The woods swallowed him up the second he started moving and he didn't have to worry about his brother keeping up. Michonne was moving just as fast and silently as he was. It was something that came with being in the woods a lot. You learned how to walk when you weren't the only thing out there hunting. He never did have misgivings about it either. You were hunted before the world went to shit and even more now. There were just more predators than there was prey.

A loud crack of thunder shook all around them rolling for miles in the distance. He would have loved to not be soaked to the bone right now but sometimes shit just didn't work that way. The sun was starting to set now and he knew they'd have to take a break tonight. Since Michonne took them right to the spot she'd last seen the men he'd picked up the trail. They'd been on the move since and Daryl knew they were close. He wasn't going to be some hopeless wanderer out here looking to luck up. He didn't believe in luck. Because shit if there was such a thing as luck then he had the shittiest there was and he really didn't want to think about that as he was hunting a bunch of men down like they were savages.

A short and sharp caw had his head steps tittering then stopping. Michonne stopped instantly her eyes going to him curiously. Merle was a good fifty foot out from them and walking just behind. They'd always worked like that. Moving in tandem but never together, it was a easy to herd game and them to focus on one target.

Eyes meeting Merle's he followed the quick and precise hand motions. He let out a breath and motioned for Michonne to follow him. HE wanted to be home. He wanted to know Sophia was asleep right now and safe. He wanted to know that his brother wasn't tearing his hair out and having a heart attack, that his nephew wasn't panicked. He wanted to be in bed right now with Carol there wrapped around him like she was prone to do every night.

What he didn't want to be doing was hunting men down in cold blood. While he knew this was a scouting mission, he also knew his brother. If Merle knew that they were in fact as bad as Michonne as saying then he was likely to try something. If he thought the three of them could take that group and come out unharmed then he didn't put it past him to storm in there guns blazing. And wouldn't that be lovely because when he got back and Sophia found out she'd freak out on him. It was Carol though that he knew would really hurt him. She wouldn't just outright kill him if he got him hurt. No she'd kill him in inches.

When he stopped at Merle's side he swept the area. There was small indent in the ground that alerted him to a break in the ground. Just at that though was a small cave that you'd not see unless you were right on it. Merle gave him a pointed look then went inside. Michonne was next and Daryl stepped in. It was surprisingly large for the mouth of the cave to have been so small.

"Why are we stopping?" Michonne questioned. Her eyes were steady on Merle. "We know they're close."

Daryl sighed and set. He knew they weren't moving. If Merle found shelter then he was right about what he wanted to do. It made what he'd taken in his duffel bag even more obvious.

"We're stopping because I don't plan on getting into a fight while dead on my feet and with a storm raging over our heads." Merle snapped squatting down at Daryl's side. He met his eyes and Merle cussed. His hand shot out pushing Daryl's soaked hair off his forehead. "You ain't getting sick on me are you?"

"Nope." Daryl quipped. "Just fine."

"She's going to fucking kill me if you get sick from being soaked." Merle muttered.

He stood and then took off out the mouth of the cave. Daryl turned his head watching him and around him. The sun was already set but he could see what his brother was doing since his eyes were already adjusted. He turned back and looked around their little make shift home for the night. This sucked dick. He rubbed his face and was at least grateful that the rest of his family were tucked away behind walls.

When Merle came back he was packing things and Daryl just watched him. Merle was getting a fire going and Daryl would have complained but he was actually fucking freezing. His clothes were soaked and the wind funneling into the the mouth of the cave. The storm was worse. Hopefully lightning struck the fucking men they were after.

When he got the fire going Daryl let out a breath. The storm would break up the smoke and the scent keeping them from being found at least. The cave would serve good enough to hold the most of the heat and he might even get partially dry before he got sick as fuck. All in all this still sucked dick.

"We aren't scouting." Michonne stated.

Merle looked up tossing more wood on the fire. It was damp and he was actually surprised Merle got it going to so fast.

"Nope." Merle stated just as easily. "If what you said was true why would we scout?"

"You left your other brother home." Merle and Daryl just stared at her. Michonne slid a cloth down her blade once before looking back up, "Isn't he generally more bloodthirsty than you two?"

Merle smiled and set heavily next to him, "He is. He is also a hot fucking mess and won't be able to focus if he thinks me or Daryl are in danger."

"Someone had to stay that we trust."

"With your kids and wife." She nodded, "Carol and Andrea are capable. That girl of yours is too. I seen her fighting that boy when I first stayed with you all."

Merle snorted, "Brian lets her win most of the time."

"All the same." Michonne shrugged.

Daryl leaned his head back and nodded. She was right Carol and Andrea were both capable and he knew that Martinez and Carter were both still on the move. He figured Merle told them they'd take a break before sun up and then take off again. It didn't surprise him because had he known they were going straight to kill someone then he'd done more to be ready. He wouldn't have left his fucking brother behind. He would have made sure Carol knew and had shit ready in case something happened. In case something ever happened that those men got into that town.

"She's fine. Both of them are." Merle's voice was low. "I told Mac right as we were leaving. He's going to have shit ready. No one will come into that goddamn town unless WE say so."

Daryl snorted and nodded. Mac would kill someone and ask questions later. He wasn't the type to care about consequences anyways.

Michonne stretched out and Daryl thought that was a good idea. Merle kicked and shoved him causing Daryl to almost pitch into the fire. Staring at him wide eyed Merle smiled. Daryl glared and Merle made a point to put himself at the mouth of the cave. He kept nudging Daryl until he was as close to the fire as he could get without getting hurt. Merle stayed right there at the mouth of the cave though, putting himself between his brother and anything that wanted to come into there.

He kept his eyes on the fire watching it and wishing that shit wasn't the way it was. Hopeful thinking never got anyone anywhere and luck didn't mean shit. But part of him longed for a world where the dead wasn't walking and he wasn't hunting men like this. It was a sick sad world that they lived in. He knew though come morning he would, he'd kill everyone of them to make sure that Carol and Sophia were safe. Because once they set out on the road and Michonne really told them the things she seen- he knew there would be blood. He could feel it already on his hands.

On the flip side of that he got sick thinking about a time before the dead walked. Sophia would still be in the house with that man. And from the things she told him and the way he looked at her he knew she wasn't safe. It wasn't just mental abuse or shit like that. No he looked at his own daughter a way a man never should and that mad Daryl's blood boil. He'd never met her and by default he'd never met her mother. Both made his heart wrench painfully and a hollow ache start.

Deep down he knew he'd take a world full of dead and so many lost lives to have them both. He loved Sophia and he loved her mother. Things might have been fucked up when it all happened but it was good now. To think that there was men out there raping and beating women and their children made him taste bile. To think that they made the men watch before killing them and torturing the men to the point that their bodies gave out. Well he'd gladly hunt the motherfuckers. It was why he wasn't protesting Merle's sudden change in plans.

When he thought about it and how everyone assumed Sophia was his, he was okay with that. Had been from the start. It kept her safe. It kept people at a distance because he wasn't a welcoming man. Then when her mother showed up by then he loved the damned little shit. She was already under his skin and a part of his family. Her mom- well she was just as infectious and he didn't stand a chance. His brothers were just as easily pulled in and so he didn't feel as bad for how fast shit happened. Hell all he had to do was look at Mac. Sure he found his son but then the rest of Hannah's cheese slid the fuck off her cracker. Bitch lost her mind but then there was Andrea. She was there already and was the second she seen those two kids. Never buckling or letting anyone even look at them cross ways. It didn't surprise him that she took care of Brian like she was his own. Carol told him about her own sister getting bit and sick. She told him how she was just a few years older than Brian so her able to bond with him was a relief actually. Brian needed them and the second he had them Daryl seen him pulling away from his own mom. Seen him wanting Mac away from her because Hannah was toxic for the man. That didn't matter now though because Mac killed her. He could damn him though because he'd do some fucked up shit for the people he loved and never think twice about it.

He'd seen Merle do some shit too. Military or not Merle could be a monster. People there thought Mac was the one you needed to watch really didn't pay attention. Mac was a blatant with his anger and fights. Merle was the type of man that would smile to your face as he drove that knife into your heart. It's why he felt bad at times for Rick. Rick just kept running his mouth and getting under Merle's skin. Trying to tell him how to run the town, trying to take over this or that. Trying to insert himself into everything that was already running smooth. Merle didn't operate that way and Merle was going to end up killing him.

Merle turned looking at him for a second before scowling, "Go to sleep."

"You." Daryl chuckled.

"You." Merle mocked.

"The two of your are like kids." Michonne's voice was ghostly quiet.