James and the young blonde walked through the camp towards the brunette mother with a red bucket they'd used to collect mushrooms for supper. Jack was on top of the RV with the older gentleman keeping watch over everything as he had been when they'd left.
"Any luck?" the brunette asked them.
"How do we tell if they're poison?" the blonde asked pouring the contents of the bucket into a small bowl.
"Uh, there's only one sure way I know of." The brunette told her looking inside the bucket.
"Ask Shane when he gets back?" the blonde asked.
"Yeah, you've got it." The brunette agreed before taking the bucket offered to her and standing. "Thank you. Dale, Jack, I'm heading out. Sweetheart, I want you to stay where Dale and Jack can see you, okay?" she told her son as he played with his toys alone.
"Yes, mom." Her son complied.
"You too. Don't wander too far. Stay within shouting distance. And if you see anything, holler. I'll come running." Dale told her.
"Yes, mom." Jack and the blonde heard her say sarcastically before going to the woods.
"Do you want me to come with you Mrs. Grimes?" James asked her and she turned to him with a small smile.
"Lori, James, just Lori and no. I got a gun I'll be fine." She said before walking away. James sat next to the blonde as she grabbed some leftover food for the two of them from the night before.
"Think she's meeting Shane?" the blonde asked him. He looked around and noticed their leader was missing and nodded to her. Everyone knew they were hooking up, well everyone except the kids.
"Probably Amy, some people can't go long without it." He joked making her laugh at him. Before the world went to hell a few months earlier he was just ending his high school career, which made Amy older than he was. But neither one of them cared they were friends and that's all that mattered.
Rick and I were still sitting in the tank after the voice had called to us waiting for him or someone else to call us again.
"Hey, are you two alive in there?" the man called to us and Rick scrambled to the CB to reply to him.
"Hello? Hello?" Rick called into it.
"There you are. You had me wondering." The man told us.
"Where are you? Outside? Can you see us right now?" Rick asked him.
"Yeah, I can see you. You're surrounded by walkers. That's the bad news." He told us.
"There's good news?" Rick asked him hopeful.
"No." he admitted and I rolled my eyes at them.
"Listen, whoever you are, I don't mind telling you we're a little concerned in here." Rick told him.
"Oh man. You should see it from over here. You'd be having a major freak-out." The man told us.
"So not helping right now." I said knowing he couldn't hear me.
"Got any advice for us?" Rick asked him.
"Yeah, I'd say make a run for it." He told us and we paused staring at the radio in stunned silence.
"That's it? "Make a run for it"?" Rick asked him.
"My way's not as dumb as it sounds. You've got eyes on the outside here. There's one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down. With me so far?" the man asked us and I nodded to Rick.
"So far." Rick told him.
"Okay, the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now while they're distracted, you stand a chance. Got ammo?" he asked us.
"In that duffel bag I dropped out there, and guns. Can we get to it?" Rick asked him.
"Forget the bag, okay? It's not an option. What do you have on you?" the man asked.
"Hang on." Rick told him. Rick picked up the Beretta 925F that he'd taken off the solder and slipped the clip out to see it full. I pulled out my knife and gun and checked the clip and looked for another. Full clip but no luck on another one. Rick moved to the soldier and searched him for another clip for the Beretta only to find a grenade. He stared at it for a moment before putting it into his pocket and joining me once again. "Yeah. Yeah. We've got two Beretta with one clip each, 15 rounds a piece.
"Make 'em count. Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards. Be there." He told us.
"Hey, what's your name?" Rick asked him and I gave him a look.
"Ask when we're safe." I told him.
"Have you been listening? You're running out of time." He told Rick.
"Right." Rick agreed. Rick opened the tank and I went out first to take care of the Walker on the tank. I whacked the Walker, slicing its face wide open before getting out as quickly as I could so Rick could get out. We jumped off the tank and quickly ran towards the alley shooting down any Walkers that came close to us. When we ran into the alley, Rick pointed the gun at an Asian kids head and the kid held up his arms as a sign of surrender.
"Whoa! Not dead! Come on! Come on! Back here! Come on! Come on!" The three of us ran down the alley and the kid climbed the ladder he'd led us to first before I joined him only to look down and see Rick staring at the Walkers.
"Move your ass Rick!" I shouted.
"What are you doing?! Come on!" the kid called to him and he quickly climbed up the ladder after us. "Come on, get up." We stopped on a ledge and panted looking down on our preditors. Nice moves there, Pocahontas and Clint Eastwood. You the princess and new sheriff come riding in to clean up the town?" he asked us and I gave him a small look.
"It wasn't our intention." Rick told him.
"Yeah, whatever. Yeehaw. You're still dumbasses." He told us.
"Rick. Thanks." Rick said holding his hand out for him to shake.
"Glenn. You're welcome."
"I'm Jackie. Nice to meet ya." I said nodding my head to him.
"Oh no." Glenn said looking down to see the Walkers climbing up the ladder. We looked up to the roof and saw the height we still needed to go. "The bright side: It'll be the fall that kills us. I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy."
"Lucky you." I said as we climbed up the ladder that lead to the top of the store. We made our way across the roof of one building to another crossing over an alley.
"Are you the one that barricaded the alley?" Rick asked him. Inside the alley below us we 3 maybe 4 Walkers max.
"Somebody did…" Glenn told us as we jumped over the small ledge. "I guess when the city got overrun. Whoever did it was thinking not many geeks would get through."
"Back at the tank, why'd you stick your neck out for us?" Rick asked him as we made our way to an access point to leave the roof.
"Call it foolish, naive hope that if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me." Glenn told us while opening the hatch to reveal a ladder. He dropped his bag down in the hole and climbed him before looking up at us. "Guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you two."
"Nope, just hopeful." I told him as he climbed down. I followed Glenn and Rick followed me only to close the opening and make us crawl down in darkness. When we got to one of the floors we quickly ran to a door and climbed down some stairs as Glenn pulled out a radio.
"I'm back. Got two guests plus four geeks in the alley." Glenn called out. We went down another staircase to a door where two Walkers appeared in front of us. Two men, a black man and a Latino, came out with protective gear and baseball bats each going after one Walker. "Let's go!" the three of us made our way into the store where the two men had emerged.
"Morales, let's go!" the black man called out to the other and they followed us back in once they'd killed the Walkers. We moved to another area of the building where there were two more survivors, a blonde woman and a black woman. Rick immediately had a gun pointed in his face by the blonde.
"You son of a bitch. We ought to kill you." She told him.
"Just chill out, Andrea. Back off." The Latino, Morales, told her.
"Come on, ease up." The black woman told her.
"Ease up? You're kidding me, right? We're dead because of these stupid assholes." She said.
"Andrea, I said back the hell off." Morales told her. We all waited for a moment for her to do something. "Well, pull the trigger." She pulled the gun off him.
"We're dead… All of us… Because of you two." She told us.
"I don't understand." Rick told her.
"Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies. You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving! You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the O.K. Corral." Morales said moving us all into the department store only for us to see the Walkers standing outside the second set of doors.
"Every geek for miles around heard you popping off rounds." The black man said.
"You just rang the dinner bell." Andrea said.
"Get the picture now?" Morales asked him. The Walkers were all trying to get in; one even had a rock to smash the glass.
"We are so getting you knives." I told him.
"Oh God. What the hell were you doing out there anyway?" Andrea asked us.
"Trying to flag the helicopter." Rick answered.
"Helicopter? Man, that's crap. Ain't no damn helicopter." The black man told him.
"You were chasing a hallucination, imagining things. It happens." The black woman covered for him.
"We saw it." I insisted making them all go quiet.
"Hey, T-Dog, try that C.B. Can you contact the others?" Morales told the black man.
"Others? The refugee center?" Rick asked hopeful.
"Yeah, the refugee center. They've got biscuits waiting at the oven for us." The black woman said sarcastically making me think there was no refugee center. T-Dog tried to get in contact with the rest of their group.
"Got no signal. Maybe the roof." T-Dog suggested when we suddenly heard gunshots going off.
"Oh no. Is that Dixon?" Andrea asked.
"What is that maniac doing?" Morales asked.
"Come on, let's go." Glenn said and we all quickly made our way up to the roof. When we arrived we saw a man shooting down from the roof at the herd of Walkers below with a sniper rifle.
"Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?!" T-Dog asked him. Dixon just laughed and continued shooting them.
"Oh jeez. " Andrea said.
"Hey! Y'all be more polite to a man with a gun! Huh? Ah! Only common sense." Dixon called to them as Rick and I separated ourselves from them. Dixon didn't seem like he was friendly with his own group let alone two strangers.
"Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got!" T-Dog told him but he only laughed. "And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill."
"Hey! Bad enough I've got this taco-bender on my ass all day. Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so, bro. That'll be the day." Dixon said to him.
""That'll be the day"? You got something you want to tell me?" T-Dog asked him.
"Hey, T-Dog man, just leave it." Morales told him.
"No." T-Dog denied.
"All right? It ain't worth it. Now Merle, just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble." Morales reminded everyone.
"You want to know the day?" Merle asked T-Dog.
"Yeah." T-Dog told him.
"I'll tell you the day, Mr. "Yo." It's the day I take orders from a nigger." Merle told him.
"Mother… " T-Dog attacked Merle who only pushed him away and started pounding on him. Rick tried to get between them but got punched in the face instead. I knelt down next to him to help him up as they continued fighting, Merle being the obvious winner.
"Hey, come on, Merle. That's enough. " Morales told him.
"Come on. Dixon!" Andrea begged.
"Whoa, cut it out, man!" Morales said after Merle punched T-Dog hard enough for the man to hit one of the pipes revealing blood.
"Stop it! Dixon, get off him! Dixon, you're gonna hurt him." Andrea shouted.
"Merle, cut it out!" Morales ordered. Merle continued to beat T-Dog until he suddenly pulled a gun on him.
"No no no, please. Please." Andrea begged and we all watched to see with Merle would do.
"Yeah! All right! We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who's in charge. I vote me. Anybody else? Huh?" the others pulled T-Dog away from Merle as he stood up. "Democracy time, y'all. Show of hands, huh? All in favor? Huh? Come on. Let's see 'em. Oh, come on. All in favor?" slowly but surely everyone started raising their hands with the gun pointed at all of them. "Yeah. That's good. Now that means I'm the boss, right? Yeah. Anybody else? Hmm? Anybody?" Merle asked.
"Yeah." Rick said, drawing Merle's attention. As Merle turned Rick hit him in the face with the butt of the sniper Merle had been using before quickly handcuffing Merle to the pipe he'd knocked T-Dog into.
"Who the hell are you, man?!" Merle asked him.
"Officer friendly. Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no niggers anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart." Rick told him.
"Screw you, man." Merle told him.
"I can see you make a habit of missing the point." Rick told him.
"Yeah? Well, screw you twice." Merle told him and Rick pointed a gun to his temple.
"Ought to be polite to a man with a gun." Rick said coking the gun. "Only common sense." He repeated the words Merle used once before.
"You wouldn't. You're a cop." Merle told him.
"All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose. I'll give you a moment to think about that." Rick searched his pockets for a moment before pulling out a baggie. He looked into Merle's eyes and flicked his nose. "Got some on your nose there."
"What are you gonna do? Arrest me?" Merle asked before laughing. Rick threw the drugs over the edge of the roof and that got Merle going again. "Hey! What are you doing? Man, that was my stuff! Hey! If I get loose, you'd better pray… Yeah, you hear me, you pig?! You hear me?!"
"Yeah, your voice carries." Rick said going to the edge of the roof and looking over as his right hand shook.
"You okay?" I asked him and he nodded to me before Morales joined us.
"Do you hear me, you filthy pig?!"
"You're not Atlanta P.D. Where you from?" Morales asked him.
"Up the road a ways." Rick told him, not giving any details.
"Well, officer friendly from up the road a ways, welcome to the big city." We looked out and saw nothing but Walkers before moving back to the others.
"My God, it's like Times Square down there." Andrea said.
"How's that signal?" Morales asked T-Dog who was leaning up where everyone was looking over.
"Like Dixon's brain… Weak." T-Dog said staring pointedly at Merle who just flipped him off.
"Keep trying." Morales told him.
"Why? There's nothing they can do. Not a damn thing." Andrea said moving away from the wall.
"Got some people outside the city is all. There's no refugee center. That's a pipe dream." Morales told us and I looked down at the Walkers praying that if there was a God, he wouldn't have let my father and brother into this city.
"Then she's right. We're on our own. It's up to us to find a way out." Rick told us.
"Good luck with that. These streets ain't safe in this part of town from what I hear. Ain't that right, sugar tits? Hey, honeybunch, what say you get me out of these cuffs, we go off somewhere and bump some uglies? Gonna die anyway." Merle asked Andrea who was messing with a pack.
"I'd rather." She told him before getting up and moving closer to us.
"Rug muncher. I figured as much." Merle said and I rolled my eyes.
"Is he always like this?" I asked her.
"Only when he's breathing." She told me and I sighed in annoyance.
"The streets ain't safe. Now there's an understatement." Morales said.
"What about under the streets? The sewers?" Rick asked and looked at each other.
"Oh man. Hey, Glenn, check the alley. You see any manhole covers?" Morales asked him. Glenn ran to another ledge and looked over before joining us again.
"No, must be all out on the street where the geeks are." Glenn told us.
"Maybe not. Old building like this built in the '20s… Big structures often had drainage tunnels into the sewers in case of flooding down in the subbasements." The black woman told us.
"How do you know that?" Glenn asked her.
"It's my job… was. I worked in the city zoning office." She told us. Everyone except T-Dog and Merle made our way down into the building to a point Glenn had noticed before to see if she was right.
"This is it? Are you sure?" Morales asked him.
"I really scoped this place out the other times I was here. It's the only thing in the building that goes down. But I've never gone down it. Who'd want to, right?" Glenn asked and we all looked at him. "Oh. Great."
"We'll be right behind you." Andrea told him reassuringly.
"No, you won't. Not you." Glenn told her.
"Why not me? Think I can't?" she asked him offended.
"I wasn't…" Glenn started saying before stopping again.
"Say what's on your mind." I told him.
"Look, until now I always came here by myself… In and out, grab a few things… No problem. The first time I bring a group… Everything goes to hell. No offense. If you want me to go down this gnarly hole, fine… But only if we do it my way. It's tight down there. If I run into something and have to get out quick, I don't want you all jammed up behind me getting me killed. I'll take one person…" Rick moved forward to volunteer. "Not you either. You've got Merle's gun and I've seen you shoot. I'd feel better if you were out in that store watching those doors, covering our ass. And you've got the only other guns, so you should go with him." He told Andrea and me before turning to Morales. "You be my wingman. Jacqui stays here. Something happens, yell down to us, get us back up here in a hurry."
"Okay." The black woman, Jacqui, agreed.
"Okay, everybody knows their jobs." Rick said.
"I got some med supplies from the town we were just in. I'll go take check on T-Dog and Merle then join you in the store." I told Rick as Glenn led the way down the ladder followed by Morales.
When I got to the roof T-Dog was still trying the radio. I decided to check on him first since he'd been hurt the most from the fight.
"Anybody out there? Hello? Anybody read? I'm hoping to hear somebody's voice 'cause I'm getting sick and tired of hearing mine." T-Dog called into the radio as I cleaned up his face. I laughed lightly before feeling his ribs. He winced at my touch.
"Yeah, well, that makes two of us." Merle agreed.
"Three." I joked with him and he chuckled before wincing in pain again. "Sorry."
"Why don't you knock that crap off? You're giving me a headache, boy." Merle said before spitting onto the roof.
"Why don't you pull your head out of your ass? Maybe your headache will go away." T-Dog retorted making Merle chuckle at him. "Try some positivity for a change. Damn."
"Not a lot of that going around." I reminded him.
"I'll tell you what… You get me out of these cuffs and I'll be all "Sammy Sunshine" positive for you. Hey, see that hacksaw over there in that toolbag? Get it for me, hmm? Make it worth your while. What do you say, man? Come on. Get me out of these things." Merle tried asking him.
"So you can beat my ass again? Or call me nigger some more?" T-Dog asked him.
"Come on now. It wasn't personal. It's just that your kind and my kind ain't meant to mix. That's all. It doesn't mean we can't… Work together, parley, as long as there's some kind of mutual gain involved. So… about that hacksaw…" Merle tried telling him.
"I guess you want me to get that rifle over there too so you can shoot that cop when he comes back up, huh?" T-Dog asked him.
"Huh." Merle said.
"Your ribs aren't broken, probably just bruised." I told T-Dog before moving to Merle.
"I didn't know you were so worried about me Hunnybuns." Merle said to me.
"I'm not. It's called being human." I said looking at his cheek and nose. "You're fine, just bruised if that." I said before heading back downstairs to Rick and Andrea.
When I got to the store I saw Andrea looking at something with a smile on her face.
"Oh."
"See something you like?" Rick asked her.
"Not me, but I know someone who would… My sister. She's still such a kid in some ways. Unicorns, dragons… She's into all that stuff. But mermaids… They rule. She loves mermaids." She told him.
"Why not take it for her then?" I asked her.
"There's a cop staring at me." She said nodding to Rick making us chuckle. "Would it be considered looting?" she asked him.
"I don't think those rules apply anymore. Do you?" he asked her. She smiled at him and pocketed the necklace. Suddenly we heard glass shattering and ran to the doors, prepared to fire only to see them still stopped by the second set of doors.
"What did you find down there?" Rick asked Glenn and Morales as they joined us.
"Not a way out." Morales told us.
"We need to find a way… And soon." Andrea said and we all moved back to the roof. Rick used some binoculars he'd found in the store to look around on the street to see if he could find something we could use.
"That construction site, those trucks… They always keep keys on hand." Rick said pointing it out to everyone.
"You'll never make it past the walkers." Morales told him.
"You got us out of that tank." Rick said turning to Glenn.
"Yeah, but they were feeding. They were distracted." Glenn reminded him.
"Can't we just distract them again?" I asked them.
"Right. Listen to them. They're onto something. A diversion, like on "Hogan's Heroes."" Merle said sarcastically.
"God. Give it a rest." Jacqui told him annoyed.
"They're drawn by sound, right?" Rick asked, going over what he'd learned about him in the short time he'd been awake.
"Right, like dogs. They hear a sound, they come." Glenn answered.
"What else?" Rick asked.
"Aside from they hear you? They see you, smell you and if they catch you, they eat you." Morales told him.
"They can tell us by smell?" Rick asked us.
"Can't you?" Glenn asked him.
"They smell dead, we don't. It's pretty distinct." Andrea told us and I could see the wheels turning in Rick head.
Rick found outfits and tossed them to us as well as thick cleaning gloves.
"If bad ideas were an Olympic event, this would take the gold." Glenn said talking about the plan Rick told us on our way back down to the store.
"He's right. Just stop, okay? Take some time to think this through." Morales told Rick.
"How much time? They already got through one set of doors, that glass won't hold forever." Rick reminded him as we all got dressed in the trench coats and gloves. Andrea, Glenn, Morales, and Rick went to collect one of the dead Walkers as we all waited for them to return with an ax. When they got back I handed Rich the helmet with face protection and the ax and waited for him to make the first cut into the Walker before us. Rick was about to shop him up only to stop at the last minute. He kneeled next to the Walker and searched him before pulling out a wallet. "Wayne Dunlap. Georgia license. Born in 1979. He had $28 in his pocket when he died… And a picture of a pretty girl. "With love, from Rachel." He used to be like us… Worrying about bills or the rent or the Super Bowl. If I ever find my family, I'm gonna tell them about Wayne." Rick got up and again and prepared to cut Wayne up.
"One more thing… He was an organ donor." Glenn told us. After a moment of silence, Rick started to hack away at the Walker. With every chop he made we made disgusted noises until he finally stopped and handed the helmet and ax to Morales.
"Keep chopping." Rick told him.
"I am so gonna hurl." Glenn told us.
"Later." Rick told him as Morales hacked away at the corpse. "Everybody got gloves?" he asked as Morales finished. "Don't get any on your skin or in your eyes." We all dug our gloved hands into the dead guts and applied them to Rick and Glenn.
"Oh God! Oh jeez. Oh, this is bad. This is really bad."
"Think about something else… Puppies and kittens." Rick told him as he made a face at the smell.
"Dead puppies and kittens." T-Dog said. Glenn couldn't handle that and turned to puke.
"That is just evil. What is wrong with you?" Andrea asked him.
"Next time let the cracker beat his ass." Jacqui told Rick.
"I'll help." I said giving T-Dog a look.
"I'm sorry, yo." T-Dog apologized to Glenn.
"You suck." Glenn groaned out.
"Do we smell like them?" Rick asked us.
"Oh yeah." Andrea said and I nodded in agreement. "Glenn." She showed him her gun and he just looked at her. "Just in case." Andrea moved the trench coat away from his clothes and carefully put her gun in the band of his jeans.
"If we make it back, be ready." Rick told us.
"When. I ain't dying here." I told him.
"What about Merle Dixon?" T-Dog asked him and Rick tossed the handcuff key to T-Dog.
"Give me the axe. We need… we need more guts." Rick said chopping up the body once more. Once Rick and Glenn left the store we ran up to the roof to try and follow their progress.
"Hey, what's happening, man?" Merle called to us from his spot.
"Hey, T-Dog, try that C.B." Morales ordered and T-Dog did so.
"Hey, come on. Talk to me, y'all." Merle beggedus.
"Base camp, this is T-Dog. Anybody hear me? Can anybody out there hear me?" T-Dog called onto the C.B.
"There." Morales said, spotting them with the binoculars as thunder rumbled overhead.
"That asshole is out on the street with the handcuff keys?" Merle asked. I looked at them in time to see T-Dog wave the key at Merle who just shut up and took a deep breath.
At the camp, Dale, Jack and one other man was fixing the mobile home so it'd be ready to move in case of an emergency as James stood on top of it keeping watch.
"Boy, that hose isn't long for this world, is it?" Dale asked the two men with him.
"No sir." The brunette man agreed.
"Where the hell are we gonna find a replacement?" Dale asked.
"Maybe the others will find something we can fix her up with." Jack offered.
"It's late. They should've been back by now." Amy said pacing not too far from the men.
"Worrying won't make it better." Dale told her. Suddenly the radio squawked to life with T-Dog's voice following suit.
"Hello, base camp! Can anybody out there hear me? Base camp, this is T-Dog. Anybody hear me?" T-Dog called out. James took the radio and answered it, hopeful that he could hear him unlike when Rick had tried earlier that day.
"Hello? Hello? Reception's bad on this end. Repeat. Repeat." James called into the radio as everyone crowded around the RV.
"Shane, is that you?" T-Dog asked not recognizing the voice on the other end.
"Is that them?" Lori asked with her son and Shane next to her.
"We're in some deep shit. We're trapped in the department store." T-Dog told them.
"He said they're trapped?" Shane asked.
"There are geeks all over the place. Hundreds of 'em. We're surrounded." T-Dog said.
"T-Dog, repeat that last. Repeat." James said into the radio, but they heard nothing.
"He said the department store." Lori said.
"I heard it too." Dale agreed.
"Shane?" Lori asked him, the question they all wanted to ask hanging in the air.
"No way. We do not go after them. We do not risk the rest of the group. Y'all know that." Shane told her.
"So we're just gonna leave her there?" Amy asked him.
"Look, Amy, I know that this is not easy…" Shane told her.
"She volunteered to go to help the rest of us." Amy reminded him.
"I know, and she knew the risks, right? See, if she's trapped, she's gone. So we just have to deal with that. There's nothing we can do." Shane told her.
"She's my sister, you son of a bitch." Amy said before walking away from him. Lori stared at him for a moment before following after Amy as thunder rumbled again.
"Amy…" Lori called after her.
"Come on. It's all right, buddy." Shane told Lori's son as they all went back to work.
We watched Rick and Glenn make their way slowly to the construction site when it began to rain.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me." I said staring up at the clouds.
"It's just a cloudburst. We get 'em all the time. It'll pass real quick." Morales told me.
"Better be quicker than we all hope. The scent will be washed off if it doesn't end soon. We watched as the Walkers started noticing them more and more until one of them charged at them. Rick killed it and they started running.
"Come on, come on, come on." Morales chanted silently. We watched as they made it over the fence and into the truck and drove away from us, taking the herd with them.
"They're leaving us." Andrea said sadly.
"What? What?" Merle asked.
"Where they going? Where they going?" Morales asked.
"No no, come back." Andrea begged them.
"They'll be back. Trust me, Rick wouldn't leave us." I told her.
"Those roll-up doors at the front of the store facing the street… Meet us there and be ready." We heard Glenn say over the radio. We quickly gathered our things and ran to the door of the roof.
"Come on! Let's go, let's go!" Morales shouted to us.
"Hey, you can't leave me here! I'm not fooling, man!" Merle called out. "Morales! Hey, man! Don't do this!"
"Come on." Andrea called out as she and Jacqui left the roof. I grabbed the gun from the roof and put it in the waist of my jeans.
"Hey, that's my gun. You can't leave me. Don't leave me here, you guys."
"Morales, come on!" Andrea called out.
"I'm coming! We've gotta go!" Morales said leaving the roof.
"T-Dog! Uncuff Merle and you both meet us down there!" I called as I ran off the roof behind Morales.
"Morales! You can't leave me like this, man! Hey, T-Dog. No, man. You can't leave me, man. You can't leave me here… Not like this. You can't, man. It's not human. Come on, don't do this." I heard Merle call out as I ran. In the store the Walkers were still banging on the glass trying to get in as we ran to the loading dock.
"Okay. Okay. I got it." Andrea said holding onto the chain that controlled the door.
"Shh." Morales said, silencing us as we heard something in the distance.
"What is that?" Andrea asked.
"Car?" I offered as a possibility.
"They're here! Let's go! They're in here!" T-Dog called out to us and we began to panic until we heard 4 knocks on the door.
"Let's go! Open the door!" Morales and Andrea quickly opened the door.
"We've gotta go!" T-Dog said and we handed Rick our bags before jumping in as he went back to the driver seat.
"I'm in!" Morale called out being the last person who needed to get in. Morales closed the door before the Walkers could get to us and made his way to the passenger seat.
Morales closes the back before the Walkers can get to them and the group makes their escape.
"Everyone here?" I called to them, counting head. Andrea, Rick, Morales, T-Dog, Jacqui, me… I looked to T-Dog with everyone else, waiting to know what happened.
"I dropped the damn key." He told us and I sighed before leaning back against the door.
"Where's Glenn?" Andrea asked us.
"Driving his own getaway car." Rick told us.
