Mercy

When the world had gone to shit, Mercy had played out a lot of different scenarios in her mind. She had imagined that she’d lose most or all of her family – and she had. She’d figured out how to push through without them. She had imagined that she’d lose most of her friends, so she’d kept most of the people she’d encountered at a distance Even Anna and Derek hadn’t been too close to her, considering the fact that they’d survived together for so long.

Hell, she hadn’t even cried when Derek had died. He’d been a good man, and he’d kept her safe. But ultimately, the world in which they lived now was a “kill or be killed” kind of world. Derek had been killed and that was all there was to it. There was nothing more that Mercy could have done for him, so she’d moved forward.

But one situation she had never thought would play out was that Daryl would ever walk away from her. Actually, she’d never really thought she’d encounter him. The first time had been by mere chance, when she’d been in the forest with Anna and Daryl had called his older brother off of them. But the second time, she’d been seeking him out. She’d needed him and he’d walked away.

Karma had a funny way of biting people in the ass, she realized.

After he’d left her, she’d tried to follow him. She’d tried to pick Daryl’s tracks up in the forest, but considering it had been dark already when she’d run into him, she’d lost him pretty quickly. She didn’t expect to pick up his trail again, either. He’d always known the woods of Georgia like the back of his hand. God only knew he’d spent enough time in them as a kid.

The truth of the matter was, if Daryl didn’t want her to find him, he wouldn’t be found. He’d always been better at hide and seek than she ever had been and now, he was better than ever.

His departure left her in a vulnerable situation. She could either return to the encampment and risk Ian’s harshness or she could fend for herself in a forest that was bound to be full of walkers. She could only make it so far alone, and she knew that.

She was as good as dead now that she was alone. It would probably be more humane to herself if she ended it by her own hand rather than letting herself become a walker, but Mercy had never been one for taking the easy way out. Suicide wasn’t an option for her; not after she’d come so far. She’d survived too long to just quit right now.

So she’d keep fighting, she told herself. She had a strong enough resolve and she’d been on her own for a couple weeks before Derek had ever found her. She might not have had a great time during those few weeks, but she’d been alive and that was what mattered now.

The sun was rising quickly and Mercy knew that she didn’t have long before Ian and the others realized that she was missing. There was no doubt in her mind that he’d send a search party out for her. It left little time for her to figure out a battle plan, but eventually she found a tree with enough branches and coverage that she knew she’d be able to hide herself. Climbing had always been her forte, and it seemed that the skill hadn’t left her.

Within an hour, Mercy was in the upper branches of the tall elm tree. She wasn’t so high up that it was going to be impossible to get down without injury, but she knew it would be far-fetched for Ian or the others to spot her with all the leaves, even if they were good at spotting things.

She was safe. For now, at least.

Sure enough, it didn’t take them long to realize she was gone. She saw them searching long before she heard them. From her vantage point in the tree, she could see for at least a mile. It meant she hadn’t travelled nearly as far the previous night as she’d thought she had, which was a slight concern. She needed to get out of here, even she knew that. But it seemed that, for the day at least, she would be stuck in the tree. There was no way in Hell she was going down any time before Ian and the others went to bed at night. They were only human, after all, and there was no way they’d be caught outside the perimeter of that fence after dark, when the walkers lurked nearby.

“I see footprints headed this way!”

She flinched when she heard Boyd’s words. She already knew that he was one of the better trackers in the group. It would probably not be hard for him to find her, and that was something that scared her a little bit. What if her spot in the tree wasn’t as good as she had previously thought?

Within an hour, they were too close for Mercy’s comfort. It seemed that Boyd had lost her tracks – probably because Daryl had surely been covering his own the night before, which was now a relief to her. They were still too close, though, and it made her feel uneasy as she climbed even further up the tree.

As the day went on, she watched as Boyd and the others gradually became more frustrated. They couldn’t seem to find her, which was definitely something of a relief to her. It meant that maybe, just maybe, she had avoided being captured by them. Finally, they began heading back to their camp at dusk. They had attracted the attention of some walkers, but that was nothing she couldn’t deal with if she really had to, she told herself.

By nightfall, she was more than ready to get down from the tree. She could see the campfire in the distance, and she knew it meant that they were all back inside the fence. It gave her another night to get away and she planned on doing just that.

The climb down the tree took much longer than it had to climb up, but eventually she was close. She could see the ground below her feet, but before jumping, she carefully checked her surroundings to make sure no lurkers were nearby to catch her off guard. The last thing she needed was to become food for them.

When she realized that, for the time being, she was safe, she began walking. The forest felt different tonight. The moon was still full, but there was more cloud coverage tonight which made it more difficult for her to see where she was going. Tonight, she was a little louder than she had been the previous night. It made her grateful that she was further away from the camp.

She’d been walking for about an hour when she finally heard movement behind her. It sent a shiver down her spine and she stopped in her tracks, readying her hand on one of the knives on her ankle.

“Hello?” She whispered as she turned around, not daring to speak any louder.

No one was standing there, and that didn’t soothe her discomfort. Any sound in the forest could mean imminent danger. It could be a walker or it could be Ian. It could be somebody completely, entirely different – and in this world, that wasn’t always a good thing.

The movement stopped for a few minutes before the telltale groan of a walker sounded through the forest. Her eyes widened when first one, and then two of them came into view as they stumbled out of the darkness. Within moments there were three, four, and then five more of them.

She was far too outnumbered to take them out on her own.

“Shit,” she whispered to herself, eyes widening. She’d walked straight into a horde of walkers and she hadn’t even noticed. She turned and moved her left foot forward to make a run for it, but quickly realized that wouldn’t work when she found herself face to face with two more walkers. Her knife easily took out one of them, but she wasn’t quick enough to end the other as she pushed it away, dropping the knife and making a run for it.

Running was her only option now. Fighting wouldn’t work, especially since she didn’t have easy access to her bow.

It soon dawned on her, however, that running wouldn’t get her out of the situation, either. The faster she ran, the louder she was and it seemed she was only attracting the attention of more walkers. At this rate, she knew she would be dead by morning.

“Help!” She screamed, finally letting her voice be heard as she tried to run again, darting around a walker missing a leg.

She didn’t know who she was begging for help from. God, maybe? She’d stopped believing in Him upon first seeing a walker, but that didn’t mean she was immune to hope that maybe somewhere out there, some infinite being existed and would take pity on her.

Tonight didn’t seem to be that kind of night, though. Instead of receiving help, she only saw more walkers. By this point, she was sure she wasn’t going to make it. There were just too many of them and she was already tired from the running and fighting.

Finally, her foot caught on an overgrown tree root and with a scream, she went down. Her ankle twisted and she felt the fearful tears in her eyes when she realized that the walkers were closing in.

She wasn’t getting out of this one.

Mercy closed her eyes, prepared now more than ever to let it end. She saw Daryl’s face in her mind and she couldn’t help but smile. It made her feel a little bit better about leaving this life, knowing that she’d crossed paths with him once more.

Maybe now, he realized that she had never meant to hurt him. Even if he’d left her, maybe he now realized that it had never been her intention to do so to him.

She didn’t blame him for walking away. Hell, she would have too.

Her eyes stayed closed and she kept waiting for a bite or a grab…anything to signal to her that the beginning of a painful death was in her future. Instead, nothing happened.

It was as if closing her eyes made them disappear altogether. A small whimper fell from her lips as she slowly opened her eyes to find the area completely ridden of live walkers. She saw a few of their bodies, but didn’t know how it had happened. She hadn’t been the one to kill them.

It was only when she looked towards the direction she’d been running from that she saw him. Daryl was standing there, a scowl on his face and arrow readied as he looked straight at her.

“Well, are you going to keep cowering and layin’ there all night, or are ya gonna get up and come with me?”