I hope everyone is warm and out of this weather. I'm currently being slammed with back to back blizzards it seems with temperatures in the subzero category. Things are a hot mess right now but I had this chapter already in my head for how I wanted it to go. I had to wait till I had a moment to even consider to write but here we go. Those of you waiting on updates for my other stories I'm sorry I've not been updating them. I'm writing where my muse is at and this is where she is cheekily staying for now. At least I'm writing though.

Sharp eyes surveyed the area with a ferocity that was only matched by the man next to him. Mac was taking down a walker that appeared to have been trampled and left unable to walk away. Merle left him to it as he worked his worry and panic off in the only way he could. Merle didn't blame him he wanted to kill something just as bad. The thought of something happening to his baby brother made him sick to his stomach and his chest tight.

"Fucking motherfucker fucking bullshit fucking fuck you fuck YOU!" Mac barking and snarling like a wild animal.

Merle looked to his side where Mac stood chest heaving his eyes wild. Merle had spent time away from his brothers when he'd went to serve. They were younger than him and still kids when he left but their bond even then was there. They were use to always being together, having the other there no matter what. It wasn't that Merle felt bad or jealous of the fact that they would always have a bond he didn't with them, no it wasn't that at all. They were twins and were basically attached at the hip from birth. Hell some days he wasn't sure if Brian was going to call Daryl dad too from the way the boy acted.

Merle always looked over them never really being of the same age as them. He loved his brothers but wasn't the affectionate pussy fucker that would walk up and dole that shit. Wasn't him and sure as fuck wasn't his brothers. No it seemed that he took on more of the parental figure in both of their lives. Both looked to him and he always stood by them no matter what. Blood was blood and you didn't turn you back on that.

"Goddamn this place." Mac snapped next to him, "Are you sure this is it?"

Merle adjusted his knife in his grip his fingers flexing and nodded, "This is it brother."

Merle started walking following the line of bodies. There was a story here. He knew Daryl had been here but wasn't sure where he was. He needed to know for sure that his brother wasn't still here before they moved on. It would do no good for him or Mac to leave this place unsearched.

"Should have come with him." Mac spoke under his breath his panic and pain seeping through. "This would have never happened."

Merle growled and spun grabbing Mac up his hand going to the side of his face forcing him to meet his eyes. "Listen and listen well little brother.." Merle stared at him until Mac relaxed and quit trying to break free. "We don't know that anything has happened and we don't know that if you were here it could have prevented shit." Merle's voice was sharp.

Merle kept eye contact with Mac until he seen him calming down enough. Releasing him Mac stumbled slightly with Merle's hand shooting out and righting him. Mac's chest was heaving and he looked up at Merle the panic still in his eyes. He needed to keep his shit together for the both of them. He felt the same weight and terror at his brother being gone that Mac did but couldn't let that show. If the cracks in his armor started to show then Mac would panic and tail spin. He had to keep his shit together and make sure Mac didn't do something irrational out here and get himself killed.

Walking into the nearest place they searched high and low but there was no signs of anyone. It went like this until they got to where more downed walkers were. The groaning coming from an alley had Merle's eyes swiveling around. He stepped in immediately when the bright fletching caught his eyes. Mac was next to him in a second as Merle bent to grab the bolt wrenching it from the corpse.

Both men stared down at the bolt their hearts pounding. Merle's eyes lifted as Mac plucked the bolt out of his hand and he focused on the blood spatter. It was a horror scene painted down this alley and he followed it. He could almost hear the shit Daryl would be saying as he fought down this and felled the bodies at his feet. It was gruesome, violent, and rushed.

"He was running." Merle's eyes swept the alley and he started walking following it. "Get your ass and gear." Merle barked.

Mac's footsteps met his ears and he walked on. Tracking Daryl was hard but tracking him through the gore and death around him had his chest so tight he was close to puking. Everywhere he looked he seen a fight for survival. Daryl would fight until he wasn't able to, it was in the Dixon blood. For all the blood and death around him Merle felt the first rays of hope when none of the blood was that of fresh tacky life. It was all black, decayed and lifeless. Goddamn walkers.

Rounding the corner the men stepped out into another onslaught of down walkers. Mac sneered and kicked one's head before stepped around Merle. Both men walked about fifteen foot before pausing. Merle took off at a sprint and forced himself to breathe normal before he got there.

"Merle!" Mac barked catching up to him grabbing his bicep.

Merle looked to his younger brother. Mac's eyes were ahead of him but not focusing on what he was. Following his eyes Merle's eyes fell on Daryl's bike. It was parked between the library and another building.

"He's still here." Mac's voice was that of relief.

Merle pulled free ignoring the bike and walking the last few feet. He paused looking down. There was no body. No body but blood - fresh blood. Chest heaving Merle squatted just as he heard Mac come up next to him. The stutter in his brother's breathing was enough to have his rage pulsing at the thought of Daryl being hurt.

Swiping his fingers through the blood it came away still tacky but thickening. Merle rose to his feet swiftly his eyes on alert. Eyes sweeping again he paused on the tire tracks of rubber. Merle stepped around and Mac trailed to the other side forcibly not looking at the blood. Neither was. THat was their family blood there. Merle knew it, Mac knew it and both were trying to breathe around heart attacks seizing their chests.

Merle scowled and shook his head, "I don't think he was bit."

"Whys that? You know Daryl as well as I do he wouldn't come back if he was bit. He'd never let us see him that way let alone Sophia." Mac's voice broke and Merle flinched slightly at the pain there.

"Because these tire tracks are fresh. Someone stomped the fucking breaks and it stops at the blood….I think someone took him." Merle's voice was taking on a deep menacing tone that had his hackles raising readying for a fight. "IF Daryl had been bit he'd left no clue at all and his bike being here….its too convenient."

"He'd never leave it." Mac nodded rubbing his chest.

Mac and Merle stood looking around the town their minds of the same thought. Merle slid his knife into the sheath and swung his rifle around to lay against his torso and at the ready. Mac was the image of burning wrath ready to follow his brother through hell to get their brother back.

"This aint much help." Mac sneered kicking at the tire tracks. His eyes started sweeping the area again before coming back to Merle. "What now?"

Merle turned meeting his eyes. "We find the motherfuckers that took him and take their fucking heads off." Merle snarled his chest voice rising will clear intent. "Nobody fucks with our family."

"Kill them all." Mac snarled right back.

Merle's mind was whirl of violence and vengeance. He would cut every person he came across down if it came to his family's survival and the opposing persons. He'd never let them fall through the cracks and he'd never leave them to the wolves. He's made that promise years ago with Daryl and Mac after he came back from service the first time. Not again.

His mind flashed to a freckled face and waiting eyes. She was no doubt still on that wall waiting on the man she considered to be a father now. She was depending on him and Mac to find him like Daryl promised to find her mother. The pain that bloomed their for the girl was like a knife twisting in his chest leaving the wound wide and open to bleed. She was family and he'd be goddamned if she lost Daryl.