Part 2! Hope you like it! You can play any song you like from the 70's or 80s for the scene that mentions music, but I personally imagine it as Come and Get Your Love by Redbone, a little Guardians of the Galaxy inspired. I do not own the Walking Dead, if it did it would have little to no plot and no one would watch it. Anything you don't recognize belongs to me.
Birds were still out tweeting, kids in the streets running and yelling trying to avoid going home, the sun was setting a beautiful gold over the city skyline - or at least, that was how the Georgia evenings used to look. No one could exactly say the same now.
Birds hardly ever made a sound, there weren't enough kids to fill a street, and if there was, they certainly wouldn't be running and yelling in happiness. The sun still sets a gold over the city, but now it emanates a certain feeling of glum and doom, rather then showcase the beauty of the state.
Heavy footsteps made their quick way towards Bran's Pharmacy. It wasn't the ideal location, but for the set up inside and the security already done to the building it would have to do. Dead walkers surrounded the front, which normally would have been cleaned up. But they looked vaguely threatening especially when dusk would set in. Kind of a, "don't fuck with me I killed all these" sort of vibe.
To the untrained eye it seemed as if there was no way in except for the front door, which was guarded by a wooden piece set up to keep it shut. Right near the back a pile of dead walkers sat a top of an entrance to the basement. Why it was build in the first place is unknown, but it was convenient none the less.
All that had to be done was move one particular one out of the way, push the door open, climb inside, move the walker back into position and close the door back up. It was a bit of a task, but a life saver when it came to keeping it safe from other people.
The basement was dark. A slight drip was leaking from a pipe somewhere in a dark corner, and a single light bulb had been recently wired up to give the place enough lighting to see.
Not that anyone could see well through this mask, but it was intimidating enough to warrent wearing it outside. But it was inside and suddenly the mask, the hood and the coat was far too heavy.
Pulling it off slowly, a giant breathe was taken along with a cough. "Fuck it smells down here."
The stairs smelt better. She had no idea why the basement smelled, but she had no intention of finding out why. No walkers were down there nor were any living people, so she would just have to live with it. No need meddling down in the dark more then she had too.
The second floor was where she called home. It was a place she was used too. It once held more life then just a lone woman, but now it was just her, her weapons, her supplies, and whatever she managed to hook up with a generator or two.
Talia had that on her. She knew how to work a generator, get some power. She used it minimally, but she was happy it was still working.
Powering a generator wasn't the only thing she had that made her happy. It was the thing sitting on the table that did it too. A little mp3 player. It didn't hold much being as old as it was, but she loved it none the less. Made the quiet a little less frightening.
Both ear buds went in, the power was on, and the play button was pushed. Presto. Talia was once again in her own little world. Whoever it belonged to before had put a collection of old music on here, but it was something. She wasn't complaining. It made her feel warm.
And thus began her routine for the evening. Making sure the generators on the third and fourth floor were still powering, had enough juice in them. Checking all the lights for power, and making sure each security camera she managed to wire up still would work if she were to turn it on.
The supply room was next. Talia walked the aisles of food and medicine with a spring in her step. Maybe mouthing some of the words of the song she didn't recognize, but had heard countless times.
She jumped onto a box and spun a little with her arms spread out, singing the chorus out to herself, moving her body back and forth. Less representing a 20 something woman dancing in a club, and looked far more like a dad who had far too much to drink at the family barbeque.
Talia counted in her head what number of which item should be there, and it always was. There weren't many people in the area to raid this place, and she had rigged the place up with traps to try and catch them anyway.
As the song continued so did Talia. 'Moving and grooving' as her mother would have called it, song still playing in her ears. She made her way towards the main are where her stuff sat to settle for the night to eat and seep.
That's when she sound hit her ears. A slam.
She whipped around pulling out her earbuds to try and recognize the sound. The front door. Someone had pulled out the wooden block and opened the door. It had broken a long time ago, and she had set up the wood so that it would stay shut as long as no one turned the knob.
Someone was inside the building. Talia all but ran towards the main room where she had a crappy monitor all set up. It looked like it was from the 80's, but it worked. Her generators could support how little power it needed.
She turned it on and immediately scrolled through the camera feeds on different floors. Her brain was in a panic, she wasn't even breathing. Just holding her breath looking for whichever was the first floor.
Then she found it. The camera on the first floor beeped on and gave her a live feed.
"Oh fuck fuck fuck...shit.." Talia muttered to herself. She didn't recognize the face. It was a tall man with a slight beard. She looked at the other two also in the view of the camera.
There is what looked like a child, and another one with a cross bow.
"Crossbow..." She zoomed in just enough to see him. The bearded man had spotted the camera and was walking towards it to get a better look, but Talia just stared. She knew the other man. She knew him all too well.
If he was here, then that mean's Merle wasn't far off. Thick was thieves they were, Talia remembered that very well. The first man was about to spring the shelves in the rafters but Talia didn't care.
Flinging on all her gear, coat, hood, mask, she grabbed her gun and run down the stairs. Luck was on her side. The kid was within grabbing distance.
An opportunity. So she took it. He was stronger than she expected him to be, and he yelled out a mighty "Let me go!" He had a gun, but she had one too. And Talia's was facing the kids head. The bearded one who sprang the trap was the first to respond.
"LET HIM GO, NOW." He was angry. The dad, that was an easy one to pin.
Daryl was right beside him. She had no idea who either of those people were, but they were no good if that piece of redneck trash was with them. Talia didn't waste the short time she knew she had to deal with this.
"Dad!" Yep. He was the dad alright, and she was holding a gun to his kids head.
"You let my son go RIGHT now or I will shoot you!" This guy didn't even bother to waste his time bargaining with her. She didn't blame him. She was fully aware of how intimidating all this gear made her look.
"Where is he?" She asked the trio, it may have been to vague. Their very next question would be who, but at this point Talia was way to beyond terrified to think rationally about what she was going to say.
"Where's who?" She had half a mind to shoot Daryl right there. Her hand pulled the kid closer towards the gun on instinct of that thought.
"You know who. Where is he."
The bearded man took a step towards his son. Talia pushed the gun closer to his head more intentionally. "We don't know who you're talking about. Just give me my son and we'll leave you alone."
Ah. There was the more desperate bargaining Talia was looking for on the first try. Still. It wasn't the answer she wanted. She was going to have to be a little more threatening.
"If you don't tell me where he is I'll shoot the boy right in front of you!" In retrospective, Talia had no idea whether or not she'd actually do it in the heat of the moment, or if she was just blowing smoke directly out of her ass for the sake of being dramatic.
"Where is WHO?" The man yelled.
She had enough. She shifted her weight just enough to grab the struggling kid and hold him against her chest tightly so he couldn't escape.
Her gun was now pointed directly at Daryl, who looked rightly confused like the fucking idiot he always was. If these guys were going to yell at her, she was going to yell back.
"YOU'RE BROTHER. WHERE'S YOUR BROTHER YOU PIECE OF SHIT?!"