Spider Monkey

Chapter Twenty - Five - Split up

Judith's cries grew louder.

Hedley shook off the blur in his vision and stumbled back to his feet. Blood was dripping from his face and his body was still slightly weak from the sickness, but he pushed through. He took out his knife and stabbed the walkers that were surrounding Judith. Once dead, he pushed the walkers away and saw Judith covered in the walkers' blood. She wailed in distress. Hedley shouldered the baby bag that was filled with diapers and bottles and formula. Then unstrapped the infant from her seat and held her close. With one hand holding her to his chest, he grabbed his gun and ran, dodging walkers as they stumbled.

Fire and death were all around.

Hedley wanted to cry. To scream. To yell out. Judith was his only source of hope. He ran towards the woods and just kept running.

That was until he heard a voice.

"Is that you, lil' Dixon?"

Merle.

Hedley burst into tears, running to his uncle. Merle scooped up the boy and baby and held them.

"Oh. Oh, thank fuck ya okay!" He sniffed, smiling down at his nephew before seeing Judith, "And ya got Lil' ass-kicker too. Good job, kid." Merle inspected the wound on his face, "Shit. Ya gonna need stitches. Let's go find somewhere safe and stitch ya up."

Merle guided the kids away, not really sure where to go. He took some cloth from his sleeve and put it on Hedley's face, holding down to try and stop the bleeding. They walked until they saw something in the trees. It was an abandoned yellow school bus. Vines and moss overgrown the roof, some of the windows were smashed but the rest were just dirty. It had no wheels, and the front lights were smashed to bits. 

"In 'ere." Merle took them inside, using the level to close the doors. They looked around, seeing it was surprisingly untouched by anything other than mother nature.

Judith whined when she was put down on one of the seats. She was upset.

"Do you know how ta change a diaper?" Merle asked, smelling the problem.

Hedley looked at the man, nose wrinkled.

Merle sighed heavily, looking at the ceiling for strength. As he was changing the diaper, he groaned and gagged and threw the poop covered diaper out the window and into the bushes. Hedley took out his cards.

He patted Merle to get his attention. 'Daryl'.

Merle read it then shook his head sadly, "I didn't see 'im after the Governor was killed. He musta left through the west wing."

Hedley's lower lip wobbled.

"Now now. No tears. And keep that cloth on ya face. Don't need ya bleedin' out."

Hedley put the cloth back to his cheek, his eye now bruised shut. But a tear did fall from his untouched eye.

"Ta da! Look at that!" Merle exclaimed, lifting up Judith, new diaper securely on, "We did it, didn't we, lil' ass-kicker! Yes, we did!" He looked at Hedley, wanting to see him smiling but instead saw him silently crying. "Hey. Cheer up, Nephew. We'll find ya dad. He's tough. Besides, nothin' can kill a Dixon but a Dixon. Now, let's get that cheek stitched." He put Judith down on a seat, surrounding her with a blanket that was found in the baby bag so she wouldn't fall off, then dug into his own back to take out a small first aid kid. "I nicked this bag from one of the governor's men. Got some good shit in 'ere. And... aha!" He took out a needle and thread, along with alcohol wipes and dressing. Merle made Hedley lay down, his head in the man's lap so he could get easy access. He cleaned up the wound with the wipes, making Hedley whimper in pain. "I know it hurts but I know ya got some balls so keep still."

Stitching the wound was a task and a half. Every time the needle went in, Hedley cried out - not in pain or fear but by overwhelming stimulation that the pain gave. He flapped his hands and banged his feet to try and soothe himself, but nothing worked. Merle kept going, not stopping, going as fast as he could. "Almost there, kid. Almost there."

On one stitch in particular, Hedley screamed, Merle had to hold him down and put his hand over his mouth as to not attract walkers. But that didn't help when Judith started to cry.

"You're okay. You're okay. Just breath, kid. A couple more and it's done." He soothed, going back to Hedley's wound. The boy cried still, unable to stop as his fingers dug into the flesh of his arm.

When it was done, Merle quickly cleaned up Hedley, placed a bandage on top of it then tugged the boy into his chest protectively. He rocked Hedley back and forth. "It's done. It's all done. You're okay. Shhh."

It took a while but eventually, Hedley calmed himself enough to stop himself from thrashing. But Judith was still crying.

"Wanna get 'er a bottle?"

Hedley nodded, going into the baby bag while Merle lifted the infant into his arm. Once done, Hedley handed the bottle to Merle but because of his stump, he couldn't hold both the baby and the bottle, so he passed the babe to Hedley. Judith settled when the bottle went into her mouth.

Merle draped his arm around Hedley's shoulders and said in a low voice, "We'll find 'im. I promise."

Hedley looked up at his Uncle, nodding slowly.

"And we'll find Carl. Rick. Michonne. All of 'em. It's gonna be hard but we will."

Hedley flipped through his cards and showed one to Merle. 'Family'.

"Yeah, kid." He nodded, a smirk on his lips, "Family."

****

In the morning, Merle and Hedley got up and ready to get moving.

Using a blanket, Hedley strapped Judith to his chest, his crossbow on his back, gun over his shoulder along with his backpack and baby bag. Merle carried his own backpack that included ammo, first aid kit, blankets, water bottles with a few tins of food and spare clothes. 

"Ready, lil' Dixon?"

Hedley nodded.

And the two went on.

As the day went on, Hedley took out his cards, turned to a blank one and wrote down something before showing Merle. 'Tell me a story'.

"A story?" Merle hummed, "What about?"

'Daryl'.

"Oh. Well, I've got plenty of those." He chuckled, "One time, ya dad and me went huntin' - long before the end of the world. I was about twenty. He eleven. Anyways, we were in the woods. It was night so it was dark as hell, only having a flashlight to help guide us. And suddenly we saw a baby horse. Ya dad was fascinated and walked straight up to it. But... then came a shadow. A huge shadow over the baby horse. It was a moose. A mama moose, as big as a shit house! That was when we realised that it wasn't a baby horse at all. It was a baby moose and one thing you need to know about mama moose, she's protective as fuck. Chased me and Daryl down the highway. Never shit ma pants so bad."

Hedley giggled and Merle let out a big belly laugh.

Then a familiar voice called out from the bushes. "What's with all the laughing?"

The person came out from the green, and Hedley nearly sobbed with relief.

Merle's jaw dropped, heart stuttering. "Carol?"