Not Alone ✔

Ch. 6 - It's Anna, Merle

Daryl

“Merle,” Anna called again and again as we walked closer back to camp. It was so weird to have her back with us. The three of us, we were all back together again for the first time since she left a few weeks before all this started. “Merle,” she shouted again as we walked into camp and over to mine and his tent, “where the hell is ya hick ass at?!” I watched as heads in the camp turned towards us as Merle finally emerged from our tent. Anna was standing with her feet shoulder width apart and her hands on her hips as he walked over to us. “Who the hell ya think ya talkin’ to ya little skank,” Merle said as he came to a stop, towering over Anna’s small figure.

“I think I’m talkin’ to Merle Dixon,” she said, not moving an inch as my brother continued to tower over her, “and in case ya dumb redneck ass wonderin’ who I am, I’d be Anna Murphy. You remember me right? Little girl from up the road that would get stared at by the neighbors cause she’d go hang around these two older rednecks that moved onto her road. Ya remember me now?” I tried to hold back a laugh as Merle got this dumb look on his face while trying to figure out what the hell she just said. “C’mon Merle,” she said tapping her foot, “it ain’t that hard to remember me. Remember Daryl here used to always call me Little Mouse? Ringing any bells yet?”

It’s like someone flipped a switch on in Merle’s head as he seemed to finally realize who it was that was insulting him to his face. No one was brave enough, or dumb enough, to do that except Anna. She was like a little sister to him and he let her get away with anything whenever she came down to our house. I smiled as I watched him pick her up and spin her around as he hugged her and she started laughing. “’Bout damn time Merle,” she said laughing as he sat her feet back on the ground. “It was you Daryl brought into camp yesterday,” he asked as she smiled nodding. “Um Anna,” Lori said walking over to the three of us cautiously, “does this mean you’ll be staying with the group then?”

Anna looked from me to Merle then over to Lori as she smiled. “Yes,” she said as Lori smiled and walked off while I picked her up into my arms bridal style and spun her around just to hear her laugh some more as I was happy I had her back. “Daryl I’m dizzy,” she said as I kept spinning, “put me down before I get sick!” I started laughing as I placed her back on her feet but kept an arm around her so she didn’t fall flat on her face. “I’m gonna go check the traps,” Merle said after a few minutes, “wanna come little brother?” “Um no think I’ll stay and catch up with Anna,” I said shaking my head as he shrugged and walked off towards the woods.

We walked into mine and Merle’s tent, both sitting on opposite sides of the tent just talking about random shit, kind of like we always did back when she’d come to visit and Merle would be gone hunting or something. I’m not sure how we wound up the way we did, never knew she had feelings for me the way I did, and I was ashamed of those feelings because I thought I’d be taking advantage of her if anything happened, but one minute we were talking and the next, she was sitting on my lap with her lips attached to mine. My hands were on her hips, bring her much closer to me as I tried to keep myself calm, so I didn’t get too excited and end up scaring her off.

Don’t think it worked out too well. When we heard crunching outside the tent, Anna climbed off me and smiled as she realized what she did to me. She started giggling as we heard Merle talking to someone just outside the tent. I groaned and rolled over onto my sleeping back to hide my excitement as Merle finally poked his head in. “Y’all behaving,” he asked smirking as Anna got up. “Yeah but I gotta go,” she said smiling as she bit her lower lip, “bye Daryl. Good talk.” I groaned again as she walked out of the tent with a wave to Merle who looked at me confused and all I could do was manage to shake my head. This girl was gonna be the death of me.