Here we are. Can't believe I'm nearly at 50 chapters. Also, I do apologise with this being so late, I've just started my second year of uni. But I've got a few chapters written up already. So they will be uploaded in time.
Disclaimer I don't own The Walking Dead, just my ocs and plotlines.
Callie's POV
The two men were sitting down. One was sitting in the chair, and the bigger guy of the two was leaning against the bar, staring at her with hungry eyes that made her skin crawl.
Her and Glenn were standing behind the bar, while Hershel and Rick were sitting at the stools. She could tell Rick wanted to keep her at a distance from them, and she didn't blame him one bit.
"I'm Dave. That scrawny-looking douche bag there is Tony." He nods to the not so skinny guy. A smile plastered on his face. The Callie in the old world would have laughed at the sarcastic comment, now she doesn't trust them.
"Eat me, Dave."
Dave throws his hands up in the air. "Hey, maybe someday I will." He looks at Rick then, but casts one glance at her. A creepy look appearing in his eyes. "We met on I-95 coming out of Philly. Damn shit show that was."
"I'm Glenn." She turns her head slightly. "It's nice to meet some new people."
"Rick Grimes." Rick introduces himself. But Callie could tell from his body language that he is on high alert. The cop in him was coming out.
Callie took that as her queue as the two men look at her expectantly, "Callie Grimes."
She feels Hershel's eyes on her. The name was finally out there. She could see Rick look at her direction quickly, a light look in his eyes. Appreciation of family. Dave stares at her for a moment and she stares back, challenging him. She wins the contest between them when he looks away.
Dave looks at Hershel then. "How about you, pal? Have one?" He gestures to his own glass that was full and looking at Hershel's empty one.
"I just quit."
Callie could tell that Hershel didn't trust them, if she thought that Hershel's distrust for them was bad, this was a whole new thing. That time looked like heaven compared to them.
"You've got a unique sense of time, my friend." Dave quips back amused, even Tony was laughing.
Rick clenches his jaw. "His name's Hershel. He lost people today, a lot of them."
She could see Hershel's shoulders tense. But she watched as Dave and Tony look solemn.
"I'm truly sorry to hear that. To better days and to new friends." Dave holds up his glass and his eyes connect with Hershel's. "And to our dead... May they be in a better place."
She notices the gun in his belt as he takes a drink, and she saw Rick notice as well since he went rigid.
Dave notices this well as he takes it out and she went tense, her hand slowly goes to her gun. "Not bad, huh? I got it off a cop."
"I'm a cop." Rick quips back.
Dave looked worried for a split second. "This one was already dead."
Callie guessed that he meant the man was going to die, and not already a walker. Only because he ran into these two. They were going to die if they don't kill them first. She knew it was the tone of his voice that gave it away.
"You're a long way from Philadelphia." Callie comments and Dave's gaze went to her then. Thankfully he didn't notice her hand was on her gun.
"It feels like we're a long way from anywhere." Dave jokes but only Tony and Glenn laughed. Glenn had no idea what was going on.
"Well, what drove you South?" Hershel asks, drawing attention way from him.
"Well, I can tell you it wasn't the weather." He pauses. "I must've dropped 30lbs. In sweat alone down here."
Tony laughs. "I wish."
"No, first it was D.C. I heard there might be some kind of refugee camp, but the roads were so jammed, we never even got close. We decided to get off the highways, into the sticks, keep hauling ass. Every group we came across had a new rumour about a way out of this thing. One guy told us there was the coast guard sitting in the Gulf, sending ferries to the islands. The latest was a rail yard in Montgomery running trains to the middle of the country... Kansas, Nebraska."
"Nebraska?" Glenn asks.
"Low population, lots of guns." Dave lists.
Glenn nods thoughtfully. "Kinda makes sense."
Dave finally looks at Glenn then. "Ever been to Nebraska, kid?" He shakes his head. "A reason why they call 'em flyover states. How about you guys?"
"Fort Benning, eventually." Rick comments.
Dave purses his lips for a second. "I hate to piss in your cornflakes, officer, but..." he pauses, "we ran across a grunt who was stationed at Benning. He said the place was overrun by lame brains."
The bar fell silent. She looked nervously at Rick, who gave a side eye to her before looking back at the men. He wasn't taking his eyes off of the men.
"Wait, Fort Benning is gone? Are you for real?" Glenn asks.
They had no where to go. Their Plan B has fallen way before they even got there. Dave looked solemn at their downcast faces.
Dave nods his head. "Sadly, I am. Oddly, the truth is there is no way out of mess. Just keep going from one pipe dream to the next, praying one of these mindless freaks doesn't grab a hold of you when you sleep. If you sleep." He pauses and takes note of something. "Yeah, it doesn't look like you're hanging your hats here. You holed up somewhere else?"
"Not really." Glenn answers and she sees Rick's head cock to the side. He wasn't happy with Glenn revealing information.
"Those your cars out front?" He asks.
"Yeah. Why?" Glenn answers the man and Callie quickly nudged his foot.
"We're living in ours. Those look kinda empty, clean. Where's all your group?" He asks, looking at Glenn specifically.
"We're with a larger group." Hershel answers. "Out scouting, thought we could use a drink."
Dave looks amused. "A drink? Hershel, we thought you quit." Hershel just stares at him. "Well, we're thinking of setting up around here. Is it... is it safe?"
"It can be." Glenn answers immediately and Rick looks at him then. Glenn finally realises the tension and his mistake before he adds. "Although, I have killed a couple of walkers around here."
"Walkers? That's what you call them?" Dave looked impressed.
They nod their heads.
"That's good. I like that. I like it better than lame brains."
"More succinct." Tony adds, the first time he spoke since they entered the bar.
They all rose their brows at the term. Dave laughs. "Okay, Tony went to college-
"Two Dars." Tony says, amused. The pair were laughing and they all just stare at them not amused in the slightest. Callie really wanted this conversation to end.
Dave composed himself. "So what... so what, you guys set up on the outskirts or something? That new development?"
"Trailer park?" Tony guesses and Callie made her face go neutral to not give anything away.
"A farm?" Dave asks and something must have given it away because he almost grinned. "Old McDonald had a farm..." he sings, like he was celebrating. Tony walks past them into the corner. Callie's hand tightens on the gun. "Is it safe?" He asks but they stay quiet. "It's gotta be. You got water, food?"
"You got cooze?" Tony asks and Callie stiffens. "Ain't had a piece of ass in weeks." He comments and Callie pales. The men. It was them with the two girls and the man. They found them.
The man starts pissing and Callie grimaces, she looks at Glenn who slides towards her a little bit, he doesn't look happy about the comment either. He was clearly thinking of Maggie. "How about you sunshine? You want some?" He asks cockily, his head turning to her as he pisses and she closes her eyes.
She opens them to see Dave looking at her. "Listen, pardon my friend. City kids, they got no tact."
"No disrespect." Tony adds, but the tone of his voice gave it away that he didn't care.
"So, listen, Glenn-
"We've said enough." Rick intervenes, clearly knowing that Dave worked out that Glenn was the naive one of the group.
"Well, hang on a second. This farm... it sounds pretty sweet. Don't it sound sweet, Tony?"
Tony nods. "Yeah, real sweet."
Dave was looking at Rick. "How about a little Southern hospitality? We got some buddies back at camp, been having a real hard time. I don't see why you can't make room for a few more." Rick stays silent. "We can pool our resources, our manpower."
"Look, I'm sorry. That's not an option." Rick says sternly.
Dave looked angry for a split second and Callie slowly unholsters her gun. "Doesn't sound like it'll be a problem."
"I'm sorry. We can't." Hershel tells the man. Hershel was looking conflicted but that was because of his beliefs.
"We can't take in anymore." Callie adds on and Dave looks down. But she could tell by his body language that he was more angry than upset.
Dave chuckles. "You guys are something else. I thought... I thought we were friends."
"We've just met." Callie retorts.
Dave looks at her then. "That's true. You don't know anything about us. You don't know what we've had to go through out there, the things we've had to do. I bet you've had to do some of those things yourself. Am I right?" The group stays silent. "'Cause ain't nobody's hands clean in what's left of this world." He pauses. "So come on, let's... let's take a nice friendly hayride to this game and we'll get to know each other."
"That's not gonna happen." Rick snaps.
"Rick..." Dave says slowly.
"This is bullshit." Tony shouts.
Rick turns his head. "Calm down."
"Don't tell me to calm down. Don't ever tell me to calm down. I'll shoot you three assholes in the head, fuck your girl, and take your damn farm!" He threatens and Rick was standing then.
Dave intervenes. "Whoa whoa whoa. Relax. Take it easy. Nobody's killing anybody. Nobody's shooting anybody. Right, Rick?"
Rick stays silent. He was staring Dave down. The whole group was standing at this point, tense. Callie was staring Tony down, her gun was hanging by her side.
"Look. We're just friends having a drink. That's all." He hops over the bar by the side of Hershel. "Now, where the good stuff, huh? Good stuff, good stuff, good stuff." He searches the bar. "Hey, look at that." He pulls out a bottle. "That'll work." He poured himself a drink and Rick's hand goes to his gun. Callie watches as Tony's hand goes to his rifle. "You gotta understand... we can't stay out there. You know what it's like."
"Yeah, I do." Rick answers shortly. "But the farm is too crowded as it is, I'm sorry. You'll have to keep looking."
Dave chuckles darkly. "Keep looking. Where do we suggest we do that?"
Rick shrugs. "I don't know. I hear Nebraska's nice."
"Nebraska." Dave chuckles. "This guy."
As fast as it happened Rick pulls out his gun and shoots Dave in the head, it's sends him back crashing into the wall, dead. Callie quickly fires her gun into Tony's middle, who was grabbing his gun and he collapses into the wall behind him, gasping for air, blood trickling out of his mouth. Rick turns and shoots Tony in the head, killing him instantly.
"Holy shit." Glenn mutters.
Callie's hand shakes as she realises what she did. "Oh my god." She sees the blood seeping out of the Tony's wound.
"You alright?" Rick's voice echoes. The bar seems to be tilting at her feet and she grabs the edge of the bar with one hand. Her breathing gets heavy. "Callie?" It sounds normal and she looks up to see Rick looking at her concerned. "Lower the gun." He says and a breath escapes her as she holsters it again. Tears were flowing down her face. "Hey." He calls and grabs her face. "You had no choice." She nods her head. "Hershel?" He was scared of the man's opinion.
Callie breathes out. Just to calm her breathing. I had to do it. I had to kill him. I had no choice. She looks at Tony again, and approaches him.
"Callie?" Glenn asks, a bit concerned.
She quickly grabs the rifle and looks through his pockets and finds a few rounds of ammo.
"Let's head back." Hershel says and they nod in agreement.
They hear a car and they all duck, quickly crouching to the door.
They all had their backs to the wall. They hear the engine stop, and doors open.
"Dave? Tony?" A man calls out. Callie squeezes her eyes shut and her hand tightens around the rifle. She as quietly as she could, cocks the round in the chamber. She looks at Rick and nods. She has to do this. They have to do this. "They said over here?"
"Yeah." Another man answers. Okay, there's two of them.
"I'm telling you, man, I heard shots." She heard another man pipe in. Shit, now there's three.
"For fuck sake. Do you think people ambushed them?" Okay, four.
"I saw roamers two streets over. Might be more around here."
"It's hot."
Altogether there were four people. But there could be more. Glenn looked absolutely terrified, but they heard their voices getting quieter. Those men were not gonna leave until they find their friends. They were fucked. How the hell were they gonna get out of this?
Jeremy's POV
He was worried about Callie. He knew everyone was worried about Callie, Rick, and Glenn. They were all sitting down at the table, or just gathering, about to have dinner.
"They should've been back by now." Amy comments and Jeremy sits down at the table.
"Yeah. They just got holed up somewhere. We'll... we'll head out first thing in the morning." Shane orders, acting like he was in charge. Jeremy could tell from his tone that he wasn't worried in the slightest.
"Yeah, we will. Or they could be on their way back right now." He suggests and could feel Shane glaring. He shrugs to say what. It could be true. God, he hopes his sister is okay.
Patricia dishes up mashed potatoes on Shane's plate.
"Thank you." He smiles but she doesn't smile back. She was clearly still upset about the barn.
"You're welcome." She responds coldly and carries on dishes food to the group.
Amy grabs his hand and he looks down. "They'll be fine. She'll be fine." She assures him and he nods.
He's never been this long away from Callie. Well once when he left the orphanage, but not since the apocalypse started. Only the time she went to get Merle, but they came back that night. But now, the time was ticking by, and there was still no sign of them.
"Carl, I want you to keep your head up, okay?" Shane points to the boy who raises his head. "Your old man, he's the toughest son of a-
"No cussing in the house." Patricia scolds him.
Shane looks amused. "Sorry." He wasn't sorry in the slightest.
"Lori, dinner." Maggie calls and Carol looks at her.
"She's not in there."
That got the group's attention. Well... mainly Shane's.
"Where is she?" Shane asks Carol who looks confused. Shane looks to everyone but no one had an answer for him. He turns to Carl. "Carl, when was the last time you saw your mom?"
"This afternoon."
Andrea bites her lip. "She was worried about Rick, asked me to look in on Carl."
"She went after them?" Noa asks, looking worried.
Andrea immediately shakes her head. "She didn't say that."
"Nobody panic. Gonna be around here somewhere." Shane mutters and the group gets up, dinner forgotten.
Jeremy runs into Josie, Connor and Maya. Connor was off his crutches but limping at this point.
"What's going on?" She asks, her hand going to her stomach.
"Lori's missing." He tells her and she looks worried.
She stares at him. "You don't think..." she trails off.
He knew what she meant. "I hope not."
He hoped to God that Lori didn't go out there by herself, in the middle of the night to find Rick and the others. But he knew they weren't that lucky.
"I'm coming to look." Connor says stubbornly but Jeremy turns to him.
"No, you stay here with your sister." Josie snaps at her kids and Jeremy looks at her shocked at her tone. "You don't leave this house, do you understand?" The kids nod their heads, looking scared.
Josie walks off and Jeremy keeps an eye on her. What was that about?
Callie's POV
She didn't know how long they've been sitting there, but her legs were starting to cramp and the men still haven't left. But they haven't found them... yet. It was only a matter of time before they come into the bar.
"Why won't they leave?" Glenn whispers.
"Would you?" Hershel whispers back.
"We can't sit here any longer." Glenn argues, keeping his voice low.
"Let's head out the back and make a run for the car." Rick whispers and Callie looks at him.
"What happens if they follow us back? We can't risk it." Callie whispers and Rick goes silent. The three men knew that she was right. Dave and Tony made their intentions clear, their people must be the same as them. What happens if they escape and the men follow them? They'll know where they are, go back to their camp for more people, and attack the farm.
They hear a gunshot and stay still.
"What happened?" They hear one of the men ask, and realise that they're back. Fuck there goes their chance.
"Roamers, I nailed them."
"They disappeared but their car's is still there."
They must be right outside.
"I cleared those buildings. You guys get this one?" Silence followed. "We're looking for Dave and Tony and no one checks the damn bar?"
They hear footsteps approaching and Glenn makes a quick decision by throwing himself in front of the door as it began to open. The door slams shut and Callie grips the rifle harder.
"What?"
"Someone pushed it shut. There's someone in there."
"Yo, is someone there? Yo, if someone's in there, we don't want no trouble. We're just looking for our friends."
They stay silent. Callie's eyes drift to the men.
"What do we do? Bum rush the door?"
"No, we don't know how many are there. Just relax." The man hisses to his friends. "We don't want any trouble. We're just looking for our friends. If something happened, tell us. The place is crawling with corpses. If you can help us not get killed, I'd appreciate it."
They stayed silent. Glenn was still against the door, holding tightly to his shotgun.
"Dude, you're bugging. I'm telling you nobody's in there."
It went silent for a moment.
"Someone guard the door. If they're in there, they might know where Dave and Tony are."
She heard footsteps leaving. Okay, there might be just one, if they take him out, they could sneak out to the street and pick them off one by one.
"They drew on us!" Rick calls out and Callie looks at him like he went insane. Was he serious? They could have taken them one at a time, now they are all here.
She heard all footsteps approaching and she breathed deeply.
"Dave and Tony in there? They alive?" That sounded like a fifth man. Fuck. More could be on the way. They needed to go.
Come on, think. She looked at the bar, looked good enough. She started to crawl to the bar.
"No." Rick answers and Hershel looked pissed off at Rick. He was putting them in danger by talking to them.
She sat the rifle on top of the bar, aiming for the door. She watched as Glenn looked at her wide eyed.
"They killed Dave and Tony?
"Come on, man, let's go."
"No, I'm not leaving. I'm not telling Jane." He pauses. "I'm not gonna go back and tell Jules that Dave and Tony got shot by some assholes in a bar."
"They drew on us! They gave us no choice!" Rick pleads with them. He was loading his gun as quietly as he could. He cocks his python and nods at Callie. She quickly nods and presses the gun to her shoulder. She knew this rifle was gonna kick back like a bitch. She was aiming right at the door, mainly the window where she could see the shadow of a man aiming his gun at the door. "I'm sure we've all lost enough people, done things we wish we didn't have to, but it's like that now. You know that!" Her eyes quickly went to Tony, before falling at the door. "So, let's chalk this up to what it was... wrong place... wrong-
A gunshot rings out, hitting the glass and Glenn ducks. Callie fires the rifle and seeing it hit the man right behind the door. She hears a scream.
"You're gonna pay for that, motherfucker!"
"Get outta here! Go!" Rick screams as he shoots out of the glass hole.
Glenn scurries away and drops behind a table. Hershel runs and drops as a shot rings out, barely missing him and hitting the pillar where his head was.
Callie reloads the rifle quickly and fires again.
Jeremy's POV
The group meets outside the house after a long hour of looking for Lori. He looks at Damien and Harriett.
"Nothing at the stables." Damien answers the question that was on everyone's minds at camp.
"She's not at the barn." Shane adds as he walks up.
"I checked the yards." T-Dog mentions as well.
"She's not in her tent, I thought I'd double check." Jeremy answers after Shane's weird look.
Josie walks up, breathing heavily. "She's not in the RV."
Carl looked devastated. "Well, where is she?" He demands.
Carol runs up to the group. "She asked Daryl to go into town. Must've gone herself."
Carl cries and runs into the house.
"I'll go after him." Summer says before running after him inside.
Shane storms up to Dale. "Did you know about this?"
Dale looks at him bewildered. "No."
Shane looked panicked. "Look, just... did she take a gun?"
Dale shrugs. "I don't know. I wouldn't let her go out there alone."
Shane looks at Jeremy worried. They quickly run to the cars. "Look, Jer, I need you to protect camp while I go out to find her."
Jeremy looks at Shane like he was insane, which he was. "You're gonna go out there by yourself? You sure?" Shane just stares at him. "Okay. Be careful. Bring her back." He nods as he gets in the truck and drives away.
He watched the taillights disappear and was worried for now two more people. Even Shane was the biggest asshole out of everyone, he was worried for him going out there in the middle of the night. Lori, alone as well. Can this night get any worse?
Callie's POV
She was still aiming at the door. The gunfire stopped which meant that they've got eyes on the building and surrounding it.
"We all know this is not gonna end well! There's nothing in it for any of us! You guys just... just back off, no one else gets hurt!" Rick shouts out.
She heard something behind her and tenses, she sees Rick nod at Glenn and nods at her. She gives him a look.
"Are you sure?" She whispers.
He nods and she follows Glenn. They were slowly walking to the back, the cellar for the bar. She sees the back door and quickly aims, Glenn was following her suit. Glenn started walking down the stairs and it freaked in protest. She tenses and Glenn grits his teeth. She sees a shadow by the door and Glenn opens fire, hitting the glass.
"Glenn! Callie!" She hears Rick shout.
"We're alright!" She calls back.
The pair quickly find cover and aim their guns at the door, breathing deeply.
Glenn jumps and whirls around to see Hershel. Hershel raises his hands when Glenn still hasn't lowered his shot gun.
"Sorry. Sorry."
She keeps her gun trained on the door.
"Rick wants you both to try for the car." Hershel tells them and they look at him.
"Try?" Glenn repeats.
"You'll try and succeed." He says and Callie nods. She holsters her rifle and grabs her handgun.
"What are you doing?" Glenn asks her, noting the gun swap.
"Rifles take too long to reload in situations like this. I need this." She gestures to the handgun and they nod.
"I'll cover you both." Hershel tells them.
Glenn looks skeptical at the idea. "That's a great plan." He mutters sarcastically.
Her and Glenn slowly opened the door to the alley, she crept out first, her gun raised. She saw it was clear, both sides. It was quiet. Too quiet. There was a gunshot and she grabs Glenn and dives behind a dumpster. There was another shot and heard a groan. She panted and looked at Glenn, he was panting too.
"You hit?" She asked him. He shook his head. She looked back at the alley where they came from, and there was a man on the floor, groaning in pain. She kept on aiming her gun when she saw Rick emerge from the door.
"You hit?" He whispers.
"No. Both of us are fine." She whispers back. He was almost at the dumpster.
Rick appears around the corner and ducks with them. He looks at Glenn and for the first time she noticed that he was out of it.
"It's alright. The car's right there." Rick assures the pair of them, but mostly Glenn who nods his head.
"Okay." Glenn mutters, his voice wavering.
"We're almost home." Rick tells them. He looks at her and she nods. Just one more step then they go home. "You good?"
Glenn breathes out. "I'm good." He looks like he's back with them.
"Let's go." Callie urges and Rick nods. He leaves the cover and a gun shot rings out. "Get back."
They stay down and Callie realises something.
"They haven't found us yet." Callie comments and Rick nods.
"That's a relief." Glenn mutters under his breath.
They hear tires and a jeep rolls up.
"Let's get out of here! Roamers all over the place!" A voice shouts. She looks up and notices a man on the roof. "Hurry up! We gotta get out of here!"
"What about Sean and Tommy?" A voice calls back.
The three of them were staying silent. Callie was nervous.
"They shot Sean! Tommy has disappeared! We gotta go, roamers are everywhere!"
"We're leaving?"
"Jump!" The voice barks. She watches as the guy looks around. "Hurry up, jump already!"
They heard a bang and a scream.
"Dude didn't make it." Glenn mutters.
"Help me! Help me!" The voice painfully begs.
"I've gotta go! I've gotta go! I'm sorry!" The jeep tears away and it goes silent, apart from the crying of the guy that fell.
They waited a couple of minutes, just in case there were any more of them. They only heard the man's pleas.
Rick turns to Glenn. "Get Hershel." He orders and turns to Callie. Glenn quickly goes back down the alley.
"I'll get the car." She confirms and he nods before running off to the other side of the street, towards the man. Oh for the love of God.
She turns around the corner, her right hand gripping her gun, heading towards the car when a hand grabs her left arm.
"Fuck!" She curses.
"You're not going anywhere." A man seethed. Well shit. This must be Tommy.
She whips up her gun to the bottom of his head and pulls the trigger. The gunshot echoes and she flinches from her ears ringing. She couldn't hear anything for a split second. She looks down to the dead man, half of his skull blown up from top of his head. She gagged at the sight.
"Callie!" A voice echoing shouts. Her hearing comes back when Glenn is in front of her and Hershel. They look at her with worry and see the body at her feet.
"Come on." He grabs her arm and they meet with Rick.
"What about the car?" She mumbles to Glenn, who was escorting her away from the body.
"Don't worry about that right now. We need to stick together." Hershel says and they meet with Rick, who was hovering by a guy, his leg impaled with a fence. Oh for fuck sake.
A lot of death this episode. Mainly Callie's first kills and Rick's. Even Hershel's. It'll affect Callie massively in the next episode and things will start to add up. Something important has happened in this chapter, which butterfly effects can happen. All choices matter, don't they? So keep that in mind when reading this story. Things happen for a reason.