Future Ghosts • TWD

7. Gettin' Taken.

Rosie felt queasy every time she looked at Glenn. Not because there was anything wrong with him or something, but because she couldn't help but think about Merle's bloody hand in his backpack. She also wasn't very fond of Rick Grimes or T-Dog at the moment, because Rick Grimes was the pussy ass cop that locked Merle up there, and because, according to Daryl, T-Dog was the one who dropped the keys for the handcuffs. So Rosie stuck close to Daryl as he led them down into some sort of office building.

"Merle? You in here?" Daryl shouted.

They walked down a quiet hallway, which had carpet flooring and papers scattered everywhere. They entered an area which Rosie guessed was the front desk. On the floor were two walkers.

"Had enough in him to take out these two sons of bitches," Daryl murmured, looking at the two dead bodies, "one handed."

Daryl leaned over, checking to make sure the walkers were definitely dead, before reloading a bolt into his crossbow. "Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother," he said.

"Yeah," Rosie murmured, thinking about what Merle had told her the day before. Then a new question popped into her mind. "Did ya know he killed my dad?" she asked quietly, looking at Daryl with wide eyes and her eyebrows raised.

Was Daryl in on it?  Was that why he was being so nice to her that day? Was he trying to distract her by sending her into the woods to find sticks? So Merle would have time to kill her dad without her knowing?

Everyone's heads snapped in Rosie's direction when they heard her question, including Daryl's.

"He told you that?" Daryl asked.

As she took in Daryl's expression, Rosie's eyes widened and her eyebrows furrowed in realization.

"You knew! You knew an' you didn't tell me!" she started yelling at him, hitting and pushing Daryl. Her weak punches didn't do much, though. "You asshole! He killed me dad! You knew! You didn't tell me!"

Daryl grabbed at her arms, trying to get to her stop, and growing more and more irritated as she refused to calm down and be quiet.

Rosie shrieked in fear when Daryl roughly pushed her back, one hand pinning her against the wall by her shoulder, the other still holding onto his crossbow.

"Shut yer mouth an' listen ta me!" he hissed, quietly but aggressively. Rosie kept her mouth shut, frozen in fear. She flinched when Daryl pointed a finger in her face. "Yer dad was a piece of shit, an' you know it."

"He was just angry someti-"

"No! Listen ta me," Daryl snapped, shaking her shoulder slightly to regain her attention. "Merle didn't kill 'im. He knocked him out, yeah, but he didn't kill 'im. Walkers got to him 'fore he woke up. Either way, that asshole deserved it."

"Daryl-" Glenn tried to cut in, but stopped the second Daryl sent a glare in his direction.

After successfully shutting Glenn up, Daryl turned back to Rosie. "Now you're gonna keep yer damn mouth shut an' do as I say unless ya wanna be walker food. Ya hear me?"

"Yes sir," Rosie said instantly, nodding furiously.

"Good. Now let's go," Daryl grumbled, releasing Rosie and turning back around to continue following Merle's trail.

Rosie still wasn't sure if she really believed what Daryl said about her dad, but she decided that it was better to listen to Daryl. She didn't want to get in trouble.

They continued following Daryl through the building, quickly and mostly quietly. Daryl kept calling out Merle's name, despite Rick telling him not to. The next room they entered seemed to be some sort of kitchen area. The stove was on, hot orange flames flickering around above the metal. Next to it were droplets of blood, along with a belt. Rick picked up some sort of metal cooking item, examining it.