Chapter 8 – Divided
"Wasted no time, did they." I say, more than ask, coming up to Glenn as he sadly watched Dale, Morales, and Jim take apart the sports car.
Not gonna lie. Was wanting to sneakily use it for a minute to charge my new game system. But I was too late. Now I'm just standing here with my satchel bag watching this for no reason. Man, I'll just have to do it when we're on our way to the CDC tomorrow. But then I'll end up busting myself on my actions. Whatever, Shane can't win the argument about it since I was fine and he didn't realize it before. Some cop he is.
"No." Glenn huffs before complaining "Look at 'em. Vultures. Yeah, go on, strip it clean."
"Generators need every drop of fuel they can get. Got no power without it. Sorry, kids." Dale tells us as Rick comes over.
"Thought I'd get to drive it at least a few more days." Glenn complains.
"Maybe we'll get to steal another one someday." Rick says patting him on the back before asking "You doing alright Cat?"
"First morning yer back and yer worrying 'bout me? I'm fine. Go find Lori." I tell him not even looking at him while pointing in the direction she was.
"Yes ma'am." Rick says, in a teasing tone, before heading that way.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you were his wife." Glenn tells me then.
"Ha?" I breathe out looking at him like he was insane.
"Well, he did find you first thing. Don't you find that odd?" Glenn questions then.
"What's odd about it? We've known each other since I was born. We're practically siblings. He knows about my condition. Obviously, he's going to check on me." I tell him, still looking at him like he was insane.
"Condition." Glenn says slowly before rapid firing "That's right. I never asked why you've been in and out of pharmacies for nine years. Or why you had medication. But I didn't want to pressure you to tell me. Wait. Are you okay? Are you dying?"
"Not dying." I answer, feeling my face telling him to shut up, but he just continues rambling, with imitation voices and all, "You can't die. What'll I do if you die? You're like my only friend here. You're awesome you know? You had it all planned out. The moment they were distracted you snuck away from the group. You even gave Merle the note instead of leaving it somewhere. Man was he pissed off Rick took it from him with his drugs. He was all 'Hey! What are you doing? Man, that was my stuff! Hey! That ain't yers you pig! Girly gave it to me for that damned Chinaman! Hey! If I get loose, you better pray-Yeah, you hear men, you pig? You hear me?' Rick was all 'Yeah, your voice carries.' As he just gave it to me while we realized you weren't there. So as soon as I read it, I was like 'She was planning to go alone the whole time anyway. She's not dumb and I know where she went. It's near the edge of the city so she'll be fine.' Oh, I already told you that. I know you wrote it so we wouldn't try and find you. When we made the guts plan, I just knew that you took down a walker all on your own to use it for its guts. Still disgusting by the way. When that rain hit, I got worried that you were being trapped in that game store. So, after everyone else, well minus Merle, was escaping I went to pick you up. But you were just standing there fine, still covered in guts, and looking at me like you couldn't believe I was there. Of course, I would come get you when I knew where you were!"
"Glenn." I sigh out then as he finally takes a breath and starts breathing heavy.
This blasted cinnamon roll was something else.
"Yeah?" he breathes out, still breathing heavy.
"Thank you." I tell him with a small smile.
"Welcome." He responds getting a stupid grin on his face.
That's when Shane drives up to camp with the water.
"Water's here, y'all. Just a reminder to boil before use." Shane announces as soon as he stops the jeep and gets out.
"He seems fine." Glenn whispers then motioning in his direction.
"What are you getting at?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.
"Well…I kind of…overheard…" Glenn says slowly scratching the back of his neck and trailing off.
But before I could respond that's when a woman screamed.
Quickly followed by Carl screaming "Dad!" and a girl, probably Sophia, screaming for her mother.
I was sprinting to him before I realized it. He was fine in the original but what if?
"Carl!" I exclaim as soon as I got to the small clearing where the walker was still bent over eating the deer.
"Aunty Cat!" Carl shouts back.
"Are you okay?! Did it touch you?! Did it bite you?!" I exclaim falling to my knees as he breaks free from Jacqui and rushes over to me and quickly looking him over.
"I'm okay." Carl tells me quickly so I hug him to me, shaking slightly and breathing heavy.
He was okay. I wouldn't lose him.
"I'm okay." Carl repeats hugging me back.
I look up then and see that Rick, Shane, Glenn, Jim, and Morales are surrounding the walker as it slowly stands and roars at them. They immediately start beating it to the ground with their weapons so I slowly stand, and hand Carl off to Lori.
When she'd gotten next to me, I couldn't' have told you.
She immediately takes him away from the scene as the guys continue beating the walker on the ground. That's when Dale lifts his axe up over his shoulder and brings it down right on its neck, separating the head from its body. It rolls a bit away, stopping in front of me.
"It's the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain." Dale says then as I look down at the decapitated head with a frown before simply looking back up.
Though I know it's not totally killed, it's pretty much harmless now unless you're stupid and stick a body part near its mouth. Besides I was still catching my breath from sprinting and my knees were very angry, pulsing painfully. If I tried to crouch down to fully kill it, with the knife Merle gave me that I still had connected to my bag, not only would my knees protest that movement but I'd get stuck there and need help getting back up. I am not dealing with that right now. And I'm not too keen on changing the story like that since Daryl's supposed to fully kill it.
"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what." Jim says.
"Or it just followed the damn deer." I sigh out before I could stop myself earning a 'Yeah' look and nod in confirmation from Shane as he looked at said deer.
Damn habit of saying that when I saw this scene.
Then on cue a branch snaps and there's a rustle in the bushes so the guys aim their weapons at the spot ready.
Soon Daryl emerges, angry, and focused on the decapitated walker and dead deer allowing the guys to relax.
"Oh, Jesus." Dale breathes out as Daryl stalks over to the walker saying "Son of a bitch. That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this…" before he starts kicking the walker adding "Filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!"
"Calm down, son. That's not helping." Dale tries to calm him.
"What do you know about it, old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to 'On Golden Pond?'" Daryl snaps at him striding towards him before turning away, going to the deer, and starts pulling out his arrows adding "I've been tracking this deer for miles. Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think?" then air-tracing around the bitten part finishing "Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?"
"I would not risk that." Shane tells him, cop voice on and his arms still resting over his gun resting on his shoulders.
Daryl sighs before saying "That's a damn shame. I got some squirrel…" Looking around at us and motioning to the squirrels he had, hung from a rope on one shoulder, at his side before continuing "About a dozen or so. That'll have to do."
On cue the walker head starts snapping its jaw, still alive, causing me to look back down at it and grimace at it.
Oh, that's disturbing in person.
"Oh god." Amy breathes out behind me as Daryl questions "Come on, people. What the hell?" before his arrow pierces it in the eye, finally re-killing it.
Daryl then comes over, places a foot on the head, and pulls out his arrow saying "It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?"
"Not like it could've actually bit anyone like that." I mutter to myself quietly, finally stepping back from it and looking up again.
Daryl gives me a small, clearly amused, smirk but it's gone the next moment and he simply walks past me towards camp.
Shit. He heard me.
"You good?" Shane questions, both him and Rick pausing in following after Daryl, next to me.
"Just do your job." I answer in a huff while turning and heading back to camp myself.
They immediately follow and quickly pass me to catch up with Daryl.
Here we go.
"Merle! Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up." Daryl calls as soon as he breaks the trees into camp, soon followed by Shane and Rick.
"Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you." Shane tells him as I make it back into camp.
"About what?" Daryl questions, stopped turning towards Shane.
"About Merle. There was a…" Shane starts and walks in front of him, to stop him from going further into camp, continuing "There was a problem in Atlanta."
Daryl, his face hard, looks between him and Rick who'd stepped up closer to them before questioning "He dead?"
"We're not sure." Shane answers instantly earning an angry "He either is or he ain't!" from Daryl.
"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." Rick says walking up to him.
"Who are you?!" Daryl shouts whipping his attention to him.
"Rick Grimes." Rick says after a pause.
"Rick Grimes, you got something you want to tell me?" Daryl asks his eyes narrowing at him.
"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there." Rick tells him.
"Hold on." Daryl says turning around and wiping his face with an arm before making a circle motion with his hand at his head as he turns back to Rick continuing "Let me process this. You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?!" getting angrier with each word.
"Yeah." Rick answers looking down for a moment and immediately Daryl throws the squirrels at Rick and goes to attack him but Shane quickly shoulder checks him to the ground as Rick dodges the squirrels.
Daryl quickly pulls his knife and stand back up as T-Dog shouts "Hey! Watch the knife!"
Daryl then rushes forward and attempts to stab Rick earning an involuntary "Rick!" from me as I go to step forward but am stopped by a hand gently grabbing my arm.
I whip my head in the offender's direction ready to tell them off only to find it was Glenn and shut my mouth when he releases me, raises his hands in defense, and shakes his head at me.
"I'm fine." Rick says then so I turn my attention back to them to see that Shane had already gotten Daryl in the headlock.
"You'd best let me go!" Daryl shouts at Shane then as he forces him to his knees.
"Nah, I think it's better if I don't." Shane tells him, slightly tightening his hold on him, fully forcing him on his ass.
"Choke hold's illegal." Daryl grunts out.
"You can file a complaint. Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day." Shane tells him.
Rick then goes over and kneels in front of Daryl before telling him "I'd like to have a clam discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that?"
Daryl doesn't respond so Rick repeats "Do you think we can manage that?"
That's when Daryl sends his eyes in my direction before nodding.
My eyebrows shoot up in surprise at his attention on me as Shane lets him go.
Rick follows Daryl's gaze to me a moment before looking back at him and telling him "What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others."
"It's not Rick's fault. I had the key. I dropped it." T-Dog announces then stepping up to the three.
Daryl snaps his attention to him and angrily questions "You couldn't pick it up?"
"Well, I dropped it in a drain." T-Dog answers, guilty.
Daryl looks to the ground before standing up and telling T-Dog "If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't."
"Well, maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof…so the geeks couldn't get at him…with a padlock." T-Dog tells Daryl then.
"It's gotta count for something." Rick adds.
Daryl looks between the two of them before he wipes his face with the back of his hand.
Daryl then throws an arm up, motioning to everyone yelling "Hell with all y'all!" before looking back at Rick adding "Just tell me where he is so's I can go get him."
"He'll show you." Lori says then causing everyone to look at her before she adds "Isn't that right?"
Everyone looks to Rick then and he nods and confirms "I'm going back."
With that Daryl silently walks past him and retrieves his crossbow that was leaned against the cooking pit and stalked off to his and Merle's area.
Rick then goes over to retrieve his uniform before heading over to the Grimes tent, Shane following not far behind.
I release a sigh of relief then that these scenes proceeded almost identical to the original.
But why the hell did Daryl look to me before agreeing to calm down? The hell's up with that? If things are changing a bit does that mean people who originally survive till longer are in danger? Shane is competent in protecting himself. Rick too. But Carl and Glenn? Are Carl and Glenn in danger? Both are going to be in danger today. Glenn is part of the group that goes to rescue Merle and get the guns. Then Carl is here when the camp is attacked by walkers. They don't get killed in the original here but what if the little changes change that? What if Glenn gets kidnapped by someone other than the Vatos? What if the Vatos aren't the good people they were in the original? What if instead of protecting Carl Shane protects me? He has shown that I'm his first priority more than once.
Hold on. If I go, I can make sure Glenn is safe and Shane will protect Carl like the original since I'll be out of the equation. And when we get back, I can just stick by Rick so I'll be fine. Also, Merle did help me out so I least I could do is join the rescue party. And if I go, I can see if anything changed with Merle escaping by me having killed that walker. I can also make sure they don't notice the walker I killed so I don't get the earful from Rick.
"You're thinking of going aren't you." Glenn says then snapping me out of my thoughts.
I glance at him before looking back at the Grimes tent and Shane waiting outside answering with a soft "Yeah."
"If you go, I go." Glenn says then, determination in his voice.
I look at him again with a small smile and tell him "Exactly."
"Wait." Glenn says then looking at me, the wheels in his head clearly turning, before sighing out "Rick's going to ask me to go with them, isn't he?"
"Obviously." I tell him before looking back at the Grimes tent and Shane waiting outside adding "Besides, shouldn't I go anyway?"
"I guess Merle did help you out twice." Glenn mutters as Rick emerges from the tent, uniform on, and simply walks past the waiting Shane.
"So that's it, huh? You're just gonna walk off? Just to hell with everybody else?" Shane questions following after him.
"I'm not saying to hell with anybody. Not you or Cat, Shane. Lori least of all." Rick tells him.
"Tell her that." Shane practically orders him.
"She knows." Rick states coming to a stop in front of us.
"Well, look, I…I don't okay, Rick? So, could you just…Could you throw me a bone here, man? Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?" Shane questions, almost pleading with Rick, stopping himself.
"Hey, choose your words more carefully." Daryl warns standing up from where he was crouched down right next to where Shane had stopped.
When the hell he got back over here I couldn't have told you…Shit he definitely overheard Glenn and I.
"No, I did. Douche bag's what I meant." Shane tells Daryl before looking back at Rick adding "Merle Dixon, the guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst."
"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me." Rick snaps looking at Shane, like he couldn't believe he was saying that to him, before continuing "I can't let a man die of thirst…me. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being."
On cue Lori asks "So, you and Daryl, that's your big plan?"
Rick turns and looks right at Glenn, asking with his face.
"Oh, come on." Glenn almost wines.
"You know the way. You've been there before, in and out, no problem. You said so yourself. It's not fair of me to ask, I know that. But I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too." Rick says then, finishing while motioning to Lori.
Glenn then sighs "You so called it."
"Yeah. So, I'm going too." I say like it was obvious while nodding.
"No." Shane refuses instantly giving me a look.
"I'm going Shane." I tell them, returning it.
"No, you're not going." Shane argues, crossing his arms over his chest, holding firm.
"I am." I tell him, crossing my arms over my chest, holding firm myself.
"It's her decision and she's more than capable." Rick says then.
"She's my sister." Shane snaps at him.
"I'm going with her." Rick tells him then.
Shane releases a frustrated sound before dragging a hand over his face with a sigh before accusing "That's just great. Now you're gonna risk four people, huh? My sister included."
Guess he gave up trying to convince me and turned to trying to convince Rick not to go at all.
"Five." T-Dog announces then, stepping up to the group.
Instantly Daryl huffs and sarcastically says "My day just gets better and better, don't it?"
"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?" T-Dog questions.
"Why you?" Daryl asks, practically growling.
"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language." T-Dog answers, simply.
"That's five." Dale says and instantly Shane jumps in "It's not just five. You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick. Come on, you saw that walker. It was here. It was in camp. They're moving out of the cities. They come back; we need every able body we've got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp."
"It seems to me what you really need most here are more guns." Rick tells him then.
"Right, the guns." Glenn adds causing Shane to pause a moment before questioning "Wait. What guns?"
"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up." Rick answers, confident.
"Ammo?" Shane questions then, slightly interested now like in the original.
"700 rounds, assorted." Rick answers.
"You went through hell to find us. You just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?" Lori jumps in then causing Carl to say "Dad, Aunty Cat, I don't want you to go."
"To hell with the guns. Shane is right. Merle Dixon? He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in. Tell me. Make me understand." Lori adds stepping up to Rick.
Like the original when Shane started showing interest in letting Rick go, she jumps in.
"I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy. Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta. They'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn him." Rick explains going over to her.
They don't make it to the city but I shouldn't know that. I shouldn't know that Duane gets killed by his own walker mother when Morgan couldn't put her down. Obviously, I couldn't tell him, or anyone else, that.
"What's stopping you?" Lori asks, her tone blaming.
"The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag I dropped. He's got the other one. Our plan was to connect when they got closer." Rick answers.
"These are our walkies?" Shane questions in a sigh.
"Yeah…" Rick answers trailing off.
"So, use the CB. What's wrong with that?" Andrea jumps in.
"The CB's fine. It's the walkies that suck to crap…Date back to the '70s, don't match any other bandwidth… Not even the scanners in our cars." Shane explains, frustrated.
He's lost in convincing either of us not to go. And now with this information he'll look like the douche bag for still refusing. That and he was interested in the guns.
"I need that bag." Rick says before going and kneeling in front of Carl asking "Okay?"
Carl nods and Rick tells him "All right." Before patting on the head and standing up.
Rick then heads over to Dale and Jim so Carl looks at me then, begging me with his eyes to change my mind.
I sigh, walk over to him, and kneel down in front of him.
"Why? Why do you have to go too?" Carl questions sadly.
"We can't let your dad go on his own, can we?" I ask him, giving a small smile.
"Okay." Carl says before flinging his arms around my neck in a tight hug, with everything he had, adding "You have to come back."
"Of course." I answer hugging him back.
Carl releases me and giggles when I ruffle his hair.
"I get it. I do." Shane tells me softly while looking down, at the ground and not me, his face serious, as he then offered a hand to help me up.
"Do you?" I question as I take his hand.
"I do." Shane repeats looking at me seriously as he pulls me up before sighing, his face turning into the protective brother face, the hold on my hand tightening, and adding "If you're not back by the morning I'm coming to get you."
I release a huff of a laugh before telling him "Don't need you to." While pulling my hand free.
"I know." Shane sighs out
That's when there's the sound of a horn followed by Daryl yelling "Come on, let's go!"
"Come on. I'll see you guys off." Shane says, his face changing to conflicted,
"I'll come back." I tell him, with a small smile, as we start walking to the van.
"I know." Shane repeats in a sigh before calling out to Rick "Hey, Rick, got any rounds in the Python?" pausing to pull his gun duffle bag from the jeep.
Rick stops from climbing into the van, turns to us and says "No." while T-Dog continues climbing into the van.
"Last time we were on the gun range, I'm sure I wound up with a few loose rounds of yours." Shane tells him when we get there before plopping the bag on the bumper step unzipping it.
"You and that bag, like the bottom of an old lady's purse." Rick tells him, in an almost teasing tone.
"I hate that you're doing this." Shane says before looking at me adding "Both of you." Then looking back into the bag continuing "I get it. But I think that it's foolish and reckless. So, if you're gonna go, you're taking bullets."
"I'm not sure I'd want to fire a shot in the city, not after what happened last time." Rick says.
"It's a last resort in the city. A single shot and scadoodle like your life depends on it. Cuz' it does." I tell them both.
"That's up to you." Shane says with a nod before pulling out his hand and opening it, revealing five bullets instead of four like the original, before adding "Well…five people, five rounds. What are the odds, huh? Well, let's just hope that a-let's just hope that five is your lucky number, okay?"
"Thank you." Rick says when Shane hands them to him as I mutter "My lucky number ain't five." While wondering if the original had five and Shane just gave him four or if this was changed as well.
"All right." Shane says picking his bag back up.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do." I tell Shane while slapping my hand on his arm before using him to help myself climb up into the van.
"I love you too." Shane says, his cheeky brother tone active.
"Shut up." I huff plopping myself on the floor of the van behind Glenn, who was in the driver seat, and slide my eyes to watch the two.
"If she doesn't come back, I'll make sure you die for real." Shane warns Rick then, his face almost deadly.
"I don't expect anything less. But she'll come back. She's like a sister to me too." Rick tells him, his face serious, before climbing into the van himself.
"I know." Shane responds, his face conflicted, as he steps back from the van.
Shane then sends a nod my way so I return it before T-dog and Rick close the back of the van.
Glenn starts driving then so T-Dog sits opposite me as Rick goes into the passenger seat.
Wait…if T-Dog is there…That means…
My thoughts trailing off as I slide my attention away from Rick, to T-Dog, then to Daryl. Who was in fact sitting next to me. Yup, I knew it. I should've just taken Rick's spot in the passenger seat. A: this was uncomfortable being this close to him, B: the floor was uncomfortable, and C: the passenger seat would solve both problems.
Having probably felt my eyes on him, Daryl's eyes slide to me then causing him to grunt out a semi-angry "What?"
"I should've sat in the passenger seat." I tell him turning my attention back to Rick.
"W-" Daryl starts, angry, but is quickly cut off by Rick worriedly questioning "You okay?" while looking back at me.
"I'm fine." I snap at him before closing my eyes and tilting my head to the side with a sighed "Just un-comfy."
"So, your butt hurts." Glenn laughs out then.
"Your face hurts." I huff out smacking the back of his seat.
"Rude." Glenn laughs.
"It's how rude. Thank you very much." I tell him, imitating the quote, causing Rick and T-Dog to start laughing.
"Sorry, how rude." Glenn imitates instantly earning a snorted laugh from me.
As soon as I had calmed myself down Daryl snaps "He better be okay."
Instantly Rick and T-Dog stop laughing as I simply open my eyes and slide them to him again.
Was that coincidence?
"It's my only word on the matter." Daryl growls then, his attention focused on T-Dog.
"I told you the geeks can't get at him. The only thing that's gonna get through that door is us." T-Dog says.
Glenn stops the van then before saying "We walk from here."
Same timing. So far so good.
Daryl is the first up and already opening the back of the van and getting out by the time I get up.
I follow behind T-Dog, watching him easily step on the bumper step and drop down, but pause before I do. Since if I did it wrong, I'd have a bad time. I used Shane to get up but he wasn't here and neither was Rick or Glenn. Since both just got out using the driver and passenger side doors.
That's when Daryl suddenly turns and practically shoves a hand out to me with a barely audible "Here."
I can only look at him in confusion and surprise for a moment before it dawns on me what he's doing.
Daryl's offering to help me get out of the van? Why? Whatever, I'm going to use it.
I take his had, ignoring how it felt, and carefully step down.
Unsurprisingly he didn't falter at all when I practically put all my weight on him, when stepping down to the ground.
"I had it." I huff out while pulling my hand free as soon as I had both feet safely on the ground.
Daryl just gives me that small, clearly amused, smirk but it's gone again the next moment as he turns from me and walks around the van with a "Let's go."
I release a sigh before following; the last in our group walking along the railroad tracks that ran into the city.
If I wanted, I could just go off on my own again. With the goal of just disappearing and going back to my first plan. Would that solve these changes in the storyline? If I just 'disappeared' here? I wouldn't witness Carl getting shot or Shane's death. They wouldn't witness my death. Would that be a good idea? Probably not. It'd probably cause a bigger change if this group returned without me. Shane did verbally threaten Rick after all.
The rattling of the fence getting pulled to the sides pulled me out of my thoughts then.
Rick is first through and questions "Merle first or guns?" in his cop tone while stepping over the guard rail like it was nothing.
"Merle! We ain't even having this conversation." Daryl snaps, angry, going through and stepping over it himself, also like it was nothing.
"We are." Rick tells him in his cop tone before looking at Glenn and telling him "You know the geography. It's your call." In a more friendly tone while Glenn and T-Dog go through and easily step over it too.
I send a glare at the bothersome thing then as I go through the fence and step up to it. I swear on all things holy if I step over this flipping thing and one of my hips pop out of place or one of my knees lock up, I'm going to lose it.
"Need help?" Glenn questions then, his tone slightly concerned, as soon as I placed my hands on the rail to brace myself before I sent a leg over the rail just in case causing me to look up to see the four guys are looking at me.
Now you guys check on me? And I probably look ridiculous right now judging by the clearly amused looks coming on every one of their faces.
"Answer the question." I huff at Glenn with a look then sending it to the others as well before I look back down and focus on my task instead of them and send a leg over.
"Merle's closest." Glenn answers as my foot connects with the ground; thankfully nothing protested this one but I had two legs.
"The guns would mean doubling back." Glenn adds as I send my other leg over.
"Merle first." Glenn finishes when that foot connects with the ground and I give myself a small smile and a nod when nothing protested this time either.
The little successes, man.
"Alright." Rick says as I look back up at them finding the only one still looking at me was Daryl; that blasted small, clearly amused, smirk on his face.
I feel my eye twitch in annoyance at him as I simply flip him off.
Annoyingly his smirk just got a little bigger before it's yet again gone when he looks back at Rick and practically orders a "Let's go then."
"Let's." Rick announces then before starting to jog.
The others follow immediately, with Glenn taking point, but I release an already tired sigh before following.
****Time Skip****
Once we're back at the department store Rick takes point, motioning for us to stick close together as we cautiously enter.
Only Rick, Daryl, and I had actual weapons to defend with while T-Dog was stuck with just the bolt cutters and poor Glenn had nothing.
Like the original the store did look like a tornado went through it but still had things standing instead of being completely trashed by the stampede of the horde.
We then hear the quiet growling of the walker in the store and Rick puts a hand up to stop us before signaling Daryl to take it out.
Daryl nods before stepping closer to it and aiming at it with his line "Damn. You are one ugly skank."
As soon as it steps forward, Daryl shoots it in the head and it falls with a thud. He then goes and retrieves his arrow earning a grimace from me at the disgusting sound it made coming out of the walker's head.
"Gross." Glenn whispers then from next to me.
"Agreed." I respond, in a whisper with a small smile, as we then follow the others up the stairway to the roof.
Once at the door, now covered in bloody hand prints, T-Dog breaks the lock with the bolt cutters.
Immediately Daryl kicks the door open and runs onto the roof yelling "Merle! Merle!"
But like the original Merle is no longer there.
"Well shit." I mutter looking at the bloody sawed-off hand and bloody handcuffs and saw he left behind with a frown.
Like the decapitated head, that was disturbing in person.
"No! No!" Daryl starts yelling as the other's stay silent.
