together | GLENN RHEE

-chapter two

Morales was the next to try and stop him but was rewarded with a punch in the stomach instead of one in the jaw. Merle continued beating T-Dog until he finally pulled a gun on him.

T-Dog whimpered and winced and stared fearfully at him. Marlee's eyes widened at the sight, "Merle, no! Stop, stop it!" Others around them shared the same message.

Merle spat on T-Dog's shirt and then began to rub it in. "Yeah! All right!" He stood up, "We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who's in charge. "

Marlee and the others helped drag T-Dog away from him. Marlee inspected some of his more blatant injuries, having some training in medical practice as a firefighter. "I vote me. Anybody else?" He glared as the group helped T-Dog. "Democracy time, y'all. Show of hands? All in favor?"

The group began to slowly raise hands, reluctantly. Every one of them scowled at the man as he chuckled bitterly.

"Now, that means I'm the boss, right?" Merle asked with a disgusting smirk. "Anybody?"

"Yeah," Rick murmured, smacking Merle in the back of the head with the same sniper-rifle he had used before and then handcuffing him to a pole.

Rick held Merle up by his vest as Merle grumbled, "Who the hell are you, man?!"

"Officer friendly," Rick answered sarcastically. "Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no (n-word)s anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred-white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart."

Merle slowly moved his head to look back at Rick, "Screw you, man."

Rick sighed, "I see you make a habit of missing the point."

"Yeah, well screw you twice," he bit back.

Rick held the gun and mimicked Merle from before, "Ought to be more polite to a man with a gun, only common sense."

"You wouldn't," Merle said. "You're a cop."

"All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose." Rick whispered, "I'll give you a moment to think about that."

He began to pat Merle down for any more weapons and then pulled out what Marlee assumed was cocaine. She wasn't too shocked when Rick discovered it. Merle had probably ingested every substance a human could at least once. "Got some on your nose there." He flicked Merle's nose.

"What are you gonna do? Arrest me?" Merle laughed, then saw as Rick threw the bag of coke. "Hey! What are you doing? Man, that was my stuff!" He struggled against the handcuffs in agitation. "Hey! If I get loose, you'd better pray-yeah, you hear me, you pig?! You hear me!?"

Rick was walking off as he replied, "Yeah, your voice carries."

Morales joined him and they began to talk. Marlee was preoccupied with helping T-Dog, though. A few minor cuts and plenty of bruises were scattered around his body. His face was her main concern, but there didn't seem to be anything broken.

"Well, you're as good as you can be," Marlee said as she stood up from her crouched position. "We can better treat those cuts back at camp.

"If we get back to camp," T-Dog scoffed slightly. "With all those geeks Merle attracted I doubt we're traveling anytime soon."

She shrugged, "Guess we'll have to fight it out, huh?" She smiled as she playfully threw a few fake punches.

T-Dog chuckled weakly, holding his side in pain, "I've done enough of that for one day."