Newly Revised
They had left sign on the window of a car written in white paint telling both Sophia and Tea to wait there and that the group would come back and check every day to see if they made it back. It was the best they could do with what they had found and had on hand along with leaving large amount of supplies and a change of clothes for each of the girls on the hood of the same building. Daryl knew it was the best option to get off the highway and set camp so they had a base to work from, but that didn't mean notion was comforting to him. He couldn't keep from scowling as Andrea and Carol loaded up in the RV and he climbed on his bike, already missing the feel of Tea behind him even if she barely touched him while on it. They had to leave the highway, but Tea wouldn't know where to find him and if something happened at this farm they were going to, they'd probably never see each other again.
It was Merle all over again. She was just gone with no trail to follow and no way of knowing where the other was with them leaving the highway. Merle had left without even waited for Daryl to come get him, just cut off his hand and left. He couldn't keep his mind from questioning whether or not Tea had cut bait and run, too. It wasn't like he wasn't used to being left behind; his mom, Merle, his dad, and almost every single friend he'd ever made had run off on him and left him to fend for himself. He knew he shouldn't have gotten so close to the girl, let alone as quickly as he had, but between her body, her mind, her skills, and her heart, he'd been drawn in hard and fast. Daryl still had a hard time wrapping his head around what she'd said happened to her and the numerous scars on her body that proved it. The fact that she'd gotten so much done in her life compared to what him and his brother combined had ever done. Merle had tried to get by in the military and had been doing good at it until he'd gotten drunk one night and messed it all up, earning yet another period of being locked up and away from Daryl. Daryl, however, had never done much without being told to when his brother was around or out of necessity when he wasn't. He'd spent the better part of his life in the woods and away from people and he couldn't help but wonder if that's why he'd even gotten with the girl to begin with.
That thought stuck with Daryl the entire way to the farm as he lead the convoy up the long dirt driveway. He knew he didn't feel for the girl like he did out of some sense of loneliness or because she was one of the last women around. He doubted that she was trying to toy with him or was lonely herself since she had left the camp when he'd brushed her off and the way she'd defended him against Merle. She was too honest and sincere in what she thought and how she felt that he knew she wasn't capable of leading people on. Hell, the girl still blushed damn near every time he looked at her since they'd gotten together. Even if he second guessed why she was with him, he wouldn't let himself second guess her while she was gone. There were enough people in the group who doubted what she could do and how she felt; he wasn't about to become another one.
He could see people pouring out of the farmhouse off in the distance as they rounded a bend in the driveway. Rick, Lori, the girl who'd been on the horse, and an older man and woman. As everyone got out of their vehicles and convened at the front steps of the house, Rick let everyone know that Carl was recovering from the accidental injury. One of the men from this farm, Otis, had been out tracking a deer and had taken the shot while Carl had been on the other side admiring the creature. The bullet went clean through the deer and caught the boy in the upper stomach after shattering into several pieces, nicking an artery in the process. The man had then gone with Shane to help get the necessary equipment to perform the surgery and had died in the process of making it out. Shane, himself, returned to the farm with only seconds to spare before the doctor performed what ended up being a successful surgery leaving Carl to heal. They had been getting ready to build a memorial of rocks for the man when their group showed up to the farm and the collection of rocks had been momentarily halted as introductions were made. It didn't go beyond his notice how odd Shane was acting as they all went and stood by a tree while Hershel opened his Bible and started the service for the man who'd died to save Carl.
"Blessed be God, father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Praise be to him for the gift of our brother Otis," he said as the other members of the farm added rocks to the pile. "For his span in years. For his abundance of character; Otis, who gave his life to save a child's, now more than ever, our most precious asset. We thank you God, for the peace he enjoys in your embrace. He died as he lived, in grace. Shane, will you speak for Otis?"
"I'm not good at it. I'm sorry," the man said.
"You were the last one with him," a crying woman, Patricia, pleaded. "You shared his final moments. Please. I need to hear. I need to know his death had meaning."
"Okay," he told them as he looked anywhere and everywhere but at the people around him. "We were about done. Almost out of ammo. We were down to pistols by then," he began, completely enthralling the dead man's wife. "I was limping. It was bad. Ankle all swollen up. 'We gotta save the boy.' See, that's what he said," the man continued as his voice cracked. "He gave me his backpack. He shoved me ahead. 'Run,' he said. He said, 'I'll take the rear. I'll cover you.' And when I looked back..." he just stopped talking, looking to Patricia. She looked back at him as tears filled her eyes, a look of awe on her face at the story he was telling before he went over to the wheelbarrow and grabbed a rock out. "If not for Otis, I'd have never made it out alive. And that goes for Carl too. It was Otis He saved us both," the man insisted. "If any death ever had meaning," he told Patricia as he put the rock on top of the pile, "it was his."
Even though the others either believed the story or wanted to, Daryl thought that there were a few things that just didn't add up. First, why did he suddenly shave his head when he'd had every chance to since the beginning? Second, Rick had told them that he'd let Otis borrow his gun to go get the things they needed from the overrun high school, but the man had it on his hip now. If Otis had been overtaken by the walkers, how did Rick get his gun back? Either the rest of the group were just that dumb to not notice the little details that didn't add up or they just weren't looking. It didn't take some college-grad, super genius like Tea to figure out what the most likely scenario had been when it came to Shane making it back but not Otis. The man had left the other to die, taking his gun so he couldn't fight back, taking his pack so he could play the hero, and used the distraction of Otis's death to get away. Daryl hadn't cared for the man very much to begin with for how he acted around Tea and bossed everyone around like he had every right to be in charge. Knowing he'd willingly leave someone behind if it meant he got to live made him like Shane even less. If he was willing to leave a man he barely knew, he'd definitely be willing to leave Tea and Sophia behind, too. It was only because he and Rick were still adamant about searching for the girls that the man was even willing to stick around the hood of the Cherokee as Hershel, the farmer who'd saved Carl's life, was filled in on the fact that they were still missing members of their group.
"How long have these girls been missing?" Hershel asked.
"This'll be day three," Rick answered.
Maggie, Hershel's oldest daughter, walked up to them with a map of the area, explaining how it worked before laying it out on the hood. The action prompted Daryl to remember when Tea had done something similar close to two months back so that they could go and get the stuff they needed to start making camp. Had that really been all it was? That's all it had taken to get to know the girl and learn so much about her life and herself that he had been willing to tell her about his. What had been mild curiosity had turned into being impressed and then into something more as the days wore on and they'd spent more time with each other. It felt like they had known each other for a lot longer than a couple months with how well they worked together in the woods and at the cleaning table. Hell, they'd only actually been together as a couple for a few weeks now and she'd managed to crawl so far under his skin that she might as well be an extra appendage.
"County survey map," Maggie told them. "Shows terrain and elevations."
"This is perfect," Rick said. "We can finally get this thing organized. We'll grid the whole area, start searching in teams."
"Not you, not today," Hershel said, turning to Rick. "You gave three units of blood. You wouldn't be hiking five minutes in this heat before passing out. And your ankle," he said moving onto Shane. "Push it now, you'll be laid up a month, no good to anybody."
"Guess it's just me," Daryl said, leaning over and gesturing at the map. "I'm gonna head back to the creek, work my way from there."
"I can still be useful," Shane insisted. "I'll drive up to the interstate. See if Sophia wandered back."
"And Tea, don't forget Tea," Rick added. "Alright, tomorrow then. We'll start doing this right."
"That means we can't have our people out there with just knives. They need the gun training we've been promising," Shane argued back.
Daryl scoffed and shook his head at the man because the last thing they needed to look for the girls were guns in the hands of amateurs. Knives were better suited for a fight in the woods where being quiet was the difference between dealing with one walker or a group. He honestly felt like Shane was using gun training as a play to stop looking for Tea and Sophia after just one day of properly searching. It seriously felt like only he and Rick had any kind of hope that they would be able to find the girls alive after two nights in the woods. Tea knew what she was doing out there and he knew that better than anyone else in the group. Merle had known more about her than most of the others, and he couldn't stand her at all. Nobody else had even bothered and now they were all starting to give up on her before they even realized what she was truly capable of. If anyone could keep Sophia safe and find their way back, it was Tea.
"I'd prefer you not carrying guns on my property," Hershel stated. "We've managed so far without turning this into an armed camp."
"All due respect," Shane argued. "You get a crowd of those things wandering in here," he ended it with a laugh.
"Look, we're guests here," Rick told the man. "This is your property. And we will respect that," he said as he put his pistol down on the map with purpose. Shane looked away, angrily pulling his own pistol and dropping it down next to Rick's as Rick continued dolling out instructions, "First things first; set up camp, find Sophia and Tea."
"I hate to be the one to ask," Shane said, knowing full well he didn't give two shits about the answer, "but somebody's got to. What happens if we find them and they're bit? I think we should all be clear on how we handle that."
Rick looked down and considered it, "You do what has to be done."
"And the little girl's mother? What do you tell her?" map girl asked, slightly taken aback at how they were acting so cold about the fate of the people they were trying to find.
"The truth," Andrea said as if it was obvious.
"I'll gather and secure all the weapons," Shane offered. "Make sure no one's carrying 'til we're at a practice off site. I do request one rifleman on lookout. Dale's got experience," he defiantly asked.
When the farmer didn't answer right away and instead just stared at Shane, Rick tried to bargain by telling him, "Our people would feel safer. Less inclined to carry a gun," he told the man. Hershel considered it for a moment before nodding his head. "Thank you."
Daryl walked off as the young woman spoke to Rick so he could go and get a pack ready before heading out. The sooner he got to the woods and to the creek, the sooner he could see Tea again and get the little girl back to her mother. He packed some extra water and a couple protein bars he had stashed away so they could get something more in their stomachs than weeds. It wouldn't be much for them to eat once he found him, but he figured they'd need a bit of a pick-me-up after whatever they were dealing with out there. Between getting to the farm, looking at the map, and getting the bag ready, Daryl wasn't able to head out until mid morning with his crossbow and bag draped over his shoulder. He stalked towards the woods with a scowl on his face since no one else had even mentioned trying to look for the girls until after the gun training took place.
"Daryl," he heard Rick call out, causing him to pause and turn around. "You okay on your own?"
"I'm better on my own," he growled out. "I'll be back before dark."
He started walking off again, only for Rick to stop him a second time, "Hey. We got a base. We can get this search properly organized now."
"You got a point or are we just chattin'?" Daryl asked taking a few steps back towards the man.
"My point is it lets you off the hook," Rick said, thinking carefully about his next words. "You don't have to go out lookin' on your own. You don't owe us anything."
Daryl thought about it for a second and knew that even if Tea had been in camp, the two would still be out looking for the lost girl until they found her one way or the other. Neither of them had anyone to look for them when they were children, which was why Tea had been so adamant about teaching the kids how to protect themselves. Everyone was telling Carol that they would find Sophia while the woman spent all her time crying instead of out there in the woods like she should be, even if all she managed to do was follow him while he looked. Tea wasn't even the girl's mother and yet she'd wasted no time running after the girl while her actual mother didn't even try to. He had seen how much she had done for Sophia from as far back as the very beginning at the quarry while Carol was still cowering away from Ed. Daryl didn't want to blame Carol for how she was handling her daughter being lost but, at the same time, he couldn't help comparing her reaction to Tea's. It didn't sit right with him, but then, the woman was still as scared as ever when it came to the world as it was while Tea had adjusted accordingly after what she'd been through as a child. Of course Tea would run after the child while Carol stayed behind.
"My other plans fell through," he told him as he walked away, determined not to waste any more time on idle chitchat.
~x~
Tea had been apologizing to Sophia since the little girl had opened her eyes this morning. She hadn't mean to fall asleep, and only slept a few hours, but she'd left them vulnerable in those few hours and she wouldn't stop apologizing for it. It took Sophia snapping at her that she had already said 'sorry' more times than she'd ever heard it in her life in the span of five minutes. That had caused Tea to apologize to her yet again and cause the little girl to look at her and roll her eyes. They both shared a laugh after a few seconds of silence before they dug into the cans of peaches and started packing up. The remaining can of tuna, the can of green beans, and the last sleave of crackers went into a small backpack Tea found rummaging through the house to see if there was anything else they could use. All she turned up was the backpack and a small first aide kit hiding in the bathroom along with a bottle of aspirin. It wasn't much, but it was way more than they'd had when they had first gotten lost. She'd been thrown off course when they'd been forced to run through some of the night and then had gotten even more lost when they'd had to go around the groups of walkers Tea couldn't take on, making her lose her sense of direction. It was only because the farmhouse stood in a nice clearing that gave clearer view and allowed her to regain her sense of direction when they walked outside. It wouldn't take them too long to manage getting back to the highway if they didn't run into trouble and they hadn't gone further than she thought.
"Let's get goin'. If we don' find 'em taday, we'll come back and stay the night 'ere," she told the little girl as they both pulled a knife out before heading back into the woods.
~x~
Daryl had been in the woods for a couple of hours before he came across a rather rundown farmhouse with a red roof and a busted up door. He pulled his bow out and readied it before cautiously moving forward, keeping his eye on the site of his bow as he moved around inside the place. He'd gone through most of the downstairs before making his way to the kitchen where he found the first real evidence that the girls were alive in a trash can. If it had been the girls, they'd at least been able to eat something within the last day with how fresh the cans seemed to be. His attention was drawn to the cupboard when the door creaked as he stepped around a table, making him slowly approach it before quickly opening the door while keeping his bow steady in one hand. There was nothing on the shelves but at the bottom of the pantry were several blankets and a couple pillows. The girls definitely could have fit in it if they squeezed in tight enough and it would be a relatively safe spot to get some rest. Daryl ran outside and shouted their names as loud as he could to no avail, only silence and the sound of the woods echoing back to him. He started heading back towards the farm in a downtrodden mood but stopped as soon as he saw a couple white flowers growing near the edge of the woods.
The Cherokee Rose was hard to find in wild places and needed a lot of work to grow when being grown in a house. The fact that he found two of them there and they were high enough to make him able to see them was basically a miracle coming out of horse shit. What these flowers represented gave him hope for finding the girls, since the flowers were supposed to comfort those left behind by the lost. Going back into the farmhouse, he rummaged around until he found a bottle that had been broken just at the top but would still make a suitable container to keep the things from wilting so he could take it back to the grieving mother. Even if she didn't understand the meaning behind the flower, he could just tell her and it would probably be appreciated by Carol as well. He headed straight to the farm as soon as there was water in the bottle and the flowers were safely inside it. Most of the camp had been set up by the time Daryl made it back which made him scowl as he walked over to the RV. He was taken aback when he opened the door and stepped in to find everything clean and organized as he headed to the bedroom in the back and looked at the woman sitting on the bed sewing.
"I cleaned up," she said as he approached. "Wanted it to be nice for her."
"For a second I thought I was in the wrong place," he mumbled around a piece of wheat before setting the bottle down on the stand next to the bed.
"Flowers?" she inquired.
"It's a Cherokee Rose," he told her. "The story is that when American soldiers were movin' Indians off their land on the trail of tears, the Cherokee mothers were grievin' and cryin' so much 'cause they were losin' their little ones along the way. From exposure, disease, and starvation. A lot of 'em just disappeared. So the elders, they, uh, said a prayer; asked for a sign to uplift the mother's spirits. Give them strength. And hope. The next day, this rose started to grow right where the mother's tears fell." He looked down and then back at her. "I'm not fool enough to think there's any flowers bloomin' for my brother. But I believe these ones bloomed for your little girl and Ania." The woman smiled and wiped her tears away, unable to say anything as Daryl walked out, giving her one last look, realizing that she was giving up on finding Sophia just like everyone else. "She's gonna really like it in here," he told her before walking out.
~x~
"Ms. Parker?"
"Jus' call me Tea, hun," she replied exasperated.
Tea was so sick of hearing 'Ms. Parker' every time Sophia opened her mouth to ask a question. While she applauded the girl for her manners and respect, they were long past the days when she was standing in front of a class teaching people older than her and being looked down on for it. The girl insisted on calling her by her last name even thought Tea had told her many times just to call her by her nickname, especially since she could forget she was a Parker in these times and just go by 'Tea.' It just added to the list of things she was adamantly ignoring as she tried desperately to look for someplace they could hold up for the night since they still hadn't found the highway. They couldn't even head back to the farmhouse because yet another large group of walkers blocked their way which meant they would have to sleep out in the open again tonight. At the very least, though, they still had something decent to eat that wouldn't be weeds or grubs which she'd been having Sophia eat every so often to keep her strength up. It might not have been ideal, but nothing about surviving was normally 'ideal.'
"Can I call you Miss Tea?" Sophia asked.
"Sure, sweetie," Tea replied, shaking her head. "S'long as ya stop callin' me by my last name."
"Don't you like your last name?"
"Why? Do ya?"
"I like mine. Sophia Peletier. It sounds nice, just like Titania Parker. Why don't you ever use your name?"
"'Memba how I told ya I graduated from high school real young?" she started with her thick accent still present, looking back at the girl who nodded her head. "When I was in high school, I was a freak show. Jus' some scrawny lidle kid, lot like ya. Kids in high school, they ain' always nice, 'specially not ta the freak that throws all the curves out the window with their scores. So's they took my name, they butcha'd it. They'd call out every time they saw me things like 'tits on parade' or 'look, a free tiddy show.' They made me feel like an object, not a person, especially when I started developin' young. As far as hatin' my last name, ya share ya's with a momma that loves the crap out a ya. I share mine with two assholes who kicked me ta the curb jus' as soon as I got my diploma and a sista that started the crap a' school. Hell, I haven' even heard from them in years 'xcept ta ask for money."
"That's awful," Sophia said, looking at the woman in a new light. "Why'd they kick you out?"
"I'm autistic," Tea answered with a shrug of her shoulders. "They had their perfect princess in my olda sista, Chrystal; they didn' need the freak takin' all the limelight from 'er," she said. "'Sides that, I kind a went ape shite on Chrystal and my daddy when I caught Chrystal stealin' some a my essays. My daddy threw me out afta I'd split 'er lip and ripped 'er shirt, but not before he got a black eye and a broken rib. First and only time I ever fought back, and I was damn proud a myself for it. Still am, if I'm bein' honest. First time I learned I didn' know my own strength," Tea told the girl, forgoing the part where her father had chased her down the road after he threw her down the stairs, injuring her hip in the process.
"What happened with the essays?"
"Oh, she tried ta use one only ta get a permanent mark on 'er record for plagiarism," she stated with a laugh. "Even if me daddy thought it was a good idea ta make me write all 'er shite, the girl was as dumb as a box a rocks and neva would a been able ta write like me. I sure as shite wasn' gonna dumb myself down for 'er eitha. Too much pride ta play stupid. Luckily, my teachers knew how I wrote and several a my essays, including the one she tried ta use, were already published in part by the local papa. My entire family got inta a scandal right afta I left for college; it got so big the papas reached out ta me for a comment. I jus' told 'em my sista was always jealous of me and wanted some recognition, too bad she got recognition for bein' and idiot. Yeah, they tried sendin' someone mean afta me, but I got the best a them in the end."
"What do you mean?"
"Neva ya mind about that. Ain' nothin' ya goin' ta eva have ta deal with so long as I'm around, got it?" Tea told the girl sternly having heard about Sophia's home life before everything happened; the sad truth of it being things got better at the camp.
"Miss Tea?"
"Hmm?"
"What was your family like?" Sophia pried.
"They were monstas," Tea replied honestly. "Some men don' deserve the title a fatha nor the endearment a bein' called 'dad.' Some men should a been castrated at birth. My daddy was one a those kind a men, at least ta me. He neva once laid a hand on my momma or my sista, but he didn' even try ta hold back with me. Didn' matta if I won a prize or an award. Didn' matta if I was intaviewed or published by the papers. Nothin' I eva did was good enough ta be given even a passin' glance when no one else was 'round, unless they wanted ta hurt me. In front a company, he was the perfect daddy. Gave me quite the complex as a lidle girl, havin' 'im so nice one minute, gettin' hugs and love and bein' treated like my sista only ta be punched in the gut, literally and figuratively, the minute everyone else was gone.
"My momma was the same. She was Irish, full blood, spoke with a really thick brogue that I picked up on and started talkin' with, like I am right now. She started beatin' me 'round the time the teachas said I sounded different than my sista did and it was quite odd that the two a us didn' speak like each otha. My momma didn' like how the smartest kid in class couldn' talk like the othas. Didn' like how one daughta spoke and acted like a propa lady and the otha some 'backwoods animal,' as she called me. Neva could sit still, eitha, unlike Chrystal, and she hated it. She couldn' stand the fact that I had ta be movin' and that I needed noise ta distract me or keep me focused when I was workin' on anythin'. I neva undastood why she couldn' stand the way I acted or thought or sounded, but she was like my daddy in that respect. Nothin' was eva good 'nough.
"As far as Chrystal goes, well, she was a conivin' bitch who went out a her way ta make my life a livin' hell. Any problem she had, she'd blame me for it, whetha she'd gotten less presents than a cousin or whetha she failed a test, it was all my fault for one reason or anotha, especially when it came ta school. She's six years olda than me, so when I surpassed 'er in school, she was beyond livid. She was a freshmen and I ended up in the same homeroom as 'er as a freshman, and then got transfa'd out a the class halfway through the school year and bumped ta bein' a sophomore. She started the name callin' afta that, 'cause I'd started ta develop a chest and I was only almost twelve. I ended up bein' privately taught by the teacha's when they had their office hours so that I didn' have ta put up with it, though there was somethin' else that also caused that that ya don' need ta know 'bout.
"I had my Papa for a while, but 'e was jus' a random old man with a rifle pointed at my head when I first met 'im. Preddy sure the only reason he kept lettin' me come back was 'cause I asked 'im ta shoot me that first meetin' and 'e took pity on me. Wasn' really right in the head at the time, havin' jus' been thrown out a window on the second floor and ran away. 'Twas the first time I ever ran away 'stead a waitin' 'round for worse ta happen ta me, and I didn' even know I'd crossed inta private propaty 'til I saw the barrel a the gun. Couldn' a been more'n eight. Ended up livin' with 'im for the summer afta I got kicked out, but he was preddy old by then, so he ended up in a nursin' home right after I got accepted ta college down 'ere in Atlanta. He passed away a few months lata and left everythin' 'e had ta me, which was really jus' a bunch a books on herbology, apothecary, and herbal remedies. That's how I know so much 'bout makin' medicine with what's available out 'ere."
"What was your papa like?"
"Rememba Merle?"
"Yeah."
"Think a someone who acted a lot like Merle and had a lot a the same beliefs, but once ya had 'is respect, he was always nice and always there for ya when ya needed 'im. I imagine Merle could a been like that if life had been easia on 'im. Taught me how ta hunt and track. Taught me what was edible and medicinal. Was the first one ta teach me how ta throw a punch and protect my ribs."
"So you're teaching me what your papa taught you?" the girl asked curiously.
"Kind a, yeah. But I can admit I'm takin' it fartha than 'e did. I'm pushin' ya harda. I want ya ta be able ta savive this world, Phia," Tea told her honestly. "I'm goin' ta make sure ya savive."
~x~
"Morning guys!" Rick called out as Shane, Andrea, and Daryl walked up to look at the map he was still studying. "Let's get going. We've got a lot of ground to cover. Alright, everyone's getting new search grids today. If they made it as far as the farmhouse Daryl found, they might have gone further east than we've been so far."
"I'd like to help. I know the area pretty well and stuff," Jimmy told them as he walked up.
"Hershel's okay with this?" Rick asked the boy.
"Yeah, yeah," he replied quickly. "He said I should ask you."
"Alright then," the man said returning to the map. "Thanks."
"Nothing about what Daryl found screams Sophia to me. Or Ania," Shane said confrontationally with a smirk on his face. "Anyone could have been holed up in that farmhouse."
"Anybody includes them, right?" Andrea said, a bit frustrated at Shane's attitude towards the missing girls.
"Whoever slept in that cupboard could sit no more than yay-high. Weren't very much space, but the two of 'em could a fit," Daryl replied angrily, glaring the other cop down before Andrea spoke up.
"It's a good lead," she reassured him.
"Maybe we'll pick up their trail again," Rick agreed.
"No maybe 'bout it," Daryl said, leaning over the map. "I'm gonna borrow a horse, head up to this ridge right here, take a bird's eye view of the whole grid. If they're up there I'll spot 'em."
"Good idea," T-Dog said. "Maybe you'll see your Chupacabra up there too."
"Chupacabra?" Rick asked.
"Wait, you never heard this?" Dale chimed in as he brought the guns out. "Our first night in camp, Daryl tells us that the whole thing reminds him of a time when he went squirrel hunting and he saw a Chupacabra. Gave everyone a laugh until Tea mentioned how she's seen some stuff, too, and you can't just write it off if someone says they have."
"What you braying at, jackass?" Daryl asked the laughing young man.
"So you believe in a blood-sucking dog?" the boy asked.
"Do you believe dead people walking around?" he shot back.
"Hey, hey." Rick grabbed Jimmy's arm as he reached over for a shotgun, stopping him from grabbing it as asked, "You ever fire one before?"
"Well, if I'm going out I want one," he said.
"Yeah, and people in hell want Slurpee's," came Daryl's retort before scoffing at himself as he remembered that there was actually a Hell, Michigan; Tea had told him about that when he'd used the same expression towards her and apparently people in Hell did, in fact, drink Slurpee's.
As they started walking away, Shane offered the boy, "Why don't you come train tomorrow? If you're serious, I'm a certified instructor."
"For now he can come with us," Andrea offered.
"He's yours to babysit then," Shane replied.
Daryl finished preparing his pack and put on a plaid shirt above his muscle shirt before heading over to the barn. It was surprisingly easy to get the saddle and bridle ready which left him plenty of time to search for the girls. The higher he could get quickly, the faster he should be able to find them and get them back home. If he was right, they would still be following the creek and trying to find their way back to the highway. He wasn't even sure how Tea had gotten lost when normally she was pretty damn on track. Then again, it was easy to get lost in the woods at night and she would have definitely had to have spent at least one night in the woods. Anyone could lose their sense of direction in the middle of the woods at night; after all, that was how he managed to get lost when he was a kid. He almost had the bridle on the horse before Carol walked in and watched him for a few minutes before speaking up, stepping forward to get his attention.
"You don't have to go out there," she told him.
"Yeah, I do," he replied, not even bothering to look up as he started buckling the saddle onto the horse.
"You could go out there and get yourself hurt really bad," Carol tried to reason. "We don't know if we're going to find them, Daryl. We don't." Daryl stopped putting the reins on the horse when she said that and turned to look at her. "I don't."
"What?" he said quietly as he stalked closer to the older woman.
"Can't lose you too," she said quietly.
"You never had me," he told her, turning his back on her even as he heard her leave. "Give up all you want, stupid bitch."
He finished preparing the horse before jumping on it and adjusting his pack and crossbow. Urging the large creature forward, he took of towards the trees at barely a trot and slowed the horse down as soon as they reached them. Daryl made sure to lead the horse up into the ridge while keeping to the creek as much as possible. He managed to kill a squirrel that was scurrying up a tree in his path, snatching it and the arrow off the trunk of the tree as he passed and putting the creature in his pack. It wasn't until almost noon that he found something that would hopefully help him locate the girls and get them back to camp safely. After tying the horse above, he trekked down the hill to the bottom and the pool of water that was there, a fallen log stopping half the water as it went on downstream. Against the log was the little girl's doll, the one she'd been given by the Morales girl. There were fresh tracks in the mud that belonged to the girls making him call out their names once again. Nothing answered other than the birds and crickets as he climbed the hill that lead to the water once again. If the doll was here, then the girls had to be somewhere close by and is they were, Daryl figured he'd have a better chance finding them if he continued on the horse to a higher point. He continued on his course as he climbed higher up the ravine and into a better vantage point.
"Whoa. Easy, easy," he told the horse as it got nervous from a bird's call.
It was only a couple more paces before the beast reared up and started bucking until it threw him off. The worst thing was that it didn't throw him off so that he would fall to the forest floor. No, the damn thing made him fall down the side of the ravine, causing him to tumble all the way down, something puncturing his side before he hit his head on the rocks. As he laid on the wet sand cussing the horse out, Daryl looked to his side and realized that he'd been punctured by his own damn bolt. He kept up cursing the horse as he slowly began dragging himself out of the water and up onto the bank. All this for a damn doll, he thought to himself as he ripped the sleeve off his flannel shirt and tied them together. Using the makeshift rope, he steadied the arrow by wrapping the sleeves around both sides of it and tying them off around his middle. It definitely wasn't the best working bandage, but at least it would keep the bolt from moving around for the time being as he looked up the steep climb he would have to get through in order to get back to the farm. Daryl walked over to a pile of fallen sticks and debris that had washed up on the creek bed and searched for one that was thick enough to help hold his weight but tall enough to help him with his climb. He hadn't even noticed his crossbow was missing until some rustling in the brush got his attention and he tried to grab it only to find it not there.
With his stick in hand, he carefully waded back out into the shallow pool and used it to search the bottom for the bow. It was only luck that it only took him a few minutes to find it and neither the tumble nor the short stint in the water had damaged it in any way other than scuffs. He'd definitely have to give it a good cleaning when he got back to camp, but it still would work just fine and wouldn't need anything replaced. Since the rustling ended up being nothing he could see, he began to climb the drop off, using the stick to help him stabilize himself. He let go of it when he was halfway to the top with an exasperated sigh before looking for his next handhold. There was a sapling within reach that he heaved himself towards only to miss it and almost lose his footing if he hadn't been already holding onto one.
"Come on. You've done half. Stop being such a pussy. Come on," he told himself, only to swing up again.
He came up short again, losing what footing he had kept the first time, sending him head over heels back down into the ravine. He hit his head along the way, but by some miracle the arrow didn't break during his fall. The world went black for a while before he hazily came back to and watched the canopy above as it came in and out of focus. His brain had definitely been addled from the fall as he tried to gain the full consciousness that seemed just out of his reach. Before he could fully get the haze from his mind, he watched as Merle walked up and crouched down with a condescendingly looking over Daryl's body as he laid in the mud.
"Why don't you pull that arrow out, dummy?" Merle asked him. "You could bind your wound better."
Daryl chuckled to himself, "Merle."
"What's goin' on here?" he asked with a chuckle of his own. "You takin' a siesta or somethin'?"
"'M havin' a shitty day, bro."
"Like me to get you a pillow? Maybe rub your feet?"
"Screw you."
"You're the one screwed from the looks of it," Merle chided with a scoff. "All them years I spent trying to make a man of you, this is what I get? Look at ya. Lyin' in the dirt like a used rubber. You're gonna die out here, little brother. And for what?"
"The girls," he said. "They lost a little girl. Ania's out with her."
"So you got a thing for little girls now?" the man chuckled. "Who the fuck's Ania? That the bitch that got you pussy-whipped back in Atlanta?"
"Shut it."
"'Cause I noticed you ain't out lookin' for old Merle no more."
"Tried like hell to find you, bro. We both did. Ania and me."
"Like hell ya did. You split, man. Lit out first chance you got to be with that psycho cunt."
"You lit out. All you had to do was wait. We would have come got you, me and Ania. Hell, we went back for you. Rick, Ania and I. We did right by ya. Broke her heart losin' you."
"Fuck if she really cared," he said looking away. "And Rick, huh? This the same Rick that cuffed me to the rooftop in the first place? Forced me to cut off my own hand?" Merle asked, though Daryl saw through the haze that his hand was clearly still attached to his wrist. "This him we're talkin' about here? You his bitch now?"
"I ain' nobody's bitch," Daryl bit out.
"You're a joke is what ya are. Playin' errand boy to a bunch of pansy asses, niggers, and democrats. Fallin' for a girl who ain't want nothin' to do with ya otherwise," the hallucination chuckled. "You're nothin' but a freak to them. Redneck trash. That's all you are. Yeah, they're laughin' at you behind your back. You know that, don't ya? I got a little news for ya, son. One of these days, they gonna scrape you off their heels like you was dog shit. That girl you went and left me for is gonna leave ya when she finds somethin' better." Merle reached down and grabbed Daryl's face as he started to black out again, "Hey! They ain't your kin, she ain't your kin, your blood. Hell, you had any damn nuts in that sack of yours, you'd go back there and shoot your pal Rick in the face for me. You'd kick that headcase you been nuttin' in to the curb. Now you listen to me. Ain't nobody ever gonna care about you except me, little brother. Ain't nobody ever will. 'Specially not that psycho bitch you're so hung up on. Now come on, get up on your feet 'fore I have to kick your teeth in. Let's go," Merle told him as he began kicking Daryl's feet to move them.
Everything snapped back into place while Merle disappeared and a walker to his place trying to bite through his boot right where Merle had been kicking to get him to get up. As soon as he saw it, he freaked out and tried to kick it away at the same time as grab his crossbow. His quick movements and sudden action made the walker notice him even more than just him laying in the dirt had. The thing began to claw its way up his body as he reached for anything he could to get make it dead before it had a chance to kill him. Grabbing a hold of a piece of wood, he managed to stab the walker in the side before punching it in the face. The walker kept a hold of his hair as it tried to get at him and Daryl rolled to the side, attempting to roll the other way to get the damn thing off of him. He couldn't reach his bow and instead grabbed a thick branch and knocked the thing's knees out from under it as it stood up. Not having much time as he noticed a second walker stumbling towards him through the brush from the noise, he quickly straddled the first one and used the branch to smash its face in. He dove for his crossbow as he laid back and groaning in pain, grabbing a hold of the bolt in his tide and pulled it out. It was the only bolt he had after the two tumbles and the second walker was moving in on him faster than he would be able to get back on his feet with how he was feeling. It came through cleanly before he braced his bow with his feet and pulled the bowstring back. Daryl was in a hell of a lot of pain while he was moving, straining himself to hold the bow steady as he sat up and tried to take aim. The walker was almost on him, though, and he was forced to lay back once again as he took the shot, by some miracle hitting the thing in the head just before it fell on him, making it fall to the side.
He stayed laying down just breathing heavily for a few minutes, thinking about how he couldn't tell Tea about this entire situation or else she would either feel guilty or tease him forever for it. Hell, she was still teasing him from trying to show off his own knife throwing skills using one of hers meant for throwing and sliced his thumb open only for to start laughing her ass off, although she did admit the same would happen if she tried to throw a different kind of knife herself. At least she knows her limits, he thought as he sat down on the same log he'd found Sophia's doll against. He bound his wound as best he could with what he had on him and made sure his knife was clean enough using the water. Daryl grabbed the squirrel he had hunted earlier, just as surprised that it had made it through the falls as he was his crossbow and the bolt, and opened it up, eating the meat raw with his fingers while staring up at the cliff. There was no easy way up, but there was a better way than the first time, one that had thicker saplings closer together that he could use once he was too high to climb with the support of a stick. He used the same one he'd used earlier against the walker and began his trek back up the ravine. He was only about ten, maybe fifteen, feet from the top when the climb became harder as his mind and body became riddled with more pain and exhaustion from losing blood and the fight. It wasn't until then, with the call of a bird, that Merle's voice drifted down to him.
"Please, don't feed the birds," he mocked, laughing down at his brother from where Daryl was trying to get to. "What's the matter, Darylina? That all ya got in ya. Throw away that purse and climb."
"I liked it better when you was missin'," Daryl ruefully replied back.
"Come on, don't be like that," Merle chuckled. "I'm on your side."
"Yeah? Since when?"
"Hell, since the day you was born, baby brother. Somebody had to look after your worthless ass."
"You never took care of me," Daryl told the hallucination, for once stating his mind knowing there would be no repercussion. "You talk a big game but you was never there! Hell, you ain't here now. Guess some things never change."
"Well, I'll tell you what; I'm as real as your Chupacabra," it spat, trying to make him feel worse.
"I know what I saw," Daryl said as he continued making his way closer to the top, only a few feet remaining.
"Yeah, and I'm sure them shrooms you ate had nothin' to do with it right?"
"You'd best shut the hell up!"
"Or what?" Merle shot back in an attempt to intimidate him. "You're gonna come up here and shut my mouth for me? Well, come on and do it, then, if you think you're man enough. Fuck, that bitch has more balls than you," He chuckled then became serious again. "Hey, kick off those damn high heels and climb, son. You give up this easy when you in bed with her? You know what? If I were you, I'd take a pause for the cause, brother. 'Cause I just don't think you're gonna make it to the top," the hallucination of his brother said as Daryl continued to struggle to get to the top. "Come on. Come on, little brother. Grab your friend Rick's hand. Better yet, grab your little pussy's hand. Come on, now. Reach for the bitch's hand now you've left me."
Daryl didn't even realize he'd made it to the top until the hallucination disappeared as his hand finally hit flat ground. It took him a couple more moments to heave himself over the ledge before he could stand up. All the anger he had at his brother, all the pain in his body, it all melted away as he breathed heavily and looked around him for his brother. Everything his brother had said had been thoughts he'd been thinking himself since he started whatever it was that he'd started with Tea and now they had magnified. The rage he felt at that alone was exponential because the last thing he'd wanted to hear from his brother was as overwhelming as the anger he felt for being told he'd given up on finding his brother. That was the last thing he'd done, but they couldn't stay in the city forever and they didn't have a way to track him once he'd left the building. And as soon as they'd gotten back to the quarry, they'd had to deal with the wandering pack, Jim getting bit, everything that happened with the CDC and the Vatos, and now the girls being missing and Carl being shot. There'd been so much that had happened over the span of one week that he didn't even know if Merle was still alive, but he wasn't about to think of him as dead until he knew for sure. Either way, he hadn't abandoned the asshole for Rick or Tea, he just didn't have a place to look for him.
"Yeah, you'd better run!" he yelled out into the woods before he began to stomp off towards the farm.
He only got four steps when he heard from the other direction, "Mr. Dixon?"