Beauty and Her Beast (Daryl Dixon Fanfic)

1

"Every geek for miles heard you popping off rounds."

"You just rang the dinner bell."

My eyes widened as we stared at the glass doors of a department store. Geeks were clawing and banging at the doors. One was trying to break the glass with a rock.

We backed away from the doors. "What were you doing out there anyways?" Someone asked.

"Trying to flag the helicopter."

"Helicopter? Man, that's crap."

"Ain't no damn helicopter."

"You were chasing a hallucination, imagining things. It happens."

"I saw it." Rick insisted.

"I was out there man, I didn't see one." I shook my head.

"Hey, T-dog, try that C.B. Can you contact the others?" Morales asked.

"Others? The refugee center?" I scoffed at Rick's question.

"Yeah, the refugee center. They've got biscuits waiting in the oven for us." Jacqui said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Got no signal. Maybe the roof." T-dog said.

Suddenly, the sound of a gun firing interrupted. "Oh no. Is that Dixon?" I felt my heart stop beating for a split second at the name. It's been so long since I've heard it. But that was all the time I had to gather myself before we were rushing to the roof.

We ran up the stairs, more gun shots going off as we went. "Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?!" Morales yelled as we made it outside. I sighed when I saw which Dixon it was, but seeing Merle meant that I might see Daryl as well.

Merle laughed, firing another round. "Hey! Y'all be more polite to a man with a gun! Huh?" He jumped down off the ledge he was on. "Only common sense."

"Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got!" T-dog yelled. Merle laughed. "And you're bringing more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill!"

Merle made me nervous, swinging the rifle in his hand around like a toy. "Hey! Bad enough I got this taco-bender on my ass all day. Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so, bro. That'll be the day."

I put my head in my hands, knowing what was coming. "That'll be the day? You got something you want to tell me?"

"Hey, T-dog, man, just leave it."

"No!"

"It ain't worth it. Now, Merle, just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble."

The two men ignored Morales pleas for them to stop. "You wanna know the day?"

"Yeah."

Merle took a step closer to T-dog. "I'll tell you the day, Mr. Yo. It's the day I take orders from a ni**er." Not the first time I've heard Merle say that word, still made me angry.

T tried to throw a punch, but Merle responded quickly, hitting him in the face with the butt of the rifle.

Merle continued beating on T-dog. Rick tried to interfere, getting knocked over. Merle then crouched over T-dog, pointing his gun in his face. He spit on T-dogs chest, rubbing it in. "All right! We're gonna have ourselves a little pow-wow. Talk about who's in charge. I vote me. Anybody else? Huh? Democracy time, y'all. Show of hands, huh? All in favor? People started slowly raising their hands. Jacqui raised hers, flipping him off. I didn't budge.

I knew Merle was all talk, Daryl told me plenty about his big brother. "What about you, sugartits? Don't wanna be left out now, do you?"

I scoffed. "We grew up on the same street, Merle, along with plenty of other assholes like you, you don't scare me."

Merle furrowed his brow. "The hell you mean we-" Merle grunted as Rick hit him in the head with the butt of the rifle, sending him to the ground. Rick put his knee on Merle's face, cuffing him to a pole.

He then lifted him into a sitting position, holding onto his vest roughly. "Who the hell are you, man?"

"Officer Friendly." I had to stifle a laugh. "Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no ni**ers anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred white trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive by pulling together, not apart."

"Screw you, man."

Rick sighed. "I can see you make a habit of missing the point."

"Yeah, well screw you twice."

Rick pressed the pistol Merle previously had on T-dog the Merle's temple. "Ought to be polite to a man with a gun. Only common sense."

"You wouldn't. You're a cop."

Rick put the gun down. "All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose. I'll give you a moment to think about that." Rick started searching Merle, finding what appeared to be cocaine on his pocket. "Got some on your nose there." He flicked Merle's nose as he stood up.

Merle chuckled. "What are you gonna do? Arrest me?" Rick chucked the baggie off the building. "Hey! What are you doing? Man, that was my stuff! Hey! If I get loose, you'd better pray! Yeah, you hear me, you pig?!" I rolled my eyes, ignoring Merle's yelling as I went to make sure T-dog wasn't seriously injured. Man, I thought Merle was bad when we were kids. Boy, was I wrong.