Down inside the building Jacqui, Andrea, Morales, Glenn, and Rick peer down the steep stairwell.
Morales looks at Glenn and Emiko, “This is it? Are you sure?”
“We really scoped this place out the other times we were here. It’s the only thing in the building that goes down.” I said.
“But I’ve never gone down it. Who’d want to, right?” Glenn continued.
They all looked at the two. “Oh. Great.”
“We’ll be right behind you,” Andrea said, seeing the look on Glenn’s face
Glenn looked at her, “No, you won’t. Not you.”
Andrea looked at him offended, “Why not me? Think I can’t?”
“I wasn’t –” “He wasn’t - ” Glenn and Emiko started.
Rick looked at us, “Speak your mind.”
Emiko spoke up first, “Look, until now we always came here by ourselves– In and out, grab a few things –no problem. The first time we bring a group – Everything goes to Hell. No offense. If you want us to go down this gnarly hole, fine– But only if we do it our way. It’s tight down there. If we run into something and have to get out quickly, we don’t want you all jammed up behind us and getting us killed.”
“We’ll take one person,” Glenn continued.
Rick stepped forward to volunteer but Emiko pulled him back by his collar. “not you Sheriff Woody”
Glenn rolls his eyes, “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 turns to Andrea, “And you’ve got the only other gun, so you should go with him.” He points to Morales, “You be our backup. Jacqui stays here. Something happens, yell down to us, get us back up here in a hurry.”
Jacqui nodded, “Okay.”
“Okay, everybody knows their jobs,” Rick confirms and reassures Glenn with a pat on the shoulder. Glenn, with a flashlight in his mouth, goes down first, Emiko second, and Morales follows after them.
Water splashes when they reach the bottom. They turn their flashlights down the tunnel. Glenn, Morales, and Emiko follow the tunnel looking for the sewer connection. A rat squeaks and Glenn jumps on Emiko’s back covering her eyes. “Dude! It was just a rat!” she whispered.
Morales laughed as Glenn got off of Emiko’s back mumbling, “Sorry Emi.” She rolled her eyes and continued walking down the tunnel
»»————- ➴ ————-««
Emiko opens a door and Glenn walks into the tunnel with Morales and Emiko behind him. The tunnel ends with a heavily barred gate between them and the rest of the tunnel.
“Yeah, we’ve got ourselves a sewer tunnel. Jacqui was right.” Morales said, out of breath.
Glenn pulls on it but there is no give. “Can we cut through it?” He asks Morales.
“If we had a blowtorch for half a day, sure. Dale’s hacksaw sure as hell won’t do it.” He replied.
The sound of crunching caused the trio to point their flashlights at the source, showing a walker that’s been eating a rat. It growls and lunges toward them but is stopped by the gate. They backed away in horror and ran out back the way they came.
»»————- ➴ ————-««
The walkers have broken enough glass to reach the inner doors. Rick and Andrea take up positions, their guns aimed and ready. Morales, Jacqui, Emiko, and Glenn run up behind them.
“What did you find down there?” Rick asks, putting his gun down.
“Not a way out,” Emiko said.
Andrea looked around, “We need to find a way…and soon.”
»»————- ➴ ————-««
Rick looks through binoculars, “That construction site, those trucks –they always keep keys on hand.”
Morales takes the binoculars, looks, and then looks down at the street below. ”You’ll never make it past the walkers.”
Rick turned to Glenn and Emiko, “You got me out of that tank.”
“Yeah, but they were feeding. They were distracted.” Glenn said.
“Can we distract them again?” Rick asked.
Merle spoke up, “Right. Listen to him. He’s onto something. A diversion, like on ‘Hogan’s Heroes.’”
Emiko walked over to the toolbag, “Do I need to duct tape your mouth too?”
“Whatever you're into foxy” Merle smirks.
Jacqui rolls her eyes, “God. Give it a rest.”
“They’re drawn by sound, right?”
“Right, like Merle. When he sees a pair of tits,” Emiko smirks, earning a high-five from Andrea and a chuckle from T-Dog.
Rick rolls his eyes at Emiko’s response, “What else?”
“Aside from they hear you? They see you, smell you and if they catch you, they eat you.” Morales answers. Emiko pointed at him and nodded.
“They can tell us by smell?” Rick asked, confused.
“Can’t you?” Glenn sasses.
“They smell dead” Emiko starts.
“We don’t. It’s pretty distinct.” Andrea continues.
»»————- ➴ ————-««
Back in the department store Rick grabs several pairs of rubber gloves and shoves them into Glenn's hands, “If bad ideas were an Olympic event, this would take the gold.”
Morales walks up to Rick, “He’s right. Just stop, okay? Take some time to think this through.”
Rick pulls three raincoats of hangers, “How much time? They already got through one set of doors, that glass won’t hold forever.”
Rick tosses a raincoat to Glenn and another to Emiko.
»»————- ➴ ————-««
Rick and Morales burst through the door into the alley. Glenn holds a bat and stands guard. They grab a walker's body from the ground and rush back inside. Rick has added a clear plastic face shield to his raincoat and rubber gloves. It’s pushed up on his head. He looks around at the others. He sighs and lowers the shield and with a crowbar turns to the fire ax on the wall. He breaks the glass and grabs the ax.
Everyone is wearing rubber gloves and raincoats. They are grouped around the corpse. Rick gets a running start with the ax and swings it but pulls back at the last second. He drops the ax, and takes off the head shield and his gloves. He checks the corpse’s pockets and pulls out his wallet.
“Wayne Dunlap, Georgia license. Born in 1979.” Rick hands the license to Glenn. ”He had twenty-eight dollars in his pocket when he died and a picture of a pretty girl. “With love, from Rachel.” He used to be like us –worrying about bills or the rent or the Super Bowl. If I ever find my family, I’m gonna tell them about Wayne.” He puts the wallet back and puts his gear back on.
“One more thing” Glenn pauses, “he was an organ donor.”
Rick heaves the ax at the corpse of Wayne Dunlap.
“Oh!” Andrea groans, flinching, turning around
Morales flinched, “¡Madre de Dios!”
“Oh! God! Gack!” Glenn exclaims as Rick chops off the geek’s leg.
Rick continues chopping off it’s legs, arms, and torso.
Emiko gags in disgust, “神なぜ (Kami naze)”
Rick looks ill but he shakes it off and hits again and he hits the corpse again. Rick groans and takes off his shield and holds his nose with the elbow of his coat for a moment. He hands it and the ax to Morales. “Keep chopping.”
“I am so gonna hurl.” Glenn groans.
Morales chops away at the walker.
“Everybody got gloves? Don’t get any on your skin or in your eyes.” Rick said
Groaning, they all stoop down and pick up guts and decayed flesh and organs. Rick and Emiko start smearing their raincoats, Jacqui helps Glenn do the same, and everyone takes turns covering Glenn, Rick, and Emiko with the walker's guts. Andrea drapes intestines over Glenn’s shoulders.
“投げるよ (nageru yo),” Emiko gags.
“Oh, God! Oh jeez. Oh, this is bad. This is really bad. You know it’s bad when Emiko starts speaking Japanese.” Glenn gags.
Rick tries to lighten the mood, “Think about something else – puppies and kittens.”
“Dead puppies and kittens,” T-Dog said, staring at the mutilated corpse.
Glenn and Emiko turn and throw up.
“That is just evil. What is wrong with you?” Andrea scolds
“Next time let the cracker beat his ass.” Jacqui hissed to Rick.
“I’m sorry, yo.” T-Dog apologized.
“You suck,” Emiko said.
“Do we smell like them?” Rick asks
“Oh yeah.” Andrea turns to face Glenn, “Glenn. Just in case.” Andrea gingerly puts her gun into Glenn’s front pocket.
“If we make it back, be ready,” Rick said to the others
“What about Merle Dixon?” T-Dog asks.
Rick pulls the handcuff keys out of his pocket and tosses them to T-Dog. “Give me the ax. We need – we need more guts.”
“Oh, God!”
»»————- ➴ ————-««
Glenn, Emiko, and Rick, with bits of corpse bodies hanging from their necks, slowly walk into the alley. Rick is still holding the fire ax, Glenn carries the crowbar, and Emiko carries a metal bat. They shuffle down toward the street mimicking the way a walker walks. The few walkers in the alley don’t smell their living flesh.
Rick, Emiko, and Glenn come to the street. They crawl under the metro bus slowly. Out on the street, none of the walkers notice anything unusual. They continue down the street toward the construction site at an agonizingly slow pace, covered in walker guts, they pass by the walkers unnoticed.
“It’s gonna work. I can’t believe it.” Glenn whispers
“Don’t draw attention,” Emiko whispered back through gritted teeth.
A walker looks at Glenn. Glenn starts growling, convincing the walker to move on. The three slowly shuffle along when it starts raining. They are still half a block away from the construction site’s security fence.
“The smell’s washing off, isn’t it? Is it washing off?” Glenn asked, noticing the walkers around them slow down.
“No, it’s not.” Rick denies. Walkers start to stop their shuffling and begin looking around. “Well, maybe.”
A walker growls and attacks Rick. He splits its head open with his ax. ”RUN!”
They hack their way through the walkers in their way as they run to the chain link fence between them and the construction site. Rick throws his ax over the fence. They leap up and over. Behind them, the walkers rush forward and pile up on the fence. The three tear off their raincoats. Glenn runs for the keyboard while Rick and Emiko turn and start picking off the most aggressive walkers with their pistols.
Glenn breaks open the key box with his crowbar and grabs the one for the Ferenc cube van. “Rick!” Glenn tosses the key to Rick; they all run for the truck. One walker climbs over the fence and runs after them. Rick gets in the driver's seat, Glenn gets in the passenger's seat, and Emiko quickly gets the passenger's seat, landing on Glenn’s lap, and pulling the door closed. Rick starts the engine right before a walker pounds on Glenn and Emiko’s window. Glenn flinched and wrapped his arms around her waist, “Go go go go!” she yells.
Rick backs the truck out, tires squealing. The walker is thrown off but continues to pursue. The crowd of walkers’ weight pushes against the gate until it collapses. They push through and chase after them. The cube van breaks through the construction site fence on the far side. Rick drives it through and around the corner.
Glenn starts to freak out, “Oh my God. Oh my God. They’re all over that place.”
“You both need to draw them away.” Rick said calmly but with authority, “Those roll-up doors at the front of the store –That area? That’s what I need cleared. Raise your friends. Tell them to get down there and be ready.”
Glenn pulls the CB out of his backpack, “And we’re drawing the geeks away how? I—I missed that part.”
“Noise, hon,” Emiko said.
»»————- ➴ ————-««
Moments later on a deserted street Emiko puts the crowbar through the driver’s side window of a red sports car. The alarm blares. Glenn covers his ears and fidgets while she works quickly. She used a screwdriver to hotwire the car and moved to the passenger's seat, knowing that he would want to drive his dream car. “Come on! Get in!”
Moments later Glenn barrels down the road in the red sports car. Glenn passes Rick in the cube van on their way back to the department store. Emiko grabbed the CB and spoke into it, “Those roll-up doors at the front of the store facing the street – Meet us there and be ready.”
»»————- ➴ ————-««
Glenn drives past the doors then backs up and waits for the walkers to take the bait. Immediately they turn and start toward him. “Come on. Come on.” Glenn mutters as walkers crowd around the car. “Get closer. Get closer. Come on. Come on.” Emiko mutters.
Glenn backs up in fits and starts leading the walkers away from the doors. When they are following enough he speeds up, flips the car around, and drives forward. Once they lead the walkers away, Glenn starts speeding out of the city. They speed down the freeway cheering, being carefree like they used to be before the world went to hell.
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