~Charlotte~
Time passes and we are still stuck on the roof with T-Dog trying to get a signal to contact our camp. Everyone is practically looking over the edge of the roof, glaring down at the geeks in the street below except for T-Dog who is sitting down, staring at Merle. My chocolate brown hair is being pushed into my eyes and tickles my ears by the gentle warm wind.
I give this time to think about what is probably happening back at camp. I wonder if everyone is alright…Alice…Daniel…Tom and Alex. The rest of the kids…Amy? Dale? Did camp get attacked? I need to stop thinking like this, I feel blood rushing to my head as thoughts overcome my brain.
"My God, it's like Times Square down there." said Andrea, who stands right next to me and I cant help to think that that is a perfect description of the chaos down there.
"How's the signal?" Morales asks T-Dog.
"Like Dixon's brain…weak." And I cant help but laugh out loud at the comment made by T-Dog. I turn my head around to look at Merle to see his reaction and he slowly puts his middle finger up to T-Dog.
"Keep trying."
"Why?" I mutter. Again, I feel eyes on me. Why do I talk when I don't want to? Words slip out of my mouth and I immediately regret them, even if they are not bad. "There's nothing they can do. Not a damn thing." I shake my head.
"Got some people outside the city is all. There's no refugee centre. That's a pipe dream."
"Then she's right." Rick speaks up. "We're on our own. It's up to us to find a way out."
"Great…" I sigh.
"Good luck with that. These streets ain't safe in this part of town from what I hear. Ain't that right sugar tits?" He starts talking to Andrea. Great, perfect timing to be hitting on the ladies. And Merle has a great way of doing it. "Hey, honey bunch, what say you get me out of these cuffs, we go off somewhere and bump some uglies? Gonna die anyway." At first I think, what does he mean by 'bump some uglies', but seeing as it's Merle, it's going to be something dirty.
"I'd rather." Andrea replies.
"Rub muncher. I figured as much."
I decide to ignore Merle and what he is saying to Andrea and listen into the discussion that the rest of the group are having.
"The streets ain't safe. Now there's an understatement." I hear Morales say.
"What about under the streets? The sewers?" Rick asks, thinking outside the box. Good idea.
"Oh man. Hey Glenn!" Morales calls Glenn over. "check the alleyway. You see any manhole covers?" Glenn jogs over to the side of the roof where the alleyway would be.
I continuously stare at him and his actions, he shakes his head. "No, must be all out on one street, where the geeks are."
"Maybe not." Jacqui speaks up. "Old buildings like this built in the twenties…big structures often had draining tunnels into the sewers in case of flooding down in the subbasements." I stare at her, amazed by the knowledge.
"How do you know that?" I ask her.
"It's my job…was" she said sadly. "I worked in the city zoning office." And in that moment I wonder what would of happened if Jacqui didn't come with us.
I feel bad for T-Dog, having to stay up on the roof with Merle as we go to the stores basement. It didn't take long to reach there and get to the sewage entrance that we all gather around.
"This is it?" Morales questions.
"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?" Glenn said.
He shouldn't of said that last bit. Everyone looks at him, all thinking the same thing.
"Oh. Great."
"Sorry." I apologies to him.
"We'll be right behind you." Andrea reassures him.
"No, you won't. Not you."
"Why not me? Think I can't?" She said, sounding offended.
"I wasn't…"
"Speak your mind." Rick tells 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. 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 and have to get out quick, I don't want you all jammed up behind me getting me killed. I'll take one person. Not you either." He says to Rick. "You've got Merles gun and I've seen you shoot. I'd feel better if you were out in that store watching those doors, covering our ass. And you've got the only other gun, so you should go with him. You be my wingman" He tells Morales. "Jacqui stays here. Something happens, yell down to us, get us back up here in a hurry." He then looks at me. "You can go with Rick, cover us."
I nod at this, something I feel comfortable with. Plus, Rick most likely will kill the walkers before I have to. I haven't killed one since the start of all this, when I left my house.
"Okay."
"Everyone knows their jobs." said Rick.
We all split up and I follow Rick.
I stand by a empty shelf, thinking of all the things that use to occupy it. Looters probably took the stuff. I can hear Andrea and Rick talking to each other, but I can't be asked to listen, no matter how interesting their conversation may be.
I stroll around the store, with my gun in my hand, ready to pull the trigger if anything bad happen.
"Oh." I look at Andrea, who has spotted some jewellery, so has Rick.
I walk over to Andrea. I get to her side and see that she is admiring a mermaid necklace on the counter.
"See something you like?" Rick asks her.
"Not me. But I know someone who would. My sister." Amy, I immediately agree that she would like it, as we once had a conversation on all things magical. "She's still such a kid in some ways. Unicorns. Dragons. She's into all that stuff. But mermaids. They rule. She loves mermaids." I remember when Amy and I were talking about what was better, dragons or mermaids. I sided with the dragon, and she stuck with the mermaid.
"Why not take it?" Rick asks her.
"There's a cop staring at me." She tells him and looks up at him.
Rick and I chuckle.
"Would it be considered looting?" She asks.
"I don't think those rules apply anymore. Amy would love it." I tell her, but the moment is ruined when the sound of a waterfall of shattered glass hit's the floor. I look up at the windows and walkers start to walk in.
Glenn and Morales join us. "What did you find down there?" Rick asks them.
Say you found a way out. We need to leave and fast.
"Not a way out."
"Crap." I sigh.
"We need to find a way. And soon."
Back on the roof I spot a construction site close by with trucks that we could escape in.
"Rick." I say, looking around at him. He looks at me and I point to the construction site. He comes by my side and looks at the construction site.
"That construction site, those trucks…they always keep keys on hand."
"You'll never make it past the walkers." Morales tells him.
"You got me out of the tank."
"Yeah, but they were feeding. They were distracted." Glenn says.
"Can we distract them again?"
"Right. Listen to him. He's to him. He's onto something. A diversion, like on 'Hogan's Heroes.'" Merle speaks up. I really didn't need to hear his voice. One word from him makes me clench my fists.
"God. Give it a rest." I mutter.
"They're drawn by sound, right?" Rick looks at Glenn.
"Right, like dogs. They hear a sound, they come." Glenn replies.
"What else?" Rick asks, sounding hopeful.
"Aside from they hear you? They see you, smell you and if they catch you they eat you." Morales tells him.
"They can tell us by smell?" He asks in confusion.
"Can't you?" Glenn asks.
"They smell dead, we don't. It's pretty distinct." Andrea finally speaks up.
Rick looks up, eyes sparkling. It's like I can see the light bulb light up above his head.
Rick is handing each one of us outfits to wear. White trench coats that looked like lab coats.
I was shaking. I didn't like this idea. Why did I go to Atlanta in the first place?
"If bad ideas were an Olympic even, this would take the gold." Glenn inputs. I swing on the heels of my feet, holding onto the trench coat that Rick handed to me.
"He's right. Just stop, okay? Take some time to think this through." Morales clearly also thinking this idea was plain stupid and suicidal.
"How much time? They already got through one set of doors, that glass won't hold forever."
I didn't go outside whilst the others went to go get a walker from outside. They dragged in the dead male, blood smearing and staining the floor.
Rick holds a fire axe in his hands and everyone is putting on the coats so they don't get guts on our clothes. I am not prepared to be smothered in blood and the insides of what used to be an alive human being.
Rick is about to make his first chop at the dead man, but stops at the last minute. He bends down and searches the dead man, pulling up a wallet.
He starts to go through it, "Wayne Dunlop. Georgia license. Born in 1979. He had twenty sight dollars in his pocket when he died…" Everything is quiet. "And a picture of a pretty girl. 'With love, from Rachel.' He used to be like us." He says looking up at us with sad eyes. "Worrying about bills or the rent or the Super Bowl. If I ever find my family, I'm gonna tell them about Wayne."
"One more thing…" we all look at Glenn. "He was an organ donor."
The moment of silence continues, but is soon ruined by the sound of an axe going into Wayne Dunlop's corpse. I groan and gag and everyone does the same.
"Madre de Dios!"
"Oh."
"Dios!"
"Oh God."
"Keep chopping." Rick says to Morales, handing him the bloody axe. I put my arm in front of my mouth, thinking that it will stop me from being sick.
"I am so gonna hurl." Glenn says and I nod in agreement.
"Later." Rick comments on Glenn.
Morales starts to hack away and I hunch over, prepared to vomit on the floor.
"Everybody got gloves? Don't get any on your skin or in your eyes."
Then before I know it, I am being rubbed down in Wayne's insides.
"Oh God. Oh jeez. Oh this is bad. This is really bad…" I murmur, my stomach starts to churn. Nope, not good, I feel like I am definitely going to be sick.
"Think about something else." He tells me as Glenn grabs some intestines and rubs it on my arms. "Puppies and kittens." I try to think about the cute creatures.
"Dead puppies and kittens." said T-Dog.
And…I'm gone. I throw up on the floor, being sick is something I haven't done in a while and I wanted to keep it that way, because I really hate throwing up.
"That is evil. What is wrong with you?" Andrea asks T-Dog.
"Next time let the cracker beat his ass." I hear Jacqui say. I stand up straight and I hear my back click.
"I'm sorry, yo."
"You suck." I say.
"Do we smell like them?" Rick asks.
"Oh yeah." Andrea replies.
"Good. This better work." I say.
"If we make it back, be ready."
"What about Merle Dixon?"
Rick tosses him the handcuff key, which he catches.
"Give me the axe." Rick says to Morales, extending his hand. When it's in his hands we says: "We need more guts." And proceeds to chop again and I feel like I will hurl again. And if I do, I will aim it at Rick for making me do this.
We walk out, almost covered head to toe in blood and guts, tears threaten to come out my eyes because I am so bloody terrified. I shuffle slowly and so does Rick. I hold the crowbar close to my chest.
Just follow his lead and you should be fine.
We manage to walk past two walkers that were too close to us. I briefly made eye-contact with the walkers. I'm uncomfortable with making eye-contact with living humans, so I was petrified when I looked into the dead eyes of a human. They didn't suspect a thing, they could smell the dead on us. Hope rises inside of me.
Rick and I get to a bus that we have to crawl under. When we came out, I wanted to crawl back under. A huge hoard of walkers were waiting for us.
I carefully make my way past the dead, shuffling my feet, keeping my arms loose.
Please don't eat us.
We are progressing our way through the hoard. "It's gonna work. I cant believe it." I whisper to him, being quiet is something I have mastered.
"Don't draw attention." He whispers back.
Thunder then starts to rumble above us. Not good. Thunder means rain. I look up at the sky that use to be blue, not a cloud there. The sky is now grey, sombre. Full of sadness.
The rain then starts to fall.
I try not to panic and I can see that Rick is trying not to freak-out either. We continue to walk at our pace. I start getting cold and wet. I look down at my coat, the guts are starting to wash off.
The walkers start to get whiffs of life radiating from us. They start to become more aggressive, but I try to ignore, which is probably one of the most hardest things I have ever had to do.
"The smell…it's…it's washing off, isn't it?"
"No. It's not." Rick reassures me. "Well, maybe." Okay, so much for that.
As we continue to walk, the walkers indeed start to realise that we are in fact alive. And they are probably smelling our delicious flesh that they can't wait to devourer.
One starts to charge and I make a small squeaking noise, absolutely terrified that I will die here, but Rick smashes its skull in with his axe.
"Run!" He yells at me. And I don't think twice.
I am reluctant to kill walkers with the crowbar in my hand, but when a female gets to close, I whack it across the head, making a sharp snapping noise before collapsing. I can hear Rick killing many and I kill two. All I can hear are groans, moans and heavy rain falling around us.
We are getting so close to the fence. It's almost in our reach. I toss my crowbar right over the fence and Rick does the same with his axe. I grab onto the fence and push myself up. I climb as fast as I can and so does Rick. I jump down and grab my crowbar.
I start my hurried search for the keys of the truck, whilst Rick is putting down geeks with Merles pistol who are attempting to climb over the fence. I find the keys.
"Rick!" I shout and chuck them to Rick.
We both enter the truck simultaneously and I look out the front window to see walkers climbing over the fence, running after us. Rick puts the keys in the ignition and one of the geeks get to my window and starts to try and break it.
"Go go go go go go!"
And the two of us speed away before the walkers catch up to us.
"Oh my God. Oh my God. They're all over that place."
"You need to draw them away. Those roll-up doors at the front of the store…that area? That's what I need cleared. Raise your friends. Tell them to get down there and be ready." Rick tells me. I feel completely lost.
"And I'm drawing the geeks away how? I seemed to have missed that part."
"Noise."
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