A/N: WARNING: This Chapter is extremely long and full of cuss words! You have been warneddddd
Atlanta was a mess. I don't know why we ever thought it would be a good idea to go there. Why hadn't I realized that someone would have ransacked most everything by now anyways? I don't know, and it doesn't matter. What matters is that we had driven the ambulance to a small drug store on the outskirts of the city. Small in Atlanta is still pretty big and the place was crawling with those humanoid things. Calling them zombies felt wrong, but I had no other words for them. Mario killed most of them and we made our way inside.
Rebecca even killed one once we got inside but there were only maybe six in the store, and Mario and I killed most of them. I see them less and less as humans every time I split one's skull open. I saw the flatline for myself. I know they are something else. A parasite even, perhaps. I'm not sure. I've never seen a virus like this in my life, even in text books.
The store was mostly in tact actually, unlike several of the larger, mainstream grocery stores we had passed on the way there and we went to the back employee break room to make sure the entire store was secure. The break room had a lock on the inside, and we were able to lock the sliding glass doors at the front of the store, which no longer worked anyways and had to be pried open.
"What do you guys think?" I asked, leaning against the break room door. Slumping down, feeling tired already, despite only being awake for maybe five hours now.
"I think we could stay here for a while." Mario said, tilting his head to the side, thoughtfully. "I know you wanted to head for the CDC, but I gotta be honest, Reenee, I think that's where most people would head. There's a reason this store is still so together. Everyone who didn't die fled somewhere, somewhere they didn't think they would need much. I'd bet the CDC locked their doors the first night. If they're trying to cure this thing they can't take the risk of infection from people themselves. All it takes is one mama tryin' to protect her sick kid." He sounded bitter but I understood. It seemed that was always how these things spread, especially from continent to continent. Something that starts in Asia or Europe, eventually makes it's way to us, and how? Children. Mothers hoping their sick babies can get better help from American doctors send their infected kids our way and then screw the lot of us. Mario is right. If the people at the CDC had any heart at all they wouldn't be able to turn away the children and that would be their biggest downfall. They would have to turn away everyone and working with diseases constantly? They were smart enough to know this.
"I think we should stay here. At least for a while." Rebecca pitched in. "He makes a good point, that's exactly how this crap works, and there's so much stuff here, water, food, toilet paper and tampons even. We have everything we need to last a while."
I nodded. "I agree, but I have to say I think our biggest fear would be how much stuff we have… if a gang of other survivors comes by with weapons…we'll be fucked. They could take everything and kill all of us."
"I'd rather go out by a gun than any of those things. I would welcome it." Mario said gruffly. His dark hair was getting shaggy, I noticed now, and he was beginning to need a shave. I wondered if the water here was running or not. There were definitely packaged razors and shaving cream in the store, maybe he could use one water bottle to rinse if he absolutely had to. Why was I thinking about this? I don't know. I was beginning to wonder how much of a mess I must look like myself. Rebecca looked beautiful as always, but she never wore much makeup to begin with. She had a beautiful face, naturally blonde, long hair and stunning green eyes. My own "beauty" paled in comparison.
"Let's stay." I said finally. "I think we should go back out to the ambulance and grab the bedding now, before it gets dark."
They agree and we grab our assorted weapons, Mario now had two large, metal poles, Rebecca had one as well, and I had a large wrench. I sort of missed the pole, myself, but the wrench was harder, sturdier, even if it did mean closer contact.
We ventured back outside and Rebecca stayed at the door, holding it open and looking out while Mario and I unloaded the bedding we had pulled off of gurneys and hospital beds and brought it back into the store without issue.
We set up our little makeshift beds in a row, a few inches apart on the floor of the break room. There was one cot but none of us really wanted to take it.
"Should someone stay up to keep look out?" Rebecca questioned once we had finished setting up camp.
"For what?" I snorted, "It's a single locked room, and I don't think any of us wants to roam around the store in the dark at night, if something does come in, it won't be able to get in to this room without all of us knowing, and if something is out there in the store, we'll all deal with it together. No one goes anywhere by themselves. We all go together."
They agreed and we ventured out into the store to find dinner before the sun went down. That night was good. We found a battery operated stove, several, in the outdoor cooking area and were able to make a few cans of soup. I was so happy to have those in place of the bags of chips we had been living off of for the past week or so, I could feel a decline in my health. I was sad that all of the milk had of course spoiled but I looked like some of the eggs might have made it, we decided to try them the next morning. Things were okay. Considerably better than the hospital, in my opinion, and no more annoying people to deal with…although I did have to wonder how they were getting on. I pushed them out of my brain. There were dozens of people in the world who had different stories happening, and I couldn't think of them either. I had to focus on myself, and right now, I was okay.
The next day, we tried the eggs and they were delicious, I practically cried with joy. Mario was able to shave, after some prompting from me and Rebecca and I were finally able to wash our faces. A waste of water, definitely but self care is still on the hierarchy of needs, I would rather have a clean face than begin to lose my sanity in this awful situation. I checked myself out in the mirror. My wavy, dark hair was a knotted mess that I couldn't be bothered with. I found a pack of hair ties and pulled it up into a bun, my bangs fell to the sides of my face. Without foundation my light brown freckles were more obvious, peppering my pale face, but I couldn't be bothered to put makeup on at this time, even though I was sure there was plenty in the store. Rebecca went for the eyeliner and I did steal some of that though.
We piled up boxes and bags in front of the store windows so the creatures wouldn't see in and neither would any looters, we left small "windows" for ourselves, covered with only a sheet of paper or piece of cardboard so we could remove it to look out when we wanted to. This did give us less day light to work with but we were okay. Even if I occasionally felt like a rat, hunting around in the dark for food at dinner time. Days passed and we were doing good there, great even. Days bled into weeks and we were still fine, happy even. We had made a little home there and we were pretty content. We had enough bottled water and food to last us a while. I tried to add it up but it was just too much. I gave them a rough estimate of 3 months though, but it would probably be even more, honestly. Especially once we started noticing our supplies getting low, we could start rationing it more.
After three weeks of being there, we had fallen into a pleasant routine. We would get up in the morning and accompany each other to the restrooms. There was no running water so the restrooms smelled terrible but it was still a set aside place to release and when the door was closed the smell didn't leak into the rest of the store, so we really didn't mind too much. We would then walk around the store together, once again making sure nothing had gotten in during the night or that we had never overlooked anything. The exercise was also good for us, we tried to walk around the store completely, every aisle and the back storage room, four times a day. We would then peek out our little windows and see what we could see. All we ever saw was a sparse amount of zombies, ambling through the street at random. They didn't even seem to know where they were going. We found a stairwell leading up to the roof and we went up there sometimes too, just to peek down but more often than not we didn't really have any reason to, unless I was having a cigarette. Then they both would accompany me. We would make food together, sit around, talk. Find games and crossword puzzles in the store. We didn't exactly have much to do. It was nice. Not being so busy for once.
It was our 26th day being there, it was nearing lunch time and I was doing Rebecca's makeup for the hell of it, applying blush to her perfect cheekbones, when we heard it. A high pitched chirping. It was a car alarm and it was getting closer. I perked up immediately and Rebecca looked up to the ceiling as though she could identify it from there, but that gave me an idea.
I leapt to my feet and bounded towards the stairwell, Rebecca grabbed her pipe and was hot on my trail. Mario, who had been playing solitaire on a battery operated toy noticed and grabbed his new weapon, an aluminum baseball bat and raced after us.
I made it to the edge of the roof just in time. I saw the red car leave the city's main road in a flash. It was far away but it was easy enough to make out. I could see all the zombies in the street below ambling towards the noise. That was a person. It had to be. Hot on the trail of the red car was a large white truck, I watched them until I could no longer see them down the road. Rebecca and Mario saw the truck for sure.
"People.." she voiced quietly what I was sure we were all thinking.
"What do we do?" I asked to no one in particular. Maybe even to myself.
"What do you want to do?" Mario asks, lowering his head and raising his eyebrows inquisitively. His dark skin has gotten paler staying inside all the time, I noticed. Rebecca mimics his facial expression towards me. Who decided I was the leader here?
"I'm not sure." I admitted. "Let's just go back inside. We'll think about it."
Plopping back down on the floor of the makeup aisle, now with paper notebook and pen in hand, I drew up a PRO/CON list. Mario snorted at me.
"What!?" I wrinkled my nose at him.
"Isn't that a little high school for a DOCTOR?" He chuckled at me. Rebecca giggled from beside me. I wrinkled my nose at her too.
"Call it what you want but I guarantee it will help us decide what to do. PRO/CON lists are the answer to life. They helped me decide to be a doctor." I said matter of factly, drawing numbers down the lined spaces.
"Look where that got you." Mario muttered jokingly, still grinning and I elbowed him.
"Pro: More people, less Mario." I said, jotting it down on the Pro list. Rebecca sniggered beside me.
Mario rolled his eyes at me but then turned serious, "If we are going to go, we should go soon. All of those things have been drawn away from here by the noise of the car, it's probably safest to go soon."
I hadn't thought of that. "Yeah.." I agreed.
"More people means that they might have more of a plan. There's a lot of stuff here but we can't stay indefinitely. We all know that. And we still run the risk of running into some not so friendly people." Rebecca added.
I added "New plans" to the Pro list.
"What if they are some not so friendly people?" Mario grumbled.
I added "Bad people" to the Cons list.
"They might have weapons. Real ones." I said.
"That can go both ways." Mario interrupted, and I added weapons to both sides of the list.
"They might need a doctor or two on their team." Rebecca said.
I smiled at her, "That would go on their pro/con list. Not ours. It gives them a reason to need us, but it doesn't do anything for us other than that."
"Well, if someone is hurt. We could help them." She added and then we heard screaming.
It was the loud bellow of a man, only a street or two away by the sounds of it.
Rebecca's eyes shot wide and she looked at me, Mario, had his bat back in his hand at the ready, and he was looking at me too.
"We can't save everyone…He could be dead by the time we get there…" I said quietly. Mario nodded but Rebecca looked disbelieving.
"What if every ambulance driver, every EMT thought that?" She huffed. "You're a doctor, Ree, we can't ever give up if there's a chance we could save someone."
I sighed. She was right but she wasn't thinking realistically. We could walk into a death trap of those things. The yell could be heard again and her eyes trained on me even more intensely.
"FINE. We're going to pack everything we can, and I mean EVERYTHING. We're going to go help this guy and then we're going to head after those other survivors. Good?"
Rebecca nodded excitedly, smiling at me. It was hard to believe she was older than me sometimes. Mario nodded but looked less than excited. He didn't think this was a good idea.
"Rebecca, grab some binoculars and scope out the streets as much as you can. See if you can find this guy, or at least get an idea of where he might be, yeah?" She nodded and jumped up, running for the outdoor section.
Mario, start packing up all the food and water you can. I'm going to change my clothes and then I'll meet you at the front of the store to help you get things into the ambulance. He nodded and stood up but hesitated. He helped me to my feet. Once Rebecca was out of ear shot he turned to me. "You really think we should do this?"
I looked into his dark eyes. "No. I don't know. But I think we should try."
"Why? It's like you said, we could be walking into a death trap, we have no idea what we're getting into!" He hissed, irritated. "This could be a death sentence for all of us!"
"You can stay if you want to….I would be sad but I won't force you to do this with us…but just like you would rather be shot… I would rather go out doing something I was meant to do. Helping someone. I would rather die being ripped apart by those inhuman things while trying to save a life than be found cowering in a break room, surrounded by supplies that I'm not sharing with anyone, and murdered for them. I won't do it."
He held my gaze for a long time and then sighed. "You really fuckin' suck, you know that, Ree?"
"Believe me." I sighed, "I know."
I hurried off to the meager clothing department and changed right there in the aisle out of my dirty hospital scrubs and into a clean white shirt. I found a pair of jeggings that were too big for my short legs but slid them on anyways and pulled them up to my belly button to bring them to the right height. I couldn't care less.
I redid my hair into a bun and grabbed a few sticks of eyeliner for the road, foundation was too much of a bother but my overall appearance was made about 1000x better by just a little bit of eyeliner. I rubbed a bit around my eyes and then slipped on a pair of thin fuzzy black boots. They were mostly flat but they would provide more protection and coverage than my hospital shoes, they were even easier to run in than those flat safety shoes.
I ran to the front of the store, where Mario had already stacked up seven or eight cardboard boxes full of various food. I'm beginning to question whether we can really get everything in the ambulance or not.
"Maybe we should make one trip to the other survivors, find out what's going on before we head for that guy." I said quietly.
"You think Becca will let you do that?" He smirked at me.
"She hates being called Becca." I smirked back.
But then she was running back up the aisle towards us.
"He's on the roof! He's on the roof maybe three buildings that way!" She pointed out the front window. It made sense. That's where the red car with the car alarm had come from, and the truck that had followed it.
"They left one of their people behind…" I said softly. I was growing less certain about these people. Maybe the situation had gotten bad and he hadn't been able to escape with them… I wasn't sure. It seemed kind of unlikely.
"He's alive?" I asked Rebecca.
She nodded, "It sure seems like it. He's flailing around everywhere and I think still yelling sometimes just not as loud. It looks like he's stuck to something."
I thought about the situation. It was hotter than hell outside. Middle of the summer in Atlanta, Georgia. It had to be about 5 PM and there was a small summer drizzle earlier but it still had to be 100 or over.
"He'll bake out there…" I said softly. "We have to go for him. Pack everything, I mean everything we possibly can, I don't care if Rebecca has to sit on my lap, we need to take as much as we can, Rebecca help him pack up the food as efficiently as possible. I'll meet you back in a minute."
I jogged back to the outdoor section and found an umbrella, a golf club and a beach bag, I threw the umbrella into the beach bag and then piled in five water bottles and some baggies of chips and then ran with the golf club back to the front.
"These things look great." I told Rebecca, swinging the golf club back and forth, appreciating the sound of the metal head swooshing through the air.
"I like what I got, thanks." She grinned at me, the pole was sticking out of her back pocket. I could see why she would prefer it. She and I were both what you would call "Fun sized" and it was easier to have a short, metal rod like that than a golf club that was over half your size. We peeked through the windows and finding the coast to be clear, we pried the front doors open and I helped Mario start loading boxes into the back of the ambulance. We piled it as full as we possibly could and then pulled the doors closed, we filed into the ambulance ourselves, Rebecca sat on my lap and the beach bag laid down by my feet, along with the golf club.
We drove down the next street over and then the next street after that until Rebecca recognized the back of the building the man was on. There were quite a few zombies roaming around outside the building, it looked like some sort of department store.
"You're sure this is the one?"
She nodded. "Ready?" I whispered to them, once Mario had parked near a fire escape and shut off the engine.
"Ready." She murmured.
He grunted his confirmation.
I slid her off of my lap and towards the drivers seat, this left her in an uncomfortable position for a moment but I wasn't willing to let her slide out into the alleyway first. There were at least three coming for us and I knew it. Mario was the first to actually make it out onto the ground and he went straight for the nearest one. I slid out of the van and followed suit, then helped Rebecca reach the ladder, giving her a boost with my hands. Mario then helped me up and swung into one more zombie's skull before following us up himself. We made it up to the roof in no time.
We reached the top and instantly saw the howling man. He was kicking his feet around and reaching for something. As we approached it was clear that Rebecca was right, he was stuck. He had been handcuffed to a pipe on the roof of this building, what he was reaching for looked like a wrench or a saw or something and then we noticed the zombies pushing at the door of the roof. They had gone through the building, evidently, and were vying to get at this guy. All his howling had attracted them, I wanted to call him an idiot for it but it had also attracted us who could help him.
"Hey!" I spoke as we got nearer. He visibly startled and then rolled over.
"Well, hello there, babydoll!" He said gruffly. "Hand me that saw there, would ya?" He said raspily.
I didn't say anything in return, I just set down my golf club, put down the beach bag I had been carrying and pulled out a bottle of water, handing that to him instead.
He took it greedily, without a thank you and began chugging it down.
"How did you get handcuffed up here?" I asked gently, scooting away from him a ways and then standing again.
"Damn asshole cop. Came out of nowhere started shootin' everythin'. Me an my group were here gatherin' supplies and this bastard comes out of o nowhere, blows our whole damn cover and then when I get angry he handcuffs me to this god damn roof! Piece o shit even tossed my drugs up off the damn buildin! I don't know who he thinks he is, not like there's no law round here no more! Then they all made off an left me here! God damn asshole left nigga dog with the keys and he threw them down the fuckin drain!" He gulped more water down.
Rebecca, Mario, and I exchanged awkward glances.
"Cops usually have spare keys don't they?" Rebecca asked me softly.
"Course he does, he was a god damn 'SHERRIFF'" He sneered, he said Sherriff mockingly. I couldn't exactly blame him for being pissed though.
"What do we do?" Rebecca squeaked.
"You go get that asshole and make him come back here with that fuckin key!" The man yelled.
"Tell my baby brother when you get there and he'll make 'em come."
Mario lifted his eyebrows at me.
"What is your name?" I asked finally.
"Merle Dixon, what's yours sweetheart?" He asked. I frowned.
"It's not sweetheart, I can tell you that much." I muttered. "Where is your group? How can we find them?"
"Oh, they only about 10 miles down the road, straight outta the city, they ain't hidin, they got a big ol Winnebago an everythin', sweet cheeks, can't miss 'em."
I chew on my lip a little bit and peer out over the edge. The street is recrowding with the zombies. We need to make a decision and soon. I walk to the side with the fire escape down to where we parked the ambulance. Only two are down there at the moment but I'm not sure how long it will stay that way. Rebecca and Mario follow me, and I'm glad to be out of ear shot for a moment.
"This guy is shady as fuck." Mario grumbles to me.
Rebecca looks away but it's clear to me that she agrees. It doesn't matter and I know it, a life is a life to her.
"Head down the road, see if you can find the survivors. I'm going to stay here with him. It'll be getting dark soon." I said, looking up at the sky, "If you have to stay the night there, then do it. I'm staying here with him. I need to be sure that if those things start to break the door, we can get him out of here if you don't make it back in time. Explain the situation to the people. I'm sure they'll see reason. They have a cop with them."
They both look reluctant but a few more zombies are coming down the alley now and I usher them to go. "I'll be fine. I have my golf club. I'll be okay. Just try to be back here before noon tomorrow, okay?"
Rebecca looked close to tears, "I love you, Ree." She whimpers as she begins going down the ladder after Mario.
"I love you too, Rebecca." I smile at her, "It'll be okay."
I watched them clamber into the ambulance from the closest door, Rebecca crawls over the seats to get to the passenger side and then they're off before any of those things could even get near them. I watch them drive down the streets for as long as I can until they're out of my view, blocked by towers of grey, desolate buildings that used to be filled with people.
"Ay! What's goin' on!?" Merle bellows at me and I stalk back over to him.
"Shush! You're going to get us both killed!" I hissed at him and he outright chuckled at me.
"You see them chains, baby doll? Ain't even these things gonna get through them."
I hmmed at him. I was far less sure. The chains were large and metal, sure but I was far less certain about them lasting against the pressure of fifty or more large bodies pressing against it.
"So what you doin' here anyway baby girl?" He asked, reaching for the chips in my beach bag.
I pushed them closer to him. I was sitting far enough way that he couldn't touch me, the beach bag was lying between us. I didn't trust him. He did drugs for one thing, he admitted that, and he seemed like a hot head, I doubted a sheriff would have handcuffed him to this room for no reason. He also had signs of being in a fight recently. What he had done, I had no idea but I wasn't interested in putting myself in a situation where he could do anything to me.
"I'm saving your ass." I said shortly, and pulled a pack of cigarettes out of the side pocket of the beach bag.
"Well, lookit you!" He exclaimed, looking pleased but a little too interested as I lit the cigarette.
"Lemme get one of those, little girl." He said. He was being friendly enough but I was still thirty-three and not interested whatsoever in being called a "little girl", when you're 5'2 you get made fun of for being small all the time. Being called a "little girl" or "little" in any way was just annoying after the ten billionth time.
I tossed a cigarette to him and then the lighter.
"I want that back." I said as sweetly as I could.
He chuckled and lit his smoke, tossed the lighter back to me.
"So where you from?"
I understood wanting to make light conversation so things wouldn't get awkward but, honestly, even though I was a doctor I wasn't much of a people person. That's why I usually worked in the ER, where my patient interaction was limited to diagnosing, patching up, saying goodbye.
"I lived in North Druid Hills. I was a doctor at an Urgent Care facility not far from there. Where are you from?" I admitted this as casually as I could between drags. He laughed at me and I looked at him, lifting an eyebrow.
"You're one of them high and mighty rich kids huh? Me an my baby brother from a little trailer park not too far from here neither. Never had no silver spoon in our mouths, tell you that, just a beer bottle or two." He chuckled.
I wrinkled my nose in disgust. I didn't care much for alcohol, I've always thought it rots you from the inside out, but cigarettes were much the same. This "silver spoon" bullshit was going to get real old real fast I can tell.
"Despite what you might think, North Druid Hills isn't that great of a town. Nice, pleasant enough. I'm missing it now, but still, just because North is in the name doesn't mean it's the shit, okay? And I had to work full time the entire 8 god damn years I was in school, I worked for everything I had and now it was all pointless. All I have is my medical knowledge. My home, my possessions mean nothing, but I can assure you a silver spoon was never one of them."
He snorted at me and I rolled my eyes. This was going to be a fun night, I could tell.
"Look, precious. A guy like me could work his whole damn life and never make it to medical school anyways. There just ain't no place there for my type. They're some kind of bias against us."
I rolled my eyes again.
"Yes, I'm sure you're right." I mumbled, stomping my cigarette out beneath my boot. The sun had gone down completely now and I was getting chilly and a little scared. The moans from the things behind us were ever present and in the dark they were even more frightening. I could hear the chains on the door rattling as they were pressed. I wondered if we should try to be quiet. I felt certain that my friends wouldn't be back until morning.
"We should sleep." I said quietly.
"You do that, baby girl, I'll keep watch."
I thanked him although I was sure his drug problem had more to do with his staying awake than any sort of protective feelings for me, and then scooted another foot or two away, taking the pack of cigarettes with me and leaving him three single ones and the lighter for the night. I fell asleep listening to the moans of the decrepit creatures trying to force their way to my skin.
I woke up to the Georgia sun beating down on my back. I felt groggy. I hated waking up so overheated. I propped myself up and reached desperately towards the beach bag for water.
"'Bout time, princess! Pass me another one of them stoges would ya?"
I had momentarily forgotten about my wonderful friend. I pulled a cigarette out of the pack and chucked it to him.
"It's so hottttt." I groaned, gulping down water.
He gave a raspy little laugh from beside me.
"You're tellin' me. It's only gettin' hotter."
I checked my watch. 9:50 AM.I wondered how hot it must be. I didn't even want to eat although my body was starving by this point. Merle on the other hand had clearly gone through several bags of chips, favoring the hot Cheetos by the wrappers.
I stood up and looked around. There were still hands coming through the gap in the door, the chains were still strained against the pressure of the zombies. I hesitated, then took the golf club and wandered in a wide circle away from Merle towards the door to survey the chain. Several of the metal links were bending. My presence only drove the beasts to work harder too.
"I think we have a problem." I said, sitting back down, trying to be shaded by the large metal pipe going across the roof. I lit up a cigarette, Merle gave me a longing almost baleful sort of look and I tossed him another one and then the lighter.
"Those things are going to break those chains. I'm sure of it. They're already bending. I don't know how long we have or how many are in there but it looks like a lot. Once they get through though, we're not going to have a lot of time before there's a dozen or more all over this roof…" I admitted.
He took a long drag, and blew out the smoke.
"I hate to say this, but I agree with you, girl. I noticed last night the chain has been getting more and more slack. They're sticking their arms through more than they were when everyone high tailed it outta here without me. When are your damn friends getting back?"
I sighed. I honestly had no idea. I told them to be back by twelve but I had no idea what was happening wherever they were, or honestly, if they had even ever made it to the survivor's camp. How long were we supposed to wait?
"I don't know." I said quietly. We smoked in silence for a little while after that.
"If they're not back by 1, we're going to have to figure something out." I decided finally.
"Then maybe you should grab that damn saw for me so we can start working on these fuckin' cuffs." He complained. I sighed but got up and grabbed the saw. The zombies were pressuring heavily at the chains, I could see them bending under the pressure. I was worried. If it got down to it, I could run off, sure, but to where? And then what? Leave Merle here to be eaten alive while I run off like a coward? No. If it got down to it, I would stay here and fight for as long as I could. I handed him the saw and he began working away at the cuffs.
By noon he had made no progress, and there hadn't been a single car on the road yet. I was getting more concerned. The saw was beginning to dull and the handcuffs showed no sign of wear. We had run down to our last six cigarettes.
I pulled another out and handed it to him. "Take a break. I don't think you're doing anything but wearing down the saw. Those handcuffs are made to withstand this kind of thing, those are the real deal." He took the cigarette and threw the saw at the concrete floor of the roof.
"Fuckin' asshole piece of shit cop! Who the fuck he think he is tyin me to this god DAMN ROOF!"
I wanted to slap him, the things at the door were only getting more and more revved up and the chains were rattling like crazy, itching to break. I lit my own cigarette and got up, walking over to the door. The chain links were definitely bending out of shape. All it took was for one to snap and the whole chain would come undone. I gulped and tried to count how many nasty things I could see inside. There were too many. I couldn't be sure. I looked at the chain again, as they pressured against it.
"We have an hour at best." I said, walking back over to what I had come to think of as my spot.
"Well ain't that just fine and dandy. Your god damn piece of shit friends done left you up here high and dry too, baby girl, so what we gonna do!?"
I sighed. I highly doubt that they had left me but it was becoming an increasing worry that the ambulance had broken down or run out of gas. Maybe they got to the campsite and there was no one there. Or worse yet, maybe they had gotten there and been attacked at night. Maybe they were all dead. I checked my watch again. 12:20
"Twenty-five more minutes. We'll give them that and then we have to find a way to go. We can't stay here and wait for those things to break in and kill us. You're a sitting duck chained up like that and we're both just baking in this sun."
"My baby brother shoulda come for me by now." Merle grumbled, but there was a sad tone to it. I tossed him one more cigarette.
"That's your last one. Make it last." I told him. He tucked it over his ear and saved it. I pulled out my umbrella and decided to chance sitting nearer to him. We hid beneath it's meager shade for half an hour before I went to look at the door again.
The chains were strained to the end, now. They were ready to break. One in particular had stretched wide enough to create a small gap in the metal. I hurried back over to him.
"We have to go. We have to figure something out now. It's nearly one, and we don't have any more time to spare. That chain is going to go or we are." I said hurriedly.
"Well then it looks like we got one option, little girl. You gonna have to cut my hand off."
I gritted my teeth.
"There has to be another way." I growled. I lit a cigarette, began pacing back and forth on the roof, looking onto the street below. No cars. No cars coming from the direction the ambulance had gone off in the day before either. I took drags and exhaled, took drags and exhaled until I was down to the filter. I had nothing. The pipe wasn't going to give any more than the handcuffs were, the saw wasn't even that great of a saw. What was I to do?"
"Come on girl, before I get started on it myself." Merle grumbled.
I gave a frustrated groan and went back to the door. The metal link doing the worst had only gotten pulled wider, the gap between the metal was growing. We didn't have time. We didn't have any fucking time.
"Are you sure?" I asked hurriedly.
"Yes, I'm god damn sure, I ain't gonna be eaten, cut off my damn hand." He said, kicking his feet around in annoyance.
"Fuckin' A…." I grabbed the saw and then looked in the pack of cigarettes. Four left. I stole one and gave him the rest of the pack.
"All yours, darling…hold on tight okay…" He took them gratefully and finally took the one out from behind his ear and lit it up.
"Get goin', doctor." He muttered.
"Do you have a handkerchief? A Belt? Something I can use to tourniquet you? It will reduce the pain and the loss of blood."
He loosened his belt and pulled it off. I could hear the chains creaking and I snatched the belt from him and tied it around his forearm, just slightly lower than his elbow, I tied it tight enough for him to hiss in pain and then waited just about a minute.
I pulled the single, lonely bottle of hand sanitizer I had brought in the beach bag out and squeezed out a glob onto the saw, rubbing it down the length of the serrated edge, and then poured more into my hands, rubbing them together profusely. Deciding it wasn't the time to try to conserve, I squeezed another glob onto the saw and rubbed it down once more, and then again on my hands.
"Ready?" I squeaked. I wasn't a surgeon.
"Yes, girl, stop askin' me if I'm fuckin' ready, no one is ready to get their damn arm chopped off, just do it already!" He barked, dragging on his cigarette and pulling another one out to have at the ready.
I tried to psych myself up mentally, and then pushed the handcuff up as far as it would go towards his hand, hoping I could make a clean cut just past the metacarpals. I was shaking. I slapped myself. Now wasn't the time to be shaking, I couldn't afford a fuck up.
"Damn, girl…" He said gruffly, grinning at me.
"Shut up." I muttered and took the saw to his wrist, feeling for the metacarpals and aiming for just below them, hoping to make it in between the bones of the wrist and the radius and ulna. I began sawing. Merle began howling. The things at the door began pressuring more and more at the chains. I felt certain I was going to hear the snap of the chains before I could get through his wrist, so I worked harder, trying to make it go faster and faster.
Merle had stopped howling by this point and is resting his head against the metal pipe line, looking weak, smoking another cigarette.
With a sickening tear, I had finally made it through his wrist. His hand was gone. He was free.
I still needed to stop the bleeding though, even with the tourniquet it was bleeding profusely. I looked around for something to stop it up or tie it off with. The blood was dripping freely onto the ground.
I looked at his face. His eyes were squinted shut; I could see stains down his dirty face where tears must have cut through.
"Hey, do you have a handkerchief or something?" I asked, breaking him from his trance.
He shook his head at me. I popped the last cigarette out of the pack and put it in his mouth, he smirked at me around the cigarette, I lit it for him and then stood up, he looked at his dripping hand and then got to his feet himself. His hand fell out of the handcuff and onto the ground, with a sickening plop.
He was obviously dizzy, he swayed on his feet a little bit.
"Do not look at me like I am anything more than a person trying to help you." I warned him, and then pulled off my t shirt and wrapped it around his stump a few times, he hissed with pain but took it extraordinarily well. I tied it off with my hair tie, even though it now meant having to deal with my long, tangly tresses.
He gave a weak whistle but I saw it more as a weak attempt at humor than him making a pass at me. We stood there for a minute, I lit my own cigarette and stared at the door. There seemed to be surprisingly fewer of them suddenly, we didn't necessarily have to go anywhere now that he was able to move but he seemed antsy to leave.
"This way, baby girl." He said gruffly, but weakly, and lead me to what looked like an electrical work door. His hand was still dripping a small amount of blood through the shirt. I followed him to the door and got beside it, I pulled my beach bag to make it into as nearly a backpack as I could and then got my golf club ready, nodded at him to open up the door and he did, I pulled my golf club back, ready to swing but there was nothing there. I went down first. I was scared. We could run into more at any moment now, we were no longer even slightly safe, we were prone to attack at any second, from any direction, and the darkness of the building was a stark contrast from the blinding sun outside, I could barely even see the steps I was going down.
We reached the ground floor and I could instantly see two.
"Take out that geek." He whispered raspily beside me, I hadn't noticed the wrench he had brought with him from the roof. I puffed one last breath of my cigarette, then put it out and snuck up behind the one he had gestured to. He smashed into the skull of the other one just as I reached striking distance of the one I went for, it turned just in time to see my club coming for it's face.
We ventured through another room and I took out one more, I was too distracted to notice one creeping behind me but Merle took it out and then dropped the wrench. His strength was fading fast, I could tell.
I crept forward, down a hall, and we ran into a kitchen. Perfect!
"I'm sorry, love but we're going to have to cauterize that thing." I said softly to him. "Or you're going to bleed out." He had already soaked through the thin white shirt, and had left a decent trail of drips along the way here. He nodded, looking tired.
I turned the knob on the gas stove, pleasantly surprised to find that it still worked, and then peered around the kitchen for something to use, finding a small cast iron, perfect for the job.
I heated it in the flame for roughly a minute before turning to him and asking if he could pull the shirt off his arm. He grunted agreeably and then proceeded to pull it off, only making little hissing sounds of pain.
When I pressed the burning hot iron to his stump, it was a different story. He couldn't contain his yelp or the steady stream of venomous cuss words that followed. I didn't bother telling him to shut up, I couldn't even fathom the pain he must be in, and it has been scientifically proven that cussing helps relieve pain.
Luckily, no "geeks" come in despite all the noise he was making and then I was done. I hand him a bottle of water.
"You should hydrate." I murmur, but he shoves it away.
"Don't need no fuckin' water. I need revenge, honey." He grumbled at me.
"Revenge?" I asked quietly.
"Damn fuckin' right. No one leaves Merle Dixon chained to a god damn roof and gets away with it. I'm going to go to camp and KILL that god damn cop!"
My eyes were wide. I had reached an impasse.
"I can't support that…" I said finally.
"Oh, so what? Now you gonna leave ol' Merle too, huh? Well fine, fuck you then, whore! I don't need you! Coulda done all this myself!"
How quickly he had changed, I thought. He had seemed so tired and out of it but a minute ago, now here he was revved up, ready to go, he looked ready to punch me in the face.
"Take your nasty ass fuckin shirt back. Fuck you, bitch!" He chucked the bloody tshirt at my face, I tore it away and scowled.
He took a kettle from the counter and smashed the window. Now I was getting angry. He was going to bring every fucking zombie in the neighborhood here with his screaming and breaking things.
He crawled through the window, and I could hear a distinct noise as he dropped onto whatever was below. I didn't bother to peek out after him. I waited until I couldn't hear his grumbling and bitching anymore and then peeked out the window. A fire escape. He hadn't even known it was there, the bastard. He was crazy.
I sighed and sat down on the window ledge with the golf club in hand, ready for more zombies to appear at the door now that he made such a loud fuss. I grabbed the beach bag and ate a bag of chips. Trying to decide what the hell to do with myself. I was alone now. I could try to walk to the camp but, honestly, I was scared. Just go strolling through the zombie infested city, off down a road that would take me god knows where, just hoping to run into a camp full of people I didn't know, who may or may not even be there?
I didn't even have a fucking cigarette to relieve some stress. I almost felt like crying, and to be honest, I almost did cry, until I heard the screaming coming from the roof.
My instinct was to go towards it, this meant that there were new people on the roof now right? Maybe it was Rebecca and Mario and some of the other survivors, they must have finally come. But then the logical side of my brain told me, running to save people screaming on roof tops is what got you into this grand old mess, Reenee, and now you're shirtless, cigarette-less, and stranded alone. I continued to eat my fritos, and waited there. Whoever was up there could come find me. Merle had left a decent enough trail of breadcrumbs, or blood drops, whatever.
Sure enough, not fifteen minutes later, I could hear someone down the hall shouting, "Merle! Merle!"
There was some murmuring after that and I got my golf club ready, moved forward, so I wouldn't be hidden by anything. I wished profusely that I hadn't chosen to wear my rainbow striped bra to work the day all this shit had gone down but there was nothing I could do about it now, and there was no way to fix the blood soaked shirt. I waited. Moments later a figure appeared at the door, face masked by a massive mechanical crossbow, scanning the room. After he saw me, clutching my golf club, standing there, wide eyed, he lowered his weapon. Three more men filed into the room after him.
I gulped, feeling unsure. Neither Rebecca nor Mario was with them, and now I was alone and shirtless surrounded by gruff looking men with guns and crossbows, I was more terrified of this situation than I was of the hundreds of zombies that had chased me through the hospital. I would rather die than be raped.
"You seen my brother?" The first one asked me, rudely.
How is that for a hello?
"Merle?" I asked, trying to sound confident but my voice came out as barely a squeak. The man took a step towards me, whether to hear me better or because I had peaked his interest, I wasn't sure.
"Yeah, you seen him?" He asked again, there was still no air of friendliness to him. I took a step back, and didn't lower my golf club.
The second man who had entered was wearing a sheriff's uniform. I nearly laughed. I felt obligated to warn him that a very weak man, ready to pass out from blood loss and dehydration was seeking to extract vengeance on him.
"Are you Renee?" The man in the Sheriff uniform asked, he at least seemed friendlier. He came nearer to me, I tried to take a step back but I had reached the wall. He stopped moving and put a hand up like I had a gun pointed at him. "We're not here to hurt you. I'm Sheriff Rick Grimes, your friends Mario and Rebecca made it to our camp yesterday, they told us that you were going to stay with Merle and wait for us to come uncuff him."
My face lit up. They had made it. They were okay. I huffed in disbelief and lowered the golf club. I smiled a little bit and used my now free left hand to push back some of mass of tangled brown hair.
"I can't believe they made it." I admitted, smiling more, and then I shook my head, "I'm sorry, I forgot myself I just...I'm so happy they're okay. I'm Ree-knee, actually, not Renee, and-"
"Good for you, where the hells my brother!?" The other one snarled at me. I back into the wall, raising the golf club again, my eyes are wide. They're definitely brothers, that's for sure. Hot headed, nuttos, ready to attack.
"Daryl, CALM DOWN." Rick said, turning to face him and talking as though he was speaking to a child.
"Your brother and I decided we couldn't stay on the roof anymore." I admitted, "We didn't know if Rebecca and Mario had made it to you guys, and we didn't know if anyone was coming for us. The chain holding the door was breaking apart and we couldn't stay there, waiting to be…eaten. Your brother decided to cut off his hand and…well I helped him. I'm a doctor. Once we had severed it, we came down here and we actually just cauterized it, maybe fifteen minutes ago? As soon as we did, he threw a fit, saying he was going to kill you." I gestured to Rick. "He said he wanted revenge and was going to kill you. I told him I would have no part in that and then he broke this window and shimmied down the fire escape like an idiot."
"We gotta go after 'im." Merle's brother, Daryl, apparently, said immediately and began charging towards the window, I scooted toward the hall to my left, out of his way but Rick grabbed him.
"Daryl, no. Use your head. We can't just go charging down there after him, we can help you search a span of a few blocks, he can't have gotten far right?" He looked to me for confirmation, I nodded, frowning at him, "We just have to be calm. Can you do that?"
Daryl nodded, but looked less than calm. "I can do that."
We looked around the room at each other for a moment, finally the small Asian kid came up to me, he couldn't be any older than 24/25. He extended a hand and smiled kindly, "I'm Glenn."
I smiled back. It was nice to see some humanity left in the world after spending so much time with Merle and now encountering his crazy brother. "Reenee. It's nice to meet you."
"Yeah, yeah, c'mon already." Daryl grumbled, and turned towards the hall I was standing in, "Why ain't you got a damn shirt on?"
I wrinkled my nose and frowned at him, "Seriously? Your brother was bleeding all over the place, it was my shirt or this bag, and quite frankly this bag serves more of a purpose."
"Oh." He muttered. "Thanks for helpin' him cut his fuckin' hand off, Iguess." He grumbled and then made his way down the hall.
"Yeah, he's always like this." Glenn answered the question I hadn't asked aloud and I grinned at him, he grinned back before following Daryl down the hall. The last man, a larger, African American man, came up to me then, and extended his hand. "T-Dog." He said and bobbed his head at me. "Reenee, I'm sure you've heard by now. It's nice to meet you." I said quietly, he wasn't doing a very good job of avoiding staring at my breasts, and it was getting old, even if I understood how awkward the situation probably was for him. He stood there awkwardly for a moment and then followed Glenn.
"Go ahead." Rick told me, I felt uncomfortable having someone who I barely knew, holding a gun, walking behind me but Rebecca had trusted him, I would have to as well. It was better than sitting there by myself wondering what the hell to do. I moved forward and we made it to what appeared to be some sort of office.
"Okay, I gotta say. I'm not willing to go strollin through these city streets with nothing but wishful thinking. If we're gonna look for Merle, we need to go get those guns first." T-Dog said, looking apologetic but honest.
Glenn nodded his head. Daryl looked between the two of them annoyed and then back at me, and then quickly away. I sighed. I needed a god damn shirt.
"I have a plan." Glenn finally piped up, breaking the silence. He pulled a white board down from the wall of the room and began to draw.
A/N: Extremely long chapter was extremely long! This is nearly 10,000 words! Holy crap, I'm sorry but I didn't want to go back on my promises and hey look! Daryl was in this chapter! For a good few paragraphs xD Haha sorry I'm so sorry. Please please review and thank you so much for reading, the next chapter will be normal size, roughly 4,000 words again, especially now that she's gotten to the group! Thank you again for reading!