The man on the radio sighed in relief, "There you are. . .You had me wondering."

"Where are you? Outside? Can you see us right now?"

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

"There's good news. . .?" Rick's voice was full of doubt.

"No. . ." The man sighed.

"Listen, whoever you are. I don't mind telling you, I'm a little concerned in here."

"Oh man. . You should see from over here. . ! You'd be having a major freak out."

"You got any advice for us?"

"Yeah, I'd say make a run for it."

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

"My plan isn't as dumb as it sounds, you got eyes on the outside here. There's one geek outside on top of the tank, but the others outside have joined the feeding frenzy when the horses went done. You with me so far?"

"So far."

"Okay, the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you guys move now while they're distracted you stand a chance. You got ammo?"

"In that duffel bag I dropped out there and gun, can I get to it?"

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

"Hang on." I gave Rick the gun I found off the walker and showed him the guns Kira and I used in the shooting range, and he also had a gun. "I got a burnside with one clip - 15 rounds."

"Make them count. Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There's an alley up that street, 50 yards. Be there."

"Hey. . . What's your name?"

"Have you been listening?! You're running out of time!"

Rick handed me a shovel and I handed Kira my gun, knowing she didn't have enough strength to hit them head on with a shovel."Make your shots count, aim for the head, but only if you have to shoot. Kira nodded. I went up the hatch first, I saw the walker that the guy was talking about, I hit it in the head and it fell off the tank. I reached out and helped Kira out of the tank and we carefully jumped off of it, trying not to make too much noise. Rick got in front of us, he began shooting at walkers while we were running towards the alley-way. When we got there, Rick was about to shoot at him, "Wait! Don't shoot! Common!" We ran down the alley-way. "Faster!" The guy yelled at us. When we made it to a yellow ladder he started to climb up it, I pushed Kira up the ladder so Rick and I would get up there in time.

When we got to a little platform halfway up, we stopped to take a breather. "Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood. . . You the new sheriff? Come riding in to clean the town?"

Rick shook his head, "Wasn't my intention.

He rolled his eyes, "Yeah, whatever, yeehaw. . You're still a dumbass."

"Rick. . Thanks," He held out his hand to the man.

"Glenn. . And you're welcome," They shook hands.

I held out my hand as well, "I'm Jade." We shook hands. I motioned my hand towards Kira, "And this is Kira."

"Hey, Kira" He gave Kira a weak smile. He looked down the ladder to see some of the walkers were trying to climb up it. "Oh no. . ."

We all looked up to see how much farther the ladder was. "Bright side," Glenn said, "It'll be the fall that'll kill us. . . I'm a glass half-full kinda guy. I could feel Kira tense up next to me. "It's okay, I'll be right behind you," I whispered. Glenn was the first up the ladder, then Kira, myself and then Rick. When we got to the top of the ladder we had to go through an empty room, when we got to the door on the other side there was a board, it connected to the other roof. "You the one who barricaded the alley?" Rick asked as we all walked over the board and to the other side. "Somebody did," Glenn grunted as he and Rick lifted themselves over the half wall to get to the top of the other roof. I lifted Kira up and over it and then myself. "I guess when the city got overrun whoever did it was thinking, not many geeks get through," Glenn started to run. I grabbed Kira's hand and started running so we wouldn't get left behind.

Glenn opened a hatch that was on the floor of the roof, Rick held it open. "Back at the tank. . . Why did you help us?" Rick asked as Glenn took off his backpack and threw it down the hole. "Foolish naive hope that if I'm ever that far up shit creek somebody might do the same for me. I guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you guys." Glenn started to go down the ladder, I went next, then Kira and lastly Rick. When we got to the bottom the ladder I helped Kira down and held her hand again. Glenn started running again so we did the same. Glenn shoved open a door and began doing down steps, we followed on his heels as he began to talk into a walkie-talkie. "I'm back! Got a few guests. . ! There's four geeks in the alley!"

When we got down the flight of stairs we saw some walkers. I jumped when I heard a door slam open suddenly, to people came out wearing baseball gear and began to beat in their skulls. "Let's go!" Glenn yelled as we passed them. I held Kira's hand tightly as we passed them and entered the room. As soon as the door closed and everybody was in all I hear is someone yelling, "You son of a bitch! I oughta kill you!" I turn around to see a gun being pointed at Rick, I push Kira behind me as she grabbed at my shirt. One of the people who was wearing the baseball gear said, "Just chill out, Andrea! Back off." They began to take off their gear.

"You're kidding. . . Right, Morales?! We're dead because of these stupid assholes. . ."

Morales stepped closer to Andrea, "Andrea. . ! I said back the hell up!"

". . ." She kept silent.

"Pull the trigger then!" He yelled.

Andrea put the gun down and began to get teary eyed, "We're dead. . . All of us. . .Because of you guys. . ."

I began to relax a little when Andrea put down her gun, but I was still uneasy about what was going to happen next. "I don't understand. . ." Rick mumbled as he looked around at all the people in Glenn's group. Glenn quickly introduced everybody that was in the room, "This is Morales, Andrea, Jacquie, and T-Dog. Everybody this is Rick, Jade, and Kira." We all nodded at each other. "Look," Morales said as he grabbed Rick's arm and led him somewhere, everyone followed, "We came into the city to scavenge supplies, you know the key to scavenging is? Surviving. You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out! Tip toeing! Not shootin' up the streets!" Jacqui began to talk, "Every geek within miles heard you poppin' off!" Andrea let out a shaky sigh, "You just ran the dinner bell. . ." We all looked out the door of the store and saw a hoard of walkers beating on the door. We all backed up a little and I kept Kira close to me.

Andrea looked at us with a concerned expression, "What the hell were you guys doing out there anyway?" "Trying to flag down the helicopter. . ." Rick answered. They all look at him with a weird look, "Helicopter? Man, that's crap! There ain't no helicopter out there," Morales said. "I saw it," Rick argued. "Maybe it was a hallucination," Jacqui said. I stepped in, "It wasn't we all saw it, even ask Kira. How could we have hallucinated the same thing. . . ?" They didn't say anything, but they were thinking about the possibilities. "Hey, T-Dog. Try that c.b. can you contact the others?"

"Others?" Rick and I asked curiously. "The refugee center?"

"Yeeah, the refugee center. They got biscuits waiting in the oven for us. . ." Jacqui said, sarcastically.

T-Dog sighed, "No signal. . . Maybe the roof."

All of sudden we heard a loud boom.

Andrea sighed and groaned, "Oh no. . . Was that Dixon. . ?"

Glenn's group began to run somewhere. "Let's go!" Someone shouted. I grabbed Kira's hand tightly and followed right behind them. They opened a door with a long flight of stairs. I sighed and mumbled, "When will the stairs end. . . ?" I tightened my grip on Kira, "Common, Kira. Let's try not to fall behind." You could tell she was tired from all the running and the stairs. As we kept going up the stairs you could hear more gunshots. Great, I guess that means more walkers. When we got up all the steps and pushed open the door Morales yelled, "Hey, Dixon! Are you crazy?!" All the Dixon guy did was laugh and shoot again. Andrea sighed, "Oh come on. . !" He was still laughing, "Heey! You oughta be more polite to a man with a gun, huh?" He jumped off the ledge of the room and started walking around everyone, "Only common sense."

T-Dog started walking towards Dixon, "Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got! And you bringin' more of them down here on our ass, man just chill!"

"Hey! Bad enough I've got this taco bender on my ass all day," Dixon complained, "Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so. That'll be the day. . ."

T-Dog got up in Dixon's face, "That'll be that day?! You got something you wanna tell me!?"

"Hey, T-Dog. Man, just leave it. . ." Morales said.

"No!"

"Common, man. It ain't worth it. Now Merle just relax. . . Okay? We've got enough trouble."

Rick and I looked at Glenn, but all he did was shake his head. I grabbed Kira's hand and took her to a spot away from the others, we could still hear them arguing. "Stay here, Kira. I don't want you in this right now. Just in case something goes wrong. . . You'll be safe. That man. . . That man doesn't seem stable and I don't want you to get hurt." Kira nodded her head as she sat down on the ground. I bent over and gave her a kiss on the top of her head, as soon as I turned around I saw Rick being punched in the face by Merle. "Rick! No!" I ran towards him and helped him up, "Are you okay?" I looked at him with a worried expression and looked to see if there was any major damage. He stood in shock for a minute, I turned to see what was going on now. They were screaming for Merle to stop, he was on T-Dog. I rushed over to Merle and tried to pull him off of T-Dog but he elbowed me in the stomach with what seemed like with all of his strength.

I grabbed my stomach and leaned against the ledge. I gasped for air, I could hardly breathe and it felt like I had to puke. I heard Kira running over to me calling my name. I squeezed my eyes for a second and when I opened them I saw Kira in front of me and with tears in her eyes. She kept pulling at my shirt, I rubbed her head gently, "It's okay, Kira. ." I looked around to see what was going on now, Rick was right beside me and the others were around T-Dog. Rick looked at me with concern but I gave him a little smile and nodded to show him everything was alright, even though my stomach was sore. Merle began to talk and all eyes were on him, "Let's talk about who's in charge! I wrote me! Anybody else?! Democracy time, ya'll. Show of hand. All in favor? Common, let's see em!" Glenn, Andrea, and Jacqui raised their hands except for T-Dog, who was in too much pain at the moment. "Now. . That means I'm the boss, right? Now. . . Anybody else. . .? Hmm? Anybody?" Rick walked his way towards Merle, "Yeah. Me." Merle turned around and Rick hit him in the face with the butt of his gun and he fell to the ground. He grabbed one of Merle's hands and handcuffed it to a pipe. "Who are you!?" Merle yelled. "Officer Friendly. . ." Rick replied.

I turned to Kira, "Go back to where you were, okay?" She shook her head and buried her face into my stomach, I flinched at the pain. "I'm sorry! Did I hurt you?!" Kira's eyes were filled with tears again. "It's fine, Monkey. I'm fine, don't worry. Just. . . please go back over there. I don't want you to get hurt." She went back over there reluctantly, and I went over by the others. I saw Rick with a gun pointed to Merle's head, "You oughta be polite to a man with a gun. . . Only common sense."

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

"All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. . Anybody gets in the way of that is gonna lose. . I'll give you a moment to think about that." I got butterflies in my stomach when he said that, even though I wasn't anything special to Rick it made me wonder if I would ever meet someone who would ever feel that way about me. Rick began to search Merle and found some cocaine. "You still got some on your nose," he said as he flicked it.

"What're you gonna do? Arrest me?" Merle began to laugh.

Rick got up and threw it over the roof.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING MAN?! THAT'S MY STUFF! HEY! IF I GET LOOSE YOU BETTER PRAY!" He tried pulling free from the pipe. "YOU HEAR ME?! YOU PIG!"

Rick walked to one side of the roof and leaned on the ledge, "Yeah. . . Your voice carries." Morales went over to Rick side and began talking to him.