Alexander and Carl were playing catch while their mother and Amy were next to them cooking.
"Go ahead, I'm going out!" Lori told Dale, who was standing guard on the roof of her trailer. "Kids, stay within Dale's sight, okay?" She said looking at her children, who nodded.
"You too, don't go too far, stay within firing distance and if you see anything, yell at me, I'll go running!" Dale said before Lori left.
"Yes mom." She whispered before she walked away.
"Aren't you too old to run old man!?" Alexander asked mockingly raising his voice because Dale was a bit far away, making Carl and Amy chuckle.
"Don't tempt me to shoot you!" He threatened jokingly.
"Sorry, sorry!" He told him and then continue playing with his brother.
● ● ● ● ●
Alexander was standing next to Carl and Shane, who was teaching them how to tie a professional knot, when suddenly, T-Dog's voice came on the radio.
"Hello, hello. We have bad reception. Repeat, repeat." Dale said as he tried to communicate.
"Shane is that you?" T-Dog asked over the radio.
"Are they?" Lory asked.
"Yeah, it's T-Dog." Alexander replied.
"We're in trouble. We're stuck in the mall." T-Dog reported.
"Did he say they're trapped?" Shane asked.
"Yeah." Alexander answered vaguely. "Am I the only one paying attention or what?" He thought a bit irritated at the stupid questions.
"There are walkers everywhere, hundreds of them, we are surrounded." T-Dog informed of their situation.
"T-Dog repeat that last part. Repeat it." Dale said over the radio, but received no response.
"He said they're at the mall." Lori said.
"I heard it too." Dale said.
"He also said that they are surrounded by hundreds of walkers." Alexander added.
"Don't dream of it. We're not going to go looking for them. We're not going to risk the group either, everyone already knows that." Shane told Lori when he saw her coming towards him.
"So we're going to leave her there?" Amy asked referring to her sister.
"Hey Amy, I know it's not easy." He said trying to persuade her, which didn't work.
"She offered to go help us all!" She retorted angrily at the idea of not going to help her sister.
"I know, she knew the risks, didn't she? And if she's trapped, we lost her." He said trying to end the discussion. "We have to deal with it. There's nothing to do."
"Andrea is my sister son of a bitch." She retorted angrily before leaving.
Lori and Shane exchanged glances before she went after Amy.
"I think you didn't handle it very well." Alexander told him sarcastically.
After hearing what T-Dog said, he was somewhat worried about Merle and Glenn. They were his friends after all. He didn't want them to die.
"Yeah, yeah, shut up." Shane said, somewhat irritated by the situation, then approached Carl and stroked his hair while he told him that everything was fine.
"Is it okay with you if I go and try to help them? I can blast a few car horns to clear the way for them." Alexander asked.
It wasn't a bad plan. He knew he could do it, but he had to listen to Shane. He was the leader after all.
"No, not at all. You won't go alone again." He retorted firmly ending the topic.
"Okay." He sighed understanding Shane's concern.
● ● ● ● ●
A few hours had passed and Shane could be seen cleaning a shotgun while Alexander did the same with his magnum. Next to them was Lori, who was cutting Carl's hair, who wouldn't sit still.
"Honey if you move I'll take longer, don't move, okay?" Lori asked somewhat annoyed that her son keeps moving.
"I try." He replied vaguely.
"Well, keep trying." She retorted.
"That's nothing, you'll see when you have to shave." Shane said to Carl trying to cheer him up.
"Exactly, it's sooo boring." Alexander added dramatically.
"Yeah, it's horrible. When that day comes, you'll miss when your mom used to cut your hair." Shane said looking at Carl.
"When it happens I will believe it." He retorted without believing him.
"Hehe, I'll tell you what, just bear this with dignity and tomorrow I'll teach you something special. I'll teach you how to hunt frogs." He said trying to get him excited.
"Run while you can." Alexander said to Carl, who gave a light laugh.
"Shut up." Shane told him as he chuckled slightly.
"I already caught a frog." Carl said amused by the interaction between his brother and Shane.
Lori smiled as she listened to the conversation. She was glad that even in a world like this, her children were able to smile.
"I said frogs, plural. It's quite an art, you can't take it lightly." Shane said smugly. "It has many secrets, few know them and I want to show them to you and to your brother if he is interested." He said the last thing looking at the named with a mocking smile, since he knew that Carl would accept, and then he would want his brother to accompany them and Alexander would fulfill his brother's whim.
"Fuck you." He whispered irritably knowing what his godfather was thinking.
"I am a woman, talk to him." Lori told Carl when he turned to ask her what to do.
"Pff, it's a unique offer, friend. It won't be repeated." Shane said snorting slightly.
"With your passion for frog hunting, I'm sure you'll offer it to him until he accepts." Alexander said mockingly, earning a blank stare from Shane.
"Why do we need frogs in plural?" Carl asked confused.
"Have you ever eaten frog legs?" Shane asked.
"Eww." He replied immediately while Alexander pretended to vomit.
"They're tastyyy." Shane said animatedly.
"Agh, they're horrible." Lori contradicted.
"When the last can of beans is gone, you'll love the frog legs." He said, chuckling slightly. "I can imagine you: Shane, could I have another slice please? Just- just one more." He said trying to imitate Lori's voice as he smiles.
"I won't do that." She said amused.
"Yeah guys, don't mind him. You and I will be heroes. We'll feed them Kermit's legs Cajun stylr." Shane told Carl and Alexander.
"As long as I don't have to eat them, do what you want." Alexander said.
"I would rather eat Pig, that would be better." Lori joked.
"Hehehe, guys we'll be heroes, we'll be legends, you and me, Shane, Alexander and Carl." Shane said as he was glad at the idea of spending time with the Grimes brothers.
"Shane!" Dale called him when the alarm of a car approaching towards them began to be heard, so they all went to look.
Glenn got out of the car, who after a few yells from the others he turned off the car alarm.
"Is Andrea alright?" Amy asked worried about her sister.
"Yes, yes, everyone is fine." He said something tired of Amy's insistence. "Well, Merle isn't so well."
This alarmed Alexander a bit, but not too much, as Glenn said that Merle isn't so well, but he didn't say that he was dead, so there's nothing to worry about, right?
"How do you come here making so much noise? Do you want the walkers to get to us?" Shane asked annoyed by Glenn's imprudence.
"I think we're fine." Dale said trying to defend Glenn.
"I think it was stupid." Shane said still angry.
"Because it was stupid." Alexander added also annoyed by the imprudence of his friend.
"Well the alarm echoed all over the mountains. It's hard to find the source." Dale said still defending Glenn. "I don't want to argue, I'm just saying that." He added when Shane looked at him. "Next time you could think things through more carefully, don't you think?" He asked Glenn, scolding him.
"I'm sorry." He apologized realizing his mistake. "I have a nice car." He added, which caused several to stare at him blankly.
Suddenly, a truck pulled up and parked behind Glenn's car. Everyone started to get out of it except Merle, which worried Alexander, but he didn't have time to ask where he was because he heard his brother start to cry and be comforted by his mother.
He heard Morales say that someone helped them get out of town and that he was here, so he turned to see the new person who would probably join the group.
Though nothing prepared him for what he would see next.
A man in a sheriff's uniform got out of the truck and began to approach the group. That man was Rick Grimes, his father, who upon seeing his family began to approach them while he starts crying with emotion.
The first ones to react were Carl and Lori. Carl ran to hug his father as he cried. Lori stayed a few steps behind, and then approached and hugged her husband, also in tears.
Shane looked happy and sad at the same time. Happy to see his best friend again and sad because he knew what that would cause between him and Lori.
Alexander was paralyzed. He wanted to go and hug his father but his body didn't move. He was in a trance state.
It had already been two months since he believed that his father had died. He had dreamed countless times of seeing him again. But they were just that, dreams. So, having him in front of him again surprised him too much.
Once Rick saw his eldest son standing by him staring at him as if he had seen a ghost, he broke away from Carl and Lori to approach Alexander, who had tears in his eyes.
Rick stood in front of his son and placed his hand on his face, looking at him with all the love a father can have for his son.
Alexander finally reacted by hugging his father tightly, a hug that Rick returned with the same intensity as they both cried, relieved that the other is okay.
● ● ● ● ●
At night, the Grimes, Shane, T-Dog, Glenn, Dale, Andrea, and Amy were around a campfire as they listened to Rick tell them his experience waking up from his coma in the midst of the apocalypse.
Lori was to Rick's left and Carl on their father's lap. Alexander was to Rick's right, staring into the campfire as he listened to his father, when suddenly Carl spoke.
"Mom said you died." He said looking at his father.
"She had reasons to believe so, don't doubt it." He said after exchanging glances with Lori.
"At the hospital they told me they would take you and the other patients to Atlanta. It never happened." Lori informed him.
"It makes sense after what happened in Atlanta." Rick said understanding the situation.
"Yeah." Lori stated.
"And the hospital seemed to be overwhelmed." He added.
"I was overwhelmed. I was barely able to get your family out, anyway." Shane told him.
"I can't tell you how grateful I am Shane." He said with gratitude in his voice. "I don't know how to express it."
Alexander could sense the internal conflict his godfather was having, though he didn't blame him. It also didn't bother him that he lied when he told him, his mother and his brother that his father had died, if he hadn't told them, they probably would have gone to the hospital looking for him and would have died trying.
He could hear Shane arguing with Ed about him not adding to the flame of the fire, only to see him leave and return a few minutes later.
"Have you thought of Daryl Dixon? He won't like knowing they left his brother there." Dale said.
Alexander had asked his father where Merle was, to which Rick told him the situation and he honestly didn't know what to think, since Merle had attacked them first, but he was still his friend, so he was upset when they left him in handcuffs on the roof of a building in which walkers were entering.
"I'll tell him. I lost the keys, it's my fault." T-Dog said.
"I handcuffed him. That was my fault." Rick said.
"Folks, it's not a competition. I don't want to be racist, but he'd rather be told by a white guy." Glenn said looking over at T-Dog.
"What's done is done. I'm not going to hide it from him." T-Dog said.
"We could lie." Amy contributed.
"Would you like to be told something like that about your sister? Because I don't think Daryl would like it." Alexander opined seriously.
"Or we can tell the truth. Merle was out of control, something had to be done or he would kill us all. Your husband did the right thing." Andrea told Lori. "And if Merle stayed there, it's nobody's fault."
"And we're going to tell Daryl that? I don't think a very rational conversation comes up after that, what do you think?" Dale asked Andrea, who shook her head. "Let's be smart and be prepared for when he comes back from his hunt."
"Everybody shut the fuck up." Alexander said already irritated that they talk about his friend as if he was a mad dog. "Here's what's going to happen, I'm going to go and talk to him. I'm his friend and Merle's as well, so he better hear it from me." He assured without giving rise to objections.
Suddenly, T-Dog reported that Merle was still alive, as he chained the door so that walkers couldn't get through.
"Okay, that'll make things easier." Alexander thought, relieved that there's a chance that Merle is still alive.
● ● ● ● ●
The next day, Glenn, Rick, and Alexander could be seen watching as Dale, Morales, and Jim dismantled the car Glenn arrived with.
"I was planning on using it for a couple more days." Glenn told them discouraged.
"Maybe we can steal another one some day." Rick said as he patted him on the back before walking away.
"It's kind of funny hearing a cop say he wants to rob!" Alexander yelled to annoy his father, who gave a small laugh as he continued walking.
Alexander saw a golf ball-sized rock on the ground, and had an idea for some fun.
"Hey Jim, you deactivate the car alarm, right?" He asked him.
"Yes, why?" Jim asked while removing a part of the car's engine.
"Uh, for nothing." He said calmly as he picked up the rock and stood to the side of the car. "Hey Glenn." He called him to see what he was going to do.
Seeing that he had his attention, he threw the rock against the vehicle's window, which broke from the force of the impact, drawing the gaze of several.
"God, that sure felt good." He said smiling.
"What are you doing!?" Glenn asked.
"Relax, after all this car doesn't work anymore, so it doesn't matter." He replied calmly.
Although that relaxation vanished when the screams of the children began to be heard, which came from the forest.
Hearing them, Alexander Glenn, Rick, Lori, Dale, Shane, Jim, Carol, Morales, Amy and Andrea ran towards the source of the sound. When they arrived they saw that the children were fine, but further on there was a walker eating a deer. Seeing this, the men moved closer while the others stayed behind.
Everyone except Alexander, who was watching the idiocy they were doing, began to beat the walker, until Dale cut off his head with an axe.
"Why not just stick something in his head and that's it?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, to which the rest looked at him and then at the walker again.
"He's the first one we've got? They've never gotten this far." Dale said breathing heavily from the effort made.
"They will have run out of food in the city." Jim opined.
Suddenly they heard noises in the bushes, so they were on their guard in case it was another walker, although in the end it was only Daryl.
"Son of a bitch. That's my deer!" He said annoyed to see that the deer had been bitten by the walker. "It was all ruined by this dirty stinking stupid son of a bitch!" He said to himself as he kicked the walker's body.
"Calm down son, it's no use." Dale said trying to calm him down.
"And what do you know, old man? Why don't you take your stupid hat and go back to the nursing home?" Daryl asked while moving in front of him and then backed off.
"Hmph." Alexander gave a small laugh at Daryl's comment.
"I followed this deer a mile." He said as he removed his arrows from the carcass of the deer. "I'll take it back to camp and we'll cook it. How about we cut off this bitten part?" He asked as he looked at the rest.
"I wouldn't risk it." Shane opined.
"Unless you want to die of course." Alexander added.
"That's too bad. I caught some squirrels, about ten or twelve, we'll eat those." Daryl informed.
Suddenly, the walker's head began to make noises, showing that it was still alive.
"Oh God." Amy said horrified before leaving followed by Andrea.
"I told you." Alexander said as he approached it with his knife in hand and stabbed the walker in the head.
Rick was somewhat shocked to see how his son stabbed a head as if it was something normal. Although it's been two months since it all started, so it was normal for Alexander to be used to it, but for him it was still new.
"Come on guys, what did you do?" Daryl asked watching Alexander pull his knife out of the walker's head. "You have to hit the brain. Only Alex and I know that?" He asked as he walked away. "Merle!" He called out to his brother as he walked through the camp. "Merle! Come here! I brought some squirrels, let's cook." He said still calling his brother.
"Daryl wait, I have to talk to you." Shane told him.
"Shane, I'll tell him." Alexander said as he placed his arm on his godfather's chest preventing her from moving towards Daryl.
"About what?" Daryl asked watching Alexander approach him.
"I'll be direct, Merle attacked the rest of those who went with him on the expedition, so they handcuffed him to the roof of a building. He's still there." Alexander tried to justify the others' action by saying that Merle had attacked them, though he doubted it would work.
The rest of the group were standing around them watching the interaction.
"What are you taking about?" Daryl asked confused and angry. "But he's alive, isn't he?" He asked hoping to hear an affirmative answer from his friend.
"It's not easy to say so I'll say it." Rick said as he approached them both.
"Dad." Alexander scolded quietly, since he had specified that he would tell him.
"Who are you?" Daryl asked as he watched him approach.
"Rick Grimes." He replied stopping next to his son.
Daryl looked at Alexander, realizing that he was his father, since Alexander had told him who he was and that he had passed away, but apparently he was wrong about him being dead. He would talk to him later.
"Rick Grimes. Do you have something to tell me?" He asked somewhat irritated by the intervention.
"As my son said, your brother was a danger to everyone, so I handcuffed him to a piece of metal on the ceiling. He's still there." He informed seriously.
"Let me process that." Daryl said while spinning. "You handcuffed my brother to a roof. And you left him there!?" He asked furiously.
"Yes." He replied quietly.
Daryl stared at him for a moment before throwing the squirrels he had tied up at him, though Rick dodged them.
Seeing this, Daryl tried to run towards him but was pushed to the ground by Shane. On the ground, Daryl pulled out a knife and then stood up and tried to tell Rick's throat, but he dodged and held it with the help of Shane, who applied a headlock to his neck.
"Hey, hey, calm down!" Alexander said trying to intervene, although he knew it would be in vain.
"You better let me go!" Daryl yelled frustrated at not being able to free himself.
"No, better not." Shane retorted.
"This is illegal!" Daryl retorted still trying to break free of the hold.
"You can sue me. Come on, we can go on all day." Shane said teasingly as he continued to apply pressure to his neck.
"I would like to calmly discuss this topic. Do you think you can do it?" Rick asked as he squatted in front of him. "Do you think you can do it!?" He would ask again when he didn't get an answer, and then tell Shane to let go.
After explaining to Daryl that he had to handcuff Merle because she was dangerous, T-Dog told him that he dropped his key in a sewer and that's why they had to leave him, but that he had locked the door with a chain, so Merle I could stay alive.
"Go to hell! Tell me where he is, I'll go find him!" Daryl said, who was trying hard not to cry.
"He'll tell you, won't he?" Lori asked Rick somewhat annoyed.
"I'll go back there." He said after a few seconds.
Hearing that they would go for his brother, Daryl walked away followed by Alexander, who was worried about his friend.
He didn't imagine how it would feel to know that his brother was abandoned, maybe dead, so he wanted to be by his side.