Brother's Keeper ¹ || The walking dead

116.

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Mercury knew she would get in trouble if her dad's found out she snuck out when they weren't home. Her dad, Riven, had gone out a day ago with her aunt Melanie, but they haven't come back yet. Her other dad, Reagan, had gone to go look for them, leaving Mercury and Dylan in the care of Sasha, who was worried about Rosita and Eugene who left a while ago and haven't returned yet.

It was easy to sneak past Sasha. All she had to do was bribe Dylan to distract her. Sneaking out of Alexandria was easier. After the many times she snuck out after her dad, she was a natural at it.

She was worried about her parents, especially her dad, Riven. She may be a child, but she wasn't stupid. She knew something was wrong with him. He seemed sad lately, and it made her sad because she didn't know how to help cheer him up.

She thought maybe her uncle Daryl could help with that. It's the reason she snuck out, to find Daryl and ask him how she could cheer up her dad so he wouldn't be so sad anymore.

The sound of leaves rustling made her pause, Peanut stopped beside her, the pup moving closer to her, his ears up listening to every noise.

Mercury grabbed her crossbow and grabbed an arrow, placing it and pulling the string back before aiming her crossbow up towards the source of the rustling.

Peanut began to bark, his bark high pitch, all Mercury saw was a body before she pulled the trigger. The arrow flew forward fast, and a yelp was heard.

Mercury's eyes widened, her arrow impaling in a tree, she lowered her crossbow, "Henry? Oh my god, Henry!" She ran over to Henry, who was on the ground, his eyes wide staring at the arrow that would've killed him if he wasn't pulled out of the way by Daryl.

"I'm sorry! I thought you were a walker!" Mercury apologized, almost close to tears.

Henry tore his eyes away from the arrow and towards Mercury, giving her a ressuring smile. "It's uh, it's alright, Mer. It was an accident."

Henry let out a small laugh as Peanut came over and started to attack him with his tongue, licking all over his face.

"It's just you?" Daryl spoke, moving past Mercury and Henry, looking for any sign of his brother or brother in law, but he didn't see any of them.

Mercury nodded, turning her head to look up at Daryl with a deep frown, "Dad and Aunt Lanie gone out and haven't come back yet. Papa went to find them."

Henry stood up, furrowing his eyes in concern, "Missing?"

"You shouldn't be out here." Daryl told her, "You should head back before ya decide to almost kill Henry again." He pulled out the arrow from the tree and handed it to mercury.

"I said I was sorry." Mercury mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest, "and I need your help, Uncle Daryl. That's why I'm here."

Daryl furrowed his eyes down at her, "Help with what?"

"Dad.."Mercury let out a deep sighed, "he's sad, and I ain't know how to fix it."

Daryl stared at her, the words sinking in. Riven was depressed again. Mercury didn't know about it, but he did. Riven's depression was back again. He deeply frowned, Mercury was asking for his help, but he didn't know how to help exactly.

His relationship with his baby brother was better, but still, there was this hole in that bond they built, and he was part to blame for that.

"..How bad is it?" The three of them turned to Carol, who approached them, looking down at Mercury.

"He just sad, all the time, even when he's happy, he's sad, I can tell." Mercury replied.

Carol shared a look with Daryl, knowing Riven's depression was back. She knew it was never going to go away. His depression has been there since the day he was born, just manifesting into a parasite that infected his entire mind, it would hide, when Riven finally fights it off, but it was never gone, just in hiding, growing, waiting for the perfect moment to just come back out and ruin everything again.

She remembers what Daryl had told her one day when it was just the two of them. He said : "..Riven's been suicidal since he was twelve, I didn't know he tried to kill himself so many times, that tells me how much of a shit brother I am."

She could recall the numerous times she saw the signs in Riven, but a lot of was going on, and by then, Riven was gone, off with Reagan, who saved him in many ways others couldn't.

"..where your dad say he was goin'?" Daryl spoke, snapping Carol out of her thoughts.

"I don't know, he didn't say, just that he was going out with Aunt Lanie and would be back before night time." Mercury replied

Daryl nodded, "alrigh', we'll drop you off back home, I'll find your dad's."

"But -" mercury started to protest, but her protest was cut off by Henry.

"I'll take her back." He offered, "We can go to Hilltop once we know Ri and Lanie are back safe in Alexandria, right, mom?" He looked at Carol, who nodded.

"Yes. Daryl and I are going to look for them. You two head straight to Alexandria, no detours." Carol told them, her voice firm.

Mercury sighed, wanting to go with them to find her dad's, but she nodded with a frown. "Okay."

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Reagan was just glad that Riven taught him how to track just in case of situations like this. He wasn't a good tracker, not like Riven and Daryl, but he wasn't bad either. The moments Riven teased him about how slow he was at tracking were a few of his favorite moments, Riven's smile was worth it.

Following the tracks of Melanie and Riven, Reagan furrowed his eyes in deep concern as their footprints ended as multiple others were on top of theirs, it made it difficult for Reagan to tell which footsteps belong to Melanie and Riven.

The footprints covering Riven's and Melanie's look like walkers. Deep worry settled in his chest, Riven and Melanie know how to take care of themselves, especially with walkers, but still, worst case scenarios filled his mind.

Leavings rustling and twigs snapped caught his attention. He pulled out his gun, clicking the safety off. The sound came closer, he listened closely, and the sound of heavy breathing was heard, like a dog breathing heavy.

Moving forward towards the sound, Reagan kept his finger near the trigger. His steps were cautious and quiet.

The sound of water flowing was heard after a moment before the sound of splashing.

Walking out from in between the trees, Reagan came to a river, seeing a familiar dog drinking water from the river. Quickly putting his gun away, he approached the dog, "O?"

Oreo snapped her head towards him before running towards him. Reagan kneeled on his left knee, Oreo crashed into him. She was full of mud and dried blood.

He looked over her for any sort of injuries, but she wasn't hurt. The blood wasn't hers. "It's okay, I got you, girl. Where's Ri? Huh? Where's Lanie?"

Oreo whimpered, letting out a small bark before she moved away from him. He stood up and followed Oreo, hoping she was leading him towards Riven and Melanie.

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1257 words

Short chapter

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