Let it be said that Bailey did not agree with any of this. This was insanity at its finest. She had no idea what possessed Rick to come up with this sucide mission, but it was insane. "If bad ideas were Olympic events, this one would take the gold." Glenn says, agreeing with Bailey.
"He's right." Morales says.
"Of course he's right. This is insane." Bailey point out. "Like, literal insanity is seeping from your brain."
"Just stop, okay?" Morales asks Rick. "Take some time to think this through."
"How much time?" Rick demands as he grabs supplies off of the wracks in the store. "They already got through one set of doors, that glass won't hold forever."
"What if we just wait on the roof. Eventually the walkers would have to move on, right?" She asks even though she knew it was a long shot. It could take days, maybe even months before the walkers cleared the area enough for them to escape.
"Bailey, we can't wait. For one thing, we don't have enough supplies. For another, their group will be looking for them." Bailey huffs.
"But walking into a crowd of walkers with walker guts on you guys, it's not going to work. It's so incredibly stupid. You're going to not just get yourself killed, but Glenn too."
"It's the only plan we got."
"Rick-" He ignores her and hurries out into the alley with Morales, slipping on the long white coat. Bailey groans and pulls one on herself. "Men, they are such idiots." She moves to the loading dock as the two men dragged in a dead walker with Andrea and Glenn closing the door after them. Rick drops the body he was holding down, causing it to fall and make a sickening splatting noise. "This is so gross." Bailey grumbles. The group move around the body, none of them saying a word. "Rick, seriously-" Rick heaves a sigh, gives her a look, which makes her fall silent. He walks over to where the emergency fireman ax is and breaks it open with his crow bar. He grabs the ax and moves back around to the front of everyone else and the walker.
They all stood around the body of the walker in silence, trying to digest what was about to occur. Rick hesitates for a moment before rushing forward to begin chopping up the walker, but skids to a stop. He takes off his riot shield, tossing the ax down to the ground, and gets onto his knees. Bailey stares at him in confusion as he begins to look through the walker's pockets. He pulls out a worn out wallet. "Wayne Dunlap." He reads, looking up at them all. "Georgia in 1979." He handed over the driver's license to Glenn. "He had twenty eight dollars in his pocket when he died…" He scoffed. "And a picture of a pretty girl." He flips the picture over. "With love, from Rachel." He reads allowed. "He used to be like us- Worrying about bills or the rent or the super bowl." He looks around them all. Bailey wraps her arms around herself, shifting in her place.
"It's easier to imagine them as monsters than once human." She whispers.
"If I ever find my family, I'm gonna tell them about Wayne." Rick got his point across. These walkers weren't always monsters. They were human just like the rest of them once.
Rick gets up and puts his shield back on over his face. "One more thing." Glenn says. "He was an organ donor."
"Talk about irony." Bailey mumbled, earning herself a look from Andrea.
"Are you seriously making jokes?"
"I just thought it was ironic. He's an organ donor and we're going to use his organs to get through a herd of walkers."
"For god's sake." Andrea says, causing Bailey to glare at her.
"We all have our ways of coping. I deal with tense situations with jokes and sarcasm."
"Enough. We're wasting time." Rick says before grunting and chopping the walker up.
"Oh!" Andrea cringes. Bailey wrinkles up her nose in disgust, but doesn't flinch or look away. It definitely wasn't appealing, but nothing with walkers were appealing. She had some nasty ones along the way, much worst than this.
"Madre de dios!" Morales mutters. None of these people ever really left their camp, apparently. Bailey has been on her own since the start of this and she was pretty numb to it, or she'd at least like to think she was.
"Oh! God! Gack!" Glenn gags. "Oh god."
"Oh!" Andrea cries as Rick does more swings.
"Dios!"
"God." Glenn unknowingly translates. Rick chops until he is too tired to continue.
"Keep chopping." He says, handing over the ax and shield to Morales.
"Ah. Ah. Ah." Glenn groans. "I am so gonna hurl."
"Later." Rick orders. Bailey cringes finally at the sounds the body was making. It took a bit, but finally the body was chopped enough. "Everybody got gloves?" Bailey pulls hers out of her back pocket. "Don't get any on your skin or in your eyes." T-Dog helps her tape up the gloves to be sure nothing gets beneath them and inside.
"Thanks." She flashes him a smile before moving with the others and gathering up a handful of guts and gore. Many people groan at that. They cover up Rick first, wiping him all down with the blood and guts, while Glenn starts on himself alone.
"Oh, this is bad." The others move to help Glenn get covered. "This is really bad."
"Think about something else." Rick suggests, sounding just as tense and disgusted. "Puppies and kittens."
"Dead puppies and kittens." T-Dog says, causing Glenn to throw up. Bailey tries not to laugh, she really did, but she couldn't help it. She did tend to have a sick sense of humor. Not in the way of being insane or a creep, but when stuff like that did tend to make her snicker.
"That is just evil. What is wrong with the two of you?" Andrea asks.
"I didn't say anything. It was him." Bailey says.
"Yeah, but you laughed." Andrea says.
"Oh, fuck off." Bailey huffs. "Get off your goddamn high horse."
"Enough." Rick cuts in.
"Next time, let the cracker beat his ass." Jacqui cuts in.
"I'm sorry, yo." T-Dog apologies.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have laughed. It was more instinct really."
"You both suck." Glenn groans.
"Do we smell like them?" Rick asks.
"Oh yeah." Andrea nods. "Glenn?" Andrea holds out a gun to Glenn. "Just in case." She tucks the gun in for him.
"Should have given that to him before he got covered." Andrea turns to Bailey and seethes.
"Do you have to have a comment for everything?"
"Yup."
"If we make it back, be ready." His eyes met Bailey. "I want you to stay here and keep an eye on things here. You're a good fighter, we need more like you."
"Thanks." Bailey says. She was never good with compliments, they made her uncomfortable.
"What about Merle Dixon?" T-Dog asks.
Rick pulls out the key from his pocket and tosses it at T-Dog. "Also something that you should have done before you got covered in walker guts."
"Oh, for the love of god, shut up." Bailey ignores Andrea. T-Dog steps away, taking time to take in the responsibility that Rick just gave him.
"Give me the ax." Rick orders. Morales hands it over. "We need-We need more guts."
"Oh! God!" Bailey rolls her eyes. Is that all the woman has to say? Jacqui really needs to broaden her vocabulary.
Once they cover the pair more they make their way outside, while the others head up to the roof, shedding their disgusting clothes on the way. "Hey, what's happening, man?" Dixon demands as soon as they come through the door.
"Hey, T-Dog, try that C.B." Morales orders as they rush to the edge of the roof.
"Hey, come on. Talk to me, y'all."
"Base camp. This is T-Dog. Anybody hear me?" T-Dog calls through the radio. "Can anybody out there hear me?"
"There." Bailey focuses on where Morales is pointing and sees the pair walking through the streets.
"He is never going to let me live it down that I was wrong." Bailey mutters.
"That asshole is out on the street with the handcuff keys?" Bailey turns and grins at Dixon before looking down at T-Dog. T-Dog held up the key with a smug look, waving it slightly. Dixon's face says it all, causing Bailey to laugh despite the situation.
"This is T-Dog. Does anybody hear me?"
"Hello, hello. Reception's bad on this end." Bailey's entire body freezes. It couldn't be. That voice could not be who she thinks it is.
"Shane, is that you?" T-Dog asks. The radio was fuzzy, but Bailey swears she knew that voice and it was making her fill with hope. Hope that she desperately didn't want to crush. "We're in deep shit. We're trapped in the department store. There are geeks all over the place. Hundreds of 'em. We're surrounded."
"T-Dog, repeat that last. Repeat." The radio cuts off. Bailey wanted to believe that that voice was who she thought it was, but she couldn't be sure. There was a lot of static. She could ask, but she was afraid to. She didn't want to be let down.
"Are you okay?" Her eyes fell down to T-Dog, who was looking up at her with concern.
"Uh, yeah, just got a lot on my mind." Her fingers play with the necklace around her neck. When she noticed T-Dog staring at her, she tucked the necklace back under her shirt before anyone could make out what it was.
The feeling of rain has Bailey turning to face the others. "Oh, man." Morales says.
"The rain's going to wash off the blood." Bailey says, her anxiety rising.
"It's just a cloudburst." He reassures as the group begins to grow panicky. "We get 'em all the time. It'll pass real quick."
"It doesn't matter what it is. If it rains for too long and hard then everything we did will be for nothing. All that blood will be washed away and the walkers will be on them in less than a second." Bailey argues. "We have to do something."
"We can't do anything." Andrea cuts in coldly.
"It'll past real quick." Morales reassures.
"Yeah and how long does it take before they get clean?"
"Stop it, Bailey, you making the situation worst!" Andrea snaps.
"I'm being realistic! They're going to get killed. Look! They're already starting to attract attention!"'
"Oh, god." Andrea says as they watch the walkers come after Rick and Glenn. The two take off down the street, the others on the roof watching in fear.
"Fuck." Bailey says, her voice shaking. "Run, run, run."
"Come on, come on, come on." Morales mutters.
"How close are they?" Bailey asks.
"They're so close." Morales says.
"Let me see, please." He hands the binoculars over to Bailey in time for her to see them get over the gate. "Oh, my god. Oh, my god!"
"What?! What is it?!" Jacqui asks.
"They made it! They made into the construction site." They strip off the jackets and guts, Rick begins to open fire on the walkers, giving Glenn time to get the keys for the van. "They got the keys, but the walkers are starting to climb the fence."
"Let us see too!" Andrea demands. Bailey reluctantly hands over the binoculars. They watch as the fence goes down and the van takes off. Morales has the binoculars once more. "They're leaving us."
"What? What?" Dixon demands. "What do you mean?"
"They wouldn't leave us." Bailey denies, but her voice is overshadowed by the others.
"Where are they going? Where are they going?" Morales asks.
"No, no, come back." Andrea begs.
"They're turning around!"
"No, they're still going down that road." Morales corrects.
"Come back!" Andrea cries out.
"They're going to come back. They have to." Bailey says. Suddenly they hear a beeping sound and see the van making their way back.
"Those roll up doors near the back, meet us there and be ready." They hear Glenn through the radio.
"Come on, let's go, let's go!" Morales orders as they grab up the bags.
"Hey, you can't leave me here!" Dixon orders. "I'm not fooling, man. Morales!"
"T-Dog, give me the keys." Bailey orders as the others run ahead. T-Dog looks at the others, while Dixon shouts, but his yells are just background noise to Bailey. All she hears is the pounding of her heart and the blood rushing through her veins. "T-Dog!" He looks at her, his bag hanging loosely in his hands. "We can't just leave him. I hate the guy, but he's still human."
"Morales, you can't leave me like this! 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."
"T-Dog, I need the key. We can't just leave the guy." T-Dog groans and rushes forward.
"Come on, T." Merle begs.
"T-Dog, watch out for the tool-" He kicks the tool box, causing it to go everywhere.
"Come on! Co-That's it! Yes! Come on, baby!" Merle demands. T-Dog trips on the stairs.
"T-Dog!" He falls and the key goes flying. Bailey tries to catch it, but it goes too fast and falls right down into a hole. "Oh, no…" She looks down, but it is long gone. "I…"
"Son of a bitch! You did that on purpose!"
"I didn't mean to!" T-Dog says, looking just as distraught.
"We… We can't do anything." She whispers, grabbing his hand. "We can't break through those chains and even if we could, we don't have time… we have too… we have to go."
"You lie! You did it on Purpose!"
"We have to go, T-Dog." Her eyes fell on Merle. "I am so sorry. We'll come back."
"It was an accident." T-Dog yells.
"Don't leave me! Don't leave me!" Merle tries to break the cuffs, panic setting it.
"I'm sorry." T-Dog cries.
"You liar! You both are fucking liars!"
"I'm sorry. Man, I'm sorry."
"We'll come back! We'll lock the doors. We just… we just don't have time. We're sorry." Bailey grabs T-Dog's bag for him and then grabs his hand, dragging him to the door. "We're sorry! We'll be back! Promise!" She ignores Merle's yells as they rush for the door. "Come on! We have to go!"
"It was an accident."
"I know. Now, move it!" They rush to the door, locking it shut with a thick chain that hung by the door. "Come on, let's go!"
"Here we come!" T-Dog screams. "Don't leave us! Don't leave us!' They rush down the stairs, throw open the door, and rush into the main part of the store.
"Come on, T, you got this, just keep going." They lace their fingers together. His hand is a big big and his fingers a bit thick, but it kept them connected together with no chance of being pulled apart. They pause for a minute to see the walkers breaking through the final doors. "Run! Run! Go!" They run full speed for the back loading dock.
"Hey! Wait for us!" T-Dog begs as the walkers hurry after the two of them. Bailey's heart is pounding.
Keep running! The gentle voice yells in her ear. Don't slow down! You're almost there!
"They're here!" T-Dog yells as they reach the others. "Let's go! They're here!" They hear someone bang on the door and they quickly open the doors to find Rick in the back of a cube van.
"Let's go!"
"Open the door!" Everyone is screaming over one another, struggling to open the door quickly. Bailey's heart is pounding and she feels ready to feint, but she forces herself to stay calm enough to hold her gun and aim for the doorway.
"We've gotta go!"
"Go!" They open the doors enough to get through. They throw their bags onto the van and hurry for it themselves. Andrea's the first on the van. She's followed by Jacqui, then the injured T-Dog, Morales is last.
"Bailey!" They all scream. She looks at them and runs towards them, jumping the last distance. Morales catches her hand and pulls her up into the van.
"Go, go, go!" She yells. Morales shuts the door as they drive away, just in time before the walkers grabbed them.
Bailey slides down the wall, her body shaking from the adrenaline now leaving her body. Morales climbs up front, everyone is silent as they realize Dixon is gone. They're all silently looking at Merle. "I dropped the damn key." Tears fill T-Dog's eyes, guilt obvious in everything about him at the moment.
"It wasn't his fault." Bailey whispers.
"Yes, it was-" T-Dog started.
"You panicked." She says. "We all did."
"You didn't." T-Dog points out, causing Bailey to give a broken laugh.
"I didn't? I was fucken scared shitless."
"Where's Glenn?" Andrea asks, getting the topic off of Merle.
"He was running distraction." Rick says. "He'll be right behind us."
They drive out of the city silently. "Best not to dwell on it. Merle got left behind." Bailey looks at Morales in shock. "Nobody's gonna be sad he didn't come back…" Was Morales serious? It doesn't matter what kind of person Merle was. No one deserves to be left on a roof top with walkers outside the doors. Sure, Bailey wouldn't care if he got pushed off the roof or got a bullet to the brain, but those are quick deaths. There's nothing quick about a walker feeding. Even if the door did hold he'd surely die slowly of dehydration, which could be just as bad because it can cause a whole list of side effects. "Except maybe Daryl." Morales adds, causing Bailey to raise an eyebrow. Daryl? Daryl and Merle… the names almost rhymed.
"Daryl?" Rick asks.
"His brother."
"How do you not feel guilty?" Bailey whispers, causing them to look at her. "We just left a man to die."
The sound of a car horn, causes the men in the front to look out the window. "At least somebody's having a good day." Glenn shouts and screams echo in the street.
Bailey shook her head and pulls her legs up to her chest. "I'm sorry." Her eyes met T-Dog.
"Wasn't your fault. You panicked. It happens. I panicked out in the street today too. I was panicking on the roof."
"But you still manage to push through it." T-Dog counters.
"It was all our fault. We handcuffed him to that roof. We should have uncuffed him when we saw that Rick got the van." She places her chin on her knees. "It happens. Now, it's up to us to fix it."
"We're here." Morales cuts in. They pull up the camp and put the van in park. "Come meet everybody." Morales slaps Rick on the chest before heading out of the car. The others open the back door and starts to climb out.
"Rick." Rick turns to Bailey. "We need to go back. Please. I promised him we would."
"We will. Let's just… get settled in first." Rick says, causing her to nod.
"By the way," He looks up at her. "You were right. About the walker guts. I didn't believe you and I should have."
"We didn't know whether or not it'd work."
"Maybe, but you did it anyway and you were right. I'm glad you made out okay."
"Yeah, me too." They laughed. "I'm glad you're okay."
"I mean, a little action never killed anybody." They shared a smile. "I'm sorry about Atlanta."
"Yeah, me too."
"Any idea where they might be now?"
"No, you?" She bites her lip.
"Not sure." She didn't want to have hope. She almost forgotten about the voice over the radio until now.
"Hey, helicopter boy! Rambo girl! Come say hello!" Morales yells.
"That's our cue." She climbs up into the front. "Let's get this over with."
"Not a fan of groups?" Rick asks as he got out of the car, holding open the door for her. She drops down beside him.
"Before I met you? Seeing the living was never a good thing."
"Come on." They make their way towards the others.
"The guy's a cop, like you. Not sure about the girl though." Morales tells them. She keeps her hands in her jean pockets.
"They don't look half bad." Bailey jokes, bumping into his side, causing him to chuckle.
"Yeah, they're…" Bailey raises an eyebrow as he stops.
"You okay?" She sees a shocked and emotional expression on his face. He goes to say something, but he can't. "Rick, breath." Bailey says, worried he was about to collapse.
"Oh, my god." He starts moving forward, bringing Bailey into sight of the others now.
"Well…" She trails off, watching him make his way towards the group. That was when she spotted the woman and the kid. "Well, I'll be damn." She grins.
"Dad! Dad!" The boy screams, running towards Rick.
"Ba-Bailey?" Her head shot up and she does a double take upon seeing the one and only Dale Horvath or as she likes to call him… dad.
"Dad…" She whispers, shocked filling her eyes.
"Oh, god." She rushes to him and throws her arms around him as he held on tightly to her. "I never thought I'd see you again, baby girl." He cries.
"I'm so sorry." She whispers. "I tried to get to Atlanta, but the bike ran out of gas and there was still so many miles and-"
"Shh, it doesn't matter, you're here now. You're okay. I'm okay. We're together again." She sniffles and buries her face into his shoulder, breathing in his comforting scent. She completely ignores the scene going on past her. Her only concern was her own father. Everyone stared at the two groups of hugging families in shock. None of them expected this. What are the chances?
An: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I enjoyed writing it. My heart was pounding right along Bailey's as I wrote this. I hope you are enjoying Bailey. I'm trying to keep a balance on her. Sensitive and sweet, guarded and defensive. I'm also trying to build up her relationships with others. I always loved T-Dog and Rick, I think they'd be great friends to her... for now. Andrea I never liked, so I think it'd be fun to make them hate one another. Next chapter is Tommy, promise. You get to learn more about the interesting Dixon. Here's a good question, why didn't anyone mention Tommy when discussing Merle? Hmm... how very interesting. Let's find out... in the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed.
