Blood and Gore (TWD season one)

Chapter 24

Daryl was the first one to snap out of it and looked over at Jim who sat in a chair by the RV. His grip tightened around this pickaxe as he turn towards the rest of the group around him.
"You go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do. Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!" Daryl hollered advancing towards Jim who sat up straighter seeing the redneck his the pickaxe raised. Rick was the first one to react quickly pulling out his revolver before making his way to Daryl and pointing it at his head. The cocking of a gun causes Daryl to stop mid swing and turn around to come face to face with the revolver. Seeing this Mill loads her crossbow before slowly walking up to Rick with it raised. She stops at the rednecks side eyes narrowing at Rick who falters seeing Mill like this. Her actions surprised most of the group including Daryl who glances at her.
"Hey hey hey!" Shane yelled moving closer to the three in front of him.
"We don't kill the living." Rick stated towards Daryl causing Mill to step forwards slightly.
"That's funny coming from someone who pulled his gun on two people today." Mill spoke narrowing her eyes at Rick even more as Shane approaches them.
"We may disagree on some things, not on this one. You put it down. Go on." His attention was on Daryl who with a grunt slams the pickaxe into the ground and walks off leaving Shane to pick it up. Rick was the next one to lower his weapon but Mill didn't budge.
"Mill, lower the crossbow." Shane demands but she doesn't budge. So placing a steady hand on her crossbow Shane lowers it himself. He then places a gentle hand on Mill's shoulder only for her to jerk it away and walk off. Seeing Mary sitting by a log playing in the dirt Mill makes her way over towards her causing the little girl to look up and smile.
"Mommy!" She yelled running over to hug Mill's legs causing all the anger and stress to disappear. Seeing something move out of the corner of her eye Mill looks up to see Daryl sitting on the log Mary was by. Mill quickly places her crossbow on her back before picking up Mary and placing her on her hip minding the stitches.

"I just came here to get Mary, then I'll get out of your hair." She states before turning to leave only to hear a mumble from behind her. Mill stops and turn towards the man now biting his thumb nail with a raised brow.
"What was that?" She asked causing Daryl to look up at her.
"Ya don't have to go." He spoke more clearly before turning his attention to an arrow he was cleaning. Silently Mill places Mary down before taking a spot on the far end of the log, which was only two feet away from Daryl. It was silent between the two adults the only noise that came where from Mary playing around. Letting out a sigh Mill turns towards Daryl who still cleaned his arrows.
"I'm sorry about well everything I did to your family." She spoke causing Daryl to halt for a moment.
"I tried to get Merle out of jail quicker but they nailed him with every piece of evidence they had. I tried everything to get his sentence reduced and on the final day of the trial I managed to get ahold of one of his buddies. Turns out it wasn't all your brothers stuff they found in his truck and they agreed to lower his time to around two years." Daryl lets the new information set in, his brother had never told him about what she had done to reduce his time. He only talked about how she was the reason he went to jail.
"Ya would help a redneck like my brotha just like that." Daryl questioned sparing a glance at Mill who nods her head.
"Everyone deserves a chance to live. Some just need help along the way." She states smiling down at Mary who smiles back at her.
"I need to get back to work." Mill adds after a few moments of silence wincing slightly as she stands up. The wound on her stomach has not healed all the way yet and her jerking around isn't helping her much. Mary follows after her mother rubbing her dirt covered hands on his light blue dress causing Mill to smile and crouch down beside her.
"How about you go wash up, sweetheart." She suggests causing Mary to nod her head and take off towards Lori who was by the RV to asked for help. Mill rises again placing a hand on her stomach as a throbbing pain shoots through it before turning to Daryl.
"I know a lot of people don't know your brother like you do Daryl, me being one of them, but I can already tell that he's a tough son of a bitch and is out there somewhere alive." She then walked away leaving Daryl to watch her retreating form, letting her words yet again sink in. Walking into the RV Mill takes a glance at Daryl not knowing how those words would change their relationship for the better.

Time skip to around noon.

Mill places a walker on the burn pile with the help of T. Standing up straight she clutches her stomach and winces. Seeing her like this T looks up at her with worried eyes.
"You should take a break." He suggests causing Mill to wave him off.
"I'm fined just need to catch my breath." Mill then walks off towards another body T following close behind her. She crouches down to grab it by the legs before she winces and stands back up.
"Okay. You need to go sit down." T states before turning towards Morales. "Morales! Switch places with Mill for a couple minutes." He called causing Morales to jog over to them.
"Okay, you win, T." Mill spoke as she walks away her eyes looking around the camp until she see's Mary watching Daryl. This didn't surprise her one bit but the fact she was watch Daryl take care of the dead by putting the pickaxe through their heads was. Mill walks over to them seeing the other kids off playing tag at the far end of camp.
"Mommy!" Mary exclaims as she see's Carol repeatedly swing the pickaxe at her late husbands head. Mill picked her up and stands besides Daryl who watches Carol swing. Carl and Sophia quickly run towards Mill big smiles of their faces.
"Aunt Mill?" Carl asked as they come to a stop. Mill hums in response looking down at them.
"Can you play tag with us?" Sophia's quiet voice spoke causing Mill to give the, a sad smile.
"Not right now, the adults need to take care of things, but Mary might want to." She spoke setting Mary down causing the two to smile.
"Come on Mary." Carl offered her his hand to which she took it looking back at her mother who waved her along. The simple action caused Mary to smile and take off running towards the other kids Carl and Sophia right behind her.

"She didn't cause too much trouble did she." She asked turning to Daryl who shook his head no.
"Only time she was any trouble was when she saw Carol with the pickaxe." Mill nods looking around the camp her eyes lingering on Andrea and her turning sister.
"I wish she would just end it already if it were me I would of put them out of their misery right after they got bit." Daryl grunts in agreement to her words and was about to say something when he say Mary run over along with Carl and Sophia.
"Mommy, when can I learn to shoot." Mary's question caused Mill to sigh and Daryl to stare down at her with slight surprise. Mill crouched down and placed a hand on her little girls shoulder.
"When you're able to pick up my crossbow that's when I'll teach you to shoot. Just stay strong Mary you'll get there soon." Mill then ruffles Mary's blonde locks making Mary swat her hands away with a smile on her face before she takes off to go play again.
It was only a minute later when Mary comes running up with tears in her eyes causing Mill to frown.
"Mommy Amy is moving again." She cried as Mill picked her up. Mary then buries her head into her mother's neck as tears pooled out of her eyes.
"I'm here now, Amy. I'm here." Andrea cried holding Amy closer to her. " I love you." A gun shot rings out soon after causing Mary to jump and tighten her grip on her mother's shirt.