"Hey Daryl! Can I talk to you for a minute?" The old man was huffing and puffing.

Daryl Dixon stopped and turned around. "Whadda ya want. I'm busy."

Dale, stopped for a moment trying to catch his breath. "Last night you said you hunt."

"What come to laugh some more? I know what I saw, I don't give shit if you believe me or not."

Dale shook his head. "No, if you say you saw a chupacabra, then you saw something. I spent some time in Texas. People see chupacabras all the time out there. I wanted to ask if you would mind hunting for the group today.

The food situation is, well it's the children. They went to bed hungry last night. You seem like a decent guy. I just thought maybe you'd be willing to hunt something for the kid's sake."

Daryl's first thought was to tell the old man to go jump in the quarry but the old bastard had found one of his few weak spots. Daryl knew what it was like to be a child and be hungry. He was taken back to a time he remembered well.

In the woods, alone and hungry. Merle was back in lock-up and God only knew where his father was. The last he had see of the old man was him stumbling out the front door with an equally drunk waitress from the bar down the street. The only thing the old man had told him was to keep the damned dog from barking so the neighbors didn't call the police again.

It only took him a couple of hours of sitting in the trailer doing nothing before he was bored out of his skull. What started as another walk in the woods, soon turned into a nightmare when he wandered farther than he planned to and realized he was lost. Nine days of wandering around in circles eating berries and wiping his ass with poison oak before he finally found his way to the road and home.

It was too much to hope the old son of a bitch he called a 'father' had been worried about him. The only thing his father had said when he walked in the door was "Get me a damned beer you useless little bastard."

Daryl shook off the memory. "I'll see what I can bring down."

Dale watched as Daryl picked up his crossbow and slung it over his shoulder. "Thank you."

"Save your thanks old man. Kids gotta eat if they gonna grow." Daryl said without ever turning around.

Dale watched as the young man disappeared into the tree line. Daryl really wasn't such a bad sort, it was just too bad he was Merle Dixon's younger brother. The problem was that pretty much everyone in camp had made up their mind about Daryl based on Merle.

Merle was a first rate asshole and never missed an opportunity to prove it. Merle was loud, rude and obnoxious, while Daryl was quiet and soft spoken. The problem was that Daryl followed his brother's lead even when it was obvious that he was uncomfortable with it.

Daryl wandered through the woods lost in thought. Things had changed since he and Merle had escaped the geeks, the day his father had died. Daryl had tried to tell both Merle and his father that they needed to get the hell out of dodge and head to the shelter in Atlanta but neither one of them would listen. The old man had put his foot down, the Dixon's didn't have much but damned if either one of his boys was gonna turn tail and run like a couple of pussies. They were going to fight for what they had.

Of course Merle took that as another opportunity tell him what a bitch he was.

"What are ya scared of Darylina? Stop acting like a little bitch. We hole up here and wait for the shit to blow over."

"That boy ain't even a Dixon. Look at him, don't look nothing like me." the old man had sneered. "Don't know who your momma laid down with to git knocked up with that one but it sure as hell won't me. He's jus' like her too. Pitiful bitch couldn't do nothing right. Only thing that slut did right was dying birthing him. Too bad she didn't take her git with her."

"Darylina ain't so bad sometimes, Pa. He has his moments, brought back that boar last year." Merle said suddenly defending him. That was normal. Merle would give him shit, then Pa would give him shit, then Merle would say something good.

"I'm gonna go check outside." Daryl said to no one in particular. He knew the routine from here. Merle and Pa would get into it now and when he went back inside Merle would give him shit and Daryl would simply take it. He had learned a long time ago to just let Merle vent. Better that than coming to blows with Merle.

A noise to his left drew his attention. Daryl sighted and fired, skewering another good sized squirrel. He added it to the three he already had. The squirrels wouldn't go far, but that buck would if he could just catch up to it. Kneeling down, Daryl spotted more blood. He stood and quietly followed the deer's path. Once again his memories took him back.

Two days since the Dixon's had holed up in their old trailer. The old man was passed out again and Merle was off in another drug induced fog. It was Daryl who spotted her. Cindy Jenks, the town whore. The last person Daryl wanted to see. For the past three months she had been doing her level best to get in him in her panties. Not because she cared about him or was interested in any way, but because she had already screwed Merle and Pa. She was just interested in adding another Dixon to her long list of names. Daryl wasn't interested in hearing around town which Dixon was the better fuck so he had been avoiding her for a while.

"Who's at?" Merle slurred, stumbling up to look out the window. "Damned bitch is drunk again. Why don't you help her on in Darylina? Oh that's right you scared of women ain't ya?"

"You let her in if you want her here so bad, Just remember, Pa ain't gonna like it." Daryl said.

"Hell Pa'll be pounding that bitch soon as he sobers up. Hell, maybe you'll finally learn what you supposed to do with a woman baby brother." Merle said opening the door to let the woman in.

Damn that deer, Daryl thought. Son of a bitch should have gone down by now. Instead it had circled back heading in the direction of the quarry. That at least was a lucky break, he wouldn't have to drag it that far when he caught up to it.

The problem was that she wasn't drunk, she had been bitten. It only took a couple of hours for the fever to finish her off. They hadn't realized that she would come back. It had been over three hours since Cindy had died. Both he and Merle had figured she was well and truly dead.

Pa had still been passed out and Merle had told him to get some sleep and stop worrying. Daryl had to admit that he was exhausted. But he made Merle swear that he would keep an eye out. It was Pa's screams that woke him up.

Merle was nowhere to be found but Cindy was. She had her mouth clamped down on Pa's arm while the half drunk old man tried to beat her off with a bourbon bottle. Merle had come barreling in the front door to see Daryl standing there. Merle thought it was fear, but it was something else that had kept Daryl frozen in place, hatred. Hatred of the sorry bastard that had made his life a living hell for the past 40 years.

It was Merle who picked up the fireplace poker and beat Cindy to death again. It was Merle who realized it had to be the brain.

"Dammit don't just stand there, get me something to bandage up this bite." Merle yelled at him.

"It won't do any good Merle. He's a goner. He's bit now just like she was." Daryl said. "We need to get out of here and get to Atlanta."

"I'll admit you're right more people means we'll have a better chance." Merle said. "But we need to do what we can for him, he's our father."

Daryl started to tell Merle exactly what he thought about that but Merle cut him off.

"I know he always said you weren't a Dixon but you are. You are his son, you just look a lot like our Mama. And for all the shit he talked that woman meant something to him. She died giving birth to you and he needed someone to blame. Now get me something to use as a bandage then start packing what we need in the truck."

Daryl stopped and looked at the tracks. He had a dozen squirrels now. The deer's progress now was a bit slower since he had been able to get another shot off. It was the second set of tracks that worried him, he was no longer the only one stalking the deer. The question was if the other set of tracks was a person or a geek.

They had just gotten Merle's motorcycle tied down in the bed of the truck when Pa came back. There was no recognition in the old man's eyes as he sat up from where they had lain him beside the propane tank. He, it clumsily struggled to it's feet and shuffled forward.

"Son of a bitch!" Merle exclaimed as Daryl grabbed an axe and buried it in the old man's head. Daryl quickly ducked as Merle reached for him.

"Not this time Merle. No more." Daryl said. "He made my life a living hell, that's over. Next time you lay your hands on me, I'll kill you too."

Merle just looked at Daryl for a moment before grabbing the old man by the arms and dragging back up the steps into the trailer. Daryl stood there and watched through the window as flames begin to spring to life inside.

Merle came out closing the door behind him. "Get in the truck Darylina, it's time to go."

Daryl could hear a commotion coming from the clearing ahead. Stepping out he saw the blond sisters Annie and Amy or whatever looking at a group of men from the camp including the old man who had asked him to go hunting. The men were gathered around the headless body of a walker and the deer he had been tracking for miles.

"Son of a bitch! That's my deer!"