Wings

Calm(2/2)

" If you don't know the guy on the other side of the world, love him anyway because he's just like you. He has the same dreams, the same hopes and fears. It's one world, pal. We're all neighbors." —Frank Sinatra

MERLE

"Yes, but I only have 2."

Merle watched her face with curiosity, waiting for it to break, for fear to enter her eyes. It never did. He decided he'd like to dig deeper. To get under her skin. Daryl didn't like it but Merle wasn't concerned. He could never understand why his little brother felt the need to seek out approval everywhere. Wasn't Merle enough for him?

"Oh honey, yer making me melt! I believe you might do it! Hell, might even give that psycho, the Governor, a run for his money! But you know," he said, raising his makeshift hand, "I never did care much for the liberated woman, and I don't like your attitude. So I think maybe you should stop pretendin' ya not afraid. Stop foolin' y'self into believing the Big Man in the Sky's lookin out for ya. It's a new world order now. Only folks can handle themselves make it. Just say ya scared. I can protect ya." Merle knew that would get a rise.

Remy kept her gaze calm and level. "Yunno, I always heard that the scared dog barks the loudest. You're doin an awful lot of barkin'."  Her free hand dropped down to her furry companion to absently scratch his ears, and her eyes soon followed. She had been watching Merle like a bomb waiting to go off, but now, well now she acted as if she wasn't concerned at all.

He didn't know why that bothered him so much. How could she be so calm and confident? She was alone in the woods, in a world gone to hell, with flesh eating corpses at every bend, and two grown men she didn't know. And she was the type of girl that should worry. Petite and fragile looking, with those innocent blue eyes. He couldn't figure it out. It sparked a curiosity in him.

"So you really ain't scared a nothin', huh?" he asked.

"Never said that. I just know that worry and fear can't help me. Can't keep me alive. Can't 'add a single hour to my life'. So what's the point? When it's my time, it'll be my time. And only God knows when that'll be."

He laughed at that. "Ha! Girl, your time was the other day with that rotter!"

"Apparently not." And at that, she smiled.

Smiled. At him. He had just threatened her more or less. And she's sitting there across the fire, smiling in his face.

Daryl had shifted to his feet, stringing the cans along their perimeter again. Merle made his way, slowly, stalkingly, around to her side of the fire. He watched her like a cat, tracking its prey and gauging its reaction. When he sat down a couple feet away, she didn't flinch away from him. Just turned her head in acknowledgment before putting her eyes back to the flames.

In a low voice he said "I saw you, yunno. Ya gave up. You just. Ya stopped tryin'. Fightin'. I woulda let it eat ya, but my little brother there has always been soft. You seem full of fire now. So where was it then?"

"I don't know," she began. He hadn't expected her to answer. Expected her, like Daryl, to hide or to outright ignore him. But she didn't. She continued quietly, "just...I was so tired. And I looked up at the sky, peeking through the trees. I just felt this immense peace wash over me. And I thought 'if I just let go, I'll be home'."

He remembered her last attempt to reach her knife. "Well heaven was just a ripped up body away, hon. What stopped ya?"

"You want the truth?" she asked.