Chapter Ten
Glenn waited for a minute or so before speaking into the walkie talkie again.
"Hey, are you alive in there?" He asked.
"Hello? Hello?" A frightened voice came through. I sat there for a moment, thinking to myself. The voice sounded awfully familiar.
Glenn gave a sigh of relief. "There you are. You had me wondering."
"Where are you? Outside? Can you see me right now?" the man asked.
"Yeah, I can see you. You're surrounded by walkers. That's the bad news." Glenn took his cap off and scratched his head for a moment before putting it back on.
"There's good news?" The man's voice was dripping with skepticism and I chuckled. Yeah, I would most likely feel the same way. Surrounded by walkers, you bet your ass I would be skeptical.
"No." Glenn answered simply.
"Listen, whoever you are, I don't mind telling you I'm a little concerned in here." The voice was now dripping with annoyance and frustration.
"Oh, man. You should see it from over here." Glenn told him. "You'd be having a major freak out."
"Got any advice for me?"
"Yeah. I'd say make a run for it."
"That's it? "Make a run for it"?" I'm not sure whether or not if it was more frustration than annoyance this time, but I could tell this guy was not exactly the happiest camper in the world as of now.
"My way's not as dumb as it sounds. You've got eyes on the outside here. There's one geek still up on the tank, but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down. With me so far?"
"So far." The annoyance was still in the voice.
"Okay. The street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now while they're distracted, you stand a chance. You got ammo?"
"In that duffel bag I dropped out there, and guns. Can I get to it?"
"Ah, shit man." I bit my lip.
"Forget the bag, okay? It's not an option." Glenn advised. Now if it were food, it might have been a little less-or more-critical. Clothes, eh. Photos, possibly. But ammo? Man, that's some rotten fucking luck right there. I shook my head. This poor son of a bitch. "What do you have on you?" he asked.
"Hang on." The man went off. I looked at Glenn.
"If there weren't so many walkers around that thing, that bag would be an amazing fucking thing to bring back." I said.
"I know, but we can't take a risk."
"Yeah, if one of us gets bit, it's game over." Andrea spoke up.
"I've got a Beretta with one clip. 15 rounds." The man came back on.
"Make 'em count." Glenn told him. "Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards." As he was saying this, Glenn was making his way to the other side of the rooftop. "Be there."
"Hey... What's your name?" I heard the man ask.
"Have you been listening? You're running out of time!" He made his way down the ladder. I watched as the man got out of the tank, and basically bitch slapped a walker with something he had in his hand. After that, he leaped out of the tank before rolling on the ground. He began running, though slowly as he looked like he was limping, and began shooting his way through the city. I saw him meet up with Glenn, who yelled something before the two made their way through the alley. My father cocked his shotgun and I looked at him.
"What're you doing?"
"I'm gonna finish what I started."
"Oh, no you ain't! Doing that will draw more attention and then we'll never get out of here. Forget it!" I snapped. My father rolled his eyes and aimed his gun again. I sighed. "Put the gun down."
"Don't tell me what to do."
"Goddammit! Put it down!"
Merle got a cocky ass smirk on his face before retorting. "No."
I growled a bit and went for my gun, but Jacqui held me back. Merle chuckled for a moment before aiming his gun. Glenn's voice soon came through.
"I'm back. Got a guest plus four geeks in the alley."
Morales, Andrea, Jacqui, and T-Dog started to leave to go and help out.
"Don't do anything stupid." Andrea snapped. I glared at my father.
"You heard her."
"She was talkin' to you. Now." He cocked his gun again. "I'm gonna do whatever the hell I wanna do." He snapped.
"You sure the hell ain't!" I yanked the gun from him the best I could, though he still had his hands on it.
"What're you gonna do? Arrest me, officer?" he laughed before yanking the gun out of my hands.
And almost tossing me off the roof.
I screamed, clutching the edge with an iron grip. I could feel there was nothing underneath my feet, and if I looked down I would've seen how far up I was. Which wasn't exactly the best idea at the time.
I began to pull myself up the best I could, my feet scrambling for a grip on the bricks. Since these were flat, however, I was having very little luck. There was a fleeting moment where they would latch before the small edge was gone. I fell back once more, and my father shot his gun, making me scream again. He fired again and again, and I wasn't even halfway up the edge.
Gee. Thanks Dad.
The door slammed open, and everyone ran onto the rooftop.
"Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?" Morales screamed. My father laughed in response.
"Shit, Meg!" Glenn hurried over to me, and grabbed my forearm. "Come on."
"Pull me up!"
"I'm trying!"
I pushed myself up, and Glenn pulled, until I was safely back on the roof. I panted quietly, laying there for a moment. I shut my eyes, though the gunshots made it hard for me to calm down.
"Jesus..."
"You okay?" I heard Glenn ask.
"Yeah."
"Good."
"Oh, jeez." Andrea sighed. I opened my eyes and sat up a bit. My father turned and looked at them.
"Huh? Hey!" he snapped. "You ought to be more polite to a man with a gun! Huh?" He hopped off the ledge. "Only common sense. Miss Priss learned that the hard way." He laughed.
I glared and flipped him off.
"Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got, man!" T-Dog ran over to him. "And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill."
"Hey, bad enough I got this taco-bender on my ass all day. Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so, bro. That'll be the day."
"Oh, shit..." I ran a hand through my hair. There was a fight brewing here.
""That'll be the day"?" T-Dog got more agitated. "You got something you want to tell me?"
"Hey, T-Dog, man, just leave it." Morales told him.
"No!"
"Alright? It ain't worth it." Morales was doing his best to diffuse the situation. But knowing my father, he was going to bring it all the way back up to a head. Maybe even then some. "Now, Merle, just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble." I saw Glenn and the new guy look at each other.
I never really took my time to look at this man. It wasn't the first thing on my mind. I was watching to see if T-Dog and my father were going to get into a fight. I saw him wearing the police uniform that my department wore, so it was likely I knew him. But that's all I really cared about right now. I stayed on the ground, watching everything play out.
"You want to know the day?" My father was ignoring Morales completely. Figures.
"Yeah." T-Dog nodded.
"I'll tell you the day, Mr. "Yo"." Merle did a little gang gesture. "It's the day I take orders from a nigger."
"Mother—!" T-Dog punched him in the face, and my father knocked him down with his gun.
"Hey, come on, Merle, that's enough!" Morales yelled.
"Okay, come on! Come on!" Andrea ran over, as did the new guy. I stood and shook my head for a moment (I was dizzy for about a half a second) and then started running over there as Merle and T-Dog kept fighting. The new guy tried to break it up, but got a punch to the face. "Dixon! Dixon!" Andrea shouted.
"Whoa, cut it out, man!" Morales yelled at him. T-Dog wasn't really getting a hit in. I put my hands over my mouth, watching the whole thing.
"Stop it!" Andrea yelled as Merle slammed T-Dog into a pipe. "Dixon, come on! Get off him! Dixon, you're gonna hurt him!"
My father kicked T-Dog I don't know how many times before getting on the ground and punching him again. It was then that I noticed the new guy get up and then check his nose for blood. Morales then ran over to try and break it up, but got elbowed in the stomach. Merle pulled out a pistol and put it in T-Dog's face, and I screamed.
"Merle, no!"
The new guy turned and looked at me and my eyes widened. Pretty blue eyes, sorta-kinda clean shaven, dark curly hair. Perfect jawline...
It was motherfuckin' Rick Grimes. He wasn't dead after all. Praise Jesus.
"Megan?"
"Rick?"
It was Andrea's "No, no, no, please. Please." that made Rick turn and look at the scene again. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and I heard T-Dog grunt for a little bit, while trying to catch his breath. Merle spit on him before letting out an angry yell.
"Yeah! Alright! We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh?" he stood up straight, the pistol still in his hand. "Talk about who's in charge."
I walked closer to Rick, putting my hand over my mouth. I was still watching the scene, and was honestly terrified by what I saw. Everyone else helped T-Dog up.
"I vote me!" Merle continued. "Anybody else? Huh? Democracy time, y'all. Show of hands, huh?" he raised a hand in the air. "All in favor? Huh? Come on. Let's see 'em." At this, Rick got closer and picked up the shotgun. He looked at me and put a finger to his lips. I nodded. He turned and looked back at what was going on.
"Oh, come on." Andrea muttered.
"All in favor."
"Hell no." I rolled my eyes. My comment was kept to myself, so no one really heard me.
"Yeah. That's good." At this statement, I saw Jacqui flip him off. Andrea raised her hand. "Yeah, that means I'm the boss, right? Yeah. Anybody else? Hmm? Anybody?"
"Yeah." Rick spoke up, before hitting him with the gun. He then handcuffed him to the same pipe that Merle had slammed T-Dog into not too long ago.
"Who the hell are you, man?!" My father's voice was agitated.
"Officer Friendly." Rick snapped, and picked up the pistol. "Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no niggers anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred white-trash fools either."
"You're lookin' at one, though." I snapped.
"Little girl-" Merle started before I reached for my gun.
"Megan!" Andrea yelled. Rick looked at me.
"Megan. Hand off the gun. Now." His voice was stern. I swallowed hard and nodded, doing as he said. Rick then looked back at my father. "Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together. Not apart."
"Screw you, man." My father rolled his eyes.
"I can see you make a habit of missing the point." Rick continued. Oh yeah. A number of times. Trust me.
"Yeah? Well, screw you twice."
I volunteer.
Rick put the pistol to my father's head and my eyes widened.
"Ought to be polite to a man with a gun." He snarled. "Only common sense.
"You wouldn't. You're a cop."
He took the gun away from his head. "All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose." I could practically hear the venom in his voice. "I'll give you a moment to think about that." He then patted him down before taking something out of the pocket of his vest. "Got some on your nose there." Rick flicked my father's nose before standing up.
"What're you gonna do? Arrest me?" He laughed. Rick walked over to the edge of the roof and tossed whatever was in his hand away. "Hey! Dude, what're you doing? Man that's my stuff!"
I snorted. "Not anymore." I smirked a bit, and I saw Glenn stifle a chuckle. Rick took one look at him before walking away.
"Hey! If I get loose, you better pray—! Yeah you hear me, you pig?! You hear me?!"
"Yeah, your voice carries." Rick muttered, walking to the other ledge.
"You hear me, you filthy pig?!"
Morales walked over to Rick and the two began a conversation. Thunder rumbled once more, and the moans of the walkers was almost deafening.