yawns, her dark hair a halo of chaos around her face, reminding Sam how young she really is.
"So what's for breakfast?" she asks, stretching.
"Sam, I know you said no perishables," Kyle gives Sam a guilty look as he digs through some of the bags, "but I couldn't help it, as long as we're staying here, why waste food, right?"
He produces a carton of eggs, a package of bacon and a can of corned beef hash. Chris squeals with delight when her brother starts gathering all the cooking materials he needs. Sam smiles as the siblings go about making breakfast.
"I guess you were right," Sam forks the last of the food into her mouth "no point in wasting food if we're just here."
Kyle and Chris nod in agreement.
"So," Kyle leans back, his plate on the floor in front of him "what now?"
Daryl parks the truck as deep into the woods as he dares. They left the last house behind them about fifteen miles ago. They stopped at a gas station a few miles back, cleared out what food was left, and Merle somehow managed to get the pump working, taking out a few more of those eaters in the process.
"Let's get going. I'm hungry." Merle jumps out of the truck and grabs his rifle, Daryl stared at the gun pointedly. "What? You want me to hunt squirrels with a baseball bat?"
"Guess not, maybe there's none out here?"
"Even if there are" Merle slaps him on the back "we know how to take care of em. Ain't that right baby brother."
Merle heads off in one direction, Daryl in another. He picks up a trail pretty fast and before long he has a string of squirrels and rabbits slung over his shoulder. Every once in a while he'll hear a shot in the distance, but he's been slowly working his way back to the truck and the sound of the shots.
"Yo, Merle." he calls out "MERLE!"
He follows Merle's path through the woods. Rustling leaves off to his left catches his attention, one of those damn eaters, drawn to the noise of the gun, no doubt. He looks around for more before he lets it get just a little closer to Merle. Merle is still oblivious to the eater, even though it's only a few feet from him. He hears the groans and turns around just in time to see it fall to the ground, an arrow protruding from it's eye.
"What the fuck? What was that? That damn thing was only feet from me." Merle goes to shove him while he's trying to retrieve the bolt.
"What the hell man," Daryl avoids the shove ad frees his arrow, wiping it on the grass "I had eyes on it the whole time. I was just fucking with you a little."
"Well it ain't funny." Merle kicks the corpse, the head detaches from the rotted neck and rolls a few feet away. That breaks the tension between them and they walk down a little hill and gather up the few squirrels Merle shot.
"Member when we would come out here with the old man?" Merle tosses one of the squirrels to Daryl "Those trips?"
"Yeah," Daryl laughs "you mean, the old man would spend the whole weekend on a bender and passed out in the truck. Me an you, trying to catch dinner with those damn bb guns."
"Finding some cute honey and messin around with her, right under her parent's noses." he lets out a throaty chuckle.
"Naw Merle, that was just you."
For a minute there this morning, it almost seemed like the world hadn't gone to hell. Just a group of friends hanging out. But that doesn't happen anymore, can't happen anymore. Not with those crazies out there, trying to eat everyone.
"So, we need to come up with a plan, we can't stay here forever." Sam addresses the problem again.
"I want to go find Mom and Dad. Or at least find out if anything happened to them." Chris' voice breaks a little at the end.
"Ok, I guess we can try that," Sam unfolds a state map she had grabbed from the store before all this "so where's home?"
Kyle points to a small spot on the map, north of where they are, and a little closer to the coast. Sam's heart sinks, but she marks the map anyway. What chance does a little town have against this, there is no way their folks are still alive. But Sam keeps her mouth shut. Everyone needs a little hope, right?
"That's way too far to walk, and too dangerous. We'll need a car." she thinks for a minute, "Maybe we can get on the roof? See what's close to us that we can get."
"What if we can't find anything?" Chris asks.
"We'll check some of the neighborhoods around here, and on the off chance we can't find one single car, we'll have to start walking until we do."
"To the roof?" Kyle asks, standing.
They climb the two floors of stairs to the last floor of rooms, and luckily there is a door at the end of the hall marked roof access. Up another dark set of stairs and they finally reach the roof. It takes some work and a trip to the supply closet for a pry bar before the door opens, but they finally get it. A scuffing neat the corner of the building draws their attention, a figure pushes to its feet and turns to face them.
Chris screams when she sees the bloody mess that used to be this persons face and neck, the nose is gone, taking a good chunk of eye with it, and there is a gap in the neck all the way back to the spine. At the sound of the scream the thing lurches towards them, making sick noises as it tries to use it's mangled throat. Sam reaches for her hatchet, realizing too late that she left the whole belt back in the room.