Full Time Job

Daryl

After we had finally recovered Glenn and Maggie, I was overrun by a group of guys that had thrown a canvas bag over my head and thrown me into a dark, empty room. I banged on the door that was just slammed in my face by one of the men that defended this strange compound that we had learned to be called Woodbury.

“You’re not so tough without all your buddies!! Open this door!” I screamed at him through the small glass window in the door. He smirked at me and I stared him down through the window. He was one of those douche bags that Merle and I used to see at the bar, the kind that wore his hat backwards and his shirt collar up. He continued to smirk at me through the glass and I banged on the door, screaming at him.

“Keep smilin’… You’re afraid to open this door because I’m going to knock you on your ass!” I hollered at him, and he turned his back to me. I turned and sat on the metal desk that was the only piece of furniture in the small room. I was seething, drumming my fingers impatiently on the desk beneath me. I knew that Michonne had a double agenda from the get go, that she was leading us into a situation that we may or may not get out of alive. But, I followed Rick like I always do. Gianna’s terrified face flashed through my mind as I remembered the last time that I had seen her when we left the prison earlier that day. Anger continued to violently thud in my veins as I hoped that I would be able to see her again. The only thing that was stopping me from trying to break the door down was the fact that if Rick was alive, him, Glenn, and Maggie had to be coming for me.

I waited impatiently until a group of men approached the door, led by a tall, middle aged guy that had a bloody patch of gauze covering one of his eyes. They all had guns pointing at me as he made his way into the room, surrounding me.

“Daryl, right?” he asked, extending his hand towards me. I looked towards his hand and back up to his face, disgust radiating through me. Maggie told me what kind of guy he was before I was taken. He chuckled and continued to speak.

“Daryl, I have something that you need to see,” he started, and my mind started to race at the many possibilities that he could be talking about. Had he found my group? Did he kill them?

“In order for me to show you, you have to agree to behave yourself, at least until we get there,” he started. His voice rang into my ears and I just nodded, not wasting any breath speaking to this asshole. I followed him out of the room, walking through an empty town that was barricaded on the streets that led out of it. The hum of a crowd cheering started to emerge ahead of us, and I began to expect that I was being led into watching my friends being executed.

We walked onto a scene of a large group of people crowded around an open circle, big torches of fire were shining an orange glow around everybody. I focused on the middle of the open circle all of these people were crowded around, and my heart dropped out of my chest when I recognized my brother Merle, alive, with a steel stake protruding from his hand that he had hacked off himself to escape the rooftop that he had been stranded on in Atlanta.

I locked eyes with him, and after being away from him for so long, the expression on his face was unreadable. I continued to glare around me, trying to not express that I was elated to have found Merle, alive. The men that had brought me here led me to the open circle, next to Merle and I scanned the crowd as The Governor began to speak, another shock overtook me when I locked eyes with Andrea, another person that I thought to be dead. I was trying to catch my breath as the crowd quieted.

“I asked you where your loyalties lie… and you said here,” The Governor began, and I glanced over towards Merle. “Well… Prove it… Prove it to us all… Brother against brother… Winner goes free…” I looked back at Merle in disbelief. What kind of people has he been living with?

“Fight…to the DEATH!” The Governor’s voice rang out around us and the crowd erupted in cheers. I looked at Merle, and immediately over to Andrea who was pleading with The Governor, only she had called him Phillip. I looked at Merle, knowing that he wouldn’t be into this, and he glared around the crowd who began chanting his name.

“Y’all know me,” he started, stretching his hand into the air, his familiar scratchy voice cut deep into my ears. So much was happening all at the same time, and anxiety was overtaking me and the heavy breaths I was taking burned into my throat.

“I’m gonna do whatever I gotta do…” Merle hollered out into the crowd, and swung at me, hitting me square in the stomach, and I crumpled to the ground, not believing that this was my older brother Merle. “ …to prove, that my loyalty is with this town!” he yelled, and I held my hands up in defense as he slammed another fist hard into my side. I was gasping for air, and I looked up at Merle, who was standing over me, and I was pushing with all that I had to get him off of me. The crowd’s noise was blaring around us.

“Do you really think this asshole is going to let you go?” I yelled up to him, still in complete shock that he was doing this to me.

“Just follow my lead, little brother… We’re getting out of this… RIGHT NOW!” he yelled, and pulled me up, and we faced the crowd around us, back to back, our dukes up, ready to fight. Immediate adrenaline and hope took over, and I angrily glared at the people around me. Walkers had appeared out of nowhere, led on leads by The Governor’s men as they inched them closer to us. I punched one directly in the skull, knocking him loose of his lead, and I shoved it into the crowd.

Merle and I continued to throw punches at the dead snarling bodies that were trying to bite and claw at our skin. Abruptly, shots rang out around us and started to hit collide with bodies, both the dead and the spectators that surrounded us. I saw one of the smoke grenades that Rick had brought from the prison, and I knew that the cavalry had arrived. Merle and I began punching and fighting through the crowd, and I yanked my crossbow off of one of The Governor’s men and fought my way through the thinning crowd of people to where the gun shots were coming from, Merle was right behind me. I finally reached Rick and we silently escaped the compound.

We were walking for an hour or so and dawn was starting to break. I began to think of how I was going to explain to Merle that I had Gianna and Vinny in my life now, and I was mentally preparing for all the sarcasm and bullshit that he was going to start throwing in my direction. We finally finished our hike through the woods, and I saw Glenn, Maggie and Michonne, all posted up outside of the SUV that we had taken to get here. Glenn’s face was banged up badly, and when he spotted Merle behind me, he immediately drew his pistol and all hell broke loose. I stood between Merle and Maggie, who looked so angry with him that she could kill him and not think twice about it. Had she even met Merle?
“Get him out of here!” Glenn ordered, still pointing his gun in front of him. I swatted it away from my face and started to grow angry.

“Will you stop pointing that damn thing in my face?” I snarled towards Glenn, and he slowly lowered his weapon. Apparently, Merle had worked his way up to henchmen status with The Governor, and continued to taunt Glenn, Michonne and Maggie as he stood behind Rick and me. After Merle refused to shut his mouth, the group was suddenly quiet after Rick smacked Merle with the butt of his pistol, and he fell to the ground, knocked out.

“Will someone tell me what the hell is going on here?” I asked, fuming.

“Merle beat the shit out of me, and tried to kill Michonne, held Maggie captive, Glenn started, and I looked at my brother, who was unconscious on the ground beside us.

“There’s no way that Merle can come back with us and not cause everyone to be at each other’s throats…” Rick started and I scoffed loudly. There was no way that I was going to leave him.

“Do you really want him in the same cell block as Gia …or Carol?” Glenn started and I rolled my eyes sarcastically.

“He ain’t a rapist!” I defended, and Rick was still shaking his head.

“His buddy was!” Maggie added, anxiety was building inside of me as I started to pace the gravel road we were on. Merle was coming to.

“Well, then I guess we’ll have to fend for ourselves,” I added, my heart sinking. There is no way I could leave him again. Rick and Glenn immediately started to try to convince me to do so.

“It was always Merle and me before all this…” I stated truthfully. Merle was still my brother, even if he can be hard to live with. I walked towards the back of the SUV, slinging my pack over my shoulder.

“You can’t leave Daryl,” Rick started, and I began shaking my head.

“I’m not leaving him… I already did once,” I responded, and slung my crossbow across my shoulders.

“What do you want us to tell Gia?” Glenn asked, and I felt a lump start to form in my throat. I never wanted to leave her behind. I shook my head angrily, remembering this being the exact reason why I didn’t want to get involved in the first place… like I could help it. If Gia had found her sister, would she have left me behind?

“…She’ll understand,” I answered, trying to conceal the sadness in my voice. I did not feel right about this, but I knew it wasn’t possible for me to leave Merle, who had made it to his feet and was watching us suspiciously, leaning against a tree that lined the abandoned gravel road.

“Take care of her, Rick…and Vinny, and Lil’ Ass Kicker,” I said, walking towards Merle.

“Daryl, you don’t have to do this!” Maggie pleaded, and I ignored her as I approached Merle and we walked side by side into the forest. I was leaving my family behind for my actual family…Merle. I felt awful.

“Who’s Gia, Daryl?” Merle asked in his familiar scratchy voice, and I shook my head.

“Don’t…” I answered, and continued to walk in the quiet woods, scanning the forest for a squirrel or rabbit. My stomach was rumbling with hunger.

“You mean to tell me that you left me on that roof and have been playing house with some girl this whole time?” he asked angrily and I stopped walking, and looked angrily towards him.

“I didn’t leave you, Merle. We went back for you, and you were gone. You cut off your own hand, not me…” I spat back at him and he shook his head angrily.

“Well I just can’t tell ya how happy I am that you found someone to keep your bed warm, while I’ve been surviving without my fucking hand!” Merle retorted, and the anger that had already began seething for me as he continued to holler at me.

“Did you tell her we were plannin’ on robbin’ that group blind before I left?” he asked, laughing, and I shoved him hard in the shoulder.

“You lost your hand because you’re a close minded piece of shit!” I screamed at him, and we heard someone screaming off in the distance. Uneasiness took over my anger when I immediately thought of Rick and the others that we had left not long ago. Without question, I began walking quickly in the direction that the screaming was coming from, Merle followed on my heels.

“You’re little girlfriend’s going to be dead by the end of the night anyway, little brother…” I heard him tease as he walked behind me. I didn’t answer, so he continued.

“The Governor knows where you and your friends have been hiding. He’s going to kill them all… You got out just in time.” He goaded, and I immediately began to feel even angrier than I already was. What the hell was I doing? I couldn’t leave Gianna to die… guilt began to coarse through me as I remembered her terrified face the last time that I had seen her, and how I promised that I would be back.

My thoughts were immediately placed by adrenaline as we approached a clearing that a creek ran through and the screaming we had heard earlier was coming from a group of people that were on the bridge that ran above the creek and above our heads. They were being over ran by walkers. I ran towards the road and Merle scoffed behind me incredulously.

“Why are you going to go helpin’ people that you don’t even KNOW? Did your buddy Rick teach you that?” he hollered behind me, and I ignored him. I pulled my crossbow in front of me, and watched as a couple of guys were fighting off a small herd of walkers, and a woman was wailing with a crying baby in the car that was also surrounded by the reanimated corpses that had ended the world.
I began shooting down geeks with my crossbow, helping the men who had finally been able to scramble to their feet and shoot down some of them also. I had begun clearing the ones out that had surrounded the car with the woman and baby inside and an ugly, gangly tall walker lunged towards me and Merle’s voice rang out behind me.

“I got ya, Daryl!” he hollered out, and shot it directly in the skull. I turned and finished clearing the area, kicking the last dead geek over the edge of the wall that enclosed the bridge. I heard one of the men that we had helped speaking frantically to Merle in Spanish as Merle pointed his gun at him and was going through the belongings of the group that we had just saved.

“Let him go,” I ordered, staring over at Merle as the man that was still speaking very quickly in Spanish. Merle continued to search through the car, and anger bubbled up inside of me. I didn’t live this way anymore… and I didn’t want to live this way anymore. I didn’t belong here. I started to understand that Rick was right… Merle couldn’t get along with anyone and I always knew this about him.

I walked around the car and hesitantly pulled my crossbow in front of me and nudged Merle’s shoulder as he continued to ransack the back seat of the car that did not belong to him.

“Get out of the car,” I said firmly, and he stopped searching, but did not back up.

“I know you ain’t talkin’ to me, little brother,” he called out, but I did not lower my crossbow. I glanced towards the men that I had helped and back towards Merle.

“Get in your car and get the hell out of here!” I ordered, and they frantically began moving around the car, and getting inside. He started the engine and Merle stepped out of the car, and the car slowly backed away. I held my crossbow in front of me, towards Merle, and stared him down from behind it. He pushed the crossbow away, and I silently grabbed my pack, slung it back around my shoulders, and paced away, fuming at my brother.

I paced off into the woods and he continued to holler behind me, ignoring him until he yanked me back and my already torn shirt ripped off into his hands, exposing the scars on my back that I had managed to conceal from him and everybody else for my entire life. He knew what they were because he had them himself. The only thing my dad had left me when he died were the scars that stretched across my back. I yanked myself out of his grip and his voice immediately dropped.

“I didn’t know he…” he started, and I knew he was referring to our piece-of-shit father, and I scoffed angrily.

“You did too,” I answered, looking towards him angrily. “… That’s why you left before me,” I finished as I continued pacing away from him. I hadn’t felt angry like this in months, and only Merle and men like Merle managed to bring it out of me… I had to get away from him.

“Where ya goin?” he called after me and I quickly turned around to face him.

“Back to where I belong!” I answered back, anger radiating from every part of me.

“I can’t go with you… I tried to kill that black bitch and that Chinese kid!” Merle retorted, and I sensed an urgency and pleading in his voice. I turned to face him. I couldn’t do this anymore.

“You know I may be the one walking away, but you’re the one that’s leaving… again!” I said angrily, and continued walking back towards the prison and back towards my life. I should never have left Rick in the first place. I walked quickly through the forest, and I heard Merle following behind me. I hoped with everything that this meant that he was choosing to change and choosing to be a better man. My thoughts raced as we walked closer and closer to the prison, and I started to grow anxious when I remembered that Merle had said that The Governor and his people were coming for us. I had to get there before they did.

When we finally approached the outer barbed wire prison fence, I saw Rick fighting off a group of walkers that had begun to push part of the fence down, that some of the other members of our group were pushing back together and repairing the fence as Rick was leading the walkers away from them. I pulled my bow in front of me and took out the ones that surrounded him, and I was shocked to see Merle taking a few out behind us…helping me, and helping Rick.

He nodded at me solemnly, and we followed him inside the security gates and onto the prison yard. Hershel and Carl where standing in the empty concrete area, waiting for Rick to return.

“How’s Gia?” I asked immediately, and Rick turned towards me and shook his head. I started to grow anxious waiting for him to answer me.

“Carol said she hasn’t really eaten or slept since you left, I haven’t seen much of her, and she’s been inside for most of the day…” he finished, and I felt automatic guilt wash through me. Rick was staring down Merle, telling him that if he wanted to continue to stay at the prison, he had to behave. We stood around Rick and Hershel, who had been getting around much easier than he was the last time I had seen him.

My heart skipped a beat as I saw my girl coming down the steps from the side entrance to the prison, near our cell block, and Beth was toting Vinny behind her. My heart raced as she grew closer, walking quickly towards me. I couldn’t ignore the angry scowl that she wore on her pretty face, she reminded me of a kitten who thought she was way tougher than she really was, and I missed her more than I realized, and fought the strong urge to wrap my arms around her. She was beautiful.
I walked up to her as she approached, so happy to see her even if she was staring daggers at me.

“Hey, G,” I started, and was shocked when she abruptly punched me hard across the face.