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Chapter Thirty-Five: Chicken
**Rhoades**
They moved swiftly and silently through the convent grounds, rifles at ready like two shadows sliding over the dewy grass. Gunshots coming from a nearby building had them veering from their course, heading for it. Rhoades cocked his body, prepared to kick the door in, before O'Hara politely intervened, stepping forward and opening it.
Rhoades shrugged. He was used to just barging into places.
They swept the place as they moved down the hall, checking rooms for threats. Another gunshot had them both dropping to their knee, at ready for anything as they crept in closer to a door at the end of the hall where the hall opened up into a dining room.
They separated around the table, heading for the door into what looked like the kitchens.
It was dark inside when they nosed open the door, but not dark enough to find a crossbow pointed at them and a scruffy individual aiming it.
He didn't drop the weapon right away, which unnerved Rhoades a little.
Finally, Daryl lowered his crossbow. "Who armed you assholes?"
"We armed ourselves," O'Hara said, eyeing the man calmly. "Where's the firefight?"
"Cellar," Daryl said as the Lieutenant climbed up the steep stairs from the cellar, lugging a body over his shoulder.
Rhoades frowned as the Cajun lowered that pretty blonde girl who had been with them earlier onto the floor at their feet gently.
"Someone has to tell Herschel," the man said sombrely, brushing the blonde girl's hair out of the way of her transformed, infected features.
She had the entry wound from a high powered calibre in the dead centre of her chest, another in her shoulder, but it looked like a .308 round went into the back of her head and out between her eyes.
"What happened?" O'Hara asked.
"She got in, tried to take a bite out of Mary Claire in the cellar, knocked her rifle out of her hands, Annie picked it up and fired, but...Fay put her down," Daryl said. "Goddamn lucky we got there when we did."
Rhoades looked over at Fate, who stood so quietly over her, head bent.
"Alright, I'm going to assume Beth was with Noah and Karen…so…one on the run?" Fate murmured.
"Rhoades and I secured this building," O'Hara said. "We're going to head over the wall, see if we can calm a few trigger fingers."
"Not with our guns you're not," Daryl snarled.
Rhoades shrugged and held his rifle out to him. "Fine by me, a good Marine doesn't need his rifle anyways."
"From my cold dead hands," O'Hara stated without a hint of irony to his tone.
"Alright, just take the guns." Fate said with a frown. "Daryl and I may as well secure the rest of the place, and then set up a defence."
"Sounds like a plan, we'll be back after we clear out the woods," Rhoades said.
The backdoor rattled and everyone jumped, aiming their weapons at the door as that other scruffy fellow that came back with Carol and Grace stepped inside calmly, blood dripping from his blade.
"Merle?" Daryl demanded. "What happened?"
"You guys know that Noah boy was shuffling around out there? Damn near got my face chewed off saving that damned cow of ours from him, think he tried to tear up some of our chickens too but they were too fast," the man named Merle returned casually. "I mean goddamn, poor kid, but shit my face." The man paused at the sight of the blonde girl's corpse and scowled. "What's going on around here? Gunshots…shufflers…Rick's down for the count…shit, do I have to watch my ass? I didn't think those assholes were going to hit us until later?"
"What do you mean Rick's down for the count?" Daryl demanded.
"He's in the infirmary with Herschel and Milton, had a stroke or something."
"Are you fucking shitting me?" Daryl asked.
"Wish I was, seems Officer Friendly has the worst timing possible, well if things turn to shit we can always toss his sorry ass to the biters, let them feed."
Rhoades narrowed his eyes at the man. He was playing everything off lightly, but there was something in his eyes, even in that dark kitchen, that relayed genuine concern.
"What about Judith?" Daryl asked.
"Glenn took her to the church."
"Okay, for now, Merle, you find yourself someone, head around and warn people about what's going on, Daryl and I will head to the infirmary and give Herschel the news, these two are heading over the wall."
"I don't need a hand holder," Merle growled. "Like some damned three year old."
"Well, no one would want to hold that right hand of yours, but I'll take the left if you want, buttercup," Rhoades teased.
At the man's intensely sour look, Rhoades jerked his chin to his chest and addressed Fate.
"He's not that kind of dude, is he?"
"He needs to warm to you a bit," Fate pointed out as he turned and followed Daryl out the way Rhoades and O'Hara came.
Merle scowled at Rhoades for a moment longer, before pushing past him, heading after the others.
Glancing to O'Hara at his side, he found the man staring quietly, sombrely down at the corpse laid gently at their feet.
"There's a fine line between duty and murder," O'Hara murmured.
Rhoades blinked at him. "Is there?"
"Don't be facetious," O'Hara growled as they cautiously made their way towards the backdoor, mindful of the fact that there were snipers in the trees behind the wall outside. "You know very well that our duty is to protect the rights of the downtrodden masses."
"So? What's the plan?" Rhoades asked, adding cockily, "Major?"
They settled on either side of the open doorway and peered out into the night.
"Give me your helmet, Sergeant," O'Hara said.
"What?"
"Unless you want to do the running?"
"You're going to draw their fire?"
"I want to know who's out there and where they are. Sneaky bastards are taking down children and I don't much care for that kind of trickery and deceit." Dropping most of the ammunition he had strapped on and shoved into his pockets onto the floor to lighten his load, O'Hara held out his hand for the helmet. "I don't have anything to really live for anyways."
Rhoades quietly reached for his helmet, frowning at the man. "If you make it through this, I'm going to get you so much beer."
"Don't need it," O'Hara said, strapping the helmet on securely. "Never liked it."
Watching the freckled Major as he paused to take reflection, hand rubbing at his jaw as he stared off into the middle distance, Rhoades suddenly felt warmth towards someone. Real genuine companionable warmth.
He had forgotten what a real human being looked like, but at his side, O'Hara with his large pale blue-green eyes and the red stubble peppering his strong jaw, looked like a real flesh and blood man, not some creation forged of steel and heat.
Huh, he realized, funny how O'Hara had blond hair but red stubble...
"We can find another way," Rhoades suggested.
O'Hara fumbled for that notebook of his and pulled it out of his breast pocket, setting it on the floor beside him. "Fumbling around in the dark of night, no this is a safer option. You said you have men out there?"
"They're covering the front, the trail in case anything drives up." Rhoades assured him.
O'Hara nodded.
"Anyone you want me to deliver a message to?" Rhoades asked.
O'Hara scoffed. "No."
"Anything you want to be remembered for?"
"I always filed my paperwork on time," O'Hara pointed out. "Ready?"
Rhoades raised his rifle to his shoulder and took at the trees. "Yep."
Exhaling quickly five times, O'Hara dashed out into the night and hopped up onto the wall.
Rhoades waited with his finger tensed on the trigger of his rifle.
O'Hara stood on the wall for a moment, his body posture saying that he was expecting to be shot down, but nothing happened.
It was too obvious, no one would buy it and they didn't bite like expected.
Gazing through the nightscope of his rifle, Rhoades watched as O'Hara calmly reached for his pocket and withdrew a grenade, casually pulling the pin and tossing it into the woods beyond the wall.
If that didn't stir the hive, then he didn't know what, smiling as the woods erupted in a shower of flames and wood.
On the wall, O'Hara paced quietly, back and forth in the silence of the aftermath.
Reaching for another grenade from his pocket, O'Hara was about to pull the pin, when Rhoades spied a red bead with his bare eye flickering over O'Hara's hand and whipped his rifle in the direction it came from, pulling the trigger when he zeroed in on the locations the dot came from.
On the wall, O'Hara paused at the sound of the gunshot, before pulling another pin and tossing the grenade into the woods, this time in a direction off to the side of where he threw the last one.
The woods lit up with fire.
This time Rhoades wasn't fast enough with his rifle and a shot grazed O'Hara's helmet.
On the wall, instead of cowering, O'Hara swept his arms out as a challenge.
Fucking balls on that guy, Rhoades mused finding the source of the red bead and shooting into the darkness.
Another shot rang out and O'Hara toppled from the wall into the rose bushes below.
Rhoades held his breath, he didn't know where that one came from, but scanned the trees for signs of life as O'Hara grappled with the thorny bushes he was cast into, swimming out of them and dropping onto the ground beside an icon of St. George.
Keeping one eye on O'Hara who was plucking a piece of shrapnel from his Kevlar and one on the trees, Rhoades waited patiently. Someone would slip up and it wouldn't be him.
"Jesus, you boys could wake the dead."
Rhoades didn't take his eyes off the trees, he knew that voice and it didn't seem like much of a threat.
That scruffy Merle hunkered down with that Asian man from the church, both holding guns.
"We're drawing out the sniper fire, keep it down."
"They can't hear us, shit," Merle snapped.
"Where are they?" That Asian man asked.
"In those trees out there beyond the wall," Rhoades answered.
"Okay."
Without anything else said, the young man dashed out into the night and scurried to a stop beside O'Hara, giving Rhoades a chance to catch the bead of red that suddenly blinked to life and followed his path.
Rhoades shot at the location.
"Are you even hitting them?" Merle demanded.
"I don't know, maybe."
"Shit, may as well sit around here tugging each other's dicks for all the use this is," Merle declared.
"Use your left hand, okay? I don't feel like living life like eunuch after your handy," Rhoades replied.
"You think you're a fucking comedian, don't you?" Merle demanded.
Rhoades smiled.
"Why aren't they coming at us?" Merle demanded.
"I don't know…doesn't settle well with me," Rhoades returned. "But there can't be that many of them left out there if they're picking us off from the trees. Ten, maybe?"
"I like them odds."
"You won't if they bring out the heavy fire."
"Fuck it, they bring out the heavy shit and I'm gonna jump over this wall and skull fuck them dead," Merle said. "I'm not scared of their bitch asses."
Rhoades smirked. "I like your thinking, my friend."
"What makes you think we're friends? I might skull fuck you dead too when I'm done."
"Always sex with you, makes me wonder."
"The ass I'm craving ain't yours," Merle muttered.
"I was flattered and now I'm just crushed." Rhoades replied.
"It's hard being a queer these days, I've heard," Merle said.
Rhoades blinked, before smirking. "You're a smart ass."
"And you're gayer than Liberace's left nut."
"Ever have your dick sucked by a man, Merle?"
"Shit no!"
Still scanning the trees, Rhoades chuckled. "Then how do you know you wouldn't like it?"
"I don't need jumper cables hitched up to my tits to know I wouldn't like that either. It's called intuition."
They fell silent, eyes on the trees.
"You're not, are you?" Merle demanded.
"If I were, you wouldn't be my type, don't panic."
Recovering from being winded, O'Hara got to his knees and motioned to the wall again.
Rhoades nodded. Crazy bastard was going back up there.
With a little less pep in his step, O'Hara jumped the fence and fell back down as a shot ricocheted off the wall by his hand.
"Oooh-hooo, still have your hand, Major?" Rhoades called out into the night.
O'Hara held up both hands and all ten digits on them, then motioned for Glenn to help him. They hoisted up St. George and Rhoades paid special attention this time to the trees as St. George peeked over the wall.
No shot was fired.
"Smart fucker," Rhoades mused. "He's good."
Setting the icon back down, O'Hara inhaled again and moved a little further down the wall, meeting Rhoades' gaze before hopping up onto the wall.
This time Rhoades saw the red bead land dead on O'Hara's face, he raised his rifle. As he was raising it, he noticed a second red bead landing on O'Hara's right shoulder and moving up to his neck, but in that split second he went with the first bead and pulled the trigger, hoping to God the gunshot that cracked through the night was his and not the snipers.
O'Hara dropped to the ground and Rhoades watched him nervously, until the man rolled over and got onto his hands and knees.
Rhoades motioned in the direction of the second bead and thanked God the sniper didn't open fire.
O'Hara nodded and moved again, this time he was up just long enough for the bead to find him and Rhoades to find the source, before O'Hara dropped again.
Squeezing the trigger, Rhoades shot at the area of the source and the night was quiet.
"Is that all of them?" He heard the Asian man ask O'Hara who was sitting on the ground against the wall.
O'Hara signalled his uncertainty at Rhoades, who signed back in understanding.
With one more deep inhaled, O'Hara hopped up onto the wall again and hung there for a moment, before dragging himself up and kneeling cautiously up there.
Rhoades kept his eyes roving the Major's body for a sign of a sniper's laser sight.
There was nothing and then one, two, three beads dancing around O'Hara's throat where he was unprotected.
"Get down! Get the fuck down!" Rhoades shouted.
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DarylDixon'sLover - Erm...yeah...sorry...
Natalia Vronsky (who I know is blackqueenphoenix so don't try that sneak shit on me, you sneaky butt) - The only thing I pulled from your lovely review was that we need more Cash/Layla...I'm trying! Also, more Glenn!
Merle's Right Hand - Get out of my head.
Surplus Imagination - Kicking puppies? KICKING PUPPIES? ...yeah, it was. Ehehe. I hope I make your list...with everyone. Yes. Everyone will die. ^_^
vickih - That's exactly their plan. They're dirty bastards as far as bad guys go.
Brazen Hussy - What can I say? I'm sorry. But I'm making Rhoades one of Merle's best friends, so will you forgive me?
You'reMyKindOfTrouble - He does. He always does. Thanks for the review! I'm glad you're enjoying this silly series! I appreciate that you took the time to review! Have a lovely day! ^_^
Yazzy x - You should be. You should be very nervous.
Happy Blue Ink - Delgado's next chapter, I promise! Well, not directly...you'll see...
itsi3 - Noah was talking to his mom, so falling forward would land him on the convent side. Also the Lt hasn't retaliated yet...^_^
ArcheryLefty - I'm glad you appreciate the lengths I went to research strokes, yes Rick is young, but the stress he's under (or puts himself under, rather) would be enough to do it. I'm glad you love Merle, I love him too.