Sick and tired

Chapter 1

I have been in the forest for a few days now, roaming around the area like some kind of stray pet although I knew my location at all times. Outside hunting like this is still nice even if the world just about ended a few months ago, I decided after the first time I agreed to go out and kill something eatable.

The solitude of the situation does me good. It may come as a surprise to some people, but I have never been much of a social person and being practical caged up with so many individuals in camp makes me kind of claustrophobic.

Whenever I'm out here, (which was mostly on my own anyways since Merle had always been a lazy asshole and even this whole thing didn't change him) I remember the time a few years before this apocalypse, back when my momma was still alive.

Even when I was younger, I would take off into the local woods whenever I had a particular bad fight with my pop and stay there for several days, but at some point I would always return home. My back would be aching from sleeping on the hard ground; my throat would be dry from a long walk home.

My mom was usually waiting on the porch back then, just staring me down and then she would start getting really mad; telling me how scared she had been because I had left without a word, but it was nothing new so I never really apologized for it.

Even being mad she would drag me to the kitchen and sit my silent sorry ass down by the kitchen table to start cooking something up for her 'little boy'. She always accused me of not eating enough whenever I was out on my own.

I knew I made her worry a lot and I was guilty about that for sure, but I always had in mind that I could be worse of a son.

Merle was the best example for that; stealing and borrowing money wherever he went. If his hands weren't tied up in some dirty business, it was probably because he had his dick shoved up an equally as dirty whore at the moment.

Whatever other people and my family thought, I got by on my own just fine; back then as well as now.

It's a nice day. The sun is out and burning down. The leave crowns of the tall trees protect the rest of the wild life gathered beneath them and give me some relief from the Georgian heat as well.

This time I hadn't been as lucky as I had been on previous hunts, but the several squirrels and two bunnies dangling from the string I carried over my shoulder don't say it wasn't worth it either.

I step out of the cover of the thinning tree line and I have to admit that I'm fairly proud over my catch. Hunting and surviving are the only things I'm talented at, so who would have thought that I could actually literally make a living out of that?

My skills made me a crucial part of the group and I know that they would have a tough time trying to get by without me around.

I scanned around the area quickly. Most of the women and Merle are somewhere around the fireplaces. While the girls are doing the laundry, my brother is just sitting there carving something out of a piece of wood. The children are sitting in a circle on top of a blanket, drawing, chatting and laughing happily together. The males and the blonde siblings are gathered up on the outskirt of camp apparently having a serious talk by the looks of it.

Something is up, I decide quickly as the tense atmosphere seems to cloud the whole place. I adjust the crossbow on my shoulder and walk over to the fire, dropping of my hunt while I'm at it.

"Welcome back, darling." He greets me in that sarcastic voice that makes me want to turn around and leave for the woods again right away. "Nothing bigger? You sure are disgracing." Oh, how I would love to whip that shit-eating grin right off of his ugly mug, but I'm holding back.

"Daryl…" Carol looked up at me with wide owlish eyes and Lori swings right around to give me one of those knowing looks that piss me off since I don't know what exactly is going down around here.

Wanting to figure out quickly, I leave the cadavers with Merle to skin and gut which he will probably not to anyways and head over to the group. They are short one Asian though. I haven't seen him at all yet, but I'm pretty certain he should be back from his errant run already.

"I don't want to burst the bubble, but I've seen this kind of fever before…" The old man starts off while fiddling with the rim of his head. "It's the kind that kills..." He looks guilty for saying it.

"Not soon after he will be up again." The other cop finishes for Dale with a sneer, his hand coming to a stop at his holster. Rick puts him on ease again though.

"It's not pretty." The male Moralles throws in uselessly. When it comes down to it, he may as well just shut up since he is not helping the whole situation at all. Not pretty? What was these days anyways.

My big brother comes to a stop next to me to listen in on the conversation as well. I just try to figure out what the fuck is going on, but I'm not too stupid to put the talk about the illness and the absence of a certain chink together.

"But he wasn't bitten or scratched, was he?" Amy huddles closer to her big sister in an attempt to find protection from a threat that wasn't even confirmed yet and it gets everyone more nervous than before. Somehow I can't shake the feeling that this is going into a false direction and I can't help getting a little anxious myself.

Ed gets up from the log he was sitting on just a moment ago. Big mouth, but nothing to back it up, that's the guy for you. He keeps smoking calmly, nicotine slowly staining and damaging his lungs even at this very moment.

I'm not as stupid as the group often makes me out to be. The only thing he is actually capable of is beating his own wife, scare the hell out of his young daughter and sit around smoking all day. He's by no means an important addition to the group and no one makes a secret out of it.

His aggressions have been getting worse lately, so it's probably only a question of how long the fellas around here will stop taking his shit and start fighting back, especially the women.

"I say shoot him in the head and safe up on the meds."

Distinctly I can hear the sound of a sleeping bag rustling in the tent next to me. Why don't they think about the missing solid walls around here? The boy could hear every single word they are saying. Right know he could be terrified out of his wits for all I know.

"Back when this all started, I met a man with a little boy- the one that still has the walkie-talkie connected to mine. His wife died like that." Officer Friendly is seizing everyone up with his eyes, trying to decide what to do. The choice is with him. It's either life or dead for the Asian boy.

That's right. A simple Asian boy that's all Glenn is to me, but am I really okay for just killing him off for being sick?

The night just a few days ago is still very much present in my memories; the way his dark brown eyes had been locked with mine. We had fucked. It was nothing more than blowing off some steam and getting rid of all the sexual tension, but the way he had looked at me had made my breath catch in my throat just a second before I got back to my senses.

The Asian had just laid there, covered in body fluids; his as well as mine. His dark hair a mess and his breath coming out in hurried, but slowly calming puffs. Back then I thought how good he looked ruined and told him to get the fuck out right after that.

"She came back as a Walker after that." I can't really catch the meaning behind the words coming out of his mouth immediately. "I don't want to endanger everyone, my family…"

So this was it? They are going to kill him after all he did for them in the past? The Asian had put his life on the line several times; all to ensure that these people were good and now they want to slaughter him for having something as simple as a fever that might be fatal at best?

Fuck that.

The rapid beating of my own heart is scaring me shitless. There aren't many things that make it pound like that and what gets me even more terrified is the sudden perception that I must have a severe soft spot for the Asian. A weakness like that left you dead and broken, back in the days as well as now.

Shane moves towards the place the boy is resting and it rattles me out of my thoughts. I stop him rather quickly by stepping right in front him.

"You get away from that tent." I growl at him dangerously low while taking an aggressive stance.

"Or what?" That fucker is challenging me.

"Or you're getting a fucking arrow right between ya eyes." My fingers twitch to unclasp the crossbow from its strap as I spit the threat at him just as his moves for his handgun.

"Calm down." Grimes tries to negotiate, but how I'm supposed to do that is beyond my reasoning. Shane is standing there with that obvious dark look on his face, ready to spill blood at any moment.

"I said get that FUCK away from this tent!" My yell is loud and echoing through the following silence and I aim the loaded crossbow at the man. Before I actually have to take the shot, Rick pulls him back.

"So who is gonna be the one to blame if he comes out of that tent ready to kill every single one of us?"

My bow resting against my shoulder is a comforting weight.

The thick silence is shattered by the almost obnoxious noise of the zipper. The chinaman groans loudly as he fights to crawl out of the narrowly opened entrance, but not due a maddening illness but rather because of aching muscles and cracking bones. It doesn't stop Shane from aiming at him though.

The dark tuff of hair is sweaty and sticking to his forehead and the back of his neck. His skin is pale and reddened around the eyes whether from exhaustion, fever or maybe even from a rare act of crying, I can't be sure.

What I can tell easily though is the fact that the little guy looks like shit.

Those eyes…They are alive. They prove everything anyone said wrong instantly as soon as they take a good look around him, flinching back a little when he is face to face with the barrel of the ex-cop's gun.

"I won't die." The voice sounds fragile, very quiet and strained. "And if I…if it gets too bad, I will put an end to it myself." Most of them are just gawking at him openly.

"Ya sure 'bout that, chink?" Merle pipes in for the first time. "Doesn't look like you can even stand straight on ya own legs, ya fag. Ya really wanna tell me you can even get that damned bullet through your skull?"

Glenn doesn't answer for quite some while and I think he is trying to think about the right way to response without pissing off my brother more than he already is.

"If it comes to the point that he can't do it anymore, I'll take care of it." The puzzled and questioning glances I get for that are surely worth it.

"And why would ya do that, little brother?" His tone is dangerous low. It's the well known calm before the storm.

"'Cause it's the right thing to do." My eyes lock with his dead on and the tension building around us in tangible to say the least.

"Like hell, you little fucker! You've been shagging it up with the lil' inbred!" I drop my weapon to the ground before I fling myself at him. It's not like I have much of choice since I know that he would get the first hit if I didn't.

My fist gets him square in the chin, but before I can strike again he lifts his own weight and throws himself on top of me, immobilizing my legs by putting his entire weight on top of them.

It turns into a full out brawl from there on. Fists fly, legs and feet connect as soon as I can free mine and even teeth come into the whole thing until T-Dog, Moralles, Shane and Rick decide to break it up.

"This ain't over, ya fag!" Merle wheezes and spits a thin spray of blood that seeps from his split lip.

"Fuck you!" I growl back, struggle free from the hold T-Dog has on me and let myself be walked away from all those prying sets of eyes and into the tent next to us.