Thank you for the reviews on my first chapter! And thank you for the follows and the favourite. In all the stories I have posted, I have never got a follow or a favourite, so I was so happy to see that I got some on this. And on my first chapter of this story too! Anyway...enough jabbering. Enjoy!

~Charlotte~

"Hey, you? Dumb ass. Hey, you in the tank. Cozy in there?" Glenn says to the radio. Been in Atlanta for a while and I am not dead yet. Achievement. We spotted a guy on a horse coming into the city. The horse got eaten and my heart somehow felt like it melted when I saw the geeks biting into the animals flesh. The guy in the cops uniform crawled under the tank and got in by using the latch underneath the tank. He stuck his head out of the latch at the top of the tank and the geeks start to converge on the tank, but he shut the latch just in time. I wanted Glenn to speak to him, I would've felt guilty if we left him there. If I wasn't here I am sure he still would've spoken to him over the radio.

I take the radio from Glenn, bracing myself to talk to speak. "Hey, are you still alive?" I ask in my quiet and shy voice and hope that I hear the mans voice on the other side. I hold my breath and wait for his voice.

"Hello? Hello?" I let out a long breath in relief when I hear is voice.

"There you are. You had me wondering." I reply.

"Where are you? Outside? Can you see me right now."

"Yeah, we can see you. You're surrounded by walkers." I sigh. "That's the bad news."

"There's a good news."

There's a pause. "No…" I tell him

"Listen, whoever you are, I don't mind telling you that I'm a little concerned in here." He tells us.
Glenn takes a hold of the radio. "Oh man. You should see it from over here. You'd be having a major freak-out."

"Got any advice for me?"

I take back the radio. "I'd say make a run for it and hope for the best." I tell him. I am surprised that I am talking this much to a stranger. It seems easier that I can't see him and he isn't making eye-contact with me. Eye-contact is uncomfortable.

"That's it? 'Make a run for it?'"

"Hey! My way isn't 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?"

"So far."

"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?" Please say yes. Please say yes.

"In that duffel bag I dropped out there," I see the bag. Nope. Not a chance. "and guns. Can I get to it?"

"Forget the bag, okay? It's not an option. What do you have on you?"

"Hang on."

I look at Glenn. He seems shocked that I have spoken so much. He probably hasn't seen me speak this much. I smile a big cheeky grin, showing my teeth, something I feel like I haven't done in awhile.

"Yeah. Yeah. I've got a Beretta with one clip, fifteen rounds."

"Make 'em count. Jump off the right side of the tank and keep on going in that direction. There's an alley up the street. Maybe fifty yards, I guess. Be there." I tell him.

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Have you been listening? You're running out of time." I say to him, feeling slightly irritated, but also fearing for his life.

"Right."

Suddenly, the unknown man jumps out of the tank and grabs something, whacking a geek that was about to get him and makes a run for the destination I told him to get to.

As Glenn and I are making our way to the alley we hear gunshots. Getting closer. We climb down the ladder to get to the alley, me running at the front, Glenn at the back. As I turn a corner the man is there, making me jump and immediately shout, "Whoa! Not dead! Come on! Come on!" The three of us start running down the alley, reaching the ladder that Glenn and I came down not too long ago.

I climb first, then Glenn, followed by the stranger. Walkers almost get us.

I'm up, followed by Glenn.

"Come on, get up." Glenn tells the cop. We are panting, gathering air into our lungs. It feels great to feel the cool air enter my lungs. The cop comes up the ladder and stands next to Glenn.

"Nice moves there. Who are you? Clint Eastwood? You the new sheriff come riding in to clean up the town?" I say, this makes Glenn chuckle.

"It wasn't my intention." He said, I roll my eyes.

"Yeah, whatever. Yeehaw. You're still a dumb ass."

"Rick. Thanks." he introduces himself.

"I swear you were incapable of speaking that much." Glenn looks at me.

I give a short laugh. "If you need to help a guy out in a bad situation you need to talk."

I look at the cop. He looks like he is in his late thirties, clean shaven, sweaty face, dark brown hair, fairly tall and has a slim figure.

"Charlotte." I tell him my name.

"Glenn. You're welcome. Oh no." Glenn says looking down. I do so too. A crap ton of walkers are down in the alley, reaching out like they can grab us, but we are no where near them. "The bright side: It'll be the fall that kills us. I'm a glass half full kind of guy."

When we got to the roof, I stare at the blue sky, not a fluffy white cloud to be seen. The sky seems completely still, with the sun beating down on us.

"Are you the one that barricaded the alley?"

"Somebody did…I guess when the city got overrun. Whoever did it was thinking that not many geeks would get through."

"Back at the tank, why'd you stick you neck out for me." I look away from the sky and at Rick, who is looking at me.

I am suddenly incapable of speaking again. I feel my heart racing and I feel like I'll puke if I open my mouth. All the confidence that was in me not too long ago has been sucked out of me.

"Call it foolish," Glenn answers for me. "naïve hope that if I'm ever that far up the shit creek, somebody might do the same for me. Guess I'm a bigger dumb ass than you."

We take another ladder and go down that leads to the store.

"We're back. We gotta guest, plus four geeks in the alley."

We go down another staircase to a door where two geeks appear. Morales and T-Dog come bursting out of the door wearing their protective get-up and pummel the geeks brains out with weapons.

"Let's go." Glenn shouts and we make our way into the store

Behind me I hear Morales calling for T-Dog to get a move on. They follow behind us when they are finished smashing their brains in.

When we get in, Rick immediately has a gun pointed in between his eyes

"You son of a bitch. We ought to kill you."

"Just chill out, Andrea. Back off.

"Come on. Ease up." Jacqui tells her. I stand next to Glenn, frozen up. Don't kill him.

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

"Andrea, I said back the hell off."

Fortunately she lets go of Rick. Great first introduction. She looks like she is about to cry. "We're dead…all of us…because of you."

"I don't understand." Rick says.

"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 tells him, and I start to feel bad for Rick.

"Every geek for miles around heard you popping off rounds." T-Dog says, not making anything better.

"You just rang the dinner bell." Andrea inputs.

"Get the picture now." Morales says.

I hear growling and face where the sound was coming from. Geeks are trying to smash their way into the store, one is even holding a brick, something I thought they couldn't do. The brick wielding one uses it to try and smash open the window.

"Oh God." Andrea breathes. "What the hell were you doing out there anyway?"

"Trying to flag the helicopter." Rick informs us and I let out a short laugh. Helicopter?

"Helicopter? Man, that's crap. Ain't no damn helicopter."

"You were chasing a hallucination, imagining things." Jacqui tells Rick.

"It happens." I murmur.

"I saw it." He says looking at me and I bite the inside of my mouth, feeling awkward. I look down so I don't have to look in his eyes.

"Hey, T-Dog, try that C.B. Can you contact the others?"

"Others? The refugee centre?"

"Yeah, the refugee centre. They've got biscuits waiting at the oven for us." I say under my breath, still looking down at the floor. I feel their eyes on me, so I look up and find that they are.

T-Dog is trying to get in touch with the camp, but there is no signal. "Maybe the roof."

Just as he says that, guns start firing.

"Oh no. Is that Dixon?" Andrea says.

"What is that maniac thinking?"

"Come on. Let's go." Glenn tells them.

"I hate Merle." I say in a whisper to no one as we head off to the roof.

When we get to the roof we see Merle Dixon shooting geeks on the street below with his sniper rifle, which I wish he didn't have.

"Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?!" T-Dog shouts.

Dixon laughs it off and continues to kill the geeks. We start running across the building to get him to stop.

"Oh jeez." I hear Andrea say.

Merle finally stops. "Hey! Y'all be more polite to a man with a gun! Huh? Ah! Only common sense." He says, showing off the gun.

"Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got!" T-Dog yells at him, anger boiling inside of him.

Merle laughs again in his manic way.

"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."

"'That'll be the day'? You got something you want to tell me." I wish T-Dog left it at that, because stuff like this ends up in a fight.

"Hey, T-Dog, just leave it." I tell him.

"No." He says to me and I truly wish he left it then and there.

"Alright? It ain't worth it. Now, Merle, just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble." Morales tries to reason with him.

"You want to know the day?" Merle begins. "I'll tell you the day, Mr 'Yo'. It's the day I take orders from a nigger."

Crossed the line. T-Dog snapped and I don't blame him.

"Mother…"

Merle and T-Dog start to brawl each other and I cant stand it. I turn my back to them, not wanting to see the fight and hug myself, listening to them have a go at each other.

"Come on, Dixon!" Andrea and everyone else try to break them apart, but I continue to look over the edge of the building.

I cautiously turn around and see T-Dog on the floor with Merle beating the crap out of him, suddenly Merle pulls a pistol out and then holds it on T-Dog.

"No!" My scream cuts through the air and Merle looks at me. Everyone waits…

"Yeah! Alright! 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 favour? Huh? Come on let's see 'em. Oh, come on. All in favour." We start to put up our hands before he does anything crazy. "Yeah. That's good. Now that means I'm the boss, right? Yeah. Anybody else? Hmmm? Anybody"

At this time I think everyone forgot about Rick. It came to such a shock when Merle was hit across the head with a metal pipe.

Everyone starts to breathe and calm down when Merle is handcuffed to a pipe on the roof.

"Who the hell are you, man?!" He yells at Rick, wanting answers.

"Officer friendly." I smirk at that comment. "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."

"Screw you, man!"

"I can see you make a habit of missing the point." Rick states.

"Yeah? Well, screw you twice."

"Ought to be polite to a man with a gun." Rick repeats his words as he cocks his gun. Gosh, he seems so intimidating right now.

"You wouldn't." Merle remarks. "You're a cop."

"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. Got some one your nose there." Yep, definitely intimidating.

"What're you gonna do? Arrest me?" He jokes, laughing at his words.

Rick picks up Merles stuff. "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!?" He shouts at Rick in a violent manner, shaking the handcuffs.

"Yeah, your voice carries."

"Do you hear me, you filthy pig!?"

Rick walks up to Morales, "You're not Atlanta P.D. Where are you from?" Morales asks him as I walk closer to the two men.

"Up the road a ways." Rick states.

"Well, officer friendly from up the road a ways, welcome to the city." I tell him as I smile.

Would you kindly review? Thank you for reading! Hope you liked it!