𝐑𝐞𝐛𝐞𝐥《 𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘺𝘭 𝘋𝘪𝘹𝘰𝘯 》

t w o// V A T O S

"Son of a bitch!" A man with short hair and squirrels around his torso comes in from the leaves. "That's my deer! Look at it all gnawed on by this filthy, disease-bearing, motherless proxy bastard!" As he starts kicking the headless walker, Smith bet to herself that the man might have some unresolved anger issues.
"Calm down, son. that's not helping."
"What do you know about it, old man?" The furious man gets close to Dale. "Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to On Golden Pond?"
Yep. Anger issues.
"Do you think we could cut up this chewed up part right here?"
"I wouldn't risk that." Smith's words made the squirrels' man's chin pull up towards the sound of her voice. He narrowed his eyes at her in a confused way as if analysing her, or as if trying to remember her since he hadn't seen her face around.
"That's a damn shame." The walker's head on the floor moves around a little, moans still escaping its mouth. "Come on, people. What the hell?" The man shot his crossbow at the walker's brain. "It's gotta be the brain. Don't ya'll know nothing?" He takes wide steps in the camp's direction calling out for Merle. Well, if there was one person calling for Merle, it had to be his brother. What was his name, again?
"Daryl, just slow down a bit. I need to talk to you." Daryl, it was.
"About what?"
"About Merle."
"Is he dead?"
"We're not sure."
"He either is or he ain't."
Rick's restlessness brought him into the conversation. "No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it."
"Who are you?"
"Rick Grimes."
"Rick Grimes?" Daryl mocked. "You got something you wanna tell me?" 
Smith hid her hands in her back pockets and whispered a "Ooh." knowing his anger issues wouldn't be at Rick Grimes's favor. 
"Your brother was a danger to us all. So I handcuffed him on the roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there." Daryl's breathing became heavier and he walked around Grimes as if he was his prey, which Smith found amusing.
"Hold on. Let me process this. You saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof? And you left him there?!"
"Yeah." Rick looked down. Daryl didn't take that for an answer. His uncontrolled breath started getting louder and on a whim, Daryl throwed his squirrels at the sheriff. Shane quickly runs up to him and throws him on the ground. Blinded by his instincts, the squirrel man pulls out his knife making T-Dog warn him. While Daryl tries his luck for two seconds, Rick and Shane don't let him pass that, pushing him to the ground, once again. Shane curls his arm around the squirrel man's neck, making him run a little out of breath.
"Chokehold's illegal."
"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic." Said Rick Grimes, acting all sheriff. "Think we can manage that?" Shane let him go and he just stayed there on the ground, looking at Rick, who kneeled next to him. "What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with the others."
"It's not Rick's fault." T-Dog barges in. "I had the key. I dropped it."
"Couldn't pick it up?"
"I dropped it in a drain." Daryl scoffed and lowered his hand in defeat, catching his breath, still.
"If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't."
"Then maybe this will." T-Dog caught Daryl's attention and he turned back to look at the man, waiting for him to continue while everyone else just stood there watching the scene. "I tied the door to the roof so the geeks couldn't get at him... With a padlock."
"It's gotta count for something."
The squirrels' man looked broken. He wiped his eyes with the back of hi hand. 
"Hell with all of y'all! Just tell me where he is so that I can go get him."
"He'll show you." Intervened Lori. "Isn't that right?"

Rick put on his uniform, preparing himself to go back to Atlanta. Smith wanted to go with him. She wanted to feel useful and something inside her told her she had to go.
"Could you just tell me why?" Shane came behind Rick, catching Smith's eye. "Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?"
"Hey. Choose your words more carefully."
"Oh I did, douche bag's what I meant. Merle Dixon... That guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst."
"What we do or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst... Me. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being." Rick defended and walked away.
"So you and Daryl, that's your big plan?" Lori asked and Rick eyed Glenn.
"Oh come on..."
"You know the way. You've been there before... In and out, no problem. You said so yourself. It's not fair of me to asked, I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would, too."
"That's just great. Now you're gonna risk three men, huh?"
"Four." All eyes turned to Smith. Shane laughed at her words and probably at the fact that she called herself a man.
"You too?"
"I've been in the city since the outbreak. I'm a good shot, I can help."
"Don't you think it would be better if you just st-"
"What good am I here? Think I'm gonna sit around and do laundry? I'm not a housewife." She lifted her chin up. "I'm going."
Shane got closer to Rick.
"Four people, Rick--"
"Five. I'm going too." T-Dog affirmed and Daryl scoffed at that, leaving a smug remark.
"My day just gets better and better, don't it?"
"You see anybody besides us stepping up for you brother's crack ass?"
"Why you?" Daryl questioned, his eyes never leaving the arrows he cleaned ever so unbothered.
"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language." T-Dog reasoned. 
Daryl looked behind, his eyes meeting Smith's. One could argue there was a moment between them but most likely not. Daryl wasn't one for eye contact, not like Smith. She was one of those people who stared right into your soul when having a conversation. And so, Daryl paused to look at her, waiting for her reason to step up for his brother, but he wasn't given one. Smith just stood there, arms crossed, staring right back at him. And that made him terribly uncomfortable so he simply gave up and turned his attention to the arrows, once again. He almost felt intimidated, almost...
Shane gave Rick a look, his hands on his hips. Rick sighed.
"Five. And it's not even just five people, Rick. You're putting every single one of us at risk. We need people here. You saw that walker. they move out of the city, we need every single body here."
"Seems to me what you really need is guns."
"Right, the guns." Glenn came in the conversation.
"Wait, what guns?"
"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up."
"Ammo?"
"700 rounds, assorted." Shane gave in. He knew he couldn't stop them.