Shane Walsh forbade Adelaide to go on a run to the city. He vehemently despised the thought of his sister walking in a town full of the undead, the walkers. Sure, they haven’t treated each other as siblings for the rest of Adelaide’s life, but Shane doesn’t want his sister to be in danger.
But of course, it wasn’t Shane’s choice to make. She sneaks out even if Shane wouldn’t allow her to go—which is every time and then she will come back to their camp with supplies and food they have obtained. And as she expected, Shane would always scold her, and he would tell her how stupid and dangerous it was but Adelaide never listened to him.
She always comes back alive, that’s what matters. Besides, she and Glenn make a good team.
As of the moment, all she can hear are the moans of the geeks—what Glenn liked to call it—spreading outside the building they are currently in. Dying isn’t on her to-do list today, but here she is, about to be an appetiser to a hundred walkers clustered in the city.
“Now, after scavenging and finding more supplies, what’s next?” Adelaide grunted, wiping the sweat trickling on her face.
“Go back—” Before Glenn could complete his response, they heard a few gunshots. The two glanced at each other, a peek of fear in their eyes.
Something shitty is about to happen.
“Of course, there’s always a dumb one putting everyone in danger,” Adelaide muttered under her breath.
Meanwhile, Glenn saw a man wearing a deputy’s uniform who went inside the tank before he was about to be devoured by the walkers.
Glenn took the walkie-talkie from Adelaide’s jeans’ back pocket, “Hey, cosy in there?” Glenn spoke. Adelaide turned around and let out a scoff.
Adelaide annoyingly rolls her eyes, “Are we really helping that idiot?”
Glenn stared at her shortly, “Yeah, I just thought if I would be in that situation, someone would help me too,” He confided, waiting for the man to answer.
Adelaide breathed heavily.
“Hello, hello,” A hoarse voice spoke from the device.
Glenn looked at Adelaide while he was letting out a sigh of relief. “There you are. You had me wondering.” Glenn replied, sighing in relief.
“Where are you? Outside? Can you see me right now?” The unknown man with a thick Southern accent asked desperately.
Again, Adelaide rolled her eyes, snatching the walkie-talkie on Glenn’s hand. “Oh yeah, we can clearly see you and your stupidity. You’re surrounded by walkers, idiot. Oh, and thanks for the gunshots, by the way—we are finally being served as appetisers. Really appreciate it.” She sardonically told, inserting herself into their conversation as she mentioned the group of geeks surrounding the establishment they were supposed to bust in.
Glenn yanked the device from Adelaide. He puts up his other hand, signalling her to stop with her snarky remarks. “Yeah, sorry about that, and she’s right, you’re surrounded by walkers. That’s the bad news.”
The man on the other line stayed quiet for a second, completely disregarding Adelaide’s sardonic remarks. “There’s good news?” Glenn quickly replies with, “No,”
“Listen, whoever you are. I don’t mind telling you; I’m a little concerned over in here.” Adelaide can sense the man is getting impatient just by listening to his voice. How and where did he get the audacity to get impatient when he put himself in that position? The man’s got some nerves.
“You should see it over here,” Adelaide said, her voice and tone a little less annoyed. “You’d be having a major freak-out.” Glenn continued.
“Got any advice for me?”
Glenn licked his upper lip before he responded, “Yeah, I’d say make a run for it.”
“That’s it? Make a run for it?” The man answered, losing his patience completely.
Adelaide lets out a scoff when she hears the man’s unamused reaction, “If you wanted to rot inside that tank, I’m cool with it. You do you.” She unnecessarily commented before receiving an ‘are you serious’ look from Glenn, making her chuckle in amusement.
“Look, my way’s not dumb as it sounds. You’ve got eyes on the outside here. There’s one geek up on the tank, but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down—”
The woman next to Glenn pouted her lips, “Poor horsie,”
“You with me so far?”
“So far,”
Glenn wheezed deeply, “Okay, the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now while they’re distracted, you stand a chance.” He spoke.
While Glenn is still giving instructions to the man, two walkers are coming their way. She took her knife out of its sheath. Adelaide carefully sauntered toward the walkers and pushed her blade through the walkers’ heads. She dealt with the body with care before dropping it to the floor and retreating to where she was standing earlier.
There was some blood spilt on her shirt. She groaned; this was her second favourite shirt. “Disgusting,”
“Make ‘em count. Jump off the right side of the tank. Keep going in that direction.” Glenn informed the man inside the tank. His explanation was interrupted when Glenn saw Adelaide’s bloody t-shirt. “You alright?” His forehead moulded a line.
The lady nodded her head, confirming that she was okay. Then, Glenn continued giving instructions to the man. “There’s an alley up the street, maybe fifty yards—”
Adelaide jerked the device away from Glenn, “Just be there and be quick, or we will leave without you,” A smile emitted on Glenn’s lips.
The stranger didn’t respond instantly, “Hey, what are your names?”
“Seriously, dude?”
“Have you been listening? You’re running out of time!” Glenn retorted frustratedly.
Again, a smile was displayed on Glenn’s face. A smile that is obviously poking fun at the lady in front of him because she changed her mind. “I guess we’re saving the idiot inside the tank,” Adelaide sarcastically gleamed, and Glenn returned a half-smile. Of course, she would change her mind; she still has a heart and conscience. If that man dies, it would be slow and painful.
He would be hungry and thirsty for like a couple of days, but he would still barely live. It would be the lack of oxygen that would kill him—if he’s stupid enough not to open the door and get out.
“Oh, and Glenn, I would save you. You know, if it was you who was in trouble, I would be that knight in leather boots that you are waiting for.”
Glenn leaned forward and threw his arms around Adelaide. “Oh, I know. And thank you, Adelaida. I would save you too.” He whispered to her ear and heard a groan from Adelaide.
Adelaide felt shivers on her spine before awkwardly patting his back and then breaking away from the hug, “I might change my mind if you’re going to keep on calling me that,” She grimaced. She hates her real name, and sometimes she wonders what was in her mother’s mind when she gave her daughter a name that sounds too old-fashioned.
“Also, unlike that man over there, I’m not stupid, so, do not anticipate that I would be in that kind of situation.” She showed off playfully, and then Glenn let out an unnatural gasp.
“Are you saying that I’m an idiot?”
Adelaide scrunches her nose, “Um–yes! Hello, have you met you,” She giggled, and Glenn burst into waves of laughter. Then they heard gunshots fired again, which made the duo swivel their heads in unison.
“Finally, the other idiot has finally gone out of the tank,” Adelaide declared openly, clapping her hands slowly as she saw the man in the uniform walk toward them. Glenn readies the gate to be opened. As Glenn veers around, a gun is concentrated on his face.
“Whoa! Not dead!”
“Lower your gun, Clint Eastwood!”
“Come on! Come on!” Glenn told the man, who was wearing a deputy’s uniform. The trio ran, “Back here!” The South Korean man escorted them away from the alley while the man in the uniform and Adelaide shot and slashed the walkers following behind them.
When they reached the notches, Glenn turned to Adelaide to let her climb first, which she heeded. Then, next was Glenn while the mysterious man was still shooting some of the geeks before it could reach them.
“What are you doing? Come on!” Glenn screamed at the man while Adelaide already reached the cat-walk platform. Her hands were on the railings, her back leaning on the wall and out of breath.
“Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood,” Glenn remarked, gasping for air.
“So, what, are you the new sheriff come riding in to clean up the town?” Adelaide spoke, still pissed off with the guy. “Nice costume, though.” She scoffed.
“It wasn’t my intention,” The man said with a thick Southern accent.
“Yeah, whatever. Yeehaw. You’re still a dumbass.” Said Glenn, still gasping for air. Adelaide opened her backpack and took the water bottle she got from the camp, and opened it. She sipped some water and gave it to Glenn afterwards.
“Where did you get this?” Glenn asked curiously, his eyes on the sceptical water bottle.
“Just drink it. It’s clean.” She answered, and Glenn drank almost half of the bottle. “Give him some,” Adelaide said, pointing to the tall man beside Glenn. Glenn did what she told him, handing the bottle of water to Clint Eastwood.
“Thank you,” Glenn breathes, and she only nods. After the man drank the entire water, he returned the bottle to the maiden.
“Rick, thanks,” Rick said, offering his hand for a shake. Adelaide shakes the man’s hand quickly, “Adelaide,” She introduces herself then, she takes the bottle out of his grasp and puts it back in her bag.
Glenn looked at Rick’s hand first and shook it as well, “Glenn. You’re welcome.” Rick swiftly put his gun inside Glenn’s backpack.
“Oh, no.” Glenn groaned, looking at the walkers beneath them. Adelaide leans on the railings to have a better view of the walkers clustered at the end of the notches.
The three of them looked at the steep stairs, which are on the wall. Glenn turned his head to Adelaide and Rick, appearing to be scared. “The bright side: it’ll be the fall that kills us.” He said, cracking a joke. “I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy.” He added.
“Yeah, yeah, just get on with it.” Adelaide retorted, still looking at the walkers below the stairs.
“You go first,” Glenn makes way for her to get on first.
Adelaide shakes her head, “Be my guest,” She teasingly beams. Glenn stared at her, completely tired of his friend’s sardonic comments. Shortly after, he started ascending the ladder, then Rick, and lastly, Adelaide.
As expected, Adelaide’s hands and skin almost burnt—thanks to the metal bars and the sunlight directly hitting her skin. It almost took an hour after the trio arrived at the roof. Then, they started hopping on the buildings, taking twists and turns, following Glenn’s lead.
“Did you two barricade the alley?” Rick asked as their pace started to get slower. He is following Adelaide’s lead, which follows Glenn’s.
“Somebody did. I guessed when the city got overrun,” Glenn answers Rick’s question. “Whoever did it was thinking not many geeks would get through,” He continued, jumping at an enormous pipe.
“Unfortunately, they were wrong,” Adelaide grunted as she jumped over the pipe.
“Back at the tank. Why’d you two stick your neck out for me?” Rick questioned, looking at Adelaide.
“Oh, don’t ask me. It was all Glenn’s idea.” Adelaide spoke of.
“Still, you helped…”
“Oh, please, I barely did any crap. It was all Glenn. All I did was complain and crap.” Adelaide bluntly admits.
Rick turned his head to Glenn, not knowing what to answer the lady.
Adelaide opens the roof hatch and throws down hers and Glenn’s bag on the ground, then climbs down the stairs, “Call it foolish, naive hope, that if I’m ever in that far up Shit Creek, somebody might do the same for me,” She heard Glenn saying it to Rick as he follows her to climb down. “Guess I’m an even bigger dumbass than you,”
Adelaide took her backpack, wore it on her back, and held Glenn’s bag while he was still climbing, “I guess I’m with the world’s two biggest idiots.” She chuckled.
Rick and Glenn look at each other and then back to Adelaide. “I’m sorry about her. She’s not usually grumpy. It’s just, you kind of got us into a huge problem. You understand where she’s coming from, right?”
Rick only nods his head. He did almost put them on their graves; Adelaide has the right to be pissed off. “I understand. But, what problem?”
“I’ll explain it to you later.”
“Are you two done talking about me?” Adelaide sighed while the two men she was with kept their mouths quiet before sharing a glance. Then the three of them run as if the geeks were following them. Glenn opens a door leading to another stair, “My thighs are killing me,” Adelaide mentioned.
“It’ll go away soon,” Glenn reassured her.
The three of them descended the stairs when Glenn took his walkie-talkie from his waist, “We’re back. Got a guest plus four geeks in the alley.” Glenn stopped his pace when he saw two walkers in front of him and coming on their way.
Two armed men walked out from the door holding baseball bats and bashed the walkers’ heads with baseball bats that knocked them down.
“Let’s go!” Glenn shouted while two men were still bashing the walkers’ heads. The three of them run to the door where the two men came from.
As they enter, Andrea slams Rick into the boxes behind him. “You son of a bitch. We ought to kill you.” She sobbed, pointing her pistol at Rick’s face. The man’s hands are up in the air as if he was surrendering.
“Just chill out, Andrea. Back off.” Morales stated, trying to calm the lady with a gun.
“Come on, ease up,”
Andrea looked at Jacqui, horrified, “You’re kidding. We’re dead because of this stupid asshole.” She latched, glaring at Rick.
“We’ll figure this one out, Andrea. Just put the gun down.” Adelaide calmly responded. She failed; Andrea didn’t back down, still aiming the gun at Rick’s face.
“Andrea, I said, back the hell off,” Morales repeated. Everyone was just looking at them, not trying to intervene. “Or pull the trigger.” Morales taunted.
Andrea turned away, crying. “We’re dead–all of us–because of you.” She sobbed, putting her gun down.
Rick stared at Andrea as if she was a puzzle, confused. “I don’t understand.” He let out.
“Were you inside a cave this few months ago, Clint Eastwood?”
Then, he was ushered by Morales into the front of the department store, “Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies. Do you know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving! Do you know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it’s O.K Corral. Every geek from miles away heard you popping off rounds.” They arrived at the ground floor, seeing the herds of walkers outside the store, with only a glass door separating them.
“You just rang the dinner bell,” Adelaide enunciated, afraid of what was going to happen next. She peeped at Glenn, appal. Glenn tosses his arms around her, letting her head rest on his shoulder.
“Get the picture now?”
The glass is about to break, and it’s only a matter of time before they become a four-course meal. The group backs away from the mirrors.
“What the hell were you doing out there anyway?” Andrea questioned the newcomer.
“Trying to flag the helicopter.”
Adelaide scoffed.
“Helicopter? Man, that’s crap. There ain’t no damp helicopter.” T-Dog blurted.
“You were chasing a hallucination, imagining things. It happens.” Jacqui commented with a hint of annoyance in her tone.
“I saw it!” Rick raised his voice, trying to convince the group. They didn’t utter a word and ignored his reply.
“Hey, T-Dog, try that CB. Can you contact the others?” Morales asked him.
Rick heard them, “Others? The refugee centre?”
“Yeah, right. Sorry to burst your bubble, Rick, but there is no such thing as a refugee centre. It doesn’t exist.” Adelaide answered, crossing her arms. Rick had a hard time looking at her, so he kept on stealing glances.
“Got no signal. Maybe the roof,” T-Dog responded to Morales’s question. Just then, several gunshots were fired.
Andrea groaned in annoyance. “What is that maniac doing?”
Adelaide inhaled sharply, “Isn’t it obvious? He is wasting our bullets!”
“Come on, let’s go.”
They impatiently climbed up to the roof and caught Merle Dixon shooting, which Adelaide assumed to be walkers.
“Hey, Dixon! Are you crazy?” Morales angrily asks the redneck just as they arrived at the rooftop. Merle didn’t bother to answer but continued shooting some of the walkers.
“Huh? Hey! You ought to be more polite to a man with a gun,” Merle Dixon hissed, boasting his gun. “Only common sense.” He added.
“Man, you’re wasting bullets we ain’t even got, man!” T-Dog jogged towards him, frustrated. “And you’re bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill.” He complained.
“Hey, bad enough, I’ve got this taco-bender on my ass all day. Now, I’m going to take orders from you. I don’t think so, bro. That’ll be the day.” Merle spat.
“That’ll be the day? You got something to say you want to tell me?” T-Dog responded, getting more pissed off.
“This is so not going to end well,” Adelaide grumbled.
“Hey, T-Dog man, just leave it,” Morales warned T-Dog to stop confronting Merle. He knew too well that shit would turn sour. “Alright? It ain’t worth it. Now, Merle, just relax, okay? We’ve got enough trouble.” Morales said, begging at the two men involved before it could cause a big brawl.
Rick looked at the duo who saved him. The two of them shake their heads—not wanting to be involved in the incoming fight.
“You want to know the day?” Merle challenged the dark-skinned man.
“Yeah!”
“I’ll tell you the day, Mr Yo. It’s the day I take orders from a n—”
And it did not end well.
“Motherfu—” T-Dog swings his fist onto Merle’s face, but he isn’t fast enough. Merle hit T-Dog across his jaw with the back of his rifle. T-Dog bent backwards, but before he could finally land on the ground, Merle flung more punches at the poor man.
Rick decides to step in, but Merle is quick to react. Merle throws a punch on Rick’s jaw, which makes him knocked over and land on the ground.
Glenn strokes Adelaide’s back first, and then he strode nearer to T-Dog while the others attempted to stop Merle Dixon from beating T-Dog. Merle kicked T-Dog on his stomach and landed another kick which made T-Dog finally land his face on a pipe.
“Merle, that’s enough!”
“Stop it!”
“Dixon, come on! Get the hell off him!”
Adelaide is completely disgusted by how Merle treats T-Dog. It’s like, he doesn’t see T-Dog as a person, a human being but an animal to beat.
Adelaide walked towards Rick and dropped her knees beside him, “I know this is a stupid question, but are you okay?”
“I’m alright,”
“Can you stop that son of a bitch?” Adelaide breathed, assisting Rick to stand straight. Rick didn’t utter a word, he only nodded, and it was a sufficient response for Adelaide. “Wanna help, Officer?” Adelaide nods instantly, a joyous smirk on her lips.
She was staring at Merle, punching T-Dog as if he were a punching bag. Morales tried to stop Merle from assaulting T-Dog, but he got whacked too. Merle then aimed his gun at T-Dog.
“No, no, no, please. Please.” Andrea implored, crying.
“Merle, please, you’re already killing him!”
Adelaide can vividly hear T-Dog’s cry out of pain as Merle is still beating him. His blood was all over his face, and some were on his shirt. Then, Adelaide saw how Merle spits on T-Dog.
“Yeah! All right! We’re gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh?” He stood up from kneeling on T-Dog’s body. “Talk about who’s in charge. I vote for me. Anybody else?” He shouted with his gun still in his hand.
Adelaide and Rick hid behind a large tube.
“Huh? Democracy time, y’all. Show of hands, huh?” Merle asserted while Glenn, Andrea, and Jacqui pulled T-Dog away from Merle. “All in favour? Huh?” Morales is still clutching his stomach and slowly extending his other hand.
Rick touches Adelaide’s shoulder before he talks. “If he looks for you, sneak behind him and punch him as hard as you can. If he retaliates, dodge it as fast as you can.” He carefully explains, lowering the volume of his voice. “Understood?” Adelaide quickly nods her head and readies herself to go on with Rick’s strategy.
“All in favour?” Merle grinned wickedly when he saw all of them raise their hands carefully. “Yeah, that’s good. That means I’m the boss, right? Yeah, anybody else? Where is the cop’s hot sister?”
Adelaide silently walks over behind Merle. “Over here, you racist asshole,” Adelaide muttered. When the man spins around, she lands a solid left-hand punch on Merle’s jaw.
“You bitch!” Adelaide swiftly swerved from his upcoming punch and moved away from them as Rick struck Merle with his gun and collapsed to the ground. Rick put his knee on his face and handcuffed Merle’s hand and the other side to a metal. He forcefully sat Merle up behind it.
“Who the hell are you, man?” Merle snorted, still recovering from being punched.
“Officer friendly,”
Adelaide stood beside Glenn. “Nice punch,” The lady only snickered at her best friend’s praise, hissing silently.
“Look here, Merle. Things are different now. 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.”
“Screw you, man.” Said Merle and glowed at Adelaide, “Screw you too, bitch.” Adelaide raises her middle finger in response with a smile on her face.
Rick chuckled, “I can see you make a habit of missing the point.”
“Yeah? Well, screw you twice.”
Rick happened to lose the last straw of his patience when he aimed his gun at Merle’s temple. “Ought to be polite to a man with a gun. Only common sense.” Rick repeated Merle’s words from earlier. Adelaide maintains her eyes on watching them. Along with the others, Jacqui is aiding T-Dog.
“You wouldn’t. You’re a cop.”
Rick put down his gun, “All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody who gets in the way of that is gonna lose. I’ll give you a moment to think about that.”
As the hours go by, Adelaide learns more about the man Glenn, and she saved, about Rick. He is or was a cop. He has a kid, an eight or nine-year-old son, to be exact. He also has a wife he has been married to for a couple of years. And he is searching for them right now.
What Adelaide is eager to know about was where he was when the apocalypse happened. Why was Rick separated from his family?
“How’s that signal?” Morales consulted T-Dog, and he answered back, “Like Dixon’s brain,” T-Dog glows at the handcuffed man, “Weak.” Merle hoists his middle finger.
“Keep trying,”
“Why? There’s nothing we can do. Not a damn thing,” Andrea seethed, swivelling her eyes towards Rick, and walked away.
“Gosh, your pessimism is such a buzzkill, Andrea. We haven’t planned anything yet, especially you. All you did was—”
Glenn pinches Adelaide’s skin, halting her before she says something that would ignite a possible quarrel with the blonde-haired woman who is now giving her a look.
“Got some people outside the city, is all. There’s no refugee centre. That’s a pipe dream.” Adelaide heard Morales talking to Rick as they ignored Andrea and her side comments.
She crouched beside Glenn as she hissed in pain when Glenn brushed her fist. There was a bruise on it. Glenn gaped at her hand, “So much for punching the biggest asshole in the city.” Glenn uttered under his breath.
“It’s just a scratch, not a bite. It will disappear tomorrow.” Adelaide assured her best friend. “Besides, it feels greater to punch the biggest asshole in the city than kill a geek,” She continued, intending to raise her voice for Merle to hear. Glenn laughs and puts his arms around her.
Merle did what he did to T-Dog, sending the lady a middle finger salute which she returned in a second. With a teasingly bright smile on her face.
Glenn chuckles softly at Adelaide’s action. “You are such a kid, Adelaide,” Glenn claimed, his voice imitating how a kid would talk.
“Hey, Glenn. Check the alley. You see any utility hole covers?” Morales implored, obviously up to something.
Glenn peered at Adelaide, removing his arms from the lady, and then he stood, doing what he was told. “No, must be all out on the street where the geeks are.” He answered back in a breathy voice.
“Maybe not. An old building like this built in the ‘20s—big structures often had drainage tunnels into the sewers in case of flooding down in the sub-basement.” Jacqui promptly explained to the group.
Adelaide scowls, “Wait, how’d you know all of that, Jacqui?” The older woman looked at the former cop’s sister, beaming. “It’s my job—was. I worked in the city zoning office.”
“Fascinating,”
T-Dog and Merle were abandoned on the roof simply because Merle is handcuffed to a piece of metal, and T-Dog is searching for a signal to communicate with their people back at their camp. While the others went to the possible drainage tunnel that Jacqui talked about.
“This is it? Are you sure?” Morales asked Glenn for verification as they observed the hole.
“I really scoped this place out the other times I was here. It’s the only thing in the building that goes down.” He halted, “But I’ve never gone down it. Who’d want to, right?”
His best friend, still examining the tunnel, didn’t lift her head as everyone does and stared at the Asian man. “Oh, great.” She heard him swallow greedily. That is when she raised her head.
A confusing look exists on her face, fixing her eyes on each of them. “We’ll be right behind you,” Andrea noted, assuring Glenn that he wouldn’t be alone.
“No, you won’t. Not you.” Glenn thought differently.
That’s when she knew that they wanted her best friend to go down on the drainage. “Wait, what is going on? You’re sending Glenn down there?” Adelaide suspected, referring to the dark drainage. “You all are treating him as a sacrificial lamb, every damn time!” She called out as she felt Glenn’s grip on her left hand tightens.
“Why not me? Think I can’t?” Andrea challenges Glenn, ignoring the daggering stares Adelaide is sending to her as she scoffs.
Glenn glanced at Andrea, sensing a bit of intimidation. “I wasn’t—” He then set his eyes on Rick. “Speak your mind,” The former cop urged the Asian man.
Adelaide scoffed, turning her head to Rick, “And you agree too?” Rick took a glimpse at her, sending her an ashamed look then back to Glenn.
“It’s fine, Adi, really.” Glenn threw his arm around the lady beside him, caressing her back to calm her down before he turned to the others. “Look, until now, I always came here with Adelaide. In and out, grab a few things—no problem. The first time we bring a group—everything goes to hell.”
“No offence,” Glenn paused,
“Full offence.” The duo said in unison.
Glenn shuts his eyes for a second, getting tired of Adelaide’s snarky remarks. “If you want me to go down this gnarly hole, fine, but only if we do it my way. It’s down there. If I run into something and have to get out quickly, I don’t want you all jammed up behind me and getting me killed.”
He demonstrated, “I’ll take one person—not you either,” He declared, referring to Rick, that is about to volunteer. “You’ve got Merle’s gun, and I’ve seen you shoot. I’d feel better if you were out in that store watching those doors covering our ass,” He added.
He turned to his left, where Adelaide was standing, “You are the best person I know when it comes to sharp knives, so you will be with Rick. Guard the entrances with him and Andrea.”
Adelaide sulked, “What? No—”
And before she could proceed on protesting, Glenn put his two fingers on her lips. “Adelaide, your brother would kill me if you get harmed. There’s a big possibility that you’d get hurt down there if I let you tag along with us. I don’t want to risk that; it’s too dangerous.” Glenn stroked the tear falling off her cheeks with his hand.
“If it’s dangerous for me, then it’s dangerous for you too!”
“I have to do this, okay? This might be our last chance to get back to the camp safely.” Glenn tugged Adelaide in for a tight hug, “Just be with Rick, okay?” The lady rolls her eyes.
“You’re talking to me as if I’m a toddler,”
Glenn scowled at her, “Maybe because you’re acting like one? Come on, just promise me.”
Adelaide ran her fingers through her hair, and then she groaned, “Alright. I’ll stay with him. I will even let him put me in his pockets.” She jested.
Glenn puts out his pinkie finger; Adelaide sighs in annoyance when she sees his finger. She surrendered and made a pinkie promise, which is slightly humiliating on her side.
Glenn grins widely at the look on Adelaide’s face. The others stare at them weirdly, as if they have grown horns on their heads. Then he put his serious face back and stared at Morales. “You, be my wingman. Jacqui stays here. Something happens, yell down to us, get us back up in a hurry.”
Jacqui nods, “Okay.”
“Okay, everybody knows their jobs,” Rick noted, patting Glenn’s back which made Adelaide roll her eyes.
Adelaide sighs heavily, “Please, be careful down there. I will be waiting for you when you come back here.” Adelaide forced a smile on her face, and so did Glenn.
He began descending to the drainage as he mouthed at Adelaide that he would be back soon. She left and headed back to the store to do her job. Which is to guard the doors; Rick and Andrea later followed her.
Adelaide grumpily settled on the ground while Andrea was window-shopping in the jewellery section. She heard Andrea and Rick talk about Amy, Andrea’s younger sister, liking unicorns, dragons, and mermaids. Obviously, she was eavesdropping—she’s got nothing to do, in her defence. Unless she’d want to pull a Merle Dixon. The last time she checked, they lacked ammunition, and she only has her blade for self-defence.
After Andrea took the necklace, with Officer Friendly’s permission. Rick roamed around the store and saw Adelaide sitting on the floor-her head leaning on the wooden wall.
He sat down beside her, “Is that alright?” He asked, referring to the minor bruise on her hand.
Adelaide snorted, “It’ll be fine. It wouldn’t be the cause of my death, don’t worry.”
The two of them straddled next to each other on the floor, in awkward silence, “Why don’t you look for some clothes in here?”
“No need. It’ll be covered in blood at the end of the day.” She chortles, eyeing her scrapes. Then she noticed that there was a small cut on her knuckles. “You sure?” He asked again.
“But since you insisted, Officer friendly,” She stood up and snatched three pieces of jewellery. “I have been eyeing these anklets since the last time I came here. Officer Friendly didn’t arrest Andrea by taking the necklace, so I guess you wouldn’t arrest me?” She playfully boasted.
Rick chuckled at her last sentence,
“Rest assured that I wouldn’t.” He peeked at the anklet she selected. The matching anklet has a sun and magnetic moon pendant, while the other has the letter C.
After putting it together in one anklet, Rick watches the young woman intently, as she puts on the anklet with two pendants on her right ankle. “Is the—is the other one, the one with the sun pendant for Glenn?” Rick raised a question, and Adelaide bobbed her head instantly. “The one with the letter C is for a friend.” She replied, smiling.
“Glenn will be back, and he will be safe,” Rick declared openly. Adelaide released a smile on her face as Rick’s pale blue eyes met Adelaide’s deep brown eyes.
Adelaide looked away, sighing, “So, got a family before this?” Adelaide calmed herself on the inside.
“Yeah. A wife and a son. How about you, any family or relatives?”
“Well, my parents are dead, so I grew up with my maternal grandparents, who are also dead.” Adelaide briefly responds, gawking through the clothes on the rack.
“Did they die before all of this happened or after?”
Adelaide shook her head, “They died before all of this. My dear mother died giving birth to me, and then, ten years later, my beloved father died. Five years ago, both of my grandparents were involved in a car accident.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s alright. It happened a while ago.”
Rick curled his eyebrows, “No siblings?”
“None that I talked to. Well, he kind of reached out to me recently, before everything happened but, we never really gave each other a chance to rebuild our relationship. He’s a complicated man, and he is–or was–a cop like you. You might’ve known him; he was born and raised in King County and stayed there for the rest of his life.” She kept on talking.
“Before my grandparents died, I met Glenn in a pizza store, and we eventually became friends.” She pushed a bunch of shirts and jeans from the rack to her bag. “I’m taking these, by the way. I just remember I ripped my two jeans last week.”
Rick was about to ask her brother’s name when a part of the glass door finally cracked. Adelaide put the anklets and the clothes in her bag immediately. Then, Glenn and Morales came back from the sewers.
“What did you find down there?” Rick asked Morales.
Although Adelaide could not quite hear Morales’s response; she already knew that it was terrible news. Then, Glenn already stood beside her, and he smelled different, “Bro, you stink.”
Adelaide scrunches her nose. Let’s just say Glenn wasn’t that glad about his lady friend’s commentaries.
“Shut up,”
They had another plan—mostly it was Rick’s: Snatch a walker, chop it, and go out. Glenn, Rick, and Adelaide will have to wear the walker’s insides, get to the construction site, find a car or even a truck, and get out of the city.
All of them wore a coat, circling the dead walker, which they snatched from the outside. When Rick begins to chop the body, Adelaide is so close to throwing up. The sight was very disgusting, and the smell of it was so terrible.
Morales takes over Rick’s chopping session. T-Dog, Jacqui, and Andrea assisted in arranging the insides of the walker on Rick, Glenn, and Adelaide’s coats.
“Oh, jeez. Oh, this is bad. This is really bad.” Glenn moaned.
“I am so gonna puke,” Adelaide blurted, stopping herself from vomiting.
“Think about something else, puppies and kittens,” Rick said, not disturbed by having the intestines and other organs of a dead organ donor turned into a walker decorated on his body.
“Dead puppies and kittens,” T-Dog corrected him, which made Glenn and Adelaide’s stomachs give in and vomit.
“That is so evil, what is wrong with you?” Andrea remarked, glaring at T-Dog.
“I am going to be sick tonight,” Adelaide expected,
“I’m sorry, yo,” T-Dog asked for forgiveness.
“Shut up,”
“Go to hell,”
Adelaide and Glenn said in unison.
“Do we smell like them?” Rick inquired Andrea.
“Do we smell like a newborn baby to you?” Adelaide shot back, feeling her stomach gets twisted.
“Oh yeah,” Andrea replied at the same time as Adelaide.
Andrea entrusted her gun to Glenn just in case something terrible happened. Rick bestowed T-Dog the key to Merle’s handcuffs.
The three of them stepped out of the door with intestines, hands, and a foot hanging on their necks. They attempted to walk like how those walkers do, which Adelaide finds hilarious. If they weren’t in a serious situation, she would be on the floor right now, laughing her arse out. Rick leads their way, followed by Adelaide and then Glenn.
“It’s gonna work,” Glenn mumbled.
“It surely will, just stop talking.”
“Don’t draw attention,” Rick scolded them, just now he notices how childish Adelaide and Glenn were when they are talking to each other.
A walker observed Glenn as if it knew that Glenn was not like him, like a walker. To draw out the walker’s attention, he makes sounds as a walker would.
Adelaide suppressed her laughter then it began to rain. “Holy shit,” She uttered profanity. The trio kept going but a bit faster. The blood and the insides on their coats are starting to get washed off by the rain.
“The smell is washing off? Isn’t it?” Glenn anxiously asked Rick. Rick looked steady, “No, it’s not.” He refuted.
“Well, maybe it is.”
Adelaide replied as a walker impatiently went to Rick’s. Luckily, he saw it on time and shoved the axe on its head. “Oh, shit. Run!”
The three of them ran off. Adelaide pulled her knife from her sheath and slashed the walkers’ that were blocking her way. A minute later, they arrived at a construction site’s locked gate. Rick flung the axe on the other side of the barrier, and Adelaide put her knife back into her sheath.
Adelaide discarded the stained coat off herself, and then they climbed on the fence.
Glenn dashed to the key cabinets and took some of them, and passed one to Adelaide, “Adelaida!”
She faultlessly snatched the keys in the air and threw them to Rick. “Don’t call me that!” He ignored her statement, grabbed her by the wrist, and sat on the passenger seat with her. Once Glenn and Adelaide were already on the truck, he locked the passenger seat door.
Rick revved up the engine and drove away from the herds of geeks. “God, oh God. They’re all over that place!”
“You need to draw them away. Those roll-up doors at the front of the store, that area? That’s what I need to be cleared.” Rick told Glenn, and then his cerulean eyes landed on Adelaide, “Raise your friends. Tell them to get down there and be ready.” She nodded at him then Glenn gave the walkie-talkie to her.
“I’m drawing these geeks away, how? I–I missed that part.”
“Noise,”
They saw a red sports car up ahead. Rick climbed out of the car and broke the window without blinking his eyes. Adelaide was astonished by Rick’s ability to hot-wire a car. He was a cop; how and where did he learn that? That thought was on her mind for a whole minute.
Rick returned to the truck as Glenn drove the red car away as its loud horn could be heard from miles. Adelaide tucked herself in the truck’s passenger seat.
Adelaide pushes the PTT button of her walkie-talkie, “Those roll-up doors at the front of the store facing the street–meet us there and be ready.” She notified her companions, but no one responded, but she speculates that they received the message. Hopefully.
The truck halted not far from the store as Glenn’s car passed with tons of walkers following him. Once the road was vacated from the walkers, Rick drove back to the front of the store, and then he opened the roll-up of the truck.
“I apologise for being rude earlier. It was very uncalled for.” Adelaide aggressively thumped her hand at the roll-up door and stared at the oblivion.
Rick’s attention is now on the lady sitting in the passenger seat.
“You don’t have to. I would be pissed too if someone put my family’s life or mine at risk.”
“So, how do you do that?” She curiously asked. Rick’s forehead curled. “You just hot-wired a car not too long ago. You were a cop–or still are–but how?”
Rick put his hands on his sweaty face, chuckling. “Learned it from a friend.”
“Are you friends with criminals? Anyway, you better teach me how to do that. That was so badass.”
As her friends arrived, she assisted them in putting the bags filled with scavenged supplies into the truck.
When the job was finished, she returned to the passenger seat, panting, almost out of breath. Morales shuts down the roll-up door as Rick is driving them away from the city.
There were only three of them, and it’s supposed to be four of them—excluding her little crew consisting of Rick, Glenn, and her. Rick looked back, knowing one person was not in the truck. He and Adelaide’s eyes met.
“I dropped the damn key,” T-Dog announced with a guilty look all over his face.
Adelaide could care less about Merle. He is an asshole anyway. He is a bully. He’s acting like he is the boss and some shit. But then, she thought of the asshole’s younger brother.
He is so going to be furious.
“Where’s Glenn?”
•─────⋅☾ 𝔭𝔥𝔬𝔢𝔫𝔶𝔵𝔳𝔦 ☽⋅─────•
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