Erin belongs to Amber and Jack belongs to me, and they can not be used without our permission. This chapter sees some of the text from the episodes Guts and Tell it to the Frogs.
Cassidy's POV
The second we arrived in Atlanta we were under attack by some walkers. Much like Amber had, I pulled my knife out and took care of the ones coming after me. We moved forward and we were about to turn another corner when we saw a herd of walkers, slowly making their way towards us. We backtracked, where we ran into another group of walkers. This town is infested with them.
"We need to head to that building!" Glenn called over. We looked and saw the building Glenn was talking about. The entrance is crowded by a few walkers but Amber and I quickly dispatched them. We headed inside and locked the door so they couldn't get in.
"Great, now we're trapped in here. Now what?" Andrea asked sarcastically.
"We need to see if they're any other exits in this building," Amber explained. "The upper levels are bound to have emergency exit doors."
"There's also an emergency exit on the other end of this floor. Maybe we can sneak out," T-Dog explained. This time I spoke up.
"Bad idea. If you open that door and there are walkers there, you'll basically be letting them in," I explained, it was self-explanatory, really. I could see that Amber even agreed with me on that.
"Look, Amber and I will head higher up and see what's going on. Cass, why don't you and Merle head up to the roof," Glenn said. I nodded along with Amber but Merle stayed silent. You could see that he had something to say.
"And what about the rest of us?" Jacqui asked this time.
"Stay here and keep watch. If those walkers break down the door, you get the hell out of there and head to the second floor," Amber answered. I was down with that plan, you can't be too picky about what you need to be doing when your life is at risk.
"Who the hell made you the leader?" Andrea asked glaring over at Amber. Out of everyone here I have the biggest problem with Amber but yet, I have no problems with her taking control of this situation because someone had to and we didn't need to be butting heads while doing so.
"I'm not the leader. I'm being realistic and trying to keep you alive," Amber shot back.
"Well, I'm not taking orders from a China man or a damn woman with anger issues." Merle said. I smacked him in the chest. I really didn't need him to start mouthing off on my best friend.
"That's my best friend you're talking about and he's Korean," I told him warningly. "We'll head up to the roof," I demanded, casting a look at Merle. "Stay safe," I said looking at Glenn who nodded, taking off after Amber.
I rolled my eyes following behind a pissed off Merle. He was muttering under his breath as he headed up the stairs. I rolled my eyes not finding his antics funny at the moment as I needed to survive this trip for the only reason that mattered; Jack.
"Ya know, sweetbutt, if ya wanted to be alone, all ya had to do was say so," he smirked, pulling the door to the roof open, smacking my ass as I walked past him, the sun binding my momentarily, string from the black stairwell.
"I don't want that," I hissed at him, not everything was about sex; it was fun to use him in that way, but there is a time and place for it, and now isn't the time. "I want to check the problem with the walkers and get what we need and get back to my son," I bit out, walking to edge of the building to check the walker situation. I jumped hearing the gun shots, next to me. "What the hell are you doing?" I asked getting pissed off with him. Why he thought it was okay to shoot at the walkers from here, I didn't know. I am about ready to shoot him.
"Nothin' to worry your pretty little self with sugarplum," he laughed, shooting off a few more rounds.
"When you shot and draw more walkers to us, it is something that I need to be worried about," I hissed, contemplating what my best option is at this point, to get him to stop shooting. "Could you at least, I don't know stop the damn shooting," I hissed out, hearing someone rush onto the roof.
"Would you stop shooting that thing, you dumbass! You're gonna attract every damn walker!" Amber yelled out angrily. Merle was gonna retort when all of a sudden, everyone came up to the roof including Glenn. "Rick?" I heard her say, more so shocked the guy was there in the flesh.
I looked over at the new guy seeing he had short curly dark brown hair and what I could see was a grayish blueish eye color, in the hot Atlanta sun beating down on us. His sheriff uniform gave away that he used to be one and that is when it clicked in my head, that was her brother, and as happy as the moment was, I couldn't help but be happy for Carl to have his father back. "Amber," he said, causing her to rush over and hug him.
I turned to watch the walkers roaming down the street while they had their little moment of a reunion, in this world it was something they needed, no matter my feelings towards Amber.
"Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?!" T-Dog asked, once Merle started to shoot again. Merle laughs and continues shooting. I really wanted to take that stupid gun away from Merle, but I knew better than that, I also knew that it is a moot point to tell him to stop, as Merle Dixon does as he freaking pleases to do.
"Hey! Y'all be more polite to a man with a gun! Huh? Ah! Only common sense," Merle spouted off, laughing.
"Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got!" T-Dog stated, pointing out the obvious while Merle continues laughing. "And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill," he warned him. Even at this point I am starting to question why I decided at the last-minute to come along, it's not like I needed to be here, this group was capable on their own to get what is needed.
I shake my head watching the two of the get into a pissing match before a fight actually broke out, the last thing I wanted to be doing was getting involved in that fight because both guys could hurt me if I tried to stop them and I didn't need to be hurt. Andrea and Jimmy tried to break it up, but neither guys were up for listening.
"Don't you dare do it, Merle," I stated, waiting like everyone else to see what he was going to do with the gun pointed at T-dog. "You're reckless, I'll give you that, but you aren't this damn stupid, now put the gun down," I told him, using my stern mother voice.
"Yeah! Or what?" He asked, looking over at me. His eyes scanning over the crowd gathered around. "All right! We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who's in charge. I vote me. Anybody else? Huh? Democracy time, y'all. Show of hands, huh? All in favor? Huh? Come on. Let's see 'em. Oh, come on. All in favor? Yeah. That's good. Now that means I'm the boss, right? Yeah. Anybody else? Hmm? Anybody?" I shake my head, seeing that Rick and Amber have at this point joined us, after their little family reunion. The pipe in Rick's hand didn't go unnoticed either.
"Yeah," Rick says, walking closer to hit Merle over the head with a pipe, handcuffing him to a pipe. I was all for knocking him out or maybe in this case knocking a bit of sense into him, but handcuffing him seemed to be a bit extreme to me.
"Who the hell are you, man?!" Merle yells, pulling on the cuff.
"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, I knew that wasn't going to go over to well with Merle at all.
Now it's Rick's turn to get into a sparing match of words with Merle. At this point I just walk away and look out over the streets below, seeing even more walkers headed our way. From my point I can't see anyway that is going to allow us to leave this rooftop and get back to our camp. And as much as I want to freak out over not making it back to Jack, I need to hold onto some sort of hope that we can make it out of this situation alive.
"Next time keep him on a shorter leash or leave him at camp," Amber stated, walking over to where I was at. I looked over at her rolling my eyes, seeing that Rick and Merle were still going at it in their verbal abuse.
"Leave him here for all I give," I state, not wanting to start another fight. We've got enough going on that we didn't need to my drama with Amber on top of it all. "My main concern is getting off this damn roof and getting back to my son," I told her, watching as even more walkers showed up crowding the street below.
"You're right about that. I want to get back to Erin and my brother needs to get back to camp to get to Carl and his wife," she told me, hesitating over Lori's part to her brother, her own gaze out over the walkers.
"So there is someone who you hate more than me," I smirked. "We really need to be figuring a way off this rooftop and not fighting among ourselves," I sigh.
"You might be right on both accounts," she sighed. "How is the signal?" She asked, looking over to see T-Dog working on it, everyone done arguing for the moment.
"Like Dixon's brain… Weak," he replied. I rolled my eyes for what felt like the millionth time, these little digs weren't going to get us anywhere other than a more hostile environment, which we didn't need.
"Keep trying," Jimmy told him.
"Why? There's nothing they can do. Not a damn thing," Andrea said, and for the frist time today, I actual agree with her.
"Get some people outside the city is all. There's no refugee center. That's a pipe dream," Jimmy replied. That wouldn't work, not really. What was the use in getting more people from our camp in danger?
"Then she's right. We're on our own. It's up to us to find a way out," Rick said, walking over to us, to look out at the street below 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?" Merle smirked looking at me.
"Who says I don't like things on the kinky side?" I ask, seeing his excitement grow over that possibility. "We could do that, couldn't we," I reply with a smile looking at him. "Put on a show for everyone, because there is no way in hell that I am letting you out of that cuff," I retort. "We have more important things to be worrying about now," I state.
"Like finding a way out of here, because the damn streets ain't safe," Amber says.
"What about under the streets? The sewers?" Rick questions.
"The manhole covers must be all out on the street where the geeks are," Jimmy says, looking over into the abundance of walkers in the street.
"Maybe not. Old building like this built-in the '20s… Big structures often had drainage tunnels in the sewers in case of flooding down in the subbasements," Jacqui spoke up.
"How do you know that?" Glenn voiced the one question that I think most of us were thinking about asking her.
"It's my job… was. I worked in the city zoning office," She said, slipping up just a little before fixing it quickly.
"T-Dog, you good at staying up here to keep working on that CB radio?" Rick asked him. T-Dog nodded his head. "I'm under the impression that you can handle your own against that one," he said, nodding over to Merle, while looking at me.
"I can handle him just fine," I said, not minding one bit to stay behind. With the others gone, it was a bit more peaceful on the roof, the only sound coming from T-Dog where he was trying to get through on the radio. "Need any help?" I ask, growing tired of watching the walkers below us.
"No," he sighed, trying it again.
"I'm growing real tired of hearing your damn voice. Why don't you knock that crap off? You're giving me a headache, boy," Merle grumbled.
"Why don't you pull your head out of your ass? Maybe your headache will go away," T-Dog tells him shaking his head. Merle chuckles. "Try some positivity for a change. Damn."
"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 tool bag? Get it for me, hmm? Make it worth your while. What do you say, man? Come on. Get me out of these things," Merle prompted.
"We're not doing this again," I state putting myself into the middle of their argument. "You got yourself cuffed, Merle. If you learned how to keep that damn mouth of yours shut, and how to work with others you would be free," I snap at him.
"Oh, come on now. It wasn't personal," he retorted. Like I would believe him. "It's just that his kind and our kind ain't meant to mix. That's all. It doesn't mean we can't… Work together, parley, as long as there's a mutual gain involved. So… about that hacksaw…" he trailed off. I had the intention of showing him just what I thought of his words, because they were utter bullshit, but I didn't think T-Dog would appreciate me shoving my tongue down his throat to prove a point to Merle, or he might, it was a risk I wasn't going to take.
"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 spit out, going back to work.
These two were giving me a damn headache, with the bitching they were doing. Apparently they didn't think it was best to keep their damn mouths shut and work in peace. I didn't know how much fun bickering could possibly be in such a life or death situation here. What felt like hours later the others rejoined us on the roof, not having any better luck in the sewers than we were having out here.
Rick spots a truck at a construction site that is close to our location. Coming up with a plan to take a truck, the only problem so far is that we don't have a way to get to them because the walkers can smell us as the second anyone steps out there they are walker food. Rick came up with the idea to cover himself with the guts of a walker they had already killed. He chose Glenn to go with him and you could tell that it didn't go over to well with Amber, as she wanted to go out there as well, but he made her stay back just in case it didn't work out as planned.
Amber isn't a very happy mood, about Rick telling that she isn't going with them. And I get it because she wanted to be down there with Rick and Glenn, but Rick had to pull the big brother card and that card sucks when it gets pulled.
I had no problem leaving the roof top this time, because I am not about to stay up there and listen to Merle whine about being cuffed. I wanted to do something useful.
Rick grabs a fire axe and the rest of us put trench coats on that way we don't get guts on our good clothes. Rick stops at the last moment, when he gets set to start chopping and starts to search the walker, 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. When I get to my family, I'm gonna tell them about Wayne," he said.
"One more thing… He was an organ donor," Glenn said.
After a moment of silence, Rick starts to hack away at the Walker. The guts are starting to gross most everyone out and you can hear a lot of gagging going on. Glenn even makes the comment about throwing up.
"Later," Rick tells him, while Jimmy hacks away, now that Rick handed the axe to him. "Everybody got gloves?" Rick asks, looking to see that everyone was putting them on. "Don't get any on your skin or in your eyes," Rick warns. We start to apply some of the guts onto Rick and Glenn.
"Oh God! Oh Jeez. Oh, this is bad. This is really bad," Glenn whines, and chokes a little.
"Think about something else… Puppies and kittens. Dead puppies and kittens," Rick tells him. It didn't work out, as Glenn vomits. I'm not really sure why that would help anyone from throwing up to begin with. I make sure that Glenn is going to be okay, to an extent.
"That is just evil. What is wrong with you?" Amber snaps at him.
"I'm sorry, yo," Rick says, looking over at Glenn, who tells him he sucks. "Do we smell like them?"
"Oh yeah," I say, handing the gun I got my hands on after it was taken away from Merle to Glenn. "Be as careful as you can be out there, okay?" I say to him.
"I'll try to do my best, but I can't saying considering," he shrugs.
"If we make it back, be ready," Rick says, tossing the handcuff key to me, to let Merle out. "Give me the axe. We need more guts," Rick says as he starts to chop again.
At the last-minute Amber took it upon herself to cover herself with guts, Rick giving her a look like she crazy. You could see how pissed off he was over the sudden actions of his sister. Made me happy for a split second that I didn't have my older brother here to boss me around. His guidance would be nice to have.
Once back on the rooftop, I move over to the edge of the building searching for them, to watch them walk through the herd of walkers, the walkers thinking that they are one of them. You can hear thunder rumbling in the distance and a light dusting of rain starts to fall.
"That asshole is out on the street with the handcuff keys?" Merle shouts.
"No, you asshole, I have the damn keys and if you can't shut up I will toss them over the side of the building," I warn him, shooting him a look to test me.
"Oh no," Andrea says, biting her lip, watching Glenn, Amber and Rick intensely.
I turn back to see what has her freaking out, and you can see that the rain started to wash away the guts as the walkers are moving ever closer to the three of them. They bust out their weapons and take care of the walkers closest to them and making a run for the trucks, making it to them.
"They're leaving us," Jacqui says, watching them drive away.
"What?" Merle yells.
"They're not leaving us, so just shut up," I snap. She was right, Glenn was my best friend, he wouldn't leave any of us, he isn't that type of person. I can't say anything for Rick as I didn't know him well enough. And I am sure that Amber would leave me here if she thought she get away with it, but she couldn't, and she wouldn't being a mom herself.
"Where are they going then?" Andrea snapped out.
"I don't know what they are doing, but they are coming up with a damn plan to save us," I snap, hoping I was right about it. "When they come back we're gonna need the loading docks," I say looking around. To me that made the most sense.
"The loading docks make the most sense," Jimmy says with a nod.
It isn't much longer and we hear a radio on full blast and a car alarm going off. We start to head down to the stairs going to the loading docks.
"Hey, you can't leave me here! I'm not fooling. Cass let me out," he says, pulling on the cuffs.
"I can leave you here, when I need to get back to my son," I snap at him, handing him the keys. "What you do from here on out is up to you," I say, making a run for it, seeing T-Dog stay back. I make it down the stairs. "T-Dog, come on," I yell up to him, seeing the walkers, at the front of the store ready to break through the last reaming glass doors holding them out. I look up to see him putting a chain around the door to keep walkers out and Merle on the roof. What the hell was he doing?
We can hear Glenn in the sports car outside the doors for the loading docks. And after a few minutes we hear a bang on the door. We get the door open and hear the glass from the store break as we hurry to get on the truck and go before any of the walkers can make their way back to us.
"What the hell happened up their with Merle?" I ask, looking over at T-Dog.
"He fumbled with the key and dropped it," he explained.
I already knew that I would be the one telling Daryl the news about his brother. I should have let him go a hell of a lot sooner than leaving him cuffed to the rooftop. This was on me. It didn't matter that Rick was the one to cuff him, or if T-Dog couldn't save him, I am the one that waited until the last possible second to get him uncuffed.
With there being nothing that we can do at this point, we head out of Atlanta and back to camp.
The first thing I do once we get back to camp is ignore everyone else and go straight to Jack, who upon seeing me, is all smiles and running with Erin right behind him. I pick Jack up and spin him around, happy to have my little boy in my arms again. I ignore all the talk about the new guy as I hold Jack close and take a look around for Daryl. I can see the reunion going on with Carl, Lori and Rick, I can see that Amber is holding Erin close and kissing her daughter's head. Andrea and Amy are hugging. And I can see a brooding Shane at the sight of his best friend.
"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left," Dale commented.
"I'll tell him, I was up there with him last and could've help him once he dropped that stupid key," T-Dog says.
"I cuffed him. That makes it mine," Rick said.
"Guys, it's not a competition. I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy," Glenn said.
"I will tell him," I said, cutting anyone off from saying anything else. "T-Dog, Rick, I get that you want to take responsibility for this, as you should. But it is going to sound best coming from me. That way I can explain it in a way that isn't going to set him off," I say, looking around. "I will not lie to him and I will tell him the truth, that his brother was out of control. But I will be the one to do it, once he gets back," I say, ending it.
"I did what I did. Hell if I'm gonna hide from him," T-Dog says. "I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it."
"We were all scared up there," Amber says. "Everything that was done, needed to be done. And if Cass wants to be the one to tell Daryl, let her. As far as I can see she's the one closest to him here, besides Merle. It will sound better coming from her," Amber explained. I had to wonder if Amber had some sort of ulterior motive behind that, but I wasn't going to be thinking about her motives why.
"I'm not saying you're gonna be hiding from it, he's going to know what happened out there, so he will come for you. But I need to be the one to tell him," I say, seeing that it wasn't the end of the discussion as I had thought it was.
"I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you? Word to the wise… We're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt," Dale said. Our hands were going to be full once Daryl returned in the morning from his hunt. The one reason I didn't go on this hunt with Daryl was because it would be one overnight, and those he likes to do by himself.
"I stopped long enough to chain that door. Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through that… Not that chain, not that padlock. Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us," T-Dog stated. I sighed knowing that was the damn truth.
It wasn't much longer before I called it a night, the day's craziness wore me out and I just wanted to cuddle with my son before all hell broke loose come morning.
I'm helping get everything cleaned up from breakfast when we hear two screams. One of those screams sounded like Jack and sent cold blood rushing through my veins as I took off in the direction of the screams seeing Jack and Erin holding onto each other as a walker ate on a deer. I along with Amber push our kids back to the rest of the group that came running, and together we pull our knives out and stab it in the head. With the walker taken care of, I rush over to Jack and hold him close, making sure he is okay, seeing Amber doing the same thing to Erin.
"It's the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain," Dale says shocked.
"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what," Jim snaps out. I never did like that guy, he rubbed me the wrong way.
"Son of a bitch. That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard," Daryl yells, kicking the carcass of the walker.
"Calm down, Son. That's not helping," Dale tells him.
"What do you know about it, old man?" Daryl asks. "Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to 'on golden pond'? I've tracked this deer for miles," he says. "I was gonna drag it back to camp and cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" He asked, looking the deer over.
"I wouldn't risk it," Shane says.
"That's a damn shame," Daryl sighs. "I got some squirrel. About a dozen or so," he says.
We head back to camp, Daryl going straight for his camp site he shared with Merle. It's once he starts yelling for Merle, that I send Jack off to play with Erin.
"We need to have a chat about your brother," I say, standing next to him.
"I don't need to hear about your shit with him, I just need his ass out here to help me skin and cook these squirrels up," he bites out. He is clearly in a mood and what he needs to be told about Merle isn't going to go over good.
"Merle's not here, there was a problem with him in Atlanta," I say, getting the cold glare from Daryl.
"He dead?" Daryl asked.
"I don't think he is," I say nervously biting my lip.
"He either is or he ain't, which one is it?" He bit out, wanting to know the answers.
"Look your brother was out of control. And something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed. The second we got there, he was causing problems, wasting ammo we don't have, starting fights. Rick, had no choice but to cuff him to that roof. I am the one that didn't uncuff him any sooner. He had the key to the cuffs. T-Dog locked the door to the roof with a chain and padlock, so there is a good chance that your brother is still alive," I quickly explain.
"It wasn't an easy choice to make," Rick says, stepping closer to where we stood.
"Who are you?" Daryl asks, looking over at Rick.
"Rick Grimes," he said.
"Rick Grimes, you got something you want to tell me?" Daryl asks, turning his attention to Rick. "Hold on, let me process this. You're the one that handcuffed my brother to a roof and left him there?" Daryl asks, and Rick nods his head. They get into a scuffle before Daryl pulls a knife, T-Dog yelling to watch out for said knife. And before you know it Shane is behind Daryl putting him in a choke hold and Daryl yelling at him to let him go. Once it's made clear that they can have a calm conversation on the topic of Merle, Shane lets Daryl go.
"Look what I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work or play well with others," Rick told him. Daryl knew that to be true, after growing up with him.
"It's not Rick's fault. I had the key, I gave it to your brother, before I left that roof," I told him. "And don't even start with me, because you know that I will pick my son over your brother any day and that is what I did," I told him. Jack would always come first, no matter the situation; Daryl nodding understanding where I was coming from.
"I watched your brother fumble and drop the key. Neither one of us could reach the key with where it went. I didn't have a choice," T-Dog stated.
"If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't," Daryl grumbled out.
"Well, maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof, so the geeks couldn't get at him. With a padlock. It's gotta count for something." To Daryl that counted for shit.
"Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so that I can go get him," he demanded.
"They will show where he is at. I am not going, I am staying right here with my son," I say walking off to get my son, but still in ear shot of what they were saying.
"He'll show you. Isn't that right?" Lori asked sarcastically, looking over at her husband.
"I'm going back," Rick said, determined to make it right with Daryl.
While they went off to figure out the plan on getting Merle back, I went to Jack before we went to see if anyone could use any help with anything around camp. One trip to the city where I couldn't have made it back to my son was enough of an adventure for me. I was right where I needed to be at.