Silent Warrior

Prologue

Jodie sat on the shore of the pond, holding her fishing rod in the water. It was calm, peaceful. Just the way she needed it right now. She could have listened to this wonderful silence forever. Although she was already sitting in the shade of the trees, she still felt the heat of the hot sun through the leaves.

With silence came all kinds of thoughts. Good ones and bad ones. The good moments she had experienced with others. Or the bad moments, the people she had lost. How many were there now? Her mother, Kelly and the baby, Marsha, Cindy....

She stared silently at the water. No wind blew and the surface was as smooth as mirror glass. A bird swooped close over the surface of the water and flew into the forest. She would have gladly traded places with the bird. Just leave everything behind and never look back.

A crackling sounded behind her. Then footsteps could be heard. Jodie stood up and pulled out her knife. Whether it was undead or human, she couldn't tell yet, but all the calm was gone from her limbs. She was ready for a fight.

Merle Dixon stumbled out of the bushes into the clearing, not exactly quietly. When he saw Jodie there with the knife, he raised his hands defensively.

"Woah, woah, it's okay, sweetie pie! It's just me!"

Relieved, but also annoyed, Jodie holstered the knife again. Merle was one of the people who annoyed her the most. He was rude, racist, and mean to women. And his sense of humor wasn't the best either.

Jodie sat back down on shore and picked up the fishing rod. Merle sat down next to her on a tree stump. He was silent for a moment, which was just fine with Jodie. She didn't feel like talking to him now. A click sounded next to her and she saw Merle light a cigarette.

"I don't think your boyfriend would be too keen on you hanging around here by yourself," he then said to her.

Jodie said nothing in reply. What did she have to justify herself to him? He wasn't her father, after all. Or responsible for her.

"The governor doesn't like it when you disobey his rules either!" declared Merle.

His voice sounded different this time. As if he was trying to tell her something subtly. Jodie looked at him, waiting. What was he trying to tell her now?

Merle grinned wryly. It wasn't a nice grin.

"Do you know what the governor does to people who break the rules? If I report it to him? You could get in a lot of trouble!", Merle then said with spite.

Jodie raised her eyebrows. Oh, so that was his point? He was trying to blackmail her. As if that could impress her. She didn't really like the governor anyway. He always seemed friendly and open on the outside. But Jodie knew better. She knew guys like that. Melvin her stepfather, had been just like that. On the outside, he was the nice guy next door, but behind the facade hid a monster. Guys like him knew how to scare people and control them. But Melvin was dead. She had killed him herself. With his death, the fear of him had also died. Merle himself made no secret of the fact that he was not nice, but his strategy was the same. Allowing someone to blackmail you was never the best solution.

And Jodie had nothing to lose, so she just looked at him, unimpressed, before turning back to the water. Merle was silent for a moment, apparently surprised that Jodie wasn't intimidated at all, then she heard him laugh softly beside him.

"You remind me of him," he then commented.

Jodie turned to face him. Questioningly, she looked at him.

"My little brother. He was such a miserable stubborn one, too," Merle grinned.

Jodie snorted. Merle had another brother? One could almost only congratulate him that he was no longer with Merle. Maybe he was just as bad as Merle. And how the hell had he put up with him for so long?

Jodie was curious enough to ask Merle the question over her writing pad.

"What was your brother's name?"

"Daryl. His name is Daryl. Knowing the son of a bitch, I guarantee he survived."

Jodie said nothing to that, even though she was definitely curious.

"Everybody tells me he's dead. But he's still out there. I know it."

Merle gazed pensively at the water. Jodie just nodded. Actually, she didn't want to talk to Merle, Yet she couldn't contain her curiosity and wrote something on her pad, which she then held out to Merle.

"Do you have a picture of him?"

Merle grinned, reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled photo. It showed him and his brother, though both were considerably younger. They were apparently on a hunting trip. Both were kneeling in front of a shot deer and smiling at the camera. Jodie was smiling.

Merle's brother looked proud and euphoric in the picture. He looked...nice.

"Now don't tell me you have a crush on him. My little brother has turned a lot of girls' heads and usually didn't even know it," Merle said mockingly.

Jodie rolled her eyes. Could Merle ever not ridicule anything? She handed the photo back to him and gazed silently out at the water again.

"You know, if you're not interested in Daryl, I'd always be open to new things. Chicks like you have the best bodies, you know?", Merle grinned at her, letting his gaze slide over her suggestively.

Jodie had had enough. Silently, she stood up, took a step toward Merle, and her fist landed so hard in his face that Merle toppled off his stump. He held his aching jaw. With his face contorted in pain, he stood back up. Menacingly, he approached Jodie.

"Shit! Who the fuck do you think you are! You fucking..." he faltered.

Jodie's hand had wandered to her belt, where her knife hung. Her fingers were already closing around the handle. Awaiting and warning at the same time, she looked at Merle. Waiting for his reaction. Merle looked from the knife to her face and met her hard gaze. For a moment they both stared at each other, then Merle raised her hands with a grin and sat back down.

"All right, all right. Just don't piss yourself!"

Jodie slowly let go of her knife and then sat down as well. She deliberately turned away from Merle.

"You really are like him," she heard Merle grumble.

Then he turned to her. His look was serious.

"You know what's next, don't you?"

Jodie looked at him, confused. Merle's look was serious. Any mockery, however, disappeared.

"We both know what's going to happen and our next meeting will be the last. And when your last meeting with Daryl will be. So, wake up!"

And Jodie woke up.

*******************

Today is officially the last episode of the Walking Dead and since so many people have asked me to continue writing, I thought there couldn't be a better time.

First of all, I want to apologize for taking so long, but I've been following other books and series in between and I've also recently moved, so I haven't been able to write much. So it will probably be a bit more irregular with uploading chapters at first, but I'm really trying to write more again now.

With that in mind, I'm glad to be back and of course welcome any form of feedback.

All the best, your Liz ;)