Chapter 4 : Vatos
The hacksaw and the now-broken bike lock being all that the rescue party found, the atmosphere is dense with tension, as letting out a heavy breath, Daryl lowers his crossbow and pulling out his sidearm, aims the handgun at T-Dog with a snarl.
Immediately Rick lifts up Merle's sniper and levels the muzzle to Daryl's head.
Neither T-Dog nor Daryl flinch in the standoff as Rick says. "I won't hesitate. I don't care if every walker in the city hears it."
Daryl, now tearing up for his brother's sake, lowers the handgun. T-Dog lets out a sigh as Rick lowers his weapon. Daryl blinks away some tears.
Placing a hand on his shoulder, Rick says to Daryl. "Hey, let's look around, he might not be far." Daryl gives him a nod and sets out, his eyes scanning the rooftop for another exit that Merle would have taken, with Rick and Glenn following him as T-Dog begins collecting the dropped tools in Dale's toolbox and catches up to them. Around a corner they see another doorway into the building. Crossbow aimed, Daryl goes through, Rick and Glenn behind him. Rick, now switched to dual-wielding his revolver and Beretta, ready to shoot, with the rifle now slung on his shoulder.
"Merle? You in here?" Daryl calls out as the trio go down the stairwell in the building.
Getting out of the stairwell, they scout through the building, keeping quiet until they first hear and then see a walker growling.
Click and swish, the arrow is sent flying as Daryl fires the crossbow, embedding itself in the walker's head as it falls with a thud, with the archer walking over and pulling out the arrow with a squelch.
Carefully making their way through the building, T-Dog having caught up to them, The four enter an abandoned reception area where they see a couple walkers dead on the floor, their heads smashed in, with one being stomped upon, leaving a trail of bloody footprints.
Daryl gazed at the prints as he said. "Definitely Merle. Had enough in him to take out these two sumbitches despite being baked in that overhead sun."
A bloodied crescent wrench lies on the floor beside the first walker as T-Dog walks over to inspect it. As Daryl reaches down and pulls back on his crossbow to reload the arrow into it, T-dog walks over to inspect the wrench and turning his head to face Glenn, says "Must be the missing one that wasn't on the roof." He pulls out a blue piece of cloth from his pocket, and wrapping it around the wrench places it in the toolbox, shutting it closed.
"Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother." Daryl said with a grunt. "Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails." He mused as the four continued on, handguns out except for Daryl with his crossbow in the lead, following the footsteps.
The bloody footsteps leading the four towards a kitchen, Daryl calls out again for his brother fruitlessly, before being reprimanded by Rick. Reaching the the end of the trail, they come across a broken window as Glenn exclaims "He left the building? Why the hell would he do that?" As Daryl counters "Why wouldn't he? He's out there alone as far as he knows, doing what he's got to do. Surviving."
Looking out the window, Rick saw a fire escape leading down as T-Dog spoke "You call that surviving? Just wandering out in the streets, maybe passing out? What are his odds out there?" As Daryl again retorted. "No worse than being tied up and left to rot by you sorry pricks." He turned to face Rick "You couldn't kill him. Ain't so worried about some dumb dead bastard." He says as he walks in close to get up in Rick's face, as the cop unflinchingly argues back. "What about a thousand dumb dead bastards? Different story?"
Glaring back the younger Dixon replied. "Why don't you take a tally? Do what you want. I'm gonna go get him." He steps away from Rick and towards the window as the latter puts his hand up to stop Daryl as he cries out. "Get your hands off me! You can't stop me."
"I don't blame you. He's family, I get that. I went through Hell to find mine. I know exactly how you feel." Rick said, trying to placate the man as he proposed a thought. "He can't get far with that injury. We could help you check a few blocks around but only if we keep a level head."
The duo are right up in each other's face again but this time it's not so confrontational as Daryl agrees.
As the four went down to the streets and alleyways, going by Glenn's scouting plan to spread out in pairs, Chaos broke out as Daryl, who was right behind Glenn, was spooked by a juvenile, who started calling for support in Spanish. Daryl was able silence the boy but was too late in doing so, as he got ambushed by two of his allies from behind.
Glenn had rounded up back on the spot after hearing the scuffle, having seen, guessed the ownership of and grabbed Rick's Sheriff hat, the two thuggish brutes giving him deer-caught-in-the-headlights looks as they saw the rifle slung around his neck.
However, lacking the expertise of the weapon, with the added stress due to the heat of the moment, Glenn fumbled with the safety, and the two, realising this, charged at him as Glenn, panic-stricken, tried to get his handgun out.
Before Glenn could level the weapon to fire at them, the one with the metallic bat, swung it down on his hand, making him drop the sidearm and fall to the ground.
A couple moments later, a car pulled up and the pair dragged the beaten-up Glenn inside, but not before Daryl had pulled out his own handgun and grazed the bald thug in the buttock.
As Rick and T-Dog jogged up to stop Daryl from beating up the boy unconscious.
After rendezvousing back at the lab, Rick and the group tried interrogating the boy, which was just the boy prodding Daryl and then getting scared by the redneck threatening to remove his feet, before Rick was able to coerce a location out of him by promising a peaceful trade-off of him for Glenn.
The four step through a broken window and into an alley, crossing it to the shell of a large brick building lacking any interior or roof. Rick pushes the kid into the lead and they walk through the building toward a pair double doors. Rick scans every opening, on the alert for any threat. Rick and Daryl stand several feet back from the kid with their weapons trained at him. He stops about fifteen feet in front of the doors as they soon open. Several figures stay inside, obscured by the shadows, as one man, slight in build, steps out, Glenn's rifle slung around his neck.
"You okay, little man?" Guillermo asked the kid as he replied with a panicked look. "They're gonna cut off my feet, Carnal." Guillermo gave the group an amused look. "Cops do that?" "Not him, this redneck puto here." The kid answered as Daryl told him to shut up.
At that moment the bald thug comes out. "Hey, that's the vato there, G, the one who grazed me in the ass. What's up, homes, huh?" He starts in a heated tone, pulling out and aiming a revolver at Daryl before Guillermo put a hand on his arm to lower it. "Chill, ese, Chill. Chill."
He then faces Rick. "This true? He wants Miguelito's feet? That's pretty sick, man." Rick replied that they hoped for a calm discussion.
"That hillbilly jumps Felipe's little cousin, beats on him, threatens to cut off his feet, Felipe gets an arrow in the ass and you want a calm discussion? You fascinate me." Guillermo says
"Heat of the moment." Rick says "Mistakes were made on both sides."
"Who's that dud to you anyway? You don't look related." Guillermo asked
"He's one of our group, more or less. I'm sure you have a few like him." Rick answered as Daryl spoke up. "You got my brother in there?"
Guillermo replied in negative as Rick again tried to settle the matter peacefully. "I have one of yours, you have one of mine. Sounds like an even trade."
"Don't sound even to me." Guillermo countered as the boy, Miguel, panicked. "My people got attacked. Where's the compensation for their pain and suffering?" He demanded. "What'd ya reckon is worth the trade?" Daryl asked as Guillermo replied. "That pretty crossbow of yours, that shiny little piece you clipped Felipe's behind with. All the guns you have on you. Hand them over and we all walk away with all our members."
"You're mistaken if you think we'd do that." Rick replied.
Guillermo said. "I don't think so. What's to stop my people from unloading on you right here and now and I take what's mine?"
"You could do that..." Rick replies as he gazes upwards towards where T-Dog is seen aiming at Guillermo with Merle's rifle, having switched with Rick. He's looking down and in over the top of the building wall Guillermo right there in his sights. "Or not." The cop finishes.
Guillermo looks up and then turning his head back, yells. "Oye!"
Rick looks up to the top of the building behind Guillermo. Two men lead Glenn with a bag over his head, hands behind his back, to the edge. One of them removes the bag to show his face, his mouth being duct taped.
Guillermo then broke the silence. "I see two options. You come back with Miguel and my bag of guns, everybody walks. Or you come back locked ad loaded, we'll see which side spills more blood." With that he and his men head back into the building and the doors close as Rick Daryl and Miguel go back the way they came.
After making a plan back in the office, Rick, Daryl and T-Dog return to the gang's warehouse, Miguel walking ahead, hands bound and mouth tied.
The doors open, all the vatos men are inside waiting. Some have handguns, some have baseball bats. Daryl shoves their hostage forward as he, Rick and T-Dog enter in behind him. Guillermo comes forward, Glenn's rifle in his hands, aimed towards them. Rick has Merle's rifle poised towards the gang leader.
Guillermo breaks the silence. "I see my guns but not in the way I wanted them." Rick replies "That's because they're not yours. I thought I mentioned that." "I don't think you fully appreciate the gravity of the situation." "No, I'm pretty clear." Rick cuts Miguel's wrists free and shoves him forward.
"You have your man. I want mine."
Guillermo retorts. "I'm gonna chop up your boy. I'm gonna feed him to my dogs. They're the evilest, nastiest man-eating bitches you ever saw. I picked them up from Satan at a yard sale. I told you how it has to be. Are you woefully deaf?"
Rick answers. "No, my hearing's fine." He drops his weapon, it clattering to the ground. "You said come locked and loaded." He brought his right hand to left.
-Flashback~ the office, minutes ago.-
Daryl spoke as he primed his crossbow. "Them guns are worth more than gold. Gold won't protect your family or put food on the table. You willing to give that up for that kid?"
T-Dog Put in his two cents. "If I knew we'd get Glenn back, I might agree. But you think that vato across the way is just gonna hand him over?"
Miguel piped up before Daryl slapped him silent.
T-Dog then asked him again. "Question is do you trust that man's word?"
"No, question is what are you willing to bet on it? Could be more than them guns. Could be your life. Glenn worth that to you?" Daryl added.
"What life I have I owe to him. I was nobody to Glenn, just some idiot stuck in a tank. He could have walked away, but he didn't. Neither will I." Rick said, as his eyes fell on one black silhouette that gave him a gut feeling that he was making the right choice.
Daryl and T-Dog cock their weapons, oddly crouching as the vatos level their weapons too.
"Okay then, we're here." Rick said, as both his friends hit the ground as he himself pressed down the faceplate and was covered in a green light.
The vatos crew, the few who had the handguns and Guillermo himself, fired some bullets at Rick, but as the light died down, they saw that it wasn't Rick, but a tall sleek human like statue that looked like it was made entirely of pale green/blue crystals, which must have been very tough and durable like a diamond, as the bullets were only able to make minor dents and chinks, with most lying on ground and some embedded into his frame, all bent out of shape and/or cracked, as the cracks were soon filled in by the crystals regenerating. Four crystal shards jutted out of his back and his a sharp head had yellow eyes that bore menacingly at them all. He wore a sleeveless uniform that was black on the right half and white on the left with a black patch on the left shoulder, where the Omnitrix symbol was.
Everyone looked taken aback at his look, T-Dog faring the best of them, as he had already seen Rick transform into something like this once before. Daryl came out of his stupor soon afterwards and aimed his crossbow at Guillermo while the vatos all aimed at the trio with shaky fingers.
"Felipe! Felipe!"
Suddenly an elderly woman walked out from behind the armed men, before she looked at Rick and brought her hand to her mouth in shock as she gasped. "Diablo de diamante!" She muttered.
The bald guy Felipe told her to go back to the others as Daryl yelled to get her out of the line of fire.
"Abuela, listen to your mijo, okay? This is not the place for you right now." Guillermo tried to calmly reply to her as she remembered why she came. "Mr. Gilbert is having trouble breathing. He needs his asthma stuff. Carlito didn't find it. He needs his medicine."
Guillermo then turned to her grandson. "Felipe, go take care of it, okay? And take your grandmother with you." He nodded and spoke to her. "Abuela, vas conmigo, por favor"
She however looked at T-Dog and Daryl warily. "Who are those men?" And ignoring Felipe, walked toward Rick. "Don't you take him." She spat at him, lifting up her cross pendant.
"Ma'am?" Rick replied, speaking in a deep voice, clear but much different than his own but she held up her cross as she continued. "Felipe's a good boy. He have his trouble but he pull himself together. He is under the lord's protection Demonio."
"Ma'am, I'm not here to take anyone." Rick clarified. "Then what do you want here?" She inquired
"These people are helping us find a missing friend. Fella named Glenn." He answered and recognition dawned on her face. "The Asian boy? He's with Mr. Gilbert. Come. Come, I show you. He needs his medicine." She said and grabbing his crystalline wrist with her fingers, lead him and others inside as Guillermo reluctantly allowed them all passage inside.
She lead them up a staircase and through a courtyard, Rick's footsteps thumping along the ground as if pistons, and guided them through a nursing home. Rick looks into the rooms on either side and sees elderly people being cared for as he, Daryl and T-Dog follow wordlessly, all the seniors and vatos members looking at him in awe.
Walking into a cafeteria, several people are at tables with a group is huddled around one, all staring at Rick like others before them.
Felipe and his grandmother are there as he talks to an older African American man in a wheelchair. "All right. All right. Nice and easy. Just breathe." He puts an asthma inhaler in the man's mouth. "Just breathe. Just let it out. Just breathe." He says as the inhaler hisses, releasing a dosage.
Rick sees Glenn is there, and unharmed. The Asian man looks at him in surprise, before seeing T-Dog and Daryl and realising it must be one of his alien forms.
Rick, flabbergasted as the sight before him, asked Glenn. "What the Hell is this?" "An asthma attack. Couldn't get his breath all of a sudden." He answered as T-Dog replied. "I thought you were being eaten by dogs, man." Glenn just looked behind him where three Chihuahuas sat in a dog basket, barking at Rick's Crystalline form.
Rick turned to Guillermo "Could I have a word with you?" He said as the pair walked away from the seniors. "You're the dumbest son of a bitch I ever met. We walked in there ready to kill every last one of you." "Well, I'm glad it didn't go down that way." Was the only reply the man gave.
"If it had, that blood would be on my hands." Rick said, aghast at what would have happened if he had gone down the path of vengeance. "Mine too. We'd have fought back. Wouldn't be the first time we've had to. Protect the food, the medicine—what's left of it. These people, the old ones—the staff took off, just left 'em here to die. Me and Felipe were the only ones who stayed." Guillermo asked.
"What are you, doctors?" The former sheriff asked. "Felipe's a nurse – A special care provider. Me, I'm the custodian." Guillermo explained.
Guillermo leads Rick, T-Dog, Glenn and Daryl into a room as they continue talking.
"What about the rest of your crew?" Rick inquired.
"The vatos trickle in to check on their parents, their grandparents. They see how things are and most decide to stay. It's a good thing too. We need the muscle. The people we've encountered since things fell apart, the worst kind—plunderers. The kind that take by force."
Rick clarified that him and his group were not like that. "How was I to know? My people got attacked and you show up with Miguel hostage— Appearances." Guillermo answered, sure that his reasoning was sound.
"Guess the world changed." T-Dog commented. Guillermo replied. "No. it's the same as it ever was. The weak get taken. So we do what we can here. The vatos work on those cars, talk about getting the old people out of the city. But most can't even get to the bathroom by themselves, so that's just a dream. Still it keeps the crew busy, and that's worth something. So we barred all the windows, welded all the doors shut except for one entrance. The vatos, they go out, scavenge what they can to keep us going. We watch the perimeter night and day and we wait. The people here, they all look to me now. I don't even know why."
"Because they can." Rick said.
After a moment of thinking, Rick spoke again. "I cannot hand over the guns, they make all the difference in this world." He took a breath, "But I can tell you where to look to get more for yourself."
Afterwards, in an office room in the nursing home facility, Rick, now having timed out of the Alien form back into his human self, looked at a map of the city, focusing on the area they were in.
"How many bars and pubs are around here?" He asked. "More than a dozen, fifteen or sixteen." Guillermo replied. "Why? You think this is the time for a drink?" Felipe replied, presumably still a bit sour about the graze wound, as Guillermo placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him.
"No. Because every pub or bar is legally allowed to keep a gun for emergencies." Rick answered. Felipe asked how did he know that as Rick explained. "Only the gun store vendors who sell these guns, the owners and managers of these bars who purchase these guns and us cops who verify the paperwork for this are kept in the loop."
Guillermo then turns to Felipe. "Round up Rodriguez, Juan, Hermann, Chico and Gonzalez. You go with them and take two cars. Split into threes and each of you hit up half these places. If there's a chance, then it's the best one we have."
As Rick and the others waited for the crews to return, they spoke to the people there in hopes of finding any leads about Merle, which was unfortunately not a fruitful venture.
As half an hour passed, the sounds of engines was heard and T-Dog peeked out the window. "They are back." He said. "And smiling like crazy." They walked down to the courtyard where Guillermo joined them.
Before them, Felipe and the other man who had taken Glenn stood. Before them, on a tarp, laid four double-barrels and four pump-action shotguns, a duffel bag between them. Felipe was holding a SPAS-12 that he thrust out to Guillermo. "Found this strung up like a boar head on a wall G. Seems out of tune but Guapo and Gilberto say they can fix it. We scored big man." He spoke, smiling gleefully. "Nine out of those places had these." He gestured at the weapons. "And one sixty something of rounds last I counted." He pointed at the duffel bag.
Guillermo was silent for a moment before he took in a deep breath and exclaimed. "Hell yeah Muchachos!" As the other vatos members also jeered in celebration, he turned to Rick. "Mucho Garcias Amigo. You did us a solid." He said with a genuine smile.
"Uh, Rodriguez." Felipe said to the other man, Rodriguez, with a nod, who then spoke. "Uh, G, out there, aside from the loot, we found something else." He turns to his back and calls out. "Hermann, Gonzalez, bring them."
Two more of the vatos members walked into view, and brought them, two people that Rick hadn't expected to be reunited with so soon.
"Morgan!" Rick spoke and walked towards the man, giving him a firm handshake and ruffling Duane's hair, the three of them smiling.
Rick introduced them to others and Glenn gave him a nervous smile and Daryl a respectful nod and grunt of acknowledgment, before T-Dog started up a conversation with Morgan.
The five men and child walk back to where the jeep was parked.
Glenn chuckled as a stray thought came to his mind. "Admit it, you only came back to Atlanta for the hat." "Don't tell anybody." Rick replied a little bashful as Duane chuckled. "Well, it is a part of your costume." the child said. "Uniform, Duane." Morgan corrected as he smiled.
They come around an abandoned metro bus and look to where the jeep had been.
"Oh my God." Let out an horrified Glenn.
"Where the Hell's our jeep?" Daryl muttered.
Glenn spoke, disbelief in his voice, "We left it right there. Who would take it?"
As Rick, who had a hunch, voiced his thoughts. "Merle."
"He's gonna be taking some vengeance back to camp." Daryl's ominous words filled the air with tension.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's look for something!" T-Dog had said and they all had split up to look for a vehicle.
"Guys I found something!" Glenn's voice was heard, followed by a blaring car alarm.
They all ran up to it to see a Red 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T with it's driver side window glass broken into and the car alarm howling. "Turn it off quick!" Daryl shouts.
"I—I don't know how..." Glenn stammers, before he turns to Rick. "Do your thing!"
Rick nods, and seeing the watch green and thus usable, starting twisting and turning the dial till he gets what he wants. Slamming down, the dial, he is enveloped by green light then Upgrade is standing in his place, Morgan and Duane looking at him with open mouths before he jumps onto and merges into the car.
"Quick! Get in!" Upgrade's voice is heard and everyone comes out of their stupor and gets inside, before, the doors lock automatically and the car speeds away, heading out the city, the vehicle super-boosted by the technological alien.
~ Camp P.0.V. ~
All the campers were sitting around the campfire, Lori being there as well, for Carl's sake and Shane for hers, save for Ed Peletier, who had been beaten up by a frustrated Shane during the day and was laying in his tent. It was dinner time and everyone was enjoying the fish the Harrison sisters had caught in the pond.
Morales sates his curiosity about Dale's watch-winding as he asks him and the older man then ends up quoting William Faulkner, leading to Amy commenting about Dale's weirdness as everyone chuckles and the man himself chuckling admits it might be his bad paraphrasing of William Faulkner's words.
Amy then gets up without a word, prompting her sister to inquire. After saying that she needs to pee and grumbling about the lack of discretion prompting more chuckles.
Back at the Peletiers' tent, Ed hears some rustling and opening the tent to bark at whoever it was to leave him, sees a walker glaring at him, before being lunged upon as three more come into view from behind.
Amy comes out of the the RV, opening the door as she called out to others for needing toilet paper. Suddenly a walker came out of the shadows and grabbed at her.
However just before it was able to take a bite out of her, she yanked her arm away, and pulling out one of the 9 handguns Rick had left for everyone, shot it in the head, having been taught how to use it by her sister as soon as she got her hands on it. as she saw two more approach, she ran back inside the RV, closing the door behind her.
The gunshot stirred up the others and as they saw more than a dozen walkers approach out of the surroundings forest, everyone sprang into action.
The parents formed a circle around their kids, Shane, Jim and Dale took to their shotguns and started blasting holes in walkers' heads. Jacqui and the Morales couple joined them with a handgun as Andrea took Dale's scoped hunting rifle that was lying there on the ground and ran towards his RV. Running to the back, she saw the ladder and lunged at it, the adrenaline boosting her climb as she got up it and onto the roof. Peering through the skylight, she saw her sister and yelled. "You hurt?!" Amy shook her head in denial "okay, stay in there and don't open till I say so" she nodded back and Andrea then used the high ground advantage to pick off the walkers one by one.
As the gunfire died down, Amy asked her sister from inside the RV. "Is it over?" Andrea took a look around but before she could answer she saw them.
She yelled to the others. "Guys! There are more, twenty more, coming up the hillside!" However before anyone could react, the hum of an engine was heard and soon, a Dodge Challenger barrelled out of the horde, crushing nearly half of it. It was covered in same black and green circuit patterns as the tank, which Andrea recognised to be Rick's doing.
It stopped some feet ahead of the remaining dozen or so walkers and out came Daryl, T-Dog, Glenn and an unknown man who had a child beside him.
The four of them lifted up their rifles and crossbow and made short work of the walkers, as the car flashed and turned back to normal, the driver's door opening and Rick running out towards the survivors, finding Carl and hugging him close, as the survivors soon realised that the fight was over, and slowly started to deal with the aftermath, parents consoling children, people looking for their separated loved ones, those with guns or other weapons checking for stragglers.
A:N : the guns-in-pubs bit is a reference to the first part of attack on Titan, season 3.
And yeah, Glenn's red car is not going to be stripped this time. Rick's guns came in clutch and reduced the death count this time around. I regret Diamondhead couldn't get his naming or do more than just intimidate.
