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Of Blood and Breath

Chapter 7: Fall


Forrest, Merle, and Daryl had awoken at around the same time. They had left the bar once they had reunited and stayed at Merle's trailer for the night.

"I say we start securin' this whole town, startin' from here then we expand out," Merle planned. "We could take this whole place as our own."

"No," Forrest argued, causing his father and uncle to look at him in disbelief. "What we need is people. I don't even like that I'm sayin' that, but when I went to Atlanta I met people and I want to see them again. I ain't stayin' in this shithole town any longer. I hate it here."

Merle and Daryl were silent. They understood. Forrest's past was hard. They had just found out about the abuse Forrest endured from his step-father.

"Look," Forrest began reasoning, "Atlanta; it ain't a good place for people like us, but it's safe for now. I don't think it'll stand forever. Geeks'll be comin' in from miles right to it, but there's people there. People who helped me."

"They ain't helpin' ya right now," Merle countered to his son. "They weren't with ya when ya found me and my baby brother."

"Merle," Daryl barged in. "He's right. He's your son. Jus' listen to 'im."

Forrest wordlessly thanked his uncle for sticking up for him. Merle looked to Forrest then Daryl. These were the only people he had. He lost Kyle and he didn't expect ever to see him again. Merle had an ego on him, but somewhere way deep down, he also had a heart. If this is what they wanted and thought was best then it was what was going to happen.

"Maybe yer right," Merle said. "Well, what the hell ya waitin' for? Let's go to fuckin' Atlanta."

They grabbed their packs and walked out of Merle's trailer to the two vehicles that sat outside on the dirty tire-tracked grass.

"I'm takin' mah bike," Merle stated as he walked towards his motorcycle.

"Guess that leaves me with you, kid," Daryl said as Forrest followed him to the small truck that belonged to Daryl.

He climbd into the passenger seat with ease and waited for Daryl to start the engine and follow Merle. They road in silence until Daryl spoke up.

"We found out."

"'Bout what?" Forrest asked without turning his head to look at Daryl. Instead he looked out the window at the scenery. He knew what he was talking about though, but he didn't really want to talk about it. He was like his uncle that way. Ridiculously reticent.

"Yer step-dad," Daryl responded, rather awkwardly. "We know he hit ya."

"Did he kill 'im?" Forrest questioned, now looking at Daryl. He looked back at him briefly, then turned back to the road, one hand on the steering wheel.

"Nah," Daryl shook his head.

"Why not?"

"I wouldn't let 'im," Daryl muttered. "I know that ya care about 'im. He's an asshole, like me and Merle's dad, but it's just how it is. It doesn't matter, ya know? He's family and ya jus' wanna impress them, make them proud."

Forrest looked out the window quietly, smothered in his own thoughts. Daryl was right. Forrest did care about Hank. When Hank and Bonnie had first gotten together, Hank had acted good to Forrest. He took him fishing. Merle never took Forrest fishing. He didn't have nearly enough patience for something like that, but Hank did. Time passed and Hank showed the type of man he really was. He grew abusive towards Forrest and didn't care to hear anything Forrest had to say.

"Why'd Merle listen ta ya?" Forrest asked Daryl, finally breaking the silence again.

"Ya already know," Daryl replied. "I already told ya. Our dad was like that. Merle knows how ya feel, him and me both."

After a couple more silent minutes of driving Merle pulled his bike into a gas station, which Daryl followed him into with the truck. A gas station. The sight of one reminded Forrest of the day with Sam, Andy, and Jake. It reminded him of what he had done. He began to question himself. Why did he deserve to be alive after what he had done to that poor old man who was trying to do the right thing? Why didn't he just die when he crashed his truck? Wasn't the crash his fault? Why would Glenn, T-Dog, and Jacqui save an asshole like him?

Glenn doesn't know, Forrest told himself in his head. Glenn hasn't done the things you've done; he hasn't seen the things you've seen. He doesn't know who it was that he saved. He doesn't know about the mistake he made by saving you. He saved a bad person. Poor Glenn.
Forrest sighed and ran a hair through his hair. His hair had become even messier than his usual messy hair style. The top of his head had about an inch and a half of tousled brown hair, while the hairs on the sides of his head were quite a bit shorter.

"What?" Daryl asked, responding to Forrest's distressed sigh.

"Nothin'."

Daryl scoffed as he and Forrest left the truck to speak to Merle. "Yeah, right." He muttered those words under his breath and Forrest pretended not to hear his comment.

"Tell ya what," Merle began. "I'll fill these gas tanks then find a few canisters and we'll take all the gas we can git. The two o' ya, go in their and take everythin' from inside."

Daryl and Forrest nodded and followed Merle's command, entering the small shop.
When Forrest and his uncle walked through the glass double doors, causing the bell to ring which would alert the gas station clerk to be aware of a customer, it did just that. A man, who had been rather young arose from behind the counter that had the cash registersitting upon it. Despite the man's young age, Forrest only saw the old man. He had caused his death, which caused Sam's death, which further caused Forrest to be left behind by Andy and Jake. He deserved it. He deserved the abandonment. Forrest reached in his belt and pulled out his tomahawk and walked towards the undead clerk.

"Ya got it?" Daryl asked.

Forrest silently nodded, a mixture of emotions in his eyes. He swung the small ax-like weapon at the geek, but he lost his focus and it penetrated the geek's shoulder, which allowed the geek to continue snapping its rotting jaws at Forrest. He extended his arms, as he looked into its lifeless, dead eyes. He struggled to pull the blade out of the rotting, walking corpse, but failed to do so.

"The hell?" Daryl muttered as he came out from behind an aisle.

He raised his crossbow and shot the former clerk into the brain. Without hesitation, Forrest let emotion take over and pulled his tomahawk out of the already dead geek and hacked at its head over and over again.

"He's dead!" Daryl shouted. "I got 'im in the head, Forrest!"

Forrest stood as he pulled Daryl's arrow out of the now unrecognizable head, tossing it back to Daryl.

"What the hell was that about?" Daryl asked in his usual accented, muttering voice.

"Can we jus' do what my dad said to do?" Forrest snapped.

"Fine, whatever," Daryl said.

Daryl worried for his emotionally broken nephew. He didn't now what happened to set him off, but clearly something had triggered this behavior. After bottling things up for your whole life, you're bound to break sometime. Daryl didn't know what to do. He knew he had to do for Forrest what he wished someone had done for him when he was a kid, but he was unsure of what that really was. It was only a matter of time before Merle saw that something was wrong with his son's current state of mind, and who knew how Merle would react to that?

"Ya know when we get to Atlanta, the military's jus' gonna take all this and ration it out," Forrest explained as he and Daryl gathered the supplies off the shelves, changing the subject.

"That ain't fair," Daryl stated his opinion. "Merle ain't gonna be happy."

The three Dixons finished gathering their supplies and drove off towards Atlanta once again in their two vehicles. The uncle and nephew drove in silence for quite some time until Daryl spoke up.

"Ya know, we gotta talk 'bout earlier," Daryl said.

"No," Forrest argued. "We don't."

"Look, Forrest," Daryl began, "I know yer past hasn't been so good, believe me, I know, but ya can't jus' hide everythin' like that. You'll go insane."

"Sometimes it feels like it's a little late for that," Forrest admitted. "Preventin' insanity."

"That's a damn shame," Daryl said, louder than his usual voice. "Yer only 'bout sixteen and I wanna do fer ya, what no one did fer me. There's a lot o' things no one did fer me, but I know that ya ain't the same as Merle and me. Yer smart, ya jus' ain't motivated like ya should be. Ya don't have ta be like me and Merle."

Forrest listened to Daryl's words, but didn't respond. He simply stared out the window and fiddled with his bottom lip.

Daryl looked over at Forrest, wishing for him to respond.

"So, yer jus' gonna sit there?" Daryl asked. "Ya ain't sayin' what ya got to say. Yer really bipolar, ya know that? Back there, ya went a little crazy on that geek, then ya jus' started talkin' ta me 'bout Atlanta like nothin' happened."

"There's two sides to every coin," Forrest said with a slightly angry tone. "Jus' 'cause a man shows his tail don't mean he's insane or 'bipolar'. You of all people should know that."

"Now tha's more like it," Daryl said, sounding an awful lot like Merle when the words fell from his mouth. "More words of wisdom from Forrest Dixon."

Forrest scoffed and turned his head back towards the window. They road in silence the rest of the ride to Atlanta, tension weighing the small truck down.



Much to Forrest's surprise, the only sound they heard when they rolled into the city was the sound of the engines of the motorcycle and truck.

"What the hell?" Forrest muttered.

The gunshots were no longer present. There was no military protecting the city. There was no people at all in Atlanta.

"I told Glenn!" Forrest shouted. "I told them the city would fall... and now he's dead! Everyone's dead!"

Merle continued into the city, so Daryl followed. When Merle caught onto the lack of people in the city, he pulled his bike over and Daryl pulled up next to him.

"What the hell?!" Merle exclaimed. "Where's the people?! What happened here?!"

"Geeks must've came and drew 'em all out," Forrest theorized. "There's got ta still be supplies around. Don't ya think we should search the city?"

"Tha's my boy," Merle smiled. "Ya was the only one here. Where da ya think all the supplies is at?"

"I know there's an armory somewhere," Forrest informed his uncle and father. "I don' know where though. It might be listed in City Hall."

They drove over to city hall and entered up the intimidating steps. City Hall was empty of all life and the Dixons began searching around for any clues to the whereabouts of this armory.

"Here!" Daryl said, holding a piece of paper. "Says there's an armory a couple blocks over, let's go."

"Don't ya think it's a little strange?" Forrest asked.

"What?" Daryl asked.

"There ain't no geeks 'round," Forrest answered. "Don't ya think if geeks came and drew people out of the city, they'd still be around."

"Probably chased the survivors out of the city," Merle guessed. "They could be half 'cross Georgia by now or down into Florida. Now, let's get over to the armory!"

Forrest put his suspicions behind him and followed the older Dixons out of the City Hall building. They drove along a few roads towards the armory, but soon realized that Forrest's theory had been correct. There were at least a hundred geeks around the corner. Merle saw this and did not waste anytime turning his bike around, Daryl repeating this action with his truck. They drove back towards City Hall, only to see another herd coming towards them.

"Shit!" Daryl slammed his fist on the dashboard.

Forrest pushed his head out the window. "Dad! Pull over here and get inside!" Forrest pointed towards the apartment building he had briefly stayed in.

Merle, Daryl, and Forrest got out of their vehicles, running inside. Forrest led the way up to his old apartment, leaving the hungry geeks behind them. To his surprise, Forrest saw two pieces of paper sitting on his counter. The first was a note, which Forrest picked up and read quickly.

Dear Forrest,

I hope you're reading this and I hope you found your family. If you do happen to be reading this, me and some other survivors have escaped the city and left for an old abandoned rock quarry in the mountains. I hope to see you there. I really have to go though!

-Glenn


"What is it?" Merle and Daryl asked.

"It's Glenn," Forrest said as he picked up and unfolded the other piece of paper. "Guy who I met at the beginning of this. He says they're at a rock quarry or somethin'."

After Forrest finished unfolding the rather large piece of paper, he realized that it was a map. There was an 'x' on a spot in some mountains. In Glenn's handwriting it read "rock quarry.'

"Its a map," Forrest said. "The quarry's marked on it."

"We'll go tomorrow," Merle ordered. "It'll give these rotting bastards some time to calm their tits. We sleep here tonight and find a way out tomorra'."

"I'll sleep on the couch," Daryl volunteered.

Notes

Comments

Hope to see this fic continue, its super good

Twitterpated Twitterpated
10/7/17

@thewalkerinme
I have some plans for the future. Thanks so much, your feedback means a lot to me. You'll have to wait and see :)

ForrestDixon ForrestDixon
4/17/16

@thewalkerinme
I have some plans for the future. Thanks so much, your feedback means a lot to me. You'll have to wait and see :)

ForrestDixon ForrestDixon
4/17/16

Ahhh! God, I freaking adore Forrest. He's such a great dude. The future of this story excites me to no end. How will you play out the zach thing, and her death, and just her whole story ark in general agh I'm so excited to find out! Beth and Forrest have the cutest scenes together, and he even fits so well with other characters like talking to Rick and Dale *sobs agh my heart*
Keep this up. I look forward to many many more updates!

thewalkerinme thewalkerinme
4/17/16

@thewalkerinme
Sorry for not seeing this until now. I'll do my best to get this story fully back in action. Thanks for commenting!

ForrestDixon ForrestDixon
4/10/16