juno has passed out at some point. the exhaustion of the day really set in once she'd totally relaxed, headache and sore muscles. goodness knows she needed that nap. jacqui gently shook her awake once they got close to camp. "c'mon sweetie."
rick pulled the truck in behind the orange challenger. the back opened and everyone ran out to greet their family and friends. juno looked to rick, who sorta stared off into space. "come out when you're ready." she placed a hand on his shoulder. "they're all relatively friendly. you'll fit right in." she joked.
rick smiled a little, then nodded.
juno hoped out of the truck and joined glenns side. he turned to her excitedly and ran a hand over the roof of the orange car. "how cool is this?! that was literally the best moment of my life."
juno laughed. "i was able to get a little bit on camera before you left us in the dust."
"oh you're amazing! you need to show me later."
before she could say anything, carl and sophia ran over to her and tackled her into a hug. "woah, careful there you little rugrats. you're gonna knock me over."
carol wasn't too far behind with a small smile. "i'm glad you're both okay." she said to juno and glenn.
"yeah us too." said juno. "boy, have we got a story for dinner tonight."
"you are a welcomed sight!" dale greeted morales with a hug. "i though we had lost yo folks for sure." dale was an older man, always seen sporting a hawaiian shirt and a bucket hat.
"how'd y'all get out of there anyway?" shane asked. was a well built man, and carried the role of a leader for the group. he was a cop before all this, so juno suppose that fit the profile. he was also in kahoots with lori, carl's mother, though nobody else knew. lola only knew this because she once saw them doing the devils tango in the forest while she was taking a walk and filming the greenery ("nope, this is a pg film."), she was very quick to leave, delete her footage, and never went for walks in the forest again after that.
"new guy. he got us out." answered glenn.
"new guy?"
"yeah, crazy vato just got into town." said morales, his arm hung around his wife's shoulder. "he, helicopter boy! come say hello. the guy's a cop like you."
the truck door closed, and rick slowly walked out, then froze when he looked up. rick's eyes welled with tears.
"dad!" carl ran and collided into rick--his father's arms. rick droppd his his knees as he clung to the boy.
next to juno, shane he stumbled a little. his mouth agape, staring at rick. "you okay?"
there was a pause before shane answered. he watched lori run into rick's arms next. "yeah . . . yeah why wouldn't i be?" he didn't take his eyes off the reunited family. juno eyed him wearily. she could only imagine his world probably shattering.
"disoriented." rick explained. "i guess that comes closest. disoriented. fear, confusion... all those things but ... disoriented comes closest." the camp all settled by a low burning fire when nightfall came around, listening to ricks experience. juno sat next to glenn in a camper chair, a shared blanket across her's and glenn's lap. she was in awe with rick's story. the man had quite literally just woke up from a coma (caused by getting shot while on the job), met a man and his boy—morgan and dwayne, who taught rick the new ways of the world, and here he is now. total main character moment.
"words can be meager things. sometimes they fall short." said dale.
"i felt like i'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. for a while i thought i was trapped in some coma dream, something i might not wake up from ever."
"mom said you died." carl cuddled closer into ricks lap.
"she had every reason to believe that. don't you ever doubt it." nodded rick, glancing at lori who clung to his side.
"when things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and the other patients to atlanta, and it never happened." she said.
"well, i'm not surprised after atlanta fell." rick patted lori's hand. "and from the look of that hospital, it got overrun."
"yeah, looks don't deceive. i barely got them out, you know?" Shane explained.
"i can't tell you how grateful i am to you, Shane. i can't begin to express it." rick sent shane a grateful smile.
"there go those words falling short again. paltry things." dale commented.
across the camp, at a separate fire (by choice), was the pelletier family: carol, sophia, and carols husband, ugh, ed. ed placed another log on their fire, catching juno and shane's attention. "hey, ed, you want to rethink that log?" he insisted.
"it's cold, man."
"the cold don't change the rules, does it? keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance, right?"
"i said it's cold. you should mind your own business for once."
shane gets up and walks over to ed's fire, hands on his hips. "hey, ed... are you sure you want to have this conversation, man?"
ed shot shane a stink eyes, then looked to carol. "go on. pull the damn thing out. go on!"
juno could hardly believe her eyes. "unbelievable." she uttered standing up. "hang on, carol."
carol paused from getting up from her seat. juno lightly kicked the log out the licking flames, then grabbed it herself and tossed it to the side. juno glared at ed. you're lucky I don't throw you in the fire. she wanted to say that, but the camp was having a good night, and the last thing she wanted to do was disrupt that by getting into a fight with ed pelletier of all people. maybe she'll save that for tomorrow.
shane crouched down carol and sophia with a kind smile. "hey, carol, sophia, how are y'all this evening?"
"fine. we're just fine." carol said meekly.
"okay."
"i'm sorry about the fire." she apologized.
"no no no. no apology needed. y'all have a good night, okay?"
"thank you."
"i appreciate the cooperation." shane said, side-eyeing ed.
juno ruffles sophia's hair and patted carols shoulder, who sent juno a grateful smile. together, shane and juno rejoined the camp.
"have you given any thought to daryl dixon? he won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind." dale expressed. Oh, daryl.
t-dog fiddles with the stick in his hand. "i'll tell him. i dropped the key. it's on me."
"i cuffed him. that makes it mine." said rick.
glenn piped in. "guys, it's not a competition. i don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy."
t-dog eyed the fire. "i did what i did. hell if i'm gonna hide from him. "
"we could lie." amy suggest.
juno shook her head. "absolutely not. that's not fair to him."
"we him tell the truth. merle was out of control. something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed." andrea said. "your husband did what was necessary. And if merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but merle's."
"and that's what we tell daryl? i don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you? word to the wise... we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt." dale advised.
"i was scared and i ran. i'm not ashamed of it." t-dog admitted.
"we were all scared. we all ran. what's your point?" andrea asks him.
"i stopped long enough to chain that door. staircase is narrow. maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. it's not enough to break through that... not that chain, not that padlock. my point... dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. that's on us."
juno felt still felt tired when when she woke up the next morning, as she spent most of the night wallowing in guilt, just imagining poor merle trapped alone on top of that building. she thought about it most of the night, but she decided that maybe, she can convince shane to let her go back and get him. the odds were low however. shane didn't like Merle, he'll she didn't really either, but that doesn't justify their actions. to hell with shane, she didn't need his permission.
it wasn't too long was she finally able to convince her brain to sleep.
when juno left her tent the next morning, she was tossed a granola bar by amy, which in return she asked if she wanted to see the footage of rick riding into the city like a bat out hell. juno suspected glenn must have told her about it.
amy's eyes widen. "holy crap! that's nuts!"
"right? glenn and i could hardly believe it. speaking of, where is he? i haven't seen him yet." said junk, looking around the camp.
"he's crying over his new car." amy laughed.
amy wasn't exactly exaggerating. juno found glenn standing by the car, the wheels removed and now propped up by cinderblocks, the front hatch opened wide, watching as dale dismantled the car. poor guy looked like he was about to burst into tears at the sight.
"look at 'em." grumbled glenn. "vultures. yeah, go on, strip it clean."
"generators need every drop of fuel they can get. got no power without it. sorry, glenn."dale reasoned. rick walked up on the other side of glenn, dressed in more civilian clothes now.
"morning, cowboy." juno greeted.
"juno."
"thought i'd get to drive it at least a few more days." whined glenn.
rick patted his shoulder sympathetically. "maybe we'll get to steal another one someday." then he walk off.
"chin up, buckaroo." juno said, giving him a side hug.
glenn grumbled in a mocking tone.
"hey now." she warned. "i'll personally see to it that i find you another one, okay? and i'll make sure dale keeps his vulture hands off it."
"heard that!"
juno laughed. "okay?"
glenn nodded. "okay."
"great. now let's get you some food. and i wanna show carl the video of his dad. i think i'd be cool for him to see how badass h—"
screams echoed through the camp. juno's blood ran cold.
"mom!" carl shouted.
she was quick to break into a sprint towards the screaming.
"carl!"
"dad!"
"momma!!" sophia cried out. juno was first to stop them. the two kids running to her and enfolding her in hug. "are you both okay?!" she looked them over, checking for bits or scratches. juno sighed of relief when she found nothing of the sort.
rick was right behind her. "are you good?"
"are they okay?" lori asked frantically, carol right behind.
juno passed the kids to their parents. "yeah, they're fine."
juno followed the men out to a clearing, where they found a walker chowing down on a dead dead. a familiar bolt was poking out of the deer's side.
the walker noticed them, and growled. before it could stand though, rick, shane, morales, glenn, and jim all charged it and started clubbing it with whatever weapons they had. it all looked kinda silly, if juno was being honest. until dale came in with an axe and chopped its head off. the head landed a little too close to juno's feet.
"it's the first one we've had up here. they never come this far up the mountain." dale sighed.
"well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what." jim guessed.
they hear branch snapping from the forest. everyone tensed for fear it was another walker. another snap, followed by some rustling, then from out of the bushes came daryl dixon, armed with his infamous crossbow, looking very upset.
"son of a bitch! That's my deer! look at it. all gnawed on by this..." he kicked the walkers corpse. "filthy," kick! "disease-bearing,"kick! "motherless poxy bastard!" one final kick.
"calm down, son. that's not helping." dale eased.
daryl glared at him. "what do you know about it, old man? why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to 'on golden pond'?" juno had to hide the smirk with her hand. "i've been tracking this deer for miles. gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. what do you think? do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?"
"i would not risk that." shane said.
daryl sighed. "that's a damn shame. i got some squirrel... about a dozen or so. that'll have to do."
juno looked down, nudging the walker head with her boot, more so just out of curiosity, when it snarled and bared it's rotten teeth. she jumped back in surprise, nearly yelping.
daryl grunted. "come on, people. what the hell?" he nudged juno away from the walker head, and shot it with his crossbow. a bolt to the brain shut it up. "it's gotta be the brain. don't y'all know nothing?" he scolded, then walked off past the group to the camp.
"merle! merle! get your ugly ass out here! i got us some squirrel! let's stew 'em up."
shane caught up to daryl. "daryl, just slow up a bit. i need to talk to you."
"about what?"
"about merle. there was a ... there was a problem in atlanta."
a deafening silence.
"he dead?"
shane shook his head. "we're not sure."
"he either is or he ain't!" daryl yelled.
rick stepped up. "no easy way to say this, so i'll just say it."
"who are you?" daryl glared.
"rick grimes."
"rick grimes, you got something you want to tell me?"
rick spoke slowly and clearly. "your brother was a danger to us all, so i handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. he's still there."
"hold on. let me process this. you're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?!" daryl's face turned red to the point where steam coulda blown from his ears.
"yeah." at that daryl chuckles the string squirrels he'd caught from hunting at rick and charged. rick was able to block his attack. daryl unsheathed a big knife he had.
t-dog called out:"hey! watch the knife!"
shane ran up behind daryl and was quick to wrap his arms around his neck, putting him into a chokehold.
"you'd best let me go!" daryl struggled.
"nah, i think it's better if i don't."
"choke hold's illegal!"
"you can file a complaint. come on, man. we'll keep this up all day."
rick bent down a little to meet daryl's eye level. "i'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. do you think we can manage that?"
daryl didn't answer, so rick asked a little more stern. "do you think we can manage that?"
daryl grunted. "yeah."
shane let him go.
"what i did was not on a whim. your brother does not work and play well with others." rick stated.
"it's not rick's fault. i had the key. i dropped it." t-dog said.
"you couldn't pick it up?" daryl posed angrily.
t-dog paused. "well, i dropped it in a drain."
"if it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't."
"well, maybe this will. look, i chained the door to the roof... so the geeks couldn't get at him... with a padlock. tt's gotta count for something." t-dog explained.
daryl threw a hand up in indignation. "hell with all y'all! just tell me where he is so that i can go get him."
"he'll show you. isn't that right?" lori queried with disdain.
"i'm going back." rick confirmed.
lori sighed, and walked away into the rv.
as much as juno didn't want to go back to the city, she decided that she was going to come along and help. she had packed her backpack light, with a few things they might need (the taser still there. she should probably give that back to rick). she contemplated about leaving her phone behind, but decided on bringing it anyways. she plugged it into a battery operated portable charger (making a mental note to find more batteries soon), and threw the both of them in the front pocket of the backpack. who knows, there might be something worth documenting.
with the bag over her shoulder, juno made her way to the cube truck. shane and rick stood next to it, having a what seemed to be a serious chat.
"well, look, i ... i don't, okay, rick? So could you just... could you throw me a bone here, man? could you just tell me why? why would you risk your life for a douche bag like merle dixon?"
daryl's head perked up from a ways away. "hey, choose your words more carefully."
"no, I did. douche bag's what I meant." he sassed. shane turned back to rick. "merle dixon...the guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst."
rick shook his head. "what he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. i can't let a man die of thirst... me. thirst and exposure. we left him like an animal caught in a trap. that's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being."
lori joined in. "so you and daryl, that's your big plan?"
rick looked to glenn with a sorta pleading look.
glenn frowned when he noticed. "oh, come on."
"you know the way. you've been there before... in and out, no problem. you said so yourself. it's not fair of me to ask, i know that, but i'd feel a lot better with you along. i know she would too." rick gestured to lori for the last bit.
"that's just great. now you're gonna risk three men, huh?" shane scolded.
"i'm coming too." juno announced. "so four."
"five." t-dog said.
daryl huffed and grumbled. "my day just gets better and better, don't it?"
"you see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?" t snapped back.
daryl eyed him. "why you?"
"you wouldn't even begin to understand. you don't speak my language."
"that's five." dale confirmed.
"it's not just five. you're putting every single one of us at risk. just know that, rick." shane spoke. "come on, you saw that walker. it was here. it was in camp. they're moving out of the cities. they come back, we need every able body we've got. we need 'em here. we need 'em to protect camp."
rick's face lit up in realization. "it seems to me what you really need most here are more guns."
"right, the guns." glenn muttered.
shane furrowed his brows. "wait. what guns?"
"six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. i cleaned out the cage back at the station before i left. i dropped the bag in atlanta when i got swarmed. it's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up." rick explained.
"ammo?" he asked.
"700 rounds, assorted."
"you went through hell to find us. you just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?" lori asked.
juno decided that she'd had enough with the conversation and was going to wait by the truck . . . with daryl.
she found him sitting in the back, toying with his cross bow. he must have walked off at some point too. she didn't blame him, it was becoming a little too soap opera-y and juno wasn't a fan of soap operas.
she settled down across from him. she wasn't really too sure what to say, so she started fiddling with the inside of her backpack. she wasn't actually looking for anything, but she just wanted to look busy, and avoid the awkward silence. she opened one of her smaller pockets. "oh!" she forgot that was even in there, and got a little excited. "i found this cool rock yesterday." she rambled.
daryl glanced up from the crossbow for a moment, raising an eyebrow.
she held the rock, rubbing her thumb over on it. it was smooth and a pale green colour. "i think it's jade? but i'm not a hundred percent sure, so don't quote me on that."
she held the rock out for him to see. he glanced at it, and hummed.
"i use to collect rocks when i was younger. i never really knew much about them though, i just thought they were pretty. they also have a whole bunch of spiritual meanings and stuff associated with different stones. like healing powers and stuff like that, but i dunno. i think it's kinda cool."
juno patted a random beat to her legs. silence fell upon them again, but the awkwardness seemed to clear a bit. daryl eyed her for a moment before returning his attention to his bow. a few minutes passed before daryl abruptly stood up and walked to the front of the truck. he beeped the horn a few times.
"come on, let's go!" he yelled impatiently out the open door. he sat back down.
the ride was relatively silent, and pretty tense. no one spoke until we neared close to the city.
"he'd better be okay." daryl grunted.
"it's my only word on the matter. i told you the geeks can't get at him. the only thing that's gonna get through that door is us." t-dog said.
the breaks of the truck squealed as the truck came to a stop along the railroad track. "we walk from here."
it was a bit of a trek before they reached a fence they had to cut through in order to reach the store.
rick took this as a moment to plan, looking to glenn and lola. "merle first or guns?"
daryl was quick to jump in. "merle! we ain't even having this conversation."
"we are. you know the geography. it's your call."
glenn and juno glanced at each. juno nodded. "merle's closest." glenn said. "the guns would mean doubling back. merle first."
rick crawled through first, holding the fence open for everyone to pass through easily. juno unsheathed her knife and clutched it tightly. goodness, did she hate being back here. they stealthily able to manoeuvre through the streets, hiding behind cars and dumpsters. they were somehow able to reach the department store without gaining any unwanted attention.
it looked like a tornado shred through the store. shelves knocked down, the glass display cases were shattered, clothes strewn all about. everything was destroyed. a lone walker walks out from a hallway.
"damn. you are one ugly skank." daryl's bolt was quickly lodged through its head. daryl made sure to pull out the arrow as they passed.
they were quick to reach the roof. t-dog leading the way with the bolt cutters. sure enough, the door was still closed shut by the chain, so theoretically, merle is safe. the instant t-dog cut through the padlock, daryl pushed his way in front. "merle! merle!"
then something catches daryl's eye. "no! no!"
juno hopped down the stares, only to see no merle. at least, not all of merle. left behind on the ground, in a puddle of blood, was merle's hand.
"no! no!"