She's Gonna Beat This World (twd fanfic)

18. Caught

We've been traveling for about a half hour, I'm hardly breathing. If Glenn notices I'm here he's gonna tell for sure. I don't think they'd go back, it'd be a waste of gas and other resources we can't afford to waste. I mean I know they're already going to find out. I would really like to make it on my terms though. I didn't really think about what Merle would do, I mean I totally disregarded his warning to stay at camp.
    Maybe this was a dumb idea, but it's also the only way to be able to do anything. I'm also a little scared of what Shane'll do, but still not nearly as afraid of what Merle will do when he finds out I'm here. I guess I'm just gonna play by ear, well, look how that turned out for me last time. The car starts to roll to a stop probably because we're running out of gas, seeing how we've only been drivin a while.

"Shoot, shoot shoot!"

Morales yells slamming a fist on the dashboard.

"What's the matter afraid of a little walk?" Merle snorts.

"We'll just get a new car, maybe siphon some gas from Atlanta."

Glenn states tryin ta calm the situation down. Well it's now or never, I think anxiously.

I sit up slowly, scaring the crap outta Glenn in the process.

"Oh man, Mase ya scared the..." He looks at me confused.

"Mason?!"

He exclaims obviously shocked. Then it comes, a familiar, ruff, southern voice,

"MASON!"
He yells making everybody in the vehicle including me jump, and straighten up a bit. I let out a little nervous laugh, only making matters worse. If looks could kill I'd be deader than a doornail.

"Surprise."

I say trying to seem like an innocent little girl, he sees right through it though and keeps the death glare on. I swallow hard, and glance down.

     There's dead silence in the car with Merle just lookin at me through the rear view mirror, like I'm just a figment his imagination.

"Come on we gotta start walkin. Grab the bags,"

Merle says with a scarily low voice. I gulp as he comes to the trunk, and opens the hatch to let Glenn and I out. Glenn passes me a look of pity before he jumps out, I'm not so lucky. Merle grabs my arm, hard enough to leave a mark, and rips me out of the car. I fall on my butt, on the hard cement,

"whoops,"

Merle says obviously not meaning it, as he walks away. Ok this might be worse than him yellin at me. If he's gonna make me slowly regret my decision it's definitely gonna work. Glenn offers me a hand up, and I accept. Everybody starts walkin towards Atlanta. I follow nursing the soreness on my backside when nobodies looking.

     I walk far enough behind Merle that he can't "accidentally" trip me or nothin. We've been walkin for bout twenty minutes when we finally get to Atlanta. My legs are sore, but I don't dare complain. Merle would have a pay day with that, about how he told me so.

When Merle stops and turns around he starts giving orders. I wonder how he got put in charge.

"Alright Glenn lead the way, the rest of y'all try not ta get left behind, cause trust me we ain't comin back for you."

I roll my eyes slightly. He glared at me,

"and as for you your gonna stick right here behind me, and if I turn around and ya ain't right there, or ya git ahead a me, your gonna be regretting it even more later."

Later? What's tha supposed ta mean? I stay right behind Merle, not just cause he told me to, but cause my nerves are getting to me.

"Merle."

I whisper not wanting anybody else to hear. He promptly ignores me, and keeps to his jog, which is my run. I try again,

"Merle I just wanted ta help. I brought my bag, and I got a gun, and knives. I know what you told me to do, but I thought..."

he finally replies.

"No, ya didn't think."

I breathe heavily.

"Merle I... I'm sorry, but,"

"You're not sorry, you do what you want and don't think about anything else."

He says In a irritating manner, to which I gulp, and stop talking falling back into line. We come to a food store, we all go in, everybody's grabbing whatever left over cans, bottles, and other few things they can. I come upon a toy isles. I know it's an apocalypse, but it gits boring round camp. I grab a yo-yo, and even two nerf guns with a few bullets.

    Next I go to the cash register where there's all kinds a good stuff. Since I got a big backpack, I fill up one of the bigger pouches with loads of candy. I will enjoy that later. Oh no, I forgot about staying with Merle.

When I find him he's to preoccupied to notice my absence. He has a magazine of a girl on the hood of a convertible. I roll my eyes as he puts it in his bag, along with another one. He turns to me and grabs my arm dragging me along as he walks, purposely walking faster than I can. We stop at a service counter where they put some of the expensive things, like alcohol, and cigarettes and things like that. I again find myself glaring at his back as he wastes space fillin up with that junk. I guess seeing as I just got candy and toys, I got no room to judge. He turns back round.

"Let's go find the others this place is too picked over, we need some place with weapons."

I sigh and follow behind him. I grab a two battery operated fans, and shove em in my bag.

"Hey wait!"

I grab all the battery's that are left. He huffs, like I just wasted time while he had just been peepin at a magazine. I just ignore him and keep walking behind him

We meet up with the others.

"We need weapons," Merle states.

"How. The place is already cleared I checked it on my last run." Glenn says irritated.

"Listen Short Round, we gonna go lookin or you can stay here."

Merle grabs the front of my collar and keeps dragging me towards the exit, of course I would've just followed. He doesn't have ta drag me, but he doesn't care. The others follow, and we make our way some place else. I don't know where, but I'm not gonna question it.

Of course just like Glenn stated early everything is cleared out. I do however find a spray bottle with mase. I shove it in my pocket, and keep walking. We leave the building, only to see a huge group of infec... I mean walkers comin towards us.

"RUN!" Glenn yells.