BLACK

Episode 11: Trigger-Happy

I should be studying right now, but let's be honest with each other, i hate studying with a burning passion. Anyways, hope you like this chapter. I did, but now I'm questioning myself so...

whatever, the video on the side will show some clips of what happened last episode and some of what is going on in this episode. Obviously, AJ/you are not in it. Go figure. ALSO... to any younger readers I have that have stumbled across this, BE AWARE THAT THE CLIP ON THE SIDE IS FROM THE SHOW THE WALKING DEAD. It does have some blood and violence in it. So just be wary before you young-ins go clicking away.

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The world was blurred as Daryl's eyes fluttered open lightly. The sky was too bright and it was hard to focus on anything. He was exhausted and it hurt to move.
A figure came into view and stopped by his feet. It was you. Your features were hard to make out, but you wore the clothes he first saw you in. Blood and bare feet included.
"Sunshine?" He breathed in confusion. You shouldn't be out here. It was dangerous.
Daryl recognized your breathtaking smile through the haze. It was your real smile, the one you used to wear before the nightmares. The one that had earned you the nickname sunshine. His eyes closed for a moment and when they slowly cracked open again it was someone new. Blue eyes and a shaved head. He recognized his brother immediately.
"Why don't you pull that arrow out, dummy?" His brother's southern voice rang out, "You can bind your wound better."
"Merle." Daryl's lips twitched up in a small smile.
Merle chuckled and knelt down beside him, "What's going on here? You taking a siesta or something?"
"Having a shitty day, bro." Daryl's voice was laced with exhaustion.
"Like me to get your pillow? Maybe rub your feet?"
"Screw you."
"You're the one screwed from the looks of it." Merle scoffed, "All them years I spent trying to make a man of you, this is what I get? Look at you. Lying in the dirt like a used rubber. You're gonna die out here brother, and for what?"
"A girl." Daryl's voice was soft and scratchy. His throat was dry and his head felt like it was filled with cotton. He couldn't focus well. The world was still blurry so his brother's crude words floated by him. He was used to Merle's demeanor anyway. "They lost a little girl."
"So you gotta thing for little girls now?" Merle laughed.
"Shut up." Daryl's eyes could barely stay open.
"Course not. You just gotta thing for your little sunshine." He mocked, "Hot ass like that, I'd have made a woman of her by now. What's taking you, brother?"
Daryl knew something hadn't been right when you disappeared and Merle took your place. He shouldn't know about you. Neither of you had ever met.
"Know what else I noticed? You ain't out looking for Merle no more."
"Tried like hell to find you, bro."
"Like hell you did." Merle's voice became rough, "You split, man. Lit out first chance you got."
"You lit out." Daryl's slow reply fell from his lips, "All you had to do was wait. We went back for you. Rick and I, we did right by you."
Daryl was weakly nodding his head as Merle scoffed, "This the same Rick that cuffed me to the rooftop in the first place? Forced me to cut off my own hand? You his bitch now??"
"I ain't nobody's bitch." Daryl said firmly.
"You're a joke is what you are. Playing errand boy to a bunch of pansy asses, niggers, and democrats. You're nothing but a freak to them. Redneck trash. That's all you are. They're laughing at you behind your back. Your precious little Aj included. You honestly don't believe a woman like her would pay you light of day, do you? I mean you know that, right?" Merle shook his head, "I got news for you, son. One of these days they gonna scrape you off their heels like you was dogshit."
The words stirred a storm in him. Merle had hit on every single one of his fears and stoked the fire of resentment and worry in him. Black edges trickled in his eyesight as he started to fall out of consciousness. Merle lightly tapped his chest startling Daryl back into the same state of haze.
"Hey." Merle said, "They ain't your kin, your blood. Hell, you had any damn nuts in that sack of yours you'd go back there and shoot your pal Rick in the face for me. I mean come on baby brother. A part of you wants to; he's always hanging around Aj. Guy is closer to getting in her pants than you are."
Daryl didn't want to shoot Rick, at least he didn't before, but as Merle spoke his words and anger rose from his belly and spread through him. Merle grabbed Daryl's jaw and forced him to look directly at him.
"Now you listen to me. Ain't nobody ever gonna care about you except me, little brother. Ain't nobody ever will. Now come on." Merle let go of his jaw and began to stand, "Get on your feet before I have to kick your teeth in."
Merle began to kick Daryl's feet while yelling at him to get up. The kicks got rougher, shaking his whole body, as a groan began to fill the air covering Merle's yells. The haze began to disappear and everything slowly came into focus.
Daryl glanced down toward his legs to see a gray skinned walker with greasy black hair and no lips gnawing on his boot. Adrenaline dumped into his system as a cry escaped his lips. Daryl tried to pull himself back as the walker looked up at him with yellowed, glossy eyes. He used his other leg to kick the geek in the face sending him to the ground. Then he lunged to the side trying to grab the crossbow that was barely out of reach. The walker jumped toward him forcing Daryl to throw up his arms in an attempt to keep the geek from sinking its teeth into his neck.
Daryl rolled it over onto its back but the walker had a hold of the back of his head. He struggled for a moment until it rolled back over on top of him. Daryl used this momentum to kick the geek off him, not knowing that the sound of the struggle had attracted another walker that was limping towards them.
Daryl grabbed his walking stick and pushed the walker back into the ground before raising the stick up and then bashing it into the geek's head multiple times until the monster was still and its head was just a pile of disgusting mush. Daryl rolled off him onto his back in time to see the second walker only a few yards away. With a grunt he grabbed the arrow stuck in him and began to pull it out of his back. A cry of pain slipped his lips as finally the arrow was pulled out of his side. He couldn't think, he could only act. His breaths were coming fast as he stuck the arrow in his mouth. Then he perched the crossbow against his legs, as he sat in the wet sand, and used both hands to pull the string of the crossbow back. This usual simple task became ridiculously difficult with his entire left side aching with pain from where he had ripped the arrow out. Finally, the satisfying click of the string latching onto the back rang out. He set the arrow in its place just as the walker got in arm's reach of him.
Daryl fell onto his back to avoid the walker and fired the arrow into its head. The geek fell dead as Daryl laid against the sand panting with his eyes shut.
When he opened his eyes again time had passed. The redneck hadn't even realized he had drifted off again. The sun was directly over him and beating down. Daryl slowly sat up with a grunt and glanced around for any other potential enemies. When the area came up clear he made his way across the pond to sit on a shaded rock by the water. He pulled the filthy button up shirt off leaving only his bloody wife beater. He folded the shirt into a thick pad, placing it over the arrow hole on his torso, and then tied it there with the sleeves. The entire time his mind drifted toward Merle. Obviously it had been a pain induced dream, but that didn't change what his racist older brother had said. Briefly his mind drifted towards spotting you first with your bright smile, but Merle's word drowned your image.
"Son of a bitch was right."