Well, this is a lot later than I hoped. Although, that's the life of a writer I guess. We never get things done when we want to. :(

So, here's chapter 5. I'm not nearly as happy with this as I could be, and I really wish I had the words to make it longer, but this is what I ended up with. It's not bad, I don't guess, but it definitely could be better. Then again, so could everything I write. Oh well.

Relatively short chapter, and not much goes on. Hope you all enjoy it anyway.

There's something I need to tell everyone, but I know a lot of people don't actually read author's notes (I'm guilty of this), but I really want everyone to see it and know about it, so the next paragraph is gonna be in all caps, bolded, underlined and all that jazz, because I really want you guys to know. Are you ready? Here we go...

NOTE: PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THIS PEOPLE WHO DON'T LIKE TO READ AUTHOR'S NOTES. NORMALLY I WOULDN'T CARE IF YOU READ IT OR NOT, BUT THIS IS ACTUALLY SEMI IMPORTANT. I HAVE A PINTEREST ACCOUNT FOR MY FANFICTIONS. ANY AND ALL PICURES ASSOCIATED WITH ANY OF MY STORIES ON HERE ARE POSTED ON SAID PINTEREST ACCOUNT. YOU CAN JUST GO TO PINTEREST AND SEARCH ALDELA KRAHN (I MADE IT EASY) OR YOU CAN REMOVE THE SPACES AND THE X's AND ADD A PERIOD AND FORWARD SLASH TO THE LINK I'M ABOUT TO POST.WWWxPINTERESTxCOMxALDELAK THANK YOU THAT IS ALL.

Please read the stuff above. It will also be posted at the bottom, so if you didn't get it the first time, it will also be there as well. That's all I have for you guys, so here's the chapter. Enjoy!

P.S. I own nothing except Nashoba. That's it.

Chapter 5

Merle

It was only a couple hours before the sunflower yellow sports car gave out.

Merle was leaning against the hood watching the woman pace in front of him, her permanently tan hand running repeatedly through her onyx hair. She switched between glaring at the brand new looking sports car and examining the area around them, searching for anything she deemed a threat. Merle wasn't too worried, considering they'd hear any walkers long before they actually reached them. He was more focused on the woman he couldn't seem to get rid of.

For the last eleven days he'd wanted nothing but to get as far away as possible from the dark haired, turquoise eyed woman who'd probably saved his life. He'd been eager to get going that morning, wanting to find himself a weapon, even if it was just a simple pipe, so that he could leave her and set out to find his brother. He'd wanted things back to the way they were before, he still did. He wanted his little brother and the open road. He didn't want a tag along Indian lady to hold him back.

So why the hell hadn't he left her yet?

Merle couldn't even begin to fathom why, but leaning with his arms crossed against the now worthless sports car they'd hijacked in order to get out of the city, he couldn't find it in himself to leave her.

He told himself it was because he felt he had to repay her. He made a good mental argument, too, but deep down he knew he was only lying to himself. Still, he was Merle Dixon, and there was no way in all of Hell that he was ever going to admit anything.

"Wi'ya quit ya damn pacin', woman? Gon' give meh a headache." Merle suddenly snapped. Narrowed turquoise eyes snapped up to his. Her lips were pursed in a thin line and she looked at him with a borderline glare.

Instead of snapping back, or yelling, or screaming, or anything else that she could have done, she just turned on her heel, grabbed her backpack which was leaning against the right front tire, and started walking in the direction of the tree-line. Merle was shouldering his own pack and grabbing his crossbow to follow after her before he even really knew what he was doing, a sharp bolt of panic having shot through his system at the thought of her leaving.

"Where the hell d'ya think ya goin'?!" Merle called after her as he struggled to keep up with her pace. She may have been shorter, but she was much faster as she weaved expertly in and out of trees.

"Ya wanted me gone, so here I am. Goin'." She replied, ducking under a fallen tree. Merle cursed as he jumped over it, struggling to keep her dark hair in sight.

"The hell said I wanted ya gone?" Merle called. She froze for half a second, pausing mid-step before she was moving again, but that half second was enough for Merle to close some distance. He continued following her, closer than before and able to more easily keep her in sight.

"Ya've wanted to git rid of me since ya first woke up. I told ya I'd stay with ya long 'nough fer ya to get back on yer feet, then we'd be off on our own again. Yer on yer feet and we're outta the city. Sounds like I need to be off." She stated. Merle's eyebrows furrowed, knowing that she was right. He'd wanted rid of her and she'd walked off, so why the bloody hell had he followed her?

"'M'not gonna just leave a pretty lady out all on 'er own. Gotta 'ave a li'l more respect 'en 'at." Merle said. He heard her scoff and watched as she quickly and effortlessly pulled an arrow, nocked it, aimed and fired at a poor unsuspecting squirrel just up ahead. Much like he'd seen Daryl do a hundred times before, the arrow went straight through the skull, killing the small furry animal instantly and pinning it to the tree it was perched on.

"I'm 'bout as helpless as a damn cougar. Don't need ya lookin' after me." Nashoba snapped back. Merle didn't doubt that. Hell, he knew otherwise. He'd watched her kill walkers, hotwire a car, and she'd taken care of him for the last eleven days. If anything, he was the one that needed looking after. He knew she could take care of herself.

"Never said ya were. Never said I was gon' take care-a ya neither." Merle grumbled back at the woman. She scoffed again, but she did slow her pace some, indicating that maybe she was taking his words into consideration. Huffing slightly, Merle finally managed to catch up with her.

"What 'appened to wantin' to git rid-a me?" Nashoba asked. Merle pursed his lips, keeping his gaze forward so he wouldn't have to look at those eyes of hers.

"Dunno. Guess ya just grown on meh a bit." Merle mumbled. If she had any comments, she kept them to herself. She didn't say anything else, just continued to glide through the forest while Merle tromped on behind her.

She was quiet, too quiet, and it left Merle with plenty of time to think freely. What was he doing, running after some strange woman he had only known for eleven days? Why hadn't he killed her or left her? Why was he still here?

"Yer really serious 'bout followin' me, ain't ya?" She asked suddenly, coming to a quick stop. Merle barely managed to keep from slamming into her. He gave a light shrug, watching her curiously. How would she take it?

"Ain't got much else ta do." That wasn't true. He had a lot of things he should do, the first on his list being find his little brother.

She didn't need to know that.

She huffed, turning back around and continuing on her way. Merle hurried to follow. Maybe he didn't know why he was following her, but until he did, he could bug the shit out of her.

"Where ya 'eaded?" Merle asked.

"Anywhere."

"'At a place, now?"

"Yes."

"Ya gonna fill me in?"

"No." Damn, she wasn't being very talkative.

"Why not?" he asked, watching as she pinned another small, furry creature to a tree. Damn, she was good at that. Maybe he'd better not get too far onto her bad side, else he's liable to end up with an arrow in the ass. Merle scowls at the thought.

"Ever 'eard of surprises?" Merle's scowl deepened. He hated surprises and he said as much. It earned him a chuckle and possibly the hint of a smile.

"Git used to 'em." Merle scowled again. This woman was determined to drive him crazy.

For a while they were silent. Merle couldn't find anything to say. So, he trailed behind her, watching as she pinned more and more furry animals to trees, pulled them down, and then fastened them onto a piece of string. Well, it was more like bailer twine, but it was still, essentially, string. He figured the furry creatures would be dinner.

In a last ditch effort to find some kind of amusement, Merle began looking for animals. He noticed a squirrel at the same time she did, but before she could shoot it, he raised his bow and fired. He pinned the little bugger to the tree, grinning triumphantly when she turned around to look at him. Her eyes flashed and one corner of her mouth turned up. A little voice whispered that that might be a bad sign, but another part was delighted that he was getting a response, even if it was a possibly threatening one.

After she'd taken down the squirrel, attached it to her string, and tossed him his arrow, they kept going. The next varmint they found, she shot before he could. After that it turned into a game. The main object: shoot the fastest, and most accurate. There'd been a few times where they had both shot, but he'd missed the target. That earned her a scowl, but she'd only respond with an infectious grin.

Try as he did, he couldn't keep a small smile off of his face.

With seemingly no clear destination in mind, Merle followed behind Nashoba as she led them through the woods.

That evening, Merle collapsed next to the pile of sticks he had helped Nashoba gather for their fire. His feet and shoulders ached, but he was immensely satisfied with his work throughout the day. They'd killed several dozen squirrels and a few rabbits along the way, and had covered many miles in their all day trek through the woods. Reaching over, he picked up one of the squirrels and grabbed his knife. Nashoba was kneeling a few feet away, working on getting a fire started, and Merle decided that he could at least be useful and start skinning their kill.

They worked in silence, because there wasn't anything to talk about. They didn't know anything about each other, and Merle knew that he, at least, wasn't sure how to break that or even if he wanted to. He still wasn't exactly sure what he was doing. He didn't know why he hadn't left yet. He had no ties to this woman, and yet here he was.

He had asked himself the same question over and over for the past seven hours. He couldn't figure it out, and he was beginning to think he never would. For the time being, he didn't care. He had food, an in-progress fire, and someone to watch his back a few hours so he could sleep.

But there was an idea. No doubt she's wake him up sometime through the night for him to be on watch. He could gather up his stuff and leave. Merle knew he could make it a long ways in a few hours, even at night. He could be far away by the time she woke the next morning. With a slight nod to himself, Merle decided that that's what he would do. He'd be long gone before dawn ever hit.

As soon as Nashoba had the fire going strong, Merle started passing the skinned squirrels over to her. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as she skinned some sticks and then stuck them through the meat before hanging them over the fire. It wasn't long before the smell of cooked meat was permeating the air. Merle's mouth began to water, because after eleven days of canned food, or no food at all, squirrel was sounding as good as a thick juicy steak.

After all the food had cooked thoroughly, she offered him several pieces. He took each, not about to turn down anything, and began eating. She took her own portion, setting it off to the side, and started to eat as well.

It was another few silent minutes before Merle's mouth opened without his permission. "So, wha' were ya doin' in Atlanta?" he asked. He cursed silently as her head raised, because he hadn't meant to say anything.

"Not much. Scavengin', mostly. Clothes and weapons and such." She answered with a shrug. "Had a truck with supplies in it. S'on the other side-a Atlanta now. Ain't gonna risk goin' back."

Merle could understand that. Even though the prospect of more supplies was the best thing he had heard in weeks, he wouldn't have wanted to risk going back through Atlanta either. It wasn't really feasibly now anyways. They were hours away from Atlanta by car, maybe even a day or two by foot.

"Wha' 'bout you? M'I ever gonna hear how ya ended up on that roof?" she asked back. Merle stiffened. He didn't remember much about the actual events that landed him handcuffed to the roof, as he was too high to even think straight, but the outlining details were there. He had went with the Asian kid and a few others to get supplies and that cop had shown up. He'd pissed him off, the cop, but he wasn't exactly sure what he had done to do so.

Merle shrugged. "Pissed a few people off. Ain't nothin' I ain't ever done 'fore. Piss a lotta people off." She snorted, but didn't say anything. Merle's eyebrows furrowed. "Wha'?"

"Nothin'. That's jus' the understatement of the damn century." She grumbled. Merle scowled, and that question of why he was still with her flared back to the forefront of his mind. She was annoying.

"Everybody ain't goody two shoes, savin' random people 'ey find on rooftops." Merle growled. Her head snapped up, teal eyes brimming with barely contained fire.

"Not everyone's stupid enough to find themselves handcuffed to a damn rooftop in the first place." She sneered back. "Then again, only the stupid get saved." Merle growled, his fingers twitching with the urge to take a swing. He wouldn't, of course, because despite being raised in a home with an abusive as hell father, he knew not to hit a woman. Maybe he didn't always treat them the best, but he sure as hell wasn't a woman beater like that piece of shit back at the quarry.

"The major dumbasses're the ones 'at rescue the stupid, so wha the hell's 'at make you?" Merle snarked back. Her eyes narrowed.

"A hell of a lot smarter 'an you. After all, I did manage to save yer ass and keep mine alive." She grumbled. "Even got us outta the damn city in one piece." Merle glared at her, but decided that keeping his mouth shut was probably a better idea, because she may have been smaller than him, but he had no doubt that she was better with a bow at this point. It had years since he had used one, and while he had gotten quite a bit of practice throughout the day, he still wasn't where he should be.

They finished eating in silence, and once they were finished and the bones had been gather up, Merle got up to dispose of them and take a piss before settling in for a few hours sleep. When he returned, he found her sitting with her back against a tree, her bow, an arrow nocked but not drawn, resting in her lap. The fire had been stamped down to nothing but embers, not very efficient for warmth, but a smart idea so as not to attract too much unwanted attention.

"First watch. I'll wake ya up about halfway through." she clipped in the shortest sentences she could manage while still giving him an explanation. Merle just nodded, not deeming her worthy of a vocal response. He headed over to his previously abandoned spot.

It was by no means comfortable, but Merle supposed it would do for the few hours he would be here. He laid down, folding his arms behind his head as he stared at the treetops waiting for sleep to take him. An eternity seemed to pass, his thoughts drifting to other things. He thought about his mother, the woman that Daryl had never really known. He thought about his little brother, his father, and the shit that had landed him where he was now.

His life seemed to be one huge disaster after another.

When sleep finally seemed to draw him in, he glanced one last time at the attentive form of the woman to his right. She was awake and alert, her eyes scanning as far as they could see. Merle drifted off with the strange sense of security and safety that he couldn't ever remember feeling before.

When Nashoba woke him some hours into the night, he as if he'd been asleep minutes and not hours. Even still, he hauled himself up and moved to the tree that she had left, crossbow in hand. He leaned back against the sturdy tree, scanning for anything that didn't belong. The embers from the fire had long since gone out, and other than the small patches of moonlight filtering through the trees, it was dark, and outside of the normal animal activity, there wasn't anything strange.

He listened as her breathing quickly evened out, but Merle still waited what he guessed to be at least forty-five minutes before he quietly got up and moved towards his pack. He leaned down to grab the strap, but didn't get it halfway to his shoulder before he realized that it was far heavier than it had been the previous day. Furrowing his brows, he set it down and knelt in front of it.

Unzipping it as quietly as possible, Merle flipped back the cover and began to shift through what was in it. He found bandages, salves, and canned foods and water that hadn't been there earlier, and it didn't take him long to figure out that the woman had guessed he would sneak off in the middle of the night.

His eyebrow twitched, and he got up to retrieve her back. Unzipping it, he scanned through it only to realize that other than a few pieces of clothing and a water bottle, she had very little in the bag. Sitting back on his heels, Merle cursed under his breath. The damn woman just didn't know when to quit.

Merle removed the extra items from his bag and put them back into her pack. When he was done, he zipped up both bags and put them back where he had gotten them before returning to the tree. Plopping down, he settled back in to finish out his watch.

So much for running.

NOTE: PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THIS PEOPLE WHO DON'T LIKE TO READ AUTHOR'S NOTES. NORMALLY I WOULDN'T CARE IF YOU READ IT OR NOT, BUT THIS IS ACTUALLY SEMI IMPORTANT. I HAVE A PINTEREST ACCOUNT FOR MY FANFICTIONS. ANY AND ALL PICURES ASSOCIATED WITH ANY OF MY STORIES ON HERE ARE POSTED ON SAID PINTEREST ACCOUNT. YOU CAN JUST GO TO PINTEREST AND SEARCH ALDELA KRAHN (I MADE IT EASY) OR YOU CAN REMOVE THE SPACES AND THE X's AND ADD A PERIOD AND FORWARD SLASH TO THE LINK I'M ABOUT TO POST.WWWxPINTERESTxCOMxALDELAK THANK YOU THAT IS ALL.