GEORGIE WOKE UP to the sound of a boy's screaming. "Carl?" He asked blearily. He quickly got up, his hair a mess, and headed outside where he was met by more of Carl's screaming. The screaming was now mixed with Betsy's.

He grabbed a machete from off of a folding table and ran towards the screaming. The screaming stopped and Georgie found Carl hugging his mom, Betsy sitting on the ground next to him, shaking.

Georgie walked over to Betsy and crouched next to her. "You okay?" He asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Betsy nodded. "Walker," she said. Georgie got up and walked over to where a walker lay dead, its head chopped off by Dale.

Suddenly a branch snapped somewhere in the bushes. Georgie rose his machete. The sound of a knife unsheathing came from next to him. Georgie looked down to find a no longer shaking Betsy standing there with a kitchen knife. Georgie looked back at the bushes, waiting for whatever was there to come out.

A second later, Daryl Dixon emerged from the forest. "Son of a bitch!" Daryl exclaimed. Georgie looked at Betsy again, but she was gone and already running towards Daryl. "That's my deer!" he said before Betsy hugged him.

Daryl looked down at Betsy, confused, before shaking her off. Daryl walked over to the dead dear and the decapitated walker.

"Look at it. All gnawed on by this filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!" Daryl said, kicking the walker at each insult.

"Calm down, son. That's not helping," Dale said.

"What do you know about it, old man?" Daryl said and walked up to Dale. "Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to 'On Golden Pond'?"

"...Uncle Daryl?" Betsy said, quietly.

"'Told ya not to call me that," Daryl said, looking at the deer again. "'Been tracking this deer for miles. Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? You think we can cut around the chewed up part right here?"

"I would not risk that," Shane said.

"That's a damn shame."

"Language, there's children here," Dale said, gesturing to Georgie and Betsy.

"I'm sixteen!" Georgie exclaimed.

"I got some squirrel. 'Bout a dozen or so. That'll have to do," Daryl said, ignoring Georgie and Dale.

Squirrel. Yuck. Georgie thought as Daryl walked by him. "C'mon," Georgie said to Betsy, following Daryl.

"Merle! Dallas!" Daryl shouted when they arrived back at camp. Dally emerged from the Dixon tent at the sound of his name. "Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel. Let's stew 'em up. Dallas, you can start skinin' 'em."

Betsy, leaving Georgie's side, walked up to Daryl. "Um, about my dad..." She started.

"What 'bout him?"

"He- he ain't here," she said, looking at Dally for confirmation to keep going. Dally simply shrugged.

"'He dead?"

"We're not sure," Shane said, softly pushing Betsy back towards Dally and away from Daryl.

"He either is or he ain't!"

"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it," Rick said, stepping up. Georgie headed over to his mom, sister, and dad.

"Who are you?" Daryl asked, turning to face Rick.

"Rick Grimes." Rick answered.

"Rick Grimes. You got somethin' to tell me?"

"Your brother was a danger to us all. So I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there."

"You sayin' you handcuffed my brother to a roof, and you left him there!" Daryl shouted at Rick.

"That's what he just said," Betsy said, quietly.

"Betsy, shut up," Dally said, pushing her behind him a little.

Before anyone could say anything else, Daryl threw the squirrels in his hand at Rick's head. Rick dodged and Shane shoved Daryl to the ground. Daryl unsheathed his knife and swung it at Rick.

Dally started forward, but Betsy quickly grabbed his hand, holding him back. "Don't," she said, staring up at Dally.

Shane quickly put Daryl in a chokehold, and Rick grabbed the knife. "You best let me go!" Daryl shouted.

"Nah, I think it's better if I don't," Shane said, keeping him in the chokehold.

"Chokehold's illegal!" Daryl said, sliding to the ground.

"Yeah, well you can file a complaint."

Dally began to walk forward again to help his dad, but Betsy gripped his hand tighter. "Let me go," Dally said, looking down at Betsy.

"No." Betsy replied firmly. "You're just gonna make things worse."

Dally stared at her for a moment before rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Jesus, kid. You got one hell of a grip."

"I know."

When Betsy and Dally looked back, Daryl was on the ground and Shane had released the chokehold.

"It wasn't Rick's fault," T-Dog said. "I had the key. I dropped it."

"You couldn't pick it up?"

"I dropped it down a drain."

Daryl, breathing heavily, stood up. "If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't," he said, angrily, walking towards Dally and Betsy.

"Well, maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof so the geeks couldn't get at him–with a padlock."

"It's gotta count for somethin'," Rick said.

"Hell with all a y'all!" Daryl shouted after a moment. "Just tell me where he is. So's I can go get 'em."

"He'll show you," Lori said, looking at Rick.

Rick nodded. "I'm goin' back."

Daryl simply sighed and walked away towards Dally and Betsy.

"I wanna come." Betsy stated as she followed Daryl and Dally into their tent. "To get my dad. I wanna come."

"Why? He doesn't even care about you, why do you care about him?" Dally scoffed a bit. "He didn't even notice when you were kidnapped last year!"

Betsy stared at Dally before turning around and walking in the other direction, pushing away tears. "Are you okay?" Georgie's sister, Sophia Peletier, asked from behind Betsy. Betsy quickly nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just, you know, missin' my dad," she said, smiling, but it was a lie. Betsy didn't miss her dad at all. It was what Dally had said that hurt.

"Sophia! Get your ass over here!" Sophia's dad, Ed, yelled from where he and Carol were sitting.

"I have to go. 'Else he'll get mad. Sorry," Sophia said and hopped over to her parents.

Betsy stared at Carol and Sophia as they hugged each other, and she couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy that Sophia got a mom and brother that was there for her all her life. All she had was a neglectful dad.

"Hey, Betty. Get in the truck, we're goin' to get Merle." Daryl said, his voice echoing a bit inside the empty moving truck. Betsy, not wanting to make her uncle more mad, ran over and hopped into the truck with a loud clang. "Ya got a weapon?"

"I have a knife," Betsy said. "Dally ain't comin'?"

"Nah, said he'd stay back," Daryl said before pulling down the door and closing the truck.

The truck started up and they drove off. Betsy was about to put her headphones in her ears, but then a voice came from behind the box she was leaning on.

"Hey," Georgie said. Betsy, not expecting him to be there, screamed and instinctively punched him in the face.  "Ow," he said a little sarcastically.

"What the hell!" Betsy exclaimed. "You scared me." Betsy crossed her arms and glared at Georgie. "Why're you behind a box?"

"Technically, I'm not supposed to be here, but I promised Carl I'd make sure his dad didn't die." Georgie shrugged, climbing out from behind the box. "He can't turn around now, we're too far away from camp, so I decided to come out."

"George Peletier, what are you doing here?" Glenn asked from the driver's seat.

"Hey!" Georgie said with an innocent smile.

"Christ, kid." Daryl mumbled.

"No point turning back now." Glenn sighed, turning off the truck. "We walk from here." The group of now six people hopped out of the truck.

"Georgie, you're grounded when we get back," Rick said as they began to walk into the city.

"You're not my dad," Georgie said.

"Dale's grounded me and he ain't my dad. Besides, 'course Rick isn't your dad, he ain't abusive. As far as I know." Betsy said, following Glenn over a fence. Georgie stared at her. "What? Everybody knows it."

"Okay, Merle first, or guns?" Rick asked once they were all on the same side of the fence.

"Merle!" Daryl exclaimed as soon as Betsy said, "Guns."

Daryl looked at her. "The hell you mean, guns first? Ain't he the whole reason you came along?"

Betsy stared up at her uncle. "We might need guns to get to him, so we should get them first," she said before turning to Glenn. "Which is closest?"

"Merle's closest. The guns would mean doubling back," Glenn said and the group ran off behind him. "Merle first."

❂ ❂ ❂

BETSY STARED AT her father's severed hand, barely hearing the argument going on behind her. Merle was nowhere to be found. Only his severed hand and the blood. Daryl came into her line of vision and picked up the hand.

"Ain't that a bitch," he said, staring at it before wrapping it in T-Dog's do-rag. Betsy's eyes followed Daryl as he walked over to Glenn and put the severed hand into Glenn's bag. "He must've used a tourniquet. Maybe his belt. Be much more blood if he didn't."

Betsy silently followed her uncle as he walked along Merle's trail of blood, leading into a sub-basement of sometime.

"Merle! You in here?" Daryl's voice echoed through the room as they headed down the stairs, weapons up. Once they reached the bottom, Betsy immediately saw a walker. Her mouth was hung open, her jaw covered in what looked like someone's organs. Betsy immediately found herself thinking of her dad. Wondering if those were his organs. She almost threw up at the thought of her father being eaten alive by one of those monsters.

"You okay?" Georgie asked Betsy as Daryl shot an arrow into the walker's temple and it collapsed to the ground with a loud thud. Betsy simply nodded and they creeped around the corner, Daryl and Rick in front. There were two dead walkers on the ground, blood pooling around their heads.

"'Had enough in him to take out these two sons of bitches. One handed," Daryl said, lowering his crossbow. "Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother. Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails. Guess this one didn't inherit that." He gestured to Betsy with his arrow.

"Just 'cause I'm a girl doesn't mean I ain't tough," Betsy said, looking down.

"Whatever, kid."

"Any man can pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is," Rick said, forging forward. Daryl rolled his eyes and followed him.

"Merle!" Daryl shouted again.

"We're not alone here. Remember?" Rick said, glaring at Daryl.

"Screw that. He could be bleedin' out. Said so yourself." Daryl turned another corner. Betsy's eyes landed on a bloody stovetop. She immediately recognised her father's belt laying on top of the stove. A couple cans of lighter fluid were ignited on top of the stove next to what looked to be something that looked like an iron but for cooking. On the iron was more blood and burned skin. Besty gagged silently.

"What's that burned stuff?" Glenn asked quietly.

"Skin." Rick answered simply. "He cauterized the stump."

"Told you he was tough," Daryl said after a second of hesitation. "Nobody can kill Merle but Merle."

Georgie stared at the burned skin, disgusted. He never liked Merle much, no one did, but even then he felt bad for him. And for Betsy. She shouldn't have had to see any of this. Georgie looked over at Betsy, who was pale and looked like she was about to throw up.

"He's lost a lot of blood," Rick said, his eyes scanning over the bloody scene again.

"Yeah? Didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap," Daryl said walking over to a broken window. Betsy grabbed the bloody belt before following him.

"He left the building? Why the hell would he do that?" Glenn asked.

"Why wouldn't he?" Daryl retaliated. "He's out there alone as far as he knows. Doing what he's gotta do. Survivin'."

"My dad's out there with one fuckin' arm in a city full of walkers. He's probably dead right now!" Besty exclaimed suddenly. "He ain't surviving. He's dying."

"No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot!" Daryl exclaimed before turning to Rick. "You couldn't kill him. Ain't so worried about some dumb dead bastard." Georgie resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"What about a thousand dumb dead bastards? Different story?" Rick said.

"Why don't you go take a tally? Do what you want. I'm gonna go get him. C'mon Betsy." Daryl grabbed Betsy's arm and began walking.

Rick put a hand to his chest and pushed him back. "Daryl, wait."

"Get your hands off me!" Daryl shouted, letting go of Betsy's arm. "You can't stop me!"

"I don't blame you. He's family. I get that. I went through hell to find mine. I know exactly how you feel," Rick paused. "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."

"...I could do that," Daryl said. Rick looked over at the rest of the group.

"Only if we get those guns first. I'm not strollin' the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions, okay?" T-Dog  said.

Betsy looked around and everyone seemed to agree. Even her uncle.

❂ ❂ ❂

"YOU'RE NOT DOING this alone," Rick said to Glenn who had proposed the idea of him going alone to get the guns.

"Even I think it's a bad idea and I don't even like you much," Daryl said, leaning on a cabinet next to Betsy and Georgie.

"It's a good idea, okay, if you just hear me out," Glenn said. Rick sighed and leaned down to look at Glenn's makeshift visual of Atlanta. "If we go out there in a group, we're slow; drawing attention. If I'm alone, I can move fast."

"I'm fast. I could-" Betsy was cut off by a collective "No" from everyone in the group. Betsy rolled her eyes as Glenn started talking again.

"That's the tank. Five blocks from where we are now," he said, moving a binder clip between squares he drew on the ground with a marker. He grabbed a crumpled piece of paper. "That's the bag of guns. Here's the alley I dragged you into when we first met. That's where Daryl, Georgie and I will go."

"Why us?" Georgie asked."

"Daryl's crossbow is quieter than Rick's gun. You and your machete are just backup in case he runs out of arrows." Glenn explained.

"They're bolts," Betsy said. Glenn looked at her, confused. "They're not arrows, they're bolts- never mind. Continue. Ignore me."

"While you two wait here in the alley, I run up the street, grab the bag."

"What about us?" Betsy questioned, gesturing to Rick and T-Dog.

"Right. You'll be in this alley, here." Glenn placed an eraser symbolizing where they would be.

"Two blocks away? Why?" Rick questioned.

"I may not be able to come back the same way. Walkers might cut me off. If that happens, I won't go back to Daryl. I'll go forward instead, all the way around to the alley where you guys are. Whichever direction I go, I got you in both places to cover me. Afterwards, we'll all meet back here."

"Hey, kid. What'd you do before all this?" Daryl asked.

"Delivered pizzas. Why?" Glenn replied.

"Makes sense," Georgie said, nodding along with Daryl and Rick.

❂ ❂ ❂

GEORGIE CLIMBED DOWN the ladder, trying not to fall or step on Daryl's hands. They ran down the alley, hiding behind a dumpster, before continuing on. Georgie tried not to gag at the stench of the dead wandering the streets.

"You got some balls for a chinaman," Daryl said, cocking his crossbow.

"I'm Korean." Glenn replied, getting ready to run.

"Whatever," Daryl said and Glenn ran off.

Suddenly Daryl got up from behind the dumpster they were hiding behind and pointed it at someone. Confused, Georgie got up, his machete drawn, and saw a boy, maybe Dally's age.

"Woah, don't shoot me! What do you want?" The boy exclaimed a little too loudly for Georgie's liking.

"I'm lookin' for my brother, he's hurt real bad, you seen him?" Daryl questions, keeping his crossbow pointed at him.

"Ayudame!" The boy shouted.

"Shut up! You're gonna bring the geeks down on us. Answer me," Daryl said. "Answer me!" He repeated.

"Ayudame!" The boy yelled again. "Ayudame!"

"Be quiet!" Georgie said angrily. Daryl quickly smacked the boy across the face with his crossbow. The boy fell to the ground and Daryl put his hand over his mouth to muffle his screaming.

Out of nowhere two men ran out of the streets and into the alley, kicking Daryl off of the boy and began beating him with what looked to be a metal bat.

"Get off of him!" Georgie shouted, raising his machete threateningly. He had never really learned to use it and didn't exactly know what he would do to those men. One of the two men, seeming to realise he was there, rushed towards him.

Georgie froze. He'd been beaten loads of times by his dad, every time he just took it so he wouldn't get into more trouble. Freezing was just pure instinct for him.

The man smacked his machete out of his hand and it clattered to the ground with a loud clang. Georgie was shoved into the brick wall behind him and the air in him seemed to disappear. He tried to breath, but was met by a fist to the stomach, only knocking more air out of him.

Suddenly Glenn turned the corner with the bag of guns. Georgie tried to warn him to run, but it was too late. The men had already spotted him.

"That's it! That's the bag, vato," the man beating Daryl with his bat exclaimed. Both men turned their attention to Glenn, who tried to run, but was stopped. Georgie wheezed, trying to get his breath back so he could help Glenn, but Daryl beat him to it. A bolt whizzed by Georgie and impaled straight into one of the men's butt. He screamed.

The man with the bat grabbed Glenn, holding him to his chest so Daryl couldn't shoot him without shooting Glenn. And, to Georgie's surprise, the man who was beating him earlier, grabbed him and held him to his chest as well.

A car pulled up behind them. "Get off me!" Georgie and Glenn yelled repeatedly, but it was to no avail. They were shoved in the car, which quickly drove off.

Betsy, T-Dog, and Rick ran down the alleyway towards Daryl and the boy. Daryl shoved the boy into the wall, ready to beat him up.

"Woah, woah, woah, stop it!" Rick shouted, pushing him away from the boy.

"I'm gonna kick your nuts up in your throat!" Daryl yelled at the boy as Rick held him back.

"Let me go!" The boy shouted as T-Dog kept him pinned to the wall.

"They took Glenn and Georgie, that little bastard and his little bastard homie friends!" Daryl shouted. Betsy took her kitchen knife out of its sheath and held it up to the boy's chest, forcing him to stay on the wall. "I'm gonna stomp your ass!"

"We have to get back to that building!" Betsy shouted, pointing at walkers which were now blocking the end of the alley. T-Dog grabbed the boy's arm and started running towards the building they were previously in.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

BEE.

 sorry this chapter took me so long!

i changed georgie's character to be carol's son instead of rick's son because i wasn't exactly sure what i was going to be doing with his character as rick's son

hopefully the next chapter won't take me too long!