"Little girl? I'm a policeman,"
There was a voice behind a Three-year-old girl. She turns around and Rick sees a dirty child with a small muddy puppy in her arms.
Rick startled the child and she fell on her butt and cried loudly. The puppy that is in her arms started to whine. Rick goes over to the child and as he reached for her, a walker tries to grab for him. He takes out his gun and shot the walker. The gunfire frightens the girl even more and she cries louder. Rick picks up the red-faced child and the puppy. She gets placed in the passenger seat of his squad car. Rick takes out a rag from his glove box and rubs off some of the mud and grime from the child. As he does so the child puts her hands in front of her face to make him stop but rick continues to get the dirt off her. " Sweetheart, I'm trying to clean you off," he said in a sweet and relaxing voice. "okay," she said quietly. She allowed him to get the dirt off her face. "Where are your parents?" he asked.
Her right hand opens and palm facing inward. Her left-hand lays open and flat to form a base with her palm facing the sky. She moves her hand forward while clenching her fist.
~All gone but Daddy~
"Your mute sometimes?" he asked.
"yes, just when I'm shy".
Rick starts up his cruiser and drives to Atlanta, Rick runs out of gas near a farmhouse. He gets his duffle bag of weapons out of the car and also a small backpack to carry the child and puppy in. He finds a horse and mounts it. They ride the rest of the way to Atlanta.
As he gets closer to the city rick hears the girl begin to cry.
"Hey, everything is ok sweetheart. You have nothing to worry about". Rick watched as her heterochromia eyes started to tear up.
It made Ricks' chest hurt to see her like this. " Don't worry I won't let anything happen to you," he said while giving her a reassuring smile. She nods and lays her head on his chest while holding her puppy.
In a deserted Atlanta, Rick is overwhelmed by hordes of walkers who topple his horse and force him and the child to retreat inside a tank. Guided an adventurous young man named Glenn who instructs him via radio to make a run for it, Rick grabs a gun and a grenade and flees for his life with the girl. Glenn then leads Them to a department store, where they meet up two more survivors, Jacqui and Andrea. Rick immediately has a gun pointed in his face by Andrea.
"You son of a bitch. We ought to kill you" She yelled.
Rick slowly backed away from her with a hand on the backpack the child is in. "Whats in the bag!" she yelled.
"Just chill out, Andrea. Back off".
"Come on, ease up," said Jacqui.
"Ease up? You're kidding me, right? We're dead because of this stupid asshole and he might have a fucking bomb in the bag!".
"Andrea, I said back the hell off".
"We're dead... All of us... Because of you" yelled Andrea.
"I don't understand," said rick.
"Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies. You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving! You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the O.K. Corral" said Morales.
"Every geek for miles around heard you popping off rounds.
Andrea: You just rang the dinner bell" T-dog said.
"Oh, God. What the hell were you doing out there anyway?".
Suddenly gunfire is heard and The girl screamed from the sound. Rick unzipped the bag fully to see her red face and tearing up eyes. " Great now we have another dinner bell!" yelled T-dog. The child began to look around and she stopped crying when her eyes landed on Andrea. She kept staring at Andrea but stopped when another fire ringed through the building. She covered her ears and snuggled closer to rick.
The group runs up to the roof. Roof Merle Dixon is shooting at several of the Walkers on the street below with a sniper rifle, killing some of them.
"Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?!".
Dixon laughs and continues shooting.
"Oh jeez."
"Hey! Y'all be more polite to a man with a gun! Huh? Ah! Only common sense".
"Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got!" Yelled T-Dog. Merle continues laughing. "And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill".
Andrea Quickly covered The child's ears right as Merle started cussing up a storm. The child looks at Andrea and held out her arms. She slowly picked her up and the child put her head on her chest trying to ignore the yelling.
Merle and T-Dog start to fight. Merle is beating T-Dog to a pulp and then holds a pistol on him.
"No no no, please. Please" Said Andrea not too loudly to frighten the child.
"Yeah! All right! We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who's in charge. I vote me. Anybody else? Huh? Democracy time, y'all. Show of hands, huh? All in favor? Huh? Come on. Let's see 'em. Oh, come on. All in favor? Yeah. That's good. Now that means I'm the boss, right? Yeah. Anybody else? Hmm? Anybody?".
Rick hits Merle over the head with a pipe. He proceeds to handcuff Merle to a pipe. " Who the hell are you, man?!" yelled merle.
"Officer friendly. 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" Said rick.
"Screw you, man".
"No thanks, I'm happily married".
A few minutes later rick and Andrea go downstairs to a shop. Andrea sits in a chair while holding the child. "She yours?" she asked. "No, I found her. Her family must have died but she says her father is alive".
Rick spots Andrea looking at some jewelry. He approaches her. Andrea looks at a mermaid necklace on the counter. "See something you like?".
"Not me, but I know someone who would... My sister. She's still such a kid in some ways. Unicorns, dragons... She's into all that stuff. But mermaids... They rule. She loves mermaids".
"Why not take it?".
"There's a cop staring at me. Rick chuckles. Andrea: Would it be considered looting?".
"I don't think those rules apply anymore. Do you?" said rick. Glass shatters and Walkers start walking in. Rick moves and is willing to shoot. Glenn and Morales join them. "What did you find?".
"Not a way out".
"Shit!" yelled rick.
They made their way back to the roof and looks below. As they do Glenn comes up with a plan but it's a stupid 50/50 chance of surviving kind of plan.
They left a few minutes ago and everything has been silent till the radio goes off. "Those roll-up doors at the front of the store facing the street... Meet us there and be ready" said Glenn.
The group heads down towards the loading dock to make their escape. The Walkers break through the second set of doors and storm the store. Thanks to Glenn, Rick has the chance to pull in with his truck. Rick picks up Morales, Jacqui, Andrea, the child, and T-Dog. Morales quickly closes the gate of the truck and they all sigh in relief.
"Where's Glenn?" Asked Andrea. "He found his own ride," Replied Rick. Just after he said that a red sports car zooms past them. He is listening to music and screaming at the rush of driving down the road fast. "Whoo-hoo-hoo! Yeah-hoo-hoo!" Yells Glenn.