stone cold |twd|

chapter 32

"One guy told us there was the coast guard sitting in the Gulf, sending ferries to the islands." Tony added,

"The latest was a rail yard in Montgomery running trains to the middle of the country... Kansas, Nebraska."

Dave and his group have met other groups, other people. Maybe there was a chance that they met her parents along the way. If they weren't in Atlanta, they had to be somewhere.

"Nebraska?" Glenn questioned,

"Low population, lots of guns." Tony explained,

 Glenn nodded, "Kinda makes sense."

"Ever been to Nebraska, kid?" Dave asked him, "A reason they call 'em flyover states. How about you guys?"

"Fort Benning, eventually." Rick answered, 

"I hate to piss in your cornflakes, officer, but... We ran across a grunt who was stationed at Benning. He said the place was overrun by lamebrains." Dave informed them.

Marcie's heart broke a little bit. She needed to keep hope, but after hearing about Fort Benning, was there any safe place still out there?

"Wait, fort Benning is gone? Are you for real?" Glenn questioned,

Dave nodded, "Sadly, I am. Oddly, the truth is there is no way out of this 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." Tony corrected, 

"Yeah, it doesn't look like you guys are hanging your hats here." Dave changed the subject, "You holed up somewhere else?"

Marcie tensed up. Were they going to tell them that information? It wasn't really theirs to give out, just Hershel. But there was no room on the farm, there was no way he was going to extend an invitation.

"Not really." 

"Those your cars out front?" Dave asked,

"Yeah. Why?" Glenn answered and Marcie glared at him,

"We're living in ours. Those look kinda empty, clean. Where's all your gear?"

"We're with a larger group out scouting, thought we could use a drink." Hershel explained,

"A drink? Hershel, me I thought you quit." Dave joked, "Well, we're thinking of setting up around here. Is it... is it safe?"

"It can be, although I have killed a couple of walkers around here." Glenn responded and Marcie stepped on his foot harshly while Rick gave him a look.

"Walkers? That what you call them? That's good. I like that. I like that better than lamebrains."

"More succinct." Tony added,

"Okay, Tony went to college." Dave joked,

"Two years."

"So what... so what, you guys set up on the outskirts or something? That new development?" Dave questioned,

Tony stood and walked towards the wall, "Trailer park or something? A farm?"

"Old McDonald had a farm." Dave sang as they all watched Tony face the wall and Marcie could hear him unzip his zipper.

Was he really about to pee on the wall?

"E-I-e-I-o." Tony sang as he peed on the floor,

"You got a farm?" Dave asked again. And y their reactions, he knew he got it right, "Is it safe?"

"It's gotta be." Tony responded,

"You got food, water?" Dave perked up, 

"You got cooze? Ain't had a piece of ass in weeks." Tony turned and winked at Marcie, who scooted further away,

 Dave shook his head, "Listen, pardon my friend. City kids... they got no tact. No disrespect, Marcie." His eyes moved to the Korean guy next to her, "So listen, Glenn..."

"We've said enough." Rick interrupted,

"Well, hang on a second. This farm... it sounds pretty sweet. Don't it sound sweet, Tony?" Dave asked his buddy,

"Yeah, real sweet." Tony replied as he rejoined the group,

"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. We can pool our resources, our manpower." Dave reasoned,

Rick shook his head, "Look, I'm sorry. That's not an option."

"Doesn't sound like it'd be a problem."

"I'm sorry. We can't." Hershel spoke up,

"We can't take in any more." Rick added,

Dave chuckled, "You guys are something else. I thought... I thought we were friends. We got people we gotta look out for too."

"We don't know anything about you." Rick reasoned,

"No, 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 same things yourself. Am I right?" Dave asked, "'Cause ain't nobody's hands clean in what's left of this world. We're all the same. So come on, let's... let's take a nice friendly hayride to this farm and we'll get to know each other."

Rick gave him a cold smile, "That's not gonna happen."

"Rick..." Dave began,

"This is bullshit!" Tony burst out and Marcie's hand went to her gun,

"Calm down." Rick snapped at him,

"Don't tell me to calm down. Don't ever tell me to calm down. I'll shoot you four assholes in the head and take your damn farm!" Tony exclaimed angrily,

 Rick stood and placed his hand on his gun holster, ready to face off with the large man. Dave stood in between the two, holding his hands up, "Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Relax. Take it easy. Nobody's killing anybody." He patted Rick's shoulder, "Nobody's shooting anybody. Right, Rick?" Dave climbed over the bar, next to Marcie, "Look. We're just friends having a drink." He wrapped an arm around Marcie's hips and she tensed, "Don't be scared, sweetheart." He took his gun with his other hand and placed it on the bar, "See? Now where's the good stuff, huh? Good stuff, good stuff, good stuff." He searched around before grabbing the bottle of vodka Marcie drank from earlier, "Hey, look at that. That'll work." He let go of Marcie and kept an eye on Rick, who still had his hand on his gun, "You gotta understand... we can't stay out there." Dave spoke as he poured his drink, "You know what it's like."

Rick nodded, "Yeah, I do. But the farm is too crowded as is. I'm sorry. You'll have to keep looking."

"Keep looking." Dave sighed, "Where do you suggest we do that?"

"I don't know." Rick tilted his head, "I hear Nebraska's nice."

Dave chuckled, "Nebraska." He wrapped an arm around Marcie again, looking down at her, "This guy."

Before he could grab his gun, Rick shot him in the head and turned to shoot Tony. Marcie gasped as Dave's body knocked her over.

"Marcie!" Rick called out,

She grunted in pain as she twisted her ankle, "'M fine." Glenn reached down and pulled Dave's corpse off of her and helped Marcie up, "Tony dead?"

Rick nodded, "They're dead."

They walked over and stared at Tony's body,

"Holy shit."