Officer Friendly
"Just how many people are really in this city..." She complained, while Rick crawled his way to be by her side.
Hello, are you still alive?
"yes, friendly stranger... we are alive," Ellie said with a defeated tone, "But barely, that's for sure. Say, where are you watching us from?"
Top of a building actually... oh you should have seen it, you are surrounded.
So this wasn't someone that wanted to mess with them; if he were, he wouldn't have said his location that casually. Eleanor thought of her options, how to approach this new person. Boy, she was going from being all alone for at least five months to meeting two idiots already, it had to be a record of some kind. Her thoughts stopped at the tug she felt on her hand. It was Rick, who just took the VHF from her. She moved to whine, but Rick cut her off.
"who ever you are... we are a little concerned here, we could use some little advice,"
Okay, here's my suggestion... make a run for it.
"That's it? make a run for it" Rick sounded panicked and annoyed.
Eleanor scratched her chin, deep in thought. She moved to the scope that helped the military look at the tank peripheries. The walkers were not surrounding the tank, they all gathered around something on the floor.
The horse.
She gasped, and moved to take the VHF from the policeman's hand. She was fast and he had no time to complain or fight her movement. "We are in, friendly stranger. However, I can't have a good look at the whole street. Is the other side free?"
Yeah... The walkers concentrated on the meat-frenzy down to your right. The other side is pretty much deserted.
"Pretty much deserted?" Asked Eleanor, her tone filled with doubt. "How many walkers are we talking about?"
I'm not sure... ten maybe? You've got ammo on you?
"We've got enough," she assured and felt a hand on her shoulder. Rick was about to speak and she shook her head in imperative denial. Rick ignored her, and instead of taking the VHF from her hands she put his over hers and pressed the button for the mic.
"Hey, there was a large black bag outside, when I fell. Can we reach it?"
Forget the bag, it's not an option. Good luck to you, I'll wait by the alley.
"It's a deal. Hey, friend... thank you for this," she said and put the VHF off. Then, Eleanor reached her backpack and pulled out an spare knife she found around. She passed it to rick, who looked at her in confusion. "We already made enough noise, it would be better if we used knifes instead. Pierce them through the head, twist it well... okay?"
Rick wide eyed, but nodded and took the knife offered to him. Then, Eleanor hurried to close the bag and her eyes landed on the grenade. She gave a look at Rick, and when he was about to ask what was wrong, she closed it and crawled to the exit.
"When he asked if we've got ammo, you brushed him off,"
"Yeah...," she commented, carefully unlocking the lid of the tank. "He might want to help us... that doesn't mean I'll bare to him all I have. He doesn't have to know,"
She turned to Rick and stormy blue eyes collided with chocolate brown ones. Rick was holding onto a shovel she hadn't noticed before. He had a stern stare, and Eleanor was taken back by the question behind it. She rolled her eyes, not able to contain a smile, and she turned around her bag... rummaging. She pulled out the Beretta and showed it to Rick. She smirked, "I suppose you know how to use it better than me,"
Rick scowled and extended his hand, taking it and guarding it on his belt. Eleanor lifted her shoulders and moved to take the shovel from his hands, he resisted.
"I think I should go first" he ventured.
Eleanor smiled, was he sulking about it? He was a cop, but he was also pretty oblivious to his situation. He must have felt horribly embarrassed, having to be taken care of by the person - a young adult on her 20's, mind you- and not the other way around. She found it funny and adorable. Either way she didn't mind; she only wanted for him to remain by her side.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but I think it would be best if go at the front until you are used to this new world cowboy. I have a feeling you are new to this horror story. If you told me you just came out of a coma... I would believe it,"
He gave in; and Ellie opened the lid only a couple of centimetres to look around. It was deserted. She nodded and opened the top of the tank, pushing herself up fast and using the shovel once the walkers noticed her presence and started to climb their way to the top of the tank. As the man in the speaker said, most of them were interested in the dead horse that was less than ground meat at that point. Eleanor grimaced, not only grossed out by the picture, but also fearful that the horse was not going to buy them any more time. Letting the shovel aside, she ran tot he side and jumped, rolling on her back and calling out to Rick so that he could hurry. Then, she pulled out both her hunting knives. The large blade made an easily reachable contact and they sliced clean the front of the walkers that came her way.
Only seconds later, Rick Grimes emerged from the tank. He climbed down and also jumped to the street; how ever, he did not made the flip and landed full force on his feet, he restrained a scream of pain and hurried to catch up to her, limping for a moment. As soon as he caught up to Eleanor, she noticed he had forgone the pocket knife and moved to use is gun instead. It's not like there were far from the alley at this point, so Eleanor said nothing about it... rather, he was a good shot, he aimed to the head with ease and didn't hesitate to pull on the trigger. That's a cop for ya'.
Ellie ran next to a fence and a guy jumped in front of her and got his hands up in signal of peace, screaming he was not a walker. Eleanor whipped her blades clean and looked behind her; Rick was trying to close and barricade the fence they entered trough. She let herself be pulled by the stranger to yellow emergency staircase. Ellie began climbing behind him, and urged Rick to follow her. The police officer didn't think it twice before climbing up, and as soon as they reached the top, the fence gave in and the walkers started entering the secluded space. The three of them took a moment to catch their breaths, and Eleanor gazed at the walkers that tried to climb the staircase; piling against themselves, and falling when said tower was too steep.
"Nice moves there Bonnie... you and Clyde came to rule the town?" he commented between pants.
Eleanor laughed, and retorted, "I was Alice Diamond until he arrived," The guy frowned confused.
"That's a female gangster," Rick provided with a snicker.
"Yeah what ever, you are still dumb-asses" he said, crossing his arms.
"I'm Eleanor Sherry... smart guy. Thank you... really, you saved us back there," she said extending her hand as he took it
"Glenn Rhee" he said with a shake.
"Rick Grimes" The policeman said next and Glenn shook his hand as well. They walked around the roof and jumped to an adjacent building. For a moment Eleanor wondered where Glenn Rhee was taking them. He was young, probably as young as she was, and looked good-hearted, almost naive. Maybe she could also trust him, it didn't seem like he was taking them to a trap... either way; it would have been too elaborate. Rick started asking questions and Glenn told hem where he came from, and who was with him. Apparently, he was part of a group that arrived to Atlanta searching for shelter, also like Rick. Instead, they found the city deserted, and started looting supplies until they decided on another course of a better option.
"Do you know when the city fell? I arrived here once it was already over," commented Ellie. Glenn shook his head, they were as much in the dark as she was.
"Back in the tank, why did you stick up for us?" asked Rick and Glenn stopped, they had reached a trapdoor that led them inside a skylight and more stairs. He kneeled and put his bag beside him to open the lid.
"Call it foolish, naive, hope... " he said, taking his bag and climbing down, "Maybe someday someone would do the same for me..., I guess I'm more of a dumb-ass than you,"
"Probably," commented Ellie with a laugh. Rick raised an eyebrow at her before urging her to go first, then going down and closing the top.
They were at least four stores high. When they finally reached the last floor, Glen talked over his radio, telling people that he had two guests over and to come for them. Rick looked relieved, maybe thinking that it was a good thing they had found a large group or camp. Eleanor, however, gave the sheriff an uncertain gaze... she wasn't sure if she was prepared to pass from being alone to belonging in a full group of people; specially people she didn't know. They reached the ground, four walkers were preventing them to go for the emergency exit that could be their entrance to the new building. Ellie was about to attack when two people, highly protected by riot gear came and beat the walkers head with metal sticks, Glenn took the chance to advance and so did Rick and Ellie. She was about to give a sigh of relief, until she felt being pulled against something hard, she looked up; wide eyed. The cold metal of a handgun pointed at her forehead.
Rick held his breath, and lifted his hands with a wary attitude. Four strangers surrounded them; and they looked as scared as he did. A black young man, a black woman, a Latino; and Glenn, who looked Asian... but was no longer a stranger. The one with the gun was a blond haired woman, Caucasian. She looked at Eleanor in disdain, her grip firm.
But Eleanor wasn't scared.
"Miss... please put the gun down," said Rick in a wary tone
"Andrea..." Began the Latino guy. But she ignored them...
"You know I should kill you, we are all dead because of you" she said more desperate that angry, Rick tried again to stop her, calling her by her name... Andrea, but that only got the woman more on edge and shoved the weapon with more force against Ellie's forehead, making her head move to the side.
There were moments when one knew that they had made a mistake, and had met dangerous people; and there were moments where one knew they had met a group of idiot civilians who had never used a firearm before in their lives. Her father used to say this once in a while, when he managed to stop a robbery with comical ease. This, Eleanor concluded, was one of those situations.
A collective gasp was heard around the storage room when Eleanor grabbed the cannon of the gun with her hand and pushed it to the opposite side of her head, she then pulled it to her. The woman jumped in surprise; not being able to keep an hold on the gun. Eleanor took it from her hands and turned it to aim at her instead. Scared, the woman named Andrea backed away; all signs of her bossy attitude gone. Eleanor straightened up and turned the gun; showing the side, she flipped a small red clip and turned the handle to Andrea.
"The secure flip was on... care to try again?" said Ellie, silence reigned in the room.
"Eleanor..." began Rick in a reproachful tone, the blond woman looked at her with a confused face.
"No? ... Fine, I'll leave it just as it was before," she said as she put the secure flip on and offered it again. The woman didn't take it, instead, the Latino guy did it for her. Once the gun was taken from her, Eleanor lifted her arms in sign of surrender. "Now, would any of you please explain to me How are we all dead?"
The Latino guy sighed at pulled her by the arm, Ellie let him, while the black guy pulled rick around.
So Glenn's group was not small. there were four people here; but they called themselves scavengers as well, getting around the city with the sole purpose of getting supplies. The large bags, filled to the brim, told Ellie that they were not moving by foot... not with that weight. The amount of good told her that there were far more, considering they arrived just a couple of days ago. Moreover, the state of their clothes and overall bodies indicated they were secure, well fed and with a constant source of water.
Eleanor got pulled out of her thoughts by the opposite scenario. It seemed the group of walkers that were attracted by the Helicopter was larger than they expected. The main space of the building, that looked like an department store, was only protected by a glass wall. Said wall, would soon give in to the weight and pressure made by the walkers outside. The Latino guy blamed them, saying that because they fired... their group was now doomed.
"Doomed? Go back from where you came from," Eleanor said, not trying to hide her annoyance, "You think because we made noise to save our lives, there wouldn't be any others that would have also done the same?" she raised her hands in signal of peace, due to the outraged expression they were giving her way. "Look, I'm not saying I'm not guilty of this. But you can't expect to be save in places like this."
"What were you even doing out there, anyway?" Andrea asked.
"I was alone until I contacted Officer grimes by radio. He was going to pick me up when..." she began, but Rick cut her short.
"I saw an helicopter, turning around a building" he said fast, but to no avail, the people beside him didn't believe a word he said.
"There was no helicopter!" said the black man. Soon, the black woman followed " You just saw a vision, it happens sometimes" she said trying to rationalize things.
"Right, when you are food or sleep deprived. I can assure you I haven't had that problem form at least a week, and I also saw the helicopter." Eleanor said. "It was real, and it was there. The walkers were attracted by it. Look, if it wasn't for Glenn, we would still be inside that tank, waiting until sunrise for a chance at escaping. Rick and I, we are grateful for your kindness and we want to help you out of here," she received no response, and spared a little glance at Rick before going on, "Do you have any way to contact your camp?"
"Hey T-Dog, try again, can you contact the others?" asked the Latino guy, as the black guy getting out a walkie-talkie; it looked a little older than Eleanor's.
"Wait... are there more of you? The refugee center?" asked Rick.
"yeah... there refugee center" said the black woman in sarcasm "they've got biscuits waiting at the oven for us" she said as Rick clutched his teeth, annoyed.
"Ha ha! funny," Eleanor said, putting a hand on the officers arm. "We talked to Glenn, there are no refugee centers or military camps anymore... on any cities. At least on the places I've visited they were more legend than reality," Eleanor explained. "But that doesn't mean you are not protected, by the looks of it, you even have vehicles and free access to water,"
Glenn turned to her frowning, "How do you know we have access to water?" a mist of doubt roamed the air. But Ellie only smirked.
"These signs are easy to follow, you know? I guessed you had vehicles because of your bags... they are big and look quite heavy; you ain't going far by foot like that, and cars can't get inside the city, you should be camping on the periphery" she began "And your used but clean clothes? I don't think I'm making a wild guess by saying your camp is near a lake or river of some sort... right?"
Silence stroke as they looked surprised to the young woman, Glenn looked at his clothes and Eleanor smirked, tapping her temple "I'm not that much of a dumb-ass," At that, Glenn snickered and so did Rick. Eleanor smiled, glad that the tense air around them had dissipated.
"...What was your name again?" asked the black Woman, and Ellie smiled
"Eleanor Sherry, but we should leave the presentations for later, once we are safe" she said as she turned to T-dog. He put the small speaker aside
"I get no signal..." he said, but then realization stroke him "maybe the roof" he said but, his voice was drowned by a thunder noise, larger than a normal gun. Rick knew that sound very well. It was a sniper riffle.
"You have a sniper?" Ellie asked, both worried and impressed.
Andrea grabbed her forehead, she looked like she was going to have a crisis attack "god damn... it's Dixon" she said as they all run upstairs, when Ellie arrived, Morales was discussing with a man that was standing over the edge of the roof, she assumed this guy was the oh-so-called Dixon.
"man! You are wasting bullets we don't even got man!" said T-dog angry "and you are bringing even more of them on our ass! Man just chill!" he said exasperated. Ellie inflated her cheek and let the air escape by a side.
"hey! I had enough I got these taco bender up my ass all day, and you think I'm gonna take orders from you? That... would be the day" he said, Ellie raised an eyebrow, she couldn't really get too far away from this kind of people, could she?
The hot headed guy continued his discussion with T-dog until they threw punches at each other. Eleanor was sure the Dixon guy have had his good share of bar fights before, he knew where to aim, and T-dog didn't have a chance at all. The man was pushed to the floor and beaten repeatedly until Rick stepped in, graving the forgotten rifle on the ground and hitting Dixon in the head. The guy swayed confused, and Rick took the opportunity to shove him against a large pipe that came out of the building and handcuff him to it.
"And who the hell are you!?" said an annoyed Dixon
"Officer Friendly" Rick answered lifting him up to meet his eye level. "Now look... Dixon. There are no 'niggers' anymore, no dumb ass shit inbred white-trash fools either, only white meat and dark meat... there's us and the dead, we survive this by pulling together, not apart"
"Screw you man," he said
"it seems you have an habit missing the pint" commented Rick as Dixon smirked
"Well screw you twice," he said as Rick pulled out his gun and pointed to his forehead. But Dixon was not faced, he knew Rick wouldn't shot, Ellie knew that too. Silence was all they could hear, the other members of that little group stared expectant.
"you wouldn't, you're a cop"
"All I am now, is a man looking for his wife and son, anybody who gets in the way of that is gonna lose. Now I'll give you a moment to think about that. " he said as he began checking the man's pockets. Rick finding found a small pack of weed on one of Dixon's pocket trowing it away, and leaving him cuffed to the pipe to wail and scream all he wanted. T-dog, for his part, sat on the side, the black woman looking for something to stop the bleeding of his mouth and nose.
Eleanor considered the possibility of using her first aid kit. However, she scratched it aside, it had only been a punch, and T-dog needed a more ice than medicines at that point. She turned to Rick instead, who for the small break, went to lean on the security railing of the building. He was giving everyone the back and Eleanor felt bothered. How bad was if often for her father, having to do something violent, and knowing exactly where to stop.
Eleanor walked next to him. Rick was looking at the horizon, he seemed relaxed, but the vice-like grip on his right hand told another story.
"Hello there Officer Rick Friendly! I just wanted to say that was impressive! Full bad ass cop mode!" she joked in a quiet voice.
But Rick said nothing not acknowledging her. Eleanor looked to the side, a little pout in her mouth. "I'm just going to say it then. What you did was good, you know? Think it for a moment, if you hand't, a bigger tragedy would have happened," Eleanor looked at Rick, and leaned her back on the same railing, that way he was looking at the street, and she was looking at Glenn, that was trying to help the black woman treat T-dog. "Sometimes, when you have special authority, like cops do... you fear that sense of power will someday turn against you. You fear that the violence you chose to use won't be controlled one day. But that's not what is happening right now; you just stopped a dangerous drug addict from beating an unprotected civilian to death,"
"You worked on the force?" Eleanor turned to Rick. He had been silent that whole time, but was now looking at her with open interest; Eleanor gave a little glance to his hand... it was no longer shaking. "Were you in the academy?"
Eleanor gave him a smile, "I would never want to be a cop if I can help it! But I had someone close who was, and he feared the same things you fear now," she gave him a thumbs up, "But you did pretty good to me today, Officer Friendly!" She said, laughing. "You convinced me to come with you, then found a good camp. These people, they are good people... of course, counting Dixon out; but what I want to say is that... you no longer come across this kind of people;" Her smile faltered, and she played with the dirt under her boots, "And now you have earned their trust and a sense of gratitude; that's high priced these days... more than you think,"
Rick only looked at her, and Eleanor felt that she had said too much. But how couldn't she? These people, Rick, they all looked like the outbreak had just started. It was as if... what she lived, came from another reality, one that she just escaped and didn't want to return to. Hell, she didn't even want to acknowledge it's existence.
"Eleanor... this isn't only on you, it was me who screwed up," Rick began reluctantly.
"Hm, " Eleanor focused her gaze on the large pipe where Dixon was now cuffed; a constant drip of water that did nothing to drown his tirade of curses.
"If I hadn't followed that helicopter, we wouldn't be trapped right now,"
That wasn't true, Dixon still fired his gun. These people would still be trapped, T-dog could be dead by now and how many more... and what's more; Eleanor wouldn't have guessed that Rick had a wide and a son that he was trying to get back to. He looked like he came from a small rural town; he must have gotten married young. The possibilities of his family making it out were as good as were the chances of them being dead already. All it took was a large group where they could be protected.
"... maybe if..." she said suddenly, she waked away to the group of people that took a rest of the commotion "Excuse the interruption, but we are running out of time; we need to find a way out. I was thinking... this is a large city and I wondered if we could make our way trough the sewers," a small silence was made until the Latino guy spoke.
"Glenn, check out the alley if you see the sewer entrance" said Morales as Glenn jumped to the side looking, but there was nothing, assuming they must be on the center of the avenues, and were dangerous to reach.
"Not all... this building is from the 20's there must be a direct entrance at the basement of the building, sewers were directly connected to prevent water accumulation during flooding" said the black woman.
"How do you know all that" asked T-dog
"it is... was my work" she began "I worked in the city zoning office" she said, they all got together and went to the basement. Leaving T-dog on guard of Dixon, and trying to get in contact with his camp site.
