Mercy on Me

HotRanger69; I loved the part with Daryl's 'eye twitch'. I thought it was a great moment to throw in! When it came to Merle losing his hand, I actually was going to let him keep both hands, but I needed SOMETHING exciting for the chapter! Merle just got the short end of the stick.. As for the reference, check out Boondock Saints!(;

RoadieEm; Ding ding ding! You caught the reference! I thought it was funny too.(:

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“I dare you to touch it,”.

“What?! No way in hell am I even poking that thing!” I wrinkled up my nose in disgust at Shane’s dare.

“Oh come on, Harper; it’s only a dead zombie!”.

The zombie Shane had just shot was lying dead on the ground in front of us, a gaping hole where its left eye used to be. I couldn’t help but chuckle at what Shane was saying.

“If you would’ve said that last year, I never would’ve believed that this could be happening to us,”.

Even though I knew that Shane was by my side, I still jumped a little when he wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

“You’re tellin’ me you don’t like shooting flesh-eating dead people in the head?”.

“Ew, no!” I laughed, quickly making work of the pretzel that was Shane’s arm that was wrapped around me; I jogged away from him as he kicked my butt playfully, but ended up slowing down so he could catch up.

“I’m glad you’re stuck in this shit-hole with me, Shane. I think I’d go crazy without you,”.

Shane’s face quickly turned serious as he thought about his response.

“Harper, we have to talk,” he said, looking off into the distance. I followed his eerie gaze, but saw nothing.

“About what, exactly?” I asked him, but he didn’t answer. I watched my brother as he stared off into the distance, almost as if he was in a trance.

“Shane,” I said a bit louder, which got his attention.

“Huh? Oh, right.. Need to talk—in private,” he sighed as we finally reached ‘camp’.

It had been about a week since the largest walker herd had passed through. Dale had finally fixed the RV, so we moved south a few miles more, stopping at random houses for a couple of hours for rest before moving on in the hopes of finding something more permanent. I went to answer Shane, but a heavy weight crashed into my back.

“The hell?” I gasped, falling forward a little.

“Scared you!” a small voice laughed from where it was clinging to my back.

“Really, Carl?” I rolled my eyes.

“Gotta admit that that was funny,” he giggled, pulling on my hair.

“Gonna get down?” I asked him, cutting to the chase.

When I realized that Carl was laughing too hard to answer me, I did the only thing I could think of to make him get off: spin in circles. I started spinning in quick circles, enjoying the light quips of sound that Carl was making.

When he finally yelled for me to stop, I let him down gently, but he still fell to the floor for being so dizzy.

“I think I’m gonna puke...” Carl groaned, pulling his dad’s sheriff hat over face.

As I turned to walk away, I couldn’t help but notice the strange look of pride that coated Shane’s face.

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“Go Fish!” Sophia cackled, throwing her last pair of 3’s down against the pavement.

I stuck my tongue out at her, making her giggle quietly.

“That’s it, I want a rematch,”.

I smiled at her as she nodded eagerly, so I grabbed the cards and began to shuffle them. It was our fifteenth day on the road and we were starving. Food was incredibly low, forcing everyone to depend on the Dixons and me whenever we went hunting.

The entire group had slowly become accustomed to eating squirrel for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Carol was actually slaving over a tasteless squirrel soup for dinner while watching us with a smile.

At the same time, I happened to look in her direction, catching her mouth the words ‘thank you’ to me. Nodding in return, I slapped seven cards down in front of Sophia and myself, placing the deck in between us.

“Got any eights?” she asked me, raising an eyebrow in question.

“Hah! Go fish!” I shot back triumphantly, making Sophia blow hair out of her face in annoyance.

We played at least two more games after that before I heard feet crunching over the gravel behind me.

“Dinner’s ready,” a raspy voice said. I whipped my head around with a smile to see Daryl.

“Awesome. C’mon Sophia, dinner,” I answered him, grabbing the deck of cards and shoving them back into the card box.

“One more game?” she begged me, throwing a pout.

I felt bad for the girl; she obviously wanted a life of normalcy.

“Maybe later. Think of all the fish we caught today playing that game!” I joked, grabbing her by the hand.

Sophia started to pick up the pace when her stomach started growling, pulling me ahead. We began to skip over to the fire but I pulled her to a stop when I noticed that Daryl wasn’t following us.

“Get your ass walking, Dixon or there won’t be any squirrel left,” I smirked at him before grabbing his hand in my empty one.

I continued to skip with Sophia, dragging Daryl along. I looked back to see his sad attempt at hiding a smile, so we only skipped faster. Hearing Sophia laugh on my other side made my heart melt. As long as she was happy, I would be happy.

When I finally came to my senses and realized that Daryl was not going to skip with us, I tugged on a strand of Sophia’s hair.

“Hurry up and get in line; I need to talk to Mr. Dixon,”.

Sophia shrugged before pulling me into a tight hug. I hugged her back and almost started to cry when I heard her speak.

“You’re like the big sister I always wanted,” she said before running off to hop in line behind Carl.

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“How’s he feeling?” I asked Daryl as we walked quietly over to where the squirrel soup was being given out.

“A ‘right. Wants to get goin’ with huntin’ again, but I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Daryl sighed, running a hand over his dirty face.

As he was doing so, I took the time to take in his handsome features: his chiseled jawline, strong cheekbones.. I blushed when he caught me staring so I looked the other way.

“Barbie,” I heard him say, along with a slight tug of my hair.

“That still hurts, you know,” I winced, lifting a hand to lightly touch the stitches in my head.

“Don’t be a baby; it ain’t a good look on ya,” he sneered, looking down at my shorter frame.

“Oh please! You would be annoyed if the same cut kept getting reopened,” I snorted, unwrapping my hand from his. Even though it was a move out of spite, I missed the warmth from his larger hand.

“Maybe, but I sure as hell wouldn’t complain as much as you do..”.

I turned and shoved his arm lightly.

“Shut up! Don’t be a dick,”.

We walked the rest of the few amount of steps left in silence before I heard my voice come out of my mouth.

“You were going to say something before?”.

“Huh?” Daryl grunted, clearly confused.

“You said Barbie.. Spit it out, Ken,” I shot him a 100-watt smile, which led to Daryl rolling his eyes.

“Fuck if I remember; jus’ go get your damn soup,”.

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Although Merle was up and around, he was having an incredibly difficult time adjusting to life with one hand. His bad arm was wrapped with tons of medical tape and gauze, and always sneered at the kids when he caught them staring at it

. I watched him intently as he struggled to balance his bowl in his lap as he spooned some soup out with his good hand. Eventually, I turned and listened to a joke that Glenn was telling the group, but had to turn back when I heard Merle call out.

“Fuck! God dammit!” he hissed, grabbing the bowl tightly as he jumped up in pain.

“Merle!” I growled, annoyed with his cursing that much around the kids.

“Oh please honey, you curse like it’s your job,” he spat as he danced around a little.

I caught Shane beginning to stand up to fight him in the corner of my eye, but I beat him to it.

“Sit down,” I told Shane, which he almost refused to do. “I think I can handle Merle,” I rolled my eyes before turning to Merle and Daryl, who was sitting on in a chair with his head in his hands.

“What’s happened, Merle?”.

“Spilt ma fuckin’ soup on me,” he growled, pacing.

“Want me to take that from you so you don’t do it again?” I gestured to his sloshing soup.

He looked back and forth between me and his soup.

“I can do it,” Merle muttered, sitting down.

My hands were on my hips as I sighed. Our group was slowly leaving the area, as they were finished with their dinner; they also probably didn’t want to deal with Merle’s aftermath.

When everyone else had left, I squeezed myself between Daryl and Merle, perching my butt across Daryl’s lap so I could face Merle.

“’Scuse you,” I heard Daryl mutter in surprise, but I ignored him.

“Let me help, Merle,”.

“No, Harper. I can do it,” Merle insisted, but I couldn’t just let him sit there and struggle.

“Merle, just let me help..” I tried to comfort him as I placed my hand on his arm, but he threw his spoon on the ground and smacked my hand away.

“I said NO, bitch!”.

I watched him in silence, trying to let him calm down. I could feel Daryl picking me up off of his lap so he could say something, but I wouldn’t let him.

Of course I didn’t like the fact that Merle was screaming in my face and calling me a bitch, but his actions were justified. I would probably be acting the same way if I had one hand.

Pushing myself out of Daryl’s lap, I picked his now dirty spoon up and made my way to the RV where we stored out supplies. Lightly pushing the door open, I walked into the RV and almost plowed into my brother.

“You can handle him, huh?” Shane asked me.

I huffed out a breath of air, knowing that he had heard Merle scream at me.

“He’s just frazzled about his arm. Wouldn’t you be on the edge if someone had to cut off your hand?” I sighed; I was really tired of arguing.

“So that’s an excuse for callin’ my sister a bitch?” he growled, but I kept going.

“Not really, no. But I know where he’s coming from. Don’t worry about me, I can-,”.

“Yeah, yeah. You ‘can handle it’. I’m trusting you with those two, Harper, don’t make me regret it,” Shane pointed in a finger in my face, which I nipped at playfully.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish, Harper,” he teased, making me gag.

“You are disgusting,” I laughed, appalled at the thought of us.

“You know I’m kidding,” he shoved me playfully.

“I definitely do..” I leaned into him, smiling.

Throwing Merle’s spoon in the sink, I grabbed a clean one before heading over to the two brothers.

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“Thought ya wouldn’t be comin’ back after I called ya a bitch,” I heard Merle say from across the barely burning fire.

“I’m not like most girls, Merle,” I replied, sitting down in Daryl’s lap once again.

“Know that fer sure; most girls won’t put up with ma baby brotha!” he cackled, punching Daryl in the arm.

“Piss off,” Daryl growled, shaking his head.

Before their fighting could escalate, I handed Merle the clean spoon.

“Got you a clean one,”.

Merle stared at the spoon for a long time before answering.

“Mind helpin’?” he asked so quietly that I almost couldn’t hear him.

“Not at all,” I smiled.

I wiggled around in Daryl’s lap to get comfy before helping Merle.

“Cut that out, Walsh,” Daryl teased me, so I continued to wiggle around in his lap.

When I felt his hands wrap around my hips tightly, I stopped.

“Said cut it out,” he said in a hoarse hiss.

“You two are gonna get me excited if y’all keep goin’ like this; Daryl’s right, cut it out! Until after my dinner, at least,” Merle winked.

“I am not going to help you if you keep talking like that, Merle,” I said, chastising him.

“Come on, princess, you know you love me,” Merle squeezed his eyes shut and shot me a wide smile.

When Daryl’s thumbs began to massage my hipbones, I leaned into his chest.

“Too late! I’m not helping,”.

“Get up and help him, you’re lucky he asked,” Daryl pushed me up so I was standing.

Crossing my arms, I stared at them with my mouth open in shock.

“Now I have to deal with the both of you?”.

“We come in a package, princess,” Merle laughed as I gave up and helped him with his dinner.

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That night, I was startled awake when there was a loud banging against Daryl’s truck’s window.

“Let me in!” Merle was screaming, banging on the window over and over.

I quickly unlocked the door and Merle practically leapt into my lap. I made sure the door was locked and clicked the overhead light off automatically.

“The fuck you wakin’ us up for, asshole?” Daryl groaned, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand.

“Walkers,” Merle whispered, calming his breathing.

“Does everyone else know?” I asked as I slid farther down into the seat. Merle nodded quickly as he looked over at me.

“They came from that way; the cop told me ta warn you guys,”.

“Which one?” Daryl and I asked simultaneously, making me laugh.

“The one that handcuffed me to the damn roof...” Merle growled, so I let him be.

After a while, Merle noticed that I was a bit uncomfortable with him lying across my lap, so he scooted his body over into the middle of the long seat so he was sandwiched between Daryl and me.

“Seriously?” Daryl grunted, rolling his eyes.

“Seriously! I get to sit next to our pretty girly once and a while!”.

I let them argue back and forth until I heard moaning from outside of the truck.

“Guys!” I whispered quickly, their voices ceasing. I reached out in the darkness for Merle’s arm, which I luckily found to squeeze.

“If only the walkers and my brother were gone right now..” Merle sighed, making Daryl punch him hard in the shoulder. “Pussy,” Merle whispered in the dark.

“Merle, please, now is not the time..” I begged him, but he wouldn’t stop.

“Not like that ugly fucker can hear me; he’d sure as hell hear me if I was makin’ ya scream, though!”.

“Will you shut the fuck up?” Daryl growled from the other side of the truck.

As the two continued arguing, I smacked a palm against my face in annoyance.

“I swear, you two act like five-year—,” my complaint was silenced with a scream when a walker threw its body against my window.

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As the walker’s grimy hands slid down the window, I threw my body over Merle’s body and into Daryl, who barely stopped me from banging my head on a window.

“S’okay, we’re in here and it’s out there,” Daryl hushed me.

“You can sit in my lap, ya know..” Merle looked at me in the darkness and winked.

“This is why I haven’t spent much time with you lately, Merle; you’re a pain in my ass!” I groaned, throwing my head into Daryl’s strong chest.

“So shut up ‘fore we throw ya out to that walker,” Daryl threatened him, and thankfully, Merle stopped talking.

We sat in silence until the walker finally gave up and walked away. When we were all convinced that the walker had put a good amount of feet between us, I leaned into the back seat to grab a blanket.

“Could get used to this sight..” I heard Merle say, but Daryl was ready.

“Don’t touch her, Merle!”.

“Nah, not with you here,”.

I threw my body back into the front seat, a giant gasp of air leaving my lungs.

“Can we go to sleep now?” I yawned, asking the boys.

Daryl nodded at me while Merle answered me with a loud yawn.

Satisfied with their answers, I threw my legs over Merle’s lap and leaned into Daryl’s chest as Daryl threw the blanket over all of our bodies. Even in the darkness, I could see Merle staring at us.

“So what, you two a couple or somethin’ now?”.

I looked up at Daryl, biting my bottom lip.

“Don’t think so; we’re still figuring shit out,”.

I heard Merle grunt in approval.

“’Member what I said, baby brother,”.

“What did you say?” I asked him, completely confused. Merle chuckled in the darkness, his teeth shiny against the moonlight.

“Just had a chat with little Darylena at the CDC ‘bout ya; don’t worry about it,”.

I rolled my eyes and shut my eyes, too tired to pry into their conversations.

“Whatever. Goodnight,” I smiled when I felt Daryl run a hand over my scalp, massaging it slightly.

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“Princess, wake up,” a voice called out.

“Huh?” I managed to groan, but it came out raspy and hard to understand.

“Christ girl, ya sound like death in the morning!”.

I squeezed my eyes shut tighter when I recognized the voice.

“Shut up, Merle,”.

I sat up rubbing my eyes and glanced over at Merle, who had his feet propped up against the dashboard.

“Think Daryl’s going to like that?” I asked him when I figured out that Daryl wasn’t with us.

“Baby brother ain’t here, how’s he gonna know? Went scoutin’ with Rick and yer brother, so don’t you dare rat me out” he explained.

“Oh Merle, I wouldn’t dream of it,” I replied sarcastically, yawning as I stretched.

I could feel his eyes on me as I did so, but I ignored him. When I was done stretching, I turned and sat cross-legged on the seat to face Merle.

“Why are you so mean to Daryl?” I asked him.

“I ain’t mean,” he scoffed, shaking his head slightly.

“Merle, come on. Darylena?”.

Merle took a minute to think before he finally answered me.

“I’m only doing what’s best for him, Harper. Boy needs ta toughen the fuck up, ‘specially in this world. Isn’t helping now that yer in the picture...” he sighed, turning to face me.

My eyebrows automatically rose at that. I was the problem?

“How am I the problem? I’ve done nothing wrong,”.

“Honey, you’ve done a lot just by giving him attention. He’s willing to protect you over himself; tha’s the problem,”.

I watched Merle ramble on in silence, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit annoyed; no, a lot annoyed.

“Merle, don’t be jealous,” I sneered, leaning back against the seat.

“Can’t help it; but at least I’ll admit it,” he winked at me, making me even more annoyed.

I spun around on my butt and pushed the truck door open.

“You think I like having one hand? And now not only do I havta worry ‘bout my brother, but now I’ve gotta worry ‘bout you. S’makes sense, Harper,” I listened, but didn’t answer him.

I hopped out of the tall truck and headed towards my friends.

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I was playing a card game of ‘War’ with Carl and Sophia when I heard Dale hiss something from the top of the RV about walkers.

“More?” I heard Sophia whine, even though she was practically shoving the cards back into their box in a hurry. I pulled Carl and Sophia to their feet.

“Go by your mothers, just be quiet about it, okay?”.

I gave them both a hug as they nodded before walking quickly over to their respective mothers. I was surprised when Carl turned back and ran over to me to give me one more hug.

“You take care of your mother just in case anything bad happens, okay?” I told him before pulling us apart to face him.

“Don’t worry; I can handle those damn walkers!” Carl smiled as menacingly as he could.

“No cursing, Carl! Now hurry up, go to your mom,”.

I flicked him in the back as he turned and ran over to Lori, who actually nodded at me in thanks. Nodding back, I scanned the area for Daryl, Rick, and Shane; thy still weren’t back yet, and obviously I was worried about them.

“What are you just standing here for, Harper? Come on!” Glenn hissed through his teeth at me as he dragged me towards the nearest car.

“What are you doing?” I hissed back, even though I could clearly see the oncoming walker herd.

“Just get under the car!” Glenn ordered, and I couldn’t’ say no.

He was being harsh and demanding, but it was only for my own good. I nodded briskly and flattened myself against the hot pavement. Squeezing my small body under the car wasn’t the hard part; the hard part was hearing the shuffling feet of the dead coming closer and closer. Plus, this time, Daryl wasn’t here to protect me.

Slowly and quietly, I pulled my gun out of my waistband and made sure it was ready to shoot a bullet if necessary. Laying my palm flat against the gun I listened to my breathing to steady it until the walker herd was passing right by my car.

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By craning my neck to the side, I could see at least one person under their own car. When I noticed that Sophia was by herself under the car facing mine, I almost crawled out from under mine to be there with her; how had she and Carol got separated so easily?

As if she knew I was staring her down, she tilted her head towards me to look back, eyes wide. Tears were glistening in her youthful eyes, so I slipped a finger to my mouth to tell her to be quiet. She slowly nodded back, her mouth trembling slightly. We were so close to each other if we both reached out, we could be holding hands; two hands in the middle of nowhere would attract walkers, though.

I jumped when a walker started moaning next to the car I was hidden under. Just as I started to calm myself down, a walker in the back of the pack hit the floor, dead. It didn’t make sense until I saw the arrow bolt sticking out of the walker’s head. ‘Thank God’, I said to myself as another one hit the ground.

I was surprised that the other zombies hadn’t noticed that they were dropping like flies, but that was perfectly fine with me. I looked straight ahead from where the walkers had come to see light footsteps rushing toward the group. I studied the shoes that I would know anywhere; they were the Timberland boots that I bought for Shane last Christmas. Despite all of the craziness around us, I couldn’t help but smile.

When the boys had taken out a good amount of walkers, I almost laughed when Rick dove under a random car. The herd was almost gone when large boots slid under my car and kicked me in the face.

I couldn’t help but let out an unattractive “Oof!” when either Shane or Daryl’s foot collided with my face.

“Shit!” the voice whispered to himself.

I cracked one pained eye open to see Daryl craning his head over his body to see who he had just slammed into. Of course it was Daryl; being graceful wasn’t one of his stronger suits.

“Sorry,” he whispered, but I only shoved his boot away from my face.

At that, Daryl began to awkwardly crab-walk farther under the car to be beside me.

“Where’s Merle?” he asked me, his breath hot against my cheek.

“Car behind us,” I whispered, nudging my head back.

Daryl’s eyes darted behind me and picked out Merle’s car. His eyes rolled in annoyance when Merle shot him a thumb’s up.

Just as we thought the walkers were gone, a dirty hand wrapped its fingers around my long hair and pulled back, yanking my body halfway out from the car. I couldn’t help but let out a scream as I blindly reached out for Daryl and my gun, the dirty hands clawing through my hair.

Daryl successfully grabbed onto my hand, but I slipped from his grasp when the walker pulled my body fully from out of the underside of the old car.

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“Help!” I called out as random people began crawling out from under their cars to help.

I threw my elbow back into the walker’s gut when I heard it hissing against my ear, sending it to the ground.

“Stay there, Sophia!” I shouted out to her when I noticed her crawling out from under the car.

When I heard Daryl slide my gun out from under the car, I threw my body to the ground and latched on to it. When I stood up to face the walker, it was gone.

“Where—?”I mumbled, but when I heard Sophia scream, I figured it out.

The dead man was using the same trick as he pulled on Sophia’s light hair. I couldn’t risk shooting the thing so close to Sophia; I didn’t want the poor girl to go deaf!

“Hey!” I shouted, grabbing the attention of the walker.

It fought to stand up and when it did, I raised my gun and pulled the trigger.

Killing the walker wasn’t what scared me anymore; it was how I couldn’t help but smile when the bullet ran straight through its brain that scared me.

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“Sophia? Sophia, you okay sweetie?” I called out to the girl who was curled up into a ball under a car.

I flattened myself against the ground so I was her eye level before speaking again.

“Let me help you out; it’s okay, the zombie’s dead,” I reassured her in a soothing voice.

When her head turned to face me, I was shocked by the emptiness in her eyes.

“It was already dead when it attacked me,”.

Letting out a sigh, I reached a hand out to her.

“Come on, Sophia. Your mom is worried about you,”.

At the mentioning of her mom, she shakily took my hand and crawled out from under the car, giving me a long hug before running over to Carol.

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That afternoon we drove on and on after Rick declared that our ‘replacement Quarry’ was no longer safe. I had decided to ride with Shane after my experience with the walker; who knew had much time we had left together?

One of my CD’s was playing lightly through the truck, but I wasn’t really paying attention to it; just being with Shane calmed me down.

“What’cha thinkin’ about over there?” he asked me, a certain tone of playfulness in his voice.

“What makes you think I’m deep in thought?” I replied as I bit down on my fingernail.

“Doubt Daryl thinks nail-biting is attractive,” Shane muttered, a sly smile creeping on to his face. I shoved him playfully.

“He bites his nails, so I don’t wanna hear your crap!”.

Shane jerked the wheel to the side playfully, as if I had shoved him really hard.

“It just looked like you were thinking really hard about something is all,” he continued after we both stopped laughing.

“Nah. Just shaken up after the whole Sophia thing, I guess,” I shook my head, sighing. Shane nodded back slowly, as if taking every little syllable in.

“So what’s going on with you and the redneck?” he blurted out after a couple of silent minutes. I raised an eyebrow at him even though he hadn’t taken his eyes off of the road.

“There’s something going on between Daryl and me?”.

“S’what I heard from his brother..” Shane rolled his eyes just at the thought of Merle.

“Shane, Merle doesn’t know shit. If we were.. Together, I would tell you,” I told him honestly.

It was true, really; we weren’t dating, so what was there to tell?

“Remember what I said about trusting you with those two, since I don’t... Dixon hasn’t tried to force you into anything?”.

I wanted to ask just which Dixon he was referring to, since Merle had almost raped me, but that would just cause more trouble than necessary.

“God, no. He wouldn’t,” I reassured him, smiling. He smiled back and chuckled, placing a hand in his lap so he was driving with just one.

“Just checking; you have been spending a lotta time with him, is all,”.

I laid my head down on his shoulder as I watched the Georgia landscape pass us by.

“I get it; you’re just being my big, overprotective brother,” I said smiling, moving against his body until I was comfortable.

“Got that shit right! Just give me the signal and I’ll beat his fucking ass for you, sis,”.

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“The hell?” Shane muttered as he leaned over the dashboard to get a closer look at the view ahead of us.

The long strip of road was covered with scattered cars, blocking any way possible that we could use to get all of our cars through. The only car that could get through was Merle’s, since he had his bike, but what would everyone else do?

Shane slowly drove to a stop before he shut the car off and slid the keys into his pocket. Without words, we both hopped out of the car and shut the doors at the same time.

“That was cool!” I said in awe at the sound of both of our doors shutting at the exact same time. Shane shot me a look before shaking his head.

“Seriously? I swear, Harper, sometimes I think you’re ten, not twenty-five...”. I winked at him before skipping over to the group.

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“So what do we do?” Andrea asked from the other side of our circle. “We need some kind of plan..”.

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out! For now, some of us are going to scout out the area and see what we can find, okay?” Rick told the group, raising his eyebrows in questioning.

After everyone agreed to the plan, we split up into groups and got ready to head out.

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“You really aren’t surprised that they put just the two of us together in our own little group?” I asked Daryl as we walked through the forest.

“Nah; yer brother knows you can take care of yourself and if ya can’t, he’s know I can,” Daryl replied, scanning the area with his eyes.

“You can what?” I looked up at him with a frown.

“Take care of you since half the time tha’s what I do anyway,” he spat back, even though I knew he meant it as a joke.

“Please, I can take care of myself,” I scoffed, but fell flat on my face when I tripped over something.

“Sure about that?” he asked from above me.

I flipped my hair over my head so I could see that Daryl had stuck his foot out and tripped me.

“Seriously Daryl?” I shook my head, but let him help me up anyway.

“Told ya, you gotta stay alert and on your feet,”.

“Yeah, literally,” I huffed and walked ahead of him. As I was walking, I fell forward a little but caught myself when Daryl tripped me again.

“Cut that out, will you?” I growled, but he just laughed.

“Pay attention, Barbie,”.

“Watch where you're walking, Ken,”.

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After a while, we gave up and headed back to meet up with the group. When we found Rick, his eyebrows shot up in question.

“We didn’t find squat,” Daryl told the officer, who nodded in reply.

“Although that isn’t necessarily a good thing, we did find something,” Rick smiled at us.

“What’d you find?” I asked him curiously, hoping for some kind of fortified place that we could hold up in.

“A church,”. I shot him a look that wasn’t very friendly.

“You plan on having us live in a damn church? I mean, Christ, Rick—,”.

“Hey! Lord’s name, ‘member?” Daryl chirped, teasing me.

“Shut the hell up, Dixon. As for you, Rick, might as well lead the way to this life-saving church,”.

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“I’m going to open the door on three, got it? Daryl on my right, Rick on my left. Harper, you’re center,” Shane explained his plan to us as everyone stood behind us for backup.

We all nodded as counted down and flung the church doors open, the four of us walking inside. We all scanned the room quickly until all of our eyes fell on three people sitting in the pews.

“Hello?” I asked them, which led to Daryl shushing me.

“What?” I asked in annoyance, but he pointed to the people that were actually walkers as they stood up from their pews.

“That’s fuckin’ what!” he growled before taking aim with his bow and shooting a walker in the head.

I shot the walker behind her after she dropped to the floor; the walker’s chin caught the pew and began to gush blood, making us all grimace. Rick and Shane worked together to kill the final walker as Daryl made his way over to the walker he had killed to collect his arrow bolt.

“Damn geeks,” he muttered to himself.

I wanted to cover my ears at the sound of the arrow squelching around the brain of the walker, but I don’t think anything could’ve blocked that out. Daryl noticed my discomfort at the sound, his eyes squinting to look at me over the pews.

I shot him a thumb’s up before turning to see the entire group heading into the church. I didn’t bother Lori and Carol as they headed over to the large cross that was hung at the opposite end of the church.

I didn’t really have time to react to anything else due to Shane yanking me out of the church by the arm.

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“What’s wrong, Shane?” I asked him in a rush, his force worrying me a little.

“Need to talk,” was all he said, so I didn’t push him.

I made sure to stay silent as he weaved a path for us between the tombstones that were scattered on the side of the church. When we were far enough away, Shane finally let go of my arm.

“Shane?” I called out to him in a demanding tone. Something in the look in his eyes was off.

“We need to leave; just us,” he whispered, even though we were pretty far away from the church.

I took a step back from in shock. Shane wants to leave the group?

“Why would we leave? We’re better as a group!”.

The words were flying from my mouth before I could even process what I was saying. This group was my dysfunctional family; Shane wanted me to leave Glenn behind? Rick, T-Dog? The kids?

Merle and Daryl, especially?

I crossed my arms against my chest in defiance.

“Not happening,”.

Shane let out a frustrated breath of air as he ran a hand through his hair.

“Harper, you don’t get it. This group— we would be better on our own,” he tried to persuade me, but I wouldn’t hear it.

“Shane, just five minutes ago, you were willing to risk your life for these people! Stop acting so friggin crazy!”.

Before I knew it, our voices were rising in tone and we reached a point of full-blown yelling.

“Harper, they don’t want us here! What don’t you get?” he snarled as his hands flew up to my shoulders to shake me.

His tone was completely throwing me off. Shane had never acted this way with me, why was he starting now?

“The whole group doesn’t want us here, or does Lori not want you here?” I spat, making him stumble back in shock.

Shane stared at me angrily as his tongue darted out over his bottom lip, as if reaching for something else to say but was coming up with nothing.

“Everythin’ okay over here?” a Southern voice asked from behind us. I turned and let out a relieved breath when I saw Daryl and Merle, their arms crossed.

“We’re fine. Mind leaving me and my sister to talk?” Shane asked them, but it sounded more like a threat than anything else.

“No, I think we’re going to stay here,” Merle took a step forward, ready to protect me if something happened.

“Feel like telling your brother to back off before I do it for you?” Shane looked to Daryl, but Daryl shook his head no, remaining silent.

“Hey,” I said to Shane, putting my hands up to his chest.

He looked down at my hands as if he hadn’t even realized that he had taken a few steps closer to Merle and me. I slid my hands down to his balled fists and wrapped my fingers around them until he calmed down, wrapping his fingers around mine.

“I’m going to walk away with Daryl and Merle, and you’re going to wait here for a bit; cool down, got it?” I told him.

When he nodded, I bumped my hip against his and walked toward the church with my Dixons.

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“You okay, princess?” Merle asked me as we walked up the steps to the church.

I nodded but stayed silent. What was going on with Shane? I looked back to my brother to see that his fists had curled up again, but once he saw me staring, he put a smile on his face. When I caught him mouth the words ‘I’m sorry’ to me, I nodded and headed into the church.

I made my way to the pews and leaned against the closest one. Arguing always tired me out. Before I knew it, I was being led out of the church by Daryl, my hand in his.

“Told Rick you needed ta take a walk,”.

I nodded in silence and let him lead me into the woods, only stopping to look back at Shane.

This time, however, he was gone.

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“You okay?” Daryl asked me as he helped me step over a large log.

“Guess so,” I mumbled back, still confused by Shane’s wanting to leave.

“What were you two even yellin’ ‘bout?”

. I looked up at him in thanks; I was surprised that he was even willing to listen to my feelings about the whole thing.

“He just pulled me out of the church, telling me that we had to leave the group.. You know, just the two of us,” I explained the whole story to Daryl, watching him as his eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

“Why the hell would you two leave?”.

I shrugged back at him; I was just as confused as he was.

“Can we just talk about something else? No, let’s just not talk at all,” I pleaded with him; I was tired of talking.

Daryl did what I wanted and nodded, letting us walk in silence.

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I don’t know how long we had walked in silence, but I stopped thinking about it when Daryl pushed me up against the length of a tree, leaving a trail of kisses along my neck. One of my hands had found purchase in his hair when his hand wrapped around the inside of my knee.

“Daryl, now isn’t a good time..” I sighed, even though I was quite content with what he was doing.

“Said you didn’t want ta talk.. So shut up, and just kiss me,” he growled, dipping his head to capture my lips with his.

Any thoughts of telling him to stop were slowly disappearing as he pulled my leg up to wrap it around his waist. My head fell back to rest against the scratchy bark of the tree as Daryl began to pepper my collarbone with sloppy kisses.

“Jesus Chri—,” I started, but the rest came out as a moan when Daryl reached up and bit down lightly on my earlobe.

“Hush girl; can’t say the Lord’s name in vain, we’re near a church,”.

As Daryl’s unoccupied hand ran its way down my body, he hoisted my other leg up to wrap around his waist. I smiled as I watched him bite his lip, as if he was trying to silence a noise that was threatening to call out to me.

Leaning forward, I placed my lips against his shoulder and rested my hands against his chest; he practically had me purring with excitement as he reached up with one hand and began to pull my shirt off over my head.

Just as my shirt was over my shoulders, a loud gunshot pierced the air that had just seconds ago been filled our mewling. As soon as Daryl’s head had jerked up, it was back above my bra, resting my shirt against the top of his head.

“No, no, stop. Something’s wrong,” I pleaded with him and struggled against his body, which he clearly didn’t like.

He placed me down gently on the ground before pulling my shirt back and adjusting it so I looked okay. I kissed his cheek in thanks before speaking.

“Something’s wrong; one bullet was shot, that’s it. We haven’t seen one walker by itself around here for hours; they’ve all been in packs,".

“You better be right about this...” Daryl sighed, shaking his head.

“That was a bad idea anyway, Daryl.. There could be walkers anywhere,” I felt bad for always telling him no or making him stop when it came to him showing me affection. Daryl just had terrible timing.

“S’not like I can kiss you any old time, ya know.. Not with Merle always around,”.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the amount of hand gestures Daryl used when he talked to me.

“A little jealousy is good for him! Besides, it’s not like we’re dating or anything, I wouldn’t expect you to do that kind of stuff around camp,”.

As we walked, Daryl turned to look at me, his eyes judging every word I had just said.

“So that’s not what’cha want?”.

His question made my steps falter, but I picked up my pace quickly.

“I never said that Daryl, but—,”.

“I mean, if tha’s what you want, that’s all ya had to say!” he huffed, shaking his head furiously.

“Hey,” I said loudly, grabbing his face in my hands, forcing him to stop walking.

We stood like that for a while, his eyes squinting angrily at me.

“I told you I didn’t have feelings for Merle. I never pressured you into anything; do you think I just kiss every random guy that I meet?” I asked him harshly.

His facial features softened at the idea of me maybe, just maybe, wanting to have a relationship with him.

“Whatever. Let’s just go see what’s wrong,” Daryl pulled himself out of my grasp leaving me to stand there speechless. I jogged for a bit to catch up with his large strides.

“Talking to you sometimes is like talking to a brick wall, Dixon,”. I was glad to see I earned some kind of smile.

“Same with you, Walsh,”.

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How far out had we walked? We were still in the woods when the sun was beginning to set, so Daryl said we had to pick up the pace. We obviously didn’t want to be stuck out in the open at night with walkers crawling around everywhere.

What was that? My head snapped to the right at the sound of something off.

“Wait,” I threw my hand up against his chest to stop him, making him listen.

“Hear that?” he asked me in a whisper. I stood as still as I could and listened for anything, something that could explain that gunshot.

“Is someone crying?”.

I looked up at Daryl in confusion, but he grabbed on to my hand and began to pull me toward the noise, clearly wanting to know what it was just as much as I did. The crying was growing closer and closer until it was right on top of us.

We reached a small opening in the forest, the sun setting brilliantly over the trees. Sunlight was shining over a freshly shot deer, its legs still twitching as its nerve endings were still fighting to stay alive.

I turned my head away from it, as deer are one of my favorite animals, but almost fell to the forest floor at what I laid eyes on.

“Shit,” I heard Daryl say from beside me, but I had become so numb that I could barely feel myself actually fall to the floor in shock.

“No, no, no... Please, God, no!” Rick Grimes cried from two feet in front of, cradling Carl in his arms.

Carl was unconscious, but a bullet wound was resting against Carl’s ribcage as blood poured from the hole until it covered Rick’s hand with red.

“I’m so sorry, I am! I had no idea the bullet would go through, I was only huntin!” I looked up in a daze to see a large man with a shotgun standing over Rick and Carl, tears flowing from his eyes as well.

"Carl..." Rick sobbed as he swayed his little boy back and forth in his arms.

Although I wasn’t the one who was shot, and I definitely wasn’t the father of the boy who was shot, my body started to tingle as dark spots filled my vision.

Slowly but surely, I let darkness take me and I passed out, my head resting against a bed of leaves as Rick cried over his dying boy.

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