Chapter 47 - Shades Of Delusion

The Prison

Morning arrived much quicker than either of them would have liked. They saw dawn in together, sitting in the silent outdoors - her last moments of freedom before being sequestered. For someone who had been so treacherously close to death many times in her life and thought nothing of it, it was strange to suddenly feel so terrified. Tess had welcomed her mortality on more than one instance, even wishing for it in some, but now that wasn't the case.

She had more to lose than ever before now. It was all still so new and unknown that she wasn't willing to part with it just yet. Tess stole looks at Daryl by her side as he quietly contemplated the horizon. She could tell he was afraid for her despite how he tried to hide it. That only made her all the more nervous. He had always been the rock that slowed her torrent but now he was afloat with her, drifting into the unknown.

Yes, maybe she was just sick and normally that wouldn't have been a cause for concern but multiple people had already died from this very illness in just a matter of hours. What chance did any of them have? What kind of medical assistance were they going to be able to receive when hospitals were a thing of the past?

Tess thought about the few medical professionals they had in their small community - Bob: whom she didn't trust, Dr. S: whom she didn't know, and Hershel: the one of the few that she cared about the most. Of any of them, she especially didn't want Hershel getting too close to this, it was too great a risk. Knowing him though, he'd do it regardless of what anyone told him. There was something to be said about their original group - they would live and die by one another. They were family.

Before the sun had fully risen in the sky, Tess and Daryl departed for Death Row.

The hallways seemed darker and colder than normal, like the prison itself was growing sick. Cell Block A had been largely untouched since they claimed the prison for their own. Even for the least superstitious of them, it felt too much like tempting fate. In the gloom, Tess trailed alongside Daryl, both of them dragging their feet as they went and neither wanting to reach their destination.

With what little light there was, Tess noticed what looked like a trail leading away from Cell Block A and towards the courtyard at the end of the corridor. The trail was dark and streaked across the floor messily, like something had been dragged through mud. She stopped in her place and her hand reached out for Daryl's making him come to a halt as well.

He turned and frowned at her but whatever he was going to ask remained unsaid when he realized she wasn't looking at him. It wasn't mud that led out of the prison. Daryl finally noticed it too. It had a sheen to it that glistened in the light that ebbed beneath the exit door. It was ruddy and still slightly wet - the drying blood of maimed bodies being dragged across the floor. Tess felt woozy at the sight of it. She was no stranger to blood but the fact that where it had come from was exactly where she had been going only made her feel more apprehensive. Death Row was living up to its name and she was bound for it next.

Daryl held his arm out, motioning for her to stay back and he began following the trail towards the light. Tess stayed a few feet back but continued along behind him, curiosity and concern motivating her to see what was beyond the door. He reached it moments before her and pried the heavy iron open, squinting against the daylight. What hit him first was the stench. Putrid and fetid, it smelled of warm, rotting flesh and embers. Two charred black bodies lay in a smoking heap in the middle of the courtyard. Daryl pulled the door closed again straight away.

"What is it?" Tess asked, "Daryl?"

"Don't go out there." He warned her and stepped back over the blood.

"Why?"

"You don't need'a see that."

"What's out there?" She asked again, growing uneasy as he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away, leading her back towards Death Row. "What are you doing?"

"Stay here. I'm gon' go get Rick." He attempted to leave her at the beginning of the trail but she reached out for him, desperate for answers.

"Daryl, stop. Tell me what's going on." She pleaded with him and he fixed her with a hard look. His hands grasped her face intently, the pads of his thumbs resting on her cheeks, just below her eyes.

"Don't go out there. Please just listen to me." His face was hard and cold - whatever he'd seen out there had alarmed him and he clearly worried how she'd react seeing it too. She wanted to know, she really did, but not enough to not heed his warning.

"Okay." She nodded, "Okay."

Daryl left her standing in the dark as he raced off to find Rick.

Her eyes were continually drawn to the sun streaming in beneath the door and the sanguine stain that the light struck. Morbid curiosity lurked in the back of her mind but her feet remained glued to the floor, intent on keeping her promise to Daryl. Tess peeked her head into Cell Block A and her gaze followed the trail of blood that diverged into two separate cells. The two cells that had housed their only two quarantined residents - Karen and David.

She slammed the door shut to Death Row as the overwhelming urge to throw up started to build in her throat. Inhaling shakily, she waited for it to pass. It had to have been Karen and David's dead bodies outside in the quad. What the hell had happened here? Had someone taken it upon themselves to kill them before they had died? Who could've done such a thing? Would it have happened to her as well had she done the right thing and quarantined last night? It felt like none of the answers to her questions would be good ones.

Tess pulled herself up from her slouch when she heard the sound of multiple pairs of feet rushing down the hallway. Daryl had returned with Rick but they weren't alone. Tyrese, having heard the hushed panic in Daryl's voice when he spoke to Rick, had demanded to know what had happened. All night he had worried about Karen in A Block. All night he'd assured himself there was nothing to worry about. Now he wished he had trusted his gut. Running anxiously behind them, he paid no mind to Tess when he spotted the blood on the floor. He charged past all three of them and out into the open where Tess heard him shout in agony. She moved to go console him but Daryl's outstretched arm stopped her again and he and Rick left her standing in the dark once more.

Her hand hovered over the door handle, full of trepidation and a need to quell Tyrese's distress. He'd cared for Karen, perhaps even loved her. She could only imagine what he was going through seeing her lying dead on the pavement. Through the thick door, she could hear the muffled sound of him crying and words being exchanged. It sounded like Rick was attempting to calm Tyrese down but it proved ineffective and the sound of their voices only grew louder as the latter became more and more agitated.

Tess jumped back from the door when something hit it from the other side and she began to hear Daryl's voice amongst the others. They were fighting and she wasn't able to stand there and listen to it. She'd seen plenty of dead bodies before. Daryl's concern was justified but she couldn't imagine that what waited outside was any more jarring than what they'd witnessed yesterday morning. She learnt very quickly that she was terribly wrong.

At first, she only saw Rick pummeling Tyrese and Daryl trying to rip the manic sheriff away but her eyes quickly found the charred bodies on the ground. The skin was black and cracked, like the remains of timber logs from a roaring fire. Exposed muscle was red on black from where the flesh had peeled away. Their faces were only shadows now, completely stripped of their identity.

The reek of burnt flesh filled her nose and both gradually and all at once, Tess no longer felt herself standing there. She had been so terribly, horribly wrong. Nothing could have prepared her for the savageness of their killing. Her nightmare from days ago, being pulled into the fire and set alight, seared into her skin and memory. It had been an ill omen that came so gruesomely true. In her dissociated state, she became a backseat driver to her own consciousness, watching herself stare at the bodies with terror. All sound got lost in the fog of her delirium and it was only when firm hands shook her free that she began to breathe again.

Daryl tried to usher her out of the courtyard and she stumbled back as he did so. The sudden slip of her footing released her from the last of her panic and she pushed away Daryl's arms. She firmly told him to stop and slid out his grasp. He tried to reason with her to get her to leave but she had no intention of staying. Quickly, she crossed the pavement, keeping her gaze locked on her target and crouched in front of Tyrese, helping him up. With his arm looped over her shoulder, she led the both of them out of there as fast as she could.

"She's gone…" Tyrese muttered, distraught. His face was bloody and beginning to welt. His left brow was split, as well as his lip. Rick had done a real number on him.

"I'm so sorry." Was all Tess could whisper in return. She had no solace to give him, nor assurance of retribution. There was no telling who did this, so what kind of justice could she grant him?

She guided them into Cell Block C and seated Tyrese in the common room. Hershel and Carol approached them without being called to and Tess left the vet to take care of Tyrese's wounds. She couldn't stay; not when she was still sick, that hadn't changed. Without a word, she left for the outdoors where she found a secluded spot to calm down on her own. Her trembling fingers picked at the knots of her boots hastily and she kicked them off. It was the only thing she had to ground herself anymore. She didn't know what day it was, least of all a daily pattern that was reassuring enough to use as a mantra. Regardless of the pain, she drove her feet into the sharp gravel like it was the only thing keeping her on this Earth.

"Tess?" Carol called to her softly, "Are you okay?" She'd followed her out of prison and had bore witness to her strange, desperate attempt to remove her boots.

"Yep." Tess replied unconvincingly. The knot that formed in her throat made her sound anything but and she did her best to force it down. "Someone killed them. Karen and David. Burnt their bodies too."

"That's terrible…" Carol gasped. "Do you know who?"

Tess didn't even notice how uncharacteristically unperturbed Carol was by the news, she was too busy listening to the sound of blood rushing through her ears. She shook her head, no.

"I should've been there last night." The knot returned to her throat.

"You couldn't have known what would happen, it's not your fault-" Carol stepped closer to her and Tess shot to her feet, moving away.

"Don't. I swear to God if I get you sick, I won't forgive myself." Tess cautioned her. Carol spent so much time with the kids that if she got sick, then they likely would too and that wasn't something Tess was going to let happen.

"Is that what you mean?" The older woman asked nervously, finally observing the wan color of Tess' skin and the sheen of sweat that was permanently fixed to her brow. "You should've been quarantined?"

"I should've gone last night. We were heading there this morning when we found them. I don't understand why anyone would do this."

Carol's eyes shifted nervously between her and the ground and she twisted the cuff of her sleeve in her hands.

"Maybe they thought they were helping?"

"Helping? They murdered two of our people. Our friends."

"If it had just been them that were sick, maybe that would've been the end of it?"

"You think this was someone's idea of damage control?"

"I don't know what you'd call it."

"It's sick is what it is. What kind of person does something like that?"

"A desperate one."

—

By now, it wasn't only Tess that had come to learn that she too was sick. Many of the others that had survived the slaughter in D Block had fallen ill, as well as Sasha, Dr. S and Glenn. Death Row was quickly cleaned up to accommodate them and Dr. S and Sasha led them into the cells while Tess and Glenn stood at the door, both equally reluctant to head inside.

"I gotta say, I kinda feel like I'm walking to my death." Glenn commented uneasily.

"Tell me about it." Tess shivered. "Wanna go first?"

"Please, after you."

"Coward."

"I like living."

"Funnily enough, so do I."

"Together?"

"Together."

—

Daryl hadn't had many blessings in his life, few enough to count on the one hand, but the blessing he'd been granted last night made him wonder if there truly was a God. It had to have been by some divine intervention that neither he nor Tess had followed through on the quarantine mandate that they themselves had helped set. Witnessing the barbaric outcome for David and Karen had shocked him to his core. It very well could have been her lying there, scorched and annihilated. No one could have saved the assailant then.

Their dwindling council met that afternoon, with the inclusion of Rick, shortly after the doors to Death Row were closed for a second time. Daryl had been unable to bring himself to say goodbye to Tess as she left for isolation and she hadn't sought him out either. It felt far too permanent, too much like a final farewell - an acceptance of death. Neither of them were okay with that and so they parted ways without seeing each other again after the incident in the courtyard.

They couldn't just wait and hope for this to go away on its own now. Far too many of them had fallen ill and it would only be a matter of time before they had a repeat of Cell Block D. They needed to begin treating the sick and they needed antibiotics to do so. Hershel made mention of a veterinary hospital that may have what they were in need of and given the nature of the facility, may very well have been overlooked by other scavengers. The facility, however, was fifty miles away and the distance between them and it was uncharted territory.

Fifty miles was nothing in the old world but now it could be at least a day or two's journey, depending on how difficult it was to traverse. It wasn't something Daryl could risk doing on his own either. He may be faster alone but there was safety in numbers and he was likely to need it. Michonne and Bob volunteered to help and he left them to gas up the car while he ventured back into the prison.

Tyrese had submitted himself as the overseer of Death Row. Tess was undecided in how she saw him - the mythological Charon or Cerberus: waiting to ferry them to their doom or guarding them from ever leaving this hell. She knew he was only concerned about Sasha, given the morning's haunting revelation, but his pacing and hawkish eyes only made her feel like a caged animal. He vanished and reappeared from sight through the small window to the Block door and each time he glanced inside to make sure his sister was still okay.

Tess watched on sadly, filled with remorse. It wasn't fair that someone had taken it upon themselves to rid them of the sick, especially in the heinous way that they had. Tyrese had every right to be angry and fearful for his sister. They still didn't know who had done it and with them walking free, who's to say they wouldn't try again.

From her seat on the stairwell, she watched Tyrese walk by once, twice, a third time and then stop. His sights were set down the corridor, towards something she couldn't see and she rose to her feet, suspicious. Tess could see him talking to someone still out of view and she found herself creeping closer to listen in.

"Standing guard ain't gonna do no good unless we come back with them meds." She heard Daryl's recognizable voice tell him.

Her head rested against the glass of the door miserably. He was leaving to get them medication and he was recruiting Tyrese to go with him. It didn't sit right with her that he was going out on such a crucial run without her but what could she do? Nothing. She turned to look at Sasha who was sitting by the reinforced plexiglass window and observed how she tried to put on a brave face for her brother when he approached. He was going to leave and they were leaving now.

"Daryl?" Tess called out from her spot beyond the door, waiting patiently for him to respond. He appeared in front of the small window and stared at her with a furrowed brow. "Where are you going?"

"Veterinary hospital. Hershel reckons it's our best shot."

"How far's the run?"

"It's about fifty miles from here. I'm not sure how long it'll take us. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Be safe, yeah?"

"You too." Daryl's eyes softened as he came to terms about leaving the prison and her with it.

He had considered doing the exact same thing Tyrese had been doing - patrolling and standing guard. There were more of them in Cell Block A now though and the chances of anything happening again were slim but he couldn't deny that he was nervous. The last thing he wanted was to return home only to find out Tess had been killed. He had enough to worry about with the illness threatening to take her too.

Even through the door, Tess could sense he was concerned. If their roles were reversed, she would be too but going to find medicine was the best thing that could be done to help any of them. Daryl was right in what he told Tyrese, there was no point standing guard over something that was only going to die anyway. If they could stop that from happening and if that meant leaving their side to do it, then so be it.

"You're gonna be okay." Daryl guaranteed her and she gave him a thin smile in return. "I'll see you when I get back."

"Yes, you will." She nodded, trying to find comfort in his assurance. "I-"

Her affection for him burned at the tip of her tongue like acid. The three words nearly sprung free from her lips but they were heavy and the weight made her pause - if she waited, then he'd have to come back and she would still be around to tell him then.

"You, what?" Daryl prompted her but she shook her head dismissively.

"Don't worry about it. I'll tell you when you're back." Her smile grew encouragingly, appearing more confident than she actually was. "You better get going or I might start asking you to stay."

"I'll be coming back." He promised her and she stepped back from the door, fearful that she might start having some kind of emotional break if she didn't walk away.

"I'll be waiting." Tess smiled at him one last time and they both finally left each other's sight.

—

The names of days didn't much matter in this life anymore but time seemed to matter even less on Death Row. It was always dark down here so by the time night fell, it didn't feel any different. Tess' fever was beginning to make it difficult to stay on her feet for very long. She grew tired quickly, her bones ached - even the joints in her fingers felt like they were being crushed. It was impossible to find any comfort on the thin mattress in her new cell and she spent most of the night on the floor. At least there it was cold and she had some reprieve from the burning sensation of her skin.

Her coughing increased and so did that of everyone else. It seemed no-one was sleeping tonight. It was becoming increasingly painful to swallow and while she tried to keep drinking as much water as possible, her belly full of liquid only made her feel more sick. Hershel tried serving her elderberry tea but it came back up about as quickly as it went down. She'd instructed him to put the rest to use with someone else instead of wasting it on her. He had plenty of berries to use (where he got them from, she didn't care to ask) and so it wasn't a waste per se but she hated him fussing over her and the more she refused to drink more, the more he pressed her on the matter. Try as he might though, he wasn't going to win this argument without physically forcing it on her, which he wasn't willing to do; yet.

Come morning, Tess was sitting at the window, trying to catch a glimpse of daylight as it filtered in through the hallway. Maggie, who had come to check in on Glenn, found her sitting there and took a seat on the opposite side.

"Hey, how're you doing?" Maggie asked her and she shrugged, too proud to admit that she felt terrible.

"Hanging in there. How are you going?"

"I'm okay. It's weird not having you guys around."

"Hopefully not for too much longer."

"Hopefully."

A stale lull hung between them and Tess recalled the last time that she'd spoken with Maggie. She bowed her head in shame.

"I'm sorry about the other day. I was a real bitch."

"Don't apologize, I was in the wrong. It's not my business."

"You were only concerned, I get it. I got defensive and lashed out. I'm working on that. I appreciate that you care, really. And besides, you were right. Daryl deserves to know and it's not fair that I keep it from him. I just- Being with me will be the end of him. How am I supposed to tell him something like that?"

"I'm not gonna pretend like I know how Daryl's mind works. I know that he cares for you though, more than anyone else. As long as he has you, I don't think anything else matters."

Tess didn't have a response to that and she needn't have one either because Glenn found them then. After briefly bidding them both farewell, she left to begin the morning rounds. No one had died overnight, so they had that to be grateful for at least. They were all becoming progressively worse however. Glenn had surprised her by how quickly he had deteriorated. At the rate that the illness was progressing with him, he was already as sick, if not more so than her. Hershel had taken note of it too and had decidedly steered clear of asking him to help out with the others as much as he could afford to.

Sasha was proving resilient however and she routinely checked up on everyone. With not much else to talk about, Tess learned that Sasha and Tyrese's father was a veteran that had served at the time of the Korean War. That was where their hardiness came from. While the reflections of her father hadn't sounded overly positive, she sounded happy when reminiscing about her childhood. Their mother had died before either of them were teenagers however and that's when the good memories seemed to stop.

Tess shared with her what little childhood memories she had that weren't tragic or humiliating, few and far between that they were. She told her about the farm that she'd lived on for some short summer months in '91 when she was ten and how she remembered bottle feeding a lamb, thinking it was more magical than whatever Disneyland had to offer (not that she'd ever been). Her life on the farm ended however when she got caught setting fire to a trash can in the girls bathroom at school. The family that took her in didn't want anything to do with her after that. Tess left that part out though.

With little to do and a restless previous night, Tess went back to bed by eleven. There, for the first time since moving into Death Row, she found sleep.

—

They'd driven through the night, taking turns, swapping every few hours and stopping only to rest briefly or gas up when fuel ran low. Daryl was driving the car now, East-bound and tense. It was taking far too long to get to their destination. Roads were blocked or overrun - at one point they were forced to take a shortcut through a field just to get around a herd of walkers because backtracking would do them no good. They were starting to run out of alternative paths to take if they were hoping to remain on the road.

Given the purpose of their mission and the direness of their situation, none of them spoke overly much. Tyrese was busy being consumed by his grief and concern, Michonne was concentrating on maintaining a level head, Daryl was struggling to focus on the here and now, and Bob was agonizing over his desire to imbibe and the stark warning against it that he'd received only the days prior. He wasn't honest enough to consider himself a weak man but he was. He thought, since his only threat to exposure and banishment was nowhere to be seen, he had nothing to worry about. No one was looking over his shoulder. No one here knew of his weakness. No one in this car knew the kind of position his own failure had put them in; could put them in. Or so he thought.

Yesterday afternoon, before leaving the prison, Daryl had found his brother out the back sitting in the plastic chair he knew Tess had dragged out there for him. He hadn't been party to the council's decision so when Daryl told him that they were heading out on a run, Merle volunteered to help.

"I ain't no good to anyone sittin' 'round here. I ain't in the mood to get ma'self sick neither."

"I didn't come find ya' to ask for you to join."

"Who you got goin' with ya that makes me chopped liver? I may not have two hands but I bet you a penny and a fiddle that I got more experience in the field."

"Michonne, Tyrese and Bob."

"Why ya' got that sorry son of a bitch ridin' along?" Daryl didn't need Merle to specify in order for him to know who he was referring to.

"He's an ex-medic. He knows what to look for."

"He ain't nothin' but trouble is what he is."

"Why? What don't I know?"

"Old mate's got a drinking problem. You still lookin' for someone to blame for that kid's death at the store, you blame him."

"Bob's an alcoholic? How do you know?"

"You ain't an addict, so you don't see it. Trust me baby brother, you best keep one eye on your front and one on your back. He'll slip up first chance he gets and it don't matter to him what kinda position that puts you in."

Daryl contempled Merle's warning with reluctant acceptance. There was no reason for him to lie and his brother had become more trustworthy as of late but Daryl still had a hard time believing that he could be relied upon. Which made his next request difficult to ask.

"I got a favor to ask you."

"What?"

"Keep an eye on things in there." Merle's eyes narrowed with skepticism and he replied,

"Keep an eye on your girl you mean."

He didn't say it spitefully, it was more of a correction, a recognition of what was honest. Daryl knew that to some degree, Merle did care for Tess. Whether due to being some extension of himself or on her own merits, he wasn't a hundred percent sure, but he was grateful for it nonetheless.

"Someone killed two of our people because they were sick. If I didn't have to leave, I wouldn't."

"You ain't gotta worry about that happenin' again. I'll make sure of it."

"Thank you, brother."

—

At first, she heard music.

It was a song she recognized from somewhere long ago. A song about a young lady who loved a sailor that was married to the sea. It played on repeat and continued playing when she opened her eyes.

Then she saw the woman.

Slightly younger than she was now with strawberry blonde hair. Her face was impossible to see, like something out of the corner of your eye that you knew was there but couldn't quite place. She was dancing in the center of the room. The warm, orange light of the afternoon sun made her look like she was glowing and when she twirled, Tess felt the urge to dance along with her.

As though sensing that urge, the woman reached out to her, encouraging her to join. Tess stretched out her arm to take her hand but when she touched it, the woman dissolved into the air like a bubble burst. The sun disappeared from the room and the air grew cold, shades of blue consuming orange. Tess turned and found her again.

This time she was sitting on a sofa - slumped and melancholic. The music had ended now too and there was no more singing of Brandy and her intrepid lover. Glass bottles and styrofoam containers lay empty on the table in front of her and the woman pushed them about in search of something. The mess was a blur to Tess but whatever the woman was searching for, she quickly found. She sniffed it out like a bloodhound and before Tess could recognize what it was the woman grabbed her by the arm and stabbed her with it.

Tess nearly fell out of bed with the force that she jerked awake. Irrationally, she desperately wiped at her arm, searching for the track mark that would have been left from a needle puncture. Of course, there was nothing there. It had just been a dream. Albeit a very strange and vivid one at that.

She'd never had that dream before. She didn't recognize the woman from it either. Was it supposed to be some distorted reflection of herself? A conjuration of her own inner demons? She'd never fallen into the habit of injecting herself with illegal substances, thankfully she had never strayed that far. Yet, if it hadn't been for Nate helping her from the jump, then perhaps she would have.

Tess hated being sick, more so than your average person. Being sick meant medication and medication meant temptation. She wasn't stupid enough or desperate enough to down a bottle full of antibiotics but being unwell generally meant some level of pain medicine was involved and when you had a history such as hers, only the hard stuff would do. Maybe that was why she dreaded the profound possibility of relapse and negative progression. Maybe because, right now, she didn't know if she'd be strong enough to stop it.

Pushing herself off the bed, Tess rose onto shaky feet and staggered out of her cell. She needed air but there was no escaping this perdition so the common room would have to do. In their world, where time didn't matter, it seemed she wasn't the only one that slept the day away and there were only a couple others that sat out in the communal area. Tess steered clear of them, not wanting to talk about how people were or how they were feeling. Everything was misery in hell.

For a moment, she didn't see him sitting there. In the hallway, against the wall and facing the window, Merle sat honing the blade attachment on his right arm. She haphazardly collapsed in front of the glass and Merle looked up at the sound of her head dropping tiredly onto the window.

"Well don't you look like death warmed up." He jibed, the hint of a smirk on his face.

"Hello Merle." She greeted him in reply, lacking the energy to supply him with some witty comeback instead.

"How ya' doin' Kid?"

"I've been better. What're you doing down here?"

"Someone's gotta keep an eye out for trouble."

"There's a watch now?"

"Naw but you got people lookin' out for ya'. Ain't no way Daryl would'a left without it."

Tess didn't catch how that was the first time Merle had referred to his brother by his full and correct name. She was too distracted by the idea that Daryl had enlisted him to watch over her while he was gone.

"He's comin' back, y'know." Merle quietly assured her and she smiled sadly, nodding.

"I know."

"You just gotta hold out till then." Something in Merle's voice wavered that made her feel like he didn't have high hopes for her.

Right now, Tess didn't know if that was possible either. For the millionth time, she hunched over to cough her lungs out, her throat feeling like it was ripping apart as she did so. When she straightened up, she knew something wasn't right. Her hand was slick and splattered with crimson. She had started coughing up blood. Fearfully, she quickly wiped it away on the leg of her jeans and tried to slow her racing heartbeat that had spiked in fright.

"Merle?"

"Yeah, Kid?"

"I got a favor to ask."

"Good thing I'm in the mood for favors."

"If I die… promise me you'll tell him."

Tess was beginning to regret holding out on Daryl earlier. She didn't feel like there was much of a chance that she'd ever be able to tell him how she really felt now. But Merle knew, of all people, he did. Worst came to worst, she still wanted Daryl to know.

"Tell him what…?" Merle suspected he knew the answer.

"You know what." Tess countered, "I should've told him a long time ago. Promise me."

"You ain't gonna die."

"Merle, please. I'll do my fucking best not to but if I do, I want him to know."

"What makes you think he's gonna believe a word I say?"

"Tell him… tell him we should'a stayed fishing. He'll know what I mean."

Merle squinted at her determinedly. He refused to be a messenger for the dead, not for anyone and especially not for her.

"Here's my promise to you, you're gonna tell him all this yourself, ya' hear me?"

Tess did hear him but at the same time, she started hearing the music again and in her delusional state, she began to wonder if this was all a dream too.