little grimes | daryl dixon | WATTYS 2018

chapter three

the next day
chapter three
august

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i woke up with carl in my tent. i figured lori and rick would want there... alone time, so i asked carl if he wanted to have a sleepover. he said yes.

i let him sleep and i got dressed. my clothes needed to be washed. i wore some black ripped jeans, with a green army tshirt. i grabbed my gun and knife, heading out of my tent afterwards.

"what're we talking about?" i ask as i sit down next to rick and shane.

"you actually." rick says honestly. "we wanted to know, since you seem closest to daryl, you would want to tell him."

"tell him what?"

"they left merle. handcuffed to a roof." shane explains. i sigh.

"he's gonna be pissed. he'll probably try to kill you. just warning you. but here's the deal, i'll calm him down, but you have to talk to him."

"it's a good deal. she seems to be the only he likes." shane says to rick. my brother nods and agrees to the deal.

it was about an hour later when he heard screams. i quickly ran towards the sound, shouting carl and sophia's name.

i had my knife with me so i didn't need anything.

that's when i saw it. a walker gnawing at the deer.

"daryls back." i said to t-dog and he nodded, looking at the arrows. rick, shane, and some others caught up to us.

they started beating the shit out of it and i shook my head. dale finally cut its head off and that's when daryl appeared.

"son of a bitch." i heard him say and i chuckles lightly. "that's my deer. gnawed on by this filthy," he starts kicking the walker. "disease-bearing, motherless, proxy bastard."

"listen hot head, that's not helping." i say.

"oh hush." he winks at me and i smile. "i been trackin' this thing for miles. cook us up some venison. do you think we could cut around this part?" he gestures to the neck of the deer.

"what are you? stupid. we best not do that." i say to him. he knows i'm joking.

"listen girly girl." i roll my eyes while he looks at me and he laughs lightly.

"well, i got some squirrels. about a dozen or so. that'll have to do." he walks over to the walkers head and it almost snaps at him.

"come on people, it's gotta be the brain." he walks off to camp then calls out for merle. when he doesn't show, shane speaks up.

"slow up, i gotta talk to you." he says.

"about what?" he asks and looks at me.

"merle." i tell him honestly. "there was a problem, back in atlanta."

"he dead?" he asks me.

"we don't know." shane answers.

"either he is or he ain't!" he yells.

"i'll just say this quickly," rick begins.

"who are you?"

"rick grimes."

"rick grimes," he says in a weird way. "you got somethin' you wanna tell me?"

"you're brother was a danger to all of us. i handcuffed him to a piece a metal. on the roof."

"hold on. let me process this. you're sayin' you handcuffed him to a roof, and you left him there?!"

"yeah." rick replies.

daryl throws his squirrel and goes at rick.

"daryl!" i yell. "stop!" as shane pushes him to the ground.

"hey, hey," i lean down. "calm down. it's okay. we'll go and get him, promise." he looks at me with his soft blue eyes and nods. "even if it's just you and me, we'll get him." he nods and grabs the hand i held out for him. i pull him up and he sighs.

"i'm goin' back." rick says. "we'll get him."

daryl walks off and grabs his crossbow, coming to me.

"you comin', right?" he asks.

"of course."

"i need you there, august."

"i know." i walk away and head to my tent, grabbing my flannel and walking out to see lori speaking.

"so you and daryl? that's your plan?"

"no. august is coming." rick says.

"no she isn't." lori says.

"what the hell? of course i am." i retaliate.

"no you are not." she's probably on her period.

"are you my mom?"

"no, but-"

"then i'm going. besides, we'll have glenn. he knows his way around. you'll come right?"

"i guess. do i have a choice?" rick smiles at him. "i'll go get my bag."

"and i'm comin'. i dropped the key, i need to go." t-dog says. i nod.

"i'll protect these wuss' lori. no worries."

then shane and rick start arguing. until rick brings up the guns.

"i cleaned the station out before i left."

i sit next to daryl and help him clean his arrows. as they continued talking, daryl said to me, "i-i..."

"a thank you would be nice."

"t-thank you." he stammers and i smile.

"what a sap you are."

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we came to a stop. we stopped the car on the railroad tracks.

"we walk from here." is all glenn said. we all got out of the cube van and started running, me leading.

when we arrived at the shopping center, i'm assuming that merle was at, we saw a walker. i quickly went over to it and killed it with my knife. then we headed upstairs to the what i think was the roof.

we boltcutted the chain on the door and opened it up.

when we walked over to where merle was handcuffed, the only thing i saw, was a hand.

"holy fuck."

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