Continued...

I looked between them; Daryl was standing near the door frozen in place while Merle walked up to him.

“I said, are you happy to see your big brother?” he growled, seizing Daryl by the arm and pushing him against the door.

“Delighted.” Daryl said coolly.

“Let him go!” Both Rick and Andrea were pointing their guns at him.

“Ahh, sugar tits, we meet again.” Merle scanned a now uncomfortable Andrea.

“And who is this?” he let go of Daryl and turned to me.

“I’m L—”

“This is Lin, what are you doing here?” Daryl cut me off.

Merle looked from him, to me, then back at him before laughing, “Naw… lil bro, you ain’t been bangin’ this pretty young thing have yah?”

“Ain’t your business!” Daryl shouted.

“Well if you’re not, then I will.” He reached for my hand, but was immediately pushed back.

This time it was Daryl who had slammed Merle up against the wall, holding his crossbow inches from his head.

“Woah, woah… take it easy there.” He laughed again, “I won’t steal your lady.” He glanced at me and winked.

My stomach churned and I looked away. Daryl shoved him again and stepped back.

“What happened?” Rick stepped up, gun still drawn.

“What does it look like?” Merle grunted, “Found myself my own group of survivors since you bastards left me for dead!”

“Oh really? Well then, where are they?” Rick demanded.

“Let’s just say I don’t play well with others.”

“Where are they, Merle?!” Rick’s voice rose.

But Merle merely crossed his arms, his missing hand rubbed up against his vest making him wince ever so slightly.

“Whataya gonna do, sheriff? Handcuff me?” he smirked.

“Seems like we’ve found ourselves in that position again.” Rick said irritably.

“I’ll tell yah what happened to them, they went and got their dumb asses killed.” Merle uncrossed his arms and stepped forward.

“Killed? Or murdered?” Rick stepped back and cocked his revolver.

“I decided to have myself some practice and shot the gas station. It was quite a show, walkers came from all over town. The group didn’t like that, no siree. So I told them, I said, ‘You don’t like the way I do things around here? Then you can join them.’ And well, the rest is pretty obvious.” He snickered. “Don’t matter none; the whole family was a group of dirty niggers anyway.”

I gasped hearing that word and Rick’s anger had finally snapped. He rushed forward and pressed the gun under Merle’s chin.

“Did you kill them?” I barely heard him whisper.

“Like a bunch of dogs.” Merle growled.

I saw Rick’s finger twitch on the trigger.

“Rick, no!!!” I exclaimed, and rammed into him. As I did, a bullet from his gun left the chamber and flew off into the sky.

“Dammit, Lin!” he yelled at me and pushed me to the ground.

Daryl marched up to Rick and punched him in the chin. Andrea knelt on the ground next to me, and we watched helplessly as the three men fought.

The grunting and moaning from the roof door was getting even louder; and I had a feeling that this wasn’t going to end well.

“Stop it!!!” I yelled but they were too busy fighting to hear me.

Andrea leaned away from me, held her gun up in the air and fired twice. Rick, Daryl, and Merle stopped in their tracks. Rick had Merle by the shirt, Daryl was still trying to push Rick to the ground, and Merle had his left hand balled up in a fist.

“There are fucking walkers trying to kill us, we don’t need you three doing it for them!” Andrea’s voice turned shrill as she lowered her gun. “How are we going to get out of this?!”

The three men let go of each other, glaring around. I stood up and walked to the edge of the building. Looking down, I saw a sight that turned my blood to ice. The roads had turned into a sea of the undead. I was having trouble imagining how we were going to make it out alive.

To Be Continued…