Minions

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Chapter 10 Minions

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I find myself walking around camp enjoying my juice, the adults are working while I just rest and do nothing.

In the distance Merle and Daryl are talking, I assume they are talking about me since Merle is pointing at me while yelling at Daryl. I hope they are good things from me. I give a simple smile in their direction. Daryl raises an eyebrow at me, and Merle leads his brother inside his tent.

Later I find Sofia crying on the ground behind a tree. "Why are you crying?" I approach her, while she covers her face.

"It's nothing, I slipped and hurt my face." Sofia sobs a little. I really don't want to get involved with this drama, but it may be advantageous in the future. I sit next to Sofia who still covers her face, it is obvious that her father hit her.

"Will you tell me the truth? Otherwise, I can't be your friend if you hide things from me you know?" I tell her as I huff a bit, when I'm about to stand up and leave her alone, she grabs my arm.

"I didn't fall, my father hit me in the face for scaring me in front of the walker." Sofia says, at this, a smile spreads across my face.

"Tell me Sofia... if you could make a wish right now, what would you wish for?" I ask Sofia while I hug her a little. It didn't take long for the reaction to set in, she started crying on my shoulder.

"I hate him, he always hurts mom, I wish he would go away and not come back." Sofia speaks between sobs.

"How about we make a deal?" I say with a small smile to Sofia. "I will protect you from now on, I will be your older brother. However, you will also protect me, what do you think?"

Sofia nods quickly as I help her to her feet and wipe the tears from her face. "Let your awesome older brother take care of your problem." I give a thumbs up with a smile in Sofia's direction. Many ideas begin to run through my little brain.

In the series Sofia's father dies when the walkers invade the camp, however, I suppose I have other plans for him, that way I will gain the loyalty of Sofia and possibly Carol.

After my moving talk with Sofia, I decided to visit the Dixon brothers who were arguing in their tent.

"So to make a long story short, the kid is stalking you?" I hear Daryl laughing inside his store. "My older brother, the great Merle Dixon being bullied by a mere kid."

"I'm serious, Darylina, that child is not just a normal child. You can see it in his eyes, I'm sure Shane sees right through him too." Merle says, however, I enter the tent with a smile startling Merle a little.

"Why are you talking about me behind my back, Merle? That's a bit rude of you considering I saved your life on that scary roof." I say crossing my arms and looking at Merle.

"What the hell do you want demon child?" Merle protests. "Can't you see I'm talking to my brother?"

"Oh, are you Merle's brother? I should have guessed, you look like him, although I guess you're smarter. My name is Justin and I saved your brother's life in the city." I say quickly walking over to Daryl while ignoring Merle.

Daryl laughs a little. "You may be right about that, boy. My name is Daryl Dixon, younger brother to Merle, and let me thank you for saving my brother's ass on that roof." Daryl gives me a handshake.

"He didn't save me." Merle protests pushing me a little away from his brother.

"You were sobbing and begging for someone to save you, Merle. I was your hero." I say biting back a giggle, as Daryl just pops open a beer.

"Would you like some?" Daryl offers me a beer. Is he offering a kid beer? I shake my head, though.

"No thanks, I prefer a soda." I say looking inside the shop, there are quite a few arrows and some traps, although the place smells a bit rancid.

"Why are you here?" Merle asks dryly. "I highly doubt you came just to say hi."

"You're absolutely right about that, Merle. I've come because I need your help. Remember our deal, Merle, no matter how strange my orders seem. I don't think the Dixons break deals, their dignity wouldn't be worth anything if they did." I say as I begin to sway on myself, at this, both brothers stare at me. Daryl scrunches up his face and Merle just stares at me.

"What the fuck do you want?" Merle says through gritted teeth.

The smile on my face caused both brothers to open their eyes wider, this smile is not the smile of a child. It is the smile of a predator.

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After a few minutes, I walk out of the Dixon brothers' store with my backpack heavier than before.

"You were right Merle." Daryl comments to Merle under his breath as I walk out of the store, however, I hear him.

I walk around a bit and watch as Carol is giving classes to the other kids at camp. I decided to quickly get away from that area, I don't want to be dragged into it. However, on my walk I collided with a person, causing me to fall to the ground on my butt.

"You should pay more attention to your surroundings, little one." Shane offers me a hand, and I take his hand and he helps me up. "I wanted to talk with you. Follow me." Shane puts his hand on my shoulder and begins to lead me to the nearby lake.

"You are quite a celebrity in the camp, you know that? They call you a hero." Shane says as we pull up to the shore of the lake.

"I did not know it. I am in trouble?" I asked childishly tilting my head slightly.

"I don't know Justin, you tell me. How could such a small child easily kill a walker?" Shane crosses his arms as he assesses me. "Don't get me wrong, I'm really thankful that you protected Carl, he's like a son to me."

"My dad." It's all I say before I sit on the floor. "He is a military man stationed at a military base in Japan, before all this started, he taught me to defend myself and the people I care about." I say while I sigh a little. Let's dispel any suspicions about me. "Carl says insurance is alive and looking for me." I say with a sad little laugh. "I'm sure if we ever ran into him he'd try to eat me alive."

Shane is silent for a few moments before he sits on the ground next to me. "I didn't know your father was in the military, that explains why you know some things you shouldn't know." Shane says looking at the lake.

"You should teach Carl to defend himself, if you really care about him, you won't always be there to protect him, none of us will be." I also say looking towards the lake when Shane just hits the ground with his fist. Looks like I hit the target.

"Damn, I know that!" Shane exclaims. "Do you think I don't think every day that we will be attacked by a horde and outmatched? That I will see Carl and Lori die in front of my eyes." Shane puts his face in his hands. "I try to keep everyone alive, however, it's nothing more than a security sham."

I tilt my head a little. "What will you do about it then Shane?" After my question, Shane just stays silent, while I stand up.

"Justin." Shane says with a small smile. "I guess you're not a bad boy after all." I just nod and when I turn around a smile of my own spreads across my face as I leave Shane behind.

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A few minutes later I am walking alone through the woods with my backpack, I am a few minutes walk from the camp when Ed Peletier, Carol's husband and Sofia's father appear waiting for me sitting on a rock.

"What the fuck are you doing here? Did Merle send you?" Ed is surprised to see me and then asks narrowing his eyes, at this, I just nod my head quickly.

"No one followed you?" Ed asks looking in all directions.

"No one followed me, don't worry." I say waving my hands dismissively. Immediately afterward, I take out of my backpack a small plant, it is a fungus. "Merle told me to hand this over to you." I said while shrugging my shoulders.

Ed quickly walks over to me and grabs the mushroom off my hands before consuming it. "Can I ask you a question?" I said tilting my head a little.

"No, now get out of here or I'll beat you up." Ed growls

A dark smile spreads across my face. "Just how do you hit Sofia and your wife?" I say with my hands behind my head.

"That's none of your fucking business, damn kid." Ed says walking up to me before falling to his knees clutching his throat. The fungus had its effect. Ed falls to the ground unable to move.

"You seem thirsty." I say taking out a bottle of alcohol from my backpack. "Let me help you hahaha." I start to laugh as I uncap the bottle and start spraying the liquid all over Ed as he begins to gasp for breath.

I crouch down next to him as I lean in close to his ear. "In the series you died while a walker tore you apart and ate you alive, however, I do not want to dirty my clothes. So you will only drown in alcohol. I whisper making Ed's eyes widen in horror.

I toss the bottle aside and pull the last bottle out of my backpack, this time opening Ed's mouth and beginning to pour out all the liquid, plugging his nose in the process, causing him to drown in alcohol. The last thing Ed saw was my smile.

I stand up as I now look at Ed's body on the floor with two bottles of alcohol at his side.

The mushroom I gave Ed is not fatal, however, it paralyzes the body for a few minutes, long enough to drown it in alcohol. The fungus along with the bottles was supplied by the Dixon brothers.

I hear a noise behind me and Daryl appears aiming his crossbow at me followed by Merle.

"I should have assumed the Dixons would be undetectable if it comes to woods." I say sighing slightly. "Congratulations Dixon brothers, you are now an accomplice to a murder." I say with a giggle opening my hands theatrically. "They could intervene at any time, however, they did not."

"You committed murder." Daryl says pointing his crossbow at me. However, Merle puts his hand on the crossbow causing Daryl to lower it.

"Why can't adult minds see what's in front of them?" I said tilting my head a little kicking Ed's body. "I didn't kill a person. I killed a monster, not unlike a walker." I say waving my hands. "For Sofía, he was a monster." At my words, both brothers fall silent as they look at each other.

According to the series, their father, Will Dixon, beat them relentlessly, causing several scars on their bodies, they must feel identified knowing that Ed was not so different from his father.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck Merle." Daryl exclaims pointing the crossbow at me again and then lowering it and walking quickly towards me, taking my hand. "None of us have been to this part of the woods, none of us have seen Ed Peletier, okay?" Daryl comments as we walk down another path. "You were with us the whole time checking the rabbit traps on the other side of the forest." Daryl says as he holds my hand and leads me through the woods.

"Merle let's go." Daryl yells at Merle who had been staring at Ed's body.

"You know little brother if someone had done that to our dear father, we would consider that person our hero." Merle says quietly before patting Daryl on the back.

"Remember when he would come home from work drunk and start hitting you?" Merle says as we walk away from the area.

"You were starting to insult him so he would hit you instead of me," Daryl comments, squeezing my hand.

"Do they need me to leave them alone so they can cry? Or they can hug me and cry, it's quite a popular option nowadays." I say biting back a smile when Merle just taps me on the head.

"You will come with us, there are rabbits to catch." Daryl says with a small smile on his face.

Should I mention that Ed will become a walker? Na, most likely he will show up later with the horde attacking the camp.

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Later we returned to camp with a couple of rabbits, pretty much all I did was follow the Dixon brothers as they checked the traps, nothing exciting.

"Guys." Carol walks up to us, I can see Daryl tensing at this. "Guys, have you seen my husband?" Carol asks us concerned. To this, I respond quickly.

"Nope, we were hunting rabbits, look we caught 2 rabbits." I say waving my hand at the rabbits Merle is holding in his hand. Carol just gives me a smile and continues looking for her husband.

"Justin, Justin, where have you been?" Carl appears running in front of me with Sofia.

"Hunting rabbits together with the Dixon brothers." I say to Carl who looks at me with envy in his eyes, he must have spent his day studying. Poor him.

"Hey, Sophia." I say as I walk up to her, right in her ear. "Looks like your dad left camp. I doubt very much that he will hit you and your mom again." I whisper to Sofia, at this, she only opens her eyes in shock and then hugs me.

"I don't understand anything." Carl says scratching his head.

"It's a secret." I reply with a smile on my face as Sofia cries a little on my shoulder.

"Enough drama, I'm going to the lake to take a dip before dark, do you guys want to come?" I say separating Sofia from me, before this, they ascend with their heads.

In the end only Carl came since Sofia was not allowed to come. We had to come accompanied by an adult, Shane offered to watch us while we were at the lake. "They will not leave my sight and will only be near the shore, they are not allowed to go to the deep end." Shane explains.

Andrea was on the lake with Amy in a small boat fishing. Shane leaned against a tree while he kept an eye on us. I was left in just my underwear and took a dip, Carl walked in soon after and we started trying to catch fish with our hands failing miserably. We heard the laughter of Andrea and Amy as they watched us.

"Don't make fun of us." I say as I cross my arms, Carl imitates me shortly after.

"Come on kids don't bother." Andrea says paddling to shore and getting off her boat handing some fish to Shane. "Shane you can take this to camp, we can babysit for a while." Andrea says as Shane just huffs and walks away from her with a basket of fish.

"Andrea, don't you want to come to bathe with us? We are bored." I say raising my hands in the air to get the point across.

"Sorry kids, I'm not wearing a bathing suit." Andrea says.

"I thought you were funnier Andrea, turns out you're boring." I say as I start booing her along with Carl who is just laughing at her and then we start splashing water towards her to get her wet. However, we stop when a hand grabs us by our shoulders, we turn quickly and Amy appears behind us with a smile that promises pain. When did she get into the lake? we didn't hear her splash. In that, she begins to tickle us underwater.

"Stop, stop Justin help me." Carl pleads as he laughs, I just swim away from him a bit until I bump into another person, it was Andrea now in the lake with us in front of me with her arms crossed.

"You see... it was all Carl's idea, he's the mastermind, I'm just a poor victim." I tell Andrea with my best innocent face, however, she just shakes her head and lunges at me and starts tickling me.

"Sto… stop, this is embarrassing." I say while starting to laugh. "At least, at least say 'Ara Ara' hahaha." At my words, Andrea only became more aggressive with her tickling.

Shortly after Carl and I ended up lying on the shore catching our breath. "Justin, my lungs hurt and I think I saw Amy's boob," Carl says, holding his stomach.

"I saw more than that Carl, trust me." I say laughing softly.

"Why do you two look so pitiful?" Shane walks over to us with a couple of towels.

"We don't want to talk about it." We both answer at the same time before laughing a bit.

Shane just shakes his head and watches the sisters laughing at us. He then throws the towels in our faces. "Dry off and get dressed, dinner is almost ready. Not every day we can have venison for dinner." Shane says with a smile, this motivates us to get up and start getting dressed. I starve.

After we dry off and get dressed, Shane leads us to the camp where some of the main characters are eating dinner.

"Oh, but look who's here, the resident hero." Glenn says ruffling my hair as I walk over. "Thanks to Justin the walker didn't infect the deer we're eating." Glenn says eating a piece of venison with a smile on his face.

"A very brave young man, I haven't had a chance to thank you for protecting Carl this morning. Carl looks up to you, you know that?" Lori says handing me a plate of food.

"Mom, you promised not to tell!" Carl yells red-faced looking away from me as he grabs his plate of food. At this, I laughed a bit along with the other adults.

"Rick I can't find Ed anywhere." Carol interrupts the conversation as she hugs Sofia.

"Don't worry Carol, if he doesn't show up tonight, we'll look for him in the morning." Rick says reassuring a worried Carol.

"Most likely he is drunk, not far from camp." Shane says waving his hands dismissively.

"Miss Lori, Miss Carol." I say with a bit of food in my mouth, which makes me look cute. "Can Carl and Sofia come to a sleepover tonight in the trailer?" I ask with my puppy dog eyes. "Please please please."

"You'll have to ask Dale's permission first." Shane interrupts me. At this, I change my view and look at Dale who is near us eating in silence. I walk quickly in front of him. "Grandpa Dale, will you please leave us?" Dale coughs a little and now everyone is looking at him.

"I guess so, it's possible." Dale says, before this, I hug him surprising him a little. "Thank you Grandpa." I say laughing a little.

Later I find myself invading Dale's RV while I jump on his bed with Carl and Sofia.

"You know when you told me you wanted to have a sleepover with your friends I didn't think you'd jump on the bed." Dale just sighs and walks out of the RV grumbling about wayward kids and cheeky grandkids while I just stick my tongue out at him.

"Justin, I have a question." Andrea asks me as she sits on the couch next to her sister Amy. "Why can't we go out? and why did the Dixon brothers move their tents right next to the trailer? Andrea asks me raising an eyebrow to which I just give her a smile.

"I had a bad feeling, that's all and someone has to take care of us that's why you two are here as VIP guests at this sleepover." I say laughing a little. "And the Dixon brothers are just standing guard next to Dale." I say nodding to myself before jumping back on the bed next to Carl and Sofia.

Because Merle was not left on the roof, the group never returned to Atlanta for the weapons, Glenn was never kidnapped by the vatos, and the group stuck together. However, a horde of walkers will attack tonight killing many people along the way.

Because the group didn't go for weapons, the people in the camp don't have many weapons or ammunition, so I'll keep my future minions close to me.

Carl and Sofia practically admire me, so they will be very useful in the future, the Dixon brothers I already have them on my side and I doubt that their pride will allow them to betray me anytime soon. As for Andrea and Amy, they adore me as their cute little brother.

Adore me, love me, and when the time of your life comes for me.

"Walkers!" I hear Dale scream from above the RV, it makes everyone inside the RV freeze except for me.

Daryl quickly runs over to the trailer and points a finger at Andrea. "You guys stay inside, no one comes out. Close the damn door!" Daryl exclaims before walking out with his crossbow at the ready.

"Looks like it's not going to be an easy night, little brother." I hear Merle say outside the RV before the shots start.

Andrea hugs Amy as she is startled by the gunshots. "Don't worry kids, we'll be safe." Andrea says giving us a forced smile.

"Don't be scared Carl, Sofia, I'm here, your amazing older brother won't let anything happen to you." I say with a smile as Carl and Sofia just hug me before starting to cry.

"I believe you, you are my hero." Sofia says.

"Mine as well." Carl quickly intervenes.

Hero I? If only they knew children… if only they knew.

My smile widens when I look out one of the windows, dozens of walkers approaching the trailer.

Tonight will be interesting, of that there is no doubt.