Five Minute Window
Chapter 20
RickyJo felt the disappointed sigh slip from between her lips before she even realized what a big breath she had sucked in. The whole room was empty. There was not a single gun left. Not even a stray bullet. Someone had cleared this place out before long before they got here. But on a positive note, at least Rick had been telling the truth about the guns. RickyJo wanted to trust him. Mostly because Daryl trusted him. Daryl's trust was hard to earn. But until she actually saw the empty room that had clearly been full of guns at some point, she had figured there was still a chance that Rick had lied in order to trick her into leaving the prison with him so he could kill or hurt her.
"Damn," Toby said, kicking at metal shelf and looking around like he was hoping the guns would magically reappear if he stared at the empty room long enough.
"There are a few other places in town that we can check," Rick mentioned.
"Places like this?," RickyJo asked. She sounded almost hopeful. Rick shook his head.
"No, more like a few stores where the owners kept a gun under the counter," he said. She sighed again. Such a sad little noise. A few stray guns and no extra bullets were not going to be enough. Not even close to enough.
"Maybe we should just leave like Hershel said," RickyJo muttered. Rick wasn't sure if she was talking to him or just thinking out loud.
"If we decide to leave?," Toby asked, "can we go to the beach?" RickyJo caught the boy by the arm, hugging him tight and ruffling up his hair. Normally he would wriggle away from her affections, but this time he stayed put and allowed her to cuddle him. She guessed because Merle wasn't around to tease him and call him a little pussy..
"Sure," she said, "the beach sounds like a good an idea as any. Maybe we could find a big boat and sail somewhere far away..." Somewhere that the dead stayed dead. Maybe it was because Toby mentioned the beach, or maybe it was finding Daryl again. But suddenly she was back there again. On the prettiest beach she had ever seen. Mexico. The water lapping up around her heels, wetting the hem of her dress.
Toby must have had his fill of affection for the day, because he darted away, rubbing at his hair like RickyJo had tainted it with her touch. Rick scratched at his stubble, trying to hide his smile from the boy. The kid reminded him of the cat his mother had when he was a kid. After anyone but his mother pet it, the thing would have to lick and groom it's whole body to rid itself of the awful stench of being touched by him or his dad.
"For now let's go get these guns and get back," Rick said. RickyJo nodded, shaking her head in a shiver that travelled down her body. Her eyes had gone glassy and unfocused there for a moment. But now she was back, with her game face on. She motioned for Rick to head out first. He could feel some tentative trust starting to build between them, but she still wasn't going to put her back to him. Most people didn't have the instinct to even think of something like that. It made him curious about what she had done for her job before the turn.
They headed out of the police station and down the street that Rick knew would lead them further into town. Once they rounded the block to turn onto the main street, they saw the first one.
"What in the fuck?," RickyJo said. Suddenly her bow was up, arrow notched. Her body shifted, turning sideways. Making her a slightly harder target to hit. Rick also noticed she had moved to the left, placing herself part of the way in front of Toby. Protecting him.
Of course Toby was having none of that. He wanted to see. This was some grade A creepy looking shit. Wooden stakes, pointing out in circular formations. In the middle of each, there were traps that had live animals inside. Most were squirrels or rats, but one had a pitful looking cat inside.
"Was it like this last time you were here?," RickyJo asked, casting a glance at Rick. He shook his head. She pulled the string on her bow back and let an arrow sail. Into the skull of one of the walkers that had gotten itself stuck on one of the long sharp poles. Then she moved in, carefully dodging the spikes. She took her arrow back, and then grabbed for the cage that had the cat in it. The cage was chained up securely, but the door wasn't locked. So she opened it and reached in to grab the animal. There was a bell on top she hadn't noticed before, and it jingled as she jostled with the metal cage.
"Sonofabitch!," she cursed as the cat latched onto her hand with all of it's claws. To add insult to injury, the thing bit her. When she yanked her hand back, the ragged cat shot off out of the cage and down the street like a rocket. "Your fuckin' welcome," she shouted after it. RickyJo cursed some more, then stuck the side of her hand into her mouth, sucking at the deepest scratch.
"Guess it still had some fight left in it," Rick announced, earning him a very dirty look from RickyJo. Toby was laughing at the whole thing, of course. Mostly he was laughing at the extensive river of colorful curse words that had come out of RickyJo's mouth, but her getting bit by the cat had been quality entertainment as well.
"Let the possum out next," he suggested between giggles.
"Fuck you," RickyJo told the boy, a smile turning the corners of her mouth up. Rick took a few slow steps, closing the distance between him and the woman. He reached for her injured hand. She hesitated, but then let him pull it away from her mouth. Cat bites were nasty. And they had a tendency to get infected.
"You got a first aid kit?," he asked her. RickyJo nodded and swung her pack down off her back. She fumbled with the bag one handed, before shoving it towards Rick.
"Kits in the front pocket zipper pocket." He nodded and opened up the pocket she indicated. He found the kit and unzipped it, pulling out some alcohol swabs and bandaids. She plopped her butt down on the pavement and pulled out her pack of smokes, tapping one far enough out that she could snag it between her teeth. Shoving the pack back in her pocket, she fumbled around with her left hand, trying to get her lighter out of her right jeans pocket. How does Merle live like this? Finally snagging it, she lit her smoke as Rick was mopping up the bites and scratches on her hand. Fucker was giving her a weird look too.
"What?," she asked him.
"The alcohol," he said, swiping the wipe harder over the deeper part of the scratch, "most people flinch." Even Shane used to flinch, and he was one of the toughest sons of bitches that Rick knew. RickyJo shrugged. She felt a slight burning, but compared to getting the outline of a tattoo done or being used as a human ashtray by her mother's crazy boyfriend, it really didn't hurt.
"Tiny always said I had a high tolerence for pain," she said in an offhand way.
"Tiny?," Rick repeated questioningly.
"The guy that did all my tattoos," she explained. Rick bobbed his head. He finished up his doctoring with a few bandaids before zipping the kit back up and putting it away.
"Show him that big iguana," Toby suggested. "Pictures of that one got put in a magazine," the boy added.
"Maybe another time," RickyJo said as she brushed off her butt with her hands. She didn't mind showing people her tattoos. But dropping her pants in the middle of the street in front of Rick wasn't really something she wanted to do at the moment. Especially since she wasn't wearing much in the way of underwear.
She noticed the pink blush that creeped up out of Rick's collar and up the man's neck at the suggestion though. The idea of seeing her body embarrassed him. Which oddly enough made her feel more comfortable. If he was blushing about seeing the meat of her thigh, he probably wasn't planning to rape her dead later today.
They all started back down the street, Rick taking the lead since he knew where they were going. They got about half a block before the shooting started. RickyJo flattened herself against the side of a building, trying to figure out where the shots were coming from. She spotted him. A man in a mask on top of the next building over.
"I think I can get up there," RickyJo said. There were fire escape ladders on most of these buildings, around the back. Without waiting for Rick to answer, she took off down the alley.
Rick kept Toby close to him, watching the rooftops for shooters. Even he was surprised when the man in the mask popped out right in front of them. Toby made a startled woof noise, squeezing the trigger of the handgun he was holding. It was almost more of a startled reflex than an active plan to kill the man. Not that he hadn't killed people before. Sometimes it was them or you. And Toby liked being alive.
The man fell backwards into the street. Rick moved quickly, grabbing his gun. There wasn't any blood, so the he figured the man must be wearing some sort of protective armour. When he leaned down and yanked the man's mask of, he almost dropped to the street himself. From shock. This was Morgan. The man that saved his life after he escaped from the hospital in Atlanta. Toby kicked at Rick with the toe of his boot.
Rick looked up to see he and Toby were being held at gunpoint but two women. They had different coloring, but it was obvious from the similarity in their facial features that they were related somehow. Maybe sisters or mother and daughter, though they looked a little close in age for that. The slightly older looking one had bright reddish orange hair. She was pretty, with big blue eyes and a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. The younger girl was just as pretty. She was darker complected, with curly black hair. But she had the same big eyes, rimmed with thick dark lashes.
"Get the fuck away from him right fucking now!," the red haired woman screamed at them. Toby kept his gun pointed at them, but Rick put his down and showed the woman his empty hands.
"Hey," he said, "its okay. Look I know him." He gestured towards Morgan.
"Then what the fuck did you shoot him for," the younger girl yelled. Rick could hear the panic and fear in her voice. The gun in her hands was shaking.
"He fuckin' shot at us first you dumb slut," Toby informed the girl.
"Hey!," Rick said, shooting the boy a dirty look, "that's enough." This was bad enough without Toby insulting people. He must have picked up his negotiation tactics from Daryl's brother.
"Back away from him," the red haired woman said again. Rick nodded at her. He picked up his gun and slowly backed off, pulling Toby along with him. The girl held her gun on them while the woman rushed over and checked on Morgan. She loosened his vest, feeling underneath to make sure the bullet had not gone through. She threw a hateful glance at Rick and Toby.
"Mom?" The voice came from the doorway of the building where Morgan had been shooting at them from. Rick glanced over. There were two more children in the doorway. One he recognized as Morgan's son Duane. The other was unfamiliar. Another girl, younger than the one holding the gun on him, but with the same skin tone and curly dark hair. RickyJo was standing between them, holding the girl by the hand.
Rick sucked in his breath, scared at first that she was using these children as hostages, like she had done with Judith back at the prison. But the girl was clinging to RickyJo like she knew her. And they both had tears in their eyes.
"Jess...," RickyJo said, choking on the lump in her throat. The woman with the red hair dropped the gun in her hands, letting it clatter to the ground. But Rick finally understood what was going on when the girl that had been pointing her gun at him shoved it into the back of her pants and ran for the woman.
"Aunt Ricky," she cried, throwing herself into the woman's arms. RickyJo grabbed at the girl, holding her tight. She couldn't see through the tears. Duane ran over to check on his dad. The red haired woman assured him that his dad was going to be fine. Then she stood up, her gun still forgotten somewhere near her feet. The two women drifted towards each other. When she finally had her cousin in her arms, RickyJo really let go. She was crying harder than she had cried in as long as she could remember. The kind of crying where you had to go into the bathroom and mop up the snot when you got done.
The two woman finally got control over themselves, as Morgan was starting to wake up. The red haired woman returned to his side, stroking his face tenderly before she helped him to sit up. Rick had to admit, Morgan had done pretty well for himself since the last time Rick had seen him. Not only was the woman with him pretty, she appeared to care for him a great deal. And unlike most of the people running around with guns these days, from the way she had been holding hers, Rick could tell this woman knew how to use it.
The woman tilted her head up towards RickyJo. "This is Morgan," she said, "Morgan, this is my cousin RickyJo." RickyJo squatted down and held her hand out for Morgan to grasp. The way this man had been looking at Jessica, so loving and concerned. She had never seen a man look at her cousin quite like that before. RickyJo immediately decided she liked this guy. And that was before he clasped her hand and gave her a warm smile.
"It's nice to finally meet you."