WHITE FLAG
chapter four : asthma
{ season one - episode three }
"WOO-HOO! YEAH! Woah!" Glenn exclaimed with excitement as the two young adults drove across a cliff, approaching the camp. They had successfully saved everyone from the roof, since they were now all in the back of Rick's van, except Merle.
"Let's enjoy the moment while we can. 'Cause as soon as we get back, everyone's gonna get all annoyed with the whole alarm shit, you know that, right?!" Kloe asked, yelling over the loud alarm.
"Mhm!" Glenn hummed, still having the widest smile on his face. Glenn finally slammed on the brakes, the car coming to a stop as everyone from camp approached the two. Glenn and Kloe stepped out of the car, slamming the doors shut behind them.
"Holy crap. Turn that damn thing off!" Dale shouted, standing on top of his RV.
"I don't know how!" the Asian yelled back.
"Neither do I!" the brunette added. Her gaze soon fell on Zayn who had a look of relief on his face at the sight of his little sister. She sent him a brief assuring smile before turning to Shane and Amy, who were walking over to the pair.
"Pop the damn hood, please," Shane said in a low, annoyed tone.
"My sister, Andrea..." Amy spoke over Shane, worry written across her face.
"What?" Kloe asked, looking over at Shane.
"Pop the damn hood!"
"Okay, okay!" Glenn crawled back into the car and pushed a button which lifted the hood of the scarlet red car. "Yeah, yeah, yeah."
"Is she okay? Is she all right?!" Amy begged. "Is she alive?!"
"She's okay! She's okay!"
"Is she coming back?!"
"Yes!" Glenn answered in an annoyed tone.
"Why isn't she with you guys?" The amount of shouts coming from Amy and Glenn were putting Kloe on edge slightly, causing her to firmly squeeze my eyes shut. Finally, everything went to peace as Jim pulled out a cable which stopped the alarm. "Is she okay?!"
"Yeah, fine. Everybody is." Glenn informed in a lower, calming tone. "Well, Merle, not so much," Glenn squinted his eyes from the sunlight that seeped through the clouds.
"Are you both crazy, driving this wailing bastard up here?" Shane questioned, anger loaning in his voice. "Are you trying to draw every walker for miles?"
"I think we're okay," Dale turned his head in every direction, checking for walkers, which turned out there were none.
"You call being stupid okay?" Shane peered over his shoulder at the old man with a questionable look.
"Well, the alarm was echoing all over these hills. Hard to pinpoint the source," Dale reasoned, making Shane straighten himself and send the old man a glare. "I'm not arguing. I'm just saying," Dale shifted his gaze over to Glenn and Kloe with disappointment. "It wouldn't hurt you to think things through a little more carefully next time, would it?"
Her best friend and herself shared a brief glance before apologizing to the man at the same time, "Sorry."
"Got a cool car," Glenn brightened up, gesturing to the scarlet red car. Agreeing, the brunette nodded. Everyone stayed silent for a moment before the girl's brother placed a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm glad you're alright, both of you," he looked back at Glenn and Kloe with a grateful smile. Simultaneously, everyone's gazes fell on the approaching truck. Kloe was unable to hold back a smile, since Rick would've been able to meet everybody there.
The Schmidt girl stepped to the other side of the car beside Glenn, leaning against it. She held up a clenched fist for a fist pump, simply getting one in return from Glenn. "We did it once again," she whispered proudly as the two sisters, Andrea and Amy, rushed towards each other, embracing themselves in their reunion. The two cried into each other's necks with happy tears.
Soon, Morales' kids called out to him as he stepped out of the truck. They rushed over to him and engulfed him with their arms. Kloe's smile only dropped when she saw Lori and Carl in the distance, stepping away. She had told her the other day that her husband, who was also the father of Carl, had died from a gunshot wound.
"How'd y'all get out of there anyway?" Shane inquired, setting his eyes on Glenn and Kloe as Zayn unexpectedly wrapped an arm around his younger sister's shoulder.
"New guy, he got us out," Glenn answered.
"New guy?" Shane repeated.
"Yeah, crazy vato just got into town," Morales spoke, spinning his head around to the truck as one of the doors opened, "Hey, helicopter boy! Come say hello!"
The door slammed shut as the new guy, Rick, slowly approached the group, hands on his hips.
"Dude's a cop," Kloe began, smiling at Shane, "just like you."
Shane glanced over at the new guy, his eyes starting to widen with shock. The brunette girl whipped her head around to Rick who also had the same expression. She watched Rick's eyes set on the two Grimes', Lori and Carl. That's when realization came to action. The shocked girl felt her nose burn as she watched the two slowly set their gaze on Rick.
"Oh my God," Rick whispered, abruptly walking forwards towards the two. A large smile plastered onto Carl's face as he sprinted towards the man.
"Dad! Dad!" the boy cried, wrapping his arms tightly around his father, falling to the ground. Loud sobs escaped their lips. Kloe felt her eyes begin to water at the happy reunion of the Grimes family. This was probably the happiest she had ever been for a long, long time.
The man stood up, still having Carl's arms wrapped around Rick's neck, stepping toward his wife, Lori.
...
"Disoriented," Rick muttered around the fire. It was now evening time, and the group had decided to set a fire. Kloe sat beside Glenn, who was also sitting next to T-Dog on a log. Her brother, Zayn, was placed on the grass in front of her legs, leaning back gently on them. Kloe hadn't eaten anything else but peaches, but she figured soon she'd have to eat some meat to gain some weight since she was rapidly losing it. "I guess that comes closest." The brunette girl's gaze fell onto Rick, who had Carl in his lap and Lori beside him, stroking his hair. "Disoriented. Fear, confusion... All those things but... Disoriented comes closest."
"Words can be meager things," Dale placed down his can of food beside his foot. "Sometimes they fall short."
"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else," Rick paused, searching for words to say. "For a while, I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever."
"Mom said you died," Carl commented, lifting his chin up to his father.
"She had every reason to believe that," he placed a hand on his son's chin. "Don't you ever doubt it."
"When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta," Lori paused. "And it never happened."
"Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell," Rick said.
Lori nodded her head in agreement, "Yeah."
"And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun," Rick added.
"Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out," Shane started, causing all the attention to fall on him.
"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane," Rick sympathetically locked his eyes with Shane's. "I can't begin to express it."
"There go those words falling short again," Dale chuckled quietly. "Paltry things."
Without warning, a loud sound from a log being tossed into a fire filled the silent air. Kloe whipped her head around to see Ed Peletier, placing himself in a seat by himself, opposite his wife and daughter, Carol and Sophia.
"Hey, Ed, you want to rethink that log?" Shane called out the man.
"It's cold, man," Ed replied, leaning his head back in his chair.
"The cold doesn't change the rules, does it?" Shane inquired. "Keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance, right?"
"I said it's cold. You should mind your own business for once," the Schmidt girl watched as Shane rose to his feet and stumbled over to the man in annoyance.
Gently, she placed the now empty can of peaches on the grass, unable to hear what Shane and Ed's small argument was about, even though her hearing was beyond incredible, she thought it was rude to listen in.
That's when the girl heard a bit of wheeze when she breathed in. Just as she did, Zayn had already tossed over her reliever inhaler. She patted his shoulder as she shook the inhaler, releasing a single breath as she brought it to her mouth and pushed the canister down.
"You have asthma?" Rick inquired. The girl released a heavy breath, handing the inhaler back to Zayn.
"Yeah," she nodded. "Since I was five."
"What if you have an asthma attack on your supply runs?" he asked again.
"I always use my preventer in the mornings," she explained. "So it most likely won't happen."
Shane took a seat on the grass where he was previously, grunting slightly.
"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon?" Dale questioned. "We won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind."
"I'll tell him," T-Dog offered. "I dropped the key. It's on me."
"I cuffed him. That makes it mine," Rick added. Kloe rolled her eyes at the two men, bickering over who should be the one to tell Daryl.
"Guys, it's not a competition," Glenn stated as if he knew exactly what his best friend was thinking. "I don't mean to bring race into this but, it might sound better coming from a white guy."
"I did what I did," T-Dog muttered. "Hell if I'm gonna hide it from him."
"We could lie," Amy suggested, her head still resting on Andrea's shoulder.
"Or tell the truth," Andrea added. "Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed." She set her eyes on Lori, parting her lips to speak, "Your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's."
"And that's what we tell Daryl?" Dale asked with a skeptical face. Daryl was the one that had been sent out to come find Kloe, Glenn and Zayn when they heard Shane through the walkie, and he was pretty stubborn and intimidating. You would not want to mess with Daryl Dixon. Kloe learnt that the hard way. "I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?"
Andrea slowly shook her head before glancing down to the ground.
"Word to wise... We're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt," Dale added. Kloe pursed her lips tightly before looking up at Glenn, who had the same look.
"I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it," T-Dog stated.
"We were all scared. We all ran," Andrea spoke. "What's your point?"
"I stopped long enough to chain that door," he paused, swallowing thickly. "Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through that... Not that chain, not that padlock. My point, Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us."
The man stood to his feet, stumbling over to his tent as the rest of the group gazed at each other, unknowing on what to say.
...
"Since when did you wake up this early?" Glenn teased his best friend and she stepped out of the tent her and her brother shared, brushing her fingers through her brunette hair. She playfully rolled her eyes and shook her head with a grin on her face.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she answered. Kloe shifted her gaze in every direction in search of her brother, Zayn. "Do you know where Zayn is?" she asked, stepping over to Glenn. Usually, she would find him in the tent that she slept in, but he wasn't there that morning.
"He's still sleeping. He came into my tent last night, said he needed 'bro time'." Kloe playfully scoffed, although it quickly turned into a chuckle. "I never knew that Schmidts' slept a lot." Jokingly, she nudged her elbow into his arm. "It's true though."
"I know," the girl smiled, but it swiftly dropped as she noticed an unfamiliar feature on Glenn's forehead. A strand of his dark, black hair. Mindlessly, the brunette gripped onto his cap, lifting it up as she ruffled her hand through his hair, fixing it. She placed his cap back over his head, adjusting it slightly to make sure it was right.
"What was all that about?" he asked with a look of inquiry, ducking his head down slightly to hide the redness that may have appeared.
"You had a loose strand of hair. I fixed it for you," the girl smiled sheepishly, patting his shoulder.
Loud clattering sounds caught both Kloe's and Glenn's attention, causing them to spin around to see Dale, Morales and Jim taking apart the red car the two had brought back with them the day before.
With annoyance, Glenn stood over and crossed his arms over his chest, as his best friend followed suit. It wasn't long before Rick stood beside Kloe, watching the men.
"Look at 'em. Vultures," Glenn eyed the three men with disdain, muttering to Rick and Kloe. "Yeah, go on, strip it clean!"
"Generators need every drop of fuel they can get. Got no power without it," Dale reassuringly placed a hand on Glenn's shoulder. "Sorry, Glenn."
"Thought I'd get to drive it at least a few more days," Glenn whispered, leaning his head closer to Rick and his best friend.
"Yeah, that was fun yesterday," Kloe added, silently groaning in annoyance as she glared at the men who were clanging their tools to take apart the car.
"Maybe we'll get to steal another one someday," Rick suggested before stumbling over to his wife, Lori, who was hanging up the laundry.
The brunette girl's dark brown eyes suddenly lit up at the man's statement, whipping her head back around to Glenn, "What if we find a Lamborghini-"
"Oh God, don't even get me started," Glenn sighed, unable to hold back a smile. Both of their gazes turned back to the car, which was still getting torn apart.
The two sat in silence for a few minutes until a loud car approached them, Shane sitting inside of it. "Water's here, y'all!" he called out, causing everyone from camp to simultaneously stumble over. "Just a reminder to boil before use."
Kloe stepped over, taking a gallon of water for herself, Glenn taking one from beside her. "Damn it," she muttered, unintentionally catching Glenn's attention.
"What?"
"Gotta carry two of these heavy bastards. One for me and one for my lazy brother," she groaned, laughing as she lifted up a second one. The girl felt Glenn's palm press against her shoulder.
"Let me do it, don't strain yourself." The Schmidt girl grew skeptical as she took a few steps back. A smirk plastered on her lips as he grasped onto the water, instantly realizing he was doing his best friend's easy work. "Never mind." She snorted quietly as he dropped the two out of his grasp. "He can get it himself when he wakes up."
She nodded her head in agreement. Startling the girl, a loud scream filled the atmosphere. Subconsciously, she raced towards the screams. The screams were coming from little kids, which made things a lot worse.
Kloe spotted Carl and Sophia rush towards us, fear filled their eyes. She stopped in her tracks, throwing her arms around Sophia to comfort her, waiting for her mother to show up. Kloe watched all the men rush over to where Carl had pointed to 'it'.
In the distance, the brunette spotted Carol sprinting towards them, calling out her daughter's name. Kloe released her grip from the young girl as she lunged towards Carol, sobbing quietly. The Schmidt girl quickly approached the men, stopping in her tracks as she spotted a walker chewing onto a dead deer's stomach, pulling out its intestines.
She heard gasps for air behind us, instantaneously, she spun her head around to see Andrea, Amy and her brother, Zayn, standing side by side. The girl turned her head back and saw everyone circling around the ravenous walker, who continued to chew on the guts of the deer.
The brunette girl gulped, taking a few steps back so she was standing beside Zayn. Her whole body tensed up as the geek stood up, facing towards Rick.
He lifted his weapon and smacked the walker across the face, causing it to stumble back. Shane hit its back with the butt of his gun. Soon enough, everyone was beating it. Kloe winced at every hit they took, wrapping an arm around her brother's. They were beating its body, not its head.
She felt her body jump as Dale chopped the geek's head off with his axe. Everyone stood in silence, stumbling back, out of breath. Glenn turned his head slightly to Kloe and Zayn, breathless. Kloe glanced away from Glenn to the walker that was still snapping its teeth, causing her to firmly shut her eyes as she swallowed back the bile that was rising in her throat.
"It's the first one we've had up here," Dale panted. "They never come this far up the mountain."
"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what," Jim commented. The young adult pinched her nostrils together as a large wave of rotten flesh filled the air.
She heard a branch snap in the woods and gripped onto the handle of her knife that was still placed in her belt loop, but still stayed put alongside her older brother, Zayn.
Everyone steadily grew closer to the woods, raising their weapons until a very familiar man with his crossbow stepped out of the forest, Daryl Dixon. He stopped in his tracks, his eyes traveling to everyone in the group.
"Son of a bitch," he groaned, stepping over to the deer that was on the ground. "That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this..." he exasperatedly walked over to the limp walker's body and began to kick it repetitively in the stomach. "Filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!"
"Calm down, son. That's not helping," Dale spoke softly.
"What do you know about it, old man?!" Daryl intimidatingly rushed over to the man. "Why don't you take that stupid hat back to On Golden Pond?!" he shifted his eyes back to the deceased deer. "I've been tracking this deer for miles," he ripped out the three arrows that were already plunged into its body. "Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" he glanced up at Dale and Shane for an answer.
"I would not risk that," Shane simply answered, his gun on the back of his neck.
"That's a damn shame," Daryl sighed. "I got some squirrel, about a dozen or so. That'll have to do."
The walker's head that Dale chopped off began to snap its teeth together. "Oh, God," Amy grimaced, seizing onto her sister's arm and walked away from the scene.
"Come on, people. What the hell?" Daryl lifted his crossbow and shot an arrow, sending it through the walker's eye. He stepped over, grasping onto the arrow and pulled it out. "It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?"
He began to step over to the center of the camp. Eventually, Kloe realized. This was the time Daryl was going to find out that his brother, Merle, got left behind in Atlanta.
"Merle!" he called out. "Merle! Get your ugly ass out here!" Simultaneously, the group followed suit. "I got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up," he placed down his crossbow against a rock.
"Daryl," Shane called, briefly glancing behind him, looking at Dale, Jim, Rick, Morales, Glenn and Kloe. The girl didn't spot Zayn anywhere, so she guessed he wandered elsewhere doing his own thing, or getting his water that Glenn and Kloe struggled with. "Just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you."
"About what?" he questioned.
"About Merle. There was a, uh-" he paused. "There was a problem in Atlanta."
Daryl looked back and forth at everyone who was watching in camp. "He dead?" he quietly asked, bluntly.
"We're not sure."
Frustration began to fill his eyes and glared into Shane's. "He either is or he ain't!" he snapped.
"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it," Rick stepped in, the attention falling onto him.
"Who are you?"
"Rick Grimes."
"Rick Grimes," he mocked. "You got something you want to tell me?"
"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there," he explained. In the distance, the brunette girl could see T-Dog stepping into sight with firewood collected in his arms.
Daryl spun on his heel, wiping away a tear that managed to escape his eye. "Hold on. Let me process this," he motioned his hand to his head, harshly stumbling over to Rick. "You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?!" he fumed.
"Yeah," Rick whispered.
Daryl pursed his lips together, his temper getting the better of him, he threw a handful of logs at the man, who ducked down to dodge.
Shane managed to tackle him to the ground, causing him to grunt. Daryl pulled out his knife that was wrapped in his belt loop and slowly began to stand back up.
"Hey! Watch the knife!" T-Dog shouted.
Daryl swung the knife at Rick, who luckily dodged it. Daryl lunged towards the man, but got pulled away by Shane, who wrapped his arms around Daryl's neck.
"You'd best let me go!"
"Nah, I think it's better if I don't."
"Choke hold's illegal," Daryl grunted, his face turning red.
"You can file a complaint," Shane replied. "Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day."
Rick bent down in front of the grimacing man, "I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that?" Not a single word came out of the man's mouth. "Do you think we can manage that?" he repeated.
"Mmm. Yeah." Shane firmly released Daryl, who gasped for air and pointed towards Shane as he took a few steps back.
"What I did was not a whim," Rick explained. "Your brother does not work and play well with others."
'It's not Rick's fault. I had the key," T-Dog spoke up. "I dropped it."
"You couldn't pick it up?"
"Well, I dropped it down a drain."
Daryl scoffed, dropping his head to the ground as he stood himself up. "If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't."
"Well, maybe this will," T-Dog added. "Look, I chained the door to the roof, so the geeks couldn't get at him. With a padlock."
"It's gotta count for something," Rick commented.
Daryl brought his hand to his face, crying into it. "Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is, so I can go get him."
"He'll show you," Lori spoke from beside Dale's RV. "Isn't that right?" Everyone's eyes fell on Rick as they waited for an answer.
He sighed, "I'm going back." Everyone began to separate, doing what they were previously doing.
"So, what were we talking about before all of this just happened?" Glenn questioned from beside his best friend. Kloe's eyes met his as she shrugged.
"Uh, water? Something to do with water," she chuckled quietly.
"What about water?" another voice filled the air. Glenn and Kloe's attention fell onto Zayn, who approached the two. "There was only one left when I grabbed onto mine."
Unable to hold back a smirk, Glenn and Kloe shared a look. "You've always been the lazy one," the girl commented, stepping away from the two men.
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃
Words: 3978
- 20th November 2021
Hi everyone! Just a small reminder that I won't be able to post more often until next week because I'm round my grandparents for the week! Also, who can't wait for Season 11 part 2? Like, I can't wait at all, I wish it can come sooner 😀
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I try my best to add Kloe and Glenn as much as possible, but it's really tricky. I have amazing plans for the upcoming chapters, so I'm excited for those.
Thank you for reading! 🍁