Quick shout out to @multiple_fandom_girl for being a wonderful reader. Please check out their book 'You Could Be My Angel Or My Demon' for another Daryl Dixon/Walking Dead read :).
I woke up and he was gone. The sun shone through the open cage door with an orange glow indicating that it was still early morning. I sat up and pushed myself to the edge of the bed, running a hand through my hair as my body adjusted from coming out of the first dreamless and peaceful sleep I'd had in a long time.
I put on a fresh change of clothes for the day and shoved a small knife in my boot, my gun in my belt and then grabbed my machete by the door on the way out. On the top level I could just see out of the high windows and out at the courtyard. Daryl was knelt down in front of a cross that had been placed in the ground, marking an empty grave for Carol with T-Dog and Lori beside her. I didn't know how long he had been out there for, but he was just now beginning to stand again and head back towards the prison.
I made my way down the stairs and went into the room that we had set up as our kitchen and dinning area and started preparing food for the morning. Beth was already awake, looking after the baby and we were then soon joined by everyone else, minus Rick of course. I sat on a staircase in the room on about the 7th step while Daryl sat two bellow me, Oscar to our left and everyone else around the table. We were all eating breakfast and for the most part it was silent.
Until a familiar voice broke it. "Everyone okay?" Rick asked, coming in to join us in clean clothes after apparently tidying himself up in his cell block before coming to see anyone.
"Yeah, we are." Maggie replied.
"What about you?" My dad then asked him.
"I cleared out the boiler block." He explained, looking down at Carl.
"How many were there?" Daryl asked.
"I don't know." Rick sighed. "A dozen, two dozen. I have to get back. Just wanted to check on Carl." He stated, patting his son's back before turning to leave.
"Rick, we can handle taking out the bodies." Glenn said, rising from his seat. "You don't have to."
"No, I do." He nodded before glancing over at Daryl and walking quickly in our direction, stopping at the base of the stairs. "Everyone have a gun and a knife?"
"Yeah. We're running low on ammo, though." Daryl explained.
"Maggie and me were planning on making a run this afternoon." Glenn spoke up. "Found a phone book with some places we can hit, look for bullets and formula."
"We cleared out the generator room." Daryl said. "Axel's there tryin' to fix it. In case of emergency."
"We're going sweep the lower levels as well." I added.
"Good, good." Rick nodded before walking back the way he came and closing the gate behind him.
"Rick!" My dad called, but it did little to stop him.
"Someone should watch over him." I said.
"Let me handle Rick." Dad spoke.
"Alright." Glenn nodded as Maggie stood up. "Kat, we could probably use an extra hand today." He said.
I glanced down at Daryl before he nodded, saying that he could handle the sweep of the lower levels before taking the last bite of his food.
"Okay, but I think I'd be better if we leave soon instead of this afternoon."
"Okay." Maggie nodded in agreement for them both before they went to go get ready. I stood up and stepped down the stairs, around Daryl, taking his empty bowl from his hands and handing him mine to finish off as I didn't want the last bit. He took it and finished it off right away before following me to where we had been doing the washing up with his bowl.
"I'll clean those up in a bit." Beth said to us.
"Oscar, you're with me." Daryl said to the prisoner. "Let's go."
"Can I come?" Carl asked.
Daryl glanced over at my dad for an answer considering Rick wasn't here and he nodded, deciding it was probably a good idea to keep Carl busy. Dad then stood up himself on his crutches, shaking a little as he was still adjusting to them. I moved to help him, but was only hit with a nice glare.
"I'm fine." He reassured before taking the lead through the door with everyone but Beth and I following.
I moved over to her, smiling down at the newborn in her arms for a moment before speaking.
"If anything happens while I'm out, I want you to go up to the second level in the cell block and lock yourself in one, okay? If there are any walkers it will be safer to take them out through the bars with a knife and if there are people you hide under the bed. It should be dark enough under there that they won't be able to..."
"Kat, nothings going to happen." She cut me off stubbornly. "The walkers have been cleared out and Andrew's dead."
"Humour me?" I pleaded.
Beth sighed. "Okay. I will... but it's really you that should be careful. You're leaving the prison."
"I can take care of myself."
"So can I."
"I know you can, but I'm older... it's my job to worry incessantly." She smiled and rolled her eyes slightly at me before I gave her a one-arm hug and then left to find Glenn and Maggie.
"Sure you'll be right to do the sweep?" I asked Daryl when we were back in the cell block, everyone else close by, but out of hearing range. He gave me a look that said 'I'll be fine,' and I lightly smiled at his stubbornness. "I just don't like the idea of everyone splitting up into small groups. Not right now, anyway, not after..." I trailed off and shook my head, "I just wanted to double check."
"We'll be fine." Daryl replied surely. "It's you that..."
"Yeah, yeah, Beth already gave me the speech."
"You know there's still that body armour..."
"Oh, no." I protested, shaking my head with an amused smile. "You got me into that once, but I promise you'll never do it again, Chief."
"Chief? I think I preferred 'Sparky.'" I heard him mutter, causing me to smile, as he grabbed his crossbow and went to grab Carl and Oscar.
"Hey." I called after him before he could walk away and he turned back to me. "You'll look for her, right? I know you're not convinced that she could still be alive, but..."
"I'll look." He cut me off, not harshly, but absolutely, in a way that came across as a promise. I nodded in response before he then continued to walk away.
Before long Glenn, Maggie and I were in the car and on our way. We pulled in at a few places that turned out to be useless and it seemed like hours were dragging on and with each stop it only got worse. Until we stopped by a discount store. It was one of the last stops on our list and Glenn went over to the front doors with bolt cutters, breaking the chains that had the place locked up. It was a good sign. It meant that perhaps people hadn't broken in to it yet and it would be mostly untouched. At least no-one had broke in through this door, anyway.
Glenn pulled the door open and then immediately ducked as a black shadow flew at him. On reflex I pulled out my gun and held it up, a little on edge, until I realised it was just a bird; a crow. Maggie chuckled at my reaction and I nudged her in the side before putting my gun away and turning back to the car to grab my machete, the silent weapon to go inside with. Maggie stayed in the doorway, holding a flashlight up for us and staying on lookout as we used our own lights to look around a little more inside.
"Glenn, get that duck." Maggie suddenly said.
"What?"
"Get that duck." She said again, shinning her light on a stuffed toy.
"Are you serious?" He asked through a laugh as I smiled at the two.
"Yeah. A kid growing up in a prison could use some toys." Maggie explained.
I turned around and kept looking, shinning the torch in every direction so as not to miss anything. The place was pretty well stocked, but they didn't exactly have any ammo, however I did find formula.
"Well, I'll be damned." I said happily.
Glenn came up beside me and smiled at my discovery. "We just hit the powdered formula jackpot." He said over his shoulder back to Maggie.
"Oh, thank god."
"Grab that shopping basket and fill it up." I pointed to a blue basket that lay on the floor nearby. "I'm going to go further into the back." I said to Glenn who nodded in agreement.
"Okay. I found some beans, batteries, cocktail wieners, many mustards. Once you're done up the back we should head back. It's a straight shot back to the prison from here." He explained.
"Alright. Go tell Maggie. I won't be long."
There wasn't much else to grab really, nothing that we needed at the moment anyway and we could only take so much in the car. We could always come back for another load tomorrow.
"And where is it y'all good people care calling home?" A new voice yelled from outside, breaking me from my search and snapping my attention to the doorway.
I quietly made my way back, so as not to draw attention to myself inside and then peered out the door to see Maggie and Glenn both with their guns raised as a single man who appeared to be alone pointed his gun back at them. His nose was bleeding like he had recently been in a fight and he was missing his right hand, although it was clearly an old wound considering he had a metal cap over the stump with a blade bolted on to the end.
Quietly I leant the machete up against the wall and then leant down to place the torch on the ground so I could pull out my gun and take aim. I stayed in the shadows in the darkened store as I raised the gun. I had a clean shot. He had his gun pointed at Glenn and Maggie, but as far as I could tell he had no idea I was there. His head was in clear view. My fingers grew tighter on the trigger, but then I froze at the sound of Glenn's voice.
"Merle?"
The man laughed, a big smile spreading across his face as his arms slowly moved out to the side, moving to place his gun on the ground... and he did right before his arms went in the air in surrender.
"Wow." He breathed before taking a few steps forward.
"Hey! Back the hell up!" Maggie demanded, neither her nor Glenn having lowered their guns.
"Okay, okay, honey. Jesus." He exclaimed, but his steps forward weakened my hiding position, his gaze flicking over to the side having caught sight of my grey shirt. Glenn's eyes flicked to the doorway briefly and then back to him.
"Kat, come out." He stated, knowing there was little point in my staying hidden anymore. I picked up my machete and held it tight in my left hand, my gun in my right and still raised and pointed in the newcomers direction.
"Well, hi, sweetheart. Didn't see you from back there. Sly." He said, apparently meaning it as a compliment with that smile that was still yet to fall.
"Your names Merle?" I asked, but I didn't drop my gun and I kept my gaze strong.
"It sure is." He beamed.
"You made it." Glenn commented as Maggie looked over to him curiously.
"Glenn. We should..."
"No." He cut me off, neither one of us yet to look away from Merle. "You don't know him." He said a little bitterly, meaning Merle.
Merle ignored our conversation, only one thing on his mind. "Can you tell me, is my brother alive? Huh?"
"Yeah." Glenn responded simply as Merle continued to smile and then nod happily and probably relieved.
"Hey, you take me to him and I'll call it even on everything that happened up there in Atlanta. No hard feelings. Huh?"
Glenn only continued to stare, his eyes darting to the knife bolted on his amputated hand as Merle laughed proudly. "You like that?" He asked. "Yeah. Well, I found myself a medical supply warehouse. Fixed it up myself. Pretty cool, huh?"
"And I suppose a walker did that to your nose too then, huh?" I asked sarcastically. "That's not standard medical equipment. It's crafted after some, but its still makeshift. You didn't get that from a medical warehouse, all you'd need is steel and a good welding iron." He stared me down for a moment before I spoke again. "You're not coming back with us." I decided.
"We'll tell Daryl you're here and he'll come out to meet you." Glenn finished.
"Hold on. Just hold up." He protested. "Hold up. Hey, the fact that we found each other is a miracle. Come on, now."
"You stay here and you don't move... you do that and it won't be all that hard for us to find you again." I said bitterly. "You look like a guy that can take care of himself, surely you can handle any walkers that come by."
Merle looked at me for a moment and then back to Glenn. "You can trust me." He tried to reason.
"You trust us." Glenn stated. "You stay here."
His smile dropped for a second and then he yelled, lunging forward at Glenn as he reached behind his back and pulled out another gun he had kept concealed, firing it at the back windscreen on the car, shattering the glass. Maggie ducked behind the car, both from the gunfire and the shards of glass and Glenn and I did the same, going to the opposite side to her and the closest to us. We couldn't fire, we couldn't shoot him... he was Daryl's brother. And the bastard knew that.
Glenn and I looked back and saw that Merle was gone, instantly jumping to our feet and running around to the other side of the car to see him on the ground, restraining Maggie with his gun pointed at her head.
"Hey, hey, hold up. Hold up." Merle commanded.
"Let go of her." Glenn demanded as we both pointed our guns at Merle. "Let go of her!"
I would shoot. If killing Daryl's brother meant saving Maggie's life then I would do it, but his gun was closer to her then ours were to him. He'd fire just as a reaction of hearing our shots fired and they'd both wind up dead.
"Put our guns in the car. Do it now." Merle demanded and he knew we had no choice but to obey. "You can kick that Machete off to the side to, sweetheart." I again did as I was told.
"There you go. Now we're gonna go for a little drive." Merle stated.
"We're not going back to our camp." Glenn shook his head.
"No, we're going somewhere else. Get in the car, Glenn! You're driving! Move!"
"Okay." Glenn nodded when Merle's grip tightened on Maggie.
"You, in the passenger's seat." He directed me and I again followed my orders, glancing over at Maggie regularly. Merle shoved her in the back and kept his bladed hand up against her throat while he moved his gun on me in case I tried anything while Glenn drove.
Glenn's eyes flicked to the rear-vision mirror constantly looking at Merle and Maggie while I leant up against my door to face Merle who sat on the opposite side of the car, never once taking my gaze off him, which made him do the exact same thing back at me.
The whole trip I racked my brain trying to come up with some similarities between them, something that made sense as to how this man could be related to Daryl, at least the Daryl I knew... and I found nothing, but the matching scars they bared. The ones I had seen on Daryl and a few that were visible on Merle in his wife beater singlet.
So, I'm just going to say this now as I've had a couple of comments on a few things in an earlier chapters. Kat can be a total bitch. I know this, I've done it on purpose. It's a defence mechanism to protect her and most important her family and the people she loves. Anyone who poses a threat to them, could be a potential threat or even just outsiders... she doesn't take kindly too them despite being lovely, charming and friendly towards the group. Andrea for example after the incident with Beth (this was the thing I was getting comments on). Beth could have died so, yeah... Kat lashed out big time. She pulled a gun on Shane after the barn, she continued to insult and threaten Tomas. It's major personality trait of hers and will continue to be so. In up coming chapters another example will be Merle.