After about fifteen minutes of staring at Sam's dead body I wandered back to where Merle was sitting and plopped down next to him.
"Tell 'em to hand over the key. This ain't right," Merle said to me and tugged his cuffed wrist.
"I ain't givin' her the damn key," T-dog narrowed his eyes at me and then turned his glare back to Merle. Merle shouted some profanity and kicked at the roof with the heel of his boot.
"Relax," I said calmly, offering my first genuine smile in a long time when Merle looked at me. "It's not like they're going to leave you here," These people weren't all that intelligent. I'd learned that much about them. However, I didn't think they'd be quite stupid enough to leave a man, no matter how irritating to them, to die on a roof.
Merle grumbled some more and T-dog kept trying the walkie over and over. I ignored the talking for the most part and stared up at the clouded sky. The gray sky was a welcome sight. The heat had been unrelenting and I was always a fan of gloomy days. Thunder rolled in the distance and a small smile formed on my lips. Storms. Those were even better.
The others in the group rejoined us after almost two hours on the roof. Once again, they ran straight to the edge of the roof, leaning over and squinting at the ground.. Merle and T-dog tried to ask what was going on, but no one spoke. They all seemed to be holding their breath. T-dog dragged himself up the wall, looked down, and cursed under his breath.
"Go see what's goin' on," Merle ordered and nudged me with his elbow. I hopped up and ran to T-dog's side. It took a moment to sort through the walkers before I spotted Rick and Glenn, covered head to toe in gore. They were lumbering down the street and the walkers were completely oblivious.
"Where are they going?" I asked no one in particular. T-dog responded by pointing down the street where there was a fenced off construction site. Now that I had an answer, I walked back over to Merle.
"Rick and Glenn are trying to get to the construction site down the road. They're covered in walker guts and they're just walking right through," Merle looked at me, stunned for a moment.
"What'r they goin' to a construction site for? A few hammers ain't gonna get us outta this," He grunted and mumbled something under his breath about them being idiots. Since I didn't actually know what they were going to the site for I went back to the ledge and watched them some more. Everything seemed to be going well until it started to rain. It was just a trickle at first. Nothing to worry about. As the rain picked up the walkers seemed to notice Rick and Glenn were alive. They took a few down and started running.
"What's happenin'?" Merle shouted from behind me.
"The walkers caught on. They're running to the gate," I called over my shoulder. I watched, pulse racing as they threw their weapons over the fence and started to climb. They barely made it. They rushed around. I still didn't know what they were doing in there and it probably wouldn't take very long for that amount of walkers to tear the fence down.
Rick and Glenn got into a truck and the engine started right up. Suddenly I realized what the plan was. As soon as the truck rammed through the fence the rest of the group started running towards the door leading down from the roof.
"The key!" I shouted, getting T-dog's attention. He paused for a moment and then started running back. He slipped and the second I saw the key airborne I dove after it.
The next thing I know, T-dog and I are lying in puddles staring at the drain the key just fell down. We were frozen and Merle was going ballistic.
"What are we going to do?" I choked, eyes as big as dinner plates. This was the worst thing that could have happened.
T-dog stood up, looked from me to Merle, and then ran for the door. I didn't move because I knew he was no use to us anymore. Merle, however, screamed after him as if he could actually do something to help. I dropped back to the ground and tried to wriggle my hand into the pipe. It was much too small though.