A simple supply hunt for a source of water in the middle of Atlanta turns sour quickly for Erin as she come fist to face with a fuming, handless Merle Dixon.
Alone in the middle of the apocalypse with only a racist guy who doesn't know the differen...
"Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up." - Thomas Wayne
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Erin almost jumped out of her skin as she heard movement in the trees behind her, turning with her knife gripped tightly in her hand, ready to attack the stray. Shane mirrored her with his crowbar before they both saw the person come into view, staggering slightly and out of breath from running...
"Merle? What the hell are you doing here?" Shane demanded as the older Dixon gave him a dirty look, ignoring his question and turning instead to Erin.
"Ellie," he breathed, regaining some of his composure and straightening up to meet her gaze, "Carl's hurt. We need to head back to the road and get Lori. Daryl's gonna send someone to fetch the two of ya's..."
"Carl's hurt?" Shane repeated, turning pale as his intimidating exterior cracked like a shell, revealing the worried man beneath it, "Where? Why can't you just lead us to wherever it is?"
"Do I look like I know where it is? I just know he's hurt and needs his momma, alright? Rick's there with 'im..." Merle clarified, looking to Erin again, "Come on."
"What about Sophia?" Carol spoke up quietly but defiantly, not wanting to get involved but having to for her daughter's sake, "She's still out here somewhere..."
"She's right, you stay here," Erin instructed Merle, much to his annoyance as his eyes widened at the idea of staying with Shane, "We can't stop tracking Sophia. You keep on her trail, and I'll go and get Lori... Unless you wanna go get her?"
"No," Shane stepped in hastily, not really surprising either of them, "He's not going anywhere near Lori. You go. I suppose I can deal with him leading the way..."
Erin fought hard to bite back a remark about his relationship with Mrs. Grimes, sending a glare Merle's way as he opened his mouth to say something similar but no doubt meaner than she'd been thinking. She nodded once, turning back towards the direction of the road, "I'll probably stay at my truck and wait for you three to get back. See you then, hopefully with Sophia."
She sent a small reassuring smile Carol's way before heading off, knowing it would take a good hour or so to get back to the trucks and picking up speed. She considered jogging but decided against it, not wanting to die from lack of breath or something as stupid as that. With strays roaming everywhere, she would be the one to be killed by asthma...
The light treading of her boots barely made a sound against the forest floor as she weaved her way back through the trees she'd now passed three times in two days. She stuck to the same path, backtracking the prints she'd pressed into the mud before meant for Rick and Daryl but evidently more useful to her now as she plodded her way to the others.
How she was going to explain this one to them, she had no idea. She could barely explain it to herself; she'd started the day trying to find Sophia and now she was heading back to camp to get Lori to head to some random farm where Carl was hurt and being tended to. If someone tried to explain that to her, she'd have a hard time believing them...
