Weeping Willows

Robin Hood

"So you're really going?"
Sighing, I stopped packing my bag and turned around.
"Yes."
"Why? What is so worth risking your life?!" Lori snapped.
"Lori. I need to. I know it's really dumb. Okay? I know that. But I need to do it, " I sighed.
She threw her hands up in exasperation and shook her head, going to walk away, but I caught her elbow.
"Lori. Please. I wouldn't be doing this if I thought I didn't have to. I know it's in poor taste to ask, but can you please keep an eye on her just until I get back? Please"
"If ya come back," a familiar voice chuckled from behind Lori.
Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I glanced behind Lori and saw Merle coming up to us.
A dark purple and yellow bruise along the right side of his forehead, going up into his hairline, and another bruise coloring in the space around his nose.
"Butt out, Dixon," I snapped.
"I'll watch her. But you better come back, " Lori sighed before walking off
Smiling great fully, I just turned my back on Merle and finished packing my bag.
"Knew you were bold but didn't think ya were dumb too," Merle called out behind me.
Rolling my eyes, I zipped my pack and went to walk away from him when I felt him pin the front of his body to my backside, trapping me in between the table and him.
My eyes widened slightly, and I felt my stomach twist and turn I disgust as he rubbed his crotch up against my ass.
"I'm sorry. Did I headbutt you so heard that you completely lost your mind?" I snapped angrily.
"Nah. It's that ass sweetie that's got me outta ma mind. " Merle taunted me, his warm breath fanning the side of my neck.
I grimaced and started to push the table back so I could get away from him when he grabbed my ass roughly.
Without another moment to think, my body swung around, my fist reared back to hit him again but I froze when Daryl stood inbetween us, grabbing his older brother my the collar of his shirt and shoving him back.
"The hell is wrong with ya, man?!" He scolded Merle, who only responded with his usual crooked ass smirk.
"Fucking touch me again and I'll cut your damn hand off" I snapped sending Merle one last murderous glare before throwing my bag over my shoulder and quickly walking away from the two brothers.

~~~~~~~~~~~

After making sure I had all the supplies I needed, and saying goodbye to Rosie, I took the car Glenn and I had used to get back and made my way back to the city.
It would have been a straight shot, had the car not ran out of gas about halfway there, so now, here I was carefully making my way down the highway into the city, doing my best to sneak about the few stragglers who would come across my path every now and then. That's how I got in my current predicament, hiding behind a grey soccer mom van, peering around it at two Walkers who seemed to be eating some sort of animal in the middle of the roadway.
Gritting my teeth slightly, I grasped the pocket knife in my pocket tightly.
Looking over at the Walkers again I noted that they both hand the backs to me.
Slowly moving forward, I made my movements quick.
First, I grabbed the first walker , jammed my knife between its eyes, and then quickly ripped it out and stabbed the next one as it went to stand up.
Carefully lowering the last one on the ground, I glanced down at what they were eating and grimaced.
It wasn't an animal but rather an older woman, probably in her 60s, still dressed in a nightgown.
'CRUNCH'
Jumping slightly, I whipped around and raised my knife.
My eyes widened as the familiar tip of a crossbow almost grazed my cheek.
"Dixon? What the fuck?! Did you follow me?" I narrowed my eyes angrily.
"Told ya yer gonna get yerself killed and ya still came out 'ere. Wasn't gonna let ya leave that lil girl with nobody. " he glared back.
Letting out a groan, I dropped my knife and ran my hand down my face in annoyance.
"Just go back. It's easier if I run in alone. I'm quick. I don't need you following me. " I tried convincing him to leave, but he didn't budge and kept the same stubborn glare trained on my face.
"Oh for fucks sake!" Rolling my eyes I threw my bag back over my shoulder and heading towards the city.
"Just keep up, Dixon,"
I heard him let out an annoyed grunt behind me, and then his footsteps hot on my trail, damn near walking on the back of my feet.
Walking down the abandoned street, my eyes quickly flickered to the left and then the right every few seconds, searching for any sign of the dead.
"Don't look as scary as Glenn made it out ta be," Daryl scoffed.
"It is. The dead aren't out here because they found something. As soon as they're satisfied with it, they'll be looking for us. " I warned.
He didn't respond as we went to turn a corner only to see hundreds of them facing away from us.
Sucking in my breath, I let Daryl grab a hold of the shoulder of my shirt and drag me towards the way we came.
"Detour," I quickly whispered, rushing towards the alley.
Carefully maneuvering our way into the alley, I stopped as I heard a growl to my right.
Quickly whipping around, I flinched as an arrow whipped past me and embedded itself in the Walkers skull.
Blood splashed onto my face, and I tried my best to ignore it as I lunged forwards quickly taking care of the walker than had been right behind the first, burying my knife into its skull, carefully lowering it to the ground to avoid any extra noise and then pulling my knife back out.
Grimacing, I wiped my blade on my jeans and used the back of my sleeve to wipe the blood from my face.
"Let's keep moving," Daryl frowned, glancing further down the alley where we had gotten the attention of a few more.
I nodded and quickly went in the opposite direction.
"Here it is." I gestured to the building in front of us and started making my way up the fire escape ladder.
Getting to the top of the ladder, I stepped onto the fire escape and glanced down the ladder.
He was just about to the top when I noticed the screws to the ladder were all severely loose, and as he got closer to the top of the ladder, the more it pulled away from the brick wall.
"Shit, Daryl!"
In an instant, the top rail of the ladder pulled off the wall, and Daryl began to fall back into the alley.
"Shit!"
Without even thinking, I dropped to the ground and grabbed a hold of Daryl's vest.
I couldn't help but let out a cry as my arm took on Daryls entire body weight.
Daryl instinctively wrapped his large hand around my upper bicep.
From the agonizing pain in my shoulder I already knew there was no way it wasn't dislocated but I also knew I didn't have the time to spare to ease the pain as one wrong move and Daryl was dead.
Taking a deep breath, I wrapped my leg around on of the bars in the railing and reached down with my other arm, trying to pull him up.
Gritting my teeth, I started to try and pull.
Suddenly, the sounds of growls and groans came from the end of the alley. My eyes widened, and I glanced towards the end of the alley and saw hundreds of the dead forcing themselves into the alley.
"The ladder falling must have gotten their attention! Shit!"
I don't know if it was adrenaline or terror, but I quickly began pulling him up, ignoring the pain aching through my entire body.
"If ya have to. Let go, " Daryl ordered.
I looked at him incredulously.
"What?!"
"Ya heard me," he growled, glancing down at the dead below him.
"Not a chance in hell," I seethed, glaring down at him for even suggesting it.
Wrapping my other leg around the railing to I used my upper body strength to pull him up further.
I pulled and pulled until he was able to let go of my arm with one hand and grab one of the rails to help pull him the rest of the way.
As soon as he was up on the ledge with my arms, I gave out, and I fell back.
"Fuck" I breathed heavily, cradling my arm as I stared down over the railing and the thousands of Walkers below us.
"Yer arm, okay." Daryl stood up, glancing down at me.
From the look in his eye, I could tell that he felt guilty, so I quickly played it off.
"Yeah, I'm fine. You're heavy, ya know, " I teased, standing up and brushing myself off.
He scoffed before glancing down at the dead.
"Maybe China man wasn't telling stories after all,"
"Korean," I quickly corrected.
He turned and rose an eyebrow at me.
"What? I was a teacher. Dealt with all sorts of kids. It's the cheekbones, " I shrugged before making my way up the fire escape stairs and making my way to the door.
Carefully popping the door open, I held it open for Daryl and slammed it behind us using my good arm as he quickly slid inside.
Almost immediately, the sounds of the dead were nothing but a faint hum.
"I guess one good thing about you following is that you can fill a bag too." I smirked tossing a black duffel bag at him.
He just shot me his usual unimpressed glare and caught the bag as it hit his chest.
Leading the way to the lower floor, I looked around. Everything was exactly the way we had left it when Glenn and I bolted out of here.
Glancing at the doors of the store, I saw that the dead had made their way through the first set of doors, and the rest of the glass was severely cracked.
"We need to stay quiet. If we catch their attention, it'll only be a matter of minutes until they are in here with us. " I gestured to the doors.
"What was so important that ya needed to come back 'ere?" Daryl stopped in his tracks.
I hesitated at glanced towards the backrooms.
"There's still a shit ton of supplies. Plenty for at least another month or so for everyone back at camp. There's a parking garage attached to this building so if we can find a vehicle and load it up and get it out of this city we'd be set for a while. You could still hunt for squirrels and shit but then there won't be any conflict aside from you and your brother being assholes here and there, " I explained, smirking towards the end.
"Conflict?" He rose an eyebrow.
"Yea. That when shit goes to hell. When there aren't enough supplies to go around is when people start turning on each other, stealing,.....killing each other. I've already seen it once and barely got Rosie and I out. If we're gonna stay in this group I have to do what I think is gonna keep us safest and this is one of them things" I explained hastily before quickly pushing my way to the back rooms and looked at the supplies and found that it was happily untouched.
Grabbing my bag, I began to fill it up. Batteries, medicine, tools, feminine hygiene products, blankets, clothes, and more food.
"You got all dis yourself?" Daryl looked at me skeptically as he filled his own duffle bag.
"Why does everyone keep asking me that? Yes. I was in the middle of Atlanta. There's shit everywhere. You just need to know how to get around the dead, " I exasperated.
He rolled his eyes slightly before giving me a small nod before zipping up his full bag.
"Alright, now I've got one last spot." I sighed, throwing my bag over my shoulder and walking out of the storage room and back up the stairs.
Making my way down the hall on the second floor, I paused at a boarded up door.
Wrapping my hands around one of the boards, I yanked back at it but immediately recoiled as a pain shot down my bad arm.
"Thought ya said ya were fine," Daryl frowned, watching me grab my shoulder with a grimace.
"I am. I think my arm is just out of its socket. I'll be fine. " I quickly countered, letting go off my shoulder and grabbing the board again with my good arm and yanking, but it didn't budge.
Daryl sighed before coming up behind me with a crowbar.
"Move"
"Where'd you find that?" I furrowed my eyebrows watched as he pulled the nails back on the boards and pulled them off the door one by one.
"Downstairs"
He pulled the last board off and opened the door.
Carefully stepping in, we moved slowly, making sure no one was inside the room.
Once we made sure the room was clear, we started looking around.
Immediately, a safe in the corner of the room caught my eyes. I wasn't a very big safe, but what really had me curious was the fact that it was still wide open.
Glancing at Daryl, I saw he was rummaging through a drawer to the right of the door.
Moving my eyes back to the safe in the corner of the room, I quickly crossed the room and opened it the rest of the way and, to my suprise, immediately spotted the grip of a gun.
Grabbing it, I pulled it out of the safe and looked over the gun, opening the chamber only to find it wasn't loaded.
"Well, that's not entirely helpful," I sighed.
"What ya find?" Daryl frowned quickly, crossing the room and coming up behind me.
" Looks like a Glock 19. It's nice, but there's no ammo. " I frowned.
"Shame. Maybe we can find some, " Daryl shrugged before going back to where he was looking.
We scavenged the room a bit more before heading back downstairs to double-check we had it all.
"So, what'd you really come here for?" Daryl spoke up.
"What are you talking about? I told you -"
"Nah, don't hit me with that supply, bs. You were adamant. Said there was something important ya forgot. What is it?" Daryl crossed his arms over his chest, taking a few more steps towards me, so I had to crane my neck slightly to meet his eyes.
I hesitated for a moment, which only made him more impatient as he rose his eyebrow.
"Mr.Moose" I sighed, looking away from him.
"What?" He deadpanned.
Letting out a groan, I took my pack off of my back and set it on the counter beside us and opened it, pulling out the brown stuffed animal.
"Mr. Moose"
His eyes narrowed, and I could tell right away he was pissed.
"You mean you came all this way for a god damn stuffed animal?!"
"It's not just a stuffed animal!" I snapped, putting it back in my bag.
"I almost fucking died for Mr.Moose!" He sneered.
"I didn't ask you to follow me!" I shot back angrily walking away from him.
"You're so fucking dim! A stuffed animal? Worth your whole fucking life?!" He growled catching my wrist.
"I said it's not just a fucking stuffed animal! It was my brothers! It was the last thing he gave Rosie's mom before he was deployed and she gave it to Rosie and he's probably fucking dead too! So it's not just a fucking stuffed animal! To you maybe but not to Rosie and not to me!" I yelled back at him angrily trying to pull my wrist back but his grasp was firm.
Daryls eyes softened for a moment when suddenly he yanked me forwards into him and lifted his crossbow.
Startled, I turned my head and saw our arguing had gotten the attention of a group of Walkers.
Daryl let the bolt go and it shot right through the Walkers head.
"We gotta move " he exclaimed loading his crossbow back up and shooting another.
"Upstairs!"
I quickly stepped out of Daryls grasp and buried my knife into the skull of one of the Walkers who got to close to us as Daryl was reloading his crossbow.
"There's only about half a dozen now but I'm sure it won't be long until there are more" I explained.
"Let's go"
Quickly following Daryl up the stairs, we rushed back into the room we had opened up, shut the door behind us.
"There's another fire escape on this side of the building" I peeked my head outside the only window in the room.
"Alright let's go"
Going to grab my knife I froze.
My eyes widened as I felt my pocket and realized it was empty.
In a panic, I quickly searched all of my pockets, even doing a once over of my pack.
"Where is it?" I frowned.
"Where what?" Daryl frowned, sending me a confused glance.
"My knife!" I exclaimed, checking my pants pocket again even though I knew it wasn't there.
"Yer knife?"
"Yeah! It was in my pocket and now it isn't!"
Suddenly, I realized that when I had killed the walker downstairs, I had never pulled it out of his skull.
"Stay here. I'll be right back, " I ordered, dropping my pack on the ground and moving to the door.
"Where da hell are you going?!" Daryl growled out.
"I told you! I need my knife!" I excalimed, rolling my eyes at him slightly.
"We'll get you a new damn knife! You can't go back down there! Those doors are wide open! Wrong move and yer dead!" Daryl quickly moved to block me from the door
"You can't get me a new knife! There is no knife like the one downstairs, " I argued quickly, ducking under his arm.
"That sentimental shit is gonna get ye killed," he shouted angrily.
"Look, I didn't ask you to come with me! I was going to come alone! Just head back to camp!"
Suddenly, I was pinned between Daryl and the wall. My eyes widened, and I couldn't help but flinch at the hot breath that fanned across my face.
"What the hell -"
"Why are ya so damn stubborn!" He began to yell at me, clearly done with my shit.
"Says you. I've kept me and me alive just fine for the last month, and somehow, everyone is still looking at me like a little school teacher!" I complained, trying to shove him back to no avail.
"Ain't nobody care you were some teacher! They're mad cause ya keep putting yourself in stupid fucking situations!" He seethed.
"My brother gave me that knife. It's all I got. I need it, " I exclaimed, forcing myself to calm down and snap back.
He stared down at me for a moment before letting out any annoyed growl.
"Stay 'ere!"
He cooked his crossbow and stomped off.
"What? Where are you going?!" I exclaimed, following after him.
"Getting yer damn knife," he grumbled before walking out the door and shutting it firmly behind him so I wouldn't follow.
"Stubborn asshole" I groaned before plopping down on the bench.
There was no noise after a few moments before the was a loud bang on the door making jump.
Then there was another bang. I rolled my eyes and stood up, trudging towards the door.
"What? You forget house to use a door when you went down there?" I scoffed swinging open the door.
"Oh shit!-"
I quickly fell back as the door revealed one of the dead who immediately lunged it's body foreward, taking us both to the ground.
Immediately my mind began to race. I had no knife, no gun and this thing was relentless.
I groaned holding my arms out with my hands firmly planted on its chest to keep it at arms distance.
"Get. The. Fuck. Off of me!" I growled out bringing my foot up and firmly planting it on the Walkers chest and kicking it off me a bit.
Quickly pulling myself up on my hands and knees I lunged for the nearby crowbar that Daryl had used to pry open the door.
I let out a yelp as the walker grabbed my foot yanking it back as it brought to it's mouth.
"Shit!"
Swinging my foot I desperately tried kicking and let out a scream of horror as it bit into my shoe.
Almost as soon as the scream slipped past my lips an arrow flew threw the Walkers head.
As soon as the walker fell dead, the weight I was using to try and get away from the walker sent my backwards slightly.
"Are you okay?!" Daryl rushed forward quickly dropping his crossbow.
"M-my foot!" I panicked gesturing to the bite mark on the top of my right foot.
My adrenaline was so high that I honestly could decipher whether I was feeling any pain in my foot or not.
Daryl's eyes took one second go look at my foot before ripping my boot off and pulling my sock back.
Somehow the bit hadn't gotten all the way through my sock.
Letting out a sigh of relief I fell back on to the ground.
"That was fucked up" I complained covering my face with my hands.
"Let's get ya up" Daryl sighed grabbing my hand and pulling me to my feet.
I let him pull me up before I reluncantly slid my sock and and bitten through shoe back on.
"Here's you knife" he sighed tossing the heavy metal at me.
I caught it easily and looked down the the knife, flipping the blade open and dragging my thumb along the latin words engraved along the side of it.
"What does it mean? It's the same as the tattoo on yer side"
Glancing down at the wine red crop top I was wearing I noticed my tattoo was visable.
"It's how well you live that matters, not how long. Makes more sense now that the world is over than it ever did before" I scoffed.
"Hey. The world ain't over" Daryl frowned.
"Right, it's just on a break"