Worth It

Chapter 4: Vatos

I walk up to him, swallowing hard. I grab his arm. "Daryl. It's ok. We'll find him." I tell him, although it was hard to believe myself. It didn't matter though, cause he didn't listen.

He pulls from my grasp and  raises his bow at T-Dog. He was hurting, and scared. His only family was gone. I took a cautious step back, eyes wide. Rick almost immediately pulls his gun out and cocks it, pointing it at Daryl's head

"I won't hesitate." He tells him. "I don't care if every walker in the city hears it."

I can see the conflict brewing in Daryl's head. But he puts his bow down. He looks over at me. "You got a do-rag or somethn?" He asks me quietly. I nod and take one from my pocket, handing it to him. 

"I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs. Ain't that a bitch." He mumbles, crouching in front of the hand. He delicately picks it up and folds it inside the rag. His primal hunting instincts are taking over, and his emotions are subsiding. Thankfully.

He turns and puts the hand in Glenn's backpack. I watch Glenn's disgusted face with amusement. Hopefully the hand stays put. Maybe I could play some pranks with this thing. "He must have used a tourniquet... maybe his belt. Be much more blood if he didn't." he points at the small amount of blood on the ground. "Doesn't stop the bleeding completely.." I add, crouching down beside him. "There's always gonna be some.. drainage." I finish, unsure if I chose the right words.

Daryl stands, offering me his hand for me to do the same. He leads us along the trail of blood as T-Dog picks up the remaining tools on the roof and follows behind us. "Merle? You in here?" Daryl calls out in the stairwell. Every little sound we make sets me off. I don't like encountering walkers in the slightest.

When we finally made it into the building, I noticed the blood trail had continued. I swallow hard again. He's lost a good amount of blood. The effects of his blood loss could leave him dizzy and if he encounter any....

"Had enough in him to take out these two sumbitches. One handed." He gestures towards the two dead walkers on the ground. "Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother. Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails."

"Any man can pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is." Rick tells him. "Merle!" Daryl shouts. "We're not alone here. Remember?" Rick scolds him.

"Screw that. He could be bleeding out. You said so yourself." He argues. Daryl leads us towards a kitchen. "The stove is lit." I tell them. I pick up the belt lying next to the stove. "His belt." Glenn looks at something else on the stove. "What's that burned stuff?"

"Skin." Rick tells him. "He cauterized the stump." I gag, imagining how painful that must've been. "Told you he was tough." Daryl says, but even he looks uneasy. "Nobody can kill Merle but Merle."

"Don't take that on faith. He's lost a lot of blood." Rick says, but I think he was still thinking of the skin on the stove. "Yeah? Didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap." Daryl says, fixing his composer to one of assurance in Merle's safety. The window towards the back of the kitchen was shattered. "He left the building? Why the hell would he do that?" Glenn asks him. "Why wouldn't he? He's out there alone as far as he knows, doing what he's got to do. Surviving." He inspects the window and the towel outside of it.

"You call that surviving? Just wandering out in the streets, maybe passing out? What are his odds out there?" T-Dog says. "No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks. You couldn't kill him. Ain't so worried about some dumb dead bastard." He tells him. I didn't want to leave Merle, but I kept my mouth shut.

"What about 1,000 dead dumb bastards? Different story?"

"Why don't you take a tally?" Daryl is angry now. And it's only going to get worse if he doesn't cool it. "Do what you want. I'm gonna go get him."