Oblivion - D. Dixon (ON HOLD)

6. Vatos (Part 1)

The bloody hacksaw and handcuffs along with Merle's right hand are all that the rescue party has found. Daryl raises his crossbow and swings around, aiming it at Emiko's face. T-Dog quickly pulls her behind him and Daryl aims at him. Immediately Rick cocks his gun and puts it to Daryl's head. T-Dog doesn't flinch and neither does Daryl in the standoff.

"I won't hesitate. I don't care if every walker in the city hears it." Rick said, sternly.

Daryl, crying, drops the crossbow. T-Dog lets out a sigh. Rick uncocks his weapon and lowers it. Daryl blinks away some tears.

"You got a do-rag or something?" Daryl asks T-Dog. (I understand that it's spelled durag but both the transcript and the subtitles spelled it that way.)

T-Dog hands him one, Daryl uses it to wrap up Merle's hand and sighs, "I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs." Daryl gingerly picks Merle's hand up by a finger and examines the cut. "Ain't that a bitch."

He wraps Merle's hand up carefully and motions to Glenn. He puts Merle's hand in Glenn's backpack. Glenn looked mortified.

"He must have used a tourniquet—maybe his belt. Be much more blood if he didn't." Daryl follows the trail of blood.

Rick motions to Glenn. He follows Rick and Daryl while T-Dog and Emiko collect the dropped tools and Dale's dropped bag.

"Thank you" she whispered.

T-Dog smiled at her, "You saved me once, it was my turn to save you"

They go down the stairwell into the building. They carefully make their way through the building. The two caught up to the others. They enter an abandoned receptionist's area where they see a couple walkers dead on the floor, their heads smashed in.

"Had enough in him to take out these two sumbitches one handed." Daryl walked to the farthest dead walker. A crescent wrench lies on the floor beside the second one. Daryl reaches down and pulls back on his crossbow. "Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother." He grunts, "Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails."

Rick pulls out his gun "Any man can pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is."

They continue on, Rick with his handgun and Daryl with his crossbow in the lead. Emiko covers the back with a knife in each hand.

The blood trail continues over a tile floor.

Daryl calls out for his brother, "Merle!"

"We're not alone here. Remember?" Rick scolds him

Daryl moves forward, "Screw that. He could be bleeding out. You said so yourself."

They walk into a kitchen area. Several sterno cans have been lit and are still burning. An abandoned bloody belt lies on the cook top nearby. Blood is splattered everywhere. Rick picks up a flat iron that has been used and left with crusted remains. Emiko gagged at the smell of burning flesh.

"What is that burned stuff?" Glenn asks.

Rick examined the flat iron, "Skin. He cauterized the stump."

"Told you he was tough." Daryl looked at Rick, "Nobody can kill Merle but Merle."

"Don't take that on faith. He's lost a lot of blood."Rick said, still looking at the stove.

Daryl walked to a window, "Yeah? Didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap."

They walk over to a window with more blood and a shattered quarter pane. "He left the building? Why the Hell would he do that?" Glenn asked.

"Why wouldn't he? He's out there alone as far as he knows, doing what he's got to do." Daryl walks away from the window. "Surviving."

Emiko looks out the window and sees a fire escape leading down. There's a bloody towel on the ledge.