The life of Nora dixon

Walkers!

Merle came back to the jeep and told us that the RV's hose had broke again and that we were going to stop and scavenge for suplies. As I got out I stood next to Merle and leaned onto his thigh. He looked down at me and ruffled my hair with a slight smile. The winkles around his eyes showing more than they had in a while, but his eyes still showed his young side.

We moved from the car and Merle told me and Sophia to stay where he or one of the adults could see us. Then he moved to help Daryl look for parts for the RV and Carol went over to where Andrea and Lori were. Carl came and caught up with us a few seconds later, his shirt damp with sweat.

"Do you guys wanna look around?" He asked.

Both Sophia and I looked at each other before nodding. We manuvered through the cars, every now and than stopping to check if there was anything useful or cool in the one of them. Carl came across a truck with a dead man in it and he and Sophia started to try to get whatever it was Carl saw. Not interested I started to move forward because I didn't want to look at the dead man and smell his rotting corpse. It wasn't like I was scared or anything, I just didn't want to be around it. Plus Daryl would skin me if he knew I played around a dead man.

I zoned out for a little, in shock of what all was around me. I walked for a ways before I heard a loud whistle. I knew that high pitch, finger whistle and turned around. Daryl. He was coming towards me and that was when I had realized how far I had actually gone down the highway. I looked past Daryl and saw that Carl and Sophia were standing by Shane and he was telling them off for something. Daryl's boots camencloser and I quickly dropped my head, knowing I was in for it. I knew I shouldn't have gone that far, I just didn't realize what I had even done.

"Nora Ann Dixon!" He yelled when he was about five or six steps from me. He didn't yell loud enough to get a stray walkers attention but it was loud enough to get my attention. Actually it was the full name that really got my attention, he and Merle never used that unless I was in major trouble.

"What in the hell do you think you're doin' out here by yourself?!" He asked, his hands on hips and his brows drawn together.

I looked down at the pavement. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize I had gone so far."

"Sorry?" He said in a deep voice. "How do you think me an' Merle would feel if you went off and got lost or a walker got ya? Huh? How do you think we would function if something like that happened?"

I looked up at him and wished I hadn't, his eyes were murderous and tears stung my eyes.

"I'm sorry Daryl, I didn't mean to worry you I just didn't want to do what Sophia and Carl were doing so I started walking around more and just stopped thinking. I'm sorry."

He looked at me for a long moment. "Yea, I bet you are." With that he picked me up and put me on his hip effortlessly. He took long and quick strides to where the others were bunched at. My face flamed as everyone saw Daryl carrying me back. He didn't stop until we reached Merle and that was to only drop me infront of him saying, "Watch her. She's in trouble."

I stared at Daryl's retreating back and crossed my arms into my my chest. It wasn't fair that I was in trouble when I walked away from playing with a dead person with Carl and Sophia, something that I knew he wouldn't be happy about.

"Not uh," I heard Merle say and I snapped my head to the side to look at him. "You got in trouble yourself and you don't get to pout and be mad about it. That was all you sweetheart."

I glared at him but he just raised his eyebrows and my eyes dropped.

"Can I go with Carl and Sophia?" I asked as respectfully as I could muster at the moment.

"Nope," Merle said, popping the 'P'."But you can stick around with me and help."

That wasn't fair, I thought.

"But Carl and Sophia get to still go around the cars and I saw them get in trouble with Shane." I whined.

He just looked at me with a frown on his face. "Yea well they ain't my kid sister and so that don't matter does it? No it don't."

I knew there was really no use in argruing any more because I wouldn't win and it wasn't worth getting into more trouble. I was happy Merle and Daryl cared about me but sometimes I wish they weren't so over protective.

Me and Merle walked around some more cars for a while, opening the hoods and pulling out parts that might be useful for Dale's RV. I did like working on things with my older brothers, I just wished it wasn't becasue I had too. At one point Merle called over Lori and Carol and told them to call their kids in a little closer to the rest of the group because they were wondering pretty far back. They called them but didn't make the kids come in too much just enought to satisfy them and Merle. At that moment I wished that my brothers were like that.

Then things started to escalate. One moment we were standing over the hood of a car and the next moment Rick is over by us telling us that a heard was going to pass through and to get down. I watched him go on to tell the otheres but then Merle grabbed me in his arms and rolled us under a car. I scooted into him as much as I could until a thought came to me.

"Daryl." I whimpered.

"Shh, shh, shh." Merle soothed. "He knows how to take care of himself, he'll be okay. Shhhh."

I try to squirm out of his arms but they just tightened.

"Hey now." He said, his voice low and soft. "Nora stop you're gonna get us killed."

I instantly froze and let him pull me even closer to him, as both comfort and protection.

The deads' feet started passing the car and I had to keep from whimpering again. Their bodies dragged their feet and bumped into the car. It smelled of death and reminded me of the Lynyrd Skynyrd song 'The Smell'. I went over the whole song in my head to help relax me, it didn't really relax me but it helped me not think of all the walkers that were around us. Once I had gone over the song almost two times, I realized that there were no more feet dragging by and relaxed slightly. Me and Merle stayed under the car for a minute or two before we slowly got out from underneath it. Him first than me. Once we were out I looke around for Daryl but instead my head went to the direction a scream came from. Sophia's scream. She was ahead of us a ways and got out from under a car to soon it looked like and two straggling walkers spotted her.

My blood ran cold as I watched her ran across the highway and jump over the railing into the woods. Merle ran a second right before I did, both of us with the same destination. We ran and jumped over the railing. Carol was screaming and Rick was coming up right behind us. As he ran by me I heard him yell no to me but that didn't matter I was going to save my friend.

Their legs were so much faster than mine and soon I couldn't even see where they went. i stopped and took in my surroundings. The trees all looked the same and so I remembered which side of me the sun was on me so I wouldn't get to mixed up. My blood was pounding in my ears as I tried to determine where to go. Then I heard a low moan and another scream from my best friend.