I still had my eyes closed since the truck was still moving and my head was leaning against the wall with my crossbow resting in my lap and it kept bouncing in my lap every time Glenn hit a bump while he was driving. It was quiet for once without anyone fighting each other.
" How's your arm doing, Sam?" T-Dog asked me breaking the silence which made me open my eyes to look at him.
At first I was wondering if I should just lie and say that it doesn't hurt but I had a feeling that lying wouldn't be a good idea, so I looked at him, " It's okay, but it still hurts a little bit. Just as long as I don't move it so much, it will be fine." I said as I looked at the bandage that was on my arm. Then I saw a hand touching my arm gently and I turned my head to see that it was Daryl's hand and I started to blush a little bit as I watched his hand and then he pulled away and then he turned his head towards T-Dog with his crossbow in his hands.
' What the heck is wrong with this guy? One minute he's a fucking dick to everyone expect when it comes to me, which that didn't make any since at all. But why only me?' I thought I was looking at him from the corner of my eye.
" He'd better be okay. It's my only word on the matter." Daryl said as he stared hard at T-Dog.
" I told you that the Geek's can't get at him. The only thing that's gonna to get through that door is us." T-Dog said and then I leaned against the wall and just shook my head a little bit.
" Will you both just stop, please. For one we're going to get him without being at each other's throats, pulse I bet that he's fine. So enough of this, and two I thought we were calling them walkers now, not Geek's. I asked him as I was looking at him.
" Old habits die hard, I guess." T-Dog said as he gave me a small smile and I nodded my head to him as I closed my eyes again waiting for us to arrive. Suddenly the van came to a stop, which made me open my eyes and get up to my feet and look out the window and I couldn't see any walkers around. We were just right outside the city and Glenn turned to us.
" We are walking from here." Glenn said as he took off his seatbelt and opened the door and got out of the van, and Daryl opened the shutter door and got out , followed by T-Dog right behind him. I was about to follow right behind them but then I looked over to see Rick standing at the back for me and offered his hand to me and I took it and jumped out and I walked over to T-Dog and took the cutter from him and we all headed towards the city.
As Glenn was leading us through the city and it was really hot, but that wasn't going to stop me. Glenn opened a part of a fence and we went through it one at a time and then Rick turned to us, " Merle first or guns?" Rick asked Daryl and I already knew what his answer was going to be without asking.
" Merle! We ain't even having this conversation." Daryl said as he started to walk away from us.
" We are." Rick said as Daryl stopped to look at him with me and everyone else stopping as well, then Rick turned to look at Glenn.
" You know the geography. It's your call." Rick said to Glenn as we started to head out again but this time we were running.
" Merle would be closer than those guns." I said to them as they turned their head to me and Glenn nodded his head to me to agree with me.
" Sam's right. The guns would mean doubling back. Merle first." Glenn said as we continued to follow Glenn.
" Daryl, did you really have to be an asshole when Rick asks a question?" I asked him as I decided to run alongside him.
" If he hadn't handcuffed my brother, we wouldn't even be in this mess right now." Daryl said which made me grab his arm which made him stop in his tracks, as I stood in front of him. Glenn noticed that we stopped following the others and he stopped along with the others.
" I understand what you're saying, but I'm going to say this one last time. If Rick hadn't handcuffed him, your brother would be a murder right now. Because I didn't vote for him to be leader, which the other's did, but they didn't have a choice during that time since they were being forced. I would have been killed, with my own weapon. Now we're saving your brother and that's that, you got me." I said through my gritted teeth as I glared at him. Daryl didn't say anything else to me, all he did was just look at me as I turned my back to him and I turned to look at the others.
" Let's go." I said over to Glenn, who nodded his head and led us back to the retail store. As we got to the store, we went inside and Rick stopped us and pointed towards a walker that was in front of us. Daryl slowly moved towards the walker, which was a female.
" Damn. You are one ugly skank." Daryl said as he aimed his crossbow towards the walker and shot it in the head. I walked right behind him as he started to move towards his arrow. I knew that I was very mad at him right at this moment, but I couldn't let that distract me right now, just in case Rick didn't see anything that he missed. I stopped in place to see the door that led towards the roof and I took off running towards the door.
" Sam!" Rick yelled as I heard him running after me along with the others following right behind me. I finally made it to the door and I cut the chain with the bolt cutters and I opened the door and I ran over to where I last saw Merle, but I froze in place at what I saw in front of me. I heard the others coming through the door, then that was when I heard Daryl yelling for his brother, when everyone came over to me and they saw what I saw, Merle wasn't there anymore the only thing that was left was his hand on the ground.
I looked over towards Daryl who was looking at what I was looking at and that was when I noticed that his body was starting to shake and I had a feeling that he had tears in his eyes. I felt really bad for him, I placed my crossbow down on the ground and started to walk over to him, while I kept listening to him say no.
' He may be an asshole from time to time but Daryl does care for the people that he's with, especially his brother.' I thought as I was getting closer to Daryl.
I gently touched his arm to confront him somehow and he looked at me for a little bit as he rubbed the tears away from his eyes and that was when I noticed the change in his eyes from sorrow to anger very quickly and that told me that something bad was going to happen. Daryl swung his crossbow up towards T-Dog's head, that was when Rick pulled out his gun and pointed it towards Daryl's head while I placed my hand on his arm.
" I won't hesitate, I don't care if every walker in the city hears it." Rick informed Daryl.
" Daryl, please. I know you're mad, but if you pull that trigger. Yes it was T-Dog's fault, but it's not his fault that your brother is not here right now, alright." I said to him as he looked right at me and then after while he lowered his crossbow and then turned back to look at Rick and he just stood there staring at Rick for a bit til he turned his eyes to look at T-Dog.
" You uh, got a doo rag or something?" Daryl asked him. T-Dog silently pulled out the rag from his back pocket and handed it to him. Daryl placed his crossbow down on the ground and slowly walked over to where his brother's hand and picked it up and looked at it.
" Guess the saw blade was too dull for handcuffs. Ain't that a bitch." Daryl as he pointed towards the saw that was on the ground.
" He's one tough son of a bitch." I said as I looked at the hand and then looked back at him.
" He is." Daryl said as he looked up at me and then wrapped the hand up in the rag and got back up on his feet and he walked over to Glenn who had a backpack and started to stuffed it into it while Glenn looked like he was going to be very sick.
" He must have used a tourniquet - maybe his belt, there would have been a lot more blood if he didn't." Daryl said as he picked up his crossbow and I did as well.
I followed where I saw the blood going with the others trailed right behind me except for Daryl who was in front taking the lead. As we followed Daryl, I placed my crossbow on my back and I pulled out my machet instead, ready for anything that tries to jump out at us.
We crept uninterrupted through the hallways as Daryl kept calling for his brother, " You need to be quiet." Rick said to him, but Daryl didn't even listen to his warnings and kept doing what he was doing till we reached a small office kitchen. I noticed that there was a burner still on and that there was a belt right on top of the stove, my stomach started to twist and turn when I saw a metal that had burned skin and blood on it.
' He cauterised his own stump.' I thought as I looked away to try and calm my stomach till my eyes landed on Glenn.
" What's that burned stuff?" Glenn asked looking at what I was looking away from and then I looked over at Daryl as he looked at it.
" Skin." Rick told Glenn as he looked at it.
" Told you he was tough. Ain't nobody can kill Merle but Merle." Daryl said as he walked closer to it.
" Don't take that on faith, he's lost a lot of blood." Rick said as he looked over at Daryl.
" Well that didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap." Daryl said as he walked over to the window where the blood trail continued on, I walked over as well to notice the hole from the window, which told me that he got out that way.
" Why would he do that?" Glenn asked with a confused look on his face.
" He was just trying to survive." I said when I looked back towards the others.
" She's right. As far as he knows that he's out there alone, just doing what he has to, surviving." Daryl said as he agreed with me, which shocked me and I turned my eyes over to him and his eyes landed on me and gave me a nod and I nodded my head back to him
" You call that surviving? Wandering around the street maybe passing out, what are his odds?" T-Dog asked us as we looked around at everyone.
" What do you expect him to do? There's no food here, so if he had stayed here it would have been worse for him if he didn't leave." I said to defend Merle's case and from the corner of my eye it was Daryl's turn to be in shock at what I said and I had a little smile on my face.
" You couldn't kill him, so I'm not worried about some dumb dead bastard." Daryl said as he shook his head and the shocked look disappeared and into pissed off.
" What about 1,000 dumb bastards, " Rick countered as he turned his head towards Daryl.
" Well, I'm going to go get him." Daryl said as he walked past Rick. I ran after him and placed my hand on his shoulder and he jerked his shoulder away from my hand.
" Daryl, look I don't blame you for wanting to go and look for your brother, he's family and Rick went through hell to find his family. I'm still trying to find mine, I know exactly how you feel. Me and Rick both know." I said as I looked at him hoping to stop him from leaving and going out there alone.
" She's right Daryl, he can't get far with that injury. We can help you check a few blocks but only if we keep a level head." Rick said as he came over to Daryl.
I could see that Daryl was thinking about what we said and then he looked back over at Rick, " I could do that." He said as he looked at Rick and then me.
" Alright, so we need to do something first, we need those guns." I said when I looked at the others.
" She's right, I don't want to be strolling the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions." T-Dog said as he shrugs his shoulders.
Once everyone agreed to grabbing the gun while we tried to look for Merle. Glenn had an idea about what we were going to do, Daryl and I were going to be in an alley that was close to the guns while Glenn was with us, so he could grab them and get back to us quickly and he chose us cause we both had crossbows. While Rick and T-Dog are going to be in another alley a bit further back from me and Daryl just in case Glenn couldn't get back to me and Daryl.
" What did you do before all this, kid?" Daryl asked as we were waiting to continue with the plan and I was just wondering the same thing as well.
" Delivered pizza's, why?" Glenn responded in surprise as he looked at us.
I got back on my feet and was getting ready to go while Glenn was whipping away his plan, " Let's get this going, we have to get those guns while looking for Merle and then get the hell out of here." I said as I looked over at everyone and they nodded their heads.
" Be careful." Rick said as he turned to look at me and I nodded my head to him and gave him a little smile. Both Rick and T-Dog went down toward the alleyway, while Glenn led us to where the guns were, which was near the other alleyway. I kept an eye for any walkers or people that will try to stop or hurt us. As we got to where the alley was at we noticed that there was a chain like fence behind us from where the main street was in front of us and there were a few walkers right in front of us and also in front of the tank and the bag of guns.
" You got some balls for a china man." Daryl told Glenn as he had his crossbow at the ready for anything.
" Really Daryl?" I asked him as I looked at him.
" I'm Korean." Glenn said in a deadpanned voice as he looked over at Daryl till he focused back on the road.
" So, how are we going to get that bag with many walkers out there?" I asked Glenn when he looked over to me.
" You and I are going to be running over to where the tank is with the bag of guns a little bit away from it, I'll grab the bag while you take out any walkers that come our way. Daryl will stay here and cover us from here." Glenn explained to me and both me and Daryl nodded our heads in understanding.
Glenn then grabs my hand as we run onto the street. As we were running I took out any walkers that came close to us as we got behind a car in the center of the street not far from the tank. A walker noticed us and was starting to come towards us till we took off again towards the tank. Glenn hops over some sandbags right beside the tank as I stood guard keeping any eye for us, I put my machete up and pulled out my crossbow. I heard noise right behind me and I turned to see one of the walkers trying to grab Glenn and I turned my whole body very quickly and shot an arrow through its head, Glenn turned to me and nodded his head to me and I returned the nod.
Glenn turned his head towards the guns and ran over and grabbed them and I noticed Rick's hat on the ground and I ran over and picked it up and placed it in the bag, then Glenn grabbed my hand again and we ran back to the alley.
As we were getting closer to the alley. I saw Daryl waiting for us till he ran back into the alley which made me wonder why till I heard an unfamiliar scream, " Daryl!" I screamed before I could stop myself for saying that and took off running with Glenn right behind me. We were just inches ways from getting to Daryl that I heard a car right behind us and we stopped to look. Before I could say Glenn grabs my hand and pulls us out of the way towards the concrete. Glenn gets to his feet and he helps me back up, I saw Daryl fighting three men and he wasn't winning this fight til one of them saw us and saw the bag and came towards us, first thing that came to mind was run, so me and Glenn tried to run from them but then one of them grabs me and held me as I started to struggle in his grip.
I felt him lose his grip when I heard him scream in pain and I looked down to see an arrow right in his ass. Before I could do anything a hand was placed on my mouth and then there was a knife by my neck, which I froze in place till another man came over to me and hits me in the stomach which made me drop my machete and I fell to the ground with my crossbow falling off my back to the ground.
" Sam!" Glenn yelled as he tried to run over to me to help me, but was grabbed from behind. As I was trying to catch my breath, I felt something being wrapped around my legs and behind my back. I tried to struggle in the bonds til a bag was on my head.
I struggled more when I heard walkers folding towards thanks to all the noise that we were making, " Sam! Glenn!" I heard Daryl yelling our names and I could hear pain in his voice from getting beaten up.
" Daryl, help!" I screamed for him through the bag on my head. I felt myself being lifted off the ground and someone's shoulder and I started to struggle in the man grip till I was throwed down onto something metal and my head hit it hard, something was telling that it had to be the vehicle that almost hit me and Glenn. I heard another thud right next to me and I knew it was Glenn.
I was slowly losing my conscience because of me hitting my head and I could barely hear Glenn trying to talk to me and then I slipped into the darkness.
End of Chapter 5
I hope you like this chapter, but don't worry things are starting to get better and with what happened to Samantha, do you think that Daryl is going to get closer. We'll just have to see. See you guys next time.