Chapter 2 : Guts
Rick, still transformed in the black, green and white being, stared at the radio as static came out, before hearing some beeping before the voice came back. "Hey, Are you alive in there?" It asked, and Rick, in shock at hearing another voice in the desolate city, reached out his arm to grab it, shocking himself as his arm visibly stretched like gum as it shot out and grabbed the microphone, pulling it to himself as the wire stretched.
"Hello? Hello?" Rick said, holding the microphone tight, as he saw to his surprise, his palm meld into the sides at the pressure, as if his hand, nay his whole body structure, was semi-solid, changing state as per his own wish.
"Is your microphone busted? Your voice seems robotic." The voice replied, not understanding the change being due to Rick's transformation. Rick, not knowing it either, willed the radio microphone to work properly, shaking it, despite not needing to as just willing it had Rick's arm suck in and absorb the microphone, reaching through wire to the radio itself, covering it all in the same black colour and green circuitry as himself. Rick could now hear the voice of the man on the radio in his head, as if wearing an earpiece.
'I can control technology!' Was the only thought that crossed Rick's mind.
"There you are. You had me wondering." The voice spoke.
"Where are you? Outside? Can you see me right now?" Rick asked, desperately wanting to know the outside situation.
"Yeah, I can see you. You're surrounded by walkers. That's the bad news." Was the reply, making Rick face the direness of the situation.
"There's good news?" He asked with hope of having any advantage to plan around. "No." Answered the voice, dashing his hopes.
"Listen, whoever you are, I don't mind telling you I'm a little concerned in here" Rick replied letting his visible worry get to him.
"Oh man. You should see it from over here. You'd be having a major freak-out." 'Not helping' Rick thought, as the voice gave him the rundown. Lacking any means to help himself, Rick asked "Got any advice for me?" "Yeah, I'd say make a run for it." Was the reply, the incredulity of it making Rick question the sanity of the voice. "That's it, "Make a run for it?"" He exclaimed.
"My way's not as dumb as it sounds. You've got eyes on the outside here. There's one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down. You with me so far?" The voice answered, starting to make sense to Rick. "So far." Came the affirmative reply.
"Okay, the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now while they're distracted, you stand a chance. Got ammo?" The voice inquired.
"In that duffel bag I dropped out there. And guns, can I get to it?" Rick asked. The bag of guns was more than enough to arm to the teeth, both him and the man on the other end of the radio. "Forget the bag, okay? It's not an option. What do you have on you?" The voice replied, dashing that objective.
"Hang on." Rick replied and removing the magazine clip with two newly formed tendril like appendages from his right hand, again surprising himself with the abilities he had in this form, he counted the bullets like the professional he was. Looking back to the dead trooper, Rick saw a frag grenade lying beside the corpse. Again shooting his arm out like a whip, he grabbed it and carefully brought it to him. "I've got a Beretta with one clip. Fifteen rounds."
"Make 'em count. Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards, be there." The voice said, giving him his target. "Hey, what's your name?" Rick asked, wanting to learn the name of his guide, as he looked around the tank, before looking again at the microphone in his hand and the radio, both still being covered with his black and green circuitry.
In that moment, Rick had an epiphany. "Have you been listening? You're running out of time." The voice chided. "Maybe I have a little more than you know," Rick replied, feeling more confident with the slim but present hope that he probably had something a whole lot greater than the bag of guns at his disposal. "Glenn. Hurry now if you want to escape this." The man, now identified as Glenn, replied before ending the transmission.
After letting out a sigh, Rick thought. 'Let's do this!' He focused and soon started spreading, seeping into the gaps, assimilating the tank.
Within a span of seconds, the entire tank was now covered in the black and green circuitry, fully functional and submitted to Rick's will.
The walkers however, had witnessed the change and were again climbing up on the tank. Rick's lone green eye, now on top of the tank, was seeing them, and rotating the turret around, shook off half of their numbers.
The few walkers still on the tank were more relentless, pounding away at the hatch with whatever decomposed remains were their fists.
"GET. OFF!" Rick yelled angrily in frustration, and just then, from the main gun, which was pointing to the corner of the building on the left side of the tank, fired a huge blast of a green energy beam.
The blast threw off the walkers alright. It also went through the green roofed building left of the tank, diagonally, blasting a hole through the roof as it went into the sky.
the collateral damage not just made Rick marvel at the power he had gained upon merging with the tank, it also utterly demolished the structural integrity of the building the beam had made a hole into, which crumbled and fell on the two adjacent streets, fortunately behind the tank and on the street in the direction opposite of where Rick was to go, crushing to guts and burying, dozens of the reanimated corpses, while blocking the path of hundreds behind them on either side.
Then remembering Glenn's directions, Rick drove over to the corner, turned right, and drove straight through the remains of the barricade, destroying them and and driving over any walkers that happened to be in his path, before looking right, at the alley, where a Asian guy looking to be in his early twenties, was holding open a wire fence gate which secured the entire alley for him.
"Close the gate!" Rick's robotic voice rang out as the man complied and closed the gate, as Rick moved front and back, this time aligning himself along the gate such that he completely blocked it with the tank chassis. As he got into position, Rick rotated the cannon till it was touching the wire, before moving his head through the fence, and then oozing the rest of his body through the fence gate.
Coming out to the other side, Rick finally stood in front of the man, in all his humanoid techno-blob glory, before the watch started beeping and flashing red, and with a red flash, Rick was once again human, as he looked at himself for a moment before looking at the shell-shocked man, and giving him a shake by grabbing his shoulders.
"Let's get going!" Rick said as the man came out of his stupor and nodding, ran ahead of him, to a fire escape ladder and climbing up, Rick following suit but not before seeing a walker on the other end of the alley and landing it with a headshot.
"What are you doing? Come on!" The man cried, already halfway up to a utility platform as Rick started climbing behind him.
Reaching the platform, both of them grabbed the handrail, hunching over as they panted. "Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood. You the new sheriff? Come riding in to clean up the town? Or you the Terminator? Driving tanks, firing lasers and stuff?" The man said after catching his breath.
"It wasn't planned." Rick replied as they looked over the alley, now empty except for a few walkers who had crawled from under a garbage truck on the other side, like the one Rick shot had, "Yeah, whatever, I'll be back, yeehaw. You're still a dumbass."
"Rick. Thanks." Rick said as he turned to the man, extending his hand out for a handshake as the man shook it. "Glenn. You're welcome." He replied. "Nice to finally put a face to the name." Rick said as he put his gun into Glenn's backpack to prevent himself from dropping it while climbing, before hearing Glenn's worried tone. "Oh no."
Looking down, they saw that one of the few walkers had grabbed onto the ladder and started to climb towards them, as the two human resumed their ascent with Glenn saying "The bright side... It'll be the fall that kills us. I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy."
Climbing to the top, they walked across a sort of gangplank between two building, as the alley below them was seen with four walkers and a bus blocking it. Seeing the modifications, Rick asked. "Are you the one that barricaded the alley?" "Somebody did, I guess when the city got overrun. Whoever did it was thinking. Not many geeks get through." Glenn replied, as the two ran across the rooftop to the far side where Glen knelt and unlocked a hatch that led down into the building they were on top of. As they were about to climb down, Rick asked. "Back at the tank, why'd you stick your neck out for me?" Glenn, again proving himself to be an optimist, said. "Call it foolish, naive hope that if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me. Guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you."
Rick following Glenn down into the building, closed the door behind him as they took a look all around them to make sure it's clear before they go down the floors. Lifting up his walkie, Glenn spoke as he was descending down the stairs. "I'm back, got a guest plus four geeks in the alley." Reaching the ground floor, they came out into a different alley with a couple of walkers.
As they reached said alley, two men, all decked up in riot gear, came out from the other building brandishing baseball bats. They ran up and beat down the walkers before anyone could get bitten. As they were taking care of them, Glenn hurried Rick "Let's go!" As the other man also encouraged his companion to leave. "Morales, let's go!" Morales following behind him.
The two in riot gear ran in after Rick and Glenn, closing the door behind them when a blonde woman angrily pushed Rick back into a stack of boxes, shoving a gun in his face. "You son of a bitch. We ought to kill you." She spat out with rage as Morales spoke to try to calm her. "Just chill out, Andrea. Back off." "Come on, ease up." The other woman in the room, backing up Morales, said to her.
Andrea exclaimed "Ease up? You're kidding me, right? We're dead because of this stupid asshole." She said ruefully, glaring daggers at Rick. "Andrea, I said back the hell off." Morales said, trying again to stop her but it didn't seem to be working.
Rick leaned back as much as he could without giving her any more reason to shoot him, as Morales, tired of the ordeal said to her. "Well, pull the trigger." But again, she didn't heed his words and finally pulled away from Rick as she broke down crying. "We're dead,all of us... because of you."
Feeling bad but clueless, Rick said. "I don't understand." Grabbing Rick by the arm, Morales led him along as he spoke, with the others behind them. "Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies. You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving. You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the O.K. Corral." "Every geek for miles around heard you popping off rounds, alongside whatever that boom-and-crash was." The other guy put in his two cents.
"You just rang the dinner bell." Andrea said, still giving him the evil eye as Morales finished explaining him the consequences of what he did. "Get the picture now?"
While talking they led Rick through to the front of the building, a Macy's store, where outside, the plate glass windows had walkers banging and pushing into them, more behind them pushing as well. Rick was stunned to realise what his actions had wrought upon these people.
"Hey-Hey-Hey! Take it easy guys." Glenn said surprising Rick, before continuing and surprising everyone else. "He had no idea that we were in here or how we work. Plus he did stop that horde up north on the crossroads from coming over here."
"Wait, that horde of hundreds, near the barricade with that tank?" Andrea asked, not believing his words.
"What do you mean "stop"?" Morales enquired, really not buying what Glenn was saying.
Glen turned to the other guy. "That boom-and-crash you heard T-dog? It was him." Glenn said before facing all of them. "It was Rick here, you all see him like this, but when we met, he was some kind of black and green and white walking sludge." Facing Andrea, he continued. "That tank you remember Andrea? Last I saw was Rick crawling under it and next thing you know, the whole tank is pitch black with glowing green stripes all around it and suddenly starts moving, the cannon swinging and throwing off geeks left and right, before it fires. And it fires not a shell, but a green laser or something. Destroyed a huge chunk of the building on the corner, and it's debris crushed over a hundred geeks and cut off the horde's closest route, not to mention, running over at least a dozen more."
T-Dog then turned to Rick and asked, "Did he hit his head or something man?"
"It's true, all of it." Rick said, lifting up his left arm and showing the watch, about to explain when they all heard gunshots.
Looking alarmed, Andrea let out. "Oh, no, Is that Dixon?" "What is that maniac doing?" The other woman said with exasperation as they all ran towards the stairs, with Glenn ushering Rick. "Come on, let's go."
Up on the rooftop a fat bald man with a scoped rifle was taking aim and firing down on the walkers
Morales, the first to come out of the stairwell, called out to him. "Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?" the reply he got was wordless laughter as Andrea sighed. "Oh Jeez."
The man they referred to as Dixon spoke up as he jumped down the railing. "Hey! Y'all be more polite to a man with a gun. Huh? Ah!"
As the scene unfolded into Dixon and T-Dog arguing with Morales trying to placate the situation, Rick looked questioningly at Glenn who shook his head and motioned for Rick to leave it alone.
The argument turned into a scuffle as T-Dog threw a punch with Dixon blocking it and the two started fighting as the others erupted in a verbal cacophony of arguments trying to talk Dixon down.
Jumping over a pipe to help T-Dog, Rick got hit as Dixon clocked him with a hard left. Flying back and landing down on the ground back over the pipe, Rick felt woozy as Dixon planted a heavy shove into T-Dog's chest picking him up, punched him. T-Dog's head hit another pipe as he landed before he slid down to the rooftop. Dixon started kicking him then punching him as the women and Morales pleaded with him to stop.
Rick, still dazed, collected himself before half-mindedly fiddling with the watch while looking ahead, hoping to become what he had before, or anything that would be helpful in diffusing the situation, as T-Dog was lying on the ground with Dixon sitting on top of him and beating him with his fists. Morales tried to break it up but was knocked away by Dixon as he pulled out a handgun and pointed it at T-Dog's face as thunder rumbled above in the sky.
Before he started monologuing.
"Yeah, all right! We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who's in charge. I vote me. Anybody else? Huh, Democracy time, y'all. Show of hands, huh? All in favor, huh? Come on. Let's see 'em. All in favor? Yeah, that's good. Now that means I'm the boss, right? Yeah, anybody else? Hmm, anybody?"
"Yeah." Dixon turned around upon hearing Rick's voice, only to be blinded by a green flash.
Rubbing his eyes, Dixon looked around before saying. "Hey! Where did that guy go huh?" Turning back around to the group, he scanned each of their faces for any clue, but found none before he started laughing.
"Hehe, that tickles! Cut it out." Dixon managed to get out as he laughed uncontrollably, flailing his arms about, as he tried to get at something that was on his back.
As he turned to again face the group trying to remove his shirt, they all looked at his face, before his eyes rolled back and he fell on his back, passed out.
Before they could comprehend what had happened to him, Andrea's eyes caught something moving inside his shirt, before a grey humanoid, no bigger than a pistol's barrel, climbed out of the collar and onto his belly, standing triumphant with hands resting on it's waists, as if having just scaled a mountain peak.
"Eeek what the hell!" Andrea shrieked, as others also had similar reactions.
Except for one.
"Rick? Is that you?" Glenn asked as he got down on one knee, looking down at the strange being as it made eye contact.
"Yes, it is me and there's no need to panic, all of you can ask any questions you may have." It replied in a high-pitched version of Rick's voice.
"What are you?" Andrea asked.
"Is Dixon dead?" Morales enquired
"How did you change?" T-Dog pondered.
Rick replied in a calm tone. "To be precise, I am a Galvan, one of the many species NOT from Earth, so to put it simply, I am an alien."
Turning from Andrea to Morales, he chuckled as he continued. "No, that swine in human flesh isn't dead. I used a technique called Hephaestan Neuro Grip, which knocked him out of consciousness. If you ever come across a library, get a book on human anatomy. I can use that to teach all of you how to do it."
Now facing T-Dog, he concluded. "It was not my plan. I was trying to turn into what Glenn had seen me become before, but I must have done something different to have turned into this. As for the how, well, it's by twisting and pushing down the faceplate of this watch, which, it seems, is now on my back."
Glenn, so far the listener, perked up and asked. "Can you turn into more of these aliens? How long does your change last? Also, have you considered naming your aliens?"
Rick replied. "I don't know how many, so far just the two. As for the duration, I first transformed when you contacted me over the radio and turned back when we officially met, so roughly 10 minutes, give or take. As for naming them, no, I haven't."
Glenn replied, letting out his inner nerd. "Well, maybe you should, your last one did what? Improve the tank, right? What do you call someone that improves technology?" "Ehh, Improver?" Rick replied, not sure why Glenn was so passionate all of a sudden. "No man, Upgrade." "Hmm, that does seem to have a ring to it." Rick mused, stroking his chin as if in thought before Glenn continued. "What about this one? What are it's powers?" "Super knowledge and genius level intelligence." Rick replied considering it correct as he suddenly knew much more about his watch than he certainly did before. "How about brainstorm?" Rick said, now bored of the discussion, as looked around seeing Morales looking at the sky, possibly checking the weather, Dixon still out cold and Andrea smiling at Glenn's passion, with T-Dog still rubbing his sore face and the other woman looking as bored as him.
"Nah... that doesn't fit right." Glenn said as if an expert on naming aliens. "Why?" Rick asked. "Well, you are small, and grey." "Does it really matter?" Rick questioned, not wanting to continue this boring discussion. "That's it! Greymatter!" "Well, good to hear that it's sorted out." Rick said feeling relieved, before suddenly the watch started beeping like before, surprising the others as all looked at him, and with a red flash, Rick was once again, a human.
The other woman, so far resisting the boredom from Glenn's initially good questioning, finally spoke up. "Well, how did you chance upon this watch of yours?" "May I ask something as well? I don't believe I caught your name." Rick said. "Oh, it's Jacqui." She replied as she and Rick shook hands. "Well, to answer your question Jacqui..." Rick spoke, as he then narrated his entire story, from waking up in the hospital and meeting Morgan and Duane, to cruising the Highway-85 before running out of fuel near the Siggards' farmhouse. The shooting-star-turned-crashed-satellite and riding the horse before falling from it and crawling under the tank.
After he was done, Jacqui replied. "Whew, that's quite an adventure you've had, to wake up from when the world was normal, to this, not to mention finding some futuristic extraterrestrial artifact..." She sighed, but ever the perceptive, quickly said. "Wait... Bag of guns? What kind of guns are we talking about? Bunch of Sheriffs' Six-shooters?" "Nope." Rick replied popping the 'p', imagining the look on their faces, as he smiled savouring the thought before continuing. "Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before leaving. Not to forget, 700 rounds of assorted ammunition. I dropped the bag when I got swarmed. Now, it's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up. "
Rick smiled as the others looked at him gobsmacked with all of their expressions being nothing short of priceless.
"Seems like this run wasn't a bust after all, right guys?" Glenn said with glee before the group bursted out in cheers as he turned to T-Dog with a solemn look and said. "You know what that means, right TD?" "Huh?" T-Dog replied, before realisation dawned on his face as Glenn said with a hurry, "Dibs on one Rifle!" He announced, grinning at T-Dog who made a pout before registering Glenn's words , "Dibs on the other one!"
As Jacqui sighed at the duo's antics, Morales, who had been silently peering over the edge, said as he gestured the group over. "Sorry to rain on your parade, but I doubt it'll be as easy to get that bag as you may think."
Others peering alongside him, Rick saw the streets littered with walkers, not as thick as the horde he had faced with the tank before, but definitely far more numerous than the six of them could manage, as Andrea commented that the scene before them was reminiscent of Times Square.
Rick agreed with Morales's verdict, but had an epiphany about using the sewers, making Morales marvel at the thought as he asked Glenn to check for manhole covers in the alley.
Although Glenn's survey yielded out negative results, Jacqui, revealing that she used to work in the City Zoning Office, said that there might be way to enter the sewers directly from the building itself, down in it's sub-basements. However, before they could head down, T-Dog posed an important question. "What do we do about Dixon?"
The others looked at the unconscious form of the man and looked at each other. "Hey, maybe I have something." Glenn said as he unslung his bag and began rummaging in it. "There it is." He said, pulling out a bike lock.
"That'll work." Rick said, taking it and looping it around the metal and his legs, tied Dixon in place, locking him and giving the key to T-Dog.
As per Glenn's plan, he and Morales went down to check for a way, while the others were stationed on their given positions.
Inside the store, Walkers were banging and growling as Rick, who alongside Andrea was given guard duty, approached her.
"Sorry for the gun in your face." she said as Rick replied "People do things when they're afraid." "Not that it was entirely unjustified. You did get us into this." she continued as Rick faced her. "If I get us out, would that make up for it?" he asked with a hopeful look. "No, but it'd be a start."
Rick then voiced an afterthought. "Next time though, take the safety off. It won't shoot otherwise."
Upon getting a puzzled look from Andrea, Rick then asked for her gun and pushing up the safety, instructed her how to set the safety on and off.
As they looked around, Andrea saw a necklace on one of the counters and walked over to inspect it.
Taking a look the state of the glass as walkers kept pounding on it, Rick deemed it to hold for now, as he walked over to see what Andrea was upto.
"See something you like?" He said, upon seeing the necklace in her hand.
"Not me, but I know someone who would, my sister. She's still such a kid in some ways. Unicorns, dragons – She's into all that stuff. But mermaids – they rule. She loves mermaids." Andrea replied, thinking about how happy her sister would have been if she saw it.
"Why not take it?" Rick mused. "There's a cop staring at me." Andrea replied with a smile as he chuckled before asking "Would it be considered looting?" "I don't think those rules apply anymore. Do you?" he answered as she smiled, and put the necklace in her pocket.
As she walked away, Rick saw the earrings displayed in a case beside the necklace's display bust. Their design was similar to the necklace, on a smaller scale, 'Part of the set.' Rick thought as he picked them up, 'Lori would have liked them.' He thought wistfully.
Suddenly the glass shattered and absent-mindedly placing the earrings in his pocket, Rick ran over to the doors, Andrea behind him, both having drawn guns.
They saw the walkers had made past one set of doors before Glenn, Jacqui and Morales joined them. "What did you find down there?"
"Not a way out." Morales answered Rick's question as Andrea sighed and said they needed to find a way and soon.
Getting back up on the roof, Rick scouted the surroundings before seeing the Ferenc truck.
"That construction site, those trucks, they always keep keys on hand." Morales however pointed out that they could never get past the walkers, before the group came to the conclusion that they needed a distraction.
"How about we throw the swine to them? Say it was an accident?" T-Dog suggested, glancing at Dixon, as Jacqui snorted "As good as that idea seems, I doubt even the walkers would care for his brainless ass."
"They can smell us right? why don't get a couple of trenchcoats and smear them with walker guts? That'll definitely camouflage us against them." Rick said, as everyone had a reaction, with the women paling and Glenn and T-Dog looking sick and Morales looking uneasy.
"Rick!" Glenn spoke up excitedly. "Can you transform again into that thing which made you control the tank?" Rick realized that if he had that kind of power again, the walker horde would be nothing against him.
"Yeah man, in fact, if there's just one alley we need to go through, why even bother going to the truck? we can all just get into the tank and go." T-Dog said, hope lacing his voice.
"Let's get going then." Rick said as he and the group, minus the unconscious Dixon, went back through the rooftops, before reaching the alley where Rick had met Glenn.
"Guys, we may have a problem." T-Dog said, as Andrea retorted. "You think?" As the group took in the sights.
There in the Alley, between the fire escape and the closed gate behind which was their tank, stood more than twenty growling and snarling walkers.
"How-How did this happen? Did they climb up through the tank?" Glenn uttered, at a loss of words, "No, look." Jacqui pointed and they saw, on the other side of the alley, where a walker was seen crawling under the burnt out remains of a bus which had been blocking that end.
"Back to using guts, we go." Morales sighed.
Wearing the trenchcoats coated with the remains of Wayne Dunlap, Rick and Glenn climbed down the fire escape, as the others looked on from the fire escape platform.
Once down in the alley, mimicking the walkers around them, the pair wandered off towards the fence before halting in their tracks, as before them, stood about ten walkers, huddled up like an impenetrable wall.
"They're stuck!" Jacqui exclaimed as T-Dog looked like he was about to panic.
"I've got this." Andrea said calmly as she climbed back to the top.
As Rick and Glenn stood facing the group, both of them were at a loss of words, as the situation before them signalled that their only option was waiting until the group separated.
BANG!
A shot was heard as Rick and Glenn looked behind them, and saw that the crawling walker on the other end of the alley was lying motionless, the insides of it's head splattered to the side.
Judging by the direction of the splatter, the analytical cop in Rick deduced the direction of the shot and looking up, with Glenn following his gaze, saw Andrea on top of the roof, Dixon's rifle in hand.
"Way to go Andrea." Glenn murmured as he and Rick looked ahead to see the huddled-up group dispersing, as they walked towards the other end, being attracted by the sound.
As the pair strutted towards the gate, a cloudburst happened and rain was upon them.
As their faces were drenched with rainwater, Rick had a sinking feeling as a stray thought crossed his mind. As he hoped against hope that he was wrong, Glenn's expected words confirmed what he feared.
"The smell's washing off, isn't it? is it washing off?" Glenn said, panic showing on his face.
"No it isn't." Rick said before looking behind and seeing the walkers stopping and turned around, sniffing the air, with the one that was near them, glaring at him. "Well, maybe."
As that glaring walker snarled and roared at them, walking towards the pair, Rick moved first and embedded the fire axe in its head.
"RUN! RUN!" Glenn yelled as the pair ran towards the fence and Glenn climbed onto it, waiting at the top.
Rick, who had recalled Upgrade's silhouette from back in the tank, had readied the watch in advance before he had left the building, slammed his hand on the faceplate.
With a bright, green flash, Upgrade stood where Rick was, and walked through the wire fence, discarding the trenchcoat behind and enveloping the tank.
The chassis once again under Upgrade's will, the top hatch popped open and Glenn who had been waiting for this moment, jumped inside the tank, the hatch closing behind him and the pair drove off.
"You alright?" Rick's now robotic voice spoke to him from an eye which popped up inside
"Yeah, I'm fine" he groaned out before taking in his surroundings.
"Woah" he looked around as he saw Rick's eye and the rest of the interior, gasping in surprise before a worry crept into his mind which shook off the awe.
"Rick, I don't think there's enough space for everyone in here." Glenn said.
"What do we do then? Get that truck I mentioned earlier?" Rick proposed as Glenn nodded in agreement.
"Okay, I'll get you to the compound, you hop the fence, get the truck, and radio others to get to those roll-up doors at the front of the store facing the street. Tell them to meet us there ready to go."
"What will you do?" Glenn asked as they neared the compound.
"Give you cover." Rick said as he stopped beside the compound fence, opening the hatch for Glenn, who climbed up and jumped towards the top of the fence, landing down the other side and making a break towards the keybox.
"Where are they going?!" T-Dog exclaimed as the others saw the tank head towards the construction company's compound.
"They must be getting the truck, but why?" Andrea pondered as she saw Glenn get out and jump off to the other side of the fence and the tank, which despite seeing herself, she was finding hard to believe was Rick himself, drive away.
"There must not be enough space for all of us in the tank, that's why." Jacqui deduced.
"But where is he off to now?" Morales enquired as they saw Rick move past the alley.
With Glenn off to secure the truck, Rick took off. With the treads crushing over any walker in the path, Rick took a turn around, driving back the way he had come from, going past the alley, back to the crossroads where the horse had gone down, before stopping at his objective.
Aligning himself just right, the bottom hatch opened and popped out, a tendril of black and green, which wrapped around the strap of Rick's bag of guns and pulled it in, placing it safely inside as the hatch closed.
Feeling relieved, Rick drove a bit ahead, and stopping, raised up the turret and at one minute intervals started firing blasts of lesser power than before in faraway buildings to create as much of a noise as possible to distract the horde, felling a couple of skyscrapers in the process.
With the walkers slowly strutting away, Rick waited until there were only a couple dozen and crushing them under the treads, drove back to the Macy's store.
Reaching there, Rick saw the group climb up the truck and close the shutters down just before the walkers could get them, which fell down the loading dock instead.
As the group drove off from the city and onto the freeway, everyone aboard the truck let out a breath of relief, as Andrea looked behind to see the tank let out a red flash and stop in it's tracks, restored back to its default coloring. "Glenn stop." She said and he did.
The group got out and went over to inspect, and hearing nothing, Glenn called out. "Rick, you in there?" No reply. As the group got concerned and was about to step towards the chassis, the top hatch opened and Rick popped out. "I'm fine guys. This thing just ran out of juice it seems." He said, holding up his watch which was now red.
"T-Dog, you take the wheel, I'll go with Rick. He needs someone to guide him to camp." Glenn said to the group as he went and climbed up the tank.
After 15 or minutes, the tank was once again black and green and on route behind the truck. As Glenn and Rick were talking while inside, Glenn had informed him that T-Dog had dropped the key to Dixon's confinement down a drain. "What can we do?" Rick mused as they drove off towards their destination.