𝓗𝓮𝔂 𝓐𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓵 | 𝓓𝓪𝓻𝔂𝓵 𝓓𝓲𝔁𝓸𝓷

Chapter 58: Home again

I shot him in the foot as I dropped to the floor. He screamed in pain but the sound was cut off by a bullet. Merle put a bullet in one man whilst I put another in his buddy.

"I believe this is the part where we leg it before we get shot to bits," I declared gripping the bag tightly and heading back the way we came.

Trouble was the others had been quicker to mobilise than I would've thought they were capable of.

We made it back to the darkroom filled with large wooden crates when bullets started flying again. I slammed myself against the rough, splintered wood scraping my arm in the process.

Merle was opposite me tucked behind another crate. Four men were blocking our escape and were rather trigger happy.

"Cover me," Merle ordered.

"Three, two, one go!" I ducked out and fired straight down the long gap separating rows of crates as Merle went round stopping at the next safe point. I managed to hit one in the shoulder but he was still going and angrier than before.

We kept moving creeping forward working smoothly with minimal communication.

"Split an take 'em from either side."

Noises of confusion could be heard from the impromptu cease-fire.

Sounds of agony followed when Merle and I lit up the room again after gaining the upper hand in the darkness that consumed the edges of the large room.

"Good idea splitting up," I acknowledged patting down the bodies and relieving them of any weapons and ammo that would be useful.

Merle smirked at me briefly riffling through the corpse nearest to him.

"Let's get a move on before your ego is too big to fit through the door...well we might actually be a bit late for that."

I headed out the door, jumping over the two men we had left outside and ran for the trees. Thankfully now the hard part was over with.

"Hey, wait up! Why the rush short stack we're home free ain't we?" Merle questioned slinging his pack back over his shoulder.

"Okay first of all you call me that again, I will stab you. Second of all if you hadn't noticed there is still a great deal of trees potentially filled with walkers between us and the car.

"Okay, little lady fair enough."

I stopped walking and turned to stare at him with narrow eyes.

"You really are something else."

We walked in silence after that marching through the trees keeping an eye out for walkers. A small some settled on my features as we walked. We had managed it, we had more weapons to protect us though under the small amount of joy was anxiety about being this far away from the group for most of the day and not knowing how they were doing.

"How long were you in the army for?"

Striking up some sort of conversation would help clear my head.

Merle lost his footing a bit at the question out of surprise.

"The hell makes you think I was in the army?"

"It's a bit obvious. The tactics, the way you hold a gun. I know you're a crackhead but im pretty sure drugs didn't magically train you how to use an assault rifle or a handgun."

"Only lasted a few years before I got kicked out an court marshalled," Merle finally answered after a few minutes of silence. "Punched one a my superiors in the face because he was being a jackass," he explained.

I just laughed.

"I would love to say im surprised but we both know I'm not."

                                  ***

The journey back to camp was not as bad as the journey here. The only annoyance being Merle deciding his favourite pastime would be teasing me about Daryl the entire time.

So when we finally got back and Daryl met us at the gate to let us through I decided to brake harshly. And because Merle wasn't wearing a seatbelt, again not exactly a surprise, his face connected with the dashboard with a satisfying smack.

I howled with laughter and Merle swore at me.

"You need ta get that girl a yours under control little brother!" Merle half snapped wiping a small amount of blood from his nose.

"Does she look like the kinda person you can control?" His brother shot back as he walked over to great.

"What's the matter, Merle? You aren't scared of me are you?" I teased smiling sweetly at him.

He laughed, shook his head and wandered inside.

"Nice trick," Daryl commented placing a kiss on my cheek. "Just hope he didn't give a too much trouble."

"Well he's Merle, working him will never be a walk in the park but it's manageable."

I popped open the boot and grabbed one of the bags and handed the other to Daryl.

"Still wish I coulda gone with ya."

He seemed a little annoyed with himself and I shook my head.

"No, it's not just me who needs you, Daryl. The rest of the group needs you too," I pointed out.

When I looked back at Daryl he was just smiling at me.

"What?"

"You said you need me," He teased.

"Shut up Angel."

"Never fancy pants."