Mercy

“What did you say your name was again?”

Mercy was looking around carefully at the surrounding woods as she and the other two people she’d helped a little over an hour ago when she heard the man’s question. Instead of answering his question, she just shrugged and then pushed her hair out of her eyes.

“I’d prefer to keep it to myself for right now,” she muttered to him, pushing her hair out of her eyes.

The man who’d asked the question arched his eyebrow, as though he wasn’t used to hearing people argue with him. The woman who was walking with them nudged him in the side.

“Ian, you can’t always treat people like they’re criminals,” she hissed under her breath. “That’s why Shelly—”

The man stopped dead in his tracks and turned slowly, glowering at the woman on Mercy’s other side before his hands clenched into fists at his sides. It was evident that hearing the name Shelly had had an effect on him, and not a particularly pleasant one.

“Don’t talk about her,” Ian growled. “You certainly didn’t know her. To you, all she was was some…stranger. But she was my girlfriend and the mother of my child.”

“I know that, Ian,” the woman sighed, rolling her eyes. “And I know that you losing your daughter was hard enough.”

Mercy’s eyes widened at the mention of a daughter. She studied Ian’s figure for a few moments and realized that he was old enough to have a child about Annie’s age. She bit her bottom lip, wondering whether or not she should say anything to the two of them.

“Tonya,” he whispered harshly as he turned his head. “Shut. Up. Before I kick you out of the group to join that pathetic pair of brothers.”

Mercy stopped in her tracks. Brothers? The only pair of brothers she knew of in the area were Daryl and Merle, but they didn’t strike her as the type of guys to join the safety net of a group. Especially Merle, she thought to herself. Merle had never had good people skills as a teenager, and she had to imagine that they’d only gotten worse as he’d grown older.

“Did you say you had a daughter?” Mercy finally whispered as they neared a clearing in the woods. Tonya shot her a look that told her to shut up, and she closed her mouth as they kept walking. She could see smoke rising and realized that they must have set up camp for the night. AS they drew nearer, she felt her eyes widening when she saw that there was a circle of chain-link fence reinforced with metal farming fence and boards circling the camp. A gate was set up on the far end of the circle, with two armed guards.

“You guys back already? I didn’t think you’d come back without—” One of the guards started as he opened the door. Tonya shook her head at the guard and he too fell silent, much the same way that Mercy had.

“Who’s she?” The other guard asked of Mercy, who looked up with a hesitant, cautious smile on her face. The last thing she wanted was trouble. She needed to be with a group right now, because she knew she wouldn’t survive otherwise.

“She said her name’s Mercy,” Ian grumbled. “She was hiding out in the trees and she helped us. Figured we’d bring her back for a while, give her some shelter and some food for helping us out.”

The guard nodded and extended his hand with a small smile. “My name is Boyd,” he told her as he shook her hand. “And you can stay in my tent any—”

“She won’t be staying in anyone’s tent,” Ian cut Boyd off with a scowl, stopping in his tracks once again. “She’ll have her own while she’s here. Since the Dixon brothers are no longer with our group, she’ll be getting one of their tents. Alison, you haven’t taken them down yet, have you?”

A petite brunette stood and bit her lip. “I took Merle’s down,” she told him quietly.

Ian sighed, but then nodded. “Fine. I guess she can stay in Daryl’s tent,” he murmured, the words meant more for himself than anyone else as he looked up at Mercy with a small, half-assed smile that was obviously fake. “Dinner is served communally. We’ll be eating in about an hour. I think it’s deer tonight.”

“Thanks to Scott!” Someone yelled enthusiastically, setting off a round of whoops and hollers from the various people that now surrounded Mercy. She put a nervous smile on her face and let herself be led through the group towards a tent on the far end of the circle. Tonya smiled as she nodded at it.

“It’s got some his things left in it. Mostly books, sheets. A couple of shirts, maybe,” Tonya murmured. “But it’s yours for while you’re here. You should be comfortable. The nights get cool, and since it looks like you don’t have any blankets or anything with you, I’ll bring some extra ones from the surplus tent. Don’t get caught going near it without Ian; he’s anal when it comes to the stock around here and he won’t be happy if he thinks the newcomer is a thief.”

Mercy nodded and then crawled into the tent. The first thing she noticed was that the tent was much cozier than she had been expecting. A half-filled air mattress was on the far side of the tent, a gas camping lamp sat next to it turned off. There was a pile of books near the door, and a few other miscellaneous items. She smiled halfheartedly as she sat down on the end of the air mattress.

It wasn’t much, but this tent would bring her comfort while she was here. It would especially do so since she knew that Daryl had stayed here. She hadn’t seen him since they’d been children, but Mercy still remembered how safe he’d always made her feel.

Daryl had always taken care of her.

Mercy decided to turn on the gas lamp and then leaned over to pick up one of the books. The Catcher In The Rye was the first book on top of the pile and she smiled as she picked it up, blowing the settling dust off the cover as she trailed her fingertips over the old leather binding.

She’d never thought she’d see the book again. It had been hers in childhood, until she’d left their small town in the dust with her parents. It had been a book that she’d let Daryl borrow, and she’d never gotten a chance to get it back.

Had he really kept it all those years?

She opened the book and arched her eyebrow when she saw a page marker. She bit her lip when she saw her third grade school portrait as the bookmark. So he had remembered her. Her finger trailed down the page and she smiled when she saw a highlighted passage. She remembered highlighting it for him to show him that it was her favorite part of the book when they’d been kids.

I was half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can.

She remembered the way Daryl had been so confused when he’d asked her about it. She’d never fully understood the depth of those words when she’d been a kid. And maybe Daryl hadn’t either, she thought to herself. Though, she had to admit that when she thought about it, she doubted that was entirely true. He’d always been smarter than most kids.

He had probably known exactly what lay beneath those words when he’d asked her what they meant. He had been sneaky that way. A smile formed on her face as she thought about it before she laid down, pulling a pillow underneath of her head. Tonight, she wasn’t going to think about it because she was too tired to dwell any more on the past than she already had.

But tomorrow, she was going to try to figure out exactly what had happened with Daryl and Merle, and where they’d gone. She wanted to see if she could find them, see if Daryl remembered her as an adult or if he was just holding on to a childhood memory for some reason she couldn’t even begin to understand.

Either way, she told herself, she needed to see him again. With the world in the state it was, it was more crucial than ever to find people that could be trusted. And while she’d be okay with Ian and his camp for a few nights, she knew she couldn’t stay long. She didn’t trust them the way she’d trusted Derek, and that was a red flag. If she wanted to trust, she needed to find Daryl.

There was only one problem with that, however. He wasn’t the kind of person that liked being tracked down.