"We believe in ordinary acts of bravery,

In the courage that drives one person,

To stand up for another."

-Unknown


Chapter Seven – Intestinal Fortitude


The sub-basements were dark, the only light came through the half-open shutters on the only two windows in the room, and the torches held by Morales, Andrea, Glenn and myself. Glenn led us straight to the drainage tunnel that Jacqui had suggested would be here.

"Good catch, Jacqui." I murmured to her, as I walked past her to Rick's side, before we all looked down into the hole that led to the tunnel that could potentially lead to our freedom.

"This is it? You sure?" Morales questioned Glenn, since he had the most knowledge of the area.

"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?"

All of us turned our heads to the skinny Korean kid with the baseball cap, and he seemed to realize that he was the one we all expected to take this bullet for us.

"Oh. Great." I felt sorry for the kid, but he did know this area better than any of us. It was only logical he take point down there.

"We'll be right behind you." Andrea said, trying to calm his nerves.

"No, you won't. Not you." Glenn protested, and I winced at the look if indignation on Andrea's face. She was like me, a woman in a man's profession, trying to compete with all the testosterone behind her. Andrea was a civil rights lawyer, in the time when stuff like that mattered, she'd told me as we headed down here. I totally understood all her frustrations, and why she was a little put on by Glenn's refusal of her help. You end up getting tired of being told you can't do something when you know you can.

"Why not me? Think I can't?"

"I wasn't…"

"Speak your mind." Rick encouraged him, and I nodded at 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 offence," Glenn confessed, and I realized what he was hinting at. He would do this quicker, safer, alone than he would with all of us bumbling along behind him. "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, I have to get out quick, I don't want you all jammed up behind me getting me killed."

"Fair enough, but someone goes with you. That's an order. Choose your slackman." I quipped, with a smile that told him to lay out the battle plan.

"I've seen you and John Wayne over here shoot. I'd feel better if you two were out in that store watching those doors, covering our ass," Rick and I exchanged a look, knowing that we both wanted to cover Glenn in the sewer, but Glenn was temporarily calling the shots and what he said made sense. He gestured to Andrea. "You've got the only other gun, so you should go with them. Morales, you be my wingman. Jacqui stays here. Something happens, yell down to get us back up here in a hurry. Okay."

"Okay, everybody knows their jobs." Rick said, clapping Glenn on the shoulder.

Glenn moved to head down the ladder, but I stopped him with a hand to the arm. He looked at me, clearly confused as to why I had stopped him, until I handed him one of my Glocks, along with its silencer.

"It's got half a clip left. Attach the silencer and you won't attract any unwanted attention," I said, as he took it. "Just a precaution."

"Won't you need it?" Glenn asked.

"One is none. Two gives you a chance," I replied, showing him my other Glock, and the two knives tucked into my boots. "I always carry a spare. Besides, you get cornered by something down there, you might not be able to run. Make each bullet count."

Glenn nods, tucking the gun into the back of his jeans, before putting his torch into his mouth and beginning his descent into the dark, eerie drainage tunnel, Morales following quickly behind.

Rick, Andrea and I headed back to the store front, the walkers still pounding on the doors and windows to get in. I looked around in the store, seeing if there was anything that I needed. It may still be considered looting, but there was no one, but Rick, around to enforce that particular law. It was just a clothing store, though, and I already had a spare pair of clothes in my backpack.

"Sorry for the gun in your face." Andrea apologized to Rick, who glanced back at me, as if to say it was my turn now.

"I'm sorry for the same." I offered, and Andrea smiled back at me gratefully.

"People do things when they're afraid."

"Thea wasn't afraid. She seemed so calm, but I guess that's because she's used to it," Andrea shrugged, and I froze in place. So it hadn't been fear she had seen in my expression, or she hadn't noticed it, because I had been scared. I was terrified that I was going to have to watch as my best friend, the love of my life, the most important person in my world, was going to be shot right in front of my eyes and I'd have to see him die. I was frightened at the thought of what his death could do to me, what his death could have made me do to her. "Besides, it's not like I was unjustified. You did get us into this."

"If I get us out, would that make up for it?" Rick questioned, as he and Andrea stopped in front of a jewelry counter.

"No, but it'd be a start."

Our attention was momentarily taken by the walkers growling and snarling, still trying to fight the glass that lay between them and their next meal. I walked up to the counter, inspecting the pretty trinkets still on display, as Rick turned back towards Andrea, a smirk tugging on his lips.

"Next time, though, take the safety off. It won't shoot otherwise." My eyes snapped to his. Her safety was on? I can't believe that I missed that. He would have been perfectly fine. It was just another reason to add to the long list of reasons that Rick and I wouldn't have worked. Anything to do with him just clouded my judgment. All I saw was the gun in his face, and saw red.

Andrea looked down at her gun, and deflated a little.

"Oh."

"Is that your gun?" Rick asked, as he tucked Merle's gun into the back of his pants.

"It was a gift. Why?" Andrea questioned, as Rick moved towards her, hand reaching out for her gun, which she handed over, no questions asked. We both watched as Rick slid off the safety, and then explained to her what the now shining dot meant.

"Little red dot means it's ready to fire. You may have occasion to use it."

"Good to know."

"When we get back to your camp, wherever that is, I can teach you to use that thing, if you want?" I offered, extending another olive branch, and Andrea nodded.

"That would be great, thank you."

"Thea's a great tutor. Helped me through Math in high school." Rick divulged, and I rolled my eyes.

"You mean 'tried' to help you. You passed Math by the skin of your teeth, if my memory serves me well, which it does." I teased him, grinning at him from over the counter.

"But I passed, which I wouldn't have, if you hadn't pushed me into a chair and threatened to beat me to within an inch of my life unless I studied. Not exactly appropriate for a tutor to threaten her student." Rick pointed out, and I smirked.

"It was that or bribe you with sexual favors. So I chose the option that didn't end with your mother walking in and having a heart attack." I shrugged, and Rick just stared at me, torn between amusement and something else.

"You two knew each other before then?" Andrea guessed, and we both nodded.

"From diaper days till now, Rick Grimes has been my best friend." I replied, grinning at him.

"Explains the gun to my head. So just friends, or…?" Andrea let her sentence trail off, and I immediately tore my eyes away from Rick at her implication. I coughed weakly into my hand, clearing my throat, and let Rick handle this one.

Except he didn't. He didn't say a word, just let the words she didn't say hang in the air between us, until he finally broke the silence with only two words. The two most frustrating, and open, words in the whole of history.

"It's complicated."

I narrowed my eyes at him.

It's complicated?

What did that mean?

I mean, on my end, things were complicated. I'd had feelings for him since my momma explained to me what love actually meant at six years old. I realized that I was crazy as fuck, head over heels, butterflies swarming in my stomach, in love with him when I was seventeen, and that I couldn't have him a week after that. Complicated barely covered everything I felt, but him? He had a beautiful family; a wonderful son and a beautiful wife, or ex-wife. That didn't sound complicated.

"Yeah, complicated." I repeated, still staring at him in confusion, before turning my attention to the doors. There were so many walkers against the doors, some were being squished against the glass, smearing blood and bits of dead skin against it. If I didn't have a strong stomach, I probably would have thrown up by now.

Andrea nodded, sensing that was all she was going to get out of us, and decided to look at the jewelry on offer. I was surprised that this place hadn't been ransacked before Glenn found it. Even more surprising was when I checked the register to find all the cash was still in there. Money wasn't really the currency of the world anymore, I guess. Food, water and weapons were the high valued items of today.

"Hm." Andrea hummed, and I looked over to see a necklace resting on her fingers. I moved over to get a better look, preferring that to glaring at the dead who wanted to eat me.

"See something you like?" Rick questioned, coming over to snoop as well, as I took in the mermaid pendant on the thin gold chain. It was quite pretty, but not something I had expected a mature woman like Andrea to be interested in.

"Not me, but I know someone who would," Andrea started, looking between the two of us, before she explained. "My sister."

"Sister? She back at camp?" I asked, hoping she said yes, and that I wouldn't bring up any painful memories of a sister who had passed on. Andrea nodded, a wistful smile on her face, the thought of her sister making her whole face light up in spite of the dire situation we were still in.

"She's still such a kid in some ways. Unicorns, dragons. She's into all that stuff. But mermaids, they rule. She loves mermaids."

"Take it." I suggested, knowing she wanted to.

"There's a cop and an army sergeant staring at me," Andrea retorted. Rick and I both chuckled at her words. Like we would stop her anyway. It's a free-for-all nowadays. You find something that doesn't seem to have an owner anymore, you take it. "Would it be considered looting?"

"I don't think those rules apply any more, do you?" Rick stated, and Andrea smiled, before pocketing the necklace.

"Besides, your sister will be happy that you thought of her in the middle of this bug fuck of a nightmare." I said, and Andrea opened her mouth, probably to ask what bug fuck meant, when the sound of glass smashing cut her off.

Rick and I rushed forward towards the doors, as the walkers piled through the broken outer ones and started to pound against the second, and last, set. Morales, Glenn and Jacqui appeared at our sides, and neither of us lowered our weapons as we looked to them for answers.

"What did you find down there?" Rick asked.

"Not a way out." Morales replied, and I cursed under my breath.

"We need to find a way. Soon." Andrea insisted, saying the words we were all thinking.

"Roof. Regroup on the roof. We'll collect our thoughts and come up with a plan C." I decided, ushering them to the back of the room and up the stairs, twisting my body to watch the doors as I followed them.


I stared down at the walkers as Rick scanned the surrounding streets through binoculars, looking for something that could get us all out. We needed a vehicle, but we also needed a way to get to said vehicle, which meant we needed a way to walk through the walkers.

"That construction site, those trucks, they always keep keys on hand." Rick pointed out, and I squinted in the direction he had pointed, barely managing to spy the construction site, but not seeing anything else.

"You'll never make it past the walkers." Morales replied, shooting the idea down, but Rick wasn't being deterred. He had seen what they needed to escape the city, he just needed a plan.

"You got me out that tank." Rick reminded Glenn, who shook his head.

"Yeah, but they were feeding. They were distracted." Glenn stated, and I felt a small spark in my mind, as I started to put the puzzle of this situation together.

"Can we distract them again?"

"He's right. Listen to him. He's on to something. A diversion, like on "Hogan's Heroes"." Merle contributed, before Jacqui told him to shut it. He hadn't offered up something stupid though. A diversion could work, if they had something that could actually help.

"They're drawn by sound, right?" Rick mused, and Glenn nodded.

"Right, like dogs. They hear a sound, they come."

"What else?" Rick pressed, and I looked at him.

"Sound, sight, smell…you name it." I answered him, my words creating the beginnings of a plan in my head.

"They can tell us by smell?" Rick asked, incredulously. Morgan and I had probably forgotten to mention that. Well, I'd told him now. No harm done.

"Can't you?" Glenn demanded.

"They smell dead, we don't. It's pretty distinct."

And Andrea pushed the idea into my head into a full-blown plan, and I clapped my hands, and pointed at her before I laughed gleefully. Everybody stared at me as though I'd grown three new heads, except Rick, who looked as though he had come to the same conclusion as I had, and I just grinned, before I decided to put them out of their misery.

"I got it. I have got the solution to our problem!" I called over my shoulder, as I half-jogged, half-skipped to the roof access, the others following behind…except Merle, who was still stuck cuffed to the pipe.

They all followed me down, and Rick and I explained my admittedly terrible, but incredibly genius plan, and as soon as we hit the shop floor, we grabbed all the supplies necessary, with a little grumbling about how it was such a bad idea from Glenn.

"If bad ideas were an Olympic event, this would take the gold." He said, as I grabbed two large trench coats off a rack.

"I never said it was a great solution, didn't even say it was good…I just said it would work!" I grinned at him, as I handed him the coats, and grabbed a few more.

"He's right, stop. Take some time to think things through." Morales snapped at me, looking between Rick and me.

"How much time?" Rick questioned. "They already got through one set of doors. That glass won't hold forever."

"Morales, it will work. I know it will. I didn't get promoted to sergeant for my good looks and my perfect aim. It's because I'm a good strategist. I make on the fly decisions, but they work, with minimal casualties. Though today, we are aiming for no casualties." I retorted, seeing his eyes soften, and he nodded at me, accepting my words and the plan.

There really was no other option anyway.


Rick and Morales darted out into the alley, grabbing one of the fallen walkers that had been put down earlier, before dragging it into the warehouse part of the building, where the rest of us waited, all dressed in overcoats and rubber gloves.

Rick, wearing a visor helmet, smashed open one of those 'in case of emergency' ax boxes, grabbed the necessary weapon and brought it over to us. The dead walker had been dropped at our feet, and we all stared at it as we contemplated what we had to do. It was not going to be pretty. Rick took a couple spaces back, gripped the handle of the axe a little tighter, raised it over his head…and just when he was about to bring it down, sinking it into the stomach of the twice dead man, he stopped himself.

He dropped the axe to the ground, along with his helmet, then yanked off his gloves, before he started rooting around in the dead man's pockets.

I opened my mouth to ask him what he was doing, when he pulled out a wallet.

"Wayne Dunlap," Rick read, looking up at us, his eyes settling on me. This had been our idea, thought up by me, the rough edges sanded down by him. It was easy to forget that these creatures had once been human, been people with lives and families, jobs and bills to pay. It made it easier to go through with putting a bullet in their brain to pretend that none of that history existed. "Georgia license. Born in 1979."

He handed Wayne's license to Glenn, who inspected it with guilty eyes.

"He had $28 in his pocket when he died. And a picture of a pretty girl," Rick continued, and I stepped closer to him and rested my gloved hand on his shoulder, getting him to glance up at me again. Those blue eyes held guilt, but acceptance as well. We did what we had to do to survive, even if it meant swallowing the guilt and doing the stuff no one else could. "'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 son, I'm gonna tell him about Wayne."

With that said, Rick returned Wayne's wallet to his pants, and pulled on his gloves and helmet again.

"One more thing," Glenn halted us, as Rick picked up his axe. "He was an organ donor."

Rick nodded, gritting his teeth, locking his jaw, then bringing the ax down hard, slicing through Wayne's stomach easily. Everybody flinched, and I gritted my teeth and stepped back a little bit. The sound was the worst part of it. The squelch of the flesh giving way to the sharp blade.

"Madre de Dios!" Morales signed a cross over his head and chest, muttering in Spanish.

Everybody groaned again, when the axe swung down and cut off one of Wayne's legs. In hindsight, this plan Rick and I had developed seemed more and more like something from a Saw movie.

"Damn!"

"Oh, God!" Somebody else muttered.

"Fuck." I winced, as Rick brought the axe down again two, three, four more times, before he stopped, panting slightly as he handed Morales the helmet and axe and told him to keep chopping.

I had moved to Glenn's side, seeing that he looked the worse off of everyone, his face becoming paler and paler by the second.

"I am so gonna hurl." Glenn complained, as I began rubbing circles into his back, trying to soothe him a little bit.

"Later," Rick ordered, as we all flinched at the crunching and squelching of Wayne's body as Morales continued to hack it to pieces. I sighed in relief when Morales straightened up, signaling that he was stopping, forgetting that the worst part was about to happen. "Everybody got gloves? Don't get any on your skin or in your eyes."

Gritting my teeth and thinking happy thoughts, the same thing I'm sure everybody, but Glenn, was trying to do, I sunk my hands into Wayne's open stomach, and grabbed a handful of the mush that was his insides. Moving aside to let Jacqui get her gloves dirty, I took my handful of hell and rubbed it onto Rick's back and shoulders, coating him in dark red.

When I had volunteered to be the one covered, Rick had shot me down, saying that they needed someone with training to stay here in case the walkers managed to break through. I called bullshit, but he still insisted I stay, and because I just wanted to get out of Atlanta, I stopped arguing. Rangers may have led the way into war, but apparently not down a walker infested street, covered in blood and guts.

"Oh, God. Oh, God," Glenn continued to moan, the little color he had still in his face flushed away completely as Jacqui, Andrea and Morales continued to cover him in dead walker. "Oh, jeez. Oh, this is bad. This is really bad."

"Think about something else. Puppies and kittens." Rick instructed, trying to take Glenn's mind of it.

What T-Dog said next made me regret tending to his cuts with my limited supply of antiseptics.

"Dead puppies and kittens."

Glenn vomited almost instantly, the sound of it hitting the floor almost as bad as the squelching Wayne's body made as I dug around in it. We all stared at T-Dog, five pairs of eyes burning holes into his body, as we all questioned why we had let Rick stop Merle from making the guy's face unrecognizable.

"That is just evil. What is wrong with you?" Andrea scolded him, as I glared at him, applying more gunk to Rick's front.

"Next time, let the cracker beat his ass." Jacqui quipped, and I had to hold in a laugh at that.

"I'm sorry, yo." T-Dog apologized, grabbing another handful of Wayne.

"You suck. Oh! Oh!" Glenn groaned, and I patted him on the back.

"On the bright side, don't you feel a little bit better now?" I asked, trying not to grin at the filthy look Glenn gave me.

"Oh yeah, tons." Glenn retorted, still bent half over, as Andrea hung a chunk of Wayne's large intestine around his shoulders.

"Do we smell like them?" Rick questioned, and there was no need to take a questioning whiff.

The smell was so strong, I was certain that I'd still be smelling it ten years from now. In fact, I was trying to take as few breaths as possible, because breathing through my mouth meant I could almost taste the smell of it, and that made no sense, but was almost ten times worse. I simply nodded, as I stood in front of him, rubbing one last handful down his arms.

"Glenn, you still got that gun?" I questioned, and Glenn straightened up and nodded, about to reach round to grab it out of his jeans. "Keep it. May end up needing to use it."

"If we make it back-" Rick started, but I cut him off.

"When you make it back."

"When we make it back, be ready." Rick instructed, his blue eyes roaming my face, like he was trying to memorize it; every freckle, every eyelash, the exact green of my eyes. I sighed, before I leant forward, careful not to take off any of his walker goo, and pressed my lips to his cheek quickly.

"Be smart, be safe." I ordered him, my voice just loud enough for him to hear, and he nodded once.

"What about Merle Dixon?" T-Dog questioned, and Rick tugged off a glove to root around in his pocket to find the cuff key, before tossing it to the man. Dixon was not going to be happy when he saw who had the power to release him.

"Give me the axe," Rick instructed, and Morales quickly passed it to him. "We need more guts."

We all groaned, as Rick started to cut Wayne's already desecrated body up even more.

If the apocalypse ever ended, and civilization managed to get back to the way it was, I would never watch another slasher movie again. I had seen enough guts and gore to last me several lifetimes.

When Rick and Glenn entered the alleyway, the rest of us raced back up to the roof to wait and watch, bursting through the door to the roof, and I swore I saw Merle Dixon jump.

"Hey, what's happening, man?" Merle wondered, watching us as we sprinted across the roof to get to the ledge.

"Hey, T-Dog, try that CB," Morales instructed, all of us ignoring Dixon as we hurried to get an eye on our friends. I grabbed Merle's discarded rifle before I headed to the edge, looking down the scope to see if I could find Rick. "Be careful you don't fire that thing and hit one of our guys."

"They called me Eagle Eye in my squadron, Morales, because I never missed a target," I said, as I scoured the street for Rick and Glenn using the scope. "Not once have I ever shot a friendly, disguise or no."

"Base camp, this is T-Dog. Anybody hear me? Can anybody out there hear me?" T-Dog radioed the others outside the city, but there wasn't anything they could do, even if T managed to get them on the radio.

"Found them!" I called, at the same time as Morales exclaimed, "There!" Both of us pointed in the general direction of our two non-walkers, so Andrea and Jacqui knew where to look, then the thunder started. A bad omen.

"That asshole is out on the street with the handcuff keys?" Merle demanded, and I looked back at him, as T-Dog waved the key at him.

"You'd better start groveling." I commented, before turning my eyes back to the street.

"Base camp, this is T-Dog. Can anybody hear me?" T-Dog tried again, as I looked back down my scope.

"Hello? Hello? Reception's bad on this end. Repeat. Repeat." A man's voice came on the other end, and I sighed in relief that we had managed to get through.

"Shane, is that you?" My eyes flashed towards T-Dog on the floor at my feet. Did he just say Shane? "We're in some deep shit. We're trapped in the department store. Geeks all over the place. Hundreds of 'em. We're surrounded. Shane? Anybody copy?"

"Shane? He a cop?" I questioned, hope filling me at the mention of that name. Maybe, just maybe…

"Yeah. Small town sheriff's deputy. Why?" Morales asked, everyone staring at me now.

I shook my head, a broad grin spread across my face and I didn't even bother to stop the laughter that bubbled up and spilled out of my mouth. I laughed, tears spilling from my eyes, but happy tears. Shane was alive, which meant so was Lori and Carl. I placed the rifle against the wall, then turned to Morales properly.

"He have a woman with him? And her son? Lori and Carl? They with him?" I questioned, resting my hands on his shoulders, getting him to focus completely on me.

"Yeah, how'd you know that? You know 'em?"

"Oh my God! We were supposed to meet here in Atlanta, but I stayed behind to help the army! They're alive!" I held a hand over my mouth, trying to hold back the hysterical laughter, but failing for the most part. "When Rick and I rode in and saw what a mess this place was, I gave up hope that they were alive. They were outside the city the whole time. Oh my God, oh God, I'm so-Oh God!"

Morales patted my arm, a warm smile on his lips, the others, but Merle, all smiled…until the rain started to fall. The brief moment of pure elation I felt was completely wiped away, as I realized that this sudden heavy downpour spelled trouble for Rick and Glenn on the street. I grabbed the rifle again, peering down the scope until I found them, thunder clapping in the background of my focus. They were almost there.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." I muttered under my breath, my good news completely forgotten.

"It's just a cloudburst. We get 'em all the time. It'll pass real quick." Morales tried to comfort us, but I knew no matter how quickly the rain stopped, it would have already done its damage.

The walkers around Rick and Glenn started to take notice that they weren't actually dead, and then Rick plunged his axe into the nearest walker's head and started to run, Glenn following very quickly behind. They took out the walkers who got too close to them, but since they were all moving too fast, I didn't want to fire the rifle and accidentally hit Rick or Glenn.

I didn't start shooting until Rick and Glenn made the fence, and the walkers started to climb it. Rick did the same, while Glenn got the keys, the pair of us slowing the walkers down, but not really making a dent in them. As soon as one was put down, another took its place.

Rick and Glenn got the van running, at the same time the walkers broke down the fence and the rain stopped. The walkers started to rush towards the van, so Rick took a detour, turning down a different road, which made it seem like he was driving away. He wouldn't leave me behind. Not me. He wouldn't.

"They're leaving us," Andrea cried, as Morales and I both protested against it. "No, no, come back."

"Rick wouldn't leave. He's got to clear the front doors so we can get out, right? How does he do that with just him and Glenn? Huh?" I asked Andrea, grabbing her shoulders to bring her attention away from the speeding van in the distance to me. "Noise, Andrea! One of them will find something that will draw the walkers away, while the other brings the van round. From then on, it's a cake walk, okay? They're coming back. Nobody is leaving you behind."

Andrea shook her head, and I saw the hope dwindling in her eyes. She just wanted to get home to her sister. I understood that. They all just wanted to get out of the city, alive, and get back to their camp. I just wanted Rick back at my side, where I knew he was safe.

"Glenn wouldn't let him drive away and leave us behind, Andrea. You know he wouldn't." Morales tried to convince the blonde, but I knew that until she saw it with her eyes, she wouldn't believe it.

"Those roll-up doors at the front of the store facing the street. Meet us there and be ready." Glenn's voice cracked through the CB, and I gestured to it.

"What did I say? Grab your stuff and let's go! We're on the home stretch." I insisted, grabbing the red backpack and handing it to Andrea, before I rushed to the roof exit, hurtling myself down the stairs, leaving Dixon for T-Dog to deal with since he had the key.

"C'mon!" I heard Andrea urge the others, hearing their rushed footsteps behind me, and Dixon's muffled protests.

I burst into the store front, eyeing the cracked glass and the walkers, listening to them scream as they pounded against the door. I just darted past those doors, pushing through another door to the roll-up doors Glenn had instructed us to wait by. I saw the chains that would open the door, and I gripped it with my hand, waiting for some sign that I could open it. Morales, Jacqui and Andrea blew into the room a few seconds later, dropping their bags so they could help me with the door when the time came.

We waited a few moments, before we heard something that sounded an awful lot like a siren or some sort of car alarm.

"What is that?" Andrea questioned, as we all strained to hear what exactly was going on beyond the doors.

"The diversion." I answered simply, my eyes on the metal that separated us from our two friends and a whole bunch of walkers. The siren got louder, like it was right outside, before it got quieter and quieter until we couldn't hear it anymore.

T-Dog burst through the door then, almost giving me, and probably the others, a heart attack considering how quiet it was until his arrival.

"They're here! Let's go! Let's go! They're in here!" T-Dog exclaimed, and we all started yanking the chain to open the door, panicking as the walkers had burst through the last set of doors into the store. We started pulling even harder when there was three knocks coming from the other side of the door, hoping for it to be Glenn or Rick. "Let's go!"

"Open the door!" Andrea cried, and the door started to rise, until it was just high enough for us to walk under.

Rick was waiting on the other side, the van open and waiting for us to all pile in with the bags. Rick grabbed a bag from Andrea, then held out his hand to me. I gripped it and let him haul me up into the back of the van, heading towards the front, but not taking the passenger seat. Rick would need Morales there to give him directions to their camp.

I parked myself down directly behind the passenger seat, so I could see Rick at all times, and the rest of the group. Andrea, Jacqui and T-Dog all piled in next, with Morales climbing in last, just as the walkers started to pile in through the door and into the room we had all just vacated. They saw us, their hungry eyes locked in, and they started to stumble after the van, even after Rick hit the gas and pulled out.

When Morales pulled the loading door down, cutting off our view of the dead chasing after us, I breathed a sigh of relief. That is, until we all realized that Merle hadn't made it into the van, or off the roof for that matter.

We all exchanged glances, before settling on T-Dog, who was sat beside me, and up until then had been half-holding, half-squeezing my knee out of fear, just like Andrea had a vice-like grip on Jacqui's forearm, not that the other woman seemed to notice.

He sighed, facing our questioning stares head on.

"I dropped the damn key." He stated, guilt written all over his face. He had hated that bastard, we all knew that, but he didn't actually intend to leave him there.

"Well, fuck." I blurted out. I felt bad for the racist, sexist, probably homophobic Southerner, even if he technically brought it upon himself. He had no hope cuffed to that damn pipe and walkers swarming the building. They'd hear his yelling, and find him in no time.

I saw Andrea shoot Rick a sharp look, before she actually asked whatever was on her mind.

"Where's Glenn?"

"He's, uh, driving a stolen car along the 85." Rick answered, keeping his eyes on the road, probably preferring to concentrate on that than our stares burning imaginary holes into the back of his head.

"Come again?"


A/N:

Hello lovely readers!

So this is Chapter Seven, and we are out of Atlanta!

What did you think? Thea found out that Lori, Shane and Carl are still alive, even if she promptly forgot due to the situation at hand, but the reunion will be in the next chapter! And it will be awesome! We'll get to see more of Rick and Thea's friendship, along with the introduction of Thea and Shane's friendship and Lori and Thea's friendship, and Thea immediately spots something different about the pair. They don't call her Eagle Eye for no reason.

So thank you to the three reviewers of the last chapter. I wish there had been more of you, but I am grateful for the comments I did receive;

NESSAANCALIME6913, Proxy-Blue22 and klandgraf2007.

You three are awesome and I love you guys!

Okay so the next update will be on August 29th, so watch out for it :)

Thanks for reading, and see you on the 29th!

SophStratt.