Not Alone ✔

Ch. 11 - Where's Merle?

Daryl

As soon as the sun came up that next morning, Anna and I were up and back to tracking the deer from yesterday. “There,” Anna whispered after we heard a twig snap and she pointed over to the left. “Good eye,” I whispered back as I let one arrow go, hitting the deer. I quickly loaded my crossbow again and shot another arrow as the deer took off running. “Damn it,” I said as it disappeared into the woods. “Don’t worry we’ll find it Daryl,” Anna said as she patted my shoulder then started walking off in the direction the deer went. I followed behind her, she was getting pretty good at this tracking. “Look there’s a blood trail,” I said pointing down to the ground where there were some drops of blood, “it went this way.” “Hold up a sec Daryl,” Anna said from behind me and when I turned to look, she was pulling her long hair back into a pony-tail.

After she pulled her hair up, we got back on the trail, tracking that deer trying to find it before something else got to it first. “I hear rustling up ahead,” Anna whispered to me as I looked down at the blood on the ground. “And there’s getting to be more and more blood,” I said, “might be the deer. Stay close.” I looked over my shoulder at her as she nodded and fell into step right behind me. The rustling bushes quieted down and I figured if it was the deer it must have finally loss enough strength to not be able to run away anymore. We continued walking through the woods and when we rounded this bush, we were greeted by our fellow campers with weapons pointed at us. As soon as they realized who we were, the lowered their weapons, but I was too focused on my destroyed deer.

“Son of a bitch,” I said as I walked out into the crowd and Anna close behind me, “that’s my deer!” “Damn it,” I heard Anna mutter as she walked around on the other side to have a look at it. “Look at it,” I said as I walked around to the dead walker on the other side of the dead deer and began kicking it, “all gnawed on by this filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard.” “Daryl,” I heard Anna whisper and I looked up at her then over at Dale as he started talking. “Calm down son,” he said, “that’s not helping.” “What do you know about it old man,” I said storming over to him, “why don’t you take that stupid hat and go back to On Golden Pond?” “We were tracking this deer for miles,” Anna said as I bent down and grabbed my arrows. “We were gonna drag it back to camp,” I said, “cook us up some venison. What ya think we can cut around that chewed up part right here?” “I wouldn’t risk that,” Shane said as I looked around at everyone.

“That’s a damn shame,” I said looking back down at the deer then over at Anna. “We got some squirrel,” Anna said, “’bout a dozen or so. That’ll have to do I guess.” Just then the head of the walker began moving and I watched as Anna jumped from it. “C’mon people what the hell,” I said as I aimed my crossbow at it, shooting it in the eye then pulled my arrow back out, “it’s gotta be the brain. Don’t y’all know nothing? C’mon Anna.” I heard her run up to me as we both left out of the circle of people and headed towards the camp. “Merle,” I shouted when we got into camp, “Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! Got us some squirrel! Let’s stew ‘em up!” I sat my crossbow down and turned walking towards the RV to see if Merle was over there. Anna stayed where I left my crossbow.

“Daryl, just slow up a bit,” Shane said behind me as I turned to look at him, “I need to talk to you.” “’Bout what,” I asked looking back at him as I glanced over at Anna to see she was a little concerned. “About Merle,” he said as Anna walked over to stand beside me, “there was a problem in Atlanta.” “He dead,” Anna asked when she came to a stop beside me and Shane looked over at her. “We’re not sure,” Shane said as he looked down to the ground then back up at us. “He either is or he ain’t,” I said irritated that he was beating around the fucking bush. “There’s no easy way to put this so I’ll just say it,” a man said walking over towards us. “Who the hell are you,” Anna asked looking over at the man as he came to a stop in front of us. “Rick Grimes,” he said as he looked from Anna back to me. “Rick Grimes, you got somethin’ you wanna tell me,” I asked, my anger rising. “Your brother was a danger to us all,” he said, “so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He’s still there.” “Hold on,” I said turning my back to everyone but Anna, “let me process this.” At that moment, my anger reached the highest possible point and I just erupted, I was beyond furious