𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒍𝒇 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 ➪ «𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑥𝑜𝑛»

ch. XXIII pt. II

oOo

Merle, why do you have to wander off like a damn child? Like a trigger-happy, loony child.

Everyone grumbled about him, cursing out his name, and hurried out the door that led to the stairs to the roof. Glenn waited for her there as last, waving an arm at her to hurry, his brow raised in apprehension. "Come on, Diana, let's go, no time to be admiring those things."

She ran to him without a final glance back, her hand on sheriff's back to push him ahead.

"Stay close to me, alright?" Glenn told her as they took the tail climbing the stairs two at a time.

Diana gave him a look. She intended to, but she didn't like being told what to do, so she responded with, "I'm not a child, Glenn," and ran ahead.

Both erupted through the door, out into the sunlight to see Merle shooting down at the street from up on the building's edge. He was laughing in spouts like he'd gone crazy.

Diana calmed her heavy breathing and blinked against the blinding light. She raised an arm to shield her eyes and bent slightly at the waist to catch her breath. Fuck, how she hated asthma.

"Hey! You oughta be more polite to a man with a gun," Merle shouted out in response to whatever Morales had said to him. A condescending grin was on his lips and he waved his rifle around, shortly pointing it at her before it continued on its rotation.

Diana could feel exasperation building up in her. Why was everyone so fond of pointing guns at people's faces lately. Was it the new trend? What had happened to talk first, shoot later?

"Merle, for real, you're acting like a fucking asshat. Put that thing down and get down from there!" Diana said, ever so concerned about the wellbeing of others. Actually, seeing him standing so close to the edge was making her skin crawl with anxiety.

Merle sneered down at her, his lips pulling up in contempt. He proceeded to jump down and parade himself in front of them, the maniac grin reappearing on his face.

Morales and T-Dog jumped over one of the wide pipes running along the length of the roof and stomped to him, infuriated. The latter said, "Man, you're wasting bullets we ain't even got, man! And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill!"

"Hey! Bad enough I've got this taco-bender on my ass all day. Now I'm gonna take orders from you?" Merle shook his head. "I don't think so, bro. That'll be the day."

"Merle, don't be a jackass. Stop this right now," Diana demanded, more than pissed off. One hand gripped the humming bow on her shoulder and the other hovered over the handle of the machete at her side.

He just turned to her and gave a gratingly arrogant smile. "Ya ain't gotta butt in. You might be nicer on the eye than these two, sweet cheeks, but ya ain't any better than them. You're some kind o' rotten hybrid, the result of shameless inter-breeding."

His words and the easiness with which he'd said them were enough to almost physically knock her back. She stood there, shocked and hurt, for the whole of two seconds. The subsequent fight that broke out between Merle and T-Dog jarred her to focus.

Glenn's comforting words fell on deaf ears. She ignored the sheriff getting knocked to the ground by one of Merle's mindless punches. She ignored the panicked cries as Merle knelt over T-Dog with a pistol to his face.

Diana grabbed the bow off her shoulder - its purring almost aggressive now - and approached Merle from behind.

The others stood around in silence, frightened for what he might do.