Eevee wandered through the hallways, careful to memorize her path so she doesn't get stuck again. Daryl wasn't around to hunt her down like he did before. She hit the infirmary and checked it over for anything Carl may have missed.
"He did a good job." She moved down the hall from the empty infirmary and pushed open the next door she came to. If her memory of the schematics served her right she had found the library. It was relatively cleaned and free of walkers.
"Let's see what books this place has."
Rick, Daryl and the others gimped their way into a dark building, gunshots filling the sky as they ran. Daryl ran for the back, lowly growling when he wasn't met with an exit door.
"Ain't no way out back here!"
"Rick, how did you find us?" Maggie asks as she searched for anything to help cover up Glenn until they could get him cleaned up properly.
"How bad are you hurt?" Rick looked to the Rhee boy, who nodded and gurgled our that he would be okay.
"We gotta get them out of here."
"Daryl, this was Merle!" That caught the Dixon's attention. Merle is here? And alive?
"You saw him?" Glenn tugged on the jacket that Maggie handed him and stiffly nodded.
"Face to face. He threw a walker at me. He was going to execute us." Daryl and Maggie broke off into conversation as Glenn turned to face Rick.
"Rick, I'm sorry. We told him where the prison was we couldn't hold out." The cop stepped forward and patted his knee gently.
"No need to apologize. They're going to be looking for us. We have to get back. Can you walk? We got a car a few miles out." Glenn nodded and pushed to his feet. Daryl stepped towards the cop to try and make a case about finding Merle too. But Rick was having none of it.
"Look, no matter what they say, they're hurt. Glenn can barely walk. How are we going to make it out if we get overrun by walkers and this Governor catches up to us? I need you. Are you with me?" Daryl chewed his lip as he debated his choices. Ultimately these people were his family and they needed him.
"Yeah." They raced for the wall, stopped by a wall of gunfire and forced into a little niche. They were going to die here.
"You guys go ahead, I'll lay down some cover fire."
"No, we gotta stay together." Maggie argues back, the Dixon shaking his head no.
"Too hairy. I'll be right behind you." Rick hated the plan, but it was their best and only chance of getting out alive.
"Ready? Move!" The wild man launched another smoke grenade and they moved to a few solar panels between the enemy and their escape.
"Rick! Rick!" Maggie's voice echoed through the white fog. "Rick!"
"Daryl!" Rick screams at the unmoving Dixon. He shouted for them to get over the wall, the pit in his stomach dissolving when the cop vanished behind the rolled metal. It didn't take long for him to get caught and tied up. But he planned for this. He had to see if his brother was truly alive. They threw a bag over his head and dragged him through the town into some place filled with angry shouts and a man calling him and Merle terrorists. The bag was yanked off and he saw his older brother with his own eyes.
"You wanted your brother. Now you got him."
"Okay, well all of these books are utterly useless. But this space can be useful. There should be a garage for prison vehicles. I'll find it." She stepped out into the hallway again and moved further down the space to find it. It didn't take her long, and she was happy to see it was still filled with cars and prisoner transport vans.
"Awesome, free parts! And gas hopefully." Eevee scoured the room from top to bottom to take a tally of things and see what could be useful to her and her projects.
"This'll be a gold mine!"
"It won't work."
"It's gotta."
"It'll stir things up." Daryl rolled his eyes towards the periwinkle sky.
"Look, the Governor is probably on the way to the prison right now. Merle knows how he thinks and we could use the muscle." Glenn jumped into the argument, face marred with rage.
"I'm not having him at the prison! Do you really want him sleeping in the same cell block as Carol or Beth?"
"He ain't a rapist."
"Well, his buddy is." Glenn missed the insulted look Maggie gave him as he hinted at what happened in their interrogations.
"They ain't buddies no more. Not after last night."
"There's no way Merle's gonna live there without putting everyone at each other's throats." Rick says.
"So you're gonna cut Merle loose and bring the last samurai home with us?" He snarls as he threw his hand out at Michonne leaning against the driver door silently.
"She's not coming back."
"She's not in a state to be on her own." Maggie says as they all looked back at the swordswoman.
"We don't know who she is. But Merle, Merle's blood."
"No, Merle is your blood. My blood, my family is standing right here and waiting for us back at the prison." Glenn snaps as he pointed angrily down at the asphalt between them.
"And you're part of that family. But he's not. He's not." Daryl scoffs and throws his arm up in exasperation at Rick's words.
"Man, y'all don't know!" They all looked at him with repulse for his brother. "Fine. We'll fend for ourselves."
"That's not what I was saying." Glenn tried to mend his words but Daryl was having none of it, he moved towards the car to grab his bag and leave.
"No him, no me." He slung his bag over his shoulder and started to leave, pausing when Rick spoke again.
"What do you want us to tell Carol?"
"She'll understand." He was stopped again.
"And what about Eevee?" He dropped his head and sucked on his teeth angrily. "There's got to be another way."
"Don't ask me to leave him. I did that once already." He stormed off into the woods to his brother and just like that, they were gone.
Eevee stepped back into the cell block, smiling softly when she saw that the others had returned safely. The look on their faces told her there was something bad under the layer of happy reunions.
"Rick?" He looked up at his name and she saw his shoulders lift and drop with his sigh before he made his way down the block to meet her.
"We need to talk." Her brows furrowed and she nodded, mentally preparing for the worst news.
"Who'd we lose?"
"Oscar, they got him as we were getting over the wall. And... Daryl... he found his brother." She tilted her head and her brows knitted tighter together. What was he hinting at?
"Isn't that a good thing?" The cop shuffled his feet and chewed on his lip. "Just spit it out."
"Daryl left. I don't think he's coming back." Eevee started at the man for a few silent seconds as her brain processed what she was told before she nodded.
"Okay, I understand. Blood is thicker than water, right?" Rick snorted and shook his head lightly.
"You don't understand at all do you?"
"Not a damn clue. But it's not my choice, and he has his reasons." Rick gently squeezed her shoulder, the small woman slipping free and turning away to vanish back down the halls. Carol stepped up to his side, both looking down into the darkness after her sadly.
"She just needs some space. She'll be okay." Rick dipped his head in agreement, she was strong and smart. She'll be okay. Eevee wandered back into the library where she stood leaned up against the door staring at the stained carpet.
Daryl was gone, he just up and left them. Left her. Like none of them mattered. Like she didn't matter. People have died for him.
"That's what people do!" Eevee yells audibly at the voices in her head wailing in rage that he left them all behind- none of them mattered not even the dead ones. She dropped her head against the door and forced her mind to become clear and uncluttered from the swirling thoughts in her mind.
"It doesn't matter. I'm better off alone. Alone is all I have. Alone protects me." Eevee repeated that to herself as she started to tinker and work on anything she could get her hands on to keep her thoughts busy and off the Dixons. She didn't bother leaving the library to speak with anyone, only to silently show up and take her food before silently leaving. It was hard to tell what time of day it was in the windowless room, but she didn't care anymore. Not even the gunfire caught her attention and stirred her into giving a damn.
"Alone is all I have. Alone protects me."