Consumed | 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐲𝐥 𝐃𝐢𝐱𝐨𝐧

twenty-three.

"Ya' would do the same for your brother." He scrunches his nose at me. Did he really bring my brother up?

"Difference is, my brother's dead." I drop the knife on the counter and take a few steps towards him, "And he was caring and so precious, not a STD infested maniac who only cares about himself. You aren't the person I thought you were so I don't have anything left to say to you." Daryl stares at me solemnly for a few moments before I take the courage to leave.

As I enter the cell block, Rick retreats from his cell as he wipes the sleep from his eyes. "G'morning." He groggily says to me. I nod and smile at him in return. "Did- did Judith sleep alright for you?" Rick puts a hand on his hip, "If not, I can take her for tonight."

I shake my head, "No, no. She slept like an angel. And honestly I don't mind having her. You need more sleep than me. I can deal with a few more sleepless nights, you can't, especially if today doesn't go well."

"Are you coming today? We could do with you if all goes south." Rick asks.

"I think I'm gonna stay here. Look after the kids and babysit the loony." I nod over to Merle sleeping in his bed in the cafeteria.

Rick puts a hand on my shoulder and nods, "Good idea." I nod back and smile.

"I know." I force a chuckle, "I've been telling everyone I'm a genius but no one believes me." Rick chuckles and shakes his head.

"Yeah, you think that." Rick raises his eyebrows with a teasing smile. I widen my eyes as I look at him in shock. Was Rick Grimes actually joking around? He was able to still do that. "Are you sure you want to stay?" He double checks, "I think Ash will be there, if you want to see him. Keep an eye on Daryl to make sure he doesn't knock him out."

"Haha, as if he could." I snort, "Why would he knock Ash out anyway?" Rick raises an eyebrow at me and looks at me from the corner of his eye like I was stupid. His face plastered 'Did you really ask that stupid question?' across it. "I'm sure Hersh can handle them both. Even with just one leg, he can whoop ass." I nod.

"Right. He is pretty tough." Rick agrees.

"There's some porridge out there." I nod towards the room it was in, "You need to eat some before you go." While on his spiral of madness, I could tell Rick wasn't eating much or maybe not at all and he needed something before he made decisions for this whole group. He needed something to make him more rational, not like the Governor was going to be rational at all.

–

Rick, Hershel and Daryl had not long left before Glenn started to try and give out orders within the group. He was a great guy but wasn't strong enough to be making all these decisions. Obviously I still did what he said to not cause problems for myself. I wasn't trying to be the leader of anything today. Hopefully it would count as a day off. But who am I kidding? When do I ever have a day off?

"Carl, come here." Glenn orders and Carl trots his way over, "You stash these with the loading gun, all right?" Carl looks over to me for confirmation and I nod at him for permission. He takes the box of bullets and shoves them into his pockets. "Beth, Charlie put more up on the catwalk." He passes a box of bullets to them both, "If anyone gets pinned down we need to make sure that they have plenty of ammo. I'll go work on the cage outside." Nodding, I begin to load up a rifle with ammo to make sure it's full in case we need it urgently.

"What we should be doing is loading some of this firepower in a truck and paying a visit to the Governor." Merle points at the guns with his gnarly arm. Glenn stops in his tracks and stares at him. The endless hatred Glenn has for Merle increases every day they live in close quarters. "We know where he is right now." He adds on.