roots | daryl dixon

3 | poxy bastard

The next day, it was decided that Rick would tell Daryl what had happened to Merle. He'd been the one to handcuff him, after all. Not to mention everyone assumed it would be better for Daryl to hear it from a white guy, considering Merle's beliefs. Lou thought it was dumb to just assume Daryl shared the same belief, especially when the man had never shown any sort of behaviour to indicate he was racist. 

Lou-Anne went about her business, as usual. Lori asked her to watch the kids while the women went down to wash laundry, so she took this opportunity to bring them into the closer wooded areas, showing them what to look for when scavenging. It was the only survival skill the mothers encouraged her to teach them, seeing as how it didn't include weapons. Lou felt indifferent to that, as she understood that they only wanted to protect their children, but if she had a kid, she'd want him/her to know how to survive. Even if it meant getting bloody.

She brought the kids back into camp with some berries after they came across a large blueberry bush, and a raspberry bush shortly after. The children ran about, distributing berries to anyone who would accept. It was a treat for everyone. The kids left the remainder of the berries with Amy as she promised she could make something with them. 

The mothers came back a short while after this and retrieved their kids, bringing them over to the tables and chairs designated for schooling. Lou watched, amused by their attitude as they stomped over to learn. She turned and headed over to the RV, hoisting herself up the ladder to the roof, where Glenn was currently seated in her father's spot. "Where's my dad?" She asked, sitting to his side where the beach umbrella provided some shade from the blistering sun. 

"Had to fill up his water bottle, told me to take over for a few minutes. What's up?"Glenn responded, handing over the binoculars to her.

Lou took them, raising them to her face to look out across the quarry. "Nothing, I was going to see if I could head into the woods for a bit. I had the kids out earlier, we came across some berry bushes, I thought it might be nice to grab some more for dad, raspberries were my mom's favourite." She handed back the binoculars, then sighed, pulling her knees to her chest, her arms looping around her bent legs. "Do you ever think about what you'd be doing right now if the outbreak never happened?" 

"Sometimes, yeah," Glenn admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. 

"Well, what is it?" She asked curiously. 

He gave a small smile, then told her, "probably delivering pizzas still. What about you?"

This question was a no-brainer. She bit her lip, then said, "I'd be up to my eyeballs in studying by now. I was studying to be an EMT. I was so close, too." A sigh fell from her mouth as she thought of what could've been. 

Then, a scream let out somewhere behind them, and Lou jumped up, sliding down the ladder and rushing to where the scream originated. She found herself running with a group of men to the edge of the camp, where Sophia and Carl had seen a walker. There it was, in a little clearing just at the edge of the woods, gnawing on a deer that had several arrows in its side. Lou knew what this meant. Daryl was near.

She watched the men beat at the monster, rolling her eyes as she knew the only way to kill it was through the brain. The brain was the thing that controlled every part of one's body, of course, it was the only way of putting someone out for good. Finally, someone had entirely decapitated the walker, the head rolling a foot away. 

"That's the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain." Lou's father said, gesturing to it and then to the mountainside that faced the city.

"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what," Jim replied, wiping at the sweat on his forehead. The men had really given it their all when they were beating at the corpse with their various weapons.

Then, Lou could hear the snapping of branches, and footsteps, and she turned to the woods with her knife held tight. Out stepped Daryl Dixon, holding his crossbow. Shane cursed, lowering his weapon, "Jesus." 

Daryl took one look at the deer and grunted, "Son of a bitch. That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed up by this," he began kicking at the walker's body, continuing, "filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!" 

Dale stepped in, "Calm down, son. That's not helping."

"What do you know about it, old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to On Golden Pond?" Lou snorted at this in an attempt to hide a laugh and clamped a hand over her mouth as Daryl said, "I've been tracking this deer for miles. Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison." He pulled the bolts from the deer's corpse.

"What do you think? Think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" He gestured to the part of the deer's neck that had become a chew toy for a walker. 

"I would not risk that." Lou piped up, giving a disgusted look at the deer's neck. 

Daryl sighed, "That's a damn shame. I got some squirrel--about a dozen or so. That'll have to do."

That was when the walker's disembodied head came back to life, teeth clacking as it tried to bite the air. "Come on, people. What the hell? It's gotta be the brain." He then shot an arrow through the walker's eye, beginning to walk away, "Don't y'all know nothing?"

The group followed Daryl back to camp, where he began asking for Merle to come out. Lou watched as Rick and Shane proceeded to tell the man that his brother was back in the city, chained to a roof. As expected, Daryl did not take this well, resulting in Shane putting him in a chokehold. 

Then, Rick offered to go back into the city to retrieve the man, and Lou perked up, wanting to help. She hadn't been to the city in a while. "I'll go. It's not right for anyone to be trapped like that."

"Nah, don't need your help," Daryl muttered.

"You see anyone else around here offering to help your jackass of a brother?" Lou retorted, "didn't think so. I'm in." 

"Me too." T-Dog chimed in, and Lou almost laughed when she saw the look on Daryl's face. 

It was decided, then. The group would leave immediately to go get Merle, the group consisting of Lou, Rick, Daryl, Glenn, and T-Dog. Lou went to grab her gun and a small backpack to put some medical supplies in, including a few bottles of water. Merle would likely be dehydrated. 

The group loaded into the same cube van from before and headed out.