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THE KID'S NAME was Miguel, something he'd begrudgingly informed the group of after they'd dragged him back into the building. The situation was far from ideal, but none of them had plans of turning back whilst Glenn's life was at risk, except maybe for Daryl who seemed more interested in "stomping Miguel's ass" than getting Glenn back safe and going home. She suspected he was still holding out hope for Merle, someone Mya wasn't particularly prioritising right now and she doubted it was just her.
"Don't make this difficult." Mya glared at Miguel with disdain, as much as she could muster considering he was probably just a scared smartass kid. She knew the feeling. "We're not gonna hurt you, we just wanna get our friend back."
Miguel scoffed, eyes staring past Mya to Daryl, who was scowling at him from behind her. Something she noticed with a frustrated sigh once she turned around, trying to gauge where his line of sight had landed, "Tell that to that puto over there, punched me for no reason."
Daryl hadn't shown concern for anyone besides his brother since he'd gotten back from his hunting trip earlier today, Miguel was no exception. "Told you to shut up." He grunted.
The temptation to wring his neck was only growing by each passing second he opened his mouth. She liked Daryl, respected him, she'd even go as far as to say she trusted him, but it was like he was trying to get under her skin. Hers and everyone else's. "You're not helping."
His lips turned upwards into a snarl, directed at Miguel, "Little shit's lucky I haven't skinned him yet." He insisted, not shutting up like Mya had hoped he would.
"Those men you were with, we need to know where they went." Rick chimed in, who also seemed like he wanted to get this over and done with as soon as possible so they could return home safely. The one comfort Mya had right now was the fact that Rick and T-Dog were both fed up with Daryl and not bothering to hide it either.
It was hard to have patience for someone withholding information about your friend's safety, no matter how young they were. Miguel was living proof of that, "I ain't telling you nothing."
"Jesus, man. What the hell happened back there?" T-Dog spoke up, direction his question towards Daryl, a clear hint of annoyance in his tone.
Daryl began to pace back and forth, "I told you, this little turd and his douche bag friends came out of nowhere and jumped me and Mya." He explained, something he'd done twice already, with Mya's assistance, but it was obvious he was getting defensive now.
She nodded, backing Daryl up. Even if he was being infuriating right now, it wasn't fair for the blame to be placed on him. He'd tried to help Glenn, "He's right.We were just waiting for Glenn to get back and he showed up, started screaming." Mya recounted.
"Yeah, we could hear him." Rick added on, something that didn't surprise Mya. Half of Atlanta had probably heard him, given how loud he was being.
Miguel looked back up with a frown, if he was scared like Mya assumed he was, he was doing a good job of hiding it. "You're the one who jumped me, puto, screaming about trying to find his brother like it's my damn fault."
"They took Glenn. Could have taken Merle too." Daryl suggested. He had a point too, these people didn't seem like the friendliest bunch and Mya doubted Merle could've held off a group of living men on his own while injured.
The kid chuckled, "Merle? What kind of hick name is that?" Miguel asked, quite clearly trying to do it to get under Daryl's skin, it was working, "I wouldn't name my dog Merle."
Daryl didn't hesitate to run at Miguel, swinging his leg forward in an attempt to kick him, held back by Rick, once again. From the look on his face, Rick was just as fed up of Daryl's outbursts as Mya was at this point.
"Damn it, Daryl. Back off!"
Frustrated, Mya sighed, turning to Miguel, "We're wasting time! Just tell us where they took Glenn so we can all go home!" She instructed him.
Daryl grabbed Glenn's backpack, pulling out the rag he'd wrapped Merle's hand in earlier, "I'll get the son of a bitch to tell us." He stated and Mya didn't even need to ask to know what he was going to do. Daryl revealed the severed hand to Miguel, "Want to see what happened to the last guy that pissed me off?"
Understandably, Miguel began to freak out, leaping out of his chair and throwing himself into the farthest corner of the room from Daryl. If the sight of Merle's hand wasn't so disgustingly morbid, Mya might've laughed. Daryl grasped onto the collar of Miguel's shirt.
"Start with the feet next time." He threatened, playing into the lie, before Rick pushed him away.
The former officer seemed to be the only one trying to be reasonable, something Mya was grateful for, given how drastic of a difference it was to how Daryl had approached the situation, "The men you were with took our friend. All we want to do is talk to them, see if we can work something out." He explained.
"Look, none of us wanna be doing this right now." Mya added on, figuring Rick could use the help with how Daryl was acting - she could tell he needed it. "The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can forget about it."
Miguel paused, before seeming to cave in, just wanting to go home himself. "I can show you on a map or something," He offered, before his stare fell upon Daryl and fear flashed across his eyes again, "If you keep that asshole away from me. He's not taking my feet off."
Since it was an apparent push factor into getting Miguel to cooperate, Mya decided she'd keep it to herself that Daryl was bullshitting, or at least she hoped he was. T-Dog dug a map out from his backpack, placing it down on the closest surface to Miguel.
Rick gestured for Mya to come with him, heading over to the other end of the room, out of earshot of the others, "Did those guys hurt you back there?" He asked her.
She shook her head, "One of them came over, I freaked out and stabbed him in the arm." Mya turned, her gaze landing on Daryl. He'd saved her back there, tried to save Glenn too, "The other tried to fight back, but then Daryl shot him in the ass."
"Glenn's gonna be fine, we'll get him back." Rick assured her, as though he'd picked up on how on edge she'd been since they'd brought Miguel back.
His reassurance was kind, but it didn't cease the growing guilt that teared at her insides, "I just .. froze up back there." Mya admitted, ashamed of her actions, "I could've helped Glenn, but I didn't. I wanted to, I was just scared."
Rick frowned sympathetically, "That's not your fault."
"But it is." She shot back in disagreement, "If I'd have done something - anything - Glenn would be here now and we could be doing something like searching for Merle."
He was being a lot kinder to her than she felt she deserved, adamant on proving to her that she wasn't to blame, no matter how awful she was feeling. "There was no way you could've been prepared for that. I understand and I know Glenn does too." He stated, resting a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "He's gonna be fine. We're going to get him back."
Mya furrowed her brows, "You really think this is gonna work out?"
"We'll make it work out." He insisted with a nod, before returning to the other side of the room to see where about Miguel's friends had taken Glenn. She found it remarkable, how easily he advised people, as though he was born to be a leader, born for the world to be like this.
