The Walking Dead (Season 1)

Vatos

Nothing was said. Daryl stands completely still, staring at the hand of his brother. The rest of us stand behind him watching him, waiting for something, anything. Suddenly, Daryl grunts out angrily, pointing his crossbow at T-Dog. Rick instantly points his gun at Daryl.

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

Okay, sheriff. Remind me not to piss him off.

Daryl says nothing as he drops the crossbow, letting it fall to his side. He blinks angrily as tears try to form but he doesn't let them.

"You got a do-rag or somethin?" He asks T-Dog.

T-Dog pulls out a rag from who knows where and hands it to Daryl. Daryl takes it and kneels down near the hand.

He sighs. "I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs." He holds up the hand, examining it, I cringe thinking of how much that would've hurt. "Ain't that a bitch." He mutters.

Daryl wraps the hand in the rag before standing up. He walks over to Glenn and stuffs it in his backpack as Glenn cringes in disgust.

"He must have used a tourniquet-maybe his belt. Be much more blood if he didn't." Daryl says, pointing at the pile of blood.

He follows the trial the leads to another door as we follow. T-Dog goes over to collect the bag of tools that they left before following after us.

With Daryl in the lead, we follow the trail down a stair case. "Merle! You in here?" Daryl calls out.

We make our way through the building, cutting through different hallways and offices. We eventually come up to two dead bodies of walkers that look like have been killed not long ago.

"Had enough in him to take out these two sumbitches one handed." Daryl comments before reloading his crossbow. "Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother." He pulls now the string, locking it in place. "Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails."

"Any man can pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough his is." Rick says before continuing on with his gun drawn.

Me and Glenn share a nervously look as we follow. The trail of blood seems to go on forever as we come to what looks like a kitchen area.

"Merle!" Daryl yells out again.

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

"Screw that." Daryl says. "He could be bleeding out. You said so yourself."

The two walk further into the room, turning the corner seeing a stove on. We all notice a piece of metal sitting next to it with something burnt on it, also a belt sitting not too far from it.

"What's that burnt stuff?" Glenn asks.

"Skin." Rick answers, examining it. "He cauterized the stump."

I raise my eyebrows in surprise.

"Told you he was tough. Ain't nobody can kill Merle but Merle." Daryl comments with a hint of pride.

"Don't take that on faith. He's lost a lot of blood." Rick reminds him.

I walk towards a window that looks like it was smashed, and has blood leading outside. "Yeah?" Daryl notices what I'm looking at and follows. "Didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap."