(TW!! Drug usage & perverted-ness!!)
We jump over a wall and manage to sneak into Woodbury once again, only to be found on the outside of a fight ring, crouched behind a dumpster.
We left Glenn and Michonne behind, Michonne is a target- Glenn is weak, and we trust her with him...slightly.
My heart races as I aim the machine gun; The Governor has made Daryl and Merle fight to the death.
There are people surrounding them, Walkers on leads- much like at the farm, and two brothers desperate to get out.
I take a deep breath in and exhale slowly out. Everything moves in slow motion as I aim right above Daryl's head at the Walker behind him. My hands shake slightly as the bullet wound has gone numb; a piece of a shirt has been tied around it.
The air is warm on my shirtless torso, my bra the only coverage I have on my upper body though I can feel sweat trickle down my temple.
My hands jerk back as I shoot a Walker directly in the head, Maggie shoots at the people of Woodbury as they all panic and run away, screaming.
Rick tosses a grenade out and Maggie and I continue firing, narrowly avoiding Daryl and Merle a few times.
Bullets ricochet off of the metal walls, smoke fills my lungs and burns my eyes, people's screams make my ears ring.
A man aims Daryl's crossbow directly at my head but before I manage to shoot him, Daryl punches him in the back of his skull, grabs his crossbow, and begins running.
"Daryl!" I scream, desperately trying to get him to see us.
He quickly turns to me and motions to his brother to run towards us, Merle complies easily.
Once they get behind the safety of the dumpster we book it to the streets inside the walls, gunshots are still being fired inside the walls.
It feels a lot colder out here, less stuffy. I feel like I can actually breathe again.
"They're all at the arena! This way!" Merle says, pointing to the east.
"You're not goin' anywhere with us!" Rick orders. "You really wanna do this now?!" Merle yells, hiding behind a bus.
He begins kicking at the walls, trying to take down a panel so we can easily crawl out.
"C'mon man." Daryl urges.
Merle grunts as the panel bends, leaving a gap for us to escape. I nod to Maggie to let her out first, covering her with my machine gun just in case.
"Rick, come on. We've got to go." Daryl pleads to Rick. Once Maggie is out, I climb through, followed by Daryl and Rick. As soon as we escape from the confines of the walls of Woodbury, we see Merle beating a Walker with his metal arm- protecting his missing hand wound.
"A little help would be nice!" He yells, more Walkers approaching him.
I fire my pistol at a few before Merle stands up and yells, "We ain't got time for this!" Daryl agrees, "Let's go!"
Nothing else needs to be said as we begin running through the abandoned streets, careful not to be seen or heard-minus a few gunshots.
We run through the woods, sticks slamming into our faces as we make a run for it. Sticks and leaves crunch under us, a symbol of survival.
The sun begins to rise, a full night has gone by while fighting at Woodbury. The air begins to warm as we zoom past Walkers, trees, and any potential threat.
"There!" I whisper-yell, pointing at our van in the street.
"Glenn!" Rick whisper-yells, trying to get Glenn's attention.
Glenn quickly appears from behind the car, "Rick? Rick!" He responds, walking into the woods as we approach the road. "Oh, thank god." He exhales, seeing that we're all in one piece.
Air burns my lungs as I desperately try to catch my breath, the aftermaths of smoking are great.
"Now we got a problem here. I need you to back up." Rick warns, Glenn notices Merle. "What the hell is he doing here?!" He yells, trying to run at him. Michonne unsheathes her sword and Rick blocks both of them.
"Hey, hey, hey!" He yells, everyone's commotion has to draw some attention from Walkers because there's a lot of yelling.
Rick aims his gun at Michonne's forehead, "He tried to kill me!" She yells.
"Look what he did!" Glenn motions to his swollen and black eye. "If it wasn't for him-" "He helped us get out of that hell hole!" I yell, blocking Merle. I hate that no-dick bitch but, I've known him for years.
Daryl stops and looks at me, "Where the fuck's your shirt?" His question catches me off guard, "Oh uhm...on a dead body?" He looks around, confused.
"Whatever, we'll explain later." I say, aiming my bow and arrow at Michonne. Daryl holds his crossbow with his legs, takes his black leather, dirty, winged vest off, and hands it to me.
I look at him confusedly but take it without saying anything. "I'm sick of Merle drooling over the sight of you in your bra." Daryl spits.
I smirk and put the vest on, aiming my bow and arrow at Michonne again.
"Damn, little brother. Seems you got yourself a bitch!" Merle exclaims. "Don't fuckin' call her that." Daryl's voice is full of ice.
"Get him the hell out of here!" Glenn yells.
"Hey, we both took our licks, man." Merle says to Glenn. "Jackass." Daryl grunts to Merle. "Hey, shut up." Merle rolls his eyes.
"Enough!" Rick turns his head and yells at Merle. Michonne tries to take the chance with her sword, but I yell at her to stay back and pull my arrow back farther, symbolizing that I'll release it.
Merle chuckles at Daryl yelling to Glenn to quit aiming his gun at his face. "Looks like you've gone native brother." "No more than you hangin' out with that psycho prick back there!" Daryl yells. "Oh, yeah, man. He is a charmer, I got to tell you that." Merle looks at me. "I bet he'd love you."
Smack
Daryl punches Merle straight in the jaw. He grabs Merle by the collar and pulls him close to his face. "Don't ever speak to Adrian like that again." "Look, little brother, I was just statin' facts. He's been puttin' the wood to your girlfriend Andrea. I'm sure he would enjoy you big time, baby." Merle moans and licks his lips.
I slam him up against the tree behind him and smack him with my bow and arrow. "Speak to me like that again and I won't stop until you're fuckin' face is mushy enough to eat with a goddamn spoon!" My eyes are filled with anger, my jaw is clenched so hard that it's starting to hurt.
"Wait what?" Glenn looks around. "Andrea's in Woodbury?" "Right next to the Governor." Daryl says. Michonne goes at Daryl and Merle again with her sword, but Rick stands in the way.
"I told you to drop that!" When she lowers it, he continues. "You know Andrea? Hey, do you know Andrea?" He approaches her slowly, talking quietly and softly.
"Yep, she does." Merle answers for Michonne. "Her and blondie spent all winter cuddling up in the forest. Mm-mm-mm. Yeah. My Nubian queen here had two pet Walkers. No arms, cut off the jaws, kept them in chains. Kind of ironic now that I think about-" "Shut up, bro!" Daryl yells.
Rick looks from Merle to Michonne, who is just glaring at Rick.
"Hey, an, we snagged them out of the woods. Andrea was close to dyin'."
"Is that why she's with him?" Maggie asks. "Yep. Snug as two little bugs. So whatchu' gon' do now, Sheriff, huh? Surrounded by a bunch of liars, thugs, and cowards." Merle won't shut the hell up, I can tell he's pushing Rick to his limit.
"Shut up." Rick orders, his voice firm and irritated. "Oh, man, look at this. Pathetic. All these guns and no bullets in 'em." "Merle, shut up!" Daryl yells.
"Shut up yourself! Bunch of pussies! You roll-" Rick slams his gun into Merle's head, knocking him out.
"Asshole." He mumbles.
We walk back to the car, leaving Merle there so that we can discuss privately.
"I mean...he's my brother. I'm sure I can get through to him." Daryl looks at me then to Rick.
"It won't work." Rick admits. "It's gotta." Daryl has a certain pleading look in his eyes but not his voice. "It'll stir things up." Daryl approaches Rick, "Look, the Governor is probably on the way to the prison right now. Merle knows how he thinks and we could use the muscle."
"I am not having him at the prison." Maggie says softly. "Do you really want him sleeping in the same cell block as Carol or Beth? Or Adrian? You saw and heard the way he talked about her in front of her face!" Glenn points out sternly.
"He ain't a rapist." Daryl quickly says. "Well, his buddy is." Glenn responds back. "They ain't buddies no more. Not after last night."
"There's no way Merle's gonna live there without putting everyone at each other's throats." Rick says, shaking his head.
"So you're gonna cut Merle loose and bring the last samurai home with us?" Daryl points to Michonne. "She's not comin' back." Rick quickly responds. "She's not in a state to be on her own." Maggie points out.
"She did bring you guys to us." Glenn reminds us. "And then ditched us." Rick says, rolling his eyes.
"At least let my dad stitch her up." Maggie pleads. "She's too unpredictable."
"That's right, we don't know who she is." Daryl says. "But Merle, Merle's blood." "No, Merle is your blood. My blood, my family is standing right here and waiting for us back at that prison." Glenn says sternly. "And you're part of that family." Rick looks into the woods. "But he's not. He's not."
"Man, y'all don't know." Daryl looks directly at me. I can see some sort of apprehension in his eyes but I don't know for what.
"Fine." He looks around at everybody. "We'll fend for ourselves."
"Wait, wait, woah. You can't just leave." I say, my heartbeat picking up its pace.
"No him, no me." "Daryl you don't have to do that." Maggie says. I look at Rick with a pleading look, "We could put him in a different cell block."
"It was always Merle and I before this."
"Daryl-" I start but stop myself. "You're just gonna leave like that?" Glenn asks.
"You'd do the same thing." "What do you want us to tell Carol?" Glenn steps closer to Daryl. "She'll understand."
He looks around at everybody.
"Say goodbye to your pop for me." Daryl says, walking through our small circle.
"Wait, wait, wait. Daryl. You can't be serious!" I put my hand on his shoulder but he quickly turns around.
"He's my brother! You'd do it for Alyssa and you know it!" I don't respond. He scoffs, "We ain't together! All you were for me was a wet mouth."
Everybody stops in their tracks. My face drops, softens, then hardens.
Fuck. You.
"Fine." I spit, taking my bow and arrow off and stripping his vest off. I throw it on the ground.
"You're right. We ain't datin'. That was the deal. Go for all I fuckin' care. Take your fuckin' vest and get the hell out of my sight." I storm off, angry tears forming but I don't know why.
The first man I let into my pants, it was just a pity fuck or some shit. The first man other than Nick is once again- another asshole.
I don't know why I expected anything different. Maybe I was just blinded by the fact that would never happen with Glenn, so I settled for the second best. It doesn't even matter anymore, he's gone, and I couldn't be fucking happier.
Maggie approaches me, "Hey are you-" "Get the fuck off of me." I slap her hand away from my shoulder. She pauses but continues to persist. "What Daryl said was-" "I don't care, Maggie. I don't need your pity."
My brain immediately goes to the Dilaudid in my backpack. I begin to pick at my cuticles, "I just need a second." I say, looking at my feet.
My attempt at getting her to feel sorry for me works because she says, "I'm here if you need anything." And she walks away.
I smile and go in the woods opposite from Merle- and Daryl.
I sit behind a tree and open my backpack, searching quickly for the needle and drug.
Once I feel the crinkle of the plastic bag, I smile and pull it out. My eyes sparkle with excitement as I open the Ziploc bag and pull out the needle, syringe, and the medicine.
The familiar excitement of taking drugs fills my body as I quickly fill the syringe almost halfway with the Dilaudid. The clear liquid, without even taking it, makes me already feel better- just by looking at it.
What about the promise to Alyssa? Nah, I promised her I wouldn't try to kill myself again. Also,
She doesn't have to know.
Nobody does.
I stick the needle into my arm and inject the familiar liquid into my veins, I immediately smile and toss my head back, adjusting to the feeling of euphoria.
"Adrian! Let's go!" I hear Rick call from the distance. "Comin'!" I yell back, quickly shoving everything into the depths of my backpack.
I stand up but quickly grab ahold of a tree, my head spins as I adjust to the standing position.
"No! No! Adrian please!"...His screams of pure horror and agony are the only things I can hear other than the sound of tearing flesh.
I shake my head and dig my nails into my wrist.
"Adrian! Come on!" Rick yells again. "Give me a damn minute!"
I struggle to walk as I make my way out of the woods, T-Dog's torn up shoulder is the only thing in my vision as I continue my way to the car.
I grab ahold of another tree before the dizziness finally goes away.
"Adrian, you okay?" Glenn asks. "I am perfectly splendid." I respond, straightening up.
All three of them look at my confusedly but Rick nods to the car and they all climb in. I follow behind them.
I flop in the car and my head lands on Maggie's shoulder. "Adrian are you sure you're-"
The world shakes as I tilt my head back, basking in the glow of the Dilaudid.
"I am amazing."
(Summary:) Daryl decides to leave with Merle. Right before he leaves, he says something rude to Adrian about their night. Adrian decides she isn't having it and finds a drug in her backpack and uses it.