Merle Dixon's A+ Parenting

The One Handed Man

It happened so fast. Neither Adrian nor Connor had time to process what just happened. They were raiding the Walmart again, it'd been three months since they were last there so it was less overrun but less food, it was still worth a shot though. Ronan was right behind them, Alice and Warren were back on the apartment roof listening for the airhorn signal's.

They had their backs turned on Ronan for less than a minutes before they heard their friend screaming, an Infected attached to his left forearm, right through the jean jacket he'd been wearing that day. Going out he insisted he'd be fine, the Infected couldn't bite through jean. Ronan stabbed it before it could tear the flesh off and make him bleed more. "RO!" Connor shouted running toward their friend as he gripped his arm, attempting to stem the bleeding.

Adrian yanked off his belt to make a tourniquet around Ronan's upper arm before he collapsed into Connor's arms "Wha- I didn't even see it" Ronan whimpered as he was set into the cart they were using and rushed out the door into the trunk and raced to the apartment.

That was nearly three days ago. No one around them were bitten besides the tour guide but her bite was deep and she bled out, Ronan had a fever and delirium, constantly said his body hurt but he never succumbed to the bite. They planed another group run into the city to the CVS pharmacy consisting of Warren and Connor.

Atlanta wasn't quiet, Connor had been right about other survivors, whatever groups were going out they kept running into another survivor, a young Korean guy named Glenn. He was cool, they helped eachother from time to time, using the airhorns as distractions away from where ever Glenn was hiding and vice versa for the group.

As the two went down the street, weapons at the ready, something caught Connor's eye "War, you head over to the pharmacy, Imma go grab that" He pointed at a bag laying in the street, a couple guns poking out from the top "Just hurry" She hissed quietly. Connor walked away as Warren walked around to the back of the pharmacy to find one of the windows busted.

"Shit!" She whispered looking at the blood smeared on the walls and glass before carefully climbing in. Her axe was hooked onto her back by a couple belts around her torso, in her hands she held one of her hunting knives and a flashlight, shining it around the store, seeing no immediate threat.

She jumped over the counter and began filling her duffle bag full of random medicines when a soft groan caught her attention. Behind one of the shelves laid a man with a missing hand, the stub was burnt and bloody, the skin around it was an irritated red "Hello?" She called to him but he simply groaned again.

She went and kneeled beside the man rolling him over onto his back. He wore a ripped black sleeveless shirt, leather vest, black jeans, and silver dogtags. Grabbing them she saw his name, Merle Dixon. "Alright Mr. Dixon, I'm gonna need you to wake up so we can get somewhere safe" She said aloud shaking the man gently, a rough hand quickly grabbing her wrist.

In the blink of an eye she was laying on her back with Dixon on top of her "Ya shouldn' try to wake up random men girlie" He sneered, the stench of his breath made Warren want to puke "And you should always pay attention to your opponent" She shot back pressing the tip of her knife into the side Merle's neck causing his eyes to widen.

"Just jokin' sweetheart" Merle laughed as he got off her raising his only hand, his stump pulled up against his chest "Well I ain't. Not safe for a sixteen year old to be pinned down by a grown ass man," Warren scoffed keeping her knife pointed at him "All I was trying to do was help you but you had to be a creep"

Merle grimaced when she said her age, backing up a bit "Didn' mean it ta be that way. Was just tryin ta warn ya tha' not all guys would leave ya alone" He said looking away from the girl "Yeah right, good luck trying to get somewhere safe" She growled standing and grabbing the duffle full of meds.