[i] Wanted to rewrite the drinking scene because each time I read it, it sounded worse and worse. Conner will edit his post to respond with Abram and Sylar if I understood him correctly. [/i]

[b] Daniel Haywood - Haywood [/b] 

Daniel nodded to Anthony as he and Isudor took off. Daniel's grip tightened on his axe as he turned to Riley. "Let's move the truck." He said. The older man followed suit and joined him after switching the gears of the large truck into Neutral. Daniel and O'Connor threw all of their weight into pushing and the truck slowly moved from in front of the gate. As he looked out of the holes in the gates, he saw that Anthony and Surge had succeeded in draw the attention of all but three of the walkers. The biters slowly approached the gate and Daniel readied his axe, and gave a determined swing down on its head. Riley wielded a rebar rod and bludgeoned the second walker in the head until the decaying tissue had collapsed. When the third walker decided to come to Daniel, it was dispatched just like the first. Satisfied, Daniel nodded, and turned to his sister, who stood waiting for instruction. "Emma, wait here while the Doctor and I look for something to patch these walls with in the supply room!" 

The girl nodded and produced her bowie knife from its side holster. Daniel motioned for Riley to come and they to ran towards the main building. Instead of going up the stairs, the went past, and down the hallway, to two large, metal doors next to the back exit of the building. "The keys..." Daniel muttered, then swore aloud. Riley reared his arm back and struck the handle of the door with his rod. The rebar gave a resonating clang in response. The man repeated the process, but this time the handle fell to the ground. As the rod clattered onto the ground, the two men went into the large room. There were 4 metal shelves, but the walls were lined with sundry things as well. They found what they needed, a large stack of wood, a few 2x4's and other various lengths. "Grab those, I'll find some nails and a hammer." Riley stated. Daniel obeyed, finding it odd to be in the position of obedience rather than authority. He lifted as many as he could onto his shoulder, and slid a few more into the crook of his armpit.

Riley found a large tool crate, and took out the two hammers within. He also picked up a box of silver, thick industrial nails. He spotted several plywood sheets resting against the wall. "C'mon, I'll come back and get those sheets." Daniel hurriedly walked outside, burdened by the weight of the wood. Riley went ahead of him, beating his walk with a hasty jog. Before Daniel reached the gates, the man doubled back and went for the plywood sheets. 30 minutes later, they'd patches 2 of the 3 large holes in the gate, and began working on the smaller gaps. Riley had also picked up a chain and a padlock in an unopened box. When they were done with the patchwork, the men pulled the gates back together and secured the chain and padlock after setting the code on the back of the mechanism. 

[b] Haywood - Two Hours Later [/b] 

When Daniel was sure that he and Riley had done all they could except for wait for Anthony and Surge. And so, thirty minutes and half a bottle of [i] Jack Daniel's [/i] later, Daniel sat at the Mess Hall counter, sipping from a glass. He was already growing nostalgic as he felt his mind beginning to calm from the effects of the alcohol in the drink. He'd quit drinking and smoking when his mother had died, a year after he left the Military Police and was drafted into a Delta Force squad, and he'd promised his Dad that he'd stop for good. Old habits die hard, he decided and took another drink. When Riley came into the Mess Hall, Daniel gave him a brief glance and returned to his bottle and cup. 

"4 years sober..." He muttered when the man sat on the stool beside him. "You don't have any cigarettes, do you?" He breathed a laugh at his own joke and stuck the glass to his face.

"Sonny, in Edinburgh, some of my mates would look down on ya for goin' so long without a drink." With that, the man took a glass from behind the counter and filled it with liquid. "But, no, I'm afraid you're only going to relapse on one addiction, tonight." Silence fell upon the two as they sipped from their drinks. Daniel huffed a laugh through his nostrils. 

"It's all gone, Riley... Haywood, Eric, The Chambers, the Johnson... everyone... Henry's gone..." Daniel spat to the dirty floor. "Sometimes... I just wanna know... Why? Why do we gotta keep going on like this? Why live if we're just prolonging an inevitable, painful demise?" He set his drink down and lay his hands on his knees, bracing himself. "I used to be a counter-terrorist operative... but now-"

"-But now you're a hero, Daniel. You're a hero to me, you're a hero to Rob, to Shannon..." The man nodded to his own declaration. "You're [i]the[/i] hero to Emma." 

"Riley, I don't even know who that girl is anymore. She may be the same old E.J. on the outside, but... but on the inside, she's someone else... she's [i]something[/i]." Daniel shook his head in frustration. "I missed the Majority of her life and only played Big Brother when I wasn't deployed." 

"Daniel, she's a beautiful girl and she's compassionate-"

"And she's killed a man." Daniel said, gritting his teeth. "W-when I first left the Military Camp outside of Baton Rogue, I was determined to find her and Dad fast enough so that she wouldn't need to cross the line but I was to late... She'd changed to much by the time I unlocked that cell door." Daniel said. He could feel a fugitive tear coursing down his cheek. "Robert was like another walker to her. I could see it in her eyes..." 

"That's not your fault, lad..." 

"Isn't it?" Daniel objected. "Mom died 4 years ago, Dad took a bite from a walker, so I'm all that's left. But she won't let me help her." Daniel picked up his cup and emptied it with a swig. O'Connor poured him some more from the bottle. "Heck, she won't even talk to me. I still don't even know what happened to her in the catacombs, but whatever it was took my little sister, my sweet angel little sister and tore her to shreds... she won't talk to anyone except you and Katie, and she wakes up in the middle of the night crying. She comes into my room every night and crawls under my quilt and gets real close, like she's making sure I don't leave her." 

"Daniel, I know your sister, and she still looks like just a regular little girl, but she's so much more." Riley said. "I can't even imagine what happened to her in the catacombs, but I trust that she fought back and that means that she's at least got a little lion in her spirit."

Silence fell again and they sat for a few minutes. "C'mon, sonny, lets go an see if we can't get everyone over to the house." Riley said. The two went up the stairs and to the office. 

"Everyone, we think its in our best interest to sleep in the house tonight, since its got beds and isn't riddled with bullet holes." The group agreed and everyone began to make their way towards the house.