Ruins

5

After cleaning the sweat from my glistening face, and chest I moved out of my cell to search for Merle.

"Have you seen Merle?" I asked as I passed Maggie. She rolled her eyes but pointed to the next cellblock. Great, what'd he do now?

I walked into the cells to see Merle in one of the first cells, tearing up a mattress.

"What are you doing?" I raised my voice.

"Sunshine." He greeted, giving me a big smile "Just looking around."

"For?" I persisted, kicking around some of the stuffing that littered the dirty cell. "What if someone needs this stuff?" I questioned.

"I've found a lot of good things in mattresses."

I rolled my eyes at his excuse and spun to leave. "Well the meeting went..." I paused realizing I honestly had no idea how it went. "Martinez was there."

This caught his attention, and he stopped for a moment.

"What'd he do?" He puffed his chest out, protectively.

"Nothing. Talked shit." I shrugged. "I almost made him eat my knife if Daryl hadn't stopped me."

"Did he?" Merle smirked.

"What's your deal with me and your brother?" I scoffed, turning to actually leave this time.

Back in our cell block I found Daryl on the perch.

"Hey, did Rick talk to you?" I asked, watching him pick at one of his arrows. "Say anything about what he and the governor talked about?" I leaned against the rail.

"Nah." He shook his head.

I squinted my eyes, trying to think of all the things that poisonous man could have threatened.

"Hey." Daryl and I both moved to see Rick and the others gathering at the bottoms of the stairs.

"I guess we'll see." Daryl muttered and nodded to let me take the stairs first. I moved beside Merle against the wall.

"So I met this Governor." Rick spoke.

"Just you two?" Merle questioned.

"Yeah."

Merle stepped away from me, leaving me and Daryl to watch him mutter something to an annoyed Glenn.

"He wants the prison." I snapped my gaze to Rick. A million things ran through my head. We're definitely going to war now. "He wants us dead." I couldn't die for these people.

Rick stalked out of the room. I shook my head and shoulder checked Merle as I passed him to our cell.

"We should get them first." Merle said.

"Merle." I called after ripping my bag from my bed.

"What are you doing-"

"He wants us gone." I shrugged. "So let's go. Let's just go far away."

"Sunshine I told you-"

"These people are willing to die for each other." I whispered at him. "And I-I'm just not."

"For me?" He asked lightly. "That's who you'd be doing it for. For me."

"Please don't ask me-"

"I am. I am asking. If we're gonna do this we need you." He shook his head. "I know you want 'im dead just as bad as I do."

I looked out of the cell and caught Daryl's eye, watching us.

"I know you want him and his men dead." Daryl butt in. "We can make that happen." He bobbed his shoulders, sending me a nod.

"Fine." I growled. I continued to pack my things, and swung my bag over my shoulder. I guess I'd do anything for Merle, even if it ruined me.

"Where are ya going?" Merle questioned.

"To find my own cell." I glared at Merle, getting a huff from him. I sent Daryl a glare too and rushed up the stairs. I knew the first cell was open because, it honestly kind of smelled like Judith's diapers, but I could handle a dirty diaper.

I sat my stuff down and plopped onto the mattress. I didn't know what I'd do once I left anyway. Starve to death? Get bit? Run into someone just as bad as the Governor?

"Hey." I looked up to see Maggie standing at the doorway.

"Hi." I sent her a small smile.

"I can't ask you to fight for me, or any of us." She walked in. "I've come to like you... a lot. And as sorry as Merle Dixon is..." She huffed. "We're a family, and like it or not, you're part of it now too."

I let out a small laugh and let her sit next to me.

"I think... I think since I had such a shit family growing up I veer away from anything that seems..."

"Like a family?" Maggie offered.

"Like it could hurt me." I clarified. "Like it could backfire."

"We ain't gonna do nothin' but protect you. I promise." She wrapped her arms around me. I smiled, but my eyes welled up anyway.

"I'm not going." I sniffled. "I don't know what I'd do or where I'd go anyway."

"You've got a place right here." She patted my shoulder then stood up.

"For the record." I stopped her from leaving. "I really like you too."

She smiled and walked out, joining the others.

I found a rag to wipe my new mattress down and shook out the sheet. I used the extra sheet from the top bunk and tied it to my cell door for privacy.

I laid back on my new bed staring at the bunk above me. I found myself laughing lightly. Here I was, again, staring at a bunk in a jail cell.

"Y'alright?"

I flinched at the gravelly voice and eventually smiled at Daryl.

"I just remembered my two day stay in County." I sat up, getting a cocked eyebrow from him.

"For what?" He squinted his eyes, not quite believing me yet.

"Public intoxication." I looked down at my thighs, rubbing my hands over my jeans.

"Didn't take you for a drinker." He took a step into my cell, leaning against the cement.

"I wasn't... I just had a shit day." I shrugged, looking up at him, wondering what sort of trials and tribulations he went through before all of this. "What'd you do before this." I asked tilting my head.

"Same as now, I guess." He sighed. "Maggie said you had some medical experience... you a nurse or something?"

"Or something." I chuckled, seeing him wait for an answer. "I was a bartender."

"Where at?" A small smirk splayed over his chapped lips.

"I was in South Carolina." I smiled. "Trust me I'd remember you and Merle if we ever crossed paths."

"Yeah, guess I'd remember you too." He gnawed at his bottom lip, letting his eyes fall over me.

I watched him for a moment and tried to picture him walking in my bar. It actually wasn't hard to imagine, guys like him came around all the time.

"I would've ate you up." I shook my head.

"Yeah right." He let out a short laugh and walked out.

The next day, I helped reinforce some of the fence in the back of the prison. I drug the back of my hand over my sweaty forehead after re-entering the patched up prison.

I moved to my cell and realized no one was here but Beth, Carl, and Carol.

"Hey." I approached Carol, where she was organizing some of the rations. "Where is everyone?"

"Um, I think the guys are out in the courtyard." Carol nodded, reaching out to offer me a half full bottle of water.

"Thanks." I accepted it, taking it with me.