Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never is, but always to be blessed:
The soul, uneasy and confined from home
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man
"Shit!" Bella dropped to the floor behind the display case as soon as she heard the footsteps. They don't sound so slow. She thought, holding out hope that the people in the store with her were still alive and kickin'. However, from the experiences that she's had with the livin' after the world as she knew it ended, she wasn't sure if she was safer if they were. Oh god. What do I do? What do I do? Bella couldn't help but think of her dad and her sister. What would they do? Bella peeked out from behind the case again, trying to see who was in the store with her. She squealed as she felt something grab her ankle and pull her backwards. She readied her knife as whoever it was flipped her over onto her back.
"Well, looky who we got here." Bella stared up at the man above her. At least he's alive, Bella thought, although it wasn't as comforting as she would've hoped. She lunged forward with her knife, trying to swipe at her assailant.
"Uh uh uh. Nice try, sweetheart. Why don't I just move this out of the way for ya?" The man above her grabbed her knife hand and forced it above her head, holding her wrist in place. He straddled her waist so that he was even closer to her body. He leaned down to get in her face. She felt his harsh breath on her as he said, "Now, what's a sweet thing like you doin' out here all by her lonesome?" He sat up a bit more, leering down at Bella. She started to squirm underneath the weight of his stare, not to mention his actual weight.
"Please, I don't want any trouble. Just let me go and I won't bother you again." She tried to reason with the man, but something about him made her think that it was a lost cause. He leaned down again to whisper in her ear, "Maybe I want you to bother me. Come on, why don't me go somewhere isolated and-"
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Dixon?" Bella looked up at the interruption to see a blonde girl and a man in a cop uniform.
"Just havin' some fun. Found this fine piece of ass hidin' away back here and I figured I should suss out the situation, see if we found ourselves an interloper or what not."
The blonde woman looked at him with a scowl. She looked down at the young girl trapped beneath Merle Dixon, and her eyes softened at the fear she saw reflected back at her.
"Get off of her." The man behind the blonde called. Bella's brows scrunched up in confusion. She recognized that voice but she couldn't see who it was.
The man called Merle looked up at the man, anger in his tone. "And who the hell are you?"
"Officer Friendly. Now get off of her. I'm not going to ask you again."
Merle looked between the girl beneath her and the stranger who dared to threaten him. "And just what are you gonna do about it?"
The cop grabbed him suddenly by the vest and threw him off of the girl. He then stretched a hand out to her and pulled her up. Bella's eyes glistened as she finally recognized the man before her.
"Ricky?" He looked taken aback. No one calls me that, Rick thought. Well, except for… "Katie?"
Bella's face grew brighter as she smiled and jumped into Rick's arms. "Oh my god. Ricky! I never thought I would see you again!" Rick wrapped his arms around the girl in front of him, holding her tightly to his chest as his eyes started to water slightly. If he and Katie could find each other in this crazy world, then he could find Lori and Carl again too.
"What are you doing here Katie?" Rick looked down at the girl, still in his arms. She smiled and said, "I was looking for more supplies. I was running low on clothes and hoping to find some sort of weapon." Rick chuckled. "No, I meant what are you doing in Georgia? Last I heard, you were kickin' ass and taking names in DC."
The light in Bella's eyes dimmed a bit. She stepped back out of his arms, and he reluctantly let her. "Just before the world went to hell, daddy had another heart attack. This one was worse than the others and Hannah was worried that he wouldn't come back from it as well as the last one. I came back home to see him and help as best I could. As soon as I landed, they closed the airports and then everything fell apart. By the time I made it to the hospital, it was overrun by biters. I couldn't get anywhere near it." At this point, Bella had started to cry, silent tears streaming down her cheeks. "I don't know if my daddy's ok or if Hannah made it out. I've been on my own since I got here."
A young Asian boy spoke up from behind the blonde. "You've lived in Atlanta this whole time?" He seemed genuinely shocked and a bit impressed.
Bella squared her shoulders, wiped her tears and shrugged. "For the most part, yeah."
The blonde spoke up then. "You must be one hell of a survivor." She stuck out her hand to Bella and said, "I'm Andrea. And that there is Glenn." Andrea introduced Bella to everyone else before turning back to Bella. "So, Katie right?"
Bella smiled. "Actually, it's Bella now." Andrea nodded her head, ready to say more when they heard gunshots up above. She turned around frantically before shouting, "Is that Dixon?"
Everyone ran upstairs. No one had realized he left the group until they heard the gunshots. They opened the door to find Merle Dixon shooting from the top of the building.
Morales arrived first and yelled, "Hey Dixon, are you crazy?"
Merle turned back around to the group, gun cocked on his hip. "Hey, you oughtta be more polite to a man with a gun, huh? It's common sense."
T-Dog stepped forward, "Man, you are wastin bullets we don't even got. And you're bringin the walkers down on our ass, man just chill!"
Merle snarled. "Hey, its bad enough I got this taco vendor on my ass all day and now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so bro. That'll be the day."
T-Dog didn't back down. "That'll be the day. You got something you wanna tell me?" Morales tried to calm him down but T-dog was not having it.
Merle responded, "You wanna know the day? I'll tell you the day Mr. Yo, is the day I take orders from a nigger."
Bella watched the fight unfold, somewhat shocked that someone could still think like that despite everything that has happened in this world. She was willing to watch it play out on the sidelines until Rick got himself knocked senseless. Then she knew she couldn't sit back any longer. She waited until there was a lull in the fighting when Merle pushed a gun into T-Dog's face. He seemed to think he was the leader now. Facing the main part of the group, he asked "Well, anybody else?" Bella spoke up from behind him. "Yeah." As he turned, she hit him in the face with the butt of her gun, and Rick was waiting there to drag him over to the pipe and cuff him.
She then shoved the gun into his face and said, "Look here Merle, things are different now. There are no niggers anymore, no dumb as shit inbred white trash fools either, only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart."
Merle looked up into her face. "How I'd love to screw you, sugar tits." Rick leaned forward then and punched him in the face. "You better watch your mouth, Dixon."
Merle eyed him up and down before saying, "You know, in polite society, you share what you got with everyone." He leered over at Bella even though her gun was still pointed straight at him. Bella responded by kneeling down to Merle, sticking her gun underneath his chin and saying, "Yeah, well. In polite society, rapists could get the death penalty. I'd say, you're getting off easy."
Merle snarled, "I didn't rape nobody."
Bella sneered, "Oh and you were just layin on top of me downstairs for my health, right?"
Rick stood back up. "Leave it alone." Bella sighed and stormed off to the edge of the roof. Rick followed while Merle yelled out, "Hey, if I get loose, you better pray. God, you hear me whore? You hear me?" Bella was just about to storm back over when she felt a hand on her arm. She found Rick by her side, sporting a large frown. "Don't. He's not worth the effort." Bella shrugged his arm off but stayed where she was.
Rick stood next to her silent for a moment before saying with a small smirk, "So, Bella, huh?" Bella turned to face him. "Yeah. I just figured: new world, new name, new me." Rick nodded in understanding. Bella frowned slightly. "Do you know anything about Lori or Carl?" He turned to face back out. "No, but you gotta keep hoping right?" Bella could tell that Rick didn't want to talk about it, but she needed to ask. "What about Shane?"
Rick turned to face her again, slightly confused that she seemed more anxious to hear this answer. "I don't know. Last I remember about him was right after I was shot." Bella gasped. "You were shot?" Rick smirked slightly. "Yeah, it's a long story. I'll tell you later." Bella nodded before the both of them turned back to the group.
"How's that signal?" T-Dog shrugged. "Just like Dixon's brain. Weak." Bella snorted, trying to hold back her laughter. She stopped after receiving a look from Rick and a dirty glare from Merle.
As the conversation kept going, Bella felt Merle's eyes still on her. She turned back to face him. "What?"
Merle smiled slightly. "I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot, sugar tits. How about you get me out of these cuffs then we go off somewhere and bump some uglies?" Bella's face contorted with disgust. She was about to respond when she felt an arm snake its way around her waist, pulling her close. She looked up surprised into Rick's face as he stared daggers at Merle. "Watch your mouth Dixon. I'm not going to tell you again." Merle sighed, currently defeated and looked away.
Bella joined back in on the conversation as they were trying to find a way out of this. "What about under the streets? Like the sewers." Glenn checked for any manhole covers before Jacqui spoke up, saying there should be an access point in the basement since it was a rather old building. The group headed down to check it out. Bella hesitated though. Rick turned back, a bit confused before she said, "I think I'll stay here, keep a look out just in case. T-Dog can barely move and Merle's chained up. Someone should be here just in case." Rick gave her a meaningful look before he left, full of something that Bella couldn't quite place, but it made her cheeks warm nonetheless.
She walked over to T-Dog and sat down beside him, gun pointed not-so-subtly towards Merle. He looked over at her and asked, "So you and officer friendly. You knew each other before all this?"
Bella smiled. "Yeah. I've known him for years."
T-Dog shifted awkwardly for a moment before asking, "Were you guys together before this happened?" Bella started laughing, somewhat hysterically. "What? No, no Ricky and I weren't together."
"Oh, uh, you both just seemed really relieved to see each other and he's really protective of you."
"My daddy used to work in the sheriff's department with Ricky and his partner. I would hang around all the time, and eventually, struck up a friendship with officer friendly and his partner. I used to babysit his kid for him too. They were like the brothers I never had."
T-Dog looked over at her, trying to analyze her in a way. "How old are you anyway?"
Bella looked away and said, "I'm 26. But honestly, I feel like I'm 40 with all the crazy shit that's been happening."
Merle seemed about to throw in his two cents when the rest of the group came back. The sewers didn't pan out, but Rick came up with a crazy scheme, so bullheaded and stupid that Bella thought that it just might work.