15 years ago
Rick let out a heavy sigh. He was hoping the two men in the back of the RV would eventually grow tired of hearing their own voices. But they just seemed to be getting louder by the minute.
In Rick's experience, going on a run with Merle was not as bad as one might assume it would be. Despite his foul mouth, the man was always quick and efficient at whatever task they needed to complete. Rick never voiced his assumptions out loud, but he often guessed Merle was in a hurry to get back home to his wife. Whether he actually missed the woman or just wanted to ensure that Daryl didn't get too much alone time with her was anyone's guess. Rick tried his best to stay out of that relationship. The three of them weren't bothering anyone else, so Rick figured whatever perverted nonsense they were doing with each other was no one's business but theirs.
Abraham was usually an ideal person to take out on a run. He was strong and tough. He was a natural leader and people tended to cooperate well with each other under his guidance. Rick often asked him first if he needed a volunteer to fill out a run team.
Separately the two men were fine. But going on a run with both Merle and Abraham was like descending directly into the seventh circle of hell. They hollered when they talked to each other. And never shut up. They were crude and disgusting and usually insisted upon trying to outdo each other at dirty joke telling. When that got boring they would start talking about all the pussy they got or were planning to get.
Morgan was supposed to come on the run today. He took one look at Merle and Abraham laughing next to the RV together before he turned right around and went home. Rosita lasted about ten minutes in the back of the vehicle with the two men before she retreated to the passenger seat and stuffed her earbuds in her ears, turning the music up as loud as she could stand it. That was about the time that Merle started regaling Abe with a highly exaggerated and graphic description of the time he lost his virginity. A story that Rick unfortunately already heard at least five times before. And that was five times too many. This was only made worse by the fact that Carl and his young wife Sammie were the only people willing to come on the run with the two men. So they were sitting at the table in the back of the RV, listening to everything that was being said.
"Why don't you two quit flapping yer mouths and come play cards with us," Sammie suggested, hollering over the two grown ass men that were laughing their asses off yet another disgusting comment one of them made.
"Yeah," Carl urged, "...we got enough time to play a round of euchre."
Rick breathed a sigh of relief when the loud raucous of laughter finally died down. An occasional off color comment could still be heard but the men seemed to have quieted down so they could concentrate on the card game. One of the roads was blocked and Rick had to backtrack a little. So they had time for two games of cards. Merle let Rosita take his place at the table and he moved to the passenger seat so he could help Rick figure out the fastest way around the blocked section of road.
"Looked like someone cut that tree down on purpose," Merle said. Rick nodded. It did look like the tree had been placed in the road on purpose. But if there were men waiting to jump someone there, they hadn't shown themselves.
The next road they tried was thankfully clear of debris. Another half hour and they were pulling up outside the first large barn. Like most ideas that actually panned out, checking farms instead of trying for another large box store was suggested by Deanna but thought up by RickyJo. Rick was hesitant about the idea. It seemed like a waste of gas to just putter around out in the middle of nowhere without a specific destination in mind. But on the first run, they found a giant storage closet full of canned goods and an entire flock of chickens. Plus a bunch of canning equipment and gardening tools. They had a few cans of gas in the back of the RV this time. And there had been some general discussion about trying to drive one of the larger tractors back to Alexandria. Tilling up new ground for planting would go a lot faster with a proper tractor. Rick wasn't sure if that was going to happen today. But he was hopeful.
"Look!," Sammie hollered from the back of the RV, "HORSES!"
Rick turned the key, shutting off the engine of the RV. Carl and Sammie were out the door before the vehicle even came to a stop, running the direction of the horse pasture. Merle huffed out his total lack of excitement over the large animals. Now that they spotted the horses they were going to have to catch the fucking things. And that was going to be a pain in the ass. And Merle wasn't overly fond of horses in the first place. Animals never seemed to like him. Rick should've brought Daryl or Jessica along for this animal catching bullshit. Not him.
"Go see if there's any food in the barn we can lure them with," Rick suggested.
Sammie pulled her hanky out of her back pocket and tied it over her nose and mouth. Not all the horses were outside in the pasture when their owners either died or took off. And the ones that weren't, died in their stalls. It clearly happened some time ago. So the smell wasn't overly pungent. But her pregnancy was making bad smells even worse. And she didn't want to puke.
Carl gripped a wooden shelf with his hands, stepping on the lower ones and climbing up them like a ladder. There was a large bag of feed but it was high up, out of his reach. Grabbing the corner of the large bag, Carl pulled hard and leaned to the side. The bag slid off the shelf and crashed to the floor of the barn next to him. Sammie let out a little shriek, moving back a few steps. She wasn't afraid of the bag falling. She was afraid because when it fell it didn't land on the floor, it broke the wooden slats of the floor and slid through the hole it made.
"Be careful," Sammie warned. She was afraid Carl might go through the floor when he stepped back down. And it looked dark and deep inside the hole. Who knew what might be down there or how far he might fall. Carl nodded and edged sideways on the shelving unit, away from the hole in the floor, before he stepped down.
"Wonder what's down there?," Carl pondered, tilting his head and staring into the dark hole. He started kicking at the hay that was scattered around on the barn floor, trying to reveal more of wooden slats. Sammie grabbed an old worn out broom and followed his example. After a few moments they revealed a trap door. Sammie strung an arrow into her bow and pointed it at the door, then she nodded to Carl signaling that she was ready. He yanked up on the door, letting it slap against the shelving unit behind it and getting his gun out as quickly as he could. A dusty set of stairs led down into a basement area. It was hard to tell with only the light filtering on from outside the barn, but the area looked quite large. Like it might run the full length of the barn it was under.
"LOOKIT WHAT WE FOUND!," Sammie hollered as she swung around a rocket launcher that looked bigger than her. Carl was bopping around next to her, peering down the barrel of a large machine gun.
"I thought you were lookin' for horse food?," Rick teased.
"Found that too," Sammie informed him, "...and a whole cellar fulla other shit too."
Rick followed Merle and Abraham down the squeaky wooden steps and into the cellar. He shone his flashlight around, confirming that Sammie was right and there was a whole lot of shit hidden in the place. Some of it was worthless now. Cash and high end jewelry mostly. But there was a fairly large cache of weapons. And a few large tupperware containers that were full of non-perishable food items.
The best find, other than the RPG gun, was a five gallon bucket that contained hundreds of mylar packages full of vegetable seeds. Merle was overly excited about that, poking through the bucket enthusiastically. Rick grinned, knowing that the reason for Merle's interest in the seeds was that RickyJo would be excited about them. And the man was probably hoping to be rewarded for the find with some new act of sexual depravity that Rick could only hope he would not be subjected to hearing about later.
The small group spent the rest of the day loading up everything that would fit into the RV. They cleared out the cellar under the barn. Then cleared out the farmhouse. There wasn't as much there. But they took all the cooking and canning equipment. And there were a few shelves of home canned vegetables and jam that they loaded up. They also cleared out the linen closets of the place, taking all the blankets, sheets and pillows that were in decent condition.
Merle was half tempted not to point out the large horse trailer he spotted around the side of the house. But he knew these fools were going to insist on catching the animals anyway. So he figured they might as well have something to drive them back home in. He spent the rest of the evening rigging the trailer up to the RV and making sure it was secure enough to pull the heavy trailer. When he stomped back inside, only Rick was left in the living room of the place. Merle guessed that Carl and Sammie had already headed upstairs for some privacy. Abraham and Rosita had likely done the same. Merle was always torn between being glad that RickyJo was safe at home with their son and wishing she was on the run with him.
"Sammie left ya a bowl of soup on the kitchen table," Rick said. "...You want first watch or second?"
"I'll sit up a while," Merle answered as he headed for the kitchen. Sleep never came easy to him when he was on a run no matter how tired he was. Rick nodded, not wasting any time in stretching out on the couch and tossing his arm over his eyes. Merle ate the soup Sammie set aside for him. Then he headed out onto the porch for a smoke. The night passed uneventfully. Merle waited until he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer before he woke Rick up and flopped down on the couch that the man had only just vacated.
In the morning, they caught the horses. It ended up being easier than Merle expected. The animals were so hungry that just the sound of the food bag being opened brought not only the two horses Sammie spotted the day before charging in their direction, but several more horses and a few cows. Sammie was the animal whisper of the group. She filled a bucket with feed and let the large hungry animals charge in close to her. Then she simply walked backwards with the bucket all the way into the long trailer. They caught all the animals this way except a large and very angry looking bull that was separated from the rest of the animals in a smaller pasture. Merle shot it down before anyone could get any ideas about bringing the aggressive animal with them. Rosita helped him butcher it into manageable sections and they loaded it into the RV.
The successful run and thoughts of a steak dinner had everyone in high spirits as they drove back towards the safe zone. The ride back was much quieter than the ride there had been. Abraham was driving and Merle was tired from staying up most of the night. He was leaning back on the bench seat with his eyes closed. He came to with a start when he heard Abe cursing in the front of the vehicle. Abraham sounded concerned and he didn't get worried for no reason. Merle climbed to his feet and looked out through the windshield. The road was blocked. But not by a tree this time. But by a large group of well armed bikers. And unfortunately, they were not bikers he knew.
"You two keep your asses in this RV," Abraham hissed, pointing at Rosita and Sammie. He didn't mind the girls coming on the supply run. Even though they were both pregnant. But fighting an aggressive group of bikers was another story. Sammie was more than happy to stay inside. Rosita narrowed her eyes at him but thankfully she listened to his orders and stayed put.
Merle pointed his gun at the bikers. He didn't say anything. Instead, he waited to see what they wanted. The man in the point position seemed to be in charge. And he was overplaying his hand. He was saying he was coming back to their camp with them. And talking about someone named Negan. Or maybe he was Negan and he was talking about himself in the third person. It was hard to tell. But the last place this moron wanted to go was home with them. They had these bikers out gunned even now. If they went back to Alexandria, the rest of their group would tear these assholes apart in two seconds.
The biker leader told one of his men togo behind the RV with Merle and see what was in the livestock trailer. Which seemed a little stupid because what else would they have in there besides fucking livestock? Merle bit his lip to keep from grinning as the man walked him behind the trailer. He was going to enjoy this. But before Merle could even move towards the man to choke him out, Rosita lurched out the back window of the RV and grabbed the man by the hair, slitting his throat with her other hand. The man dropped to the ground with a quiet thud.
"I had it," Merle hissed at her. Rosita flipped him the bird. Sammie poked her head out the window, handing out the large RPG gun she found in the barn cellar.
"Go kill the rest of them then if yer so horny to do it," Sammie suggested. Merle shook his head at the girl. He flipped the giant gun up onto his shoulder, thinking it was really a shame that he was about to blow all those nice bikes into bits. Then he headed back up towards the front of the RV and pulled the trigger.