Disclaimer: I don't own The Walking Dead or its characters. I only own Elise Young.
A/N: Happy birthday tooo meeee! Hey, guys! Thanks so much for the support with this so far! I'm loving writing it so much. My DVD box set of the first 3 seasons of The Walking Dead came yesterday and I got a lot of work done on this fic. I'm taking the day off writing it today, but I've got another seven chapters already written which I will probably spend the day amending and improving.
ShadowXMoonlight: Thanks for all your reviews so far! Daryl makes me very happy when I think about him too. I think it's his biceps...
shika93: I couldn't believe it when I saw all those reviews in my inbox this morning! Thanks so much for all your support!
MrsWinchester-Salvatore117:Thanks for your review! I'm glad you see potential in this story because I've been worried that I wouldn't do the show justice.
PlainJain: I'm glad you're enjoying the story and thank you so much for your review!
This fic won't be taken down. It's going to become one of my main projects. My four main projects are on my profile.
Happy reading!
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Can't Make It Alone
Chapter Seven: Busting Out
"I can't believe we're going through with this." Elise sighed as Rick knelt by the walker's body that had just been dragged into the store.
She was grateful that Glenn and Rick were the ones going out in the streets covered in walker guts. She didn't know if her stomach could take wearing bits of walker. Never mind cutting one to pieces. Rick bent down and quickly searched the corpse, finding a wallet on the man's body. He opened the wallet and looked inside at its contents, which puzzled the others for a few moments.
"Wayne Dunlap. Georgia license. Born in 1979. He had twenty-eight dollars in his pocket when he died..." He began, causing the group to fall silent, "And a picture of a pretty girl. 'With love, from Rachel.' He used to be like us... Worrying about bills or the rent or the Super Bowl. If I ever find my family, I'm gonna tell them about Wayne."
"One more thing." Glenn piped up, "He was an organ donor."
Elise whispered a near silent prayer for the man as she performed the sign of the cross, just like she did after each prayer. The group respectfully waited for her to finish before looking to Rick for the next move. Each one had dread lingering in the pits of their stomachs, and the thought of what they were about to do was damn near unbearable. Rick picked up the axe he'd found and began to chop away at the walker.
"Oh..." Elise breathed, feeling her stomach churn, "Good God..."
The whole group began to wince and groan at the smell, the sounds and the sight. It was disgusting. Elise never thought she'd be in Atlanta, witnessing a corpse being cut to shreds. Everyone found it tough to witness, but Glenn was the one making the most noise and the most fuss. Poor boy.
"Man, I'm gonna hurl..." Glenn moaned, bending over slightly.
"Later." Rick told him, handing the axe to Morales who took over the chopping.
They were mashing that body into a pulp. It was just a pile of guts and little tiny chunks of walker meat. It was so bad. The smell was horrendous, but the sound of bones crunching and the squishing noises made by the axe hitting tissue was enough to cause Elise to have to fight back hurling. Her stomach was strong, but not this strong.
"Everybody got gloves?" Rick asked, earning nods from the group, "Don't get any on your skin or in your eyes."
"Dig in, folks." Elise sighed, edging forward slowly and reaching into the mess on the floor, picking up some guts and happily rubbing them into Rick's chest, "Enjoy the smell, hon..."
"Oh, God..." Glenn moaned, "Oh, jeez. Oh, this is bad. This is really bad."
"Think about something else... Puppies and kittens." Rick said quietly, looking round as Elise draped some intestine over his neck.
"Dead puppies and kittens." T-Dog muttered, causing Glenn to throw up right in front of them all.
"That is just evil. What is wrong with you?" Andrea asked the black man, shaking her head as she tried to comfort Glenn.
"Next time let the cracker beat his ass." Jacqui said sharply, earning a frown from T-Dog.
T-Dog apologised, but Glenn was still annoyed with him for making him puke. Elise backed away from the pile of vomit. She couldn't bear to be near any more of the disgusting mess. The guts were still being applied, and it was clear to Elise that even Rick had had enough when his face lost all its colour. She knew he needed this to be over, especially when he asked if they smelt like the dead. Elise couldn't speak when the familiar feeling hit the back of her throat that told her she wasn't far off puking. She simply gave him a sharp nod, face paling.
"You gonna be sick?" He asked her as she draped intestine around Glenn's neck, "Just let it out if you have to puke."
"No... No..." Elise answered, moving away and taking deep breaths, "I'm phobic of vomit and vomiting. I can't throw up. I might have a panic attack."
Rick nodded in understanding at the revelation of another strange phobia. Elise was one weird chick. Breaking the awkward silence, Andrea handed Glenn her gun and told him it was there just in case they should need it, and the group headed back up to the roof to watch Rick and the younger man head for the construction van.
The last thing they expected was for the heavens to open when Rick and Glenn were in the danger zone. And down came the rain, cold and heavy. Morales figured it would pass over but Elise didn't think so. The water was enough to wash the guts off of the two people in the street, and possibly the smell too. She could see the walkers beginning to realise that there was a new smell in the air, and her heart leapt into her throat. They were fucked.
"I gotta get down there." She whispered, "They're screwed. They're gonna die."
"What are you gonna do?" T-Dog asked, "You can't do anything for them right now. We'll just have to see what happens."
It wasn't a satisfactory answer for Elise, and she could tell by the look on T-Dog's face that he knew that. But he was right; she couldn't do anything for them without getting herself killed.
"They're running! They're running!" Morales said, handing her the binoculars.
"Don't stand and fight, assholes!" She breathed as she saw them hitting the walkers in their way, "Run! Run, you sons of bitches!"
She watched as they scaled the fence opposite them, keeping an eye on the walkers in the street. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she was barely able to breathe while she watched them scramble to get into the van. Then, she stared after them as they began to drive off... In the opposite direction.
"They left us..." Jacqui breathed, totally shocked, "They've left us!"
"What?" Morales asked, watching the van drive away from them, "Oh, Jesus..."
"M-Maybe they'll come back." Elise said, looking at the others with a worried expression, "Rick wouldn't just take off, surely..."
"Well, you know him better than us!" Andrea exclaimed, wide-eyed and frightened.
"No, he's not that type of guy..." Elise replied, shaking her head and rubbing her now sweating palms on her jeans, "He's not. He'll be looking for another way round."
After a few moments of stunned silence, the group gasped as Glenn's voice came through on the radio. The relief that washed over all of them was incredible. They hadn't been abandoned. As Elise suggested, Glenn and Rick had just had to find a different way to get them, and they were coming back for them.
"Those roll-up doors at the front of the store, facing the street... Meet us there and be ready."
They didn't question it. The group began to pack up and leave, sharing bags between them to even out the weight. But, no-one even stopped to so much as think about Merle, who was hollering and still chained to the pipe on the roof. So, Elise turned to T-Dog and took the bag on his shoulder, tightening the strap around her fist.
"T-Dog! Get Merle!" She ordered, shaking with adrenaline, "I'll try and keep the path clear for you downstairs, but hurry!"
With that she sprinted after the others, only to see that walkers were about to get into the building. She hoped and prayed T-Dog and Merle would get out in time. Finally, as the van pulled in, and as the walkers managed to get through into the store, Elise turned to see T-Dog approaching with no sign of Merle. Her heart stopped beating. She wasn't leaving without one of their people. She wasn't abandoning someone like that. They should've let him go as soon as Rick and Glenn got into the van. This wouldn't have happened if they'd just let him go sooner.
"Where is he?" She asked, "Where's Merle?!"
"There's no time for this, we have to go!" Andrea yelled, taking Elise's bags and throwing them into the back of the truck, "Come on, Elise!"
"But what about Merle?" Elise asked angrily, "We should've set him free sooner!"
"Forget him!" Andrea cried, pulling Elise up and into the van, "Help me, Jacqui!"
Before Jacqui could move, T-Dog helped hoist a struggling Elise inside and pulled himself up, wincing at the pain in his side where Merle had punched him. Once safely in the van, T-Dog pulled the door down, and as the guilt began to bubble up inside him, he was barely able to look Elise in the face. The woman had tears in her eyes. Thick, heavy ones. She wasn't angry; that much he could tell, but he knew she was upset. She'd sent him back to get Merle. She'd taken extra weight on her shoulders, literally, so that someone else could be saved, and T-Dog had failed. As he sat down, he managed to give her one look, square in the face, even if only for a few seconds.
"I'm sorry, Elise." He said quietly, "I dropped the damn key..."
Elise just nodded and wiped a tear away that rolled down her face. She didn't know how she could live with herself, knowing she'd left a man up there to die. She should've gone back to get him. Leaving him there was beyond cruel. T-Dog felt just as guilty as she did; that much was obvious. And believe it or not, so did the others.
"Where's Glenn?" Andrea asked, hearing Rick sigh quietly.
"He distracted the walkers with a car. The alarm was blaring." He said, "He should be following us if all went to plan."
They rode in silence for some time before Morales finally broke the quiet, uncomfortable atmosphere. Elise was still upset and so was T-Dog. Jacqui and Andrea seemed to have recovered somewhat from the ordeal.
"Best not to dwell on it... Merle getting left behind." The Hispanic man said softly, "Nobody's gonna be sad he didn't come back... Except maybe Daryl."
"Daryl?" Rick asked.
"His brother." Morales answered, hearing Elise let out a sob in the back of the van, "There was nothing you could've done, Elise."
This didn't make the woman feel any better. As Glenn passed in the red sports car, alarm blaring, Jacqui took it upon herself to move over to Elise and try to offer her some comfort. She took the upset woman into her arms and hushed her, looking to T-Dog and Andrea with a sad expression.
"Shhh, honey." Jacqui spoke softly, "The fault is all of ours. We should've stayed and helped to get him out."
Elise's crying eventually quietened, and she finally got the energy to wipe her eyes and sit herself up. She felt stupid for crying like that, but the guilt was just so overpowering. She felt horrendous. She looked across at T-Dog and reached over to give his hand a quick squeeze.
"He did it to himself in the long run." She said quietly, voice shaking, "He was reckless. Violent. Totally out of control... He needed cuffing to that pipe."
She sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than anyone else. The rest of the ride back was quiet, but when the group arrived at their camp, Elise began to question whether staying with them was the best plan. She'd left one of their people to die. She could never forgive herself.
T-Dog tried to encourage Elise to leave the van, but she said she wanted to gather herself for a few moments before meeting everyone. By the time she got up the courage to do it, she headed towards the people with her bag on her back, noticing Rick sharing a loving embrace with a little boy and a brunette woman, who was crying in his arms. She couldn't believe it. He'd actually found his family.
"Elise! Elise, come and meet my wife and son!" He said with a happy sob.
Leading them towards the young woman, he hugged his boy to his chest and kissed him over and over. She felt tears fill her eyes again, but this time she was happy. Rick had found the people he'd gone through hell to get to.
"Lori, Carl... This is Elise Young." He said quietly, "This woman saved my life. She's fought loyally by my side and helped me get here, back to you guys."
When Lori approached her and gave her a warm hug, Elise was taken aback. She held on to the woman in front of her, giving her a weak smile as they parted. She was introduced to each member of the group and made to feel very welcome. But as the day grew dark, all she could think of was Merle. How frightened and desperate he must've been up on that roof. And how the hell were they going to tell Daryl that his brother had been abandoned like that?
Sitting around the camp that night, the group discussed how they were going to tell the younger Dixon brother about Merle.
"We could lie." Amy suggested.
"We can't lie." Elise said darkly, "I could never live with that. It's bad enough knowing we left him up there."
"We tell the truth." Andrea agreed, "Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed."
She looked to Lori with a frown, taking up Elise's point from earlier in the van.
"Your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it's nobody's fault but Merle's." She said, "Look at Elise's face. Imagine the damage if we'd have released him."
"And that's what we tell Daryl? I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?" Dale said, eyebrows raised, "Word to the wise... We're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."
"I was scared and I ran." T-Dog told the group, "I'm not ashamed of it."
"We were all scared. We all ran." Andrea agreed, "What's your point?"
"I stopped long enough to chain that door. Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time." T-Dog explained slowly, "It's not enough to break through that... Not that chain, not that padlock."
He sighed deeply and looked to Elise who was now glaring at him for not sharing this with her sooner.
"My point..." He continued, "Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us."
"Why the fuck did you not tell me that earlier?" Elise snapped, "I could've gone back for him!"
"Elise..." Rick sighed, watching as she stood up angrily and pulled her top over her jeans.
"Tomorrow, when Daryl's been informed, I'm going back to find Merle." She announced, "Don't y'all tell me no. I can't live with this."
"You're gonna go back?" Andrea asked, "That's insane."
"I'm gonna go to Atlanta, bring Merle back, and then I'm outta here. Alone." Elise told them, "That's my final word. I'm not staying. Thanks for the food and the hospitality. I'm going to bed."
With that, she turned on her heel and made her way to the tent she'd been assigned, leaving a stunned group behind her.
-TBC-
Hope you enjoyed!
Thanks for reading so far!
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