Black Roses

The light was filtering through the dark green tree canopy in a lazy haze. It was a thick verdant forest, dappled with sun and along its length, young trees little more than twice a man’s height. The smell of composing leaves reminded Daryl of his childhood days; it was that earthy smell of beginnings and endings. The branches clutched at his clothes, slapped against his chest and shredded his hands but Daryl didn’t care. He was in his element. Merle was ahead of him when he broke the silence, “Smells to me like the Sawhatchee Creek.”

“We didn’t go west enough,” Daryl responded, surveying his seemingly endless surrounding. The sound of rushing water met his ears, “There’s a river down there, and it’s got to be the Yellow Jacket.”

“You have a stroke, boy? We ain’t never even come close to Yellow Jacket.” Merle scoffed. Daryl mentally rolled his eyes. It was clear that his brother was in an argumentative mood. But when is he not in an argumentative mood anyway? Daryl sure as hell didn’t know.

“We didn’t go west,” Daryl’s mouth betrayed him. He didn’t know why he was fighting back with Merle. He wasn’t going to win. “Just a little bit south. That’s what I think.”

Merle scoffed once again, throwing a glance back at his younger brother. “Know what I think? I may have lost my hand, but you lost your sense of direction.”

“Yeah, we’ll see.” Daryl quickly responded, wanting to keep his mouth shut. He was just done. He was still hungry and they’ve been walking around for days now pointlessly.

“What do you want to bet?” Merle chuckled, not knowing how it was causing a rise out of Daryl.

“I don’t want to bet nothing. It’s just a body of water,” Daryl snapped. “Why’s everything got to be a competition with you?”

Merle threw up his hands up in the air, turning to look at his brother. “Whoa, whoa. Take it easy, little brother. Just trying to have a little fun here. No need to get your panties all in a bundle.”

Daryl’s nostrils flared as he tried to take a huge gulp of air, hoping that it’d sooth him. But then he heard some crying in the distance. “You hear that?”

“Yeah, wild animals getting wild.” Merle’s mouth tugged up in a disgusting grin, winking at his brother.

“No, it’s a baby.” Daryl insisted, recognizing that special newborn cry. He immediately thought of Judith.

“Oh, come on,” Merle disagreed. “Why don’t you just piss in my ear and tell me it’s raining, too?
That there’s the sounds of a couple of coons making love, sweet love. Know what I mean?”

Merle started to make sexual gestures which earned him a dirty look from Daryl. Merle started laughing at himself, finding himself amusing. Daryl brushed past him, trying to locate the sounds. As they got closer to the sound of a baby crying, they heard zombies snarling and men shouting in Spanish. And then there were gunshots. The river gleamed through a very thin fringe of trees. Daryl saw that it was a long narrow pond and over it, the land rose up into a cement bridge. There were people surrounded by a horde of zombies. Beside him, his brother, Merle whistled and cheered for them to jump into the river.

Daryl once again shot him a dirty look but only this time, with more contempt. He was beginning to realize that his brother was just a piece of shit. Daryl ignored him as he decided to come to their aid. Merle complained, “Hey, man. I ain’t wasting my bullets on a couple of strangers that ain’t never cooked me a meal or felicitated my piece. That’s my policy. You’d be wise to adopt it, brother.”

Daryl broke out in a sprint to arrive at the bridge. He saw two Spanish men hopping up on the back of a flatbed truck as they struggled to keep their cool. There was a red Honda that was surrounded by walkers as a woman fervently prayed in Spanish as she held her newborn baby. Suddenly, a walker grabbed ahold of the older Spanish man’s ankle and the younger one fell to his aid only to knock out their only weapon. Chaos broke out as the two men looked around wildly, hoping for an escape route.

But to their surprise, a flash of yellow instantly killed the zombie that was after the older Spanish man. It was an arrow with yellow feathers. They looked up to see an unfamiliar rugged looking man with a crossbow in his hands recusing them as he killed off the approaching zombies. After a few moments of shock, the two Spanish men finally joined the fight as the two white strangers came to their rescue.

Daryl turned his attention onto the praying mother, seeing that her car was surrounded by walkers. A flash of Rose holding Judith in her arms coursed its way through Daryl’s head. God he missed Rose. He saw a lone walker entering the back of the Honda, reaching over to the mother and her baby. The threat needed to be eliminated. Daryl used his brute strength to pull out the walker and slam the back gate into the unlucky walker’s head. Blood and rotting body matter splattered all over Daryl but he didn’t think too much about it. He had to eliminate the threats first.

His arrows were being reused by pulling out his arrows out of deceased walkers and killing other walkers. Few minutes later, the snarling ended but the Spanish men were still protesting. Daryl’s eyebrows drew together as he turned around to see what the clamor was. There he was… that piece of shit brother. Daryl had enough of Merle. It was time for him to just go back home to his loved ones. Merle was causally looking for food in the back passenger seat when he threatened the Spanish men, “Slow down Beaner. That ain’t no way to say thank you.”

“Let ‘em go.” Daryl eyed Merle who was pointing his gun at the older Spanish male. The male protested in Spanish, gesturing to his wife in the driver’s seat. Daryl slowly walked around the other side of the car, opposite from Merle.

“The least they can do is give us an enchilada or something, huh?” Merle scoffed as he entered the car once again. The woman was sobbing loudly as she kissed her infant daughter on the forehead over and over again. “Easy does it Senorita. Everything’s gonna be fine.”

The younger male began to protest when Daryl turned away, in contempt of his brother. He was done. It was time to go back home. Not to the prison. But to the people that made it home. Go back home to Rose. Daryl sighed as he heard the cans clanking and went around to Merle’s side of the car. He made an eye contact with the older Spanish male, hoping that he’d understand his silent apology somehow. Daryl pointed his crossbow at his older brother and sighed, “Get out of the car.”

“I know you’re not talking to me, brother.” Merle taunted Daryl as he ignored Daryl’s threats.

“Get in your car and get the hell out of here.” Daryl shouted over at the Spanish men, hoping that they understood him. Merle was a ticking bomb. He knew that the strangers should get on the road before Merle lose his patience. “Go! Get in your car!”

As soon the red Honda backed out of harm’s way, Daryl lowered his crossbow and turned to make the long trek back to the prison. He hopes that they were still there. Hell He knew that nothing could possibly happen to his people if they had Rose. But he didn’t know if Rose already moved the group. As he pulled out his arrows from zombies’ heads, he heard his brother sulking behind him.

A faint thunder rumbled as they passed the bridge, and a blue and white sign labelled the body of water as Yellow Jacket Creek. So Daryl was right after all. After Merle finished sulking to himself, he finally piped out, “The shit you doing, point that thing at me?”

“They were scared, man.” Daryl scolded Merle.

Merle’s southern drawl was laced with prejudice and contempt, “They were rude is what they were. Rude and they owed us a token of gratitude.”

“They didn’t owe us nothing.” Daryl muttered, refusing to stop. He wanted to get to Rose sooner than later.

“You helping people out of the goodness of your heart,” Merle shook his head, realizing that this guy was a completely different guy that he knew before. It was almost like Daryl wasn’t really his brother anymore. “Even though you might die doing it? Is that something your Sheriff Rick taught you?”

“There was a baby!” Daryl snarled out, turning back to face his brother momentarily. He searched for answers in his older brother’s face, hoping to understand why Merle was like this. Sure Daryl and
Merle had always been quite rotten. They didn’t know any better. But Daryl didn’t know that the rottenness ran that deep in his brother.

“Oh, otherwise you would have just left them to the biters, then?” Merle’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

“Man, I went back for you. You weren’t there. I didn’t cut off your hand, neither,” Daryl finally broke his silence about that fateful day when he lost his brother. “You did that. Way before they locked you up on that roof. You asked for it.”

“You know… you know what’s funny to me? You and Sheriff Rick are like this now,” Merle made a gesture of his fingers crossing together. “Right? I bet you a penny and a fiddle of gold that you never told him that we were planning on robbing that camp blind.”

Daryl finally realized something. He wasn’t blind to Merle’s faults. It was Daryl. It was him all along. He’s the one that changed. “It didn’t happen.”

“Yeah, it didn’t ‘cause I wasn’t there to help you.” Merle retorted back, knowing that he was getting under Daryl’s skin.

“What, like when we were kids, huh? Who left who then?” Daryl snapped. He was done with his brother’s crap. All of his life, he have been dealing with Merle’s horrible behavior and blaming himself for Merle’s actions. Merle’s excuses were endless and often was Daryl-centric.

“What? Huh? Is that why I lost my hand?” Merle finally lost it too as he snapped back.
Daryl shouted back, getting into Merle’s face. “You lost your hand ‘cause you’re a simpleminded piece of shit.

“Yeah? You don’t know!” Merle leaped out, grabbing a handful of Daryl’s shirt that caused Daryl to fall down to his knees. But he stopped as he saw the scars on his younger brother’s back. “I… I didn’t know he was…”

“Yeah, he did.” Daryl sighed as he pulled his book pack back on. “He did the same to you. That’s why you left first.”

“I had to, man. I would have killed him otherwise.” Merle glumly looked to the forest ground as his brother walked ahead of him. “Where you going?”

“Back where I belong.” Daryl muttered under his breath.

Merle whined, making that awful high-pitched voice that Daryl hated. “I can’t go with you. I tried to kill that black bitch. Damn near killed the Chinese kid.”

“Korean.” Daryl corrected his brother.

“Doesn’t matter, man,” Merle shook his head. “I just can’t go with you.”

“You know, I may be the one walking away… but you’re the one that’s leaving again. And you know what else? You might’ve ruined any chance I’ve ever have with a girl that I actually like. Screw you man.” Daryl glared at his brother and then turned back to make the long trek back to Rose.

Little did he know that only few miles away... Chaos was waiting to happen.

A few miles away, Rose was smiling when she saw Axel and Carol bonding as she sat on the top of the picnic table, sharping her blades. Beth and Carl weren’t too far away from Rose and were standing next to each other, talking about Judith. And off in the distance, she saw Hershel talking to Rick who were currently living in crazy town. Glenn went off to blow off some steam and check out the back of the prison.

But the peacefulness of the air was destroyed as soon as Axel collapsed to the ground with an oozing gunshot wound on his forehead. Everybody fell to the ground as Rose army crawled to see who the source of that gunshot was. She saw Michonne standing behind an upturned prison bus up further in the outer courtyard. It was the Governor and his men. More bullets were fired to her right as she glanced over the tall grass to see Rick was being shot at and Hershel was too near to the gunfire.

They were in a bad situation. Rose signaled for Beth and Carl to make a run for it. Her heart panged
as she saw Carol using Axel as a body shield. It was only matter of time before Axel’s body doesn’t stop the bullets from going through and getting to Carol. There was a man up on the tower. Rose glanced around at the chaos that was surrounding her. Everybody was too far spread out. She didn’t know what to do.

She needed to get Carol out of the open. She needed Rick out of the open. She needed Hershel to get away from the line of gunfire. And God. Where was Glenn? She needed Carl to be safe and sound. What if they came in and did something to Judith? Rose’s heart thumped wildly as she tried to assess the situation. Maggie came out of the prison running with four sniper guns. Rose mentioned for her to give her one.

Rose had always preferred combat weapons that weren’t mechanical. Perhaps she didn’t like the messiness of guns. They weren’t precise. Or clean. But this time… Rose was going to make an exception. Beth grabbed another gun too. Rose mentioned for Maggie to run over to another secluded spot. “Carol go!”

Carol ran over to Beth and Carl, grabbing a gun when a roar of an engine stopped everybody. Rose saw an orange van driving through the gates, effectively getting past their first defense. Michonne was too close. Hershel too. Rose snuck up to get a better view at who was the intruder. But as soon the back of the van opened, it revealed a horde of walkers filling into the courtyard. Now Rose was really worried. Michonne can hold on her own for a bit. But what about Hershel?

The next few moments were almost like slow motion as if it had happened thousands and thousands times before. And it has. Rose’s heart slowed down as her eye surveyed the surroundings. Adrenaline coursed its way through her and she pushed herself from the ground, revealing her location to the others. A single gunshot ended the unwelcome visitor up on the guard tower. A second gunshot effectively killed three zombies that were too close to Hershel for her comfort. A third gunshot killed a zombie that was behind Rick which alerted him that he was being surrounded.

After shooting a spray of bullets, the governor and his men hopped back into their tan ford pick-up truck. Rose ran to open the gate, shooting at the new zombies in their outer prison yard. That yard that they worked so hard to take. All over in a matter of few minutes. Maggie, Beth, Carol and Carl joined her as they shot at the walkers. Glenn’s truck arrived just in time to see the tan pick-up truck leaving. Rose yelled a battle cry as she pulled out her katana swords, leaving behind her guns, joining Michonne in the center of the field.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Rick being backed up against the chain link fence. A whiz of yellow into the zombie’s head told Rose that Daryl was back. He was back. Michonne ran through couple of zombies as Glenn drove around in the courtyard towards Hershel. Rose watched as they pulled Hershel back into Glenn’s truck out of danger zone. Rick, Daryl and Merle was finishing off the walkers outside of the perimeter. And the rest of the group was inside the inner prison yard.

But Rose just stood out there in the middle of the destruction. Rose thought to herself about who would do such cruel things. But she knew damn well that if she was given the orders to do back then… she would’ve done it. It was just so… discouraging. Forming relationships, bonds… learning how to love was taking its toll on her. Rose had taken on the fool’s errand. She could never keep them out of harm’s way. There’s no just staying with them until they get set up or fortifying the place more anymore. They’re always going to need protection. Protection that Rose cannot always give. Protecting a group of people from the harsh world and its elements without getting her feelings involved was just… a fool’s errand.

Rose dropped to her knees, not caring if the zombies were getting too close to her. She’s immune to them. What did it matter to her… she had that one thing that everybody in this world so desperately need but she couldn’t give it to them. A fool’s errand... indeed.