A Brother's Influence (A Daryl Dixon Story)

Up in Flames

It took awhile before Daryl could get up and walk. But when he was able to, he packed a bag of clothes, went into his mother's room and found a picture of her, threw that into his bag, slung it over his shoulder and walked out of the house without looking back. He didn't know exactly where to go but he knew he had to get out of the house before he killed his brother.

Daryl jumped into his truck and drove away. He drove for several hours until he grew tired and sleepy. Thank goodness tonight was Thursday and he didn't work tomorrow. Every other week his did 4/12 hour shifts at work and got three day weekends. When he couldn't hold his eyes open any longer, Daryl drove down an old easement road next to their property and got out and walked into the woods and found his shack. He made a small fire in the shack and set branches in front of the door and window. When he got the fire going pretty good, he laid down and went right to sleep. Sleep came fast but it was not pleasant or restful. In his dream, Daryl's dad came to the house from where ever he lived and brought his strap. He started beating Daryl and screaming 'you are nothing...do you hear me, you are nothing.'

Daryl was startled awake just before pre-dawn, He added another log to the fire; more for the comfort than the warmth and he just laid there thinking about his life. What was wrong with Merle? Couldn't he see that he was throwing his life away and dragging Daryl down with him? He knew he had to cut him out of his life but Merle was all he had. But he cared deeply for Chloe and did not want to lose her. He was going to have to leave the house he realized because Merle was always going to do this. The problem with that was his job wasn't steady and finding another place to live and affording it was going to be hard.

Daryl was going to have to start with his job and try to find some stability and longevity. He was going to have to talk to Stan on Monday; that's when Daryl went back to work. So for today, he'd kick back here at the shack and just relax. He had his fishing tackle in the truck so he went for a walk to go get it and then he'd changed into some old jeans that he had thrown into his bag. He walked to the creek and sat on the side of the bank and threw in his line after he had dug up some worms. This would be the life if he didn't need money to live on. He could just sit here and watch the ripple of the water, the way the current made designs and lapping sounds. The small animals coming in for a drink every now and then not giving Daryl no mind.

After catching a couple of fish, Daryl cleaned them and put them on the fire he had built outside the shack. Nothing like fresh fish on the spit. Merle had shown him what he could use to help season it. The fish tasted good and Daryl washed it down with a warm coke he had in his truck. After eating, he decided to take a nap, nothing to go do anyway he thought. He wished he could move here to the shack but that wasn't feasible. One room and no bathroom or kitchen. No, definitely not long term living conditions. Damn it Merle, why can't you just act right. Fuck it he thought and went to sleep.

Waking up from his nap, Daryl smelled smoke and wondered if he hadn't put the fire outside out all the way and it spread. He climbed out of the shack and thought it was definitely a good size fire because the smoke was seen clearly from where Daryl stood, a little too clearly he thought for it to be anywhere except...the house!! The smoke was coming from his home he realized. Before he left his shack, he made sure both fires were completely out because he didn't't need them spreading throughout the woods.

He ran to his truck and jumped in and sped around the bend to his house that sure enough had completely gone up in flames. The fire trucks were already there along with Amber and Chloe who were standing there bawling looking into the smoking house for some sort of sign. When they heard Daryl's truck pull up, they turned around and Chloe bolted for Daryl throwing herself into his arms. She had been bawling and her face had mix the smoke with her tears and it was a mess.