It's all lies

-oblivion-

TW: mentions of abuse and ed

WHEN EVERYTHING WENT DOWN, I was with my brothers. We weren't a very stable family but we always protected each other at least Daryl and I did. My parents were users and my brother followed in their footsteps. We grew learning to survive, that's all we knew, when everything went to shit nothing changed much for us. We just survived.

I heard everyone cheer as they ran to the front of the camp, "their back!" I heard a woman yell. 

I walked over out of interest watching everyone reunite with their families, embracing in hugs and tears. I slowly searched for Merle in the crowd of people, "glenn, where's Merle?" I questioned. 

Glenn turned to me with sadness in his eyes, "aiden- I- Im sorry, Merle didn't make it." my brain mixed with emotions, how could there be a world where Merle didn't make it out alive. 

I turned around slowly walking back to my tent hearing a faint voice, "aiden- wait." but I just laid on my cot, no tears, just numb. 

Daryl was on a hunt that could last a few more days if he felt lucky, he isn't going to like that news. He was always defensive of Merle no matter what he did. 

"Have you given any thought about Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind." I heard Dale softly speak. "I'll tell him.", "no, I'll tell him." The group argued. 

It was probably best if I told him but they can fight about it all they want, not my problem. 

"I stopped long enough to chain that door." I heard T-dog mumble, "My point, Dixon's alive." bunch of bitches. I just sat on that cot wondering what it was like to be someone like Carl, a mom that loves him and a dad that would do anything for him.

-

I must have fallen asleep because I jumped to the sound of kids screaming. By the time I walked out of my tent everything had calmed down, Lori came to check on me as she always did. "How are you honey?" She bent down to my level, "I'm fine." I was pretty defensive with most, but she was always so nice to me. 

I looked past her to see Daryl followed by some more of the men in the group, "Aiden! Merle! Got some squirrel!" He yelled. I folded my shoulders and slowly walked over to him. 

"Merle, get your ugly ass out here!" Daryl yelled again as he rubbed the top of my head and smiled. "Daryl, I- uh." I hesitated, struggling to find the right words. 

"Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you." Shane and Rick walked closer to him. "About what?" Daryl asked defensively. "About Merle. There was a problem in Atlanta." Daryl looked around confused and anger stirring in him. 

Lori grabbed my arm and pulled me closer to her, "I got you.", "its okay." I responded, still letting her hold me close. 

"He dead?", "we're not sure." Shane responded. "He either is or he ain't." Daryl was getting more feed up by the second. "Daryl cool it." I tried to walk closer to him but Lori held me right in front of her. 

"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." The man I assumed was Rick walked closer to my brother. "Who are you?", "Rick Grimes." Daryl replied mocking him, "Rick Grimes! You got something you wanna tell me?" I started to shake, hating whenever Daryl or Merle would get like this. 

"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there." this was about to get ugly I could feel it. "Hold on. Let me process this. You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?!" Daryl yelled and I jumped a little. "Yeah." Rick replied. 

Daryl threw the squirrels at Rick and Shane tackled him, "daryl! Not like this!" I screamed but nothing could really stop him. They fought back and forth until Shane had him in a choke hold, "choke hold illegal." My brother yelled. I walked over as Lori finally loosened her grip, "Daryl? We're good right?" I held my hands out as a sign of surrender, Daryl calmed himself, "We're good, promise." I looked at Rick and he nodded at Shane to release him. 

"Your brother does not work and play well with others." Rick tried to rationalize with him. "Its not ricks fault. I had the key. I dropped it." T-dog added. "You couldn't pick it up?", "i dropped it in a drain." T-dog tried to explain whatever stupid shit they did. "You left him there for dead." I added. "I chained the door with a padlock.", "its gotta count for something." Rick joined in again. 

"Hell with all y'all!" Daryl yelled, gesturing to most of the group. "Just tell me where he is so's I can go get him." Daryl still in a fit of rage. 

"He'll show you. Isn't that right?" Lori stared Rick down. "I'm going back." Rick muttered as Lori stormed off into the RV. 

T-dog and some others started to volunteer to go but Daryl and I already walked off back to our tent. "Bunch of bitches if you ask me." I said sitting down on the cot. "Let me go with you." I begged. 

"No, not this time. Ill get him back and we are getting as far away from them." Daryl cleaned off his crossbow. "I can help. We can get Merle and leave from Atlanta." I tried to convince him. 

"No. I can't worry about you too." Daryl smiled down at me as he gave me a hug and went to the truck. 

I loved Merle like a puppy loved its owner that kicked it and even if its owner didn't feed it. You can't help but care for that asshole after everything you have been through, its fucked up but family always is.

-

Everyone was gathered around the fire and Lori made me sit next to her making sure I was eating, old habits stick around i guess. The group laughed and shared stories and Dale gave his normal nightly speech. 

Amy stood up to leave, "where are you going?" Andrea questioned. "I have to pee. Jeez you try to be destric around here." Amy walked away and everyone laughed. I didn't really get the joke but Andrea seemed nice and so did her sister. 

We heard a girl scream and everyone turned to see a walker attacking Amy. More came from all over, surrounding us. "Aiden. Carl. Stay close to me." Lori yelled, holding my arm in one hand and Carl's in the other. People screamed running all over. Fear filled the camp as fast as the laughter left. 

Carl tripped on one of the chairs and a walker was reaching for him. I heard him screaming and grabbed my knife from my belt. I got the walker from behind and grabbed Carl, running as fast as I could to Lori who was hiding behind Shane. "Thank god." Lori cried as she hugged Carl. 

Gunshot after gunshot and it still felt like we hadn't made a dent in the herd of 'em. "You got him?" Lori asked as I wrapped my arms around Carl. I watched as people were torn apart by walkers and I swiftly covered Carl's eyes, "its okay. I got you." I whispered. I was only a year older than Carl but this didn't affect me as much as it did Carl.

We all were squished together in a group, I caught a glance of Daryl shooting down walkers. Shane kept screaming but all I could hear was a piercing ringing sound. 

Carl ran to Rick crying and I just stood there, everything was a blur. I felt someone shake me by the arms, "you bit?" My vision focused and I saw Daryl bent down to my height. "I- i don't think so." I mumbled, "Merle?", "he's alive but, he left." Daryl stuttered. "Why would he do that?" I questioned and Daryl just shook his head. I fell into his arms crying, coming slowly back to reality. "I got you. I got you." Daryl muttered repeatedly, holding me.  

Author notes

this will probably be the only chapter in the season one timeline. I hope you guys grow to love Aiden as much as I already love her <3 im also trying to make my chapters longer so they dont feel so rushed and Im trying to firgure out if I want to skip to season 3 or write atleast one season two chapter lmk :)

thank you sm for reading <3