Chapter Fourteen: Escape
Escape: break free from confinement or control.
Day 60
There was a succession of smashes as the walkers burst through the front doors of the store, glass raining down onto the ground, and then heavy thuds as they slammed against the second wall of doors, the growling and moaning growing louder. Daisy, Glenn and Jacqui ran up behind the rest of the group, slimy green footprints following after them in tracks.
"What'd you find down there?" Rick asked the pair behind him, gun raised towards the walkers crowded around the doors.
"Not a way out." Daisy said quietly, nose wrinkling in accusation at the walker that had scared her and Glenn onto their asses.
"We need to find a way." Andrea stressed, Daisy's eyes narrowed in agreement.
"Soon." Jacqui added.
Sometime later the group reconvened on the rooftop, joining the bickering T-Dog and Merle. Above them the heavy, dark clouds rumbled with thunder and they tried to manage some idea of escape. After some futile epiphany-seeking, the rest of the group followed after Rick who was looking through some binoculars at the street below.
"That construction site, those trucks. They always keep keys on hand."
"They'll never make it past the walkers." Morales argued resignedly.
"You got me outta that tank." Rick looked over at Glenn.
"Yeah, but they were feeding. They were distracted."
"Can we distract them again?"
"Right! Listen to him, he's onto something." Merle piped over from where he was still handcuffed. "A diversion, like on Hogan's Heroes."
"God, give it a rest." Jacqui scoffed at him.
"They're drawn by sound, right?" Rick continued.
"Right, like dogs. They hear sound, they come."
"What else?"
"Aside from they hear you? They see you, smell you and if they catch you, they eat you."
"They can tell us by smell?" Rick questioned.
"Can't you?"
"They smell dead, we don't. It's pretty distinct." Andrea surmised.
Daisy narrowed her eyes as Rick took in that information, suddenly aware of the shit storm he was about to bring the group into.
After suiting up in big, white coats, Glenn and Rick were ready to become walker-fied. They had dragged in the two deceased walkers from the alley that they had killed earlier and were going to cover the three unlucky souls in their entrails to cover any human scent.
Rick has his splash mask pulled down and an axe raised in hand, the group around him looking pale and apprehensive. He hesitated for a moment, then raised the axe high over the body…then dropped it on the floor along with his mask and knelt down to rummage around in the walker's pants pocket. He surfaced a wallet and opened it, revealing a less decomposed version of the face staring up at them.
"Wayne Dunlap." Rick stated quietly. "Georgia licence, born 1979. He had twenty dollars in his pocket when he died. And a picture of a pretty girl: 'with love, from Rachel.'" Rick sighed, the others looking at him with serious faces. "He used to be like us. Worrying about bills or the rent, or the Super Bowl. If I ever find my family, I'm gonna tell 'em about Wayne."
Rick closed the wallet and placed it snugly back into the pocket once more. He stood back up and took his axe and mask in hand, placing the latter protectively over his face.
"One more thing…he was an organ donor." Glenn added quietly.
Daisy's lip quirked up as she took in the creepiness of that statement, suppressing a larger, more hysterical smile. Across from her, Andrea looked at her with accusation as Rick began crashing the axe into the body, probably thinking Daisy to be some deranged gore fetishist. A particularly gory crunch sounded and everyone save Rick flinched away, Morales touching his chest in the cross.
"Ugh." Daisy grunted as a leg separated, only ligaments joining it to rest of the body. After copious amounts of chopping by Rick and Morales, the bodies were sufficiently opened and it had come time to smear the entrails.
So, Daisy and the rest of the group leant down with blue-gloved hands outstretched, and scooped up the blood and the guts from the walker's opened stomach cavity. There were copious moans and groans from the disgusted group, almost mimicking the sounds of the dead.
Daisy stood, cupped hands filled with blood, and moved over to Rick. Jacqui was patting red onto his coat, Daisy's hands joined hers. Rick and Daisy shared a long look.
"Long fucking day, huh?" Daisy mumbled to him with an amused smirk, he sighed in agreement. It had just been that morning that Daisy and Rick were kicking it with Morgan and Duane, it seemed a lifetime ago. Time started moving paradoxically fast after the world had ended.
"Oh god, oh jeez! This is bad!" Daisy looked over to see Glenn cringing as Andrea draped some of 'Wayne Dunlap's' intestines over his shoulders and she huffed a laugh, bending down to scoop up some more.
"Think about somethin' else." Rick suggested. "Puppies and kittens."
"Dead puppies and kittens." T-Dog added ominously, Daisy snorted a quiet laugh but then cringed as Glenn bent over and vomited with a heaving groan.
"That is just evil. What is wrong with you?" Andrea glared accusingly at T-Dog, then towards Daisy whose shoulders were jumping with silent laughter. Daisy just ignored her and splashed the remaining blood in her hands onto Rick's shoulders.
"We smell like them?" Rick asked.
"I'd say so…pretty rank!" Daisy muttered, nose crinkling at the smell of death, despite constant exposure she was not entirely used to it.
After Andrea gave Glenn her gun and Rick gave T-Dog the key to Merle's cuff, the plan was ready for action. Rick and Glenn had been sufficiently camouflaged in walker guts, bloody hands and feet hanging from their shoulders, so the two made their way out through the side door, Glenn being quite reluctant.
Daisy, Andrea, Jacqui, Morales and T-Dog raced back up the stairs to the roof, where they joined the sulking Merle.
"Hey, what's happenin'?" Merle called from where he sat.
"T-Dog, try that CB." The group ignored him.
"Hey, come on! Talk to me, y'all."
"Base camp, this is T-Dog. Anybody hear me?" T-Dog tried to raise the rest of their group but to no avail.
Daisy joined the others and looked out over the street, following Morales' arm as he pointed towards where he could see Glenn and Rick through the binoculars.
"That asshole's out on the street with the handcuff keys?" Merle cried, across from him T-Dog raised the key and waved it mockingly in the air. Down below Glenn and Rick were slowly limping through the crowd of walkers with no resistance; the plan was working.
As if their luck had finally turned, the static of the radio which T-Dog was using to try to raise their group gave way to a voice answering, "Hello, hello? Reception's bad on this end."
"Shane is that you?" T-Dog asked. Then he further explained that they were trapped in the department store, but not before too long the answering voice dissipated into more static.
A disappointed huff escaped from Daisy at the dashing of her hope, the rest of their group wasn't coming to save them. Her mood was reflected by the clouds above, which had spread and become darker, thunder rumbling louder. Daisy's nose twitched as tiny droplets began to hit her face, then her eyes widened as she realised what the rain meant.
"Oh, man." Morales groaned.
She looked down along with the group at Rick and Glenn, who were caught in the rain and very dependent on maintaining their walker appearance. Blood red puddles followed them as they stumbled through the crowd, their bloodied coats were becoming dark with the rain that was washing them clean of the walker scent.
"It's just a cloud burst! We get 'em all the time, it'll pass real quick." Morales said firmly, trying to maintain the hope that they were so quickly losing. Around the two on the street, the walkers were beginning to groan louder and their heads tilted towards them. Curious walkers ambled towards the ripening scent of human, Glenn and Rick slowing with caution.
One walker lunged at Rick, who quickly raised his axe and embedded it in its skull. Rick gave a shout, then he and Glenn ran the few remaining feet to the construction site. Daisy and the others watched with bated breath as they swung their respective axe and knife into the heads of the rowdy walkers.
"Come on, come on, come on." Morales muttered, Daisy shared his sentiment. After one last stretch, the two made it to the fence and both scaled it quickly and landed on the other side, shedding their bloody coats. Walkers crashed into the chain-link fence and scratched at the two from behind it, but they just ran to the awaiting truck, Rick backtracking to shoot the few walkers who had begun to scale the fence, then they entered it.
"Thank fuck!" Daisy exclaimed loudly, sighing loudly and slumping against the ledge. The others beside her shared similar exclamations, save Andrea who looked at Daisy with apprehension, as seemed custom for her. She looked back up to see the truck peeling off through another exit to the compound.
"They're leaving us!" Andrea cried. Daisy's shackled raised accordingly.
"What, what, what d'you mean?" Merle called out from behind them.
"No! They fucking aren't!" Daisy shouted at the hysterical group, each turning to look at her with a hopeless expression. "Rick's a honourable dude, they'll come around another way, or something. He's a cop for Christ's sake!" They didn't seem entirely believing of her, but quieted their panicking.
"Those roll up doors at the front of the store facing the street, meet us there and be ready!" Glenn's hurried voice called from the radio in T-Dog's hand. Daisy's eyes widened at the still group.
"Go, go!" She ordered, they all scrambled to pick up their supplies and backpacks.
"Come on, let's go!" Morales reiterated.
"Hey! You can't leave me here!" Merle cried from where he was handcuffed to the pipe. Daisy was the last in the group and looked down at him with wide eyes. "Morales, you can't leave me like this, man!"
"Hey, T!" Daisy shouted, prompting the man on the grate to turn and pause for a short while. She held her hand out for the key, which he reluctantly threw underhand towards her after a sneering look directed at Merle who was begging for his help. Daisy scrambled for it, then caught the tiny key against her stomach as T-Dog rushed after the others out the door. Anxious fingers shook as she knelt down next to the belligerent Merle, he held his arm out so the chain became taught, she quickly found the keyhole and unlocked it. Daisy then stood and pulled her backpack tight around her shoulders.
"Quick, man." She mumbled as she rushed after T-Dog, Merle right behind her. They rushed down the stairs for a final time and burst into the room with the others. Morales, Jacqui and Andrea had their hands poised around the chain that would pull the roller door up, heads turned to listen for the arrival of the truck.
Daisy panted as she leant against the wall, one hand coming up to scrub some curls off of her forehead. She looked up with the others as a sound began to blare throughout the street outside. A car siren grew louder and louder until it shot past them, then the squealing of tires on the road could be heard, the group looked around amongst themselves confusedly.
Shortly after that they heard a sharp rap on the door, they hurriedly raised it to reveal Rick beckoning them into the back of a truck. Bags were tossed up to Rick, then one by one they rushed in and pulled the door down as Rick started the truck. Moans steadily increased outside, but the truck started and the group left the dead behind.
Daisy gripped the floor of the truck as Rick pealed onto the street and turned sharply, bumping into T-Dog who was beside her. She muttered an apology and otherwise relaxed as they made their way through Atlanta towards their camp.
"You were gonna leave me on the goddamn roof, weren't ya?" Merle's sneering voice filled the back of the truck as he looked at T-Dog with accusation. T-Dog rose up in protest, the others looked at the two with confusion. "Hesitated!" He exclaimed. "'f't weren't fer Curly here, I woulda been eaten." He gave a dismissive nod of his head towards Daisy.
"I didn't unlock your cuffs so you could bitch about it, Merle Dixon!" Daisy said firmly, eyes wide and eyebrows raised in incredulity at his impertinence.
"Psh." Merle scoffed, but he did remain silent for the duration of the trip, so Daisy definitely counted that as a win.