Scratches And Scars • D. Dixon
| THE SUICIDE KING | Chapter 28
: Leave Me :
The crowd all gathered around the two men as the town was angry for what they had tried to do. The governor has set them up, allowing the two Dixon brothers to be left in the center of chaos. "Kill 'em! Kill 'em!" Th crowd yelled over the loud crackles of fire. The governor just watched with his now one good eye after his fight with Michonne.
Men, woman, even children all were yelling at them, and the two brothers didn't move a muscle. Daryl was terrified, feeling his heart beating faster by the second and his throat clenching to keep the vomit from rising.
His mind floated back to Natalie, hoping she would be alright and that's all that mattered to him. The crowd kept shouting profanities at them, and Daryl looked over to his brother.
Over in the side lines, Andrea was fighting against Milton who tried to keep her away from her lost group mate. "Let me go. Let me go." She kept repeating.
"You can't go." He tried telling her, but she pushed him away and made her way over to the Governor.
"Let me go. Philip." She tried to call out, only for Martinez to come over to her and out the end of his gun to her stomach and shook his head.
"Stay out of this." He told her coldly.
"He's my friend." She persisted.
"It's not up to me anymore. The people have spoken." The governor said while turning to look at the blonde.
"What?" She breathed out and looked over the family.
"I asked you where your loyalties lie. You said here. Well, prove it. Prove it to us all. Brother against brother." The governor told the town, feeling his eye bleed down the bandage, but made no attempt to wipe it away.
"Yeah." The crowd tells him.
"Winner goes free." The governor stated as the crowd cheered and he walks over to Merle. "Fight to the death." The governor commands and Daryl looked to his brother who had no emotion to his face.
"Philip, please. Don't do this. Don't do this." Andrea pleaded for the two.
Once Merle heard the crowd calling his name he lifted his arm. "Y'all know me. I'm gonna do whatever I got to do to prove..." and that's when he punched Daryl in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. "That my loyalty is to this town!" He screamed while beaten the shit out of his brother.
As they continued to fight, walkers were placed around them and Daryl got up with a fight. He wasn't to let his life go away from his own brother.
As he was down on the ground, Daryl grabbed onto his neck. "You really think this asshole's gonna let you go?" Daryl asked angrily.
"Just follow my lead, little brother. We're getting out of this right now." Merle muttered between his teeth and picked the man up.
They then went back to back and looked around their surroundings. "Philip, no. Stop this." Andrea tried to tell the man, and fought against the man holding her. "Philip, stop this!" She yelled louder.
The two brothers tried to fight the walkers and that's when gun shots went off. Maggie on the other side of the wall held a rifle in her hands as she shot the walkers in the head and started shooting people.
The lights were then shot out next, smoke grenades went off, and Natalie was ducking between the crowd. She grabbed onto Daryl's hand. "Come on." She whispered and pulled him out of the smoke.
As he went to grab his crossbow, the girl looked back behind her shoulder and over the man with one eye. "Let's go!" Rick yelled at her and they went off.
<><><>
The gun fire was still going off, Natalie taking a deep breath for her burning lungs. "They're all at the arena. This way." Merle told them.
"You're not going anywhere with us." Rick stated firmly.
"You really want to do this now?" Merle asked while placing his gun on the bed of the military truck and climbing up the wall.
"Come on, man." Daryl told his brother, standing guard and holding Natalie on his side. "Why didn't you go to the car?" He asked her and she sighed.
"I couldn't lose you." She breathed out and he felt his heart swell. As Merle got the gate open, Daryl patted the man's shoulder.
"Rick, come on. We've got to go." Daryl told him.
"Go." Rick told them and Daryl pulled Natalie along with him.
They all saw Merle beating the head of a walker. "A little help would be nice." He told them and they all saw the large group of walkers coming their way. "We ain't got time for this." He stated and ran away.
"Let's go." Daryl told them and Maggie looked to Rick in question.
He nods his head and they run off as the walkers got inside the large town. They ran for a few minutes and got to the car. "Glenn!" Rick yelled.
"Rick. Rick. Rick. Oh, thank god." He told them and he looked to Natalie who collapsed his his arms. "We need to take her home." He told them and lifted her up.
"Now we got a problem here. I need you to back up." Rick said as the man saw Glenn raise his gun at Merle.
"What the hell is he doing here?" He asked angrily.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Rick yelled while going to grab the gun.
"Hey, put that down!" Daryl yelled.
"Whoa, Whoa, whoa!" Merle muttered.
"Put it down!" Rick told Michonne.
"He tried to kill me!" Michonne yelled.
"If it wasn't for him- -" Glenn stated looking over the tired girl in his arms.
"He helped us get out of there." Daryl tried to reason.
"Yeah, right after he beats the shit out of you." Rick told his best man.
"Hey, we both took our licks, man." Merle told them.
"Jackass." Daryl muttered.
"Hey, shut up." Merle bantered.
"Enough!" Rick yelled and machine raised her sword over the older brother. "Hey, hey, relax!" Rick yelled at her.
"Put that down now!" Merle grumbled.
"Get that thing out of my face!" Daryl yelled as Glenn had raised his gun.
Merle laughs. "Man, looks like you've gone native, brother." He stated jokingly.
"No more than you hanging out with that psycho back there." Daryl argued.
"Oh, yeah, man. He is a charmer, I got to tell you that. Been putting the wood to your girlfriend Andrea. Big time, baby." And then her moans just to piss off Michonne.
"What? Andrea's in Woodbury?" Glenn asked.
"Right next to the governor." Daryl told them and Michonne tried to go at Merle again.
"I told you to drop that! You know Andrea? Hey, do you know Andrea?" Rick asked Michonne.
"Yep, she does. Her and blondie spent all winter cuddling up in the forest. Mm-mmm-mmm. 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 it." Merle went on and on.
"Shut up, bro." Daryl told him as he went over to Natalie who smiled weakly at him.
"Hey, man, we snagged them out of the woods. Andrea was close to dying." Merle stated.
"Is that why she's with him?" Maggie asked.
"Yeah. Snug as two little bugs. So what you gonna do now, Sheriff, huh? Surrounded by a bunch of liars, thugs, and cowards." Merle stated.
"Shut up!" Rick yelled as his eyes scanned over Natalie who was making a face of pain.
"Oh, man, look at this. Pathetic. All these guns and no bullets in them." Merle laughed.
"Merle, shut up!" Daryl yelled.
"Shut up yourself! Bunch of kiddies you roll- -" and that's when Rick hit the back of his head with the butt of his gun.
Natalie moaned in discomfort. "Thank god, he was causing me a headache." She muttered.
"Asshole." Rick muttered and looked to Daryl who was staring at his brother. The sheriff picked the hurt girl as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
The man placed her on the hood of the car as they started talking about Merle. "It's not gonna work." Rick told him.
"It's gotta." Daryl pleaded.
"It'll stir things up." Rick stated.
"Look, the Governor is probably on the way to the prison right now. Merle knows how he thinks and we could use the muscle." He reasoned.
"I'm not having him at the prison." Maggie stated.
"Do you really want him sleeping in the same cell block as Carol or Beth?" Glenn asked while Natalie winced when she tried to get up slightly.
"He ain't a rapist." Daryl told him honestly.
"Well, his buddy is." Glenn told them.
"They ain't buddies no more. Not after last night." Daryl told them.
"There's no way Merle's gonna live there without putting everyone at each other's throats." Rick told the man.
"So you're gonna cut Merle loose and bring the last samurai home with us?" Merle asked and Rick looked over the dark skinned girl.
"She's not coming back." Rick told him.
"She's not in a state to be on her own." Maggie explained.
"She did bring us to them." Glenn told Rick as Natalie looked over the woman.
"I thinks she should stay." She voiced in.
"And then ditched us." Rick muttered.
"At least let my dad stitch her up." Maggie pleads.
"She's too unpredictable." Rick told them.
"That's right. We don't know who she is. But Merle, Merle's blood." Daryl told them.
"No, Merle is your blood. My blood, my family is standing right here and waiting for us back at the prison." Glenn told them.
Natalie took Daryl's hand. "He beat me Daryl, and hell knows what he witnessed with Maggie." She whispered.
"And you're part of that family. But he's not. He's not." Rick told them.
"Man, y'all don't know." Daryl said and then let go of Natalie's hand as he saw the hurt in her eyes. She looked to the ground and kept her head low. "Fine. We'll fend for ourselves." Daryl stated and Natalie shook her head.
"Daryl, don't." She pleaded and the man rolled his eyes.
"That's not what I was saying." Glenn stated, seeing the girl's distress.
"No him, no me." Daryl stated and Natalie got up off the car.
"I-i need air." She breathed out and walked over to Michonne.
"Daryl, you don't have to do that." Maggie said.
"It was always Merle and I before this." Daryl told them.
"Don't." She pleaded.
"You serious? You're just going to leave like that?" Glenn asked. "Leave Natalie?" He mumbled.
"You'd do the same thing." He told him.
"What are you going to do about Natalie? Let her mourn over you." Glenn asked.
"She'll get over me sooner or later. Say good-bye to your pop for me." He said to Maggie and started walking off.
"Daryl, are you serious? Daryl!" Glenn yelled as Natalie covered her face to hide the tears.
"Hey. Hey. There's got to be another way." Rick said.
"Don't ask me to leave him. I already did that once." Daryl told him.
"We started something last night. You realized that, huh?" Rick asked.
"No him, no me. That's all I can say." Daryl told him while getting his stuff out of the car, Natalie felt a hand over her arm and looked over Michonne who gave her a pitiful look.
She growled and got her hand off her. "Don't touch me." She seethed.
That's when Daryl came over to Natalie. "Take care of yourself." He told her and she rolled her eyes.
"And to think, you said all those things to me for nothing." She muttered to him, giving a venomous glare his way.
Daryl sighed and walked away while Rick came up to Natalie. She let a tear slip out as she grabbed his hand and he helped her into the car.
They drove off, Rick not wanting to let go of the girl's hand for that was his hope.
<><><>
As the group was arguing outside, the girl threw her head back over the seat and rubbed her face. She looked to Michonne and held her breath to stop herself from crying. "Why did you have to even start this?" She seethed and Michonne's eyes widened.
"Merle told me he was out looking for you. If you didn't try anything with there team, we wouldn't have been in this situation and I wouldn't have lost my boyfriend!" She screamed at the woman as she rolled her eyes.
"He wasn't for you." She told her and Natalie bit her lips.
"Yes he was, you know nothing about us." She whispered harshly.
That's when Glenn came back into the car and Natalie shut up.
He looked over the girls and sighed. "It's okay Natalie." He breathed out and rubbed the girl's shoulder as she just looked outside the widow.
Rick went back into the car they started driving again. They reached the prison and the girl got out of the car quickly to smile over Carl when she saw his small figure.
"Carl!" She screamed happily and hugged him. He smiled over the woman as she cradled his body against her own. She grabbed his face and kissed his forehead.
That's when Carl's face lit up when his saw his dad behind her and he pulled away while hugging him. "Thank god." Rick breathed out.
"Where's Hershel?" Rick asked.
"He's in the cell block." Carl told him.
"Where's Daryl?" Carol asked and Natalie's breath hitched in her throat.
"It's alright. He's alive. We ran into his brother. They went off." Rick told the woman.
"He left?" Carol asked and Rick nods his head. "Daryl left? He's gone? Is he coming back?" She kept asking questions and looked to Natalie as she shook her head and cried.
"He's-He's not coming back." She sobbed and let it loose as Carl hugged the woman. They walked up into the building as Carl kept his hand in the girl's as Rick wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
Natalie then saw a head of blonde hair as she smiled over Beth. "Hey." She said sadly as Beth went up to her and gave the woman a well deserved hug.
She sighed in her arms while she pulled away. "Glad to have you back." She told her and she grinned.
Carl dragged the woman inside as her eyes then found four new people. Her eyes widened as she looked to them and allows her eyes to scan over their bodies.
She nods her head at them and Carl sighs. "What do you think my dad will say?" He asked and she sighs.
"I don't know. That's a decision we both have to make, right?" She asked and Carl smiled.
That's when the door opens and Rick goes to Natalie's side. He looks over his daughter and takes her into his arms. The woman smiled as the baby cried softly. Her smile softened as she saw Rick struggling and she took the baby in her arms.
"Rick?" She asked and grabbed his face in her hands. "Rick..." She breathed out and he looks in her dark brown eyes and calms down.
"I'm good." He whispered as she smiled and looked over the crying baby. She shushed her and kissed the baby's cheek.
Beth takes her and she smiled lightly. "Thank you." She breathed out and took Rick's hand.
He smiled at her and nods his head. "Go get cleaned up." He told her and she nods her head.
She sees Hershel sanding near her room and she sighs softly, thinking over Daryl and her room. She goes inside as he cleans the blood off her.
"Whoever got you got you good." He told her softly as she rolls her eyes.
"It's was Daryl's brother." She breathed out and Hershel stops to take in her anger.
"You need to realize that if he really does love you, he'll come back." He stated and she shakes her head, feeling the cool water wash away the grime.
"He won't. He has his code about Family." She muttered and sucked in a breath. "I thought we were family, but I guess I was wrong." She cried and Hershel saw the tears rush out.
"Natalie, don't think like that." He told her sternly as she sniffled.
"What am I supposed to do, not think about how he said he would wait for me? How he loved me?" She asked him.
He then looked to Maggie. "Did Anything happen to Maggie?" He asked and she sighed.
"She's been through worse than me." She told him and he nods her head.
"I'll go check on her." He state and she smiled sadly as he left.
Natalie held her head in her hands while she took a shaky breath. Rick knocked on her door and she looked up. "You alright?" He asked her and she looks into the crystal blue eyes that reminded her of Daryl's.
"Y-yeah." She stuttered while rubbing her eyes. "I'll be fine." She whispered.
He nods her head and sits down on the bed. "You sure?" He asked and she gave out a fake smile.
"Yep." She muttered and he rubbed her shoulder.
"Alright, then come down." He told her and she got up while they went over towards the group.
"So what now? You think the governor will retaliate?" Beth asks.
"Yes." Maggie said.
"Let him try." Glenn muttered.
"Sounds like he's got a whole town. We're outnumbered and outgunned." Carol said while crossing her arms.
"We could use some reinforcements." Hershel tells Rick and Natalie as they both look to each other.
They open the cell door and walk over to the group of people. Natalie walked over to them and held a stolid face. "I'm Tyreese." The African American man stated while holding out his hand.
The girl looked at it and then back at his eyes. "Sasha, Allen, Ben." Hershel called them out.
"How'd you get in?" Rick asked.
"Fire damage to the administrative part of the prison. Walls down." Tyreese told him.
"That place is completely overrun by walkers. How'd you get this far?" Rick asked more.
"We didn't. We lost our friend Donna." He told them.
"They were lost in the gyms." Carl said and Natalie's eyes widened.
"Carl." She scolded.
"You brought them here?" Rick asked in anger.
"He had no choice." Hershel told the two.
"I'm sorry about your friend. We know what that's like." Rick stated.
"Hershel said you could use some extra hands. We're no stranger to hard work. Well go out and get our own food, stay out of your hair. You got a problem with another group, we'll help with that, too. Anything to contribute." Tyreese told them and Natalie looked to Rick with big brown eyes.
"No." Rick said.
"Please. It's like 'ten little Indians' out there. It's just us now." Sasha pleaded.
"No." Rick said with a shake of his head. Natalie grabbed his arm.
"Rick, think about it." She told him.
"Let's talk about this. We can't just keep- -" and Hershel was cut off.
"We've been through this. With Tomas, Andrew. Look what happened." Rick told them.
"Axel and Oscar weren't like them." Carol explained.
"And where's Oscar now? I can't be responsible." Rick stated.
"You turn us out, you are responsible." Tyreese came back.
"Rick." Hershel called out.
Natalie felt his warm hand leave her's and she looked to the group of four. Her eyes landed on the man and boy in the back. "What about you two?" She asked and they looked up.
"What?" Allen asked.
"You aren't speaking. Why is that?" She asked and looked to Tyreese who swallowed thickly.
She shook her head. "Natalie?" Rick asked and looked over the girl as she started walking that way. "You okay with this?" He asked and the girl crossed her arms.
"I'll keep my eye on two of them. Tyreese and Sasha seem fine." She whispered softly into his ear and that's when he looked at her and then up.
"No. No, no, no, no, no." He kept whispering and Natalie shook her head. "Why are you here? What do you want from me?" Rick asked while walking away.
"Dad?" Carl asked.
"Rick?" Natalie mumbled.
"Why are you- - no. I can't help you. Get out!" He screamed mad Natalie ran over to him.
"Rick!" She yelled and he started going insane by screaming at someone to leave and get out.
He gets out his gun and Natalie pushes them away. "Go! Go!" She yelled and the girl looked at Rick in horror.
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And here you have the crazy bonkers Rick. How do you think Natalie will get over Daryl? I know how :) Thanks again for reading!
( Word Count 3486 )
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