Learning to trust (Dixon brothers/The Walking Dead)

Part 2 Meeting the Dixon brothers

I continued looking through the tiny window to see how the man's raspy holler at his younger brother had caught the walkers' attention. It was pretty dark already so I couldn't see them very well, but it seemed that they had begun clearing out the walkers as they made their way to the small street in between the houses.

As they got closer it got easier for me to observe their movements. The man who I figured out to be the one whose voice I had heard was carrying a rifle on his back and he had a huge blade in his hand. And holy fuck was he well built up. Shit, he could probably use the bones in my legs as toothpicks.. I had always been quite petite and since I have been for a few months without a proper meal, there wasn't much to me. And if that wasn't enough, I wasn't any taller than just 165 cm. I'd probably look like a child next to that man.

I shook my head and bit my lip as I continued to observe the younger man, who was carrying a crossbow in his arms. He was a bit more slender than the other man, but he also seemed to have good muscles on him. As I saw him say something to his brother while pointing towards the yard where the treehouse was, I felt anxiety creeping back into my mind.

"No no no.." I muttered to myself as they began to walk towards the yard, taking out two walkers on their way. They stopped as they reached the fence and I moved away from the window to lay myself onto the trapdoor. I bit my lip and felt that I was shaking like a leaf in summer breeze but there was nothing I could do to stop it.

"Someone's in the treehouse." I felt like I was falling down into a black hole as I heard the younger mans voice. He didn't have as strong of an accent as his brother and he sounded calm. Despite his calm voice, I still felt tears building up behind my eyes.

"Hmph. Smart lil' fucker, the houses seem to be overrun anyways. C'mon baby brother, let's get our asses over there, should be enough room fer us." The other man grunted.

I heard loud growls as the walkers on the yard moved around. I took a deep breath and tried to pull myself together. I got up on my knees and peeked through a small crack on the wall. I had to bite my lip again as I saw a herd of walkers gathering from the houses to the street and against the fence. The two men also noticed this and got over the fence, determined to get to the treehouse. My eyes widened and I was still shaking like hell. There was no way for me to escape and I couldn't fight them even if I had muscles on me. No no no.. I don't trust you, I can't trust you. I wanted to yell at the men when they reached the bottom of the tree, but that would just get the herd faster on the yard.

"Hey, how many of ya up there?" I heard the younger man whisper yelling at me.

I sniffled lightly to block the tears from falling down on my cheeks and tried to gather enough confidence to talk to them. "Just me. But I'm armed and I don't trust you." I wanted to punch myself as my voice cracked at the end of the sentence. I wasn't lying, I did have a gun. And they didn't have to know I didn't have any bullets on me. Plus I also have my knife, not that it would help me against two men who were both a lot bigger than me.

I heard a chuckle escape from the other man. "We're not expecting for ya ta trust us immediately, darlin'. Would prolly be worried if ya did."

I moved back to the window to have a better look at the yard only to see that the walker herd had gathered against the fence which was now creaking under their weight. I took my gun from the back of my pants and held it with a firm grip, the fence was looking like it could break any moment now.

"Fine, you can come here." I pointed my gun towards the trapdoor as the men began to climb their way up. I was a bit glad that I had gotten my voice under control, but I was still shaking like hell.

The dim moonlight that came through the small window landed right on my face as I moved a bit further back to lean against the wall, still pointing my gun at the trapdoor. It opened with a slight creak and the younger man pulled himself up to the treehouse and sat across me. His older brother followed him and turned his head towards my gun.

"Whoa, eeasy there dollfa-.. Holy shit." He broke his sentence in half as his eyes got to my face. He closed the trapdoor and sat next to his brother. "Whose cereal did ya piss in, lil girl?"

"Just to make it clear, I don't trust you. Not one bit." I said firmly even though I've never felt this small my whole life. "So I want both of you to place your weapons there." I finished and nodded my head towards the trapdoor.

The younger man just nodded in silence and placed his crossbow and a pistol in front of me. The other man just grunted as he kept observing me.

"I see.. Yer a smart lil' girl. Lots of bad people roaming around nowadays.." He stopped for a while with a cocky smirk on his thin lips and placed his weapons next to his brothers pieces, keeping his intense blue eyes locked to mine. His raspy voice gave me chills, but for some reason he didn't frighten me. "Bad people who would love ta have their way with a lil girl like you. But for yer luck, we're not like that. Besides, it looks like someone's already given ya some hard time already."

I lowered my gun and placed it on my side, observing the two men in front of me, my eyes widening a little when I realized that the older man didn't have the huge blade in his hand, he had it attached to where his arm should be. I had no chance to fight against them if it went down to that, but a small voice told me that I wouldn't have to worry about that. Even though I didn't completely trust it. 

"Name's Daryl Dixon." The younger man finally said. His voice was a bit softer compared to his brothers, and I don't know how, but he just sounded really calm. "And this is my older brother Merle. He can be an asshole, but he's not one to hurt people without a reason."

A vague smile escaped on my lips for maybe a second before returning back to normal and I was still biting my lip which now got the taste of blood on the tip of my tongue.  At least I'm not shaking anymore... I thought with a hint of relief lingering in my head. I moved my hands to my bag and tried to look for the small lantern I had taken with me. Once I got some light to the small treehouse I felt a rock forming in my throat as I got to take a better look at the Dixon brothers. They both looked rugged and a bit harsh, Merle in a bit more tough way whereas Daryl had a more mysterious look on him. They both had intense blue eyes that could pierce right through your soul.

"But really.." Merle opened his mouth again to talk and I noticed that he had dropped his cocky smirk from his lips. "Who hurt ya, lil girl?"

"Stop calling me that." I muttered and tried to avoid eye contact with Merle, focusing my gaze on the weapons.

I felt his eyes on me like fire and heard him chuckle. "Why won't ya tell us yer name then so we'll know what ta call ya."

"Miranda Daniels.. But uhm.. I prefer Mia." I was still muttering, but I hoped they heard me. Other thing I really hoped for was that they didn't see how I was ready to break into tears. Keep it together, I kept repeating in my head. Just keep it together and you'll be okay.

"Allright then, Mia. Then, tell me whose cereal did ya piss in? Got in a catfight with someone or what?" Merle said and straightened his legs so that they almost touched mine. A shiver ran down my spine and I tucked my legs against my body.

I took a deep breath and focused all my strength into my voice so that it wouldn't crack. "It was him.. Uhm, Jamie. He's my ex-boyfriend, I had been with him for two years before all this shit went down. He always had a bad temper but ever since the walkers began roaming around it just got a lot worse. I stuck around with him because he kept telling me how I couldn't make it on my own. And he kept me around so that every fucking time something didn't happen just the way he wanted, at least he had someone to vent his rage to. Last night I just.. I decided I've had enough after we got into an argument again and uhh.. this happened." I finished my explanation by referring to the bruise on my face.

Both of the men just sat there, listening to me. Daryl frowned slightly and Merle just looked puzzled and angry.

"Well one thing's for sure, you can come with us." Daryl said firmly, making it sound like they were not going to leave me alone.

And in my messy head was running mostly just one thought now; What the hell just happened?

Oh my, I had almost forgotten this piece completely ^^"
After all, it was nice to come back to it after all this time,
I even feel like the ideas are flowing much better now.
I'll hopefully get the next part out without a years break. :D
Hope you enjoy!