Cassie stood in the abandoned department store along with T-dog,Morales,Jaqui and Andrea. The group had gone on a run into the city for supplies to bring back to the camp and were now awaiting Glenn's return. Whilst doing a survey of the streets below the roof he was on top of he had a seen a man in a sheriff deputy's uniform climb into a tank whilst running from walkers. Glenn being the good person he was wanted to help the man and had radioed back to the group to inform them of what he was doing.
Cassie and Glenn had only met around 2 months ago but the pair had instantly clicked and became the best of friends. When walking around their camp back at the quarry if you saw one of them the other was probably not far away. Normally the two would go on runs to the city by themselves but this time the rest of camp had convinced them to take a group with them. They had agreed at the time but were now regretting that choice as now everything was going wrong.
After getting a message from Glenn on the radio saying he would be back with a guest Cassie assumed he had managed to get the guy out of the tank. Morales and T-dog ran out to the clear the path to the door of walkers and the pair came back a few minutes later with Glenn and the other guy with them. Cassie walked over to Glenn and pulled him into a hug once she saw him her back to the others.
The pair heard the click of a gun and turned around to see Andrea pointing her gun at the guys face. But when they turned around to try and get the guy safely away from Andrea Cassie saw who the guy was and froze. Their was no way. Maybe she was dehydrated and hallucinating or maybe this was just some random dream she was having that she was bound to wake up from at any minute.
"R-rick?" The blonde stuttered out causing everyone to turn around and look at her Andrea lowering her gun in the process. When they did turn around they saw the tears falling from the girls green eyes.
"Cassie is that you?" Rick asked a smile creeping its way into his face. Cassie nodded her head at him and ran over to him closing the small distance between them. Her twin brother pulled her into a tight hug that any other time she would have complained about how tightly he was hugging her. She had thought her brother was dead but now here he was squeezing the life out of her.
"It's you. It's really you" she said between tears.
"Okay what the hell is going on here Cassie?" T dog asked confused as to why his friend was currently wrapped in a warm embrace with this random guy. Everyone else was obviously just as confused as T dog except for Glenn who with the information Cassie had given him over the past 2 months put 2 and 2 together. Cassie hadn't told anyone other then Glenn about Rick as she would get emotional anytime she talked about him. However she had gotten close with the Korean boy and trusted him with the information about her twin brother.
"Is this your twin Rick?" Glenn asked as Cassie nodded her head at him wiping the tears from her eyes.
"But I thought he was-"
"So did I but here he is" she finished not wanting the rest of the group to know the rest as even though she considered the rest friends she wasn't as close with them as she was with Glenn.
"Not that this isn't a really sweet moment and all but we're all dead now because of him" Andrea said clearly still wanting to kill Rick. Caught up in the moment of getting her brother back Cassie forgot Andrea had had a gun on he brother.
"Andrea back off it wasn't his fault he didn't know" Cassie stepped in defending her brother against the angry woman.
"I don't understand" Rick said confused as to why Andrea was so pissed at him. Morales grabbed him by the arm dragging him through to the front of the department store with the others close behind him.
"Look we came into the city to scavenge supplies. You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving" Morales said answering his own question. "You know what the key to surviving is? Tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the O.K coral"
"Every geek for miles heard you popping off rounds" T-dog added making Rick realise the severity of the situation. Whilst running from walkers and trying to defend himself he had unknowingly brought a huge hoard to the front doors of the department store locking the group in.
"You just rang the dinner bell" Andrea added.
"Get the picture now" Morales finished as Rick took in what he had done and Cassie could see just from the look in his eyes the wave of guilt that went through him. At this point walkers had started smashing the glass doors with bricks making the whole group take a collective step back in case they broke through at any minute.
"Rick what we're you even doing out there" Cassie asked curious as to what her brother was doing out there risking his life.
"I was trying to flag a helicopter"
"A helicopter?" Cassie asked. She knew there was a very small chance her brother had actually seen a helicopter but she didn't have the heart to tell him that. Thankfully T-dog did it for her.
"There ain't no damn helicopter"
"You were chasing a hallucination it happens sometimes" Jacqui trying along with the others to convince Rick he hadn't seen a helicopter but he wasn't having it.
"T-dog try the cb try to contact the others" Morales said diverting the conversation from Ricks helicopter. Cassie however didn't see the point in trying to reach the others. Even if they did manage what where they gonna do as she knew Shane wouldn't allow anyone to leave and help them.
"Others? The refugee centre?" He asked a spark of hope lighting up on him at the thought there was more people out their meaning his wife and son could be out there. It would also mean there was some where safe for his twin sister. He had already lost her once and wouldn't do it again.
"Yeah the refugee centre they got biscuits in the oven waiting for us" Jacque told him.
T-dog was trying and failing to get in contact the others "No signal.Maybe the roof" Just as he finished shots could be heard coming from the roof and there was only one person it could be.
Merle Dixon.
"What the hell is Dixon doing" Cassie groaned. Out of the two Dixon brothers even though neither of them talked to the rest of the group a lot she preferred the younger Dixon brother to the one currently taking shots from the roof.
"Cmon let's go" Glenn told everyone as they began running up the stairs. There was already heaps of walkers swarming the building from the shots Rick had fired and if Merle continued there would be lots more soon.
As soon as they got to the top of the roof Morales began storming over to Merle "Hey Dixon are you crazy man". Cassie could sense the anger flowing through Morales as all Merle did was laugh at him.
Merle heard the group complaining about him and turned around pointing a gun at them. "Hey ya ought to be more polite to a man with a gun. It's only common sense" he told them as he jumped down from where he had stood before.
"Cut it out Merle we don't have ammo to spare" Cassie shouted at him trying to calm the situation down before punches were thrown.
"Shut it blondie" Merle shouted back not wanting to be told what to do by anyone.
"Your gonna bring them all down on us just chill" T-dog shouted at Merle adding on to Cassie's statement.
"Hey bad enough I got this taco-bender on my ass all day and now I gotta take orders from you? I don't think so bro that'll be the day" Merle replied and just then Cassie could see that this was the start of an argument. T dog started to push Merle as to what he meant by his words whilst Morales was just trying to keep them both calm and prevent a fight from breaking out.
Rick turned to Cassie and Glenn and while Glenn just shook his hands signalling not to get involved all Cassie said was "Merles like this a lot just gotta wait for him to calm down" as she could see that all her brother wanted to do was put an end to their fighting but she want gonna let him be pulled into another one of their fights knowing that Rick getting involved wouldn't help anyone.
Merle continued to run his mouth crossing the line with his comments causing T-dog to punch him in the face. They all knew that know Merle wasn't going to let that slide as he punched T-dog back before he started to beat the shit out of him. Rick being Rick tried to stop Merle but ended up getting punched too sending him flying.
Whilst the others stood around where Merle was beating up T-dog shouting at him to stop Cassie ran over to her brother to check on him.
"Hey you alright" she asked checking his face over as all Rick gave her was a nod patting her on the shoulders to signal he was alright. When Cassie walked over Morales had ended up trying to break up the fight which resulted in him getting a punch to the gut. Cassie put a hand on his arm and gently lead him back over to where the others were.
Without warning Merle stopped punching T-dog only to pull a gun on him pointing a gun at his face and spitting on him.
"Now let's talk about who's in charge. I vote me anybody else?" Merle said as he stood up giving T-dog a chance to slip away from him and into the arms of the rest of the group. "Huh democracy time y'all.Show of hands huh? All in favour?" Merle asked them waiting for the group to all reluctantly raise their hands as they had no other choice. They all knew what he was like but other than that he had a gun to their heads. One by one all the group reluctantly raised a hand to show Merle they agreed with him. "Now that means I'm the boss right. Anybody else?"
When Merle asked this it gave Rick a chance to come up behind him and hit him in the face with the butt of a rifle. After he fell to the ground Rick took one of Merles hands and place it in a handcuff attaching the other one to a metal pole on the roof.
"Who the hell are you man?" Merle grunted out him and Ricks faces inches apart.
"Officer Friendly"