We all ran down to the basement where the door led to the back alley. Morales and T- Dog geared up in armour in the meantime. They heard Glenn yell from outside, and I opened the door for them to rush out. I got a quick glance at the man Glenn was helping back. He wore a police uniform, looked very worn out, had these bright blue eyes and sandy blonde hair. The two armoured men went out and beat the two walkers that came at them. Glenn and his friend ran through the door followed by the other two. "Close the door!" T-Dog yelled at me. I grabbed the handle and slammed the door shut with a small grunt.
"You sonuvabitch I outa kill you," Andrea growled at him. I stepped back from her. "Just chill out Andrea, back off." I heard Morales say to her. "We're dead because of this stupid asshole." She said while holding her gun up to his face. She backed off of him slowly. "We're dead, all of us." She said slowly. I went back into the main part of the department store where they began explaining everything. We heard multiple rifle shots go off on the roof. I saw the rest of them running up the stairs and after standing looking at the walkers outside the main doors, I quickly followed them up. When I arrived, Merle and T-Dog were already in a fight and I saw the officer ready to intervene.
"Merle!" I shouted at him. When he turned around, the unknown man punched him in the face and on the way down, he hit the pipes that ran along the rooftop. The man took no time in pushing Merle closer to the pavement of the roof and handcuffed his hand to a small metal appendage. I stared incredulously at the man. 'what the hell is happening?' I asked myself in a panic while running my hands through my hair. I could here them talking about something in the background, but I could care less of what. The next thing I knew was that they all ran down to what I presumed to be the basement. I stayed up on the roof with Merle, and quietly sat across leaning my head back against the wall.
"Are you fuckin' crazy?" I asked him quietly while running my hands down my face.
"It aint my fault that crazy ass cops got it out for me." He replied with pure hatred. I shook my head in defiance, and looked over to T-Dog, and he nodded his head while fiddling with the radio.
"Hello? Anybody read? I'm hopin' I hear someone else's voice cause I'm getting sick and tired of hearin' mine." I chuckled at the last part.
"Yeah, well that makes two of us." Merle's smart mouth said. "Why don't you knock that crap off you givin' me a headache boy." T-Dog looked at the radio in his hand. "Why don't you pull your head out yo ass, maybe it'll go away. Have some positivity for a change, damn."
"I'll tell you what," Merle continued. "you get me out of these cuffs 'n I'll be all Sammy sunshine for ya. You see that hacksaw over there? You get it for me, it'll be worth your while." "Why, so you can beat my ass again? Or call me nigger some more?"
"oh common now, wasn't nothin' personal. Its just that your kind and mine aren't meant to mix. 't'sall. Doesn't mean we can't work together, parle? So," he went on again. "About that hacksaw," "I guess you'll want me to get that rifle over there to so you can shoot that cop when he comes back, huh?" After that, I was just plain tired of their bickering and stood up, stretching my arms and legs. I walked over to the grated walkway that led to the door and walked up and down the way. I heard what sounded like glass breaking I looked down over the edge of the building and saw that the walkers got in through the first set of doors. I cursed under my breath. After a minute or two, the others that had went down, joined me with a set of binoculars looking over the edge.
"That construction site, those cars," the cop said. "they always keep keys on hand."
"We will never make it past the walkers," I heard Morales say. "You got me out of that tank" the cop turned to Glenn. "Yeah, but they were feeding, distracted." "Can we distract them again?"
"Right, listen to him, he's onto somethin'" Merle commented from his spot on the ground. "Like a diversion," "Oh give it a rest." Jacqui told him firmly. "Their drawn by sound, right?" the cop continued. "Right like dogs, they here a sound and they come." "What else?" "They can hear you, smell you, and if they catch you they eat you." Morales finished for Glenn. "They can tell us by smell?" I looked at him incredulously. "You can't? They smell dead, we don't. It's pretty fuckin' obvious." He gave me a look, and then turned his head back to the others.
"I'm sorry, you guys let a kid come along? Or did you find her out here as well?" my eye twitched a little. "A kid? Who do you think you are talking to?" I said to him, my arm going to my holstered tomahawk. Glenn's eyes widened and he rushed over and grabbed my hand before it reached. "Common Mary, we have bigger problems to deal with." He said looking at my eyes. I could turn to him, "I am not going to stand here and let him insult me." I heard movement behind me. "Common now, why shouldn't she let off a little steam?" Jacqui gave Merle a sharp look and he raised both his hands into a defensive position.
"Whatever. What do we plan on doing then?" I asked, inquiring to the cop who had this knowing look on his face. "Follow me." He said, leading us all down to the department store below.
We found ourselves gathering rubber gloves, coats, and other things. "If bad ideas were an Olympic event, this would take the gold…" Glenn said, worry etched in his face. "He's right, just stop ok? Just take some time to think this through." Morales said, determined to make Rick pause a moment.
"How much time? They already got through one set of doors, that glass wont hold forever, either." He had a point. These zombies don't seem to have any type of stamina, they just keep coming till they get what they want, or are dead. The three men got the coats and rubber gloves on, then ran out the back once again to retrieve one of the two zombies laying on the ground. Once again, I was on door duty and shut it tight behind them once they were safely back inside. Rick grabbed a crowbar and axe, then stood over the dead prisoner. We all stood in silence, our eyes trained on him, and waited for the beginning. He swung the axe upward, but not down. He tore off the mask he had on and went straight for the deadman's pockets. He searched through until he found what he was looking for.
"Wayne Dunlap. Georgia licence. Born… 1979." He said, handing it off to Glenn. "he had twenty-eight dollars in his pocket when he died. And a picture of a pretty girl.." he turned the picture over in his hands. "With love, from Rachel…. He used to be like us. Worrying about bills, worrying about rent, or the super bowl." He paused before going on again. "if I ever find my family, I am going to tell them about Wayne. He put the wallet back in the pocket, and got his mask back on.
"One more thing," said Glenn. "he's an organ donor." Rick nodded and slammed his axe into the body multiple times. Everybody cringed and some looked away, but I just stood in the corner and watched as the dead body was mutilated. Legs and arms were separated, and I could hear 'ugh' and 'oh god' come from those who could stand to watch.
"Keep chopping" he said, handing the equipment over to Morales. He took it almost without hesitation, and started hitting the stomach and intestines. "Ugh I think I'm going to throw up." Glenn said, holding his stomach and bending over at the waist. I chuckled at this and when Rick said 'not now'.
Rick looked around. "everybody got gloves?" we all just shivered in anticipation of not wanting to do this before he spoke once more. "Don't get any on your skin or in your eyes." We all dove in and helped spread the insides of this poor man over Rick and Glenn, even though I almost had fun with this, it was kind of nasty.
I had missed what T-Dog had said, but the next thing I knew, Glenn was bent over once again, emptying his stomach contents onto the floor beside him. I rubbed his back in sympathy, and laughed when Glenn gasped "you suck.." Rick looked around. "Do we smell like them..?" Andrea and I answered him. "Oh yeah." "Fuck yes" before she reached out to Glenn. "just in case." He took the gun and nodded.
"We make it back, be ready." Rick said as T-Dog replied. "Yeah, and what about Merle Dixon?" Rick sighed and reached into his pocket, lifting out the key to Merles handcuffs and tossed it to T-Dog. T-Dog backed into the back of the group, and I handed Rick the axe. "We need more guts." He said as he brought the axe back down to the zombie. Everyone backed away once again and let him do his thing. I left after that, not needing to see him tie hands and feet to Glenn and himself. I walked back into where the clothes were, and started looking around to see what they had. I grabbed my backpack off the floor from behind the counter where I had left it, and started grabbing some running leggings, sport shirts and sweaters, stuffing what was good enough for climbing into my bag. The last thing I grabbed was a bandana, with a skull print on it. I looked at it for a bit before folding it in half and tying it around my neck so that you could only see the bottom half of the skull.
As I finished zipping up my bag, I heard multiple footsteps behind me, and I looked to see everyone running back upstairs again. I threw the bag onto my shoulders and started my trek up the stairs as well. As I came through the door, I could see everyone looking up at the sky, then I heard thunder. I dropped my bag onto the grate before rushing over to look below into the streets of Atlanta. I spotted the two quickly, even without binoculars, and kept my eyes on them the whole time.
I heard Merle speak from behind me. "That asshole out on the street with the handcuff keys?" I pointed to where T-Dog had splayed himself on the rooftop and he dangled the key from his fingers. He then went back to the radio that sat beside him.
"hello, base camp. Can anybody hear me? Base camp, this is T-Dog, can anybody over there hear me?" we heard Dale on the other end. "Hello? Receptions bad on this end, repeat, repeat." "Shane, is that you?! We got stuck. We're at a department store. There are geeks all over the place, hundreds of them, we're surrounded." After that we couldn't get anything. The storm was interfering with the radio and the communication stopped there. We all shook our heads. I continued my watch until the two below walked out of sight, and then sat down beside T-Dog and decided to rest my eyes while we waited for something to happen. I could hear the others passing around the binoculars but paid no head to it. All I could tell is that the storm was getting close, and who knows what could happen when it hit.
Suddenly I felt drops on my bare face, and opened my eyes a crack. It was raining, and soon it poured. I pulled the hood of my black sweater over my face and resumed my rest, and heard Morales from the side of the roof. "It's just a cloud burst, we get them all the time. It will pass real quick." But I could tell no one was assured by that.
In no time, I heard small dings from the streets below and decided to get up and see what was happening. I took the binoculars from Morales and looked down to see Glenn and Rick fighting their way through the undead crowd. The two made it to a truck just before the fence broke down, and drove in the opposite direction of the store.
"What? They're driving away from us? Why would they do that?" Morales said as the others started to voice their concerns. I slammed my fist onto the wall that secured us up here and turned on my feet. Suddenly a voice came through the radio.
"Yo rolling up the front of the store facing the street. Meet us down there and be ready." Glenn's voice. I looked to the others and they looked back at me. "Common lets go! Lets go!" Morales order us as he and the others grabbed their bags. I reached down for my own and put it on my shoulders and buckled the front. Until I heard Merle from his spot on the floor. "Hey you can't leave me here!" I started to go back for him but Morales grabbed me by my waist. "Man we don't have the time!" he said to me. I started to kick at him but he would not let me go. "Let me go, dammit! We can't leave him here!" he tightened his grip on my waist. "I'm sorry but we have to go!" I shouted at Merle one last time. "Merle, I'm sorry!" before I was dropped going down the stairs. I heard someone say 'shit' before feet bustled by my own. I heard shouting above, then chains and a click of a lock. Then a blurry hand grabbed my arm and started to drag me down the stairs with him. The whole way I held the back of my head, only to feel the moist, thick texture of blood come from the opening.
As we traveled through the building, I heard some glass breaking, and could only assume that it was the front doors. T-Dog pushed for me to hrry up and we ran through multiple doorways. My vision cleared as we entered the back doors where loading trucks came in, but everything was silent excuse for my seething through my teeth. We could hear an alarm from the distance, but we could not for the life of ourselves tell why.
We heard three nocks on the door, then T-Dog shouting "They're here! Lets go, common!" and the door slid upwards to reveal Rick with the truck. They all tossed their bags up, then I felt someone lift me into the back, and Rick grabbed my shoulder straps and hauled me over and into the back of the van. Everyone else piled in, and Rick ran to the front where he took control of the vehicle once again. The car screeched out into the street, and T-Dog stated, "I dropped the damn key." We sat in silence for a bit, myself curled in a ball holding my head as it bled. "Where's Glenn?" Andrea asked over the roar of the car. Rick smiled a bit then turned his head slightly. "He'll meet us there."
As per normal, the usual R+R is always nice hope you enjoyed the latest chapter