𝕃𝕠𝕧𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝔽𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 | Daryl Dixon

32 | BETTER OFF

Dawn broke, and Tori's eyes ached with the light. She sat in the car, her legs hanging out the door whilst her hands played with Daryl's vest on her lap fingers tugging at a loose thread on one of the angel wings. A few clothes were always kept in their cars, and she'd found a long-sleeved black top to cover herself properly once she, Glenn, and Michonne found their way to the vehicle.

Her gunshot throbbed, and she winced, untying the t-shirt wrapped around it. The blood seeping from it was warm, the bullet still lodged into her thigh, acting like a tamponade.

"Is it still bleeding?" Glenn asked, sitting on the ground.

"Yeah," Tori mumbled. Every word she spoke felt exhausting, wanting to just close her eyes. "Feels like it's on fire."

"Tell me about it," Glenn sighed. His black eye looked so much worse in the daylight, yellow and purple blotches causing the skin to swell. There were spots of dry blood on his nose, scratches and cuts all over his face.

"Glenn!" they heard someone call, whisper-yelling from the woods behind them.

"Rick?" Glenn called back, struggling to his feet.

He, Michonne, and Tori all followed the voice, spotting four figures running toward them. Relief flushed through Tori when she saw Daryl jogging with them, noticing a cut on his cheek, a small drop of dry blood coming from it.

Rick was in the lead, holding his hand up. "Now, we got a problem here. I need you to back off-" the sheriff began to say.

But the trio all pulled out weapons, anger on their faces when they spotted Merle Dixon running with his brother. Tori held her gun in both hands, arms shaking as she took aim, barrel pointed at the man's chest. Everyone talking over each other, their voices merging.

"What the hell is he doing here?!" Glenn yelled, his gun aimed right at Merle.

Michonne pulled her sword out and pointed it, Rick getting in front of her with his gun. "Hey, hey! Drop it!"

"He tried to kill me!" Michonne shot back.

"Tori, put the gun down," Maggie spoke urgently.

"I don't think so," she uttered through her teeth, anger made stronger by Merle's amusement of everything going on.

"Back off!" Daryl yelled at Glenn.

"Look what he did!" the younger man snapped. "You have any idea what he did to us, he-"

"He helped us get out of there," Daryl spoke over him.

"Yeah, right after he beat the shit out of you," Rick muttered.

Merle scoffed, "Hey, we both took our licks, man."

"Jackass," Daryl deadpanned.

"Hey, shut up!" Merle yelled.

"Enough!" Rick held his hands out, stepping forwards.

Daryl turned around, being met with the barrel of Glenn's gun. "Hey, get that thing out my face!"

"Tori, please put it down," Maggie whispered to her friend. It took Tori a moment to agree, silently lowering the weapon, Glenn doing the same eventually.

"Looks like you've gone native, brother," Merle drawled.

Daryl spun to him, pissed off. "No more than you hangin' out with that psycho back there!"

"Oh yeah, man, he's a charmer, I gotta tell you that," the older Dixon chuckled, drawing out every word. He looked at Michonne knowingly, smirking, acting like he knew it all. "Been putting the wood to your girlfriend Andrea big time, baby, huh."