OKAY THE 1ST CHAPTER WAS SHORT AND SLOW, BUT PLEASE CONTINUE BECAUSE IT'S GONNA GET FASTER AND LONGER AND HOPEFULLY MORE INTERESTING… THE FIRST CHAPTER WAS JUST TO ESTABLISH THE CHARATERS AND THE SITUATION HARPER'S IN. IF YOU PAYED ATTENTION THE SMALL GROUP WAS ANDREA, T-DOG, JACQUI, GLENN, MORALES, AND MERLE DIXON THE GROUP THAT GET'S STUCK IN ATLANTA WITH RICK… IF YOU'RE SMART AND SUCH YOU MIGHT ALREADY KNOW WHERE THE GUNSHOTS ARE COMING FROM "WINK WINK" I PROMISE IT WILL GET BETTER. REVIEWS WOULD BE APPRECIATED SO I KNOW HOW I AM DOING.

LOVE,

J

SEASON 1 EPISODE 2: GUTS

CHAPTER 2: The Storm Upon Us

"Way to go dumbass!" Harper spun around screaming at Merle assuming the shot came from him. "Hold on to your panties now… if it were me you either would be dead as that walker laying on the ground over there or you would have no eardrums left! It came fro—"Merle was than interrupted by Glenn. "Outside." Glenn and the small group stood in awe and horror at the glass doors of the store in disbelief as hundreds of walkers started to flood the streets.

"So about that happy meal." Harper continued to say.

"We need to do something! Quick!" The blonde haired woman said staring in horror outside. "Okay… Okay… uhmm? Merle, you head to the roof give us some eyes on the street." The Asian guy began directing orders clearly he worked well under pressure. "Whoa now you ain't order—"Merle began to say, but interrupted by the Asian giving orders. "No time to argue, just go! "

Merle than left through the door the small group came in when they first met. "Okay Andrea you and Jacqui stay here and guard the doors they haven't seen us yet, but if they do don't know how long the glass will hold. T-dog, Morales! You come with me and Harper." They all nodded not knowing his plans, but backing him anyways. The Asian led the three to the back of the store to a door leading to an alleyway.

"Okay here's the plan… Harper and I are gonna go through the alleys and find out what's happening on the streets and whose popping off rounds. You guys stay here and put on that gear we found we might need some help getting back in once we find out what's going on." The Asian told them in a huddle by the door. "Alright sounds good." Morales told him. "Here." He handed the Asian a walkie talkie. "So we can communicate back and forth." "Good idea." He told him. "You ready?" He asked Harper. She readied her position into a batter's stance with her slugger and made sure her 45. was in her belt before she answered. "Ready."

The two climbed fire escapes and roofs before stopping on one seeing something they couldn't believe. A police officer ran down the street popping rounds into heads of the undead before diving under a tank, crowds of the undead forming around it trying to get to him. "What do we do? She asked him. "We can't just let him die like that! He's a police officer for Christ sake!" The young guy nodded his head in thought as they stood on the fire escape.

"The walkie!" He said as a light bulb in his head popped up. "We picked them up off some dead army guys. Their sequence could match up with the tanks we could try to contact him!" He said hopeful. "Than what?" She asked. "If we can guide him to this alley while the walkers are distracted he might have a fair shot." She looked at him puzzled. "Walkers?" She asked him.

"Yea that's what we took to calling the geeks down their. They're the walking dead so it seems suitable." He told her. "Yo, I never got your name." She said. "It's Glenn." He told her holding out his hand. She shook it smiling. "Nice to meet you Glenn." All of a sudden they heard a gunshot go off inside the tank. "Oh god… I hope that wasn't the sheriff giving up on us." She said worryingly. "Try the walkie now!" She told him. He fumbled the walkie dial and put it to his mouth talking into it.

"Hey you, you in there?

They luckily were able to reach the cop and miraculously Glenn's directions got him to the alley and up the fire escape with walkers grabbing at his feet. They proceed to call the officer a dumbass before he announces that his name is "Rick" shaking their hands. They make their way to the alley behind the no longer abandoned department store. They see two walkers in the alley and Glenn gets on his walkie. "We're back! Got a guest plus two geeks in the alley!"

They pause on stairs in the alley as the walkers advance towards them. All of a sudden Morales and T-dog wearing black body armor storm into the alley smashing the two walkers' brains in with bats they must have found while Glenn and Harper were gone. They run into the department store quickly. As they enter the blonde haired woman Harper came to know as Andrea grabs Rick by the collar throwing him into some boxes with a revolver in his face.

Morales gets her to lower her gun telling her to back off. She tells the scared sheriff that he has practically doomed them to a horrible fate as walker happy meals. They lead him to the front of the store showing him the horde that is now threatening to break through the glass doors. He looks helpless towards their insults and banter. "You just rang the dinner bell." Andrea tells him.

T-dog tries one of the walkies to see if they can contact their group. "Got no signal… maybe the roof." All of a sudden more gunshots echo through their ears from the roof top. "Oh no was that Dixon!" Andrea says as their plate of problems grows larger. "Come on! Let's go!" Glenn shouts as they run to the roof. The group bust through the metal door of the rooftop frantic. They see Merle Dixon standing on the edge of the building sniping out walkers down below them with his rifle. "Hey Dixon! Are you Crazy?!" Morales shouts at the ignorant redneck.

"Yo dumbass! Remember anything about silence being the key?!" Harper yells at his arrogance. Merle laughs shooting one last walker before turning around to the group. "Hey! You outta be more polite to a man with a gun! Huh?" Merle directs to her jumping off the ledge towards them. "Only common sense." T-dog than joins the mob on Merle yelling about the conservation of ammo. "Hey, it's bad enough I've got this taco bender up my ass all day! Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so bro." Merle walks to T-dog getting in his face. "That'll be the day."

T-dog looks at him confused and angry. "That'll be the day!" T-dog says getting riled up at Merle. Morales buts in getting him to chill out. The group stands watching wandering if they should interfere in it. Morales advises Merle to calm down with them having enough problems on their hands, but it doesn't stop him from opening his mouth to T-dog once more. "You wanna know the day?" "Yeah!" T-dog answers angrily. "Let me tell you the day Mr. Yo! It's the day I take orders from a nigger!"

T-dog launches a fist at Merle, but he dodges hitting T-dog in the face with the butt of the rifle. The group runs to break it up, Rick the first to get there, only to be hit in the face knocking him to the ground in the same manner. Merle turns and punches T-dog in the face again, continuing to punch and kick him to the ground, his head hitting a pipe, as the group screams for him to stop. Harper stands back knowing this isn't her problem.

Merle continues to kick him as the group burst into hysterics. The fire hot angry redneck than pins him to the ground, repeatingly beating his face. Rick struggles holding his nose and trying to raise himself off the ground. Harper rushes to his side as the fight continues. She looks and sees Morales try to pull Merle off of a badly bleeding T-dog, only resulting in the same as the officer she aids now. She watches Merle pull out a gun and the rest of the group crying in hysterics in fear of losing their friend.

Harper pulls on Rick's arm helping him up. "Come on hurry!" She whispers to him as he finds his balance. Merle spits on his victim shouting insanities as he gets off of him. Harper puts a hand on the beaten cop's sweaty shoulder. He must have been traveling all day he looked exhausted past the fact of just being knocked down by a large redneck. "Come on." She tells him. "You're a cop you can handle this." She whispers to him. "While he is being a dumbass and distracted get him from behind, I'll back you up just in case." She tells him putting her hand on her gun tucked into her belt. He nods and they watch Merle waiting for an opportunity to strike.

They stand watching Merle as he points his gun at the small afraid group, who has huddled around their injured friend, T-dog, telling them to raise their hands putting him in charge. He waits on them as they slowly and reluctantly raise their hands. Harper looks to Rick and they nod to each other. "Yea that means I'm the boss right? Yea… anybody else? Hmm? Anybody?" He says rhetorically as Harper watches Rick move behind him. "Yea!" Rick says hitting Merle with the butt of the rifle the redneck had dropped during his attack, taking him by surprise as the redneck falls to the ground. Harper points her gun on the fallen redneck. "You asked for it asshole!" She tells Merle.

Rick puts a sharp knee on Merle's face holding him down as he cuffs the redneck's right hand to a pipe. Rick props him against some pipe lining as Harper continues to point her gun at the handcuffed Hill Billy. Merle shouts demanding to know who the hell Rick is.

"Officer Friendly." Rick tells him.

Harper watches the two argue for a bit Merle not wanting to bow down to Rick's authority, the first authority he's probably had since this all started. Rick aims his gun at Merle's head who isn't dying down. The white trash mouth only comes back with "You wouldn't, you're a cop." Quickly retorted by Rick with "All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody who gets in the way of that is gonna lose."

Harper smiles at Rick's statement even if it is a false hope knowing his family is mostly likely gone and walks to the edge of the building overlooking the sea of undead flooding the streets of Atlanta. She hears Merle start to yell insanities again as Rick throws something off the roof walking towards her with Morales following him. The two men join her at the edge of the roof.

"Yea your voice carries." Rick tells Merle who is yelling still. "You're not Atlanta P.D. where you from?" Morales asks the cop. Rick answers him. "Up the road a ways." Harper lights a cigarette, she saves now a days for times of stress. She than looks at Rick than to the undead below and tells him "Well Officer Friendly, from up the road a ways, welcome to the big city."

Harper sits on the roof with a beaten T-dog and handcuffed Merle while the rest of the group go down to check the basement of the department building believing there to be a way out through a drainage tunnel. They left her in charge of the two men so nothing would happen and to try the CB to see if they couldn't contact the group Harper had yet to meet outside of Atlanta.

"Okay boys if we're gonna be all Sammy sunshine positive for a change talk about something positive not the shithole situation we're stuck in." She looks at the men who had just had a little argument and roll their eyes at her and ignore her not saying anything. She makes an attempt to break the silence. "So Merle? You have a little brother?"

Merle scoffs. "What's it to you? He's just a pain in my ass used as a sympathy card to get you to lower your gun." Harper scoffs back half expecting him to come back with something like that. "Well he got a name and is he just as much of an asshole as you? Cause if so I'd like to know so I can stay away from him once we make it back. If we make it back the rate you dumb asses are going." Merle ignores her rolling his eyes shaking his head. "Daryl…" T-dog says to her glaring at Merle. "His name is Daryl."

"And don't worry he's an asshole, just don't think he's as big as the one across from me here." T-dog tells her. "Figured as much." She says getting up. "Hope they get back soon with good news. You might get lucky Dixon and get to see your baby brother again as long as you don't do anything stupid." She walks to the edge of the roof looking out Merle chuckling. "Ain't that what these cuffs are for?"

Harper rolls her eyes checking the CB looking out with some binoculars. All of a sudden the metal door to the roof swings open as the group enters after Rick. "Any luck?" She asks already knowing the answer from the look on their faces. "No." Rick says and Glenn looks at her with the worst news out of any of their mouths. "The first sets of doors are gone."

After no hope of the drainage system the group came up with another plan to get a truck from a construction lot down the street and get the hell out of dodge, but the truck had a good hundred walkers between it and the department store they were stuck in now. This is where Rick's plan came in.

Harper watched as T-dog and Morales carried the walker she had took out an hour beforehand into the storage room of the department store. Rick handed them all plastic lab coats and gloves. They set the body down and they all gathered and watched Rick raise a red axe he found in a fire escape case, but he than sat it back down. He knelt down puling out the thing's wallet. Harper not bothering with it since money is of no use now. Rick looked through it and than tossed her a pack of matches that sat inside it.

"Could come in handy." He looked at her as she caught them.

Harper with her new knowledge to check their wallets watched Rick as he went through the rest of the dead man's wallet. "Wayne Dunlap." Rick looked at them no longer going through the wallet. "Georgia license. Born 1979." He handed Glenn the license. Glenn looked at it than started to pass it around. "He had twenty-eight dollars in his pocket when he died and a picture of a pretty girl. "With Love from Rachel." Rick looked down.

Rick continued to speak about the dead man as Harper realized her fault in not checking the wallets of the dearly departed. This was to remember that these were victims and not just monsters. After that moment she felt the at most respect for Officer Friendly and would have his back from that moment forward as his leadership started to shine through. Rick finished talking about the man and put his safety mask on and picked back up the axe as Glenn spoke up. "And one more thing. He's an organ donor."

Rick than began to start hacking the body in pieces as they all cringed in disgust as the worse was yet to come. "Everybody got gloves? Remember do not get any on your skin or in your eyes." The group proceeded to than cover Rick and Glenn in the guts of Wayne Dunlap, Glenn hurling mid way. As Harper felt the insides squish in her hands she was glad she was not the one to go with Rick on this mission.

The group ran around the roof top panicking and grabbing there gear. Glenn contacting them on the walkie moments before telling them to get ready the truck was coming. Harper ran around the roof grabbing her pack, but seeing T-dog struggle with his equipment as the others began to leave. "Come on don't leave me man! Don't leave me!" Merle started to yell. "T you free Dixon! I'll grab the rest!" Harper told T-dog as she ran to him.

T-dog ran towards Merle with the key Rick had given him before the two men left. In one motion Harper looked back and saw T-dog trip over a tool bag spreading tools across the roof. Than small descending clinks echoed in their ears. T-dog got back up running towards her. "You did that on purpose!" She heard Merle yell. "I'm sorry!" T-dog yelled running to the door. "T-dog?!" She asked wondering what just happened. "Come on!" He told her. "Don't leave me!" She managed to hear Merle scream for his life before T-dog slammed the door and bolted it shut with a padlock.

As Harper made it down to the main part of the store with Merle's arch nemesis walkers broke through the second set of doors setting the two on a full sprint times ten. The two make it to the loading dock and see the door is still shut and the group stands there. "COME ON! Come on they're in here! Move your asses!" Harper yells to them pulling on the chain lifting the door the end of the cube van and Rick appear. Harper throws her pack in as do the others before throwing themselves in and making a clean getaway by a hair.

"What the hell! What happened on the roof?!" She shouted at T-dog once they all sat in the truck noticing the redneck missing. She was angry knowing that Daryl Dixon just lost his big brother. No matter how big of an asshole nobody deserves to be left on a rooftop or lose their big brother like that and when she got back she was gonna tell that to Daryl. "I dropped the damn key." T-dog said looking remorseful and full of guilt she knew than he felt the same and didn't press the issue farther. Like nothing had happened to the oldest Dixon Andrea breaks in. "Where's Glenn?!" She asks as a red mustang speeds past them with full blare on beeps and a young Asian shouting "WOOHOO!"

"There's your answer." Harper says and they all smile and laugh with relief that they had survived the horror of Atlanta. Harper, not being able to get the name Daryl Dixon out of her mind though and how they were going to break the news to him.

TO BE CONTINUED:

NEXT CHAPTER HARPER MEETS THE BABY BROTHER