Mercy

Annie wasn’t saying anything, but by the time Mercy had been driving for five and a half hours the next day, she knew that the child was exhausted. She still hadn’t spoken so much as a word, though Mercy hadn’t expected anything but silence from the sad little girl. Neither of them had slept the night before. Mercy had wanted to keep watch the way Derek had always done, but she had a reason that Annie hadn’t been able to sleep was because of what she’d seen and the words Merle had threatened them with.

“ If I was you, I’d get out of the area ‘fore we find you and finish you off before the walkers do.”

Who said that to a child? And especially in a world like the one in which they lived? She could already tell that Merle had hardened since she’d been a child and had known Daryl but she hadn’t expected someone quite like that.

Then again, she’d never thought she was going to come across the brothers again, especially now that the world was in an eternal state of chaos. There seemed to be no end in sight but death, and even that wasn’t really an end. It was the beginning of a more painful existence altogether.

“I’m going to try and find a place to stop for the next few hours, yeah?” She turned to face Annie for a few moments before she turned her attention back to the road so that she could try and find a place that looked safe enough to spend the night at.

If there was one thing she knew, it was that finding a safe place was crucial. Especially now that it was just her and Annie. They didn’t have anyone else to protect them. It was just the two of them and Mercy would be damned if she let anything else happen to Annie. She’d had so much trauma already in such a short life. She didn’t need any more added on to her slight shoulders.

Annie let out a small yawn from the passenger side of the truck and Mercy bit her bottom lip, knowing that stopping sooner rather than later would be preferable. The sooner she stopped, the sooner the little girl could get some sleep.

Within a half hour, she found a place that looked reasonably sheltered. It was in a small town she remembered as being a couple hours outside of Atlanta, and there was no one in sight. She knew that one of the houses had to have some kind of basement; maybe even some surplus supplies if she was lucky. She could rummage for some food and find a secure place for Annie to stay while she looked for extra weapons that other survivors may have lost or left behind in death.

The house she settled on was a small one on the edge of town near a thicket of trees. It looked as though it was abandoned even before the walkers had started roaming around the world, and with windows in the basement that would be big enough to escape through, it looked to be safe enough for the night.

“We’re going to stay here tonight, Annie,” Mercy told the child in a soft voice before she got out of the car.

Annie didn’t say a word as she followed Mercy towards the front door. She had a small hunter’s knife in her hand and it broke Mercy’s heart that the child even had to know how to use something like that. She was supposed to be playing in swimming pools and playing pretend with her friends at this age. Instead, she was forced into a life of kill or be killed. That wasn’t fair.

When they walked inside, Mercy had Annie stand in a closet while she searched the house for hostile survivors or stray walkers. She found no sign of either and went back to get Annie, a small smile on her face. This house would be safe for the night. It would perhaps bring a little bit of comfort to Annie.

“We’re going to set up in the basement if it’s not flooded or anything,” Mercy told her quietly. “I found some mattresses that aren’t too torn up, and we have blankets in the car that we’ll bring in and use. There won’t be a fire tonight,” she told Annie. “It’s too risky to light one in the house.”

The child didn’t say anything and instead sat down in the corner of the room, pulling her knees to her chest. Mercy waited for a few minutes and then walked towards the front door so she could get her supplies from the car. She grabbed enough blankets to keep the two of them warm throughout the course of the night and then grabbed some canned food for them to eat before she turned to make her way back inside the house.

When she returned, Annie wasn’t sitting in the corner like she had been. Mercy set the blankets and food down, her eyebrows furrowing together. By this point, Annie already knew the drill. She knew she wasn’t supposed to leave.

“Annie?”

She walked towards the rear of the house, hoping that maybe the little girl had wondered if she’d find food in there to eat. Instead, she found an empty kitchen with an open screen door. Her eyes widened when she realized that the door had definitely been closed earlier on when she’d searched the house.

“Annie?”

She walked outside to the backyard, biting her bottom lip as she searched the entire expanse of space for the little girl. She found no sign of her and with the sun going down, she knew there was no point in going searching around the neighborhood.

“Annie? Come back!” She yelled a little louder, though still not so loud that walkers would be able to pinpoint where she was. The last thing she needed was for a horde of them to intrude upon the house. There was no way she could kill more than one or two at a time by herself. No person could.

She waited for a few minutes, hoping that maybe the little girl would come bounding back out of the trees or something. When nothing of the sort happened, Mercy sighed and turned to walk back into the house. She couldn’t risk staying outside in the dark any longer. All she could hope was that Annie hadn’t gotten lost, and that she’d come back inside sometime soon.

While she set up the basement to sleep in, dragging a mattress for herself down to the room, she couldn’t help but wonder how Daryl and Merle had managed to stay together throughout the entire epidemic so far. It was true that they were both strong – obviously more so now than when they’d been younger. But if there was one thing she knew about the two of them, it was that they clashed.

That clash had nearly spelled their end more than once as children, so how on earth were they both still alive and together now?

She tried not to dwell on thoughts of Daryl too much. It was painful to think about him, especially when the memories of her leaving him behind flashed through her mind. It wasn’t as though she’d really had a choice. After all, she’d only been a kid. Her parents had been the ones to make the decision to move, not her.

She’d always blamed herself, though. Sometimes when she closed her eyes, she could still see the pain that had lingered in Daryl’s eyes as she’d driven away in the backyard. And sometimes late at night when she was dozing off, she would dream about his pain and how he must have felt even more alone in the years after she’d left than when she’d been there to keep him company.

She fell asleep to the thoughts of their childhood. She remembered how they’d played in the woods behind his house sometimes, and about the time he’d gone missing for more than a week. She’d been worried sick but no one else had even noticed he was gone. Her parents had told her not to worry about it and when she’d tried to go outside and find him, they’d dragged her back inside the house.

It just made her wonder if he’d ever forgiven her. Surely he had to know at this point that she had never wanted to hurt him, right? He had to understand that she hadn’t been the one who’d wanted to leave?

She could only hope, she realized. But in a world like this, hope wasn’t realistic.