In The End | Daryl Dixon

Chapter 24: brothers

As soon as we entered one of the buildings, Glenn collapsed to the floor.

"Rick, how did you find us?" Maggie asked as she checked on Glenn, who had blood covering his face.

"How bad are you hurt?" Rick asked Glenn.

"I'll be all right."

"Where's that woman?" Maggie asked.

I scanned the room, she was no where in sight, "She was right behind us."

Rick went to the window and peeked out, trying to see if he saw any sign of her.

"Want me to go look for her?" Daryl asked.

"No. We gotta get them out of here." Rick answered, "She's on her own."

"Daryl-" Glenn choked out, "this was Merle."

I looked at Glenn like he had a third head growing on his shoulders. Merle? Alive?

"You saw him?" Rick asked.

"Face to face." He answered. "Threw a walker at me. He was gonna execute us."

I saw Daryl approach Glenn. From the time on the road, I've been able to pick up his cues, and understand his facial expressions, but right now, his face was unreadable.

"S-so my brother's this governor?" Daryl asked Glenn, confusion on his face.

"No, it's somebody else." Maggie answered for Glenn, "your brother's his lieutenant or something."

"Does he know I'm still with you?" Daryl asked again, this time with a shimmer of hope in it.

"He does now." Glenn swallowed hard, "Rick, I'm sorry. We told him where the prison was. We couldn't hold out."

Rick bent down in front of Glenn placing his hand on his shoulder, "Don't. No need to apologize."

I repositioned myself in front of a window, carefully peeking out behind the curtain.

"They're gonna be looking for us." Maggie said.

I saw several people running all over the street outside and they all were carrying weapons. "We have to get back, Rick."

"Can you walk?" Rick asked Glenn. "We got a car a few miles out."

Glenn nodded, getting help from Maggie and Rick to stand. I stood up waiting for the next move.

"Hey, if Merle's around I need to see him." Daryl said in a pleading tone.

"Not now. We're in hostile territory." Rick said.

"He's my brother. I ain't--" Daryl started, but was cut off by Rick.

"Look at what he did!" He pointed to Glenn's bloodied figure. "Look, we gotta get out of here now."

"Maybe I can talk to him. Maybe I can work something out." He pleaded, desperation in his eyes.

The look he was giving Rick, broke my heart. He wanted nothing more than to be reunited with his brother. To be honest, if someone said they saw my brother after almost a year I'd drop everything to go see him. So I completely understood where Daryl was coming from. But Merle kidnapped, tortured, and beat our friends. There wasn't going to be any talking.

"No, no, no. You're not thinking straight. Look, no matter what they say, they're hurt. Glenn can barely walk. How are we gonna make it out if we get overrun by walkers and this governor catches up to us? I need you." Rick said. "Are you with me?"

After a moment of silence, Daryl nodded, "Yeah."

Rick nodded and turned back towards Glenn, grabbing one of his arms and putting it around his neck, Maggie doing the same.