Waiting anxiously on his mother's return, Jacob sat in the same position he had done before she had even left. He could see the dirt road clearly and knew when the time came, he would be able to see the mini-van on its journey back to camp. "Who that?" He muttered, pointing down at the figure Carl had just drawn on some once plain paper. After reading some comics together, the older boy had decided to try and make his own, more to keep Jacob occupied than anything else.
"That's you and this is going to be me." Carl said, motioning to the figure he was halfway through drawing. "I'm trying to make them much better than the one's we saw earlier." He added, his bottom lip pulled between his teeth as he added an alarming amount of height difference between the two figures.
Pulling the grass from the ground beside him, Jacob squinted up at Carl before looking back towards the figure he had drawn of himself. He continued to look from the living figure to the drawn one for a few moments, his brows furrowing as he opened his mouth to voice his concern. "You's drawn you wrong." He pointed out, dropping the grass and moving onto his knees as he motioned with his hand to Carl's head. "Not that tall."
Carl scoffed, shaking his head as a grin appeared on his face. "This is our comic so we can look however we like." He told the younger boy, adding a pair of circle glasses to his figure before motioning towards them. "See, I don't even wear glasses in real life but this isn't real so we can do whatever we like."
Jacob stared at Carl for a few moments, bouncing on his knees slightly as he frowned. Quicker than one would blink, his frown turned into a grin as he pointed towards his figure. "Mine needs some wings 'cause mines gone' fly." He told him, pointing towards the white crayon as Carl raised a brow.
"I can't draw white wings on white paper, Jacob." Carl told him, watching as his smile turned to one of curiosity. "If I use the white one then you won't be able to see them."
"Tha's the point!" Jacob exclaimed excitedly, forgetting for a moment that he was waiting for his mother to return minutes prior. "Imvis-able." He mispronounced, grinning from ear to ear. "I'd look silly with wings that everybody could see. If theys imvis-able, then I could be one of them heros 'cause I'm normal but still different!" He told him, noticing the twinkle that had filled the older boys eyes.
"That's amazing!" Carl exclaimed, snatching the white crayon from the ground and drawing a set of invisible wings, listening to all the things Jacob was telling him about the wings and who could see them even when they were still invisible to the naked eye.
Meanwhile, back in the city, Molly sighed deeply as she tapped her foot nervously. She bit her lip as she watched Andrea and Morales talk in frantic whispers about the infected that were blocking the front entrance. From what she picked up, T-Dog had told Morales that the back was overrun too. Where Merle had gone to, she didn't know neither care.
Before she could think too much on the problem at hand, she jumped from her spot on the stairs and spun around on her heal. Her heart began to pound in her chest as she stared up the stairs, hearing the sound of frantic footsteps filling both her ears. She released a deep breath she was unaware she had even held in when Glenn came into view, a man following after him. "Where the heck have you been off too... Who's the Sheriff?" Molly muttered, raising a brow at the man's uniform over Glenns shoulder. "More to the point, why's he trying to get us all killed?" She added, remembering what Andrea and Morales had spoken of briefly while she sat waiting for Glenn to return.
"I kinda saved him." Glenn said, offering Molly a weak smile as the men held his hand out to her. She raised her brow at him, preferring to ignore him and be petty over the fact it was his fault they were all stuck where they were. "This is Rick Grimes, he's here to clean up the town." Glenn added, sarcastically.
"More like get us killed in here." Molly mumbled, watching Rick with slightly narrowed eyes as he tried to avoid her gaze. She could tell almost instantly that he was sorry for the trouble he had caused. With a deep sigh and a noise of slight regret, Molly stuck her own hand out. "Molly James."
Rick looked up, a small smile taking over his face as he shook her hand and offered her his own name again. In an instant, Molly was nudged out of the way as a flash of blonde hair hit her in the face. She grimaced slightly as she watched Andrea pin Rick to the wall, a gun pointed at his face. "You son of a bitch! We outta kill you." She hissed.
"Come on Andrea, back off." Morales said, resting his hand on her left shoulder. "Killing him isn't the way." Andrea continued to glare at Rick, her hand never once faltering as she shrugged Morales's hand of her shoulder. "Andrea..."
"If you shoot that gun in here, you're only going to attract more of them out there." Molly spoke up, pointing towards the fire exit that was sealed. "So, if you're really wanting to kill him, use something that won't come back to bite us." She added, knowing Andrea would never dare kill him with anything that could result in getting herself dirty. "If not, then get the gun out of his face so we can figure a way out of here!"
"We're dead because of this stupid asshole." Andrea told Molly, her glare falling slightly as she took in what she had been told.
"Then pull the trigger!" Molly exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air as she shook her head. "Cause us more trouble if you want because I can tell you now, if I don't get back to my boy, I'm blaming it on the both of you." Slower than she had ever seen anyone move, Andrea lowered her gun and backed away from Rick, tears beginning to fill her eyes as she shook her head.
"I... I don't- I don't understand." Rick spoke up, his voice slightly higher than Molly heard him speak before. "What do you mean we're all d-"
"Take a long look, Grimes." Molly said, pointing over T-Dog's shoulder and towards the double glass doors. "Do you really think we're getting out of here anytime soon?" She noticed instantly the look of slight panic that had taken over his features. She sighed slightly, feeling bad once more as she brushed a few strands of hair behind her ear. "Look... We came to the city to scavenge supplies."
"You know what the key to scavenging is?" Morales spoke up, raising a brow. "Surviving! You know the key to surviving?" He asked again, not waiting for Rick's reply. "Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the O.K. Corral." Rick moved forwards slightly, resting his hands on the top of a clothing rack. His eyes were blown wide as he watching the infected trying to break through the double glass doors. The snares and growls could still be heard which put the group on edge.
"Every geek for miles around heard you popping off rounds." T-Dog mentioned, annoyance prominent on his face. "Man, you just rang the damn dinner bell!" It was when he had mentioned the dinner bell that Molly noticed just how close the group had gotten to the doors.
She shook her head and hissed for them to come away from the doors and towards the back of the shop where it was virtually impossible for them to be seen over all the clothing racks. Molly shook her head slightly as the growls and aggressive pounding on the glass grew worse. Though she'd never have the guts to say it out loud, Rick had all but rang the dinner bell. "What were you even doing out there anyway?"
"Trying to flag the helicopter." Rick said without a tremor of humour. Molly fought against a snort as she noticed that what he was saying wasn't a lie.
"Helicopter?" T-Dog spat, his brows furrowed as he shook his head. "Man, that's crap. There ain't no damn helicopter!" Molly could tell by the tone of his voice that his was in disbelief. He stared at Rick as though he had gone mad. Andrea seemed to think so.
"You must have been chasing a hallucination." She said, the tone of her voice still not friendly. "Imagining things... It happens."
Molly left the two of them to argue over whether Rick saw a helicopter or whether he didn't. She moved towards T-Dog and Morales as she pointed towards the radio on T-Dog's hip. "Try that CB... See if you can get in contact with the others."
It was a few moments before she got a reply. She watched him fiddle with the dials for a few moments before he shook his head, breathing deeply out of his nose. "Got no signal." He fiddled with the dial a second time before he stopped and his eyes widened. "Maybe the roof?" He said, raising a brow as Molly shrugged, not knowing what was truly best.
It was as though the group were rehearsing for dance class as the six of them all looked up towards the ceiling when an alarming amount of shots erupted in their ears. Catching Andrea's gaze, Molly knew what the trouble was instantly... Or rather who. "What is that maniac doing?" Andrea cried out, making a beeline for the stairs, Molly a couple steps behind her.
The shots echoed down the stairwell as the six of them climbed up it, trying their best not to twitch or jump at the noise. Andrea broke through the roof door moments before Molly did. The two woman moved across the roof top towards Merle who was stood on the roof ledge, his riffle in his hands as he grinned at them.
"Dixon, are you crazy?" Andrea demanded, cowering at the look he sent her. Molly shook her head, almost knowing he was bound to make trouble somewhere along the line. Merle chuckled as he hopped down from the ledge, his riffle still in his grasps.
"Hey, you oughta be more polite to a man with a gun!" He told Andrea, looking over her shoulder as the rest of the group came out onto the rooftop. "Only common sense."
"An, you're wasting bullets we ain't even got!" T-Dog shouted out, moving towards Merle as he motioned towards the riffle in the older man's grasp. Molly sighed and shook her head, T-Dog speaking to him like that was only going to make everything worse. "You're bringing more of them down here on out ass!"
"Hey, Moll's, you 'earing this?" Merle asked, shaking his head in fake shock as he moved forwards, holding one of his arms out. "It's bad enough I got this bimbo on my ass all day," He motioned towards Andrea who scoffed. "Now I'm going to take orders from you?" He stood mere feet from T-Dog who raised a brow. "I don't think so, bro. That'll be the day."
"That'll be the day?" T-Dog spat out, pointing towards his chest as Molly shook her head once more, praying that the two would just drop it. "You got something you wanna tell me?"
"T-Dog, just leave it!" Molly exclaimed, holding a hand over her eyes in order to see the two men in the sunlight. "Merle, I swear to god if you don't shut the f-"
"You wanna know the day?" Merle interrupted, his question being shot at T-Dog who nodded. "I'll tell ya' tha day, Mr Yo." He said, closing the distance between the two of them. "It's the day I take orders from someone like you." In an instant, all hell broke loose.
T-Dog had made a swing for Merle, however, due to his time in the army, Merle had managed to duck and send the end of his riffle towards T-Dog's face, knocking him to the ground in seconds. Molly watched on slight disbelief, knowing she could never stop the fighting and would only end up getting herself hurt just as Rick and Morales was doing. All those drunken fights Merle had gotten himself into had given her more than enough reason to stay clear of him during his rage. If he could fight like that when he was sober, she was almost positive that he could kill someone with a clear head.
She spun around and took a seat on one of the pipes that travelled across the roof with a sigh. Molly held her head in her hands as she began to think of Jacob and knew almost instantly that she had more than likely broken her promise to him. By the way things were going, there was simply no way for her to be able to make it back to him today. She briefly worried who was going to watch him for her but knew instantly that he was in safe hands with the people back at camp.
"LET ME GO!" Molly's head shot up as she wiped at a tear that had leaked from her eye. She stared at the scene in front of her with her mouth open. She wasn't to sure how long she had zoned out for but knew it wasn't too long. However, in that time Rick had somehow managed to handcuff Merle to the roof.
"Look here, Merle." Rick hissed out as Molly pushed herself to her feet once more. Though she'd never state it out loud, she did still care for Merle in a way and didn't want him to be mistreated. "Things are different now. There are no niggers any more... No dumb-as-shit inbred white trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead." He said, loading his pistol with bullets as Molly came to a stop a few feet from the men. "We survive this by pulling together, not apart. I'll give you a moment to think about that."
Shaking her head at Merle who glared at Ricks retreating form, Molly moved towards the wall opposite him and slid down it, crossing her legs in front of herself as Merle turned to look at her, his glare never faltering. "If you would've just listened, then maybe you wouldn't be handcuffed to the roof right now." She watched as he scoffed, shaking his own head. Something caught Molly's gaze which made her eyes squint as she leaned forward slightly. "You still take that shit?" She rhetorically asked, letting herself fall back against the wall as Merle forced a smirk.
"Got nothin' else ta' do nowadays." He told her, crossing his legs out in front of him. The two of them continued to sit in silence, ignoring the group around them as they each thought of different things.
Molly wasn't big on closing her eyes and praying to whomever it was that was meant to listen and act on what you were asking. However, as she sat in silence, she found her eyes drifting shut as she began to think of her son and how she just hopped he would understand. She sent out a silent prayer that Jacob be safe from harm. She prayed that someone back in camp would seek him out and nurture and protect him. "Wha's he like?" Merle's voice broke through her trance. Slowly, she opened her eyes as she raised a brow, tilting her head to the side slightly. "Yer' boy... Wha's he like?"
"Kind... Funny." She mumbled, a curt chuckle leaving her at the mere thought of the many laughs he had given her. "He's extremely bright... Kinda short for his age too. Though I suppose that's my fault really." Molly told him, shrugging slightly. "He enjoys the outdoors so I can't imagine he'd hate sleeping in a tent all that much. If he had his way, he probably wouldn't even use the tent."
Merle nodded, taking in what Molly was saying. He felt like hitting himself when it came to her and her boy. Not only was he certain that she had left all those years ago due to the boy, but he couldn't wrack his mind around why she felt the need to go. Why she couldn't speak her mind like she usually had done. He couldn't deny she had changed. No longer was he met with a hot-headed woman who sought out the sweet comfort of liquor and his baby brother. Though he supposed that's what happens when you have a kid, not that he'd know of course.
Molly saw Merle's mouth open, a question lingering on his tongue before he closed it once more at the sight of T-Dog making his way towards the two. He stood beside Molly, looking over the rooftop and down at the street in slight panic. "What's going on?" Molly asked, pushing herself to her feet and brushing her hands together.
"They're going out there, to that construction site." He mumbled out, raising a pair of binoculars as he looked of towards the site. Molly frowned at him, however, just as she was about to ask who, she noticed that Morales and Andrea came running through the door and towards them. It didn't take her long to figure out just who had gone.
"How are they meant to get there without being lunch for the infected?" Molly hissed out, looking around the streets below as she tried to spot either Glenn or Rick. "Can't believe you three just let them go!"
"They're covered in walker guts." Andrea said, looking as though she really wanted to throw up as soon as the five words had left her mouth. "That's what we've been doing... Helping them." Molly briefly wondered how long she had been sat in silence for before she shook her head, pointing towards two figures on the street.
Meanwhile, back in camp, Carl and Jacob had finally finished the first part of their hand-made comic. Though Jacob's figure had changed more than twenty times, Carl had assured him it was perfectly fine. The two of them had moved away from the road and towards the R.V, much to Lori's happiness. She had spent the last fifteen minutes chopping fruit at the table beside them while the two boys played with an old pack of playing cards.
"Do you have any sevens?" Carl muttered, keeping his own playing cards out of Jacob's sight as he scratched at his chin.
"Yea'!" Jacob exclaimed, moving to pluck the card numbered five before Shane made a noise from behind him, shaking his head as Jacob tilted his own up at him. "What?"
"That's not a seven, Jake." Jacob's mouth made an 'o' as he nodded as if he knew what he had done. Shane snorted as he shared an amused look with Lori who also smile brightly. "Maybe you should play a game he'd understand a little better?" He shot the question to Carl who merely smirked. "You've won every game you've played."
"I'm just good at it." Carl said, shrugging his shoulders as he smiled up at Shane. "I really can't help it."
"And playing against a three-year-old who easily gets his numbers mixed up doesn't have anything to do with it." Lori told him, smiling softly at Jacob who tilted his head at her, not quite understanding what she was trying to tell her son.
"Hello, base camp?" A voice broke through the small moment of fun from the top of the R.V. "Can anybody out there hear me?" The same static transmission erupted again from the radio. "Base camp. This is T-Dog. Anybody hear me?"
Dale pushed himself from the deck-chair he had set up next to the radio on top of the R.V. He moved towards it and picked up the hand-held device before he pushed the button in and opened his mouth. "Hello? Hello? Reception's bad on this end. Repeat. Repeat."
It was a couple of moment before the voice was heard once more. Only this time it was almost too difficult to understand what was being said. "Sh- That you?"
"Is that them?" Lori called out, moving to stand next to Shane as many of the other residents around the camp also came to investigate what was going on.
"We're in s- deep shit." Jacob raised his eyes towards the R.V, noticing instantly that a bad word had been spoken. He tried to make out what was happening by looking around at the faces he had come to know so well. "We're trapp- Department stor-"
"Did he just say they're trapped?" Shane asked, not really looking for an answer as he rubbed at the back of his neck, annoyance beginning to take over his curiosity.
"There are geeks all ov- hundreds of th-" The connection went static as Dale began to fiddle with the dials franticly, trying to gain a better connection. His attempts proved to fail when T-Dog's voice was not heard again. Dropping the radio back onto the system, Dale held his arms out to the group surrounding the R.V.
"He said the department store..." Lori muttered, trailing off slightly as she held her hands on her hips. Shane turned to look at her with a raised brow. "Shane, maybe we co-"
"No way." He interrupted, shaking his head. "We do not go after them. We do not risk the rest of the group. Ya'll know that." He added, making sure the rest of the group heard what he had said.
Amy stepping forward, disbelief written over her face. "So, we're just gonna leave her there?" She asked, looking as though she was hoping Shane was lying and that he would gather a group as soon as he told her so.
"Look, Amy... I know that this is not eas-"
"She volunteered to go!" Amy erupted, shaking her head ever so slightly. "To help the rest of us." Jacob placed his playing cards on the table as he pushed himself to his feet, wobbling slightly as he did so. He wiped his hand together as he surveyed Amy and Shane.
"I know she did." Shane agreed, nodding for slight effect. "They all did... They also knew the risks, right?" A raise of his brow made Amy's whole face fall. "See, if she's trapped, she's gone... So, we just have to deal with that. There's nothing we can do."
"She's my sister, you son of a bitch." Amy hissed out, her eyes catching movement to the left of Shane. Her blue eyes widened when they landed on the small form of Jacob, his head tilted as he watched her curiously. "What're you planning to tell him, huh?" She asked, pointing towards him. "Because if it's the same as what you just told me, you're an even bigger piece of shit!"
With that said, Amy ran off, leaving Shane to think about what he had just said. Lori moved forward and smiled softly as Jacob who merely looked up at her blankly. "Why don't I see if we've got any more games for you?" Wordlessly, Jacob took her hand she held out and followed after her.
Back in the city, Molly was finding it difficult to pace her heart beats. A flash shower of rain had just broken out from the sky above them, essentially washing any and all smell from Rick and Glenn. However, due to the quick thinking the pair had, they had made it over the fence and into one of the trucks. Unluckily for the rest of the group, however, they had driven off at high speed, all but leaving the five of them behind.
"What do we do now?" Andrea exclaimed, frantically. "What do we do now!" Molly could do nothing but shake her head in disbelief as she brushed some wet strands from her face. She blocked out Merle's yells and Morales's frantic shouting as she scoffed lightly.
"Those roll-up doors at the front of the store, facing the street." Glenn's voice broke through the radio, shutting everyone up instantly. "Meet us there and be ready." He added, the line going dead almost as soon as he had done.
"You heard the man, c'mon let's go!" Morales yelled, snatching his back-pack from the ground and he followed after Andrea to the door. "Let's go! Let's go!" Molly followed his lead, gripping her bag as she slung it on her back and made her way towards the door.
"Hey, you can't leave me here!" The simple tone of Merle's voice was enough to make her stop in her tracks. "Morales, you can't do this man, Morales!" Molly knew he was already out of earshot, She spun around and made her way back towards him, noticing that T-Dog was having a mental crisis about whether he should run or help.
"What the fuck, undo the cuffs!" She screamed at him as she made her way towards the two men.
"Molly! Moll's!" Merle exclaimed loudly, his eyes full-blown with panic. "Moll's you can't leave me here!"
"I'm not gonna leave you here!" She exclaimed, noticing that her yelling had broken T-Dogs trance. He spun on his heal and made his way towards Merle, the key in hand. However, Molly didn't have enough time to warn him of the fact that Dale's tools were sitting right in his path.
She winced as her heart all but stopped beating when he tripped over it, the key that had been shinning in his hand being sent through the air. All the swear words she had wanted yell at him had come bursting out of Merle's mouth the moment the key had slipped down the drain. Knowing there was simply no time to fish the key out, Molly grabbed the small hand saw that had landed by her foot when T-Dog had sent them flying. She all but sprinted towards Merle, skidding to her knees as she gripped the cuffs tightly in her hands and began to try and saw through them.
The saw fell from her hands in an instant when she heard the unmistakable sounds of growling growing closer. Her eyes met Merle's as the two of them stared at each other in shock, their eyes whipping towards the door just as many of the infected pressed themselves up against it. No matter how hard she tried, Molly could contain the flood of panic that seeped through her.