Pushing the car door shut, Maggie and Glenn stand next to each other and talk quietly as they wait for me. They exchange a few kisses and I pretend gag at them causing them to look at me weirdly. "Don't be jealous." Maggie replies, looking back at me. She squints in the blinding sun.
"Not jealous." I reply, "Just repulsed by love." Okay maybe I was jealous but no way would I ever admit that. It was like admitting my biggest secret in the world. Maggie and Glenn were young and in love. It was no surprise they couldn't keep their hands off each other. Grabbing the bolt cutter from the car, I snap open the chain bolting the door closed before gently opening the door. Something crashes and then birds come flying at us. Instinctively, I swing at them with the bolt cutters as Maggie yelps. We all take a relieving breathe before Glenn walks into the building holding his torch.
Maggie shines her torch into the building as I take watch beside her. "Glenn, get that duck." Maggie tells him.
"What?" He gasps.
"Get that duck." She tells him again.
"You serious?" He asks in disbelief.
"Kids growing up in a prison could use some toys, numbnuts." I roll my eyes as I pace down the road a bit.
"Numbnuts?" Maggie asks, looking at me dumbfounded.
"Yeah." I nod and she raises her eyebrows, "Means stupid. You know idiot, slow, dumb..." Maggie widens her eyes and nods at me before entering the establishment as well. I stay outside taking watch of our surroundings just to be sure we don't get cornered by walkers or worse, people. Looking around the coast seemed clear but it felt like someone was watching me. My curiosity got the best of me as I pace down the street looking between cars as I do so. I pull my gun out, just in case. Creeping up along a dirty, grey car, Maggie and Glenn retreat from the store as they discuss what they got. I snap my head back towards the car as I spot something move from the other side.
"Gotta get back home." Glenn calls, "Probably make it back in time for dinner." My stomach gurgles at the word and I look back at the car before walking over to Maggie and Glenn.
"I like the quiet." Maggie passes the shopping basket to Glenn, "Back there, back home. I can always here them outside the fence no matter where you are." My stomach still rejoices from the word 'dinner' but I couldn't stop the feeling of being watched. Someone was here. I had to tell them before it's too late...
"And where is it y'all good people call it home?" A southern man pulls his gun out at us. His right arm was amputated and had a metal glove type thing on the end of his stump with a large, lengthy knife on the end. Pretty smart to make use of that. Pulling our guns out, we aim them straight at the man as he take up defensive stances.
"Merle?" Glenn gasps. The madman laughs. Merle? So this was the infamous Merle. And somehow he was a lot worse than what I imagined Daryl's brother to be. He had a thicker southern accent and was more unhinged from what I could tell. The great stories of Merle Dixon could not sum him up like actually meeting him in person. He puts his arms up as he walks over to us slowly.
"Back the fuck up!" I order him, stepping forward.
"Ok, Ok, honey." He exclaims, "Jesus." But I don't stand down.
"You made it." Glenn states the perfectly obvious.
"Can you tell me," He steps closer by one step, "Is my brother alive? Huh?"
"Yeah." Glenn replies.
"Hey, uh," Merle schemes, "You– take me to him and I'll call it even on everything that happened up there in Atlanta. No hard feelings? Huh?" Glenn stares at Merle's stump coverer.
"No way, captain hook." I speak up, standing my ground.
"Aha, you like that? Well, I found a medical supply warehouse. Fixed it up myself. Pretty cool huh." He admires his handy work.
"We'll go back, tell Daryl you're here and he will come out to meet you." Glenn tells him. Merle begins stuttering and rambling his words as he comes closer.
"Whoa, Whoa." Glenn exclaims as I shoot my gun at the man. The bullet travels through the air and hits off his make-shift prosthetic. Fuck. In retaliation, he pulls his gun out and fires it at me.
The searing pain of the bullet tears through my upper arm makes it feel like time has been slowed. The sensation is overwhelming like a sudden shock of electricity pulsing through me, causing my whole body to convulse involuntary. My adrenaline kicks in as my heart begins pounding in my chest. My breath coming short and shallow. I look down at my arm, the blood spreading from the bullet wound like a crimson waterfall. My stomach flips in my body and causes me to become nauseated as I drop to my knees. I become blinded to what's happening around me as I can't remove my eyes from my wound.
"Get in the car, Glenn." Merle shouts at him as Glenn begs for him to stop. Merle pushes Maggie into the back seat before grabbing me by my arm causing the shocking pain to run through me once again. He roughly forces me into the back of the car and I fall into Maggie. My face hitting her chest as she quickly adjust her seating. Merle jumps into the front beside Glenn as he forces him to drive.
The car starts and we begin driving off as Merle forces his gun to Glenn's head. Maggie's chest moves fast as she looks at her lover in the front. Today is not going to be the day we die. None of us. I can't let it happen. Maggie looks down at me as I hold my arm in pain. She removes my hand from my wound and she grimaces in shock. By the look on her face it didn't look good. Gently, she applies pressure to it and nods at me reassuringly as she tries to stop her tears from falling. She thought it. She thought we were going to die today at the hands of Merle.
After about half an hour, we stop momentarily as a large, rusty squeaking sound erupts before we set off into a gate. Glenn pulls up along a side road and Merle jumps out, calling out for others. A few men rush over to the car and pull us out of the car. One grabs me by my shoulders, sending waves of pain through me, and begins to pull me off away from Glenn and Maggie. "No." I scream out, even through the pain I kick at the man behind me, "Glenn, Maggie!"
"Shut up." The man grunts behind me before pulling a bag over my head. My hearts beats fast as I get drug unknowingly to somewhere. The bag covering my head makes my breathing become laboured and my arm begins to ache harshly. A door opens and slams before I get pushed onto a chair. Pushing myself forward, I lift my legs to kick the person off but they force me back harshly before tying my arms down. "Let me go." I demand.
"Can't do that, yet." The voice tells me before they open the door again. He exchanges a few words with another man before leaving the room. I hear someone sits down across the room from me and I become uneasy in my seat. I try to adjust myself in my seat to look bigger but fail as my tied arms pull me down. I'm not scared. I'm not, I'll be fine.
A few minutes pass before the door opens again. Footsteps make their way towards me before the bag over my head gets lifted. Looking up at the man, I'm met with familiar eyes. No fucking way. The dawning realization strucks us both as we stare at eachother with the same eyes we did in the past. "Ash?" I croak. His mouth opens in shock as he stares at me tied to the chair. He takes a step back from me before he tightens my restraints looking behind him and then raising his eyebrows at me. He was dead. I'm sure he was dead. My entire world crumbles as I stare at him in utter betrayal.
I thought I knew him, I thought he could be trusted, I thought I could count on him. But times have clearly changed as I look at him now. He wasn't working with me like back then he was on the opposing teams. "Mind giving me some time with her." He raises his eyebrows at the man behind him. My nostrils flare as I stare at the man I once knew.
The man behind nods before carefully leaving the room. Ash paces back and forth as he chews on his fingernails. One simple question runs through my head during his pacing. What was he going to do to me? Kill me or maybe worse.
"You're alive?" He asks me, chewing at his nails still.
"No fucking way." I spit, staring right into his eyes. He looks away and runs his hands through his brown hair. What has he got to be stressed about? He's here living and torturing people. I never thought he was like that. Not him, not Ash. He can't be surely no.
"You're just the same, huh?" He asks with a smile.
"Fuck you." I raise my chin, "Fuck you!" I shout at him and bang around in my chair, causing the waves of pain to pulsate through my body again. Rushing over to me, Ash leans over the chair looking down on me.
"I'm getting you out of here." He whispers before Merle comes crashing in.
"Hey, hey, hey." He laughs, "Having all the fun without me are we, fire boy?" Ash twists himself back into up right position to look at Daryl's brother.
"Never." Ash smiles at him like he didn't just tell me he was going to save me.
"Had a little talk with your girl, Maggie. Told me all about where y'all are holding up." Merle walks towards me, "How do ya know my brother?" He lifts my chin up with his knife. I gulp as the cold feeling of the knife rubs against my face. "Hmm?" He hums but I turn my face away from him. He pulls the knife to my throat.
"Where's Maggie and Glenn?" I stare up at him. He didn't intimidate me. He was Daryl's brother, he couldn't do too much harm to me because I knew about his brother.
"How do ya know my brother?" He asks again.
"He's..." I pause.
"He's what?" He asks more firmly this time.
"He's my..." I pause again before raising my eyebrows at him with no idea what to say.
"How'd my brother pull a fine lady like you?" He licks his lips with a grin. Ash screws his eyebrows at me as he believes my little lie.
"It's the Dixon Mojo, I suppose." I shrug at him, "You seemed to miss out on that gene though." A wide grin erupts on his face before he lets out a large chuckle.
"You are a firecracker!" He laughs, "I like you."
"Feeling isn't quite as mutual." I reply back, locking eyes with Ash. He quickly looks away from me and gulps.
Merle chuckles again, "We're gonna drive you up there. Go see my brother." He nods, "Fireboy's gonna get ya' over there while I go get your little love birds." Ash nods at his orders. Merle backs off and out of the room. Cutting me from my restraints, Ash pulls me up roughly from the chair. His fingers gripping over my wound causing me to wail out. He tentatively moves his fingers from my wound and pulls the bag over my head again. "Follow my orders." He demands.
"Fuck you." I spit again.
"I'm getting you out of here." He grips my arms, "So be fucking patient. I'm slipping a gun into your belt. Use it wisely." I nod at his words as he pushes the gun into my pocket before covering it with my shirt. He pulls me out of the room and to what felt like outside. Shouting and screaming were heard from not too far and I tried to listen to what they were saying. Removing the bag from my head, Ash grabs my wrist pulling me forward to a corner no one could see past. "What's happening?" I ask as he rips off a piece of his plaid jacket. He ignores my question as he wraps the fabric around my wound. "Ash, what the fuck is happening?" I whisper-shout.
"A fight." He replies, monotone as he wraps my arm up, "You need to go."
"Who's fighting?" I question.
"Doesn't matter." He replies, with no expression.
"Tell me." I grab his arm, "Or I'm not leaving." I wasn't going to leave if I didn't know my friends were okay.
"The brothers." He nods. The brothers? Daryl's here. And then I realise what the people were shouting. Words like "Kill them." or "Fight!". No fucking way these pyscho's are making them fight to the death. I shake my head before trying to leave towards the noise but he grabs my arm.
"I can't leave him." I shake my head, "He's a good man." Ash looks me up and down before letting me go. "Thank you." I tell him before running off to the sounds of the casual school ground fight scene. Coming up to them, I stop and watch Daryl and Merle at eachother's necks as the group force them to fight. Walkers snap at them on a leash but get pulled away before they get the chance to bite. Across the crowd, Andrea screams for them to stop the fight. She was alive? After all this time.
Without a thought, I run into the make-shift arena and shoot a walker too close to Daryl. Merle stands up as gun shots begin shooting and a cloud of smoke appears around us. The large smoke cloud makes me cough as I call for Daryl, "Daryl." I cry out trying to reach for him. A hand grabs my arm and pulls me out of the smoke. Running towards a clear area, Ash fires his gun at a few people before rushing me towards an opening in the fence. "No." I defy him, trying to push him off me. Suddenly, Ash gets pulled backwards and a hard fist comes onto contact with his face.
"Don't touch her!" Daryl shouts at him as he pushes him backwards, forcing another punch to his face.
"Daryl, stop." I tap him, "He's a friend, stop." I shout as I pat him to stop beating Ash. He turns around to look at me and his eyes flicker to blood stained fabric covering my arm. His face drops suddenly. "It's not a bite." I reassure him, "C'mon, we need to go now." I grab his hand and pull him under the opening of the gate. Merle follows behind us as we run off towards Rick, Maggie and Oscar, one of the inmates.
"They're all at the arena. This way!" Merle calls out orders to us.
"You're not going anywhere with us." Rick shouts at him, "And who are you?" He looks Ash up and down quickly.
"You really want to do this now?" Merle asks as we take cover behind a vehicle. Firing our guns at a few walkers, we begin running but the blood loss from my wound makes me feel woozy. Daryl and Ash both come to my aid. I push myself onto Daryl as he helps me run and Ash looks at me sadly.
"What happened?" Daryl asks looking down at my arm again.
"Ask your brother." I raise my eyebrows, "He's the one with the wicked curve ball." Daryl shoots his brother a pissed off look and Merle shrugs his shoulders.
Running up to the road clearing, Glenn runs forwards with a lady with dreadlocks. "What the hell is he doing here?" Glenn pulls out a gun and the woman pulls out her cool sword at Merle. What a badass woman! I think I might have a crush on her. Everyone shouts as they pull out weapons on each other. Daryl takes a defensive stance in front of his brother as I support myself against a tree.
"HEY." Daryl shouts, flapping at the gun Glenn held to his face, "Get that thang out my face." His accent thicker.
"Man. Look like you gone native, brother." Merle cackles as he leans against a tree.
"No more than you hanging out with that psycho back there." Daryl throws his arm up at his brother. Amen to angry Daryl. He looked so... No words could explain it.
"Ah yeah man. He is a charmer, I gotta tell you that." Merle looks at the lady with the coolest weapon (unfortunately not me), "He's been putting the wood to your girlfriend Andrea big time, baby. Uhh." He flicks his tongue out at her.
Andrea's in woodbury?" Glenn questions. Yeah, catch up Glenn. The woman raises her sword to Merle again.
"I told you put that thing down!" Rick shouts at her and she obeys, "Do you know Andrea?"
"Yep, she does." Merle sings, "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." She was even better than I thought. Not only did she have a sword she had two goddamn pet walkers. This woman was better than any superhero with a sword ever. She was a whole different type of badass. "Kept them in chains." He chuckles, "Kind of ironic, now that I think about it."
"Shut up, bro!" Daryl yells at him as his brother chuckles to himself.
"Hey, man. We snagged them out the woods. Me and fireboy here." He glances over to Ash, "Andrea was close to dying."
"There's no way she's with him." Maggie defies what Merle says. Am I the only one who thinks that is exactly something Andrea would do? Go off with the one guy who a complete ass hat and that her whole group hates. She's exactly like that. Bad taste in men just like her bad taste in choices.
"Snug as two little bugs," Merle speaks again, "So what you going to do now, sheriff, huh? Surrounded by a bunch of liars, thugs and cowards."
"Shut up." Rick warns him.
"Oh." Merle laughs again like life was a joke, "Look at this. Pathetic. All these guns and no bullets in me." Daryl looks at his brother and tells him to shut up. This is how you could tell he was getting on everyone's nerves even Daryl stood up to him.
"Shut up yourselves, bunch of pussies, you–" Merle drops to the floor as Ash stands over him.
"Who even are you?" Rick asks, stepping forward.
"Friend of Kaia's." He admits. Rick looks to me for confirmation and I nod at him.
"He's good, Rick." I assure him.
The group stand in the middle of the road now trying to decide what to do with the samurai, Ash and Merle. "She's too unpredictable and we don't even know him." Daryl inputs, "Merle's blood."
"No." Glenn stands up, "Merle is your blood. My blood, my family is standing right here." Judging by the state of Glenn's eye, you could tell he went through something terrible to get that big bulging black eyes and no surprise it'd be Merle's fault. We were what was important right now. This group.
"He's right, Daryl." I wince, "And you're apart of that family."
"He's not." Rick adds. Merle groans by a tree behind us.
"Fine," Daryl stands straight, "We'll fend for ourselves."
"Daryl, no." I shake my head at him and hold his arm.
"That's not what I was saying." Glenn tries to set the record straight. We couldn't afford to lose Daryl. We needed him, I needed him.
"No him, no me." Daryl shakes his head.
"Daryl, you don't have to do that." Maggie steps forward.
"Always Merle and I before this." He looks at me holding onto his arm.
"I'm coming with you then." I couldn't fathom Daryl not being around.
"Nah." He shakes me off him.
"I'm coming. I don't care what you say." I move to him again but he steps away. He stares at my wounded arm.
"I don't want you to come." He delivers the hard truth.
"Daryl, please don't do this." My voice wobbles as he walks away. Rick holds onto my shoulder but I manage to get past him. "Daryl, please." My voice cracks as he walks away not even looking back at me. "Daryl!" I call for him again. Maggie holds me close to her as Rick follows Daryl trying to talk him out of it. My body shakes as I try to keep my sobs in. I can't lose him too.
Daryl walks away from Rick and I call for him again, "Daryl!" But he ignores me. Merle gives us a shit eating smile as he showcases his brother to us like he just won an award. But it was a fact to have Daryl on your side was a huge reward. He was strong and he took care of people. A tear rolls down my cheek as I watch him walk off.
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Authors note: the gif at the top is my face claim for Ash who you guys will learn more about within the next couple of chapters.