The woman who was pleading intensely was about to give up due to the lack of time, but inexplicably, when she heard Merle's words, she couldn't help but feel eternally grateful. She held her savior's hand tightly and then pushed the girl next to her towards the man who offered to help.
The little girl's head shook like a rattle, trying to say that she couldn't stay with Merle, but the woman didn't give her that chance.
"Don't be stubborn!"
The impatient woman about her situation directly slapped the girl in the face, looked at her with tearful eyes, but she had a determined expression on her face, and the two were left at a standstill, not knowing what to do.
Merle was casually eating his last bite of snake meat, turned his head and saw that dramatic scene. He wiped his teeth with his nail before saying, "Hey, what's your name?"
The woman and the girl who were arguing fiercely did not expect that the bitter old man would suddenly speak, so they both fell silent, but the infected woman responded quickly:
"I am Elena..."
Merle just nodded and then pointed to the girl with the tip of his knife, obviously asking for her name.
Elena quickly patted the girl, but she just glared angrily and stubbornly at Merle, so Elena sighed. She knew this girl's temperament very well, and she was very stubborn, but now, fighting was just a waste of time, which she didn't have.
With her remaining strength, she drew the girl to her side and whispered something in her ear more calmly, but Merle saw how the girl's expression became increasingly gloomy, and finally, when she turned her head to look at Merle, she began to cry uncontrollably.
"Sir, her name is Henna Simon." After speaking, Elena pushed Henna towards Merle's side, and then felt more at ease, so she looked towards the distant darkness and began to retreat without saying another word.
Seeing Elena's figure leaving, the girl couldn't help but cry again. Merle didn't say a word, just looked at the woman's back silently, until he could no longer see her, he looked at Henna.
At first, she didn't want to talk, but seeing the devastated girl reminded him of his younger brother Daryl in some ways. He may have never been a good brother, but that doesn't mean he doesn't love his brother.
"Hanna, right? I'll call you that from now on. Since you'll be following me like a mouse to its cheese, I have to clarify some things to you, understand?"
Looking at the girl who lowered her head and didn't say anything, Merle didn't care what she responded, so he said directly: "The only thing you have to do is obediently fulfill everything I ask of you. I'm not a good person, but while you're with me, I'm sure you'll learn to survive, and don't worry, it won't be too difficult."
As someone who had lost someone important, Henna showed an incredibly curious expression. Elena's departure stimulated her a lot, so an unknown sense of anger exploded in her body.
Merle smiled and didn't continue talking, simply picking up the remaining piece of snake meat in front of the fire and tossing it directly in front of her.
"Fresh, with a pleasant smell!"
Hanna, who had been hungry for the past two days, unconsciously swallowed and her eyes, red from crying, were fixed on the snake on the ground.
"Eat. If you don't eat enough, you won't have the strength to work for me. I won't worry about you if you don't have enough strength to be of help."
Hanna's stomach growled for food, so she took the food directly and without further ado took a bite. Savoring the taste of the food, Hanna felt that salty sensation explode between the taste buds of her mouth, so she kept eating.
There was no expression on Merle's face, but he took a bottle of water from his backpack and threw it directly at the feet of this girl.
"Don't delay any longer in eating, you have to decide tomorrow whether to follow me or not. Let me clarify one point with you. You have to learn how to kill walkers and survive in nature, and if I don't teach you, it's something you necessarily have to learn on your own. Four eyes see better than two, listen before you see and mention what you see without listening. Following me is very dangerous, but in a world like this, that doesn't count."
Merle tried to be as tough as he could with this girl and left her thinking, then he got up from the fire to check the points he had in case a walker approached and they all seemed intact, so he returned to his camp.
At that moment, Hanna was already lying next to the fire with her eyes closed, Merle's eyes fixed on her for a moment, and then he lay back down on his simple bed made of wooden sticks.
...
A few minutes later, Hanna's voice suddenly sounded in Merle's ear. "You said you could teach me how to fight and survive, right?"
"That's not teaching you, I'll just show you how to do things, and it's up to you whether you learn or not..." Merle, who seemed to be asleep, responded with complete normality.
This is Hanna's chance to survive, and after staying silent, her eyes closed weakly and she succumbed to fatigue.
...
The next day, Merle patted the dry leaves off his body. The campfire had long since gone out, leaving only small pieces of burnt wood and a slight trace of white smoke.
Merle's eyes roamed the forest and finally settled on Hanna. The girl had not yet woken up and the morning temperature in the forest made her curl up like a ball.
The girl seemed to be having a nightmare, her face wrinkled and her body wriggled slightly.
Cough! Cough!
Merle cleared his throat and let out an exaggerated noise on purpose, as if his main intention was to wake Hanna up.
Hanna opened her eyes, sat up and saw Merle looking at her with a smile.
"Girl, if you hadn't had me last night, you would have died several times." After saying that, Merle reached out and pointed to the side, where there were several walkers lying on the ground.
Hanna didn't speak, she got up and straightened her clothes, and stood next to Merle without saying a word, but soon there was a grumble in her stomach, and she quickly reached out to cover it, and instead of leaving an indifferent appearance she felt a little embarrassed.
Merle stopped bothering her, simply packed his belongings, then picked up his backpack and planned to leave.
"Are you from that nearby town?"
"Yes..."
"What's going on there exactly?" Merle paused and stared at Hanna to tell her some serious words. "Do you want to live?"
When he saw Hanna nodding, Merle frowned and his eyes turned cold: "Listen, if you keep acting like that, you'll die in a few days. I don't care if you believe it or not, if you want to live, you must take extreme measures to prove it."
Merle said no more and moved on, at a slow pace to be aware of everything that was happening around him.
Hanna, on the other hand, followed them from behind like a duck, she seemed about to cry, but she endured it and quickly followed the old man.
She knew she wasn't far from the town last night so after walking for a few hours she could see the shadow of this town.
Hanna, who was walking behind, suddenly remembered what happened last night, with a hesitant expression on her face, but finally spoke: "Elena and I came face to face with a small horde of walkers. They bit her to protect me... After escaping from the town, we ran to the forest and saw a fire lit in the middle of nowhere, so we decided to approach you."
After listening to Hanna finally speak, Merle thought about it first, there were only about a dozen walkers, so calling it a small horde, but he worried it wasn't.
"Are there any survivors in the town?"
"There were no survivors when we left..."
Everything was difficult at first, and Hanna felt that the uncomfortable atmosphere between the two seemed to have dissipated a lot after saying this, at least she didn't feel so uncomfortable.
"Okay, then hurry to the town and look for supplies, as well as a car point, I'm already tired of walking..."