"Moving to the suburbs?" It was maybe an hour or two after his argument with Lauren that Daryl heard Lori come strolling up to his camp. He barely spared her a glance, annoyed that yet another person was here to bother him. "Listen, Beth's in some kind of catatonic shock. We need Hershel."
"Yeah. So what?" He said dismissively. What did that have to do with him?
"So I need you to run into town real quick and bring him and Rick back." Lori said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Her tone only irked Daryl further, he grit his teeth and didn't respond. "Daryl?"
"Your b*tch went window-shopping." He snapped, finally looking at her directly. "You want him? Go fetch him yourself. I got better things to do."
Lori looked taken aback by his outburst. She blinked in surprise before furrowing her brows. "What's the matter with you? How could you be so selfish?"
"Selfish?" He felt the frustration bubbling up inside him. How could anyone in this group have the nerve to call him selfish after all he had done for them? Sure, he wasn;t always the most warm and welcoming person, but he had provided more than enough for these people and they always asked for more. "Listen to me, Olive Oyl, I was out there looking for that little girl every single day! I took a bullet and an arrow in the process! Don't you tell me about me getting my hands dirty!" He stood up, now looking down at her. "You want those two idiots? Have a nice ride. I'm done looking for people."
He dropped his bolt and the knife he had been using to sharpen it and stormed into his tent, done with the conversation. He heard Lori scoff before heading back towards the farmhouse. Daryl sprawled out on his sleeping bag with a huff. He wasn't sure why exactly he had been so cruel to Lauren or Lori for that matter, they hadn't done anything different than usual. But the interaction he'd had with his brother kept replaying in his mind... if you could even call it an interaction. Hallucination? Real or not, his words had stuck.
It didn't help that the whole interaction replayed in his dreams every time Daryl had fallen asleep since the incident. The dream always started in the same place. He had just been thrown from Hershel's horse and had tumbled down the hillside into the small body of water. The fall must have knocked him out, because the next thing Daryl knew he was fading back into consciousness. He could vaguely make out a figure kneeling over him. As his vision began to unblur, the figure started to come into focus.
Out of all the things Daryl was expecting to see, Merle's face leaning over him was at the bottom of the list.
"Why don't ya pull that arrow out, dummy? You could bind your wound better." His brother said in his signature condescending tone.
Daryl couldn't help but laugh to himself. Of course that was his version of being helpful. "Merle..."
"What's goin' on here? You takin' a siesta or something?"
Daryl squinted, his head pounding and body aching. "Having a shitty day, bro." He muttered.
"Like me ta get cha a pillow? Maybe rub your feet?"
Daryl groaned. "Screw you."
"You're the one who's screwed from the looks of it." Merle chuckled."All those years I spent tryin' ta make a man of you. This is what I get?" Daryl closed his eyes, already sick of his brother's voice again. "Look at cha, lying in the dirt like a used rubber. You're gonna die out here, Little Brother. And for what?"
"A girl," Daryl said weakly. "They lost a little girl."
"So you got a thing for little girls now?" Merle taunted.
"Shut up."
Merle narrowed his eyes. "Cause I noticed you ain't out looking for old Merle no more."
"Tried like hell ta find you, bro." Daryl muttered.
"Like hell you did." Merle sneered. "Ya split, man. Lit out the first chance you got."
"You lit out. All ya had to do was wait." Daryl blinked, trying to focus his vision again. "We went back for ya. Rick and I, we did right by ya."
"This the same Rick that cuffed me to the rooftop in the first place? Forced me ta cut off my hand?" Daryl's eyes drifted down to Merle's hands. Instead of seeing a mangled stump as he expected, he saw that both of Merle's hands were intact. Before he could look any closer, his vision blurred again. "That's him we're talkin' 'bout here? You his bitch now?"
"I ain't nobody's bitch."
"See now, Little Brother, that's just ain't the truth." Merle chuckled, raising an eyebrow. "That piece of tail we'd been sharing camp with. Watching her mutt, makin' good with the family; She's got you whipped, Little Brother."
Daryl scoffed. "I ain't whipped for nobody."
"You're a joke is what you are, playing errand boy to a buncha pansy-asses, whores, and democrats." Merle shook his head in disgust. "You ain't nothin' but a freak to them. Redneck Trash. That's all they see. That's all she sees. They're laughin' at ya behind your back. You know that, don't cha?"
Daryl felt himself slipping in and out of consciousness as he listened to his brother continue. "I got a little news for you, son. One day they gonna scrape you off their heels like you was dogshit. Hey." Merle grabbed Daryl by the front of his shirt. "They ain't your kin, your blood. Hell, you had any damn nuts in that sack of yours,
you'd go back there and shoot your pal Rick in the face for me."
Merle smiled to himself at the thought. "Now you listen to me. Ain't nobody ever gonna care about you except me, little brother. Ain't nobody ever will. Not that little girl, not yer pal Rick, and especially not no college-educated girl like Lauren. Now get up on your feet before I have to kick your teeth in."
Daryl groaned, closing his eyes and laying his head back down with a groan. He couldn't bring himself to move. The dream morphed, Merle disappeared, and the next time Daryl opened his eyes he was met with a different silhouette standing over him.
"Daryl..." The voice echoed in his head. "Daryl, you have to get up."
Daryl squinted, blinking rapidly as he tried to force his vision to unblur. He didn't need to see who it was though, he knew that voice. "...Lauren?"
"You have to get up, Daryl." She repeated. Daryl was finally able to make out her figure, leaning over him, blocking the sun.
"The hell are you doin' here, woman? This place ain't in your search section." He groaned, pushing himself up onto his elbows.
"Well I'm pretty sure "stuck at the bottom of a ravine on your ass" wasn't in your search plan either, so I guess we're both a little off track."
He gave a dry laugh that quickly turned into a grimace as he suddenly became acutely aware of the arrow piercing his abdomen. He reached for the arrow but Lauren held a hand out to stop him.
"Leave it in." She told him. Directly contrasting the advice Merle had given him. "Taking it out will just make the bleeding worse. Better to get back to camp and let Hershel handle it. You need to get back to camp."
"Yeah, no shit." Daryl huffed. He didn't like being told what to do, especially after the talk he had just had with his brother. "I don't need nobody's help. Not Hershel and especially not you. I can handle my own damn arrow."
"Yeah, you're right. You look like you've totally got this situation handled." She gave sarcastically, crossing her arms and looking down at him. He threw his head back in an exasperated sigh. "Daryl, you need to wake up. "
When he opened his eyes again she was gone. Instead of Lauren's face looking down on him, he was met with the terrifying face of a decaying corpse crouched by his legs. The walker was gnawing on his boot, luckily it had been unsuccessful in chewing through.
Daryl immediately scrambled away, kicking the walker away and fumbling for his hunting knife. Although each movement felt like his insides were being shredded apart, he managed to plunge his knife into its brain just in time for another to come stumbling out of the tree line. He grunted in frustration as he went to retrieve his knife and found that it was lodged too deep in the body's skull to pull out.
"Shit." He muttered, glancing up to see the remaining walker approaching. Quickly crawling over to his bow which sat a few feet away, he grimaced and did the only thing he could think to do, despite Lauren's warning. He let out painful shallow breaths as he pulled the arrow out of his body. His body was on fire, screaming at him to stop but he was running on pure adrenaline.
He managed to load the crossbow just in time to take down the walker in front of him. He gave an exhausted groan as his body finally gave out on him, collapsing back into the shallow water. He winced as the water hit his open wound. He looked down and grimaced at the blood seeping through his shirt.
"Told you it'd make it worse." His head snapped up, hearing her voice again. He looked up to find that Lauren had appeared a few feet away, sitting casually on a fallen log nearby.
"Didn't have much choice." He muttered.
"C'mon, tough guy, find something to slow down the bleeding with and get your ass back up there." She nodded to the steep ledge he had been thrown down before.
"I ain't takin orders from you." He narrowed his eyes at her. After Merle's comments, Daryl didn't like feeling ordered around like he was her bitch. He was nobody's bitch.
"Fine." She shrugged. "Stay down here and bleed out then."
He clenched his jaw, hating that she was right. "The hell am I supposed to use?"
"I don't know. You're a smart guy, I'm sure you'll figure something out." She said, standing up and walking a little closer, folding her arms. "Better make it quick, though. It'll be dark soon."
"I know that." He spat. "Jus leave me be, I don't need your help."
He grumbled, looking around for anything he could use to subdue the bleeding. He paused a second when he didn't hear her respond. Usually, she had some sort of witty remark to give after he told her to piss off. Glancing back to where she had been standing, he looked over and saw nothing.
"The hell'd ya go, Woman?" He furrowed his brows. No response. "...Lauren?"
Once again he got no response, she appeared to have simply vanished.
The dream changed again, skipping forward. The dream skipped forward. Daryl had somehow found the strength to rip off his flannel sleeves to bind his wound and was now painfully trying to climb his way back up the ledge. He was nearly at the top but struggling to find the strength to continue.
"You're almost there." He panted to himself, looking up. A few meters above him at the top of the cliff was Lauren once again.
"Though I told you to leave me be." He grimaced, adjusting his grip on the ledge.
"It's your brain." Lauren shrugged. "Not my fault you keep imagining me."
"I told you you was whipped, boy." Daryl grimaced when he heard Merle's smug voice. His brother appeared next to Lauren who sent an eyeroll his way. "She's even bossin' you around in yer own head."
"You best shut up." He grunted, hoisting himself up another foot or so before stopping and taking in a few pained breaths.
"What's the matter, Darylina? That all ya got in you?" Merle taunted from above him. "Throw away that damn purse and climb, boy."
"I liked it better when you was missin'." Daryl huffed, still trying to catch his breath.
Lauren gave a bitter laugh. "That makes two of us."
"You got a problem, little girl?" Merle raised an eyebrow, more amused than threatening.
She crossed her arms and leaned against a tree trunk. "Just that your words of encouragement leave much to be desired."
"These ain't no words of encouragement. This is tough love, sister." He told her simply before looking down at Daryl again. "Now don't go gettin' your panties in a twist, I'm on your side."
"Yeah? Since when?" Daryl gave a humorless laugh, searching for another foothold to hoist himself up further.
"Hell, since the day you were born baby brother. Somebody had to look after your worthless ass."
"You never took care of me," Daryl said bitterly. "You talk a big game but you was never there. Hell, you ain't even here now. Neither of ya."
"Maybe not," Lauren said. "But you are. And you need to get back to camp before dark. The last thing we need is to have another missing person to worry about... and don't call me sister." She added, directing the last part at Merle.
"She's right, little brother." Merle sneered ignoring her final comment. "You gonna make 'em all come out here and save your ass? What a pussy move."
"That's not what I said, meathead." Lauren narrowed her eyes at Merle who smirked back at her.
"Sounded like it to me, Sugar-Tits" Merle chuckled.
Daryl groaned. Hearing them argue was almost as painful as the open wound in his abdomen. Almost. "Will you two shut up?" He hissed, pulling himself up another step. He was nearly at the top, only one or two more steps to go.
"Awh, but we're havin' so much fun here. Aren't we, darlin?" Merle sent Lauren a wink and she clenched her fists at her side. They went back and forth a few more times, their voices dulling to background noise as Daryl focused his energy on pulling himself up the remainder of the way.
He made the final pull and heaved himself onto the forest floor, rolling onto his back and breathing heavily. He was so exhausted and in so much pain that it took him a minute to notice the silence that surrounded him. Confused, he opened his eyes, glancing around the trees to find no one in sight. Lauren and Merle had once again vanished as quickly as they had appeared.