Between Arrows and Hearts - Daryl Dixon

With great power comes great responsibility

By the time they got to the rooftop, Cass was already out of breath. She definitely needed to start doing more cardio if she wanted to survive.

"Dixon, are you crazy?" Morales scream.

Merle just laughed, as if risking everyone's lives was just a joke. "Hey! You oughta be more polite to a man with a gun!" He said with a mocking smirk. "Only common sense."

"Man, you're wasting bullets we don't even have!" T-Dog protested, approaching Merle. "And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass!" He kept pushing. 

Cass had a bad feeling, she knew that Merle didn't have the best teamwork disposition, and having T-Dog yelling at him probably wouldn't help much.

"Hey! Bad enough I've got this taco-bender on my ass all day" Merle said pointing at Morales. "Now I'm gonna take orders from you?" Cass rolled her eyes at the insult.

"I don't think so, bro." Merle continued with his speech, approaching T-Dog. "That'll be the day"

The tension grew the moment the words left Merle's mouth, everyone understood what he was trying to say.

"That'll be the day" T-Dog repeated what Dixon had just said. "You got something you want to tell me?"

"Hey, T-Dog man, just leave it." Cass admired Morales' patience. Even when the insults had been aimed at him too, he was able to control his anger for the good of the group. While Morales continued talking to them, asking them to let things go, Dixon kept looking and smirking at T-Dog, who looked like he couldn't put up with Merle's bullshit for much longer.

Rick looked between her and Glenn, who waved him off, trying to tell him to stay out of it.

Things escalated quickly, after Merle swore at T-Dog, he tried to hit him, only to be dodged by Dixon, who then hit him with his shotgun. Rick tried to get in, receiving a blow to the nose that knocked him to the ground. If she wasn't totally worried about what was about to happen, Cass would have laughed; Rick's contribution had ended as quickly as it began.

The entire group approached Merle, trying to stop him, although Dixon didn't seem anywhere near finished. After kicking T-Dog he began to hit him on the ground. Cass's mind began to race, if she didn't do something, soon, T-Dog could have some real damage.

When Cass saw that Merle had pulled out a gun and was now pointing it at T-Dog, she had an idea, she walked up to where Morales left the bat he had been using, and grabbed it. Coming up behind him, while Dixon was talking some shit about voting she decided to hit him, hopefully hard enough to knock him out, but not hurt him that much. 

She exchanged glances with Rick, who seemed to have a similar plan. Cass was about to drop the bat, and let the sheriff do the work, but when Merle turned around, facing her, she closed her eyes and hit him as hard as she could.

Dixon hit the ground, but Rick quickly stopped him and cuffed him to the pipes.

"Who the hell are you, man?" Merle growled.

"Officer friendly. Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no niggers anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart."

"Screw you, man." Merle spat.

"I can see you make a habit of missing the point"

"Yeah? Well screw you twice"

Rick raised his gun, aiming it at Merle's head. "Hey! You oughta be more polite to a man with a gun!" He said, repeating Dixon's words. "Only common sense". Cass let out a small giggle, as the group watches in stunned silence.