Chapter Ten: Safe?

"Hey, you guys gonna pick up?"

Harry grabbed the C.B. mic.

"Who is this?"

"Duh, the one who's gonna save your asses. That's one hell of an accent by the way."

Ron just shook his head in disbelief.

"Umm… Thanks? Well anyway, how did you get this frequency? It's not exactly that easy to get any tank frequency since they have their own." Rick reasoned.

"Well since shit went to hell, I picked up a few new skills. So do you want out or not? That tank is covered in Walkers." The voice said.

Rick grabbed the C.B. and asked "What do we do?"

"Well does those bodies in there have any grenades?"

"Two."

"Grab them and toss one and take cover. After it clears the walkers, run out and go two blocks up. How many are with you?"

"Three and there's a gun bag out in the middle of the road."

"Forget it, there's no time. The explosion will attract more and the city's covered in them."

Harry grabbed the grenade and chucked it out the hatch after pulling the pin. Rick counted down in his head. 'Four.. Three… Two… One…'

BOOM

They jumped out and rushed up the street where they met a young Korean man who was a two heads shorter than Rick who then began climbing the ladder to the roof.

"Come on, up on the roof!"

They followed closely and once they reached the top, they saw him jump across a wide gap.

"Aww, no. Aw, no." Rick began mumbling. "Come on, it's the only way to get across." Harry took the initiative hesitantly and ran as fast as he could and took a leaping jump across the wide gap and hit the other roof rolling. Ron quickly followed, not hesitating one bit and landed next to Harry.

"Come on, we don't have time for this. Those things may be stupid, but they learn quickly and they'll come up that ladder." Rick breathed heavily, closed his eyes for a second and then ran, jumping a bit too early and landed on his hip wrong when he rolled.

"Ahh!"

"Haha, getting old there sheriff, maybe it's time to retire. Names Glenn by the way."

Rick glared at him for a second for the 'old' comment but introduced everybody. Glenn took a look at Harry and commented "So you're the one with the accent." Harry said nothing to that but asked "Where are we going? We need to find a way to the shelter."

"Well, you're a few days too late. It's been overrun and if you're looking for someone, they might have left or they turned."

They followed Glenn back to his safe house, which turned out to be a small clothing store. A woman grabbed Rick by the collar and put a gun in his face. "What do you think you're doing? You alerted them to us and now they're swarming the front."

"Let him go, Andrea. They didn't know. Hello, my name is Jaqui, nice to meet you." The woman who introduced herself as Jaqui shook their hands, much to their surprise.

They went up to the roof where they heard gunshots. Andrea mumble "Merle Dixon…" Harry and Ron just looked as confused as Rick. They opened up the door to the roof to see the back of a tall, balding man who was firing potshots over the ramparts with a hunting rifle.

"Wooo hooo! Lookie at 'em!"

"Merle stop. You're attracting more and they're already at the front of the store.!" Andrea shouted at him.

"Oh shut up sugar-tits."

A black man walked up to him and tried to grab the gun "Gimme the gun, Merle."

"Or what, gonna shoot me, nigger?" Harry and Ron just looked confused at the term. "If I have to, yeah. But Daryl won't be too happy about it."

"T-Dog, let it go." Jaqui tried saying. But before she could, Merle grabbed T-Dog and started whaling on him. Rick and Ron both grabbed him and had to cuff him to a pipe. "Oh, come on! I'll beat that black ass! What you gonna do sheriff, arrest me? Ha Ha Ha! Your lackies too?" Ron just shook his head in disbelief.

"Let's go find a way out of here. This guy can stay here for a bit. T-Dog, think you can watch him?"

The man nursing a bloody lip nodded silently.

The rest trooped down the stairs and Rick asked Glenn "Is there another way?"

"Yeah, but it's down through the maintenance tunnels and I don't know if there are any Walkers down there."

"Okay you know the way, show me and we can check it out. You're the only one who knows the way around." They got to the entrance to the maintenance tunnel and outfitted themselves with flashlights. "Ron, Harry, stay up here and keep an eye on the front and make sure they don't get through."

Rick followed Glenn down the short ladder to the tunnel and walked out of sight. Ron and Harry rushed to the front and began putting shelves and other heavy objects in front of the door, getting a good view of the horde outside. "I never actually seen these things up close." Ron commented.

"Hope you don't ever again." Came a voice from behind. They turned and seen Andrea standing there looking at a small pendant. "My sister loves dolphins. I've been meaning to get her something for her birthday, but I haven't had the time."

Harry gave her a look. "Take it."

Andrea gave him a look. "In front of a cop?"

Ron gave her a goofy grin "We're not gonna arrest you if that's what you're worried about. It's the end of the world remember?"

Harry looked at him "Gonna? This town is growing on you isn't it?" Ron just gave a wide smile.

"It's good to see young people so happy. It makes fighting to live much more worthwhile." They turned and watched as Jaqui crossed the room towards them. "How's T-Dog?" asked Andrea.

"A few bumps and bruises. Nothing too major."

A commotion came from the next room and the rushed to see what was going on. Rick and Glenn looked out of breath. "Walkers… In the tunnels…"

"Well we need a way out. That door isn't going to last too much longer."

"I have an idea."

A few minutes later, they were covered in Walker guts and Ron asked "Why are we doing this again?"

"They smell their own on us, and they'll walk right past and not even bother us. We need to get a truck. Glenn, grab something loud and lead them away while everybody else piles in and lead the way to camp."

"Go!"

Glenn rushed out and got his eye set on a particularly shiny, red Challenger "Aww yes!" He said to himself.

Rick, Ron, and Harry heard a loud rumbling noise and they gave each other a look. "Well you did tell him to find something loud." Ron reasoned.

They saw the red Mustang drove past slowly, leading the Walkers away and they saw Glenn wave at them happily. Rick shook his head and jumped into a hauling van and backed it up to the store while chaos reined from in the store.

"Walkers!" yelled T-Dog from the roof. Rick tossed him the keys to Merle's cuffs while he was ushering everybody inside the back of the van. "Go get asshole and get him down. Morales, go cover him just in case there are any Walkers."

The Hispanic man gave a nod and rushed up the steps with T-Dog.

Merle was heard yelling "Get me outta here!" T-Dog rushed to help him out of the cuffs but right before he got to him, he tripped and the key went down a drain. "You asshole! You dirty motherfucker, get me out!"

"I'm sorry man, I'm really sorry." T-Dog looked stricken and had to run out the door hearing Merle yell "Help me outta here!" At a last second decision, T-Dog put a chain around the handle and locked it mumbking "I'm really sorry man."

Morales looked at him and he explained the situation. Morales said nothing and just left with T-Dog and jumped into the back of the truck. Rick asked where Merle was and T-Dog had to explain it again. Rick said nothing and drove them out of Atlanta and did not look back.

A.N. Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, but I've had my hands full with other stuff. Also, I believe I'm going to make this a mix of the comic and the T.V. show but probably the show mostly. R&R J