Burnt Bones (Merle and Aubrey)

Merle and Aubrey had been on the trail of the group all the way from their camping space in Atlanta. It had been a rather long journey when they were on foot and had to avoid the Walkers who they couldn't lose simply by being faster; as the group could in their cars. But he wasn't complaining about it. Of course they had seen things that they otherwise wouldn't have seen if they had been moving faster.

Jim for example.

Now Merle had never especially liked Jim, or anyone other than Daryl before being saved by Aubrey, but he had definately been one of his favourites. The guy knew his way around a motor and had been trying to fix up a Harley for Merle to use. In the end he had killed the man when they had stumbled across the Walker of him, stabbing him right in the forehead with a hunting knife. If he ever became one of those things he wanted someone to do the same thing to him.

As they had walked he had learnt a lot more about Aubrey and actually gotten to like her a lot more than he ever thought he would. They joked and laughed a little bit but there was also a spark of sexual tension underneath the jokes. Once they were back with the group he would see about making more of that but until then he doubted they'd be safe enough to have a little roll in the hay.

Sniffing the air in confusion, he turned to Aubrey,

"Yer smell tha'?" he asked her cautiously, "Smells lik'... lik' burnin' but wha'? Burnin'.... burnin'..."

As he mused what the burning smell was exactly his eyes widened when the once imposing structure of the CDC came into few, still smoking and burning. He checked the tracks again, certain that the group and (more importantly) Daryl had come this way. His eyes widened and he tore towards the burning building, looking for signs that Daryl had left,

"It's te smell'a burnin' mea'..." he whimpered a little bit as he tried to examine burnt corpses, Walker or otherwise, "Daryl! DARYL!"

Aubrey was more tired than she had ever been in her life, she was constantly scared and worried about what was going to happen to her in her sleep, if one of those walker herds came by them there was no way that they were going to be able to survive it. Although they had been lucky, the only trouble they had when it came to walkers was a large group of them, about 7, had stumbled across their path one afternoon. It had been messy but she and Merle had gotten them easily.

Despite the fear, she had been happy to learn more and more about Merle, he was a great guy and despite his rough outward appearance she could tell that there would be a little softie underneath waiting for her to come and discover. She was beginning to discover him already, although they couldn't let their guard down completely, he was opening up to her more and more each day.

When he called her attention to the smell in the air, Aubrey was glad that he had noticed it too, there was an acrid charcoal smell in the air, and she couldn't help but want to gag a little when it got especially strong;

"Yeah I can smell it too, it smells disgusting..." she whispered softly, drawing closer to Merle's side, they were following the groups tracks and it looked like they had been headed to the CDC "Maybe someone decided to attack the walkers en mass, like we did with the gas canisters?"

Although, when they rounded the corner and saw the whole CDC had burnt to the ground she gasped softly, putting her hands to cover her mouth. Oh if the group had been in there when that had happened, she didn't know what she would do, all that had kept her going was the thought of being reunited with the group once more, being able to sleep soundly in a larger group.

"Merle." Aubrey hushed softly "We don't even know if they were in this explosion or not, they could have gotten out, they could have gotten here after it happened, turned around and left?"

Merle was beyond reason with worry for his little brother right now. He was the older brother damn it! His father had told him one thing before he had vanished into the night and that was to product his little brother! He had said;

You know the reason why big brothers are born first? So that they can protect their younger brothers.

Merle had tried his best to adhere to that little rule even when he 'forgot' to follow such 'trival' things such as laws and such. He had always done his best to look out for his little brother. Even when the Walkers had come he had been with his brother, the two of them fighting back to back against all the dangers of this new worlds. He gritted his teeth,

"Tey cam' her'..." he muttered frantically, looking around the burning wreckage for any signs of his brother or the group beind inside, "Tey cam' her' an' tey weren' lon' in arrivin' befor' te fir's beg'n. It's in te trac' an'... an' god dam' it! DARYL!"

He was getting more and more frantic now though. When he saw another small pile of bodies his heart sank when he recognised the slightly burnt and very freyed vest top that his younger brother was so fond of wearing. Moving closer to it, in a silent daze, Merle pushed the bodies off from on top of the piece of clothing to look at it better. Holding it in his hands, he began to realise that it was his brother's. That meant he had been here and it meant that he was probably...

Just the thought made Merle begin to break down in tears. He wasn't one of those pansies who cried and sat on the ground though. Merle's tears were accompanied by a righteous fury. Standing up, he kicked the closest burnt corpse,

"AH! DARYL!" He cried out in anger and anguish, kicking repeatedly at the Walker's burnt cropse. His kicks began to get weaker before he growled out, at no one in particular, "Why mah lil' broth'r? Why Daryl? Why no' me? I'm te old'r broth'r! I'm suppos'd te protec' him!"

It was only after most of his anger was gone that, feeling drained, Merle slumped against the remains of the CDC's wall and sobbed and cried.

Aubrey didn't really know much about tracking and so she was happy to allow Merle to tell her that the group had been here, thats where the tracks were heading anyway, where they had been following for days, although, she thought that it would be more than likely that they hadn't got caught in the blast here, she couldn't see the RV, and she couldn't see any of the other cars either.

They must have gotten away on them before the fire began.

Jumping when Merle shouted Daryl's name, she wanted to tell him to hush so they didn't attract more walkers, however, there weren't any around, and he was in emotional pain, she didn't think telling him to be quiet would really go down that well.

As soon as she saw Merle picking up Daryl's vest Aubrey's heart sank a little but she still clung to the hope that because the cars weren't here, that the groups bodies weren't here either. She just hoped Daryl hadn't been left behind like they had. Biting her lip she tentatively approached Merle, he was so angry, and so upset she had never seen him like this before, so she didn't know how to approach him.

"Merle..." she whispered softly, kneeling down in front of him, it was so strange to see him cry, it tugged at her heart and she didn't know what to do, she had never seen a man cry before "Merle we don't know if he was caught in the fire, although his vest is here he could have lost it another way, the cars aren't here that I can see, so maybe the group got away before the fire spread?"

Wanting to reach out and give him a hug, Aubrey merely bit her lip and continued to sit in front of him, taking a brief look around, she narrowed her eyes as she tried to try and find any signs of the group, there weren't any other people's things she recognised around here, it was possible that it could have ripped off because of something else;

"The least we can do is check for any other signs of him, if he...passed...his other things would be here, right? We didn't see any so...don't give up just yet. If he is as tough as you, then he wouldn't be stopped that easily, Daryl will be fine."

Merle was crying and that hadn't happened since his mother had died. And even then the tears had been short and bitter, nothing at all like these ones he was shedding over his brother. Well maybe it was because he actually felt some kind of connection to Daryl. He always had been closer to Daryl than either of their parents. He closed his eyes tightly,

"Ther' no trac's leadin' away from her' tha' I can see." he told her bluntly as he tried to pull himself together, "An' ev'n if ther' wer'... te dam'd fir' has gott'n rid'a tem aroun' her'. Ev'n if he liv'd. If te grou' liv'd... we ain' go' a clu' wher' te hell tey're goin'."

He was managing to pull himself together enough to stand up fully again and begin to look around. Merle was distraught still though so he definately wasn't putting his best foot forwards. When she mentioned how tough he was, Merle just shook his head,

"Daryl lik's te grou'." he told her with a little chuckle, "If someon' go' lef' behin' or wen' missin' he'da gon' aft'r tem. It's no' mah broth'r toughn'ss I quest'n. It's te stup'dity or som'a te peopl' in te grou'."

After looking for tracks for awhile he shook his head. He wasn't sure if it was because of the fire or that they had never been there, but he couldn't see any tracks. Moving over to an army jeep, Merle kicked the door before holding tightly onto the metal,

"Yer kno' wha' mah ol' man tol' me befor' I nev'r saw him again?" he asked her, looking down at the green metal of the jeep, "He sai' tha' it was my job as an old'r broth'r te protec' mah lil' broth'r... tha' tha' was wha' big broth'rs wer' bor' te do. An' yer kno' wha'? I fail'd. Din' I? I fail'd mah ol' man an' mah lil' broth'r."

Aubrey didn't know how she was going to reply to Merle when he didn't seem to want to be optimistic about this at all, in times like this there really wasn't a lot of hope around, although, she wanted to be able to make him feel better, to show him that just because he had seen his vest didn't mean that his brother wasn't in the land of the living any more.

"Well if the group lived, and your brother is with them, it is better than knowing that he's dead right? He's alive and he will be for a very long time, I didn't know him but he went out hunting on his own for days at a time in the group, so, I'm sure with the group he'll be more than able to handle himself." Aubrey whispered softly, trying once again to reassure him.

Biting her lip when Merle stood up and just left her on the floor, Aubrey sighed softly and she couldn't help but think that he was trying to be a little too tough in this situation. As she stood up again, she cast her eyes around, keeping a look out for Walkers, there weren't any that she could see and so she turned her attention back to Merle again, wanting to make sure that he was alright.

"Well if you are that worried that he might have passed...why don't we check?" she asked softly, wandering back over to the pile of bodies where he had found the vest "If he is dead he should be around here somewhere, right? We should check, that way you know."

When Merle told her that he thought that he had failed his brother, failed his father, Aubrey shook her head, she didnt think that he had failed him at all, they had been tracking him for days and that was something that not many families would do for each other in times like this. They only stopped now because they didn't know where to look, and it would be pointless to put themselves in danger.

"No you didn't fail." she whispered softly "You've been tracking your brother for days trying to catch up with him, going through all sorts of danger and horrible conditions, you would be doing it now if you had any tracks to go by, Daryl and your Father would be beyond proud with your effort Merle..."

Merle took a deep breath when she spoke about his brother being with the group and therefore having much better chance at surviving. What she said was true to a degree. Daryl was likely with the group no matter what but that didn't really put him at ease too much. Honestly, without him there the only decent fighters would be Daryl, Shane The Prick and Officer Friendly. He sighed a little bit but nodded in agreement,

"So lon' as tey go' som' peopl' te help him kic' ass tey'll be fin'." he agreed with a slight smirk, "Though mah baby broth'r will still be doin' most'a te ass kickin'. It's in te bloo'."

When she suggested that they check to see if Daryl had actually passed he winced a little bit before shaking his head. He didn't want to check. Not now that he had just accepted a glimmer of hope from her earlier suggestion. In the end he coughed a little bit,

"Yea' let's no'." he suggested in return with a faint, saddened, smile, "Let's jus' hop' tha' he's aliv' lik' yer suggest'd. Hop' tha' Offic'r Frien'ly din' hav' no mor' cuffs though righ'?"

He chuckled darkly at his own poorly tasted joke, even as a few more tears slipped down the side of his face for saying it. After a few moments his little chuckled changed into barely restrained sobs. His brother was gone, either dead or beyond his reach now that the tracks were gone. He swallowed thickly and turned to her, his eyes puffy,

"I... I don' kno' wha' te thin'..." he told her quietly, "I don' kno' if wha' I did was enough. If I had bee' fas'r ten maybe this woul'na happ'n'd... if I ha' bee' nic'r on te roo' we'da bee' bac' wit' te oth'rs an' I coul'a help'd him an' yer... I jus'... I don' kno' if wha' I did was goo' enough..."

He slumped against the jeep almost lifelessly, not sure what would give him the strength to really keep going and not just go through the motions.

Aubrey was glad that she was finally getting through to Merle, he seemed to be being a little bit optimistic now, and she hoped that he would try and see things from a more happy perspective, there was enough misery in the world now without adding more and more to it. Daryl was alive, and she knew it, he would be safe, and more than that, he would probably find his place in the group more without Merle there, he had always been seen as the bad influence.

"Of course." she smiled lightly "I know he's going to be kicking walker ass, and he's going to be worried about you, if you're as close as I think...then he will be thinking that he's failed you as much as you think that you have failed him...but he hasn't failed you has he?"

Although she was trying to make him see things in a happier light, she was also aware that Merle needed to get the hurt out of his system, he needed to actually work his sadness out of him so he could move on. Chances are they would never be able to find Daryl after today, but the hope he was still alive seemed to be working to lighten Merle's mood a little bit.

"Sure, I didn't really fancy picking through burnt corpses in the first place but...if it would have made you feel better then I would have done it." Aubrey smiled softly "Daryl will be fine, I know it, we're fine after all and we made it out of Atlanta on our own."

Moving closer to Merle she stood in front of the jeep, looking at him with a soft gaze, she just wanted to be able to make him feel better and she didn't know how she could do that. Although they had been travelling with him for the past few days, there were still so many things she didn't know about Merle, so many little quirks she didn't understand. Aubrey definately didn't want to do anything to upset him even more.

"I think what you did was amazing." she smiled gently "I know that if my family had done this much for me, I couldn't have any complaints about it...there was nothing else we could have done Merle, we spent nearly all day walking, we camped on the road putting ourselves in danger....we'd be following the trail even now if there was one."

Aubrey stepped in front of Merle and raised her eyes to his own;

"Never give up hope you will see him again Merle, and...you know there are other things, people, to distract you until you do." she smiled softly, of course meaning herself.

Merle chuckled weakly when she mentioned Daryl kicking Walker ass. To be perfectly honest he wasn't worried about Daryl fighting Walkers. He was worried about Daryl fighting people, they were much more dangerous. He smirked faintly and nodded,

"Yea' well if he ge's his ass chew'd on by a Walk'r wh'n I ge' dow' te hell I'll stom' his ass fer bein' suc' a dumbass." he joked a little bit before shaking his head, "Jus' hop' tha' te res'a te grou' is at leas' som'wha' useful yer kno'?"

He smirked faintly when she told him that she didn't want to root through the burnt corpses. Merle was being honest when he said that he could not think of anything that was any less appealing than that idea,

"Yea' me neit'r te be fai'. I can sme' em from ov'r her', I din' really nee' te be up clos' an' pers'n'l te kno' tha'." he joked lightly before nodding in half-hearted agreement, "Yea' well he ough'a be... I taugh' te guy te be as har' an' as tough as me."

For some reason Merle found that Aubrey's reassurances were something that he was actually able to agree with. Relaxing ever so slightly he nodded a little bit even when she made it so that their eyes were meeting. Something was there in her eyes beyond the pity. He didn't like the pity. Beyond that was some understanding and something undeniably positive. He smiled a little bit,

"Yea'... I've don' mah bes' an' I suppos' tha's all I can really giv'." he agreed before chuckling slgihtly, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Yer mor' tan jus' a distrac'n yer kno'. Yer' mah only frien' too yer kno'. Wha' do yer thin' we shoul' do now ten?"

Aubrey didn't really like it when Merle said that he was going down to hell, although from what he had told her he wasn't the best of people before the world went to hell, and he had carried on in the same vein when he had been a part of the group if she was honest. Sometimes she did wonder why he didnt take it as an occasion to actually start to change his ways.

But now there was nobody to enforce the law...why would you bother to follow it? There were new laws in place now, the laws of nature, survive and that was the only thing that mattered any more.

"Glenn, Rick and Shane will be more than capable of making sure the group is alright, Im sure that they'll be useful when the time comes to it." she smiled gently

Stepping forwards again, Aubrey wrapped her arms around Merle's waist and gave him a small hug, she thought now might be a good time to do that, he was calming down but, she could see that he was still really shaken and upset by what had occured. As she held him close she kissed his cheek and smiled up at him.

"Yes, that's all you can do and there is no point beating yourself with 'ifs' and 'buts' because what's done is done, and you should be pleased both of you are alive still...regardless of where you are."

Very very glad that Merle had accepted that he had done all he could do, there really wasn't anything else that they could have done, or that it would have been in her power to do, Merle was definately more used to this lifestyle than she was and Aubrey was already really tired, she couldn't have kept up this camping lark for much longer.

When he asked what they should do she hummed a little bit and looked inside the jeep that they were resting on, maybe it would be a good idea to try and get somewhere more remote, to hole up for a little while somewhere more safe? It would be good to get their strength back, rest, and come up with a plan for what they were going to do in the long term.

"I know, I just didn't want to limit your interaction to just me, we might find other people along the way after all. As for what to do...I don't mean to be a little bit...uhm...selfish, but, I really would like to find a proper bed to sleep in just for a night even."

When she mentioned the others being about to make sure the group was alright he frowned a little bit. Glenn? Glenn was an errand boy and everyone knew it. He could kill Walkers but considering the average Walker had rocks for brains it wasn't saying much. Rick, okay he would probably steer the group right. Shane too if he was pushed enough by Lori to stop just bothering his ass to protect only Lori and Carl,

"Well le's no' tal' abou' tha' fer now yea'?" he suggested with a little bit of a chuckle, "I can tell yer righ' now tha' on'a tem is crap an' anoth'r is only interes'd in protec'in' wha' ge's his dic' wet."

When she wrapped her arms around him he froze for a moment before his body relaxed slightly, not having expected a hug or anything like that. The kiss to his check though made him grin as he had been expecting something like that after the hug. Or had hoped for it at least,

"I guess so. An' I hav' suc' lov'ly distrac'n righ' her' wit' me yea'?" he teased her with a wink before nodding in agreement, "I guess te locat'n ain' too bad'a probl'm fer us."

Merle noticed her glance towards the Jeep and he was quick to pull the burnt corpse out of the car, throwing it to the ground. Finding the keys still in the ignition he grinned a little bit before nodding,

"Yea' le's ge' someplac' nic' an' cosy." he agreed as he hopped up into the driver's seat, "Yer wan' te go te tha' cab'n in the woo's we foun'?"

Aubrey couldn't help but splutter out a laugh when she heard what merle said about Shane, oh of course she had figured out it was Shane and she was more than a little bit amused by the fact that it seemed that everyone in the camp had pretty much caught on. Even though they weren't in the camp any more, she couldn't forget Lori and the way she had tried to lord over the other women, because her 'boyfriend' was in charge of the group.

"Yeah, we have more important things to talk about, like what our own little mini group is going to get up to now that we have no more tracks to follow, we'll have to regroup and have a think before we head off." Aubrey smiled lightly, it was true, whether they tried to think of where Daryl might have gone or not, they'd need to come up with an idea of what to do next.

A little blush crossed her cheeks and she pushed her nerd glasses up her nose when Merle told her that she was a 'lovely distraction', with his accent it was almost enough to make her weak at the knees if she didn't have more sense about her. Swooning in the middle of a zombie apocalypse was not a good idea, let your guard down in the open...

"I'm glad you think so..." she smiled shyly "I just wanted to make sure that you were at least semi okay, and, I don't know about you but, hugs always make me feel better."

When Merle threw the body out of the car, Aubrey bawked a little bit before wandering around to the passenger side and peeking inside, seeing it was clear, she opened the door and sat inside, fastening her seatbelt as she did so. The idea of going to the little wooden cabin made her feel better, she had wanted to stay there before but, it was in the middle of the day they passed it, and Merle had wanted to press on.

"I would love to! I hope that it's got some nice furnature inside it, maybe some food as well because I am hungryyyy..." she grinned "And more than one bedroom, no offense but if there's one bed, it's mine."

Merle, although he had tried to stay out of the politics involved with the group, had seen enough to know that Lori was a bitch but she was leading Shane around by his balls. It was actually rather laughable when he thought about it but right now it really didn't matter. Shane was likely going to continue to be led around by his balls and that was something that, while he found it funny, didn't affect him, Daryl or Aubrey and considering their little mini-group was all he cared about, it was no surprise,

"Yea' I thin' we'r gun' hav' te fin' someplac' mor' perman't." he agreed with a little chuckle, "Wheth'r it's wit' te grou' we fin' aga'n or wit' som' oth'r grou' or still by ou' own. Eith'r way we'll nee' som'wher' big an' easy te defen'."

He smirked a little bit when she blushed at his light praise. She was only a little bit away from swooning if he remembered his female mannerisms correctly. Merle smirked lightly at the idea that he was making her swoon just from speaking to her,

"Well yer ten' te hav' te affec'a makin' me feel a lot bett'r." he told her with a grin and a wink, "Hugs from yer mak' me feel bett'r."

Merle buckled the seatbelt on a whim, not really wanting to be splattered all across the windscreen or the road. Seeing that she was all buckled in as well he turned the keys and the jeep came to life. He immediately set off, laughing as he did so,

"It'll hav' foo' an' if it don' ten I'll go huntin'." he assured her before smirking, "Yea'? Yer an' who's army? It'll be firs' com' firs' serv' on te be' fron'! Or maybe I coul' win it from yer in a gam'?"