Daryl bent over as he grabbed the crossbow volt and slid it out of the creature's skull. It made a sloshing noise as it exited the wound. I kept watching, preparing myself and trying to get used to the sight. It was gruesome, being sort of shielded for what seems like a month, wasn't good for anyone. Not unless if we wanted to withstand this disease.
Glenn glanced towards me, gently tugging me along to follow the rest of the men who had moved on while I was thinking to myself.
He nodded towards me and I did the same. I picked up my pace into a slow jog, going through a hall and finally some part of the building that had a rusty old metal stair case that, to my guess, led up to the roof. I was the last to follow them, not really knowing the geography well of this building since I never visited this part.
When we reached the top landing of the metal stairs, Rick rattled onto the chains. He glanced back at us, waiting to see if we were ready to face what might be behind that door.
I breathed in and out and lifted up the hatchet. I braced myself for any gruesome sight, dead body, dehydrated human, maybe torn apart, you name it.
Rick gestured T-Dog over, who held bolt cutters, T-Dog lifted the bolt cutters and snapped the thick metal chains in half. T-Dog quickly pulled off the chain, making the sound of old metal being dragged, when Daryl quickly kicked the door open with his foot. Impatient to let T-Dog move out of the way.
"MERLE!" Daryl shouted as he quickly stepped out. "MERLE!" He climbed up some stairs that led to a small bridge, which stood over some huge pipe. Daryl jumped off the steps as he turned towards, where I presumed, where they had chained Merle.
I followed Glenn. They started to slow down as they neared the area. Why the heck were they slowing down?
I stopped shortly as I landed my eyes on the sight. I watched as Daryl shouted 'no' and let one arm sling on his side while the other held his crossbow.
Daryl turned towards T-Dog and Rick, glancing both at them and the sight. His face was scrunched up into anger and sadness mixed in. It was uncomfortable to watch as he tried to sob. He probably hardly cried, which explains the face.
"NO!" he shouted again. He kept pacing back in forth, processing it.
The sight was horrifying. Merle's damn hand was left behind. Blood was dried on the concrete and the cuffs. The thing was covered in dirt, his fingernails were filled with grime, the skin on his fingers were weathered. There was a saw beside the hand, vividly telling the story without you asking.
I guess you could say, small piece left behind. I chuckled yet cursed at myself for that pun. All puns should go to hell.
We stood in silence, Daryl's breathing a bit irregular. We didn't bother to say anything, in case we triggered something in him. He could be unpredictable sometimes.
It became deadly silent.
I stood there, my back beginning to ache and my feet were sore. I swiped sweat off my eyebrow as I was cautious, waiting to see if Daryl might suddenly lose his mind or temper.
Daryl grunted as he swiftly lifted up his crossbow, giving out a loud click, and aimed at T-Dog.
What do you know, I wasn't wrong.
As if Rick were expecting it, he quietly cocked the pistol towards Daryl's head. I watched as Daryl was breathing hard, deciding if he should react irrational.
I backed up, bumping my side into Glenn while I studied them. I remembered Rick explaining his journey to the camp, how he fired one shot and was swarmed by the dead people, the walkers. And I'm pretty he wouldn't hesitate to do what's need to be done, but the risk was just overwhelming.
I wrapped my fingers around Glenn's arm, knowing that sometimes I could get a bit of security with him. He might have thought he isn't much, that he isn't brave, but he is.
Glenn didn't turn his head, I felt his eyes glimpse onto me and back to Daryl.
Daryl was sweating buckets, gallons. His sandy brown hair was matted to the sides of his face, his face was all pink and sweaty, his eyes were squinting. His breathing sounded like a mixture of frustration, sadness, and whimpering. It's difficult to explain his cries.
It was still silent, the crossbow slightly shaking as Daryl kept glaring at T-Dog. The sound of the wind crying out was evident, it's what made it even more intense.
The fact that we could stop and hear the wind while Daryl decides if he wanted to pull the trigger out not, made it more thick.
"I won't hesitate," Rick said, finally breaking the silent barrier between them. The tension was thick, bitter and hot. "I don't care if every walker in the city hears it."
Daryl kept blinking his eyes, the frown becoming deeper onto his face while the crossbow shook in defeat. He closed his eyes in pain and lowered the crossbow and kept his head down. He knew he had no choice, there wasn't one. Unless he wanted his death wish to be killed by smelly corpses.
T-Dog sighed, kept his stern look onto Daryl while he waited for Rick to say anything else.
Daryl slowly shifted from one foot to another, uncomfortable by T-Dog's stare. He kept blinking his eyes, making the tears go away so nobody would say anything. He sniffed, his face going stone cold as he hid his emotions. "You got a do-rag or something?"
It was silent, T-Dog looked at him with a face that didn't seem too sure, before digging through his large pocket. He kept his eyes on Daryl as he handed him a blue rag, Daryl took it without any type emotion. Not exactly tearing it away from him, but it wasn't a gentle touch.
Daryl shook the rag, getting off any dust or dirt, but not by much. He set down his crossbow as he slowly neared the grey, revolting hand. The smell of decay was very strong, coming from such a small little thing.
Daryl shook the rag several times before sighing and gathering up his breath. He bent over, spread the rag out, the blue was bright, along with the white designs.
Glenn started to walked forward, watching closely in disgust, knowing that Daryl had balls to pick up that thing. It had a revolting stench, it was grey and bloodied and I wondered how he was managing to keep from puking.
"I guess the, um," Daryl said, his voice slightly breaking, "the blade was too dull for the handcuffs." I cringed as he picked it up, grabbing it by the pinkie finger. "Ain't that a bitch?"
He set it down onto the rag and breathed out, he gently wrapped it up, stood up and glanced among us. His eyes landed onto Glenn, Glenn's face dropped even more as he realized that Daryl was going to put it in his bag.
Daryl opened Glenn's bag while Glenn closed his eyes in disgust. Glenn kept his eyes closed, disgusted by the hand. It was good thing he didn't think of putting it in my bag. I would have argued with them.
"He must have used a tourniquet, maybe his belt." Daryl observed the dry blood. "Be much more blood if he didn't." He rose the crossbow and began to follow the blood drops trail.
Rick, T-Dog, and Glenn glanced at each other, deciding what to do. We wouldn't have much time to actually discuss, Daryl wasn't one to be patient, especially if it was his brother.
T-Dog walked over to collect Dale's stuff, a tool bag had been dropped and tools were spread out.
I turned my head towards Glenn. His expression was filled with disgust and terror, if you were to look closely. I nudged him, he quickly nodded and followed after Rick.
I heard the sound of metal clinging together as T-Dog stuffed it into Dale's bag. I averted my eyes towards Daryl's tall figure. He was hunched over like a predator looking for his prey as he slowly studied the trail.
He rose his crossbow, the muscles on his arms flexing, the sun gazing down onto his sandy brown hair, he cautiously entered at what seemed another exit towards the roof. Weird how it was just opened, Merle probably left it open without caring. Not that he shouldn't, he was practically bleeding out.
I waited for Glenn to enter, Rick and Daryl were ahead and I was kind of afraid to be on the front line.
I cursed myself. I'm not going to lie, but it was difficult since I was shielded from the majority of it. I've only seen most of it on the news channel, and just one in person, but it's easy to forget. The mind makes you forget.
It was dark, my eyes struggled to adjust to the sudden change of light. Daryl kept on walking, not seeming to notice the change of it. He stepped down several steps, it led to more metal steps.
"MERLE!" Daryl suddenly shouted. I flinched from being surprised. He was an idiot to just shout like that. "You in here?"
He stepped down some more steps, his weapon raised and ready to fire.
After several moments of following Daryl, we had entered a part of a building that had several offices.
We quietly entered, the walls were covered in darkness, the only light source were the windows, which didn't give much. My eyes had finally adjusted to the surroundings, adrenaline was pumping through my veins. I felt that I could take anything out, which I probably couldn't.
Daryl quickly fired a shot at a walker. It was female, no jaw and it's rotten tongue was hanging loosely. I cringed from the sight and smell, and followed closely to Glenn.
I kept walking quietly, the hatchet raised in front of me. It felt sort of alien like. I never thought that I would have a hatchet with me in some business building. I never thought that I would be fighting things that devour humans. After all, humans were almost always on top of the food chain. Now, we seemed pathetic. No way could the world be the same.
They entered another room, it held a small desk, which was probably the clerk desk.
"Had enough to take out these two sum bitches," Daryl said as he walked near a corpse. Dried blood that had leaked out of his skull was black, rotten blood? "One handed."
I would have chuckled, but the situation was too heavy and serious. I started to rethink my decisions. They had told me that there was a possibility of one of us not coming back. One of us getting hurt of stranded. I wasn't sure which was scarier, to die early or to live for something that won't ever be there.
Daryl bent over as he loaded his crossbow, he grunted from the strength of the weapon and placed the volt onto the thing. "Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother. Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails." He stood up, rising his crossbow and skipped over the corpse.
"Any man can pass out from blood loss," Rick replied. "No matter how tough he is."
There wasn't a point in disagreeing with Rick, even though he did know what Daryl meant. Merle is a tough little bitch.
I followed after Glenn. I didn't feel like I was part of it anymore. There would be times where I felt kind of numb, like I wasn't actually steering my body towards anything.
It felt like that now. Somehow, I kept following them.
"MERLE!" Daryl shouted again.
"We're not alone here," Rick said with irritation. "Remember?"
"Screw that," Daryl argued. He popped out his head from the doorway, glancing back and forth to see if any of those corpses were coming. "He could be bleeding out, you said so yourself."
I kept my head down, I was behind Glenn and trusted him. I don't know how, but I felt the need to trust at least someone.
I looked up, the men were entering another room. My arms had begun to ache from carrying it up, keeping it stiff and ready. My posture was tense from all the horror that was waiting to happen.
"What's that burned stuff?" I heard Glenn ask.
I neared the burning stove, the small fire was surrounded by some black burned stuff. It was dripped on by blood, a belt buckle was laid onto the side of it.
"Skin," Rick replied.
"Skin?" I asked surprised.
"He cauterized the stump," Rick explained. I felt like cringing, I noticed how Glenn straighten his jaw, probably trying to get rid of the nausea.
"Told you he's tough," Daryl said, almost kid like. I watched his face, he looked vulnerable right there. Just for those small few seconds, he believed in his brother, the asshole brother of his. "Nobody can kill Merle but Merle."
"Don't take that on faith. He's lost a lot of blood," Rick said. He passed Daryl, who was still studying the stove.
"Yeah?" Daryl said as he glanced around the room. His eyes landed on something that had caught his eyes. "Didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap."
"He left the building?" Glenn asked.
"Why the hell would he do that?" I asked. I noticed Rick tense up, realizing the situation got a whole lot more worse than just somebody cutting off their damn hand.
Daryl walked towards the broke window. "Why wouldn't he?" Daryl examined the broken glass. The window was opaque, barely allowing any view.
"Well, maybe because there might be about hundreds of walkers that could tear him apart within minutes," I said. "It's an idiotic choice."
Daryl tensed and quickly glared at me. He averted his eyes back to the window. "He's out there alone as far as he knows, doing what he's gotta do." He looked among us. "Surviving."
"You call that surviving?" T-Dog asked.
"Apparently," I said sarcastically. "Just walking down the streets of Atlanta, bleeding out and a huge chance of passing out and having walkers get at you, is called surviving."
"What are his odds out there?" T-Dog agreed.
"No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks," Daryl spat.
I looked down, maybe he was right.
"You couldn't kill him," Daryl said as he tried to intimidate Rick. "Not so worried about some dumb dead bastard."
"What about 1,000 dumb dead bastards?" Rick responded. "Different story?"
"Why don't you take a tally?"
I sighed and crossed my arms and waited for them to stop having this small argument.
"Keep your hands off me!" I heard Daryl's voice rise as he was pushed back by Rick. "You can't stop me!"
"I don't blame you." Rick studied Daryl. "He's family, I get that. I went through hell to find mine." He kept his eyes on Daryl's, his eyebrows raised. "I know exactly how you feel." Daryl's bottom lip slightly quivered as he thought about his brother. "He couldn't get far with that injury. We can check a few blocks, but only if you can keep a level head." He paused, waiting for Daryl to calm himself down.
"I could do that." He kept staring, hiding his emotions.
"Only if we get those guns first," T-Dog spoke.
I watched Glenn gulped, nervous about what would happen next. I nudged him, he watched me, not bothering to make a smile.
"We're getting the guns," Rick said. He glanced towards Glenn, who's jaw was tightening and flexing from nervousness. "You know the geography well."
***
Haha, I loved writing some of this, but couldn't pour my heart out since my parents keep nagging me. I mean, I spent the afternoon cleaning the house, there's one dish that wasn't washed and they flipped out. Just one dish! And they're ready to ground me.
Anyway, this chapter was accidentally published since I was figuring out how to write on the new updated version of wattpad the website. The class was ending and I was trying to save of what I had written in this chapter, and within I guess five to ten minutes, I had two votes. I love that! But it was hilarious since it stopped with the word as, and immortaldixon was asking "as what?"
Ah, love you, guys. Have a wonderful life. Please comment and vote!