[A/N: Hello everyone.
Here's the final chapter of the Tales of Chaos.
I really wanted to keep writing them, but I felt like I was writing a new novel with each perspective.
Please support the novel by commenting, donating power stones, rating it, or donating bitcoins (hahaha)]
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Friday, November 20, 2026, somewhere on the outskirts of the city.
"Hey! Didn't I tell you to come back early with the stuff we need to sell today?", a man in his 50s complained to his brother over the phone.
"I still have to skin the deer," the brother replied directly, not caring about his brother's harsh tone.
"Why are you doing that? I told you we'd sell the antler to gather what's missing for that new crossbow you wanted. Come quickly or that stupid yellow monkey won't give us the money," the man said with a harsh tone, making a gesture of disgust when naming the buyer of the deer antler.
"Merle, watch your words or you'll ruin this sale. Besides, you were the one who spent the money on white powder and prostitutes," he told his brother ironically.
"Hahaha… Daryl, I told you not to trust anyone, especially drunk people," Merle reminded him after laughing.
"I trust you," Daryl murmured at the other end of the call.
"Alright, enough of this crap. Come back soon or I'll make your ass dance in the red-light district," Merle said, hanging up the call.
Merle put his phone in his pocket and looked around.
He was in a bar on the outskirts of the city, as this was where he would meet his brother to sell some things in the city.
They had been planning to buy a crossbow for Daryl with that money, since the last time they tried, Merle went out partying and ended up spending all the money.
Now he felt tempted again to do the same.
There was a blonde woman at the back of the bar who winked at Merle. He recognized this type of woman instantly. She was the typical woman with whom you have a good night and then you would wake up with barely your underwear on.
Merle was really tempted, even though the woman was not beautiful and young, she had curves where all should have them.
He was about to approach the woman when a news report appeared on the bar's television.
It showed the incidents of the previous day's protests and how the police, with military support, had managed to control them.
For a normal person, this news might be very common, but Merle was different from the rest.
He had lived his whole life surrounded by chaos, enjoying watching things burn, and generally provoking it. However, this chaos seemed very different from what he was used to.
Something inside him told him that this chaos would not be like the ones he enjoyed. He felt that this time he would have to navigate this wave of chaos very carefully, but at the same time, he felt like a child waiting for a toy.
This feeling did not just come from the news; this feeling was fueled by a fight he had a couple of days ago.
Two days ago.
Merle had been drunk most days, but that day he had felt especially irritable. When he left the bar and felt the urge to urinate, he approached an alley and began to urinate without any shame.
He was about to leave the alley after finishing, but he felt someone approaching from inside the alley.
Merle, annoyed, began to scold this person, but there was no reaction from their part. Merle, already furious, lunged at the man and gave him a direct punch to the jaw. However, to Merle's surprise, who thought he had knocked him out, this person got up as if nothing had happened.
Merle, even more annoyed, threw him to the ground and began to kick him. He only stopped when he felt a couple of his ribs breaking.
But to Merle's surprise, this person lunged at his leg and tried to bite his ankle area. However, Merle, as usual, wore tactical boots, so he was saved from a horrible fate.
Merle, who now felt his blood boiling, began to kick the man in the head. The brutality of each kick was immense; he felt bones breaking, but he did not stop until this man stopped moving.
After taking a few deep breaths, he noticed that he had got into trouble again, and this time, unlike the others, he would not just spend a couple of days detained. Now he could go to prison for many years.
He quickly left the alley looking for any potential witnesses, but fortunately, no one was nearby.
He spent a whole day hidden in a motel while Daryl investigated what happened with that assault case in which his brother was the protagonist.
To their surprise, they learned that the military had taken over that case and there were no intensive searches for the party responsible. However, both noticed that the situation was strange.
Merle, in particular, remembered feeling a sense of danger when he fought that guy in the alley. He had even felt the hairs on his back stand up when this man bit him.
Back to the present.
The blonde at the end of the bar approached him and sat beside him.
Merle was so focused on the news and his memories that he didn't notice the woman.
"You don't seem like the type of man who watches the news," the woman said to him in a flirtatious tone, as she tucked her hair behind her ear in a smooth, almost rehearsed movement.
"You think so? What kind of man do I seem like to you?", Merle said, moving closer to the woman.
"The problematic type, the one I wouldn't want to start a conversation with," the woman replied, moving away slightly, but winking in the process.
"It seems you've got it right. I'm exactly that kind of man."
"So, do you think I should stay away from you?", the woman asked him after taking a sip from her glass and provocatively licking her lips.
"I think...", he was about to continue his insinuations, but a phrase from the journalist on the television caught his attention.
"The military and the police state that the cases of violent attacks have nothing to do with the protests... They assure that everything will calm down soon and that the situation is completely under control...", said the journalist.
"The military says they have control?", Merle asked sarcastically. "Those bastards are probably already planning their retreat... Ever since those damn leftists started meddling in army affairs, they've become more and more cowardly," he angrily reflected.
"What were you saying?", the woman asked, noticing that Merle had focused on the news again.
"I...", Merle hesitated as he watched the blonde's figure. "I think I should go," he added with annoyance.
He left the bar, not without slamming the door shut.
"Damn it!", Merle cursed. "At least my little brother will get that crossbow he wanted so much."
Several hours later, downtown.
"Daryl, I told you that 'yellow monkey' would try to lower the price of the materials," Merle snapped angrily as he kicked a trash can in the street, attracting the attention of all passersby.
"You called the Asian guy a 'yellow monkey,' what did you expect?", Daryl commented, looking around and noticing the uncomfortable glances from the people near them.
"Hahaha… It's true, but I didn't think the bastard would be so sensitive," he commented with a mocking tone. "What are you looking at? Do you want to fight, bastard?", Merle asked a guy who had been listening to them all this time.
The man watching them looked at them with anger and contempt. Merle, with his irritable mood, exploded at the man.
The man, scared by Merle's displayed violence, simply moved away from both of them, avoiding being hit by Merle.
"Hahaha… Just as I thought, another coward," Merle commented, satisfied with the result of his intimidation.
"It looks like you want to spend some time in jail again… And this time I won't pay bail," Daryl said, ignoring the looks people around them kept giving him.
7:30 PM.
"You made me walk all over downtown just to buy a second-hand crossbow? Are you crazy?", Merle angrily asked his brother Daryl.
"The new crossbows were too expensive. Besides, I had to buy maintenance items and more arrows," Daryl replied with a curt tone.
"Ugh! Bastard, I could have spent that money having a good time with a blonde I met earlier," Merle snapped, pushing Daryl angrily.
Daryl looked at him angrily while clenching his fists.
"Do you want to hit me? Go ahead, do it if you have the guts," Merle challenged, approaching his brother threateningly.
Daryl just pushed him aside and kept walking with a large bag in his hand where the crossbow, arrows, and some boxes with spare parts were stored.
"Do you have any money left to go for some beers?", Merle asked him, following.
Daryl turned and looked at his brother, who just smiled as if it were nothing, took a slight breath to calm down, and said: "Yes... there's some left."
"Hahaha… I knew you wouldn't disappoint me."
"That's all you think about," Daryl muttered, annoyed.
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[A/N: Merle is sure to get Daryl into trouble in this apocalypse.]
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Half an hour later, in a downtown bar.
"We need to get out of here… Something strange is happening in the city," Daryl said, catching Merle's attention, who was drinking a beer.
"Hahaha… What could happen? The military is guarding the city," Merle commented ironically, his breath reeking of alcohol and his flushed face was proof of it.
"I don't care what you think. I'm leaving right now and I'm taking the money," Daryl threatened, grabbing his bag and leaving the bar.
"Stop!", Merle yelled at Daryl, his face now red, but from the anger he felt.
Daryl kept moving forward, ignoring his brother's annoying shouts.
As he walked, he carefully looked around. His instincts, honed by a life full of danger, warned him that something was about to happen.
"Hey, bastard! What do you think…?", Merle was about to scold him again when Daryl stopped abruptly.
"Shhh."
"What's wrong?"
"Those guys are attacking those girls," Daryl said, pointing to a young woman and a girl being attacked by several men.
"What the hell do those bastards think they're doing?", Merle angrily commented as he approached the spot with Daryl, only to see the two girls run away.
Both relaxed a bit seeing the two girls out of danger, but they had already attracted the attention of those guys with Merle's shouts. However, both were prepared for the approaching fight, and they were excited for a fight.
Daryl quickly approached and gave a clean punch to one of the subjects. Confidently, he continued forward and kicked another, dodging one of the attempts to grab him from another man.
Meanwhile, Merle was swaying slightly. Just as he was about to hit the one closest to him, he noticed that this one looked strangely like the guy he had beaten to death recently.
Merle noticed the traces of dark blood on the subject's mouth and those lifeless eyes.
"Daryl, we need to be careful with these guys," Merle reminded his brother, his brow furrowed.
"Do you also feel like they're acting strange?", Daryl asked him.
Both had noticed that during the short time the fight had been going on, the men in front of them hadn't defended themselves, hadn't complained, and only seemed to want to bite them. Merle remembered that fight and how he felt at that moment that a bite from these strange subjects could be fatal.
"These guys seem to be drugged or crazy," Merle commented.
"They're trying to bite me, do they have rabies?", Daryl asked, remembering a similar way of acting in animals he had found infected with rabies.
"I think it might be something like that… This might be what they were referring to in the news," Merle commented.
Both were already exhausted from relentlessly hitting these individuals who, despite everything, kept getting back on their feet. Even one of them had his foot at a completely unnatural angle, but he persisted in getting up and limping just to attack them.
Merle, fed up with this situation, pulled out a knife and threatened the man closest to him, but he didn't even acknowledge the weapon's presence.
"You asked for it, bastard," Merle snapped, stabbing the man in the stomach.
But, to their surprise, the man didn't scream or complain. Dark, thick, almost coagulated blood oozed from his wound.
The man stabbed by Merle firmly grabbed him by the shoulders and moved menacingly towards his neck. Daryl, reacting quickly, pulled out his own knife and threw it directly at this man's head.
Unlike the previous blows or stabbing, the direct stab to the head instantly stopped his movement, and he collapsed to the ground, completely lifeless.
Both were shocked by the situation, each drawing their own conclusions about what was happening.
"Keep the others away, I need to check him, and don't let them bite you," Daryl said with a serious tone.
"Don't take too long."
Daryl began to examine the man's body on the ground while Merle continued to hit the others, keeping them at bay.
The inspection of the body surprised Daryl.
This man had been dead for hours, judging by the state of the blood on his skin and its color. However, from the spot where Merle stabbed, he noticed how some internal organs were still slightly warm, which showed that their function had not ceased until he died from his stab wound.
This situation was strange.
Years of experience told Daryl that the situation was not natural.
Daryl stood up, pulled the knife that was still in the subject's head, and wiped it on his pants.
Then he approached the subject his brother was fighting, stabbed him directly in the heart, and quickly pulled out the knife.
"What the hell are you doing?!", Merle asked, somewhat shocked by his brother's action.
"Just watch."
Merle looked at the man, who only recoiled from the force of the push, but who now kept advancing towards them as if he were an immortal being who only wished to devour them.
"What the hell?"
"These guys are partially dead," Daryl commented as he touched the traces of blood on the knife.
He noticed that the tip of the knife had traces of warm blood, not at the temperature it should be, but it had some heat. However, the blood near the hilt, which came from the subject's skin, was abnormally cold, the same temperature a dead body would have.
"What do you mean, dead?"
"See for yourself," Daryl challenged, pointing to another man approaching.
Merle, not wanting to appear weak in front of his younger brother, repeated the same.
He approached, stabbed, and withdrew his knife.
Just like in the previous case, this man kept going, unfazed.
"What the hell is going on?"
"I don't know, but it seems these are not isolated cases."
"How do I kill him then?", Merle asked, pointing to the guy who had died at first.
"His head. Only by attacking his head will they die."
Both, not wanting to waste much time in this strange situation, began to stab the rest of the men in the head.
After a few minutes, they finished.
Both had some traces of blood on their hands and clothes.
"Stop!", Daryl yelled at Merle, who was about to scratch his face with the traces of blood on his fingers.
"What's wrong? You scared me, bastard."
"Clean the blood first," he warned.
Merle looked at his hands and then looked at the men lying around. He quickly understood what his brother meant and looked at him gratefully.
Daryl, for his part, began to examine the bodies.
He noticed that most of them had human bites on their bodies, while others had minor injuries or no clear trace that could link a common origin to their behavior.
"It seems that bitten people can end up acting like them," Daryl concluded, considering the marks and the many times those men tried to bite them.
Merle just stared at him. He had thought something similar because of the feeling these men gave him every time they tried to bite him.
"Do you think this is happening everywhere?", Merle asked Daryl.
Both began to look around and, for the first time, noticed everything that was happening around them.
Emergency sirens.
Honking.
People are running desperately trying to buy things.
Some causing destruction, and the military and police, in the distance, trying to control the chaos.
"I think we need to prepare to live in chaos," Daryl commented as he looked at the smoke in the distance.
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[A/N: CHAPTER COMPLETED
Thanks everyone for reading.
I hope you enjoyed it.
The story will return to the Rescue Mission with our protagonist in the next chapter.
This chapter was quite difficult to write because I had to put myself in the shoes of two rude, foul-mouthed guys, not to mention both of whom are a bit racist (Merle especially).
In the next chapter, we'll connect with the spin-off, which already has 11 chapters.
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Read my other novels
#Vinland Kingdom: Race Against Time.
#The Walking Dead: Emily's Metamorphosis from Visions of Future Saga
You can find them on my profile.]