I sighed deeply to myself before running outside of the RV, following the yelling of the two Dixon men. They weren't hard to find, they were down the path where the tents were. They had ripped Ed out of his tent, Merle was holding him around the arms while Daryl was pounding him senseless in the face. Rick and Shane were trying to stop them, but the second either of them got close to Daryl he would threaten them with a knife and they would back off. 

I was standing not too far from Daryl, by a tree trying to figure out how to stop them. Ed was an ass who liked to hit his wife, daughter and the random woman who came along like me but I didn't want them to actually end up killing him. Carol and Sophia were standing in the opening of their tent crying as they watched their husband and father get beaten. Poor Sophia was looking with fright at Daryl, like he was one of the monsters we were all trying to survive from. "Daryl!" I finally yelled out and ran over to them knowing I was the only one that would get him to stop. Daryl punched Ed another time, but looked to me a few times out of the corner of his eye.

"Vannah don't, this asshole laid his hands on you!" Daryl growled keeping his eyes on Ed, a look of pure hate etched on his dirty face. After a few more punched I jumped in front of Ed, and Daryl immediately lowered his fists seeing me standing there in front of Ed. Daryl was breathing heavily, and clutching his fists at his side. "Your scaring Sophia" I whispered, my eyes traveling behind him to little Sophia who was crying and clutching her mothers leg. Daryl whipped his head around and stared down at Sophia, his look softened when his eyes turned around to meet mine. I knew he could see the similarity between Sophia and the younger version of myself, only I didn't have a mother to protect me. 

Daryl nodded in understanding before giving an attempt of a smile at Sophia and heading back to the camp. Merle shoved Ed onto the ground before yanking his hair backwards and putting his mouth inches from his ear. "You touch her again, I'll fucking rip your god damn balls off" Merle growled into his ear, shoved his face into the dirt and walked over to me. I smiled sadly to Merle when he walked by, he just stopped stared at my beaten face before chasing off after his brother. I walked over to Carol and Sophia, and bent down to her eye level.

"Don't let Mr. Daryl scare you, he doesn't like men to hurt me" I told her, reaching out and playing with some of her dirty blonde hair. She sniffled and wiped some of her tears from her freckled face, before giving me a tiny smile. "Daryl, Merle and I have been friends since we were younger than you, you know?" I said to her. She looked up wiping the last of her silent tears, and looked intrigued by what I was telling her. "That's a long time" She said softly as Carol bent down and gently rubbed the top of Sophia's head.

"Yes it is" I told her with a smile " So we don't like to see each other hurt, were a family" I added, standing back up to my full height. Sophia nodded in understanding, looking between her father who was whimpering on the ground in pain and myself who was smiling gently at her. " Do you think they could do that when he hits my mommy?" She asked in a quiet whisper. I heard Carol suck in a breath and scold her daughter for asking such a thing, and I couldn't help but feel like I was being pulled back into my life as a child, where I was terrified of my father and often wished something would take him away from me.

"Your daddy touches either of you again, and I will personally take care of it" I told her, bending down and kissing the top of her head. She smiled up at me before running off and playing with the rest of the kids in camp. I turned my attention to Carol, she had a guilty look on her face, probably from me willing to defend her daughter where she could not. "The world isn't like it was before Carol. You need to protect your daughter from not only the walkers but also your husband, your the only one who truly can" I told her, before turning on my heel and running back into camp, my face hurt like a bitch and still needed to be cleaned up...

That night we all sat around the campfire, chatting quietly and trying to stay warm seeing as the nights were cold more often than not. I sat in between Daryl and Merle, both of them sipping on beers the group found on a run earlier in the week. I pushed some of the venison around in my bowl and sighed wondering how all of this shit happened. I itched the side of my face where T-Dog bandaged my cuts from Ed, and glared across the fire at Ed who was sitting with Carol and Sophia far away from the group.

"So are you two together?" I heard Glenn's voice ask through the night air. I looked up to see him looking between Daryl and I. Daryl choked on a piece of deer he was chewing on, and I felt my face burn as all of the group attention was now on the pair of us. Daryl was still choking so I pounded on his back with my hand and eventually he spit it out into the dirt. "I have wondered this myself" Jackie said with a slight smirk and a tilt to her head. Andrea and Amy were both snickering on Daryl's other side and I sent them both a playful glare.

"No, were not together Glenn" I finally answered seeing as Daryl wasn't going to answer, he was just kicking dirt around with his boots and avoiding eye contact. "You and Merle then?" He added, now looking at Merle who was chugging the last of his beer. A loud laugh sounded from Merle, and I couldn't help but laugh at how obscene that sounded to me. Sure people often questioned whether of not Daryl and i were just friends, but this was the first time they ever thought anything about Merle and I. Hell, even Daryl was laughing on my other side.

"Princess and I are just friends, she's like my baby sister" Merle answered still laughing slightly. "I would kill for her, the three of us been through shit together but It aint like that with us" He added finally when the laughter quieted down. Everyone seemed accepting of the answers we provided and carried on with eating and chatting with each other while I tried to hide the blush on my face. Daryl seemed to have recovered and was finished up the deer in his bowl.

The thing people needed to understand about these two men, was their loyalty. They have been through hell and back growing up, I witnessed that myself, but loyalty to people they love was something they held dear to them. When we were kids, Merle wasn't exactly the best role model and wasn't around a lot, but Daryl would run into fire to save his brother if need be. That's how it is with me, I have been with them since I was eight years old, and they considered me family. So when Merle says he would kill for me, that isn't an understatement, I have seen many times where he almost did. The group would have to understand that if Daryl and Merle wanted to leave this group eventually, I would go with them with no questions asked. and Vice Versa.

Shane walked past me and smirked, before saying something to Ed about their fire and then sitting back down beside Dale. I really did love this group, and that was weird seeing as I never liked to get close to anyone. I was walking around helping Carol pick up everyone's bowls from dinner when I heard a blood curdling scream. I dropped everything I was holding and yanked out my knife that was in my belt, looking around desperately for the source of the scream. 

"NO!" I cried out when I saw it was Amy who had been bitten walking out of the RV. Andrea had ran over to her and was cradling her body, but I was busy worrying about the dozens of walkers who were stumbling into camp. One popped out to my right and I quickly stabbed it through the brain, but my knife got lodged in and I couldn't get it out. I groaned and stuck my boot onto the walker's forehead trying to get my knife out but it was useless. "Dammit!" i shouted and kicked the walker in the head. I pulled my gun out of my back pocket and started killing walkers that were getting too close to me.

I saw Merle fighting walkers off with a rifle, while Daryl was using his crossbow beside him. People were screaming in fear, and everyone was trying to get away from the floods of walkers that were trying to kill us. "Vannah!" I heard Daryl's panicked voice call out looking for me. "Daryl!" I called back once I ran out of ammo and was officially weaponless. A walker had came from my right and tackled me to the ground causing me to yell in shock. The walker was snapping it's jaw violently trying to get a bite out of me, and I was trying my hardest to hold him up but I wasn't strong enough.

I yelled out for help but nobody was coming, and just when I thought I was going to die, just when I thought the walker was about to bit a chunk out of my face, a shot rang out and blood splattered all over my face and the walkers went limp on top of me. The walker was yanked off of me and I was shocked to see Shane standing there with his shotgun. I was trembling with fear when Shane helped me off of the ground, and I had to steady myself for a few moments to not fall over. "Are you bit?!" He asked frantically trying to study my arms and neck, I just shook my head.

"Thank you" I whispered. Shane just nodded and ran off to help Rick who was shooting the last of the walkers. I couldn't help the tears that started to roll down my face,as i had been inches from dying just moments ago. There were several points in my life where I really did want to die, where death seemed so much better than any hell of a life I was living, but being this close to it I wondered why i ever contemplated death to begin with. But I needed to find Daryl and Merle, they were who I was living for now.

"Savannah! Savannah!" I heard my name being screamed from across camp and looked to see Daryl and Merle running over to me from the wood line by the tents. I cried when I saw they were alive and ok, and sprinted over to them. I wrapped my arms around the both of them, all of us glad we were all ok and none of us were bitten. We pulled apart, but seeing Daryl's face full of desperation looking down at me made me throw my arms back around him. He held me tightly around the waist, tighter than he ever has before. "You fucking scared me vannah" Daryl mumbled into my ear. 

I pulled apart from Daryl and placed my hands on his face, looking deep into his bright blue eyes. "I was terrified, I owe Shane my life" I said taking my hands from his face and turning around to see Shane helping T-Dog with some of the walkers. "I'll have to thank him later" Daryl mumbled beside me. I nodded to him and we walked back into camp, trying hard not to get emotional for all the people who died tonight, but they were people I grew to care about so it was hard not to get upset.