The horrifying confirmation of Beth's faith stopped Merle in his tracks. The abrupt move made his foot slip but he managed to straighten himself just in time to not fall.

"Fuck!" he swore.

"Quiet," Daryl hissed.

Merle was about to shout at him to shove his rebukes up his ass but shut his mouth when he saw Daryl having his crossbow at ready, stalking quietly to the side motioning to the open space at the end of the wall dividing the big room into two areas. Merle forced himself to not look back at Beth since she couldn't be helped anymore and moved to follow his brother.

They trod carefully around the mess on the floor, to not give away their location, moving closer and closer when Merle's eyes shot to Daryl. He heard it too now, the muffled whimper coming from the other side. Before either of them had a chance to do anything though Andrew suddenly emerged from the opening and sprinted around them in the direction of the door leading to the hallway.

Daryl bolted after him. When he got to the now open door he saw Axel already chasing after Andrew screaming for the others upstairs to block him. Hearing response from Rick, Daryl decided there are enough people going after Andrew while his brother would stay alone in the generator room where Tomas most likely was still hiding.

He was about to turn when he spotted Oscar at the other end of the hallway and motioned for him to come join them. Oscar pointed to the door in front of him and made a gesture between his eyes and said door to communicate he's gonna check it out. Then he motioned between himself and Daryl, to let him know he'll come after that. Daryl nodded his understanding and went to back.

Beth was still snapping her mouth uselessly, trying to bite something. Daryl watched her for a moment before he got annoyed and marched right to her, shouldering his crossbow he took out his knife and was about to shove it into her brain when Merle's voice stopped him.

"Wait," Merle whisper-shouted, "don't, just- don't."

"What? You wanna have her here snapping at us?" Daryl hissed back.

Merle shook his head, but before he could reply they heard another muffled whimper and a muffled cry that followed right after. Forgetting their argument about Beth, they both moved to the opening. Merle peeked around the wall into the other part of the room.

Tomas was there, just as they expected. He was trying silently the small windows, which apparently wouldn't budge, and he was dragging Amy behind him. She had her hands tied behind her back and some rag secured in her mouth by another one. One look at the state of her clothes, or rather the lack of it made it quite clear what Tomas or maybe both of them managed to do to her before they were found.

At least she was still alive.

Merle pointed for Daryl where was Tomas standing and whispered so quietly it seemed he only mouthed the words.

"I only saw a knife in his hand, didn't see the gun."

Daryl nodded and responded in the same manner, "don't mean he doesn't have it. The girl?"

"She's there, alive."

"Okay, we are not letting him go, that clear? If she walks away okay, fine. If he'd want to use her as a leverage we are not letting him," Daryl said, his face serious as ever.

There was no way he was chancing letting the asshole go and risking him hurting Lumen.

"Agreed," Merle grunted. Not that he wished for Amy to die, but he was not about to let him walk away either.

They walked around the corner, crossbow, and gun at ready.

Their movements caused Tomas to turn around abruptly and jerked Amy in front of him as a human shield. "Stay where you are!" He shouted, "or I'll slit her throat."

"Oh yeah?" Daryl smirked, "and what you'd do next, dumbass. I don't give a shit about her. I just want to see you dead." The smirk on his face only grew bigger. "I bet my brother here would take a round with her too if he had the chance, so go on, kill her, let's see what happens next."

Merle wore his poker face, not giving away anything. He saw Amy's eyes go even wider which didn't seem to be even possible a second ago with how frightened she looked. She was shaking like a leaf too.

Thomas, on the other hand, looked just baffled by this answer. His hand lowered as his mind worked out what he just heard. He had no idea if Daryl was bluffing or not.

That little drop that caused the knife move away from Amy's neck was all Daryl needed though. He let the bolt fly and it sunk into Tomas' shoulder. He cried out and stumbled back cutting Amy's right arm in the process before he dropped the knife completely.

The sudden loss of the support of his arm resulted in her collapsing to the ground as her legs wouldn't keep her up. She tried to crawl away as fast as she could with her hands tied until she hit the corner where she stayed, watching the men in the room with wide eyes.

Tomas landed against the wall behind him moving his left hand to the injured shoulder as if to tug the bolt out but Daryl was already there. He slapped Tomas hand away and roughly turned him to his side, ignoring his painful cries and held his hands with his own at a painful angle. Daryl then leaned closer and hissed in Tomas' ear.

"No, no, no, we can't take that out. We wouldn't want you to bleed out too quickly now, would we? Because I've got a feeling my brother is out for a lot more blood." He chuckled darkly before turning his head to check on Amy.

It looked like Merle was trying to talk to her but she was hysterical, kicking at him, crying, and shaking her head violently. It looked like she didn't think they were bluffing at all.

"It's alright, I just wanna help you." Merle was repeating over and over from his spot, not moving any closer, but it seemed she didn't hear him at all.

At that moment Oscar rounded the corner.

"Axel said Rick, T, Glenn, and Maggie took over chasing Andrew. But he wanted to stay by the door leading to the cleared area just in case..." he trailed off, his eyes landed on Amy who quietened a bit after hearing his voice and was now staring at him. Her eyes red and puffy from all the crying. She was a mess.

"Why, um, why won't you take that pig to the other room?" Oscar suggested.

Tomas opened his mouth but Daryl made him howl in pain instead of whatever bullshit he was about to let out of his mouth with one hard squeeze of his shoulder. Catching on what Oscar wanted, he motioned with his head for Merle to go with him.

At first, Oscar thought he'll do better without Tomas, who obviously hurt her, and Merle, who was obviously upsetting her further, in the room. But once he was alone with her he didn't quite know what to do, or how to approach her.

They could hear Merle and Daryl were busy with the scumbag on the other side of the wall. The voices, especially the one that worked as a reminder certainly didn't help with calming her down.

She started to sob quietly and curled her legs in front of her in a futile attempt to hide her body. The only thing she had still on was the rest of her shirt, that lingered on her shoulders after the front was torn or cut open.

Well at least she's stopped kicking around, Oscar thought, not really sure if he should talk to her or not. He didn't want to set her off again, but he couldn't leave her on the cold floor forever either.

So he made up his mind, "Amy?" He called her name in a hoarse voice.

Her eyes lifted to him instantly but that was the only response he got. So far so good, still no hysterics. He raised his hands palm up and made a step in her direction, but seeing her body tense he stopped.

"Hey now, we are friends, right? I wouldn't hurt you." He almost choked on the words. Seeing Beth in the other room and now this. He heard the stories but actually seeing it, it was a bit too much for him. He gulped several times before he tried again.

"I have to get you out of here alright?" He looked around and seeing the abandoned knife on the floor he pointed to it. He watched her eyes follow where his finger was pointing and after seeing it they shot back to him. "I gotta cut the ties," he explained, "I can give you my shirt if you let me, I just want to get out of here."

She searched his face for a moment and something snapped in her. Maybe it was seeing how uncomfortable he looked himself, maybe it was just his presence, but suddenly the only thing she wanted was to get off of this filthy floor.

So she nodded urgently, her eyes shifting between him and the blade laying by.

Oscar let out a breath he wasn't even aware of holding and moved to grab the knife, his face staying turned in Amy's direction. He then walked to her and knelt by her side motioning for her to turn her back to him, which she did right away. He proceeded to cut the clothes that were holding her hands. It took a minute because it was tight and digging into her skin, and he didn't want to cut her.

Once he was done she moved her arms in front of her hissing in pain when one of the shoulders wouldn't move right. She used the other hand to tear off the rags from her mouth and tried to spit out the nauseating taste, but her mouth was dry. She took several deep breaths before she turned her head back to Oscar who was still kneeling behind her. She looked into his eyes, then her gaze slid down to his chest, or rather to his undershirt.

"Can I have that shirt now, please," she asked softly and his heart about broke hearing the polite question after the ordeal she went through.

"Yeah, yes of course," he said, already peeling the wifebeater from his body.

She took it from him and put it on instantly. Amy wasn't exactly small, but he still dwarfed her, and so his shirt went low enough to give her the feeling of being covered. When she was done he stood up and offered her his hand to help her up, which she accepted without any hesitation. Once she got on her feet though, her knees buckled and he caught her just in time before she fell.

"Alright, up you go." He went to take her to his arms to carry her.

"No, wait," she stopped him, "from the other side," she nodded to her right, and then explained further seeing his questioned look, "my left shoulder hurts."

"The cut on the right arm gonna sting though," he warned moving around her while still holding her up, "I'm sweaty."

She looked down at her body before she replied, "I don't think that will bother me more than anything else that's hurting right now."

"Right." He decided he better stop talking.

Carefully lifted her up and after making sure she was secured in his arms he moved out.

When they rounded the corner he saw that in a mean time Daryl and Merle tied Tomas to a pipe leading by the wall, the bolt still in his shoulder. He moved around what used to be Beth so Amy's back was to her. He debated if he should warn her not to look, but glancing down he saw she had no intention to do so. Her head was bowed, her stare fixed on her hands resting in her lap.

He nodded at the brothers and hurried out of the room. On the stairs, he bumped into the rest of the search party. Amy didn't look up, she didn't acknowledge them at all.

"Andrew?" Oscar asked immediately.

"Dead," Rick answered, "he ran right into the walkers in the yard."

"Beth?" Maggie asked, her horrified eyes scanning Amy's body.

Oscar shook his head, "I wouldn't go down there either if I were you. Dixons got it under control."

But Maggie didn't listen. She was already running down the stairs and Glenn rushed after her, trying to convince her not to go.

Oscar looked at the remaining men still blocking his way. They all realized that fact at the same time and moved to the side, and unlike Maggie, they looked anywhere but Amy. Both reactions made Oscar angry for some reason. He huffed and took the stairs by two to be away from them as fast as possible.

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Back in the room, Tomas realized pretty quickly he was not getting out of this and decided to spend his last moments by annoying the hell out of both Dixon brothers. He taunted them, and teased them, he was saying disgusting things about both Amy and Beth, and while Daryl was fully prepared for some kind of ramble and intended to wait it out, as it was a quite usual phenomenon among his victims, Merle's blood started to boil after the second sentence.

He marched to Tomas and with one well-aimed blow he knocked him out. He was breathing fast and as much as he tried to calm himself, he wasn't successful. He turned to Daryl who was standing calm as a cucumber at the side and asked, for the very first time in their whole lives.

"How do you do this?"

Daryl raised his eyebrows in a mild surprise but answered anyway, "you just have to wait. Most of them go through this tough phase, but it'll pass eventually. There's where the fun begins, I usually have a beer during the boring rambling and tune them out," he explained lazily.

Merle stared at him for a moment trying to stop his brain from processing how dismissing and casual Daryl was about people he killed. This exactly was the reason why he chose to turn his back on this matter and never even attempted discussing it with his brother. Because they might be assholes, as Daryl put it, but what does that even mean for Daryl?

He hates all humankind. That doesn't mean all the other people were just waiting for Daryl's picking when he decided they deserve to die. It was as if there was a "to kill" list in his head and everybody on the planet was on that list. Some lower, some higher but everybody was on it. Except for Lumen and apparently him on occasion.

This particular asshole in front of them was another case entirely. One glance at the still swaying and snapping blond corps behind him was a reminder strong enough to forget about other people. The anger flowing through his veins made him close his eyes and ask again. The question he really wanted to know.

"No, I mean, how do you kill them, to let them suffer. I want this fucker to suffer."

Daryl shrugged. "I dunno, I don't think I ever made anyone suffer much, to be honest. Well maybe that Impala guy," he said more to himself than to Merle before motioning to Tomas, "you wanna make this one suffer? Go ahead, I'll let you have him. You seem to be in need of letting out some steam anyway." Daryl smiled, actually smiled, "You know how the body works."

Merle was perplexed by the whole situation. He felt as if he just entered Twilight Zone because he realized that he did want to make the scum suffer. He was actually looking forward to it. It was true that Merle was no stranger to inflicting pain, but it was always more like beat up someone to get money back or scare someone into doing something. Now though, he was more than ready to break Tomas every finger just as an appetizer.

Daryl, on the other hand, was not unsettled in the slightest. He enjoyed every second of this. It was like his brother was seeing him clearly for the first time and what was even better, they were together in this, really together. He could see it in Merle's eyes. He was ready.

"You know," Daryl continued, "I think that little Beth here is hungry, maybe we could save some of him for her to snack on," he suggested, waiting for Merle's reaction. For a second he looked as if he was going to be sick, but it passed and his eyes hardened.

"I think you're right. She could use a snack." Merle's eyes slid behind him on the small figure he tried to avoid since they entered the room again.

"But not right away," Daryl said, leaning against the wall behind him, "he'd bleed out too fas-" he was cut off by the door being open and arguing voices.

Maggie walked in but halted in her steps as soon as she saw the hanging body. Her knees almost gave away. Glenn grabbed her arms to steady her, but she swatted his hands away and stumbled toward her sister. She reached out but jerked her hand away when the walker that was once her little sister tried to bite her outstretched fingers off.

"Why did you leave her like this?!" Maggie shouted at the two of them, her eyes full of tears. She was about to pull her knife out when Merle stopped her.

"Don't do it! Not yet."

"What?" she shrieked, a look of disbelief on her face, "Are you serious right now?"

At that point, Rick, T-Dog, and Axel entered the room as well. They all took the scene in front of them in. T-Dog turned around and walked out almost immediately. Axel cursed under his breath and followed him, not really wanting to see the girl or whatever was about to happen to Tomas. Rick inspected the situation and then his gaze fell to the ground.

"What about the other one?" Merle asked.

Rick raised his head then, "Dead."

"Good." Merle nodded.

Maggie was about to say something else but Daryl pushed himself from the wall motioning for her to wait and moved closer. He stopped right next to her and said quietly.

"I know you probably don't want to, but look at her body. You see the blood? Look closely, it's everywhere. And it was that man's doing," he pointed at Tomas, "he cut her and broke her bones and I would bet my life he raped her in all ways a man can."

Maggie turned to him, anger in her eyes. Yes. That's what he wanted to see. He cut in before she managed to say anything.

"Now we, me and my brother, we're going to make him suffer for that and that's why we need you to leave your sister as she is for a little longer," he waited if it'll sink in and when she looked more confused than anything else he clarified, "we want to feed him to her... while he watches."

After that statement, Glenn's skin lost several shades of color. He turned around and quickly left the room, looking rather sick.

Maggie lost that confused look and her face hardened. She didn't spare a glance to the monster that humiliated, mutilated and murdered her sister. She kept the eye contact with Daryl and saw he meant every word. Maggie wasn't a violent person, but at this particular moment, all she wanted was for Daryl and Merle to do exactly what he said.

"You'll bring her to me after." It was more of a statement than a question but Daryl nodded anyway. And so Maggie looked one last time at her sister, nodded, and then turned to leave the room.

When she neared the door Rick caught her arm, "Are you seriously leaving? They are gonna torture him. Are you okay with that?"

Maggie shook his hand off of her before answering, "Are you seriously asking that question? Look at her!" she hissed while pointing behind her at Beth's body.

Rick rubbed his face, "I know what he did, believe me, I do see it. But let's just shoot him then."

"You do whatever you want Rick, I'm leaving," she said and did just that.

Rick looked from Merle to Daryl, his hand itching above the revolver in the holster by his thigh. But a flesh of Amy curled in Oscar's arms and the everlasting snapping sound of Beth's jaws somehow shut up whatever argument he had for the mercy of quick kill for Tomas. Without another word, he left the room too.

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It took quite some time before Tomas regained consciousness again. Merle asked about the most effective ways to hurt him and keep him alive for as long as possible, but Daryl said it will be better to discuss that when he'll wake up. And so they just waited.

After some time, they Daryl proposed to rearrange Tomas around the pipes for better access to certain parts. Merle helped him do that without questions. At one point Daryl even went to the cafeteria for something to drink and eat. Although Merle refused the food he was looking forward to the water.

While he was waiting for Daryl to return he took out the plastic bottle with the rest of the pills. He debated taking one for this. Thinking it would help if he got cold feet after all. But then he looked at the blond and felt almost as if it were mocking him for this weakness and blaming him at the same time. At the end, he put it back in his pocket. He had to get rid of it. Maybe he'd give it to Lumen to do whatever with it. Daryl came back soon after and they waited together.

First thing Tomas was aware of was shooting pain in his head. He tried to reach for it only to realize he couldn't move his hand. He looked to his right to find his arm outstretched and tied to the pipe in four places. He looked to his left to find his left arm secured in the same way. He looked around and it didn't take his brain long to catch up.

He wanted to smirk at Merle but he couldn't quite get his muscles to listen to him and he felt like throwing up. Which he almost did.

"Watch out for puking, I think you gave him a concussion," Daryl said from his spot by the wall. Tomas began to chuckle.

"You two are just amateurs. Go fuck yourself, look at that," he nodded to Beth, "that's how it's done."

Merle did look at Beth and his blood started to boil again. But Daryl got through to him before he even moved.

"Ignore him. It's just false bravado. He knows he's fucked, he just wants you to snap and do it fast," Daryl smirked and looking right in Tomas' eyes he added, "which we won't." He then focused on his brother, "you got the hands ready, you can start there, just don't cut yet, we wouldn't want to lose him too soon," Daryl suggested since Merle, although pissed, looked kinda lost.

Merle stepped closer trying to tune down the bullshit coming out of Tomas' mouth and stared at his right hand. It's easy to say start, but start how? When suddenly he saw Daryl appear beside him and he had pushed aside, not harshly. "Here," Daryl said quietly as if he was just helping him open a can or something and then he took Tomas little fingers and bent it until they heard a sickening crack. Tomas words turned to a piercing scream and Daryl stepped back motioning for his brother to take over. Which he did.

At the back of his mind Merle realized that Daryl must have done this before. He said he didn't let his victims suffer but at one point he must have experimented. He was too sure, there was a patern her followed. At this moment, Merle didn't care.

Tomas passed out between sixth and seventh finger and so they waited for him to wake up only to start again. When they were done dislocating his fingers Daryl pointed to his toes to which Merle said, "there is no way I'm going anywhere near his feet."

"Fair enough," Daryl shrugged and handed Merle pliers he found while waiting on Tomas to wake, "the nails then."

And so Merle took the tool and moved back to Tomas right hand, only now they didn't have to wait for him to pass out too long. He did after the second nail was out.

Merle and Daryl spent more water to splash Tomas than to drink it. But after some time Tomas was successfully nailless. He was hanging there, being held up by the restraint on his arms, drooling on the ground and only whined and moaned. The bravado persona inside him has died.

"I was thinking," Daryl started, "I ate all that food and we let our guest here starving, how rude of us."

Tomas just whimpered, his thoughts nowhere near food, he was feeling sick, not hungry.

"Look at her," Daryl continued, "she looks like she could use a bite of something, right?"

At that Tomas head shot up at that, "No, no, no, no, no....." he chanted over and over while Daryl tightened a rope around his thigh and showed Merle where to cut.

The screaming wouldn't stop and Merle himself started to feel his own stomach turn a bit, but he got the job done. He held the flesh he removed in front of Tomas' face, feeling sickeningly satisfied by the horror filled wide stare he received from him. He then held it out for Daryl who was up until now watching the scene with hungry eyes. It never occurred to him how much he would like to watch instead of doing.

Daryl pushed himself off and took the meat from his brother. He knew it was difficult for Merle to see the girl like that and he was sure it would be impossible for him to feed her on top. Daryl himself didn't have those inhibitions. He bent down a bit so he could catch Tomas' eyes.

"I think our girl over there must be starving, don't you think? Waiting for your sorry ass to wake up and all," he taunted, "I'm gonna give her a treat for her trouble."

One would think it wasn't even possible, but Tomas' eyes went even wider and as he watched, almost transfixed, how Daryl waved the meat from his own leg in front of the walker's face as if he was playing with a dog before he let her have it his stomach gave up and he threw up. Merle managed to leap aside just in time to not get any of it on him.

"Hey, Merle, I think she's still hungry, how about one more steak for the lady?"

"Sure thing," Merle said with feigned enthusiasm. He squatted down and leaned against the wall to slice another piece. He went for the side of the thigh this time, not wanting to step into the vomit on the floor. The smell was disgusting enough.

He started to cut again only this time, Tomas passed out again. Daryl took the meat anyway and fed it to walker Beth while Merle tried very hard not to think about how disturbing that scene was.

"Are we going to kill him now?" Merle asked, sounding rather calm. "I'm kinda tired and it's annoying to wait for him to wake up all the time."

Daryl looked at him, he wanted to strangle Tomas himself, but this was Merle's time, he wouldn't take the final from him, so he shrugged, "sure if you wanna."

Merle didn't wait, he just drove the knife through Tomas' head. He then walked to Daryl and did the same with Beth causing her body to go limp. Finally. 

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Hope you enjoyed the chapter :-) until next time xxx