Mercy

“It’s too high to jump, Daryl,” Mercy whispered, her eyes widening as she looked down at the ground. She could already see walkers on the outer edges of the property – the second she or Daryl hit the ground, they were sure to be swarming the place. She had no idea how they’d get out of this one.

“We ain’t gonna jump,” he told her as he looked down at the ground before looking over at the edge of the trees. “We’re gonna have to think of somethin’ else.”

“Like what?” She asked him, her voice desperate. She already knew that going out through the hallway wouldn’t work – Daryl had told her there were too many walkers to get through with just a few pieces of wood.

It left them trapped like rats, and that wasn’t something that made her feel safe at all.

“We’re going to have to go to the other window,” he told her, motioning to the other side of the window. “There’s a fence over there, maybe I can reach it and help get you down after I am.”

“What?” She asked, her eyes widening. “Daryl, that’s—”

“We ain’t got no other options, Mercy.” Daryl frowned, looking her straight in her eyes. “We got no weapons and we’re surrounded by walkers. That’s our only way of at least attempting to survive. We stay here, those things are gonna break through the door and we’ll be gone ‘fore we have a chance to know what hit us. We jump out this window, we either die from the fall or get injured and then eaten by those fuckers. We got no other options.”

Seeing Daryl scared was something that scared the shit out of Mercy. Never before had she ever seen him less than strong. To see him like this was something that definitely worried her.

She bit down on her bottom lip and nodded as she walked over to the second window with him. She could see the fence that he’d been talking about, but it was on the porch from the first floor and it would take a lot of agility for him to be able to get down to it without twisting his ankle at the least.

“I’ll be fine,” Daryl told her as he slipped his body through the window, sitting on its sill before he turned to face her. “Once I get down there, I need you to do exactly what I tell you, okay?”

She nodded, knowing better than to argue with him in a time like this. She was hesitant, but in the end, Daryl had never really led her wrong. He would never put her in a situation he didn’t think was safe, even if it was risky.

She watched as he slowly maneuvered himself down to the fence railing before he grabbed hold of a post on the side of the house, a triumphant smile on his face. If it was any other time, she was sure he’d be boasting. Now wasn’t the time, though, and she listened to every word as he told her how to position her body so that he could help her out of the house.

Within five minutes, she was in his arms and they were on the porch. She could hear walkers groaning inside and it sent chills down her spine as they slowly walked off the porch and towards the woods.

“I thought you said—”

“I know what I said,” Daryl cut her off before she could finish. “There’s walkers out there, Merc. But my brother’s out there too and I ain’t leavin’ him behind. We gotta go get him.”

She had always known that he was loyal to his family, but she hadn’t known that he’d risk his life to go back for someone like Merle, who had abandoned him as a child. Merle made a lot of big claims, but in the end, Mercy knew that the eldest Dixon had never been there for his younger brother when his guidance was truly necessary.

“We’ll find him,” she whispered, agreeing with him. If it had been anyone else, she probably would have left them. In this world, it was kill or be killed and the risk in this rescue operation was too high to be worth it.

But clearly, Daryl thought it was worth it. And what was important to Daryl was important to Mercy, too. Even if she knew Merle hated her, she didn’t want him to suffer the same fate Derek had.

They stared making their way towards the woods and were almost there when several loud gunshots sounded out. Mercy couldn’t stop a scream from leaving her lips as Daryl pulled her closer, stopping in his tracks to look around.

“They aren’t tryin’ to shoot us,” he growled. “They got the walkers’ attention. We gotta go now, Merc. Run.”

She didn’t need to be told twice, taking off at a dead spring. Daryl held her hand tightly as he ran right behind her. They could hear walkers coming at them from all sides now; there was no avoiding them anymore. The dead knew they were in the forest and now they had nowhere to run.

“This way!” Someone else’s voice called out loudly from ahead of them. Mercy couldn’t see in the darkness, but she knew that it was Merle. Daryl didn’t question it either as they ran towards the voice until they found themselves in a dark cave.

“This is the stupidest place you could have thought of to hide,” Daryl hissed at his brother quietly as they ran further into the cave.

“It was the only place!” Merle retorted as they ran down the length of the cave. In the pitch black, Mercy could see nothing and that scared her a little bit. When they finally reached the end of the cave, her lungs felt like they were being stabbed and her legs felt like Jello. She knew there was no way she’d be able to run anymore.

“Did either of you get bit or scratched?” Merle asked.

Daryl shook his head. “Nah, we didn’t get close enough to them. We’re good,” he muttered under his breath as he leaned back against the wall. “We’re trapped now though, stupid ass. It’s only a matter of time til we all get bit.”

“Not if you keep quiet,” Merle snapped. “They ain’t gonna come—”

His words were cut short by the snarls and growls of a few walkers that had followed them down the cave’s tunnel. Mercy’s eyes widened. If there were only two or three of them, it would be easy enough to take them out.

But more than that? Well, Mercy didn’t think they’d be able to get past them.

“You got any bright ideas, baby brother?” Merle shot at his younger brother. It seemed like the more time that passed by, more walkers were appearing. By now there was a group of five or six of them. Definitely too many for them to make it out without something bad happening.

“Yeah,” Daryl replied to his brother before he spoke a little quieter. “We gotta run,” Daryl told them as he looked out at the walkers that were starting to creep closer to them. “Ain’t no other way around it. They get any closer and we won’t be able to get a head start on ‘em.”

Mercy swallowed hard, her eyes widening. Running through those walkers seemed like a bad idea to her. She was beyond terrified.

“I’m not so sure about this,” she whispered.

“For once, I agree with the bitch,” Merle spoke his own piece. “This ain’t one of your brighter ideas, baby brother.”

Mercy swallowed hard. Going against Daryl wasn’t something she’d ever thought of. He always kept her safe; always knew exactly what to do. But this? This seemed like a horrible idea to her. She pushed her hair out of her eyes as Daryl studied her face for a few moments.

“We ain’t got any other option. We stay here and get bit, or we run and try to get out alive. Stay with me, Merle will watch your other side and we’ll get out of here. I promise, sweetheart. I ain’t ever let you down.”

Mercy’s breath hitched in her throat as she nodded, her eyes closing as she squeezed Daryl’s hand. She knew that she had to try and trust him on this. He’d never led her wrong before. This was an idea that scared her, but she knew that she had to try and trust him.

“Okay,” she finally whispered. “I…I’ll do it.”

“Goddamn it,” Merle grumbled under his breath. “Her one smart idea and she fuckin’ follows you. You’re gonna get us killed you know, baby brother.”

“You got any other ideas, Merle?” Daryl shot back at his older brother before he grabbed his hunting knife. “I didn’t think so. Look, if we run now, we’re gonna make it. We just gotta stick close. Stab ‘em if they get too close…We’ll be alright. I promise.”

Mercy didn’t know whether or not she could believe that. There were too many walkers for her to feel like they’d make it out of this safely. But she knew that Daryl was smart, and that he knew survival. He’d been doing it all his life and he wouldn’t put her in a situation where she’d end up hurt r had a likelihood of it.

“On three,” she whispered.

Daryl nodded and squeezed her hand.

“One…” He murmured.

“Two,” she spoke after a few moments.

Neither one of them needed to say three as they took off at a sprint at the same time. Merle ran with them, muttering under his breath the entire time about how he’d kill them both if they didn’t all die on the way out.

Running towards the walkers had never felt scarier. She’d never thought that she’d go towards them; before now, it had always been the goal to run away from them.

She screamed and closed her eyes once she felt her foot snag on an overgrown tree root. This terrified her. She had no idea what she was supposed to do now that she was falling.

Before her body could hit the ground, Daryl pulled her back up to her feet and started dragging her through the walkers and away from them.

The whole thing couldn’t have taken more than four or five minutes, but it felt like much longer as they finally reached the point where there were no walkers around them. Daryl dragged her towards an old shed that lay not too far beyond the farmhouse.

Merle slammed the door shut behind them and pushed an old chair underneath of the doorknob before yelling something at Daryl that Mercy could barely hear. Daryl helped her lay down against the wall before he sat down next to her.

“You think your ankle’s okay?”

She swallowed hard and then nodded as she looked up at him with a small smile. She felt more than a little bit of pain in her foot, but she didn’t want to worry Daryl more than she already had.

“Daryl,” Merle muttered. “We got bigger issues than her fuckin’ ankle.”

Daryl’s head shot up as he looked over at his older brother, his hand already on his bow and arrow.

“You see more walkers comin’ back?”

“No, you halfwit,” Merle growled. “Look at her fuckin’ arm!”

Mercy winced and then looked down at her arm, her eyes widening at the same time Daryl’s did. Merle was right, for once. Suddenly, her ankle seemed like a small injury in comparison to the large hunk of missing flesh out of her arm.