𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐋𝐀𝐖𝐒, rick grimes

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐰𝐬, 𝟎𝟏𝟒

"HER BROTHER WAS A BROTHER,

BUT HE WASNT HER BROTHER,"

𝟎𝟏𝟒
𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘴 (𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘦)

     WHEN AMARI WAS A LITTLE SHIT, she used to play with her big brother a lot. He was just the best older brother she could ever wish for. However, he was over a decade older than her, which meant that from his point of view, it was a little bit boring to play with a five year old while he was sixteen. And, he always had to wear a tiara to match their play date.

     He felt absurd, in other words.

     But that didn't mean he didn't love her.

     No, he would kill for her.

     —Until he was separated from her, when she was only ten, while he was twenty-one. It was because of their parents, who finally got the green button to move away from the Middle East and all the way over to America due job opportunities. However, those two shit-heads only decided to leave with Amir. They felt that he was more gifted and could handle himself better since he was a lot older, while they figured it was better for Amari to grow up in their home with her grandparents. Victor and Selena would just have Amari shipped over to them later when they had settled themselves in America.

     But it took years before all that happened.

     Amir was doing pretty well in school. He wanted to become a doctor, as the man wasn't scared of blood or gore. And he liked helping people. A lot, actually.

     But that was also the reason he started to become friends with the wrong type people.

     One day, two years after they left Amari behind, Amir was walking down the street, just minding his own business. This neighborhood wasn't the best. A lot of crimes happened, but always in the evening or the night, so Amir never had his guard up. Not that he needed to. Firstly, Amir had never crossed anyone's path and made enemies with himself. And secondly, he wasn't a small guy. He was tall and not skinny. He had muscles that wasn't just for the aesthetic.

     What then happened was that Amir passed a sketchy ally, and normally, he would have walked by, minding his own business, if it weren't for a man laying in the middle of it, unconscious.

      Amir had helped the guy, who had then kept muttering that he did not want any ambulances. He couldn't cover the bill, he had said. And Amir couldn't either. So instead, Amir helped the guy to his own home and stitched him up with the help of whatever tools they had at home. Victor and Selena were out in their shop, trying to make a living, so the guy wasn't bothering anyone.

     Turns out, Amir had helped a guy in the mob. Well, not directly in the gang, but a brother of someone who is in the gang.

      And because of his help that day, Amir now found himself wasting his time with other guys that wasn't exactly the best influence.

      Amari reunited with her family another two years after that, when she was only fourteen. She hadn't seen any of them in those four years, and calls were limited because it was, apparently, too expensive to call all the way to Europe, even if she was somebody's daughter and somebody's sister.

      Skipping a couple of years forward, the relationship between the people in her family was starting to shatter, slowly. Selena was always sick and no one could take her to the doctor since they never thought of paying for insurance and her old man was never home. He was always in the shop that made more debt than money. It wasn't long after she turned twenty that her parents both died of some sickness that could have been cured. Amir stayed with his gang, and had started to become the most loved man involved.

     Amari on the other hand, was starting to shatter. Internally, at least. But, she, somehow got herself through school. She somehow survived her graduation. And she somehow survived the end of the world, with the help of the kindest, young man Amari have probably ever met, who was now somewhere unknown, taken by bad people.

Luckily, though, that white boy was left behind, sitting in a chair with Daryl, T-dog and Rick glaring at him to making sure he stays on it while Amari was more on the sidelines of that office building, chewing her cheek from the insides.

She was starting to get really angry.

"Those men you were with, we need to know where they went," Rick asked the boy sweetly with his sheriffs hat on his head and uniform clean.

"I ain't telling you nothin',"

T-dog sighed, turning to Daryl. "Jesus, man," he started off, "what the hell happened out there?" He asked the man with a crossbow, leaving Amari's name out of that question.

"I told you, this little turd and his douchebag friends came out of nowhere and jumped me and 'Mari!" Daryl defended, walking all around the room and never standing still.

"You're the one who jumped me, puto," the boy spoke up, "screaming about trying to find your brother like it's my damn fault he's gone," he rubbed his head.

Daryl ignored him. "They took Glenn. Could've taken Merle, too,"

"Merle?" The boy scoffed, "what kind of hick name is that? Wouldn't name my dog Merle,"

She clicked her tongue. Daryl, too, about to hit the guy if it weren't for Rick stopping him. Instead, Amari grabbed Glenn's bag that they still possessed and got an idea, "hey," she licked her dry lips, "wanna see what happened to the last guy that crossed my path?" And then she pulled out Merle's amputated, disgusting hand and walked calmly over to the guy before placing the thing right on his cheek and then letting the hand fall down to his legs, the boy shrieking in a mix of fear and disgust. He backed all the way over to the wall, shrieking again as Amari grabbed his shoulder, pulling him back to her. "I'll take the whole arm this time—!"

"Don't, 'Mari," Daryl was one to push her off the guy, "he ain't worth shit using a blade to cut his skinny-ass," he said just as Rick tried to speak calmly again. The man never wanted to cause trouble if it not needed.

"The men you were with took our friends," Rick then stepped in, too, "all we wanna do is talk to them, see if we can work something out," he explained, "now, Amari here, is just a little upset,—"

"—Amari?" The boy suddenly dropped his tough, not really tough,— act, "that a real name or somethin' you all call her?"

"Why would you care, puto?" Amari had her fist clenched, real close to throwing hands with this guy if he doesn't start talking soon. She didn't care how old he is.

"You got a brother?"

"Yeah. . ." Her voice lowered to that of confusion, "how would you know?"

"What's his name?" The boy was much more mature now, standing up while only looking at Amari and ignoring the knife and gun pointed at him.

She squinted her eyes ever so slightly. "Sevra, first name Amir,"

The boys eyes widened. "You gotta be kiddin' me. . ." He muttered, pacing back and forth in whatever space he had.

Rick, Daryl and T-dog all looked around each other, trying to understand how the hell this conversation was going to end like.

"Your his sister, his younger fucking sister. . ."

Amari blinked her eyes.

"He's always talking about you, you know that?"

She still looked like a question mark. "Amir? Y-you know him?"

"'Course, everyone does," he says, "he's the one who wanted those weapons,"

What?

—