*italics = sign language*

Seeing the city completely empty gave Miles chills. The once lively city of Atlanta now a ghost town. It was a weird thing to witness for the group. No one could have predicted the apocalypse.

"Merle first or the guns?" Rick asked the group.

"Merle! We ain't even havin' this conversation," Daryl told Rick.

"We are. You know the geography. It's your call," Rick looked at Glenn.

"Merle's closest. The guns would mean doubling back. Merle first," Glenn nodded at Daryl.

The group started towards the building where Merle was left. They followed Glenn through every street and alley, away from the walkers.

Miles and Max stayed far behind with T-dog. Miles thought it would be best since the front is already covered by a skill hunter and cop. Max would be able to sense anything coming from behind.

During the walk to the building where the group left Merle, Miles did a lot of thinking. Seeing the city empty made Miles wonder where her family went. She's originally from Houston but moved to Atlanta a year before the apocalypse hit. Miles and her family never got along but she still prayed for their safety and survival. 

The group arrived to the department store, which happened to be the building where they left Merle. Glenn and Rick slowly entered the department, trying to be as quiet as possible in case there were walkers. Daryl did not care. He stormed into the department store and immediately found a walker.

"Damn. You are one ugly skank." He said as he shot an arrow through the head of the walker. Daryl pulled the arrow out of the walker's head and headed toward the stairs.

Miles and Max were right behind him, ready to face whatever was on the roof.  

Miles handed the bolt cutters to Daryl and prepared to shoot anything that was waiting behind the door. Daryl cut through the padlock and pushed the door open. 

"Merle! Merle!" Daryl ran to where the saw was on the floor and saw something no one wanted to see. 

"No!" Daryl cried out. Merle's hand was lying on the ground, but there was no Merle in sight.

T-Dog, Glenn, Rick, and Miles all stared at Merle's severed hand. Miles couldn't believe what she was seeing. Miles thought about what she would do in Merle's place, and she knew she wouldn't have saw her own hand off.

Seeing Merle's hand, angered Daryl. He turned around quickly and pointed his crossbow at T-Dog, making Rick pull out his gun to aim at Daryl. 

"I won't hesitate. I don't care if every walker in the city hears it," Rick said to Daryl.

"Daryl, put it down," Miles signed, trying to diffuse the situation.

Daryl kept his eyes on T-Dog but lowered his crossbow. "You got a do-rag or something?"

T-Dog grabs a do-rag from his pocket and hands it to Daryl. Daryl uses it to pick up Merle's hand. 

"I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs. Ain't that a bitch," Daryl shook his head. Miles watched him pick up the decaying hand and put it in Glenn's backpack. She wanted to throw up.

Daryl continued to talk to the guys while Miles saw a trail of blood. Miles tapped on Max's head and pointed at the trail, showing Max and hoping that he follows it. 

Max seemed to understand what his owner was telling him and sniffed the trail. The trail led to an empty hallway where the offices were. Miles saw a few dead walkers and assumed that was Merle's doing.  The light fixtures were hanging down from the ceiling and there was blood splattered on the floor and on the walls. Miles continued to follow Max until he stopped. Max got into a defensive stance, informing Miles that something or someone was close. Miles could smell the rotting flesh coming from the walkers but she couldn't tell if it was from the ones killed or if there was one walking near. 

Miles grabbed her knife and slowly walked to where Max was looking. She told Max to stay while she went to check one of the office. Right when Miles turned the corner, the walker came out and pushed her down. Miles fought to keep the walker away from her while Max tried to pull the walker off of Miles. Miles would have stabbed it immediately but when the walker knocked her down, her knife was dropped. Max started the bark, hoping to grab the attention of the others. Miles started to move around her right arm to try and find something near her for her to use to kill this creature. All that was near Miles was a boot. Miles didn't care how useless the thing was, she used all her strength and wacked the walker in the head, causing the walker to fall next to her. That was Miles's window to grab the knife and stabbed it in the head. 

Miles was out of breath and had walker blood all over her. She fell back down onto the floor and laid on her back, trying to calm her heart rate down. Miles hadn't had an encounter with a walker in a while. The group rarely let her out on runs so she was out of shape. 

"I'm okay," Miles told Max. Max whined and walked over to his owner and laid his head on Miles's stomach. 

"I did it," She thought.

+

While Miles was following Max, Rick and Glenn continue to talk. Daryl noticed that Miles wasn't around them and that made him nervous. He brought her here with him, Daryl felt responsible for her. Just when he thought that, he heard Max barking. Daryl and the others took off running in the direction the barks were coming from.

"Hey! There's blood!" Daryl shouted to the group of guys.

"Max? You in here? Where's Miles?!" Daryl calls out. He stopped in his tracks and saw a bunch of dead walkers next to Miles and Max, who were both laying on the floor.

"You bit? You killed all 'em?" He asked Miles, seeing her covered in blood.

"Just one and I'm fine. No bites," she smiled at him, slowly getting up from the floor. "Come, look what I found," Miles waved her hand to get them to follow. 

There laid two dead walkers and in the room next to them there was a belt sitting in the kitchen. 

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

"Any man can pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is," Rick responded to Daryl.

Miles nodded. Merle might be a "tough asshole" but he probably was drained more after taking down those walkers.

"What's that burned thing?" Miles asked. 

Daryl couldn't understand what she was signing. "Again," he signed. That's the one sign that he remembered. Daryl used it whenever Miles signed too fast, or signed something unfamiliar to him.

"What's that?" Miles signed and this time pointed to the object to help Daryl get a better understanding on what she was trying to tell him.

Before Daryl could answer her, Rick looked at Miles and answered her question. "Skin. Merle cauterized the stump." Rick didn't know sign language but by the look on her face and her pointing to the skin, he put two and two together.

Miles read Rick's lips and nodded, understanding what Rick just said. 

"He's out there alone as far as he knows, doing what he's got to do. Surviving," Daryl points to the smashed window.

"You call that surviving? Just wandering out in the streets, maybe passing out? What are his odds out there?" T-Dog asked to Daryl.

"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."

"What about 1,000 dead dumb bastards? Different story?" Rick asked the question this time.

"Why don't you take a tally? Do what you want. Miles and I will go get him," Daryl waved at Miles to follow him. She nodded and whistled to Max to do the same.

"Daryl, wait." Rick stopped them, putting a hand on Daryl's shoulder, before they could walk out the door.

"Get your hands off me! You can't stop me," Daryl yelled. Miles grabbed Daryl's arm and tried to calm him down. She shook her head, thinking about how dramatic Daryl was being when he was touched by Rick.

"I don't blame you. He's family, I get that. I went through hell to find mine. I know exactly how you feel. He can't get far with that injury. We could help you check a few blocks around but only if we keep a level head," Rick said calmly to Daryl, not wanting him to lose his shit. 

Miles didn't get the full conversation between Rick and Daryl but she knew Daryl agreed when he nodded his head and waited for Rick's plan.

+

I apologize for the LONG wait! I lost interest in writing this story because I got writer's block. I fought through it but the chapter might not be the best. I apologize about the chapter not being as good as the previous chapters but I'm trying to get back my inspiration for the book. I'm back and know what I want to write about now. I'm already writing the fourth chapter so that should be out in a couple of days! Hopefully much better than this chapter!

Please let me know if there are mistakes in this chapter. I've re-read everything and tried to edit as best as I could but sometimes I go blind or read to fast and skip over an error. Thank you!