Chapter 2: Trapped
Millie looked back at Rick right as the radio crackled to life again. "Hey, you alive in there?" the voice called. Rick tried jumping to his feet, his head smacking loudly against the metal of the tank. Millie winced for him as he groaned. She looked around quickly before meeting the gaze of the dead military man slouched in the corner. She moved towards him finally, lifting a shaking hand to close his milky eyes before running over his corpse for anything useful.
"Hello, hello?" Rick's shaky voice barely echoed around the metal tank as he responded to the other person's voice.
A sigh was heard as the guy spoke back to Rick. But Millie was determined to find something useful in their situation. Her hand rubbed against something round and when she picked it up, her eyes widened. She had never been so close to a grenade before, let alone grip one in her hand.
"—I'd say make a run for it." Millie looked over at Rick who was staring at her. She shrugged her shoulders at him before crossing over the tank to look for more grenades or more ammo for a gun that they didn't have. "What do you have on you?" the voice called. Millie looked over to Rick and opened her hand to reveal the grenade. Rick took it from her before checking his gun and hers; she was full, never fired a shot.
"I'm better with knives." She mumbled to him as he put her gun back in her holster. She went back to scouring the machine before her eyes landed upon a big buck knife under one of the computers. She snatched it up quickly and nodded to Rick, letting him know she was ready to leave when he was. He snatched a spade from above the radio, something Millie hadn't seen, and nodded once at her before telling her to jump off the right side and run.
Millie opened the hatch to the tank, whipped her right arm around with the knife in hand, digging it right into the skull of the Walker that was left on the tank before jumping out so Rick could trail behind her. They moved fast, Rick taking the lead with Millie picking off the Walkers behind them. She rounded the corner with Rick when she heard a familiar voice scream out, "Whoa, not dead! Come on! Come on!" He pushed Rick in front of him before taking off down the alley that he came from, Millie right on his tail, taking out the Walkers with her pistol. "What are you doing? Come on!" he yelled at her as Rick and the boy climbed the steps that lead up to the building. She emptied her rounds in the heads of the corpses that were the closest before thrusting her gun back in the holster and climbed up the ladder behind the boy. She glanced down only to see an angry mob of reaching hands below her.
"Rick; thanks," Rick held out his hand for the boy to shake.
He took the out-stretched hand, "Glenn; you're welcome."
Glenn looked at Millie, expecting her to spout her own name, but she was too busy staring at the mass of bodies piling together at the base of the ladder. "That's Millie," Rick supplied. "She saved my ass in the hospital." Millie looked up at him then, lifting the corner of her mouth in a slight, trying smile.
Millie grabbed the ladder that was still reaching up to the rooftop, not looking down below where the Walkers were grasping on to the ladder. The boys followed her, exchanging some banter back and forth as they all moved across the rooftops. Glenn found some kind of hatch that lead down and tossed his backpack below. Millie bit the inside of her cheek. "Rick, I need those bags by the tank." She forced herself to look at him, trying not to give anything away.
"I need those guns, but our lives are more important." Rick squeezed her arm before trying to push her toward the hatch.
"You don't understand, my life—" Glenn interrupted their conversation with one holler asking them if they were coming. Rick moved Millie again and this time she went down, following Glenn into the darkness. They were in another alley but this one was less crowded with Walkers than the ones only a few blocks away. Two people darted out, heavily dressed with black gear and baseball bats in hand, taking out the Walkers blocking the three from the confines of safety. Glenn ushered Rick and Millie into the doorway, the geared up people back tracking into the building once more, slamming the door closed behind them.
As soon as they were in the building, a blonde haired woman grabbed Rick's shirt and forced him against a few boxes, gun pointed right at his face. "You son of a bitch, we ought to kill you," she growled between clenched teeth. Millie was faster than the rest of the people shuffling about in the room, placing her own gun against the woman's head. Millie barely took in the woman's appearance, just glimpsing at the dirty flannel shirt and cargo pants she was wearing. They all had backpacks and gear on them and Millie couldn't help but wonder if they lived in the city or were just out here to make a run for supplies.
"You even cock back the gun; I will shoot you before you think about pulling the trigger." Millie snapped.
"Andrea, calm down!" a Latino man called, slipping off the gear and making a pile on the ground by the door.
Another woman, black haired and dark skinned, came over and touched Andrea's arm. "C'mon, ease up."
"You're kidding, right, Jacqui, Morales? We're dead because of these stupid people!" She kept glaring at Rick as Millie pushed her gun more forcefully into her head, reminding her that Millie and Rick were together.
"Andrea! I said back the hell off!" Morales said, coming over right to her ear. He didn't want any blood spilled and knew that if Andrea didn't back off, then Millie would blow her brains out. But what they all didn't know was that Millie's gun was empty. She knew, but these survivors weren't there to count her bullet shells as she emptied round after round into zombie heads.
Andrea withdrew her gun from Rick's face before Millie dropped her own. "We're all dead now," the woman cried. Millie rolled her eyes and walked away from the group of people to go scavenge the building and check for another way out without alerting the few hundred Walkers down the block. Rick and the rest of them had decided to talk and explain the situation that they had found themselves in. Millie was already in the main part of the shop when the rest of the group came in, forcing Rick to see what he and Millie had done when they fired off rounds before taking shelter in the tank.
Millie had decided to shop around and take some of the clothes off the racks since all of the ones she took from Rick's place were in the middle of a horde. She tucked as many clothes as she could in her waistband and looped a few belts between her belt loops on her jeans, tucking different articles of clothing between the belts. She yanked a backpack from one of the shelves and stuffed a few boots and socks in some of the pockets. She threw her own worn vans on the ground to swap them out for heavy duty army boots, just in case one of the corpses preferred to eat the toes first.
Next thing Millie heard was some kind of gunshot from above the group before hearing Andrea sigh loudly, "Merle." They all made a mad dash up to the roof just in time to see a tall, built man taking out Walkers on the street with a heavy rifle. Millie jogged over to the edge, peering over at the damage the man was causing. It didn't matter who got the group in trouble now, they were all going to be screwed by this redneck anyway.
Millie turned to the fighting group right as T-Dog took a swing at Merle, who quickly dodged it and threw the butt of his gun right into T-Dog's nose. "Hey!" she called barreling over to stop the two idiots before they alerted all the dead in the world to their location. Rick tried to intervene but Merle quickly landed a punch to his face, making him fall back. Millie lunged herself on top of Merle's back, folding her legs tightly across his stomach, ignoring the pain in her ankle, as her arms slipped under his and folded together on top of his head, locking him in place. "Enough!" Millie hissed in his ear, partly because she was upset at the way these grown ass men were acting and partly because her ankle was screaming for her to let go.
Merle wasn't done fighting though. He quickly shifted his weight to his heels, forcing himself to fall on his back, or in this case, Millie's back. She had the breath knocked out of her lungs but only tightened her arms grip on the struggling man as she coughed and tried breathing again. Rick came over only to handcuff the struggling redneck to a bar that was closest to his right hand. Millie let go, coughing as she pushed Merle's upper body away from her own, wiggling out from under him. Rick grabbed her arms and hauled her away from the angry redneck, patting her back as she tried to breathe. "Are you okay?" He asked her, moving his gaze between her and Merle. Millie nodded and pushed away from him, needing her space.
"Rick, I need my bag." Millie coughed. "I can't leave without it."
"Millie, we can't go back for it. Not yet." Rick looked towards the group before wandering over to them. Millie looked over the edge of the building taking count of the dead before cursing. She knew Rick was right; it was a death sentence to go back. But she absolutely needed what was in those bags.
Millie joined Rick and Morales at the edge of the roof right as the man whispered, "Well Officer Friendly, welcome to the big city." The three of them peered out at the streets where the dead were now walking aimlessly about.
"Keep trying the CB." Morales said, looking at T-Dog, the black man that had been fist fighting with Merle, who had the radio in his hands while glaring at Merle as if the man would spring from his cuffs and kill them all.
"Why?" Andrea huffed, "there's nothing they can do." She stepped away from the ledge, going to her backpack a ways from Merle's feet. Millie left the ledge as well but headed back inside the department store. She got down there just in time to see the doors groaning with the extra weight it wasn't meant to handle.
Millie circled around and went back to the door they had rescued her and Rick through, opening it enough to check what was out there. A hand clamped on her shoulder and pulled her back inside, making her come face to face with Rick. "What are you doing?"
Millie rolled her eyes, not liking the fact that Rick was treating her, a grown ass woman, like a child. "Rick, we need to get out of here and grab those bags." He nodded to her but refused to let her go. "I figured we could mask our scents with the dead. I think we have a very distinguished smell and that's why they can track us down. We have to blend in somehow."
Rick nodded, loosening his grip on her arms. "I need you here though, you're the only one I trust right now and I need to know that someone is here backing up these people in case something goes wrong."
Millie glowered at him, "You mean, should Merle escape, you don't want him to break the glass on purpose."
Rick nodded. "I have Glenn and Morales in the sewers right now, trying to find out if we can escape that way."
The woman shook her head. "There will probably be some Walkers in the sewers, maybe not a lot, but what if we all get turned around somehow and end up below that horde a few blocks away? I don't know about you, but I'm awful when it comes to directions."
Rick cracked a smile at that, but shook his head anyway. "I've come to like you Millie, I want to see you safe, so please don't fight me on this one. Stay here while I try to figure this out. Maybe I can circle back around and get those bags, huh?" She knew it was a lie, but she gave in and nodded anyway. Maybe these people had sugar at their camp she could munch on. Or if she was lucky, she could force them to make a stop at a store somewhere and she can replenish her supplies.
"Fine, I'll back you up on this one, but you owe me." Millie sighed, giving Rick a playful smile of her own. She moved back up on the roof, looking back over the edge, ignoring Merle and T-Dog completely.
"Hey, Princess!" Millie refused to look over at Merle as he called to her. "How 'bout you come on over here and let good 'ol Merle loose from these here cuffs?"
"Hey, man, leave the woman alone. She didn't get you in this mess, you did." T-Dog snapped at the redneck. Millie rolled her eyes and knew that T-Dog had been given the key, so it didn't matter if she got him out or not.
"Even if I wanted to, Merle, I couldn't help you. T-Dog has the key, not me." Millie told him. She bound over to him, crouching down in front of Merle. "And T-Dog is right. You got yourself into this mess, you can get yourself out if you behave and we believe that you won't hurt anybody." Merle set his jaw, trying not to spaz out and tare through the metal bar.
The door opened spilling the rest of the group back onto the roof. Rick took up the binoculars and looked out at the roads. Millie walked up next to him, surveying the land for the hundredth time. "Those construction trucks keep keys on hand, if we can get over to them—"
"Not with all those Walkers in the streets, you'll never make it past them." Morales cut in.
"You got Millie and me out of that tank," Rick started, staring at a wide eyed Glenn as he realized what Rick was saying.
"They were distracted; feeding on that horse." Millie shivered at the thought of that poor animal.
"Now hold on, I think he's got a point," Merle barked out, earning glares from everyone in the group.
"Shut up, Merle." Jacqui spat at him.
Rick ignored the hostile banter between the people. "They're drawn by sound, right?"
Glenn nodded but wasn't sure where he was going with it. "Right. Like dogs. If they hear it, they'll come."
"Rick, I think my earlier idea might work." Millie spoke up. "The only things we need are some suits and a truly dead Walker." Rick nodded at her before following her down from the rooftop, a few of the others trailing behind them. They all tore through the department store as Millie led Rick to the part of the store where they offered some kind of lab coats and gloves.
"If bad ideas were and Olympic event, this one would take the gold." Glenn spewed lightly, trying to make a joke out of a horrible situation. Millie cracked a small smile before glancing towards the door as more Walkers tried pushing in.
"They already got through one set of doors; that glass won't last forever." Rick nodded over towards the door Millie was watching. They all dressed in suits and bolted for the doors that lead to the back alley. Millie stood back and watched as they dragged the carcass of the dead Walker back through the door. "Millie, go back up and be our eyes in the sky." Millie shot Rick a glare before doing as she was told. She snatched up the abandoned rifle on the ground before looking out the scope, trying to see a path for Rick and Glenn to take through the mass of walking dead. She jumped over to the other side of the roof, watching them as they veered right into the mass of dead bodies. Millie followed their every move until they had to crawl under the bus. She moved to another side of the roof, where they would spit out from under the bus. She watched as they moved slowly, trying not to catch the dead's attention as they moved through.
A clap of thunder rolled through the sky and had Millie looking up at the angry clouds. She cursed quietly and gazed around Glenn and Rick, looking for any signs that a Walker was onto them. She felt the first few drops of rain on her arms and growled softly. This was definitely going to ruin their plan of getting out of here. "Rick," she mumbled, angry that he refused to let her tag along.
Millie threw the strap of the gun over her head, pulling the hilt against her shoulder tightly as she looked through the scope and placed her finger on the trigger. The rain pelted down harder as the storm started rumbling in. She saw Glenn look back at the zombies they had passed, saw his eyes glance up at the sky as he began to freak out. The rain wasn't close to stopping when their smell of death began washing off their coats. Millie chewed on her bottom lip before taking the first shot at a Walker that opened her mouth at Rick. She shot again when they both spun around, taking out another one trying to grab at Glenn.
Rick spun around, grabbing at Glenn as they bolted for the truck. They reached it after hoping over a fence where Rick started firing at the Walkers that were trying to hop over the fence to get to them. Millie unloaded her bullets at the ones Rick wasn't shooting at, hoping it would buy them a few extra moments. She watched as Rick and Glenn climbed into the cab of the truck and watched as one of the Walkers slammed into Glenn's door. Millie took him out a second before they peeled away from the Walkers and the rest of the group.
Millie turned around before switching on the safety of the rifle and sped walked toward the rest of the group. "Your buddy just left us!" Andrea screeched at the woman. "We should just leave you up here with Merle!"
She ignored Andrea, turning towards T-Dog. "Let him loose, were leaving." She faced Morales and Jacqui as they were starting to panic as well.
"How do you plan on getting us out of here, huh? Our only hope was that van and they left us here!" Morales barked at her.
"Did you expect them to barrel through the gate full of Walkers? Huh? What about the streets?" Millie dared them to test her patience. "They would get jammed up with all those bodies. They'll come back. They just need to distract those Walkers in the streets. Now let's move!"
Millie led the way off the roof, going towards one of the exits. They all needed to have a little more faith in Rick and especially Glenn. How dare they think that Glenn of all people would leave them behind. Even Millie could tell that Glenn was a caring person and he cared for these people in the department store.
A car alarm reverberating around the alleys had Millie smiling. "Get those roll-up doors open once I drive by!" Glenn's voice echoed over the CB. "Rick is driving the van around once the Walker's follow me!" Millie quickly pulled on the chains, hearing the glass cracking, alerting her to the threat of Walkers entering from behind them. Morales came to her aid, pulling the chains with her.
Once the doors rolled up, Rick backed up the truck before opening the hatch on the back. Millie heard T-Dog's shouts over the glass breaking and she quickly pushed Jacqui up into the van before meeting up with T-Dog and firing her gun off into some of the zombies. "Where's Merle?" Millie yelled to him. "I thought I said to unlock him!" T-Dog shook his head at her and grabbed her arm, yanking her back to the truck. He didn't want her to risk her life for someone like Merle Dixon.
Morales picked her up, threw her in the car, and jumped in after her. Rick peeled away as Morales closed the truck door behind him. It was silent in the cab, except for everyone's haggard breathing. They all stared at T-Dog until he met their gazes. "I dropped the damn key." He spat out, looking right at the eyes that stared at him.
"Where's Glenn?" Andrea looked around, making sure he wasn't just hiding somewhere.
"He's in the sports car, leading a horde of Walkers away somewhere. In fact," Rick said, smiling a bit. "I think I hear the alarm still going off up ahead."
Millie couldn't join the others in celebration. They had left a man up on a roof to die. No matter how cruel he had been, he didn't deserve to be served up on a silver platter for the Walkers. She just stared at the back door, refusing to look at the people left in the cab. Millie didn't know if these people should be trusted, and she wasn't about to put her life in the hands of these people, especially not after what they did to Merle.
AN: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! To the wonderful guest review! I really appreciate whoever reviewed, I am so grateful to you that I decided not to break up this chapter into parts! You made my whole week with the review! Thank you! To everyone else out there, thank you for reading my story! I would like to thank Addictedtoreading452, Jovie Black, Ryanarima, Stjarna19, and Symmetryfreak88 for Favoriting this story! And thanks to Addictedtoreading452, Fallenstarnight, JCLProductions88, MariLucia, Steadfastluv, hideher, Symmetryfreak88, and AnimeFreak9096 for Following the story! If I wrote your name in the chapter before, I'm sorry, I forgot who but thank you twice!
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