It's Over When It's Over

The day went by pretty slow for me. I was still in shock over the fact that they left Merle; another surprise was that Lori’s husband was alive. He was the one who handcuffed Merle to the roof. He did come up to me, introduced himself, and apologized for what he did. I didn’t reply to him because if I did I knew I’d say something rude and I didn’t want that. Although I was hurt today, it was a good day for him. He had just found his family after being in a coma for this long. He was explaining what he felt when looking for Lori and Carl. After Rick was done talking, Shane and Ed got in a mini argument about Ed’s fire. Shane got up told him to get rid of the log so the fire will lower; after that whole situation was done between them two; Shane came back and sat a little to close next to me.
“Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon?” Dale asked everyone. “He won’t be happy to hear his brother was left behind.”
“I’ll tell him.” T-Dog spoke up, “I dropped the key. It’s on me.”
“I cuffed him. Makes him mine.” Rick Grimes said.
“Guys it’s not a competition.” Glenn told the two, “I don’t mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy.”
“Daryl ain’t a racist. He ain’t anything like that.” I told him.
“I did what I did. Hell if I’m gonna hide from him.” T-Dog said.
“We could lie.” Amy suggested.
“Or tell the truth.” Andrea said, “Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he’d have gotten us killed. Your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind it is nobody’s fault but Merles.”
“And that’s what we tell Daryl?” Dale asked. “I don’t see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?” He asked, as Andrea sighed and lowered her head, “Word to the wise, we’re gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt.”
“It’d be best if I told him. He will freak out and I’ll be the only one who will be able to try and calm him down. Maybe hard because you did leave his brother up there like bate.” I told them.
“I was scared and I ran.” T-Dog informed. “I’m not ashamed of it.”
“We were all scared.” Andrea said. “We all ran. What’s your point?”
“I stopped long enough to chain that door.” T-Dog said, “Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It’s not enough to break through that; not that chain, not that padlock. My point… Dixon’s alive and he’s still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That’s on us.” T-Dog stood up and walked away. Everyone looked shocked to know Merle was still alive out there; so was I.
___
I was helping the boys get parts from the Glenn’s red car. My daddy taught me how to work on cars when I was little so might as well put the work to use.
“You know your stuff!” Jim smiled, complementing my skills.
“Oh yes I-“I stopped when I heard a scream. I dropped the tools and followed Rick and Lori and others into the forest. Lori yelled out for Carl as I yelled out for Daniel. When we got to them I looked at Daniel, “Nothing touched you?” He shook his head. “Okay I want you to go in the RV and stay there okay?” He nodded and did what I told him to do. I followed everyone else, and there we saw a walker eating a deer. The deer had arrows in it; Daryl’s arrows. When the walker noticed us, the men started beating it. Waste of time though. They were hitting it in the chest as if they didn’t know how to kill a walker, but then Dale chopped its head off with an axe.
“It’s the first one we’ve had up here.” I told everyone.
“They never come this far up the mountain.” Dale said.
“Well, they’re running out of food in the city, that’s what.” Jim said. We then heard branches snapping and footsteps. The men raised their weapons in the direction of the sound. Relief came over us when we saw it was Daryl.
“Son of a bitch.” Daryl said. “That’s my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!” He complained as he kicked the Walkers headless body.
“Calm down, son. That’s not helping.” Dale told him.
Daryl walked up to Dale angrily, “What do you know about it, old man?”
“Daryl!” I yelled at him. He turned and glared at me, but didn’t stop.
“Why don’t you take that stupid hat and go back to ‘On Golden Pond’?” Daryl sighed. “I’ve been tracking this deer for miles.” He explained as he was taking his arrows out of the deer. “Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?” He asked pointed to the chewed up part.
“I would not risk that.” Shane said.
Daryl sighed again, “That’s a damn shame. I got some squirrel; about a dozen or so. That’ll have to do.” The walkers head started moving again, “Come on, people. What the hell?” Daryl shot the walkers head without even aiming. “It’s gotta be the brain. Don’t y’all know anything?” I followed Daryl as he made his way into camp. I knew he was going to see Merle wasn’t here so I grabbed his arm trying to stop him. Daryl stopped and kissed me on the cheek thinking that’s what I wanted. “Merle! Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel! Let’s stew ‘em up."
“Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you.” Shane said.
“About what?” Daryl asked softly.
“Shane let me tell him.” I said.
Shane ignored me and continued to talk to Daryl. “About Merle. There was a… There was a problem in Atlanta.” Everyone looked at Daryl; he looked back.
“He dead?” He softly asked.
“We’re not sure.”
“He either is or he ain’t.”
Rick walked in to the conversation, “No easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it.” I love how all the men just ignored me. I said it’d be easier if I just told Daryl myself.
“Who are you?” Daryl asked.
“Rick Grimes.”
“Rick Grimes?” Daryl mocked, “You got something you want to tell me?”
“Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He’s still there.”
“Hold on. Let me process this. You’re saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?!” Daryl yelled. Rick said ‘yeah’ and Daryl freaked out. He throws the string of squirrels at Rick, and then Shane pushed him to the ground. Daryl got up taking out his knife.
“Daryl stop it!” I yelled, “Stop it right now!” He ignored me. Daryl swung the knife at Rick and missed. Shane then put him in a choke hold.
“You’d best let me go!” Daryl yelled.
“Nah, I think it’s better if I don’t.” Shane said; bring them both to the ground.
Daryl grunted, “Choke hold’s illegal!” Shane was being a dick and tried to be funny by telling him to file a complaint. I couldn’t stand seeing this, and the fact that everyone was just standing there watching was beyond me. I ran to Shane and Daryl putting my hand on Daryl’s cheek.
“Daryl you need to relax, okay.” I looked him in the eyes. He was sad. I’ve never seen him sad before. “Shane let him go!” Shane ignored me for the 1000th time. Rick kneed down beside me.
“I’d like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that?” Daryl didn’t answer. “Do you think we can manage that?” Rick and Shane looked at each other and nodded. Shane threw Daryl on the ground, as Daryl panted. “What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others.”
“It’s not Rick’s fault. I had the key. I dropped it.” T-Dog said.
“You couldn’t pick it up?”
“Well, I dropped it in a drain.”
Daryl grunted again. He stood up throwing some dirty back to the ground, “If it’s supposed to make me feel better, it don’t!”
“Well, maybe this will. Look I chained the door to the roof so that geeks couldn’t get at him with a padlock.”
Rick said, “It’s gotta count for something.”
Daryl wiped a tear, “Hell with all y’all!” He yelled. “Just tell me where he is so’s I can go get him.”
“He’ll show you. Isn’t that right?” Lori said.
Rick looked around confused, but he nodded, “I’m going back.”