Mercy

A week went by and Mercy knew she couldn’t wait for Annie any longer. Her supplies were becoming limited and with the cold setting in earlier and harsher each night, she knew that she needed to find some more temporary form of protection from the elements.

She left a blanket and a pillow for the little girl in case she came back, along with a note telling her that she was headed to Atlanta if she could get there before the cold began to set in.

After she had finished the note, Mercy began driving back towards the city. It wasn’t somewhere that was safe, and she knew that. Derek had avoided large cities like the plague. She drove in silence, choosing to ignore the old classic rock cassettes that Derek had always kept in the glove box. She didn’t want to listen to anything right now.

She wanted to make sure that she got to Atlanta safely. She couldn’t afford distractions and especially not now that she was on her own.

About thirty minutes out of the city, the car broke down and Mercy groaned out in frustration as she slammed her hand on the steering wheel. She was beyond frustrated with how the day was going.

With no other choices but to stay in the car and wait for walkers, she decided that it would be best to continue walking until she found some kind of safe place to stay for the night. She saw trees in the near distance, so perhaps she could crawl into one and sleep in the branches until tomorrow when she could figure things out.

The night air was cold as she set up an area for herself in some of the branches that were higher up. She studied the layout of the ground for a few minutes, wanting to make sure that there were no walkers anywhere nearby. She knew already that she wouldn’t get much of a decent sleep; with it being just herself, she was too afraid to spend enough hours a night sleeping.

As she lay on the branch she’d laid the blankets out on. She was slowly feeling herself drift off, and as she did, memories from the past came rushing back to her. She remembered nights just like this one that she’d spent out in the woods with Daryl when they’d been kids.

One memory stuck out in particular. It had been a night in October and Daryl had wanted to get away from his house for a few nights because of a particularly nasty fight with his father. Her mother, of course, had turned him away. He hadn’t been good enough for their home, so Mercy had gone with him into the woods for a few days. She could remember everything from those few nights; all the things she’d felt, and the way Daryl had taken care of her.

“Daryl, I’m scared.”

There were tears in Mercy’s eyes as she followed Daryl further and further into the dark woods behind their houses. The warm lights from her home were growing more distant with each step she took, and her small body was already beginning to tremble. Never before had she questioned Daryl about anything. But tonight, she was scared. It was dark and cold, and she just wanted her blankets and a nice bedtime story.

“Don’t be,” Daryl called back to her as he stopped so that she could catch up to him. “You know I ain’t gonna let nothin’ happen to you, Merc.”

She let out a small whimper and wiped her eyes from tears, feeling more afraid as she approached Daryl. He grabbed one of her hands and she bit her bottom lip as he started to lead her in another direction.

“It’s so dark.”

“I’ll look after you,” he promised her as he gave her one of his reassuring smiles. She knew that he was trying to make her feel better, but she knew that it wouldn’t work. This was Daryl’s life. He was the one who liked to go running in the woods at night. This was where he hid from his Daddy, but Mercy?

She didn’t have to run like he did.

After another twenty or thirty minutes of walking, her quiet tears became full blown sobbing and Daryl stopped in his tracks, turning to face her. She was expecting him to yell at her; for him to tell her to shut up or something like Merle always did any time she saw him. When she saw the softness on his face, she swallowed hard.

“I wish you’d stop cryin’,” Daryl told her quietly as he squeezed her hand before he wrapped his arms around her in a hug. “I ain’t never let anything happen to you before, have I? You trust me, right?”

His voice was slightly shaky, as though he needed the reassurance. She bit her lip as she thought for a moment before she nodded slowly, letting him wipe away her tears.

“Yeah, Daryl. I trust you.”

He smiled, nodding as he squeezed her hand again.

“Good,” he murmured. “’Cause we’re almost to the treehouse. When we get there, we’ll stop. It’s too dangerous to sleep on the ground, Pa comes out here sometimes and I don’t want him findin’ you with me.”

He left it unsaid what would happen if his father found them. Mercy highly doubted that the elder Dixon would come out into the woods. He wasn’t the kind of father who noticed when his sons were gone, and especially not Daryl. She knew of many instances when he’d run off for five to ten days at a time, and nobody but her had eve noticed.

“You’re gonna be alright, sweetie,” Daryl murmured into her ear as he slowly started walking more. “I promise. Ain’t nothin’ gonna hurt you.”

Mercy swallowed hard and nodded as she slowly started to follow him again. Her nerves were running high, but she trusted him. If Daryl needed her with him this time in the woods, she’d do it. She didn’t know how to tell him that it might be one of the last times they got to spend time together. She’d heard her parents talking about moving, and she knew it would hurt him if she left.

After all, she was his only friend left. No one else spent time with him but her. If she left, who would he have?

Mercy’s eyes shot open as she heard gunfire crack loudly through the woods, and her first instant was to wrap herself as tightly around the tree branch as she could to make herself as small as possible. It was something that Derek had taught her. She didn’t want stray gunshots to hit her; she didn’t have the supplies to take care of an injury like a shot wound.

“They’re gonna hear us, you idiot!” She heard a woman hiss angrily in the woods below. Mercy swallowed and looked down, wondering who was in the woods this late at night. It was dangerous enough during the daylight, let alone in the middle of the night with no light to guide them. These two could easily get lost, she realized.

And yet, she wouldn’t help them. In this world it was everyone for themselves. Derek had also taught her that. It was why, as hard as it was, she’d left Annie. She couldn’t have waited around any longer for a child who’d disappeared, just the same as she couldn’t have waited around for Derek if she hadn’t gone looking for him and found out what happened.

“I won’t,” a man’s voice shot back. “Shelly? You out here?”

“Don’t yell!” The woman growled under her breath.

Mercy looked up when she heard rustling in the woods behind her tree and with the small amount of moonlight filtering down through the branches of trees who were losing their leaves, she saw a small group of walkers. They would be nothing to a larger group of people, but with two unsuspecting people like the ones below, she realized they wouldn’t stand a chance. Especially if they got caught off guard.

She debated what she should do. Mercy knew that her own safety could be jeopardized if she tried to warn them, but she didn’t want to see two more people get killed. She didn’t know if she could handle that.

After several more minutes, she decided to warn them.

“Walkers,” she whispered down to the people. When she didn’t see them stop, she groaned. “If you two don’t stop, you’re gonna walk straight into a group of walkers,” she called down a little bit louder.

This time, her voice caught them off guard and within seconds, two guns were aimed at her tree.

“Who’s up there?”

She stayed hidden, not wanting them to see her face in case they were hostile. She didn’t know that she could trust them, she just hadn’t wanted to see them get killed. That, and walkers would attract more. She didn’t think she could stay tree bound for too long.

“Someone who’s trying to survive, just like you,” she called down again. “And if you keep walking that way, you’re gonna walk straight into some walkers. There’s five or six of them, maybe more. Can’t tell , it’s too dark.”

“I told you,” the woman snapped. “It was a stupid idea to come looking for your stupid girlfriend out here. It was her—”

“Shut up,” the man cut her off angrily. “Look, whoever you are, I think we can handle our—”

He was cut off by several walkers coming out of the trees and Mercy was quick to grab the first weapon she could reach, a small hunting knife that Derek had been carrying when he’d been turned. She launched it at the head of a walker who was coming up fast on the woman, and it dropped. The woman screamed and Mercy bit her bottom lip.

She should have known better than to save these people. But then again, she realized as her eyes widened as the situation dawned on her, maybe it hadn’t been a bad idea. Maybe these people could take her in and she’d have a group again. She wouldn’t trust any of them, she knew. But at least she’d have a group. Safety in numbers was a big thing, she knew.

And that was why she decided to help them fight the walkers tonight. She would help them, and hopefully in the process, she’d help herself as well.