AN: Here we go, another little chapter to keep us moving along.
We've still got a little while left at the quarry, but eventually we will be moving on from here.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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"Alice! Al!" Merle yelled into the back of one of the almost empty trucks that he knew the woman was working in.
"Fucking shit Merle!" Alice yelled back, coming to the opening. "Are you trying to burst my eardrums?"
Merle chuckled.
"Hop ya ass down," he said. "I need ya ass ta do somethin'."
Alice did hop out of the back of the truck, obviously bothered over the probable ringing in her ears.
"What do you want?" She asked.
Merle sucked his teeth.
"Want ya ass ta talk ta the nice po-lice officers," Merle responded.
Alice looked concerned now.
"Talk to them? About what?" She asked.
"Their damn safety around here," Merle said. "Daryl's out huntin' an' I left him a few minutes ta come back an' tell ya the damn back wires are down an' about half the side ones over there."
He pointed in the direction of the damage they noticed.
"Al, they don't get some shit up an' this whole damn place could be just crawlin' with Walkers like fleas they catch wind a' us," Merle said.
"So why don't you tell them?" Alice asked.
"Won't listen ta me an' they won't listen ta Daryl," Merle said honestly. He chuckled to himself. "Figure ain't neither damn one a' us got the brains ta figure out they pissin' on our feet an' sayin' it's rainin'. But you…you got that damn degree they so fuckin' amazed by. Tell 'em they 'bout ta fuck up an' feed the whole camp ta the nasty ass fuckers."
Alice sighed and walked around the truck to peek back toward the camp before she turned back to Merle.
"They won't listen to me either," Alice said. "I have a vagina. You know the kind of men that don't think women know what the hell they're talking about."
Merle chuckled.
He'd been one of those men, and maybe in some ways he still was, but he was coming around to thinking that it wasn't that women didn't know what the hell they were talking about, maybe it was just some women that didn't know what the hell they were doing.
Alice had a way of getting under his skin that not too many women ever had. He had no interest whatsoever in fucking her, yet she was interesting to him because she was unlike any woman that he'd ever really gotten to know before. He'd tell her to go to hell and she had no problem telling him to go first. He liked that kind of spunk.
"They'll listen to ya," Merle said blankly. "I heard you talk before…you don't stand for nobody not listenin'. Make this ya damn case if ya don't wanna die in ya sleep."
Alice curled her lip in a smile at him.
"Well if I'm going with you," she teased.
But then she turned and walked back to her position where she could see the camp.
"OK," she said. "I'll talk to them…but I want you to do a favor for me too."
"What the hell you want now?" Merle growled.
Alice turned around and smiled.
"Carol? The widow woman?" Alice asked.
Merle walked over and stood behind Alice so that he could see what she was looking at. From where she was standing, with the right angle, he could see almost everything that was happening at the upper part of the camp. He could see Carol, laughing and talking to Andrea about something, not too damn far from where the two cops were sitting not a foot apart talking to one another and drawing in the dirt with a stick like they'd had a decent ass plan in all the time they'd been there.
"What about her?" Merle asked.
"I want you to find out what Daryl thinks about her," Alice said.
Merle made a face at her.
"Fuck you," he remarked. "I ain't no damn matchmaker lookin' ta get my brother's dick wet…besides, though you had a thing for her."
Alice laughed softly and shook her head.
"She's not gay," Alice said. "A little of that goes a long way when you're talking about fucking and everything else. But…now that her husband's dead? She's probably going to be a hell of a lot like a butterfly."
"You done gone an' got too damn hot in the back a' that damn truck," Merle growled. "Fried ya damn brain an' now you ain't makin' no sense."
"People find their sexuality," Alice responded, "and when they do…they get pretty anxious. Talk to Daryl?"
"Fuck off, Al," Merle responded. "Just talk ta the damn cops."
He started to walk off.
"What if I could get you a chance with the blonde? With Andrea?" Alice responded.
Merle turned around.
"Merle Dixon gets his own damn pussy," he responded.
Alice smiled.
"You might, but you're used to the old hit and forget it, right? You think that shit's gonna fly at the end of the damn world, Merle? Look around. You're not looking for short term anymore. Short term's a given thing these days," Alice said. "I'm talking about giving you a shot at something better…provided you've got the balls to handle it and not fuck it up."
Merle didn't like the challenge that she introduced into her voice with the final words.
"Why the fuck you care?" He responded.
Alice grinned and shrugged.
"Turns out my soap operas don't come on anymore," Alice responded. "And I haven't seen a good tabloid magazine in months. What do you say? I'll talk to the cops and Andrea. All you've gotta do is see if Daryl is interested in that beautiful, majestic, butterfly over there."
Merle chuckled.
"Talk ta the fuckin' cops Al or I'll beat your ass," he called as he walked off.
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Alice knew that Merle would do what she'd asked him to do. He liked to pretend that he was one kind of asshole…but really she'd figured out that he was another kind altogether. He was the kind of asshole that wasn't really an asshole at all. He was like an M and M in human form. He had a shell, one that he put there because he thought it would protect him from anything and everyone, but it wasn't all that hard to get beneath the shell if you knew what you were doing.
And Alice had already figured out what to do. As long as she could keep him away from his artificial assholishness in the form of drugs and alcohol, Alice figured that there was hope for Merle Dixon at the end of the world.
And there was even more hope for Daryl. His shell wasn't even as hard as his brother's. In a lot of ways, in fact, Alice saw Daryl as the kind of person who was simply begging you with his eyes to force your way in. He wanted it, he just didn't want to admit it.
The cops, however, Rick and Shane, were different kinds of assholes.
Of the two of them, Alice felt more comfortable with Shane than she did with Rick. Shane was an asshole and he was potentially dangerous…he seemed like a loose cannon…but at least he wore his heart on his sleeve. If you watched long enough, you knew what cards he had in his hand without question. Rick, on the other hand, was harder to read and that made him more bothersome. Alice felt, in general, more comfortable with people that she could read, no matter their personality.
Going on her feelings about the cops, Alice approached Shane and got his attention. He turned toward her when he heard his name being called and smiled.
"What can I help you with this afternoon, Alice?" Shane asked.
"We have a problem," Alice said.
Shane looked around.
"With the trucks?" He asked.
She shook her head.
"Bigger problem than that," she said. "The wire barrier's down."
She pointed as she spoke.
"That side's down and part of that one," she said. "It wasn't much to begin with, honestly, in the way of protection. More than one Walker determined to walk through it could have. But with it down? We don't have any protection and we don't stand much of a chance. If they smell us, or whatever it is that they do, then we're all toast."
"You're a doctor," Shane said. "Or you say you are…see…I don't have any reason to believe you are, actually."
Alice laughed to herself.
"Damn me for forgetting my diploma in all of this," she said with a smile.
He smiled back, not a sincere one in the slightest.
"You're a doctor," he repeated, "so what the hell is it that's going on with these people…or the Walkers…what the hell's making them get up and do what they're doing?"
Alice swallowed and shrugged.
"I don't know," she said. "And as far as I know there wasn't a single doctor who did."
Shane sucked his teeth and rubbed his hand through his hair.
"See…Rick thinks we should move on," Shane said. "He thinks we should try to make it to the CDC, find out if they've got a cure…got some answers for us. Whatta you think about that? Bein' a doctor, and all?"
Alice chuckled again at the obvious challenge in his voice.
"I think if anyone knows what the hell is happening here," she answered, "they will probably know. Right now, though, I think the important thing is getting those wires back up and reinforcing them as best you can. Maybe some kind of alarm system wouldn't be a bad idea. If we're all dead, no one's making it to the CDC."
"Yeah…I heard you about that," Shane responded. "Rick and me will have a look at it. Get Glenn and Jim out there with us. It'll be repaired before the sun goes down. Don't you worry your pretty little head about that."
Alice smiled at him.
"OK," she said. "I won't…but reinforce it too? OK? I'm a heart surgeon…and I promise you that if I ever get the chance to cut you open and check on things? And I find a heart? I'll make sure it's working alright. But not even I can do a thing for you or anyone else if one of those Walkers gets their teeth on you."
Shane narrowed his eyes at her and then he recovered quickly enough and smiled.
"Yeah…get back to work," he said. "We might need those trucks for hauling stuff if we head out to the CDC to talk to someone who knows what the hell they're doing."
Alice nodded her head at him and turned, heading back toward the trucks.
She didn't know if the CDC was still standing. It was hard for her to believe that anything really was still standing or in place. When she'd left Atlanta, run out of the hospital by what they would have believed were people brought there to protect them but who had actually come to slaughter them all, Alice had pretty much decided that the world and anything they'd thought it to be was gone.
Civilization as they knew it was dead. The CDC would likely be the same deal.
But she knew that she'd never get the cops to understand that so it wasn't worth fighting over it. Let them go and see for themselves if it was gone. And if it wasn't? Then maybe they'd all get some answers, though there apparently weren't enough good answers to rid the woods of their Walker pals, and that was what concerned Alice the most at the moment. Whether they were here or on the road, it was no difference to any of them really. In the end it came down to running, and Alice wasn't afraid of the highway.