Jinx || Daryl Dixon || The Walking Dead Fanfic

-24-

"Good. Good." Rick promptly disappeared back into the hallway, ignoring Daryl calling out to him. Jinx put her breakfast bowl down and walked over to where Daryl sat on the stairs, resting a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her and she didn't need to say anything out loud for him to understand that she was telling him Rick would be okay.

___

She was on the road with Maggie and Glenn, it was a beautiful day and she wanted to roll the window down and feel the breeze on her face, but she knew the others would be mad if she did, since they were also enjoying the air con the truck provided. She and Maggie sang along gently to the music they were playing, and Glenn smiled at them both.

The run went well, they didn't find any bullets, but they got at least a month's worth of formula in one place which was a serious relief. The worst thing that had happened to them was that a flock of pigeons scared the crap out of them as they opened the door to the store and Jinx found herself thinking maybe their luck had finally turned around. She let her hair down as they exited the store, smiling as she felt the breeze in her hair, already thinking ahead to seeing Daryl when she got back.

"It's a straight shot back to the prison from here" Glenn told them both, "probably make it back in time for dinner."

"I like the quiet." Maggie said, Jinx nodded in agreement, "Back there, back home, you can always hear them outside the fence no matter where you are." Jinx hadn't thought about that, but as soon as Maggie said it, she realised that was a part of what made the prison remind her of the basement back in Atlanta.

"And where is it y'all good people are calling home?" A southern accent called out loudly as they heard the click of the safety being taken off a gun. Jinx spun around, grabbing her own gun, Maggie and Glenn did the same. She saw a man with a knife for a hand and blood all over his face standing a short distance away.

"Merle?" Glenn asked incredulously, Jinx's eyes flicked over to Glenn, then back to the man threatening them, this was Daryl's missing brother?

"Oh ho! Wow!" Merle laughed, laying his gun on the ground and raising his hands in the air. He continued to approach them. Jinx wasn't sure what to do, she didn't like the look of this guy and her instincts told her he was bad news, but she could hardly shoot Daryl's brother.

"Hey! Back the hell up!" Maggie yelled when he got too close.

"Okay, okay, honey" he told her, arms still raised, "Jesus."

"You made it." Glenn seemed surprised.

"Can you tell me, is my brother alive?" Merle asked them. Jinx nodded, but Merle was looking at Glenn not her, "huh?"

"Yeah." Glenn confirmed reluctantly. The redneck nodded with a grin and Jinx could see that he cared for Daryl, she wasn't entirely sure that was a good thing.

"Hey, you take me to him, and I'll call it even on everything that happened up there in Atlanta. No hard feelin's, huh?" they said nothing in response, keeping their guns trained on the other man, Glenn had obviously looked towards the knife Merle had instead of a hand. "Oh you like that?" Merle laughed, "Yeah. Well, I found myself a uh medical supply warehouse, fixed it up myself" he told them waving his knife around, "Pretty cool, huh?"

"We'll tell Daryl you're here and he'll come out to meet you." Glenn told him with some finality.

"Hold on. Just hold up." Merle started approaching them again.

"Woah! Woah!" Glenn obviously didn't want him getting any closer, the redneck repeated himself.

"Hey, the fact we found each other is a miracle." He told them "Come on now, you can trust me." Jinx immediately knew she couldn't.

"You trust us." Glenn told him, anger and a hint of fear slipping into his tone, "You trust us. You stay here."

Merle dropped his smile and pulled out another gun taking a shot at Maggie, she dodged, but it shattered the back window of the truck. Jinx and Glenn both ran to the side of the truck where Maggie had ducked down only to find Merle with his knife arm around her neck and a gun held to her head. They both froze.

"Hey, hey, hold up buddy, hold up" he told Glenn.

"Let go of her, Let go of her!" Glenn and Jinx yelled at the same time.

"Put those guns in the car right now. In the car." Merle told them, there was nothing else they could do but follow Merle's instructions, they both raised their hands in the air. "There you go." Merle said satisfied, "Now we're gonna go for a little drive."

"We're not going back to our camp." Glen told him shaking his head.

"No," Merle agreed, "we're goin' somewhere else." He was almost smiling. "Get in the car Glenn! You're driving!" he yelled aggressively. "And you Girlie!" he yelled at Jinx once Glenn was in the driver's seat, she joined him in front and Merle then dragged Maggie into the backseat, keeping the gun to her head at all times.

They drove in silence, other than Merle occasionally yelling directions when Glenn needed to turn. When they eventually got close to a tall, strong looking wall he forced them to stop and called out to someone nearby. They had bags thrown over their heads and zip ties around their wrists before they were taken inside the wall and Jinx tried to use her hearing to figure out where she was going as she was shoved along, but there was too much noise for her to tell. It sounded like there were a lot of people wherever they were. Living people. But none close enough that she could hear them clearly.

She knew they entered a building and felt someone trying to remove the belt holding her knives, she tried to fight them off, but just got hit in the face and restrained for her troubles. She was shoved through a doorway and heard it slam behind her, she heard the echo of two more doors nearby and assumed the same had been done with Maggie and Glenn.