Dead Man Walking

xviii

In the following fight, Hunter withdrew. His brother made the judgement that he was not ready to engage in the fight with them. Hunter agreed, in fact. He sat close to Glenn while Michonne leaned against their car outside. He knew both of them had questions about his little moment.

"I didn't know you had PTSD," Glenn spoke up, he was worried about his friend. Hunter hasn't spoken since they left Woodbury.

Hunter shrugs his shoulders, "I don't really like talking about it. I'm getting better though. It doesn't happen all the time."

"If you don't mind me asking, what triggers it?" Glenn wonders.

Hunter picks at the skin on the buds of his nails. He was trying to get the blood off of him but nothing he did was working, "Blood. Gunshots. Death," He chuckles, everything that triggers him happens every day, "We're living in a zombie apocalypse, it's not really good for my mental health."

"You said it doesn't happen all the time, but when it does happen how do you snap out of it?" Michonne wonders. She probably had no place in asking but she was curious.

Hunter glances over at Glenn, "You remember when you slapped me in the face? After I cut Hershel's leg off?" Glenn nods, "You kinda slapped me back into reality. But most of the time Rick just talks me through it. He reminds me I'm not there anymore."

"When did this start?"

"I was a sergeant in the army. My team got a mission and I was leading everything," Hunter sighs with a shake of his head, "I didn't know what I was getting into. It was an ambush. I was the only one to make it out alive. I saw a lot of things, I watched my friends die and I couldn't do anything about it."

"I'm sorry."

Hunter nods, he doesn't think about that much anymore especially now that the world has ended. It gets to him sometimes, but it hasn't gotten worse, he doesn't get nightmares about it anymore and it doesn't plague his mind.

"Hunter!"

When he hears his brother's voice, he raises his head. He sprang up in a flash and swiftly followed Michonne and Glenn into the woods. Hunter saw his brother holding his hand out, "Now we got a problem here. I need you to back up."

Hunter pulls out his gun, as did Glenn and Michonne takes out her sword as they see Merle with them, "What the hell is he doing here?"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Rick shouts getting in between them and stopping them from killing Daryl's brother. Rick pulled his gun on Michonne, "Put it down."

"He tried to kill me!"

"He almost got us all killed!" Hunter shouts at his brother, "How are you gonna defend him!?"

"If he wasn't for him—"

"He helped us get out of there," Daryl says, emotions were running high and all of them had their guns drawn on each other.

"Yeah, right after he beat the shit out of you," Rick points out.

"Hey, we both took our licks, man," Merle defends himself.

Hunter took a challenging step toward Merle but he was blocked by Daryl. Daryl knew the lengths Hunter would go to to protect his family and he had no doubt that Hunter could kill his brother within seconds.

"Man, look like you've gone native, brother," Merle says.

Daryl turns to face his brother, "No more than you hanging out with that psycho back there."

"Oh, yeah, man. He is a charmer, I got to tell you that. Been putting the wood on your girlfriend Andrea. Big time, baby."

"Wait what?" Hunter asks. "Andrea's in Woodbury?"