Mouth of Hell


KENZI JUMPED FROM HER spot on the counter, landing without so much as a small thud. "That's it, I'm going after Glenn. He should've been back by now." she huffed, checking the rounds in her gun.

"What makes you think he's still alive?" Merle asked, looking right at the dark-haired Russian.

"What makes you think he's dead?" Kenzi retorted, sliding her gun in her hip holster.

Merle just motioned outside, where walkers were mozeying the streets, growling and moaning. "The geeks out there. Face it girly, the Chinaman's walker chow."

Kenzi clenched her hands into fists, "First of all, he's Korean. Asshole." she corrected, earning a snort from the muscular redneck. "Second, Glenn's fast. He knows how to go around undetected. That's one of the reason's he's on this run." she sighed, "And third-"

"He's your friend." Jaquie finished.

"We get it Kenz." Andrea placed her hand on the young girl's shoulder.

"I'm sure he's on his way back right now." T-Dog added. "With a safe way outta here."

Kenzi smiled, "Yeah." she agreed, shooting a glare at Merle. She sighed and leaned walked around the department store, looking for anything else she could nab up, thinking of the rest of the survivors back at camp. She was trying to think of anything other than the fact her closest friend in the group of survivors was out there alone.

Gunshots rang out suddenly, making everyone jump and turn to the glass doors. The shots sounded just a few blocks away, which meant walkers would soon close in on them. As soon as that thought crossed their minds, a few corpses came into view and started banging on the glass, moning and groaning.

"Holy shit." Morales cursed, stepping back to the side door.

A light static noise came over the walkie that Kenzi had clipped to her belt, "Yo K." Glenn called on the other end. "K, copy?"

"Thank God, Glenn." Kenzi replied, staying out of sight of the doors. "Where are you?"

"I'm heading to the back alley." he answered. "Brought a guest, but I see four geeks in the alley."

Kenzi nodded, catching her breath. "On my way. Hang tight." She grabbed her bag and made her way to the alley entrance, with Morales and T-Dog, who were decked out in riot gear, on her heels. She pressed her ear to the door, listening for Glenn and whoever he brought along.

Kenzi slowly opened the door and peeked out, catching the four walkers who just shuffled along in the alley and saw Glenn and someone in a police uniform turn the corner, both halted when the walkers spotted them.

The door flew open and the dark-haired girl jumped out, swinging her katana. In a few seconds, all the walkers went down and the young girl stood tall, shaking the excess blood off her blade, barely panting. She flipped her hair back and motioned for everyone to get back inside, Morales slamming the door behind them.


Andrea yanked the newcomer by the collar of his shirt, pulling her gun on him and aiming it point blank. "You son of a bitch." she scolded, "We ought to kill you."

"Just chill out, Andrea." Morales advised, "Back off."

"Come on, ease up." Jaquie added.

"Ease up?" Andrea repeated, "You're kidding me, right? We're dead because of this stupid asshole."

"Andrea." Morales snapped. "I said back the hell off."

Andrea scoffed and holstered her gun, "We're dead. All of us." she bit her lip. "Because of you." she glared at the newcomer.

Rick blinked, clearly confused at the situation. "I don't understand."

"Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies." Morales explained. "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." he whispered harshley.

"Every geek for miles around heard you popping off rounds." T-Dog added.

Andrea yanked Rick into the main center of the department store, showing him the crowd of walkers that were banging on the doors. "You just rang the dinner bell." she sighed.

The glass was starting to crack from the increased pressue, making everyone retrate to the back of the store.

Kenzi shifted her eyes from the reaniamted cannibalistic corpses to the sheriff. "What the ад[1] were you doing out there anyway?" she asked.

"Trying to flag the helicopter." Rick answered.

"Helicopter?" T-Dog repeated, "Man, that's crap. Ain't no damn helicopter."

"You were chasing a hallucination. Imagining things." Jacqui rationaized. "It happens."

"I saw it." Rick defended.

The walkers continued pounding on the glass. "Hey, T-Dog, try that C.B." Morales panted. "Can you contact the others?"

"Others?" Rick questioned. "The refugee center?"

"Yeah, the refugee center." Jacqui scoffed sarcastically. "They've got biscuits waiting at the oven for us."

T-Dog turned the dials on the portable radio, getting nothing but static. "Got no signal." he sighed. "Maybe the roof."

Just as he said that, more gunshots rang out from above them. Everyone looked around, realizing one of their own was missing. "Dixon, you болван.[2]" Kenzi cursed, fisting a portion of her hair. "Ваша глупая бесшабашность будет смерть нас.[3]"


Everyone ran up the stairs leading to the roof, hearing more and more gunshots ringing out. "Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?!" Morales yelled, the group filing in from the store.

Merle continued firing the rifle, taking out the incoming threat, laughing at each kill. He faced the rest of his group, "Hey! Y'all be more polite to a man with a gun." he advised. "Only common sense."

"Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got!" T-Dog reminded, getting up in Merle's face. "And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill."

Merel cackled. "Hey, bad enough I've got this taco-bender on my ass all day." he motioned to Morales. "Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so, bro. That'll be the day." he chuckled.

Kenzi rolled her eyes, rubbing her temples. "That'll be the day." T-Dog repeated. "You got something you want to tell me?"

The petite Russian grabbed her friend's arm, "Hey T, just leave it alone." she tried calming him down, knowing fighting amongst the group was the last thing they needed. "All right? He ain't worth it." Kenzi faced Merle, staring at him with her piercing blue eyes. "Merle, relax, okay?" she held her hand out low in defense. "We've got enough trouble. The last thing we need is to fight amongst ourselves."

"Kenzi's right." Morales agreed.

Merle stepped forward, shoving past Kenzi, staring down T-Dog. "You want to know the day?" he challenged. "I'll tell you the day, Mr. Yo." he chuckled. "It's the day I take orders from a nigger."

T-Dog threw the first punch and Merle retaliated with the butt of the rifle to his face. Despite the protests from everyone, the fight dragged on. Merle knocked T-Dog into a pipe and pressed him down with his knee. That's the point Kenzi jumped in, decking the muscular redneck right in the jaw, scratching up her own knuckles in the process. Merle didn't hesitate hitting back, only for Kenzi to dodge by backflipping and landing on the rooftop ledge. She flipped over her opponent and grabbed the silver handgun from his waistband, landing on the pipeline and aiming it right between his eyes, cocked and ready to fire.

"Try me Dixon." she edged on. "I'll put you down."

Merle cracked a grin, holding his hands up defensively. "All right girly, you win." he went along. Kenzi lowered the gun slightly, her posture visibly relaxing. Merle took that opening and backhanded her across the face, knocking her off the pipe onto the gravel rooftop.

In the midst of the chaos of the fight, Rick took the rifle that fell to the ground and hit the redneck with the end of it, followed by a punch to the face before handcuffing him to the smaller pipe. "Who the hell are you, man?" Merle grunted, struggling against Rick.

"Officer friendly." Rick answered through gritted teeth. "Look here, Merle, things are different now. There are no 'niggers' anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred white-trash fools either." that earned a snort from the redneck. "Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart."

"Screw you, man." Merle shot, rolling his eyes.

Rick sighed, keeping his cool, much to the shock of everyone else. "I can see you make a habit of missing the point." he noted.

"Yeah? Well, screw you twice." Merle didn't back down, even when Rick pressed the barrel of his gun to his head. "You wouldn't." he taunted. "You're a cop."

"All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son." Rick corrected. "Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose. I'll give you a moment to think about that." he brushed off his pants as he stood up, checking to see if any one of the group was injured.

Kenzi leaned into the ledge, flexing her right hand, watching as a little trickle of blood ran from her knuckles down her fingers. Rick walked up behind her, "You okay miss?" he asked, standing to her left.

"Yeah, this is nothing." she answered, shaking her hand out. "I've been wanting to punch that white-trash bastard since I met him." she chuckled, glancing in his direction. "You Atlanta P.D?"

Rick shook his head. "No, King's County." he answered. "Up the road a ways. Names Rick Grimes."

Kenzi flashed the peace sign with her left hand, "Nice to meet you, officer friendly from up the road a ways." she giggled. "I'm Kenzi." Rick tipped his head and the two looked out at the streets where the dead roamed. "Welcome to the рот ада[4]"


A/N: translations

[1] "ад"= "hell"

[2] "болван"= "bastard"

[3] "Ваша глупая бесшабашность будет смерть нас!"= "Your stupid recklessness will be the death of us!"

[4] "рот ада"= "mouth of hell"