Dinner was spent around the campfire, asking Rick a million different questions. "Disoriented". That was the word he used to describe what he had been feeling. Disoriented. He recalled the whole story, from the moment he woke up in the hospital to the moment he reached that rooftop in Atlanta. Which brought up another question.
"Have we given any thought about Daryl Dixon?" Dale finally asked. "He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind. How are we supposed to tell him"
"I say Lauren should tell him." Amy said.
"What? Why me?" Lauren responded almost defensively.
Amy shrugged, "You're the only one here that he seems to tolerate."
"She's right." Andrea agreed. "He likes you."
"Please." Lauren scoffed. "He doesn't like me. He likes my dog."
"Either way, it'd probably sound better coming from you." Glenn said. Lauren's mouth fell open. She thought Glenn of all people would've backed her up, but here he was throwing her to the wolves. So it was decided. Lauren was the lucky girl who had to tell Daryl Dixon that his brother was probably dead. Awesome.
The following morning seemed to run smoothly. Everyone was pitching in as usual. Well, almost everyone. Ed was sitting on his ass per usual, watching everyone else work. Lauren was too exhausted to chew him out this morning, so she simply rubbed the sleep from her eyes and continued laying out clothes to dry. She had been up since the early hours of the morning, riddled with guilt about the previous day.
Merle sucked. He was rude, obnoxious, sexist, and racist, and he was constantly objectifying the women in the camp. But being left to starve was no way for anyone to die, no matter how scummy.
"Sleep well?" Lauren was jolted from her thoughts at the sound of her brother's voice.
She laughed lightly at his sarcasm. "Is it that obvious?"
Rick gave her a knowing look. "You've been thinking about it too. About the man we left." She hated the way he could read her so easily.
"It's not right." Lauren shook her head. "He could still be alive up there."
Her brother nodded. "Yeah, I've been thinkin' bout that too. I reckon we ought to go back for him. I'll run it by Shane."
Lauren was about to tell Rick that there was no use asking Shane, he'd barely allowed her and Glenn to make runs before. After yesterday, there was no way he was letting anybody back into the city. Before she had the chance to explain, a scream echoed through the camp. But it wasn't just a scream. It was Carl.
Lauren's feet were moving before she could even process what was happening. Along with Carl's screams, she heard the familiar sound of Tank barking. Which could only mean one thing; Daryl was back.
Lauren and Rick ran towards the edge of the camp where the scream had come from, a million questions running through her mind.
Why is Carl at the edge of camp? Where is Lori? What is he screaming at? Why was no one watching him?
She saw Carl run out from the trees and into his mother's arms. Rick, Shane, Glenn, Dale, Morales, and Jim continued running into the woods where he had come from. Once Lauren confirmed that Carl was alright and instructed Lori to go back to the middle of camp, she took off after the men.
Lauren reached Tank first, stopping for a moment to give her dog a welcome back before they both continued. They reached the group of men only to find Daryl kicking the everloving shit out of a fallen walker. The half-gnawed deer corpse beside it gave her a pretty good idea as to why he was so angry.
"Calm down son, that's not helping." Dale muttered.
"Whadda you know about it old man?" Daryl snarled, now seemingly taking his frustration out on Dale. "Why don't ya take that stupid hat and go back to On Golden Pond."
Lauren rolled her eyes, shooting Dale a sympathetic look.
"Was gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think?" Daryl continued, turning his focus back to the deer. "Do you think we can cut around this chewed-up part right here?"
Shane shook his head. "I wouldn't risk it."
"That's a damn shame." Daryl sighed, taking one last look at his now-tainted hunt. "I got some squirrel, about a dozen or so. That'll have to do."
"C'mon people what the hell?" Daryl scoffed, looking at the decapitated but very much alive walker's head on the ground. Shooting an arrow through the skull and quickly pulling it out, he shook his head as he began walking into camp. "It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothin?"
Lauren noticed the strange look on her brother's face.
"Yeah, that's Dixon for ya." She muttered before following him back into the camp.
"Merle! Get yer ugly ass out here." Daryl shouted, making his way towards the RV. "Got us some squirrel. Let's stew 'em up!"
"Daryl, slow up a bit, I need to talk to you." Shane said, causing Daryl to spin around and face him.
"Bout what?"
"About Merle," Shane said. He had on what Lauren liked to call his 'cop voice'. He continued to approach Daryl until they were only a few feet apart. "There was a problem in Atlanta."
Well, so much for Lauren telling him. Daryl glanced around at the group. "Is he dead?"
"We don't know."
"He either is or he ain't."
"There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." Rick said, stepping forward. His voice was equally as cop-like as Shanes.
"Who the hell are you?" Daryl snapped, cutting Rick off.
Rick took a few more steps toward the younger Dixon. "I'm Rick Grimes."
Daryl's eyes briefly flickered over to Lauren at the mention of her surname.
"Rick Grimes " Daryl repeated, the disdain clear in his voice. "You got somethin' you wanna tell me?"
"Your brother was a danger to us all," Rick said matter of factly. Lauren moved forward at this statement, snaking her way around the group until she was on the other side of Daryl. Rick had never dealt with an angry Dixon before and with the way he was talking, there was a good chance this interaction was gonna go south.
"So I handcuffed him on a roof and hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there."
"Hold on a minute, lemme process this," Daryl said, pinching the bridge of his nose. He paced a few steps towards Lauren before turning the other way. "You're tellin' me you handcuffed my brother to a roof? And you left him there? "
It was silent for a moment before Rick nodded slowly. Daryl's breathing grew heavier and Lauren knew that this would be the start of a fight. Shane was on Daryl as soon as he moved towards Rick. Daryl unsheathed his hunting knife but between Rick and Shane, he was taken down pretty quickly. Shane put Daryl in a headlock as Rick wrestled the knife out of his hand.
"Chokeholds illegal, Asshole." Daryl grunted, struggling against the men.
Shane held strong. "Yeah, you can file a complaint."
Once Daryl stopped struggling as much, Rick knelt down in front of the man. "I'd like to have a calm discussion about this. You think we can manage that?"
Lauren sighed, walking forward and nudging her brother out of the way. Rick and Shane's 'cop voices' weren't gonna do much to a man who hated cops other than make him want to struggle more.
"Let him go." She told Shane. He gave her a look and she nodded, silently asking him to trust her. He released Daryl, who immediately got on his knees and took in a few breaths of air. Lauren knelt down in front of Daryl and did the only thing she thought would work. She gave it to him straight up.
"Look, Merle was coked out on the roof spouting some stupid shit about him being the leader. He started shooting all crazy into the streets and damn near attracted every fucking walker in the city straight to the building. Then he tried to kill T and fuck Andrea all in the span of like 5 minutes." She said, relaying the stories she had gotten the previous night. "He almost got all of them killed, Daryl. You of all people know how reckless Merle can be, especially when he's high. We're lucky any of them made it back."
Daryl's eyes were still full of anger and pain, but he didn't move from where he sat. Lauren's words had seemingly gotten through to him in one way or another.
"I see you managed to bring your brother back." He spat, glaring at Rick.
T-dog stepped forward. "It wasn't Rick's fault." He sighed, "I dropped the key."
Daryl's face twisted up in confusion. "Y'couldn't pick it up?"
"I dropped it down a drain."
Daryl pushed himself up, throwing a fistful of dust at the ground. "If that's s'posed ta make me feel better, it don't."
"Well, maybe this will," T-dog offered. "I chained the door on the roof with a padlock. So the geeks couldn't get to him."
Daryl thought for a moment, his eyes still wandering the group. "Man, ta hell with all of y'all. Jus tell me where he is so I can go get him."
As much as he tried to hide the pain in his voice, it was evident.
"I'll do you one better. I'll show you." Rick said. "I'm goin' back." Daryl nodded slowly, seemingly on board with the offer. Rick nodded back and turned, making his way to the clothesline a few feet away. Shane shot Lauren a look, he obviously hadn't been told about Rick's plan.
"So that's it, huh?" Shane followed Rick, who had grabbed his deputy uniform from where it had been drying. "You're just gonna walk off? To hell with everybody else?"
Rick sighed, buttoning his uniform over his white t-shirt. "I'm not saying to hell with anybody, Shane. Not to you or Lauren or Lori or Carl, they know that."
"Well, look, I... I don't, okay, Rick? So could you just... Could you throw me a bone here, man?" Shane pleaded. "Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douchebag like Merle Dixon?"
Daryl's voice rang out from where he sat, cleaning his crossbow. "Hey, choose your words more carefully."
"Oh, I did. Douchebags what I meant." Shane quipped, shaking his head. "Merle Dixon," he spat out the name. "That guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst."
"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me." Rick said calmly. " I can't let a man die of thirst. Thirst and exposure."
"You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick. 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."
"Seems to me what we really need is more guns." Rick said. Shane paused and his curiosity peaked. "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. Six shotguns, two rifles, and over a dozen handguns."
Shane sighed in defeat. He knew Rick wasn't backing down on this. Plus he knew Rick was right, they desperately needed more guns if they wanted any real security.
"I don't understand." Lori approached her husband. "You went through hell to find us and now you're just gonna leave?"
"I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy. Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta.." Rick explained.
"There's a walkie-talkie in the bag I dropped, he's got the other one. Our plan was to connect when they got closer. They'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn him."
"So you and Daryl? That's your big plan?" She questioned.
Lauren spoke up finally. "No. I'm goin' too."
"Absolutely not." Shane quickly shut her down.
"I've been into the city dozens of times." She argued. "I know the routes like the back of my hand. They need me if they wanna get those guns."
"Shanes right." Rick said sternly. Lauren shot him a look of betrayal. "They need you here. You're good with a gun and we're low on ammo. Every bullet we use has to be by someone with good aim."
Lauren scoffed. She couldn't believe he was feeding her this bullshit; as if she hadn't heard it enough times from Shane. "That's ridiculous. You can't just go in blind, you need someone who knows the city."
All eyes suddenly turned to Glenn.
"You're kidding. You're actually joking." Lauren said in absolute disbelief at her brother's audacity. He seriously wanted to take Glenn over her? "Un fucking believable." She spat. "Glenn and I have been in the city dozens of times. And the one time they all go without me everything goes to shit."
"She's got a point." Glenn said, earning him a scowl from Shane. "Look, all I'm saying is it'd be a lot easier if we had someone else who knows the city as well as I do." Rick and Shane looked at each other. Rick was considering the idea but Shane was having none of it.
"You can take me or I'll walk." Lauren declared. "I'm not staying behind again." Rick gave Shane another glance before sighing.
"Fine."
Lauren gave a satisfied nod before waking up to the back of the moving truck, Rick following close behind her.
"Listen, man. I hate that y'all are doing this." Shane told Rick, opening up the almost empty bag of ammunition. "But if you're gonna go, you're taking bullets."
"I'm not sure I'd wanna fire a shot in the city. Not after what happened last time."
Shane reached into the bag again pulling out the small black silencer she and Glenn had found on their last run. "We got one silencer. That's all."
They had five rounds of ammo left. Five rounds for five people. They really needed that bag.