**This story is picking up after RickyJo jumped Glenn and took off in the sports car he got out of Atlanta in. When she got to the roof, Merle was already gone. But what if she had gotten there 5 minutes earlier? In time to catch him before he fled the building? This will be a sort of through the mirror darkly version of Gone for Good. I put this chapter up here so people that followed Gone for Good would get the notification. But the rest will be in the story titled Five Minute Window. I hope you all enjoy.
I own nothing from TWD, only my own OC and original parts of the story. Rated M for violence, sexual content and adult themes. **
The car alarm was loud. The sound was deafening. Earth shattering. It was making her head pound and her ears ring. It was making it hard for her to think. Such a loud noise was making her want to panic. Panic and bail out on this stupid idea. Go back to camp and get Daryl. They could look for Merle together. She had been crazy to think taking off on her own was ever a good idea.
She saw the Woolworth building. Right where she knew it would be. But there were so many geeks. Too many. More than she would ever be able to take on. And the horrible noise of the car alarm was drawing them right to her. Think of something quick or you are going to die. The noise. There had to be a way she could use it to her advantage.
RickyJo slowed the car down. Watching for an alley that was not full to the brim with flesh eating cannibals. The next one had more dead in it than she would like. But it would have to do. She turned the car, sliding it between the buildings. Then she slammed the gas, running over the geeks that were stumbling around. For good measure, she backed up and ran them over again. Then she yanked up hard on the shifter, putting the car into park. RickyJo grabbed her pack, swinging it up onto her back as she leaped from the car.
The dead were starting to fill into the alley behind her, so there was no going back that way. She had to move forward. Down the alley and through a fence that someone had already slashed a hole in. Maybe Glenn the last time he was here. The car alarm was still blaring, but at least it wasn't right next to her now. Stabbing a geek that was on the other side of the fence, she thought about climbing a ladder. Maybe she could wait on the small platform until the noise from the car gathered most of the geeks away from her. But she wanted to get to Merle. She need to find him and make sure he was alright.
So instead of hiding and waiting, RickyJo fought her way through. Taking down geeks with her knife and her bow, it was easier than she thought since most of them were more interested in the loud sound of the car alarm then they were in a quiet girl ducking through the streets. She hit the side of the building she was looking for, feeling so excited that she almost wanted to kiss the graffiti covered brick. Instead she climbed.
Not looking down. That was the trick. Hand over hand, up the ladder. If her grip slipped, at least it would be the fall that killed her. Her ears were ringing, like she had just come out of one of the stupid rock concerts that Daryl liked to drag her to. The beat of her heart was pounding in her chest. It was hard to make out over the ring in her ears, but she swore she could hear someone screaming. A muffled scream, like the person had something in their mouth.
Merle's voice. She would know it anywhere. Even muffled through the belt he was biting down on. Her first thought was that he was being eaten. Devoured alive by those fucking monsters. Then she was afraid some other group came. Maybe they were hurting him or torturing him for information. If that was the case they were all going to die slow.
RickyJo hit the top of the ladder, her hands slick with sweat. She hauled herself over the edge, feeling like the weight of the world dropped off her shoulders as soon as her boots hit the solid cement of the rooftop.
"Merle!," she hollered for the man. She stopped, trying to listen for him. There was not a giant pack of walkers on the roof, so that was a good sign. And she didn't hear or see any other people around. "Merle!," she called for him again. Then she heard it. A weird grunting noise.
It was coming from over by a long set of pipes. She walked that way, an arrow drawn just in case. When she saw his boots sticking out from under the pipes, RickyJo forgot caution and ran for him. He was holding his wrist with one hand, rocking back and forth and moaning to himself. She blinked her eyes a few times, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.
Where Merle's hand should be there was nothing but a bloody jagged stump. Some blood was spattered on the ground. Next to him there was a saw. A serrated saw, the kind a person might use to cut through a thick rope. There was blood on the saw. A loud noise next to her feet startled RickyJo, and she realized it was her bow and arrow. She had dropped them and let them clatter to the ground. A few inches away from the saw was Merle's severed hand.
When her hands hit the concrete roof, that's when she knew she had fallen down onto her knees. She felt her stomach cramp up and then she was emptying it's contents onto the roof next to her bow. She sat back, feeling stunned. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she stared at Merle. And he just stared back at her, like he wasn't sure she was real. He looked down at his severed hand and quickly looked back at RickyJo. Her eyes were full of pain and fear, and somehow it helped.
"Got to stop the bleeding," he said. There was nothing else to say. He had not expected her to come for him. Merle figured those chicken shits would tell her and Daryl that he got ate up or something. And even if they told the truth about leaving him here on the roof, he hadn't beleived that anyone would come for him. That anyone gave a shit about his sorry ass.
His words woke RickyJo up from her trance. She wiped at her mouth again, then got to her feet. Her hands shook at little when she grabbed for her bow. But when she touched him, they were soft and gentle. She stroked his face, just for a second, looking into his eyes. But thank god she was not looking at him like she pitied him. Merle could not have stood it. The shared pain and fear he could stomach. Then she got her elbow under his armpit and dragged him up onto his feet.
"Can you walk?," she asked. He nodded. His face was horribly red with sunburn, and his lips were dry and cracked. RickyJo stopped and got a bottle of water from the side pocket of her pack. Twisting off the cap, she held it to his lips so he could drink it without letting the pressure off his wrist. He gulped down a few swigs, then she put the bottle back. If he chugged down too much too fast it would just make him sicker.
She walked ahead of him, her bow drawn. Inside the building, she killed two walkers. She knew she had to find something to stop the bleeding. But she wasn't sure what she was even looking for. Medical supplies of some kind? A magic wand she could wave and put him back together? A really large bottle of superglue?
Merle found the pan and the cans of sterno fluid in a small kitchen area. The little cans that people used sometimes to keep food warm at a buffet. RickyJo stared at him for a few moments before she realized what he wanted to do. Cauterize his wound.
"No." That was all she could say. The thought of sticking a burning pan to the end of his bloody wrist was more than she could stomach. She put a hand to her middle, feeling like she was going to hurl again.
"If ya don't do it," he said, his voice dry and scratchy, "I'll bleed to fuckin' death RickyJo." She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a long slow breath in and blowing it out. When she opened her eyes, Merle could see the determination on her face. She got a lighter out of her pocket and lit the little cans of sterno. Then she held the small pan over the flame. The pan felt like it was taking forever to get hot. It was giving her too much time to think about what she was about to do. She spit on the pan to make sure it was hot enough to burn instantly. Her spit sizzled up like bacon grease.
"Look away," she said. She expected an argument, but Merle let her grab his forearm and turned his head away. She held his arm so tight that later there would be skinny little RickyJo sized fingerprint bruises on it in the shape of her hand. Then she pushed the hot pan hard against the bloody stump of his wrist.
She didn't know which was worse, the smell or the sound. Or the sight of Merle with tears in his eyes. Merle, who never cried. He must just be sweating with his eyes, she thought. The joke was so innapropriate, given the circumstances, that hysterical laughter almost started bubbling out of her like a volcano. But she bit down hard on her lip, tasting the tang of blood in her mouth.
Merle sat down on a ratty couch, holding his arm and trying no to pass out. RickyJo went to the window and looked out. The sound of the car alarm could still be heard, but through the glass it sounded further away. The walkers were drawn to the noise. Which left most of the streets clear. Their best chance to get out of this place would be if they left now.