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Outside a convenience store in Atlanta Georgia two women — Dakota and Maia — stood awaiting their group. The two were put on watch as the other four members of their group grabbed as much as they could. The two girls leaned against the windows, looking up at the clear sky that allowed the gleaming sun to beat down on their skin.
Maia sighed as she fanned herself, which only seemed to make her feel hotter, "what the hell is taking them so long? If we're out here any longer the sun's gonna melt us before the dead can get to us." Dakota chuckled before looking back into the store, catching her boyfriend's attention causing him to tap their friend, Kaden, shoulder nodding towards the two.
The girls watched as their respective partners whispered to each other before letting out a laugh of their own. Christian, Kota's boyfriend rummaged around in his bag before pulling out a box. Kota furrowed her brows before holding an incredulous look once she realized the man was holding up a box of condoms while wiggling his eyebrows. She shook her head, before turning back around, noticing a group of the dead walking towards them.
The two on watch looked at each other before opening the shop door causing it to let out a ding from the over-head bell, "puppies and kittens lady and gents."
"Alright, let's get out of here," Adam grumbled, grabbing his girlfriend's hand as the four walked out of the store. Dakota nodded, grabbing one of the bags from her boyfriend as they started their walk.
The Dixon girl turned to her friends, walking backward before going over the plan, "let's go, if we move quiet and fast enough we can make it to the apartment, grab some of our shit and get the hell out of dodge."
Christian, piggybacking off of his girlfriend spoke up, "we'll come back for the cars and the rest of our stuff later."
As the group or as they called themselves, the pogues, successfully made their way to their shared apartment, Rick Grimes found himself in a sticky situation, stuck in a tank surrounded by the dead.
The officer breathed heavily when he suddenly heard a voice over the radio, "Hey, are you alive in there?" At the sound Rick snapped his head to the radio, hitting his head on the roof as he quickly replied, hoping the unknown person answered him back, "Hello? Hello?"
"There you are. You had me wondering."
Rick let out a sigh of relief, "Where are you? Outside? Can you see me right now?" The voice nodded despite the fact Rick couldn't see, "Yeah, I can see you. You're surrounded by walkers. That's the bad news."
Rick scoffed before clicking the button to respond, "There's good news?" A moment of silence passed before the voice told him bluntly, "No."
"Listen, whoever you are, I don't mind telling you I'm a little concerned in here."
The man let out a humorless chuckle, "Oh man. You should see it from over here. You'd be having a major freak-out." Rick tilted his head before asking, "Got any advice for me?"
"Yeah, I'd say make a run for it."
Rick made an unseen incredulous look, "That's it? Make a run for it?"
The voice let out yet another chuckle before talking back to rick, "My way's not as dumb as it sounds. You've got eyes on the outside here. There's one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down. You with me so far?"
Rick let out a shaken breath, "So far."
Once that comment was made, a plan was formed. After finding out how little ammo the officer had, the unknown man made his final comment, "Make 'em count. Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards. Be there." And the fight was on.
As Rick began his journey to the man who was attempting to save his life, the group of friends heard the cop's first shots.
"Who the hell was that?" Bailey asked briefly, looking around for the survivor. Dakota shrugged, "I have no clue but we need to get out of here before the whole city is on us." Adjusting their bags they went to move but were stopped as Rick ran straight into Dakota knocking her down.
"Shit," Rick grumbled before getting up as Kras and Kaden helped the dark-haired girl up. "Shit, move we gotta. Move!" Moving her hair from her face Dakota looked up to see just what the man was running from.
The girl's eyes widen, "oh fuck, we gotta run. Run!" And just like that the group of friends were following the man.
As they approached and rounded the corner, Rick sighed in relief. The voice from the radio, Glenn, ushered them to the ladder, looking back at the added members wide-eyed. "Who are they?" Dakota rolled her eyes before pulling out her sword, as Bailey readied her bow and arrow. "No time, go to the roof," and once again the group was off. The two girls took out some of the dead before hastily following the group, barely missing the herd of walkers.
As they all made it to the roof, Christian grabbed his girlfriend checking to make sure she was okay. "I'm fine, baby, I'm fine."
They turned as they heard Glenn make a comment towards Rick, "Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood. You the new Sheriff, come riding in to clean up the town?"
As Glenn and Rick got acquainted, the pogues began to come up with a new plan. "What do you think, we travel by rooftop, make it close to the end of downtown, get out of here until we can double back for the cars later?"
Before anyone of the other pogues could reply to Dakota, Glenn interjected, making the group look at him. "I don't think that's a good idea."
Adam looked at the pizza boy with raised eyebrows, "and what do you think we should do huh?"
"Come with us, we got a group, up in the mountains, away from geeks."
The best friends all looked at each other before looking at Dakota and Kras who were the unspoken leaders of the group. Kras shrugged, "we'll go, see how it is, and then we'll decide if we're gonna stay." Glenn nodded before leading the group to another roof, then down to a barricaded alley, radioing to someone.
Next thing the group knew, two men ran out of a building advancing towards the two walkers in the alley. But, before they could kill the walkers, Dakota unsheathed her sword, advancing towards them and taking them out quickly, shocking the four outsiders.
"Let's go," as they ran into the building, Dakota being the last one in slammed the door shut moving to walk forward. The girl was stopped as Kaden grabbed her arm, yanking her towards their friends. That was when she noticed the predicament, the Dixon girl watched as a blonde woman held a gun to Rick's head while rambling about Rick and the pogues causing them to die. As she continued, the group of friends gravitated away from the strangers, quietly observed their surroundings.
They looked when they noticed the group watching them cautiously, "so, who are you guys?"
Kota looked toward Glenn before answering his question. "I'm Dakota, this is Christian, Kaden, Maia, Bailey, and Adam," pointing out the respective individual.
Glenn nodded before introducing them to the rest of the room, "right well, I'm Glenn, this is Andrea, Jacqui, Morales, T-dog, and Rick, and on the roof is-" before he could finish they heard gunfire.
"Oh no. Is that Dixon?" the friends turned to Kota as she stiffened, "you don't think?" Before Maia could finish, Dakota cut her off as her nose flared, "I could only hope not."
Glenn turned to the group exhausted, "Come on, let's go."
Everyone ran up the stairs. Morales, one of the men who came out to kill the walkers when they first arrived, emerged from the stairwell onto the roof. "Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?" The man laughed before turning to the others, causing Dakota to take in a sharp breath of air. Clearly, the girl's hopes hadn't been heard, as she stared at the man, realizing it was her piece of shit uncle.
"Hey! Y'all be more polite to a man with a gun! Huh? Ah!"
She turned to her boyfriend who couldn't care less about the man at the moment, by his girl's reaction the man was either her uncle or god forbid her dad. "It's Merle," she explained to her friends causing Kaden to grab her arm and drag her away. He led the pogues away from the main group, mainly trying to get the girl away from her uncle.
As the group argued with her uncle, the pogues went through their belongings, passing any medical supplies they had to the girls, who before the world went to shit were nurses or in Kota's case, an RN and a first-year intern for her residency. As they went through their ammo, Merle decided to be Merle by saying something impeccably racist and Merle-like. Dakota's head snapped to her uncle before getting up and storming towards the man she sadly shared DNA with.
"Motherfucker," the girl growled out, punching the shit out of her uncle, knocking him back and to the ground. Before anyone could retaliate, T-Dog threw one himself causing a fight to ensue between the two men.
As everyone went to them to break them up, Kota leaned against her now-standing boyfriend who checked on her hand as the pogues silently rooted on T-Dog. However, the dynamic changed as soon as Merle pulled his gun and aimed it at T-Dog. As Merle started his powertrip, Kota grabbed her gun, cocking it, preparing to put a bullet in his brain if his finger even twitched towards the trigger.
"Yeah. Now that means I'm the boss, right? Yeah. Anybody else? Hmm? Anybody?"
Rick tilted his head before marching towards Merle, "yeah."
Merle looked around catching Rick's gaze for a brief second as the former officer hit him in the jaw with the butt of his own rifle. Kota and Kras snorted as the redneck dropped to the ground, stunned but sadly not unconscious. Rick, reached in his belt, grabbing his handcuffs, and attaching Merle to the pipe on the roof.
"Damn," Adam chuckled when he saw the man get cuffed.
As Rick and Merle continued to go back and forth, Kota couldn't help but roll her eyes at Merle's stupidity, nor his drug use that seemed to not have changed since she was a child. Rick finished his talk with Merle by throwing what she could only assume was coke off the side of the building. The pogues shut out the rest of the conversation, starting to make a plan for an escape.
Maia turned to her group before making a suggestion, "hey while they figure this shit out, you guys want to go back down to the store and see if there's anything we can use." Kota agreed, heading to the main group, "uh we're gonna head down to the store to see if there's anything we can find, we can keep watch on the door too."
Rick looked at Kota, looking at the rest of her group before making a face of disapproval. "I'm not sure if that's a good idea, you know. By yourself, no protection." The brown-haired girl chuckled before adjusting the sword on her back, "I think we'll be fine, just come get us when you guys make a plan." The man sighed before reluctantly agreeing, making her nod to the rest of them, purposely ignoring Merle who was calling out to her. She walked back to her friends, grabbing her bags, and led them off the roof as the rest of the group watched them.
About 30 minutes later, the pogues found themselves, sitting against the counter, smoking and watching the door as walkers banged against the doors. They were joined by Rick and Andrea who explained their plan to leave the store by going underground. The pogues nodded before going back to smoking as Rick and Andrea started a conversation of their own.
However, all interactions were halted as they helplessly watched the walkers break the first set of doors, creating a greater sense of urgency to get out. Rick and Andrea hurried back as the group of best friends moved further away from the door, still keeping an eye out.
Not long after Jacqui came rushing in, quickly explaining to the young adults the new plan as she led them back to the room they first came in. They arrived just in time to see Glenn and Rick, with bits of the walker's body hanging from their necks. The six friends turned to look at each other as both Dakota and Maia muttered, "wanky."
Seeing the two men about to leave Kras called out, stopping them from leaving, "hey, good luck out there." Rick nodded as he, fire axe in hand, and Glenn, crowbar in hand, walked out. The pair shuffled down toward the street mimicking the walkers movements before getting down and crawling under the bus that was used to barricade the alley, successfully immersing themselves into the herd of walkers.
Maia tapped Dakota and Bailey's arms grabbing their attention, "hey let's go back up, we probably can sling bolts at the ones that get too close to Rick and Glenn." Both girls agreed before the three went in their bags, getting out the slingshots they found as well as a bag of metal tooth lock washers. They'd come up with the idea after watching one of their favorite shows and come to find out it works. As the pogues made their way back to the roof, the group followed them curious to see just what the girls were going to do.
The girls dropped their bags, grabbed handfuls of bolts, moving to the brick wall and straddling the ledge. T-Dog, who had stayed on the roof, looked over at them wide-eyed before whispering to Jacqui, asking her what they were doing.
"We're not quite sure ourselves." The woman replied.
The girls ignored the commentary, scanning the sea of bodies stopping when Bailey's eyes landed on the two members of the group.
"There," Bailey pointed them out, causing Maia to mumble. "Yeah, I see them."
Dakota nodded before quickly lodging a bolt between the slingshot, pulling back, and aiming. She squinted before holding her breath slightly releasing the tension she'd created sending the bolt flying through the air and seconds later a walker dropped. Rick and Glenn's heads shot up to the building only to see the three girls with something in their hands before three walkers not far behind them dropped.
"Holy shit," Rick muttered.
As Glenn and Rick continued on, the girls kept taking out walkers rather they were close to the men or not. While they knew it wouldn't do much, it would still be some dead, and in their book that was good. Andrea turned to Jacqui holding an impressed expression, but before either woman could say something, thunder began to rumble.
"Shit, they need to hurry before the rain washes the smell away," Andrea looked at Jacqui worriedly. Morales shook his head, disagreeing with the blonde, "it's just a cloudburst. We get 'em all the time. It'll pass real quick." But he was wrong, really wrong, the rain continued to pour and as the rain fell, it took Rick and Glenn's camouflage along with it.
Once the walkers realized it was fresh meat among them all hell broke loose. Rick and Glenn began slicing and stabbing their way through the walkers in their way, running to the chain link fence between them and the construction site. Up on the roof Morales, Andrea and Jacqui stood in the rain watching them run, as the three girls slipped back onto the roof, packing up their shit.
"Get ready to go," Adam told his friends.
Morales continued to watch, softly murmuring, "come on. Come on. Come on." Bailey turned to the group before yelling to them over the rain, "hey, make sure your stuff is ready to go!" As everyone began to pack, Andrea kept watch to see when they needed to head down however her next words halted everyone in their tracks, "they're leaving us!"
Maia's head turned to the woman, giving an incredulous look, "what? Did you just say they're leaving us?" The blonde rushed to the edge of the roof and sure as shit the van was driving away from them.
"They're fucking leaving us," Bailey let out a huff in disbelief before turning to Adam's chest hoping for a bit of relief from her boyfriend. Kras panicked before looking to Kota who stared at him wide-eyed, "okay, we need a new plan on getting the fuck off this roof." He looked to his best friend who could only stare at Maia before staring at his girlfriend as she sat on the ground leaning against the ledge, defeated.
A few minutes passed allowing Dakota to snap out of it, "okay, a plan. We need a plan, maybe we can-"
She was cut off as Glenn's voice was heard over the radio, "those roll-up doors at the front of the store facing the street – Meet us there and be ready." And with those words, the groups jumped back into action, "Come on! Let's go, let's go!"
Everyone rushed the stairs but Kota stopped and turned back to see Morales yelling at T-Dog. She ran back up the stairs as Kras and Bailey called out to her. The Dixon yelled back, telling them as well as Morales to go. He took off, pulling Bailey and Kras with him as they shouted for Kota who ran back for T-Dog. "Come on, we have to go!"
Merle turned to her with teary eyes, "Dakota please, don't leave me here."
She went to move but stopped as she watched helplessly as T-Dog stumbled and the key flew out of his hand across the roof towards a drain pipe. "Shit," all three of them reached for it but it fell, straight down the pipe. The girl looked back at her uncle with a sorrowful look as he yelled at T-Dog who started grabbing his things. The Dixon girl thought fast, sliding one of her knives to him, "Dakota please, come on, I'm your uncle for fucks sake."
"I'm sorry," and with that the girl took off with T-Dog not far behind her, yelling for the group to wait for them. As the two just barely make it to the group, Kota's hand was immediately grabbed by Christian's as he yanked her into the van.
"Have you lost your damn mind, Dakota Grace," he shook her shoulders with wide eyes but all the Dixon girl could do was stare at him blank-faced.
His tone immediately changed, "baby? Baby, what happened, did you get bit?" He searched her frantically before seeing her slightly shake her head. Kaden lightly touched her arms, softly calling out to her, "Kota."
She looked at him teary-eyed before explaining to her friends what had her so shaken up, "I had to leave him behind. I left my uncle behind."
And while T-Dog explained to the others what happened, the pogues sat together huddled and consoling a shaken Kota who laid in her boyfriend's arms.
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𝖑𝖞𝖓𝖘 𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖐𝖘
Hello loves, welcome to Kota, I'd previously written something similar to things years ago with Marie as a main character, and with me wanting to get back into the groove as well as find the love for writing again I decided to pick this theme back up. It's been a while since I could just sit and lay in bed and just write and for the first time in years I was able to do that with this so I hope you enjoy. This was not proofread yet, however, I do plan to have a few friends proofread it and tell me what I should change or fix!
But I hope you guys enjoy and thank you for joining me on this journey <3
-lyns <3