Warning: Strong language ahead!


Alex stared in horror at the lifeless hand that once belonged to Merle.

"What the fuck?" she said, not fully comprehending what was before her.

Glenn leaned in towards her, "I think we may have underestimated Merle."

"No kidding," she murmured, "You realize this means we have a handless Merle wandering around Atlanta."

Glenn was about to respond, but he was distracted by a sudden flurry of movement as Daryl turned his crossbow on T-Dog, clearly angry. Rick responded by pulling out his own weapon and training it on Daryl's head.

"I won't hesitate, I don't care if every walker in the city hears it," Rick told Daryl, his figger steady on the trigger of his gun.

Daryl continued to point his cross bow at T-Dog, still fuming, but he lowered it grudgingly. Rick mirrored his action, and the three men stood awkwardly as they were still on guard.

Finally Daryl spoke up, "You got a do-rag or something?" he asked T-Dog.

T-Dog obliged, pulling one from his pocket and handing it to the other man. Daryl went over to the hand and picked it up gently, wrapping it in the cloth.

"I guess, uh, the sawblade was too dull for the handcuffs," he commented grimly, "He must've used a tourniquet, maybe his belt. There'd been lots more blood if he didn't."

Daryl surveyed the scene for a few more moments before heading back to the stairwell.

"If he's not here than he managed to get out of the building," he told them, disappearing out the door.

Rick was the first to follow, and the other joined him, weapons still drawn just in case. When they got to the lower levels, Daryl started to call out for his brother, but he got no response. They made their way back to the main floor and they found some dead walkers amongst the employees offices.

"He had enough in him to take out these two sons of a bitches, one handed," Daryl noted, "Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother. Give him a hammer and he'll crap out nails."

"Any man could pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is," Rick pointed out.

"Of course he lost blood, he left a mighty fine trail to follow," Daryl said as he pointed to several red splotches on the floor, "It looks like they're leading to the kitchen."

He continued on his path, and Alex knew he was in his element. They followed him down the hallway that lead into the kitchen.

"Merle!" he yelled out, stepping over the threshold

Rick caught up to him before the rest of them entered, "We're not alone here, remember," he warned.

"Screw that, he could be bleeding out, you said so yourself," Daryl shot back, ignoring him and pushing onward.

Rick and the rest of the group hesitated, but Alex followed, her knife still raised in front of her. She and Daryl weaved between the prep tables, searching for any sign of Merle. As they made their way over to the stoves, she could hear a faint hissing noise. The sound was coming from a few portable bunsen burners.

"Over there, she pointed, and Daryl made a beeline for them.

By this time, Rick, Glenn, and T-Dog had followed them inside, and Rick was the first to investigate the setup. He picked up a flat tool that had been sitting beside the burners. A sickly sweet smell emanated from the area, and Alex recognized it as burnt human flesh. Her stomach heaved at the scent and she felt the bile rise in her throat.

"What's that burnt stuff?" Glenn asked

"Skin," Rick admitted gravely, "He cauterized the stump."

"I told you he was tough," Daryl added, "Nobody can kill Merle but Merle."

Alex was surprised how calm he was, she thought he would have been angrier.

Rick seemed to disagree, "Don't take that on faith, he's lost a lot of blood."

"Yeah?" Daryl challenged, "It didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap."

He made his way over to a broken window in the corner of the room.

"He left the building?" Glenn said incredulously, "Why the hell would he do that?"

"Why wouldn't he, he's out there alone as far as he knows. Doing what he's got to do, surviving."

"You call that surviving?" T-Dog questioned, "Just wandering out in the streets, maybe passing out. What are his odds out there?"

"No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks," Daryl shot back, as he turned to Rick, "You couldn't kill him, I ain't so worried about some dumb dead bastard."

"What about a thousand dumb dead bastards, different story?" Rick said.

"You take a tally?" Daryl asked sarcastically, he tried to pass Rick to go out the window, "Do what you want, I'm gonna get him."

Rick put a hand on his chest to stop him, "Daryl, wait!"

"Get your hands off me!" he exploded, "You can't stop me!"

"I don't blame you, he's family, I get that," Rick told him, "I went through hell to find mine, I know exactly how you feel. He can't get far with that injury, we could help you check a few blocks around, but only if we keep a level head."

Daryl was still angry, he was shifting from foot to foot. He swallowed hard, finally agreeing to the proposition, "I could do that."

T-Dog interrupted them, "Only if we get those guns first. I'm not strolling the street of Atlanta with just my good intentions, okay?"

Rick nodded, "He's right, we should get the guns first."

"Merle got out of here without guns, we don't need them," Daryl argued.

"We're not Merle," T-Dog pointed out.

"The hell you ain't," he spat.

Rick stepped in, "Which is why we need the guns, the sooner we figure that out, the sooner we can find Merle."

"Fine," Daryl consented grudgingly.

"Can we figure this out somewhere else," Alex complained, "The smell in here is awful."

Glenn gave her a confused look, "What smell?"

She raised an eyebrow, "You don't smell that?"

"No?" Glenn said uncertainly.

"Say, we passed an office room off of the hallway on our way here, we should head over there," Rick suggested.

Alex nodded, "Anywhere is better than here."

They moved from the kitchen down the hallway, and out of the corner of her eye, Alex could see Daryl following behind her.

"Sharp senses you got there," he murmured in her ear as he brushed past her into the office.

They all filed into the room, settling in between a few desks.

"So what's the plan?" T-Dog asked.

"We go out and get the guns, one person retrieves it and the rest of us cover them," Rick said as if it were the obvious answer

"No, we can't do that," Glenn disagreed as he rifled through one of the desks, grabbing a marker.

He sat down on the floor, drawing various shapes and lines straight onto the cement. It took Alex a moment to realize that he was recreating the city streets.

"Look, the tank is here, practically in the middle of an intersection. The freaks could swarm from anywhere. If we all go out and we get overrun from all four directions, we're all dead and everyone back at camp still has no guns. One person goes, that way if they fail, there's still four more people," he explained.

Rick picked up on what he was implying and cut him off right away, "You're not doing this alone."

"Even I think it's a bad idea and I don't like you much," Daryl added.

"I think he's on the right track," Alex countered, which earned her a glare from both Rick and Daryl.

"Hear me out," Glenn told them, "If we go out there in a group we're slow, drawing attention. If I'm alone I can move fast. Look, there's the tank, five blocks from where we are now. That's the bag of guns, and here's the alley I dragged you into when we first met. That's where Daryl, Alex and I will go."

"Why us?" Daryl interrupted.

"Your weapons are quieter than his gun," Glenn said, continuing to put his plan into words, "While they wait here in the alley, I run out on the street and grab the bag."

"But you got us elsewhere?" Rick asked.

"You and T-Dog, right, you're gonna be in this alley here," he said, pointing to a different area of his map.

Rick didn't seem to like that, "That's two blocks away, why?"

Glenn sighed "I may not be able to come back the same way. Walkers might cut me off, if that happens, I won't go back to Daryl, I'll go forward instead, all the way around the alley to where you guys are. Whichever direction I go I got you in both places to cover me. Afterwards we'll all meet up back here."

"What happens when you get bit cause you're too worried about getting the bad of guns to watch your surroundings?" Alex asked.

"Uh, I hadn't thought of that," Glenn mused, starting to rearrange his map, "Here, Daryl maintains the original position, and you can cover me. That way we have long range cover from the alley and I have short range while I get the guns."

"Hey kid, what'd you do before all this?" Daryl questioned.

"Delivered pizzas, why?" he said.

Rick and Daryl exchanged a look, but neither said anything, getting up and moving to the door instead.

"Okay. let's get a move on," Rick announced, rousing the rest of them from where they sat.

They moved towards the stairwell, but Glenn stopped them, "Daryl, Alex and I will take the fire escape, it leads directly to the alley. You guys take the back exit, it's closer to the other alley where you need to be."

Rck paused for a moment, "Alright, we'll see you there, be careful."

Glenn nodded, "This way guys," he said to Daryl and Alex as he lead them away to the fire escape.

Alex poked her head out the window and instantly regretted it, "That's a long way down," she whispered, her limbs tingling as adrenaline pumped through her body.

"You'll be fine," Daryl told her as he shoved open the window.

"Alex you go first, so you can cover us once you get to the ground," Glenn told her.

She grit her teeth, "Okay."

She climbed out of the window slowly, stepping onto the ladder nervously. She took a long breath to steady her nerves, then began her descent, Glenn and Daryl, following her. It didn't take them long to reach the bottom, and Alex was thankful for that.

Once Glenn got to the ground, he motioned for Alex to head towards where the alley met the main street. They moved quickly, Daryl trailing behind them as they wove in between dumpsters. As they got closer, they paused momentarily so Alex could draw her knife and Daryl could load his cross bow.

"You got some nerve Chinamen," he commented.

"I'm Korean," Glenn shot back.

Daryl rolled his eyes, "Whatever."

Glenn motioned for her to join him at the gate, where they stopped to survey the scene. He seemed to be happy with their window of opportunity.

"Left," he whispered as he bolted out onto the street.

They ducked low as they ran, using the cars parked on the street as cover. They made it a fair distance down the street before Alex stopped Glenn abruptly by pulling on his shirt. He stumbled backwards, just out of the reaching grasp of a walker that had been making its way over to them. Alex lunger ahead of Glenn and kicked the walker in the leg, sending it to the ground, although it was still attempting to grab them. Now that it was at waist height, it was easy for her to plunge her knife into it's brain.

Glenn gave her a push and they took off again, heading closer to the tank. He hopped a low fence and she followed as they stopped and hid behind a pile of sand bags.

"There's the bag!" he whispered excitedly, "Let's go!"

He ran towards it, Alex keeping pace, her knife at the ready. He bent down to pick it up, but his grip wasn't strong enough the first time and he dropped it with a loud thud. The walkers that hadn't already been following their movement, were alerted by the sound and turned their attention to the two runners.

She glanced at the path ahead, that led to Rick and T-Dog, which was a minefield of walkers.

"Go back!" she told Glenn when he finally got a hold of the bag.

He did as she said, but as she tried to do the same, a cold hand tightened its vice like grip around her knife arm. A walker had snuck up on her, hiding in her blind spot, and was currently pulling her arm towards its mouth.

"Fuck!" she swore.

Out of instinct she tightened her free hand into a fist and swung it, solidly connecting with the walker's jaw. The force was enough to reroute the walker's mouth, and its teeth clamped shut on nothing but air. In that spare second before it turned its head back on course, she was able to wrench her arm free from its grasp and bury her knife in its temple.

The walker crumpled to the street and she whirled around to follow Glenn, but found that she was facing a wall of the freaks. She turned back to the direction of Rick and T-Dog, which was still filled with walkers, but not as many as the ones behind her.

She decided to use the tank as a barrier, launching herself at it and hauling her body out of the reach of the incoming walkers. She clambered over and hopped down the other side, bolting past a few of the quicker freaks.

They tried to follow her, but she was too fast, even for the quick ones. Her feet slammed into the pavement as she ran, the vibrations travelling up through her legs and making her teeth chatter. As she widened the distance between them, nearing the alley, she slowed slightly so she wouldn't run headfirst into her two crewmates.

Alex rounded the corner, expecting to see Rick and T-Dog, but instead, there was nothing. She stopped in her tracks.

"Rick, it's me!" she hissed, hoping they were just being discreet and hiding, but when there was no response, it dawned on her that they had already left.

They must have taken the extended absence as a sign that both she and Glenn made it back to Daryl. Alex knew she would have to continue down the back alleyways, they were fairly short, which meant that if she could make it around the corners fast enough, the walkers wouldn't be able to track her. Plus, since Rick and T-Dog had already taken the route twice, it was most likely to be free of the freaks. Nonetheless, she still kept her knife available, just in case, as she retraced their steps.

In the distance she could hear some shouting, but it certainly didn't sound like they were celebrating. When she got around the final corner, she was surprised to see T-Dog, Rick and Daryl running full tilt in her direction. She was relieved to see they had the bag of guns, but couldn't understand why they had a strange boy with them instead of Glenn.

"Up the ladder!" Rick shouted and she watched as T-Dog went up first, the boy sandwiched between him and Rick.

Daryl saw her and hung back or a moment, waiting for her to catch up. She went to start climbing, but he grabbed her arm, turning her to face him.

"You okay?" he asked, clearly concerned.

She nodded, still trying to catch her breath.

"Good," he said as he leaned in, his hands on either side of her face as he kissed her hard, "now get up there."

She followed his order, scaling the ladder quickly, no thought to the excessive height this time around. She shoved her body through the window and collapsed on the ground beside Rick, T-Dog and the boy. Daryl came in right after her, and he would have crushed her if she hadn't slid out of the way.

"Whose this?" she asked, "Where's Glenn?"

"This little asshole came out of nowhere, and jumped me! He called his buddies over and they tried to steal the bag, and when they couldn't, they took Glenn and drove off," Daryl said, absolutely seething.

Rick rounded on the kid, "Those men you were with, we need to know where they went."

"I ain't telling you nothing about them," he responded, his demeanor surprisingly calm as he pointed at Daryl, "You're the one who jumped me, this douchbag was screaming about his brother like it was my fault."

"They took Glenn, they could have taken Merle too," Daryl said, he was wound up and pacing around the room in his agitation.

"Merle? What kind of hick name is that? I wouldn't name my dog Merle" the kid commented, not helping the situation.

That really pissed Daryl off and he tried to kick the kid in the head, but luckily Rick intercepted him.

"Dammit Daryl! Back off!" he told him as he pushed him away from the kid.

Daryl decided to switch tactics, going over to his back and rummaging through it until he found the hand that has belonged to Merle, "What to see what happened to the last guy that pissed me off?"

He tossed the severed hand into the kid's lap, causing him to freak out, practically leaping from the chair in horror.

Rick intervened again, "The men you were with took our friend, all we want to do is talk to them, see if we can work something out."

That seemed to work a little better, the kid mulled over the proposition, "Alright, I'll take you to them."


A/N: This chapter had a lot of dialogue and a lot of action, so I decided to break it into two separate chapters.

Also, I've been transcribing directly from the episodes and I've come to the realization that people talk very quickly. I guess I'll have to practice my typing skills!

Till next time,

ThreeFoldLaw :)