Make it Till You Don't

An Old Acquaintance

It was getting late as I sat in the watchtower and debated on just staying up here for the night. I brought my knees up to my chest, resting my chin on the as I watched the Walkers roam about. I could hear the sound of someone walking up behind me, but I didn't bother to move to see who, knowing it'd be one of the group.

"Been looking for ya." Daryl rasped out, standing behind me.

"Were you now?" I asked plainly, watching a Walker bash its hand on the fence, even though there's a big ass entrance it could walk through.

"Everyone's worried about ya. No one knew where you went after everything." He continued.

I hummed in response before speaking up. "Been up here the whole time, hadn't moved since." There was a moment of silence before I spoke up again. "What made you come back?"

"It didn't take me long to realize Merle is still an asshole." Daryl replied.

I nodded my head. "Sure did. Do you know how pissed I was when I was told you left without saying anything to anyone." I asked, biting my lip. "Especially when we didn't know if you'd ever come back."

"I know, but he's my brother. I couldn't just leave him." Daryl had a defensive tone to his voice.

"I get that, but you and him could've come back with the others anyways. Rick would've caved eventually and found a way to work it out and you know it." I explained, watching as the Walker now used both hands to bash against the fence.  "He needs you here."

I heard shuffling as Daryl sat down beside me. "I shouldn't have left ya and the others." He mumbled his version of an apology.

I finally looked over to him. "Damn right you shouldn't have." I replied, giving him a small smile of reassurance. "But I'm glad you're back."

"When Merle told me the Governor probably already took down the prison, I immediately came back." Daryl began, turning to look at me. "I thought they killed ya and the others."

"Well, I'm still standing." I replied, glancing at the prison for a moment. "Everyone is..." I bit my lip, turning back towards him. "And we're not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere."

———

"We're not leaving." Rick announced, cocking the gun in his hand.

"We can't stay here." Hershel rebutted.

Maggie stepped in, looking at Rick. "What if there's another sniper? A wood pallet won't stop one of those rounds."

"We can't even go outside." Beth spoke up from beside me.

"Not in the daylight." Carol added on.

Glenn looked to everyone. "Rick says we're not running, we're not running."

"No, better to live like rats." Merle spoke up from where he was.

Rick looked over to the man. "You got a better idea?"

"Yeah, we should've slid out of here last night and lived to fight another day." Merle told everyone. "But we lost that window, didn't we? I'm sure he's got scouts on every road outta here by now."

Daryl looked down towards his brother. "We ain't scared of that prick."

"Y'all should be." I glanced from Daryl, back to Merle. "That truck through the fence thing, that's just him ringing the doorbell. We might have some thick walls to hide behind, but he's got the guns and the numbers. And if he takes the high ground around this place, shoot, he could just starve us out if he wanted to."

"Let's put him in the other cell block." Maggie spoke up.

Daryl looked down to Rick. "No. He's got a point."