⚘.ﾟ༘༘ | THE WALKING DEAD | 🪓ꓹ─๑
wolf in sheep's clothing
❪ 𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐔𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐋𝐘 ❫᠂
⭒𝙳𝙰𝚈 𝟽𝟸 𝙾𝙵 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙸𝙽𝙸𝚃𝙸𝙰𝙻 𝙾𝚄𝚃𝙱𝚁𝙴𝙰𝙺☆
❝ Old McDonald had a farm ❞ : ˖ ۫ ★ ៸
SHE FOUND HERSELF MISSING HER DAD. Which, in a time like this, after what he did . . . she didn't want to miss him. She didn't want to reach for him, hide behind him like he was a safety blanket between her and the new world.
As Max Walsh stood behind her godfather, she felt the hairs on her arms stick straight up. Besides the Greene's, this was the first time she'd seen strangers. And they didn't look like kind ones.
The two strangers made themselves comfortable, one pulled a chair up at one of the tables, the other, sitting uncomfortably on a barstool next to Hershel.
"I'm Dave," The man sitting at the table introduced, a shot glass held gently in his fingers. "That scrawny-lookin' douchebag there is Tony."
Max Glanced over at the man, and stepped back once she realized his eyes were already on her. The look in his dark eyes had her gut twisting.
Oh.
Tony leaned back a little, tearing his eyes away from the girl as he chuckled lightly.
"Eat me, Dave."
Dave chuckled, "Hey, maybe someday I will."
Rick flicked his eyes over to the other man — Tony, and the Sheriff straightened up slightly, stepping back just enough that the man's view wasn't so clear on his god-daughter. Max swallowed a large lump in her throat as he grip tightened on her shotgun.
There was not a doubt in her mind that if her father was here, these men would be dead in seconds. She didn't know why that horrifying fact seemed to comfort her a little.
Killing. It seemed like a new thing now. But maybe that was Presley's late night mutters, that she thought no one could hear, getting to her.
"We met on I-95 coming out of Philly." Dave continued. "Damn shit-show that was."
"I'm Glenn." The young man's perky voice spoke up. He seemed much more comfortable with the situation then Max was. "It's nice to meet some new people."
Rick filled a cup of whiskey up for Glenn, and placed it on the bar in front of him. He turned to Max and gestured for her to move next to the man.
She wasn't upset with the request. Glenn was a comfortable guy to stand next to. Though he wasn't the strongest man in that room, or the scariest, he was comfortable.
Rick curled his fingers around his own glass, and he gently raised it to Dave. "Rick Grimes."
Dave looked between all their hands, and noticed Hershel's were empty.
"How about you, Pal? Have one?"
Hershel shook his head, "I just quit."
Dave's eyebrows raised a little as the tip of his finger traced the rim of his glass, "You've got a unique sense of timing, my friend."
"His name's Hershel. He lost people today — a lot of them." Rick explained.
Dave frowned slightly. The look on his face expressed genuine sadness for the older man. Max had a moment where she thought that maybe these guys weren't so bad. But with another flick of her eyes to the bigger man, she had her arms tightening around her stomach, that moment of relief, gone.
"I'm truly sorry to hear that." Dave replied, giving a small head nod to the older man. He raised his glass, "To better days, and new friends, and to our dead. May they be in a better place."
As all the adults took small sips of their drinks, excluding Hershel, and Max's underaged self, she found herself shifting on her feet.
She wanted to be back at the farm now. She'd never been in many uncomfortable situations like this before. And, as much as she felt like she could stand behind Rick, and let him guard her, she still felt . . . unsafe. More unsafe than she'd ever felt over the past few months.
Which was weird. Because these were people. You were supposed to feel safe with people.
Dave flicked his eyes towards her, and gestured to him with his cup, "What about you little lady? You gotta name?"
Max flicked her eyes up. They narrowed slightly, "Who don't?"
Dave cracked a smile, laughing, "Jus' trying to be polite is all." The man finished off his drink, tossing the dark liquid into the back of his throat before leaning over to place his cup on the table.
The shine running off the gun tucked into the back of his pants hit her in the eyes like a glass shard. Her eyes snapped to the weapon, and they narrowed slightly. She shifted on her feet, straightening next to Glenn slightly. The man glanced at her, noticing this, and he raised an eyebrow as he reached back for it.
With it in his hands, he showed it off, waving it around a bit. "Not bad, huh? Got it off a cop."
"I'm a cop." Rick said.
Dave snapped his gaze to the man. "This one was already dead." He smiled a little, quick to defend himself.
There were a few uncomfortable chuckles, mostly from Glenn, who Max could feel was starting to feel a little on edge about the group he'd been so happy to see just moments before.
Max found herself wondering what any of the others would do if they were in her position. Sadly, for Billie, Max believes she'd be just as lost as she was in what to do. Billie was naïve, not an idiot. And Tony's gaze, that hadn't seemed to leave her body for more than a few seconds was more than enough to send a message.
And Presley? Well, for some reason, Max doesn't think Presley would continue to let him look at her. Presley was pretty — and she knew it, but lustful looks from a creepy older man? His head would be rolling on the ground in seconds.
Either from her ax, or her words.
That was an exaggeration, sure. But Max could see it happening. And Though she didn't have the thought often, sometimes Max really wished Presley was around.
Okay, maybe the bitchy repressed southern girl was growing on her. But, seriously, don't tell her, because Max is pretty sure if you did, Presley would rip your arm off.
"You fellas are a long way from Philadelphia." Rick noted.
"Feels like we're a long way from anywhere." Tony added.
"What drove you south?"
Dave leaned back in his chair, "I can tell you it wasn't the weather. I must've dropped thirty pounds in sweat alone down here. At first, it was DC. I heard there might be some kind of refugee camp, but the roads were so jammed, we never even got close. We decided to get off the highways, into the tricks, keep hauling ass." He chuckled a little, "Every group we came across had a new rumor about a way out of this thing."
"Well there's not." Max muttered, looking down at the bar in front of it. She picked at the side of it with the edge of her fingernail.
"Damn right." Dave nodded.
Max glanced up as the man flicked his eyes to the other. The two men shared a look. On the surface, not entirely a bad look, but a look. But given where they were, Max had a gut feeling that it meant some sort of trouble.
"How about you guys?" Dave asked, looking back between the group. His eyes landed on Rick, and he raised an eyebrow.
"Fort Benning, eventually."
Dave frowned a bit, leaning back in his chair, "Ah. I hate to piss in your cornflakes, officer, but . . . we ran across a grunt who was stationed at Benning. He said the place was overrun by lamebrains."
Glenn shifted next to Max, "Wait, Fort Benning is gone? Are you for real?"
Dave shook his head, "Sadly, I am. It's just like Blondie said, there's no way out of this mess."
Max narrowed her eyes, straightening up at the nickname. It brought a bad taste to her mouth. No, she hadn't given him a name, but Blondie was not something that had ever been used in a nice tone. It was a condescending use of a look. A dumb blonde. Blondie.
"Just keep going from one pipe dream to the next, praying one of these mindless freaks doesn't grab ahold of you when you sleep." Dave finished off on a sour note.
"If you sleep." Tony interjected, a grim sneer behind the word.
Dave nodded, turning his head around a few times as he looked around, "Yeah, It doesn't look like you guys are hanging your hats here." He turned his attention back to them, "You holed up somewhere else."
Max bit the inside of her lip. There it was. The gut feeling she'd had this whole time.
Rick shifted a little, pressing his lips together, "Not really."
Dave gave him a strange look. He gestured towards the doors, "Those your cars out front?"
Dumbly, Glenn nodded, "Yeah. Why?"
Max pressed a forced smile on her lips as she stopped herself from stomping his foot with her heel. She'd never met such an amazing, clueless man before.
"We're living in ours." Dave said, "Those look kinda empty, clean. Where's all your gear."
"We're with a larger group." Hershel piped up, "Out scouting, thought we could use a drink."
Dave tilted his head, "A drink? Hershel, I thought you quit."
Max bit her bottom lip, "He did." She interrupted, "Like . . . five seconds before you showed up. Thought this would be a good time to bring back old habits. He was wrong."
Dave looked at her inquisitively, and with all the eyes in the room on her, she only looked at him. She tried to figure out what he was thinking.
"Well, we're thinking of setting up around here. Is it — is it safe?"
"It can be." Glenn said, and Max turned to look at him. Silently hoping that would be all he said. "Although I have killed a couple of Walkers around here."
Max glanced to Rick, who slowly turned to glance at Glenn. They both shared a look, and it seemed like they were both thinking the same thing.
That this wasn't going to end well if it wasn't cut short.
"Walkers? That's what you call them?"
"Yeah." Glenn laughed, a truly bubbly little chuckle.
Dave shared the laugh, his own chuckle on his lips, "That's good. I like that better than Lamebrains." Dave turned to Rick, "So what? You guys set up on the outskirts or something? That new development?"
"Trailer part or something?" Tony stood as the words left his lips. He made his way to the other side of the room. And he looked at Max, his cold eyes following her throughout his journey. "A farm?"
"Old McDonald had a farm." The song traveled through the air like a dark twisted version of the childhood song. Dave looked at Rick, "You got a farm?"
The sound of urine pattering against the floor and trailing down the wall hand Max's face scrunching up in disgust, and she backed further away from Tony, who next to his disgusting behavior, continued to hum the turn under his breath.
"Is it safe?" Dave asked, "Got food? Water?"
"More cooze?" Tony pressed, "Ain't had a piece of ass in weeks."
Max stiffened, her eyes immediately going to Rick. The man stiffened, his hand traveling to rest of his gun. Seemingly a signal to her — that she was safe.
God, she didn't want to die here. Not after the last talk she had with her dad, no . . . god, she didn't want those to be the last words she'd ever said to him.
Dave's hand quickly went to his face, he rubbed his eyes with the pads of his fingers as he grimaced back, sighing, "Listen, pardon my friend. City kids — they got no tact. No disrespect." At the silence Dave was left with, he turned to the two behind the bar, "So listen, Glenn—"
"We've said enough." Rick interrupted, clearly done with the conversation, and they way it turned sour.
Dave frowned, "Well, hang on a second. This farm — it sounds pretty sweet. It sound's sweet, don't it sound sweet, Tony?"
"Yeah, real sweet." The sound of him zipping up his pants echoed through the bar, "How about a little southern hospitality?"
"We got some buddies back at camp, been having a real hard time. I don't see why you can't make room for a few more—"
"I'm sorry, that's not an option." Rick finalised, keeping up a strong front.
The men looked at one another, confused.
"We can't take in anymore." Hershel added, looking between Tony and Dave, trying to make his point clear.
"You guys are something else. I thought- I thought we were friends. We got people we gotta look out for too."
"We don't know anything about you," Rick said, setting his cup down on the table behind him.
"That is true. You don't know anything about us, you don't know what we've had to go through out there.
The things we've had to do." Dave started, squinting his eyes at the sheriff. "I bet you've had to do some of those same things yourself. Am I right?"
Max glanced at Glenn. The young man's face had completely placed. Sweat pooled at the top of his hairline, and it seemed he'd finally opened his eyes to the situation.
"Ain't nobody's hands clean in what's left of this world," He reminded them. "We're all the same. So, come on. Let's take a nice friendly hayride to this farm and we'll get to know each other." Dave smiled a welcoming smile Max wanted to punch off his face.
Rick gently shook his head, "That's not gonna happen."
"This is bullshit!" Tony snapped, swinging his arm out. Max quickly stepped back.
Rick rolled his eyes, twisting his head around with an unamused expression.
"Calm down."
"Don't tell me to calm down." Tony yelled, quick to stop the sheriff from another word. The man was seething with anger, and his red face showed it. "Don't ever tell me to calm down. I'll shoot you three assholes in the head," he swung his body around and pointed towards the blonde girl, "take you and then your damn farm!"
Rick immediately stood, and Max felt her hands tighten against her gun and she took another step back.
"Excuse me?" She spat. Despite the rough, unfazed look she tried to sell, she was terrified.
"Oh you heard me right Blondie—"
The things we've had to do.
Dave's words repeated in her head like a broke record as her gun went up. It seemed like everyone froze for a moment as the bullet locking into the chamber bounced off the walls. One loud click, then the room was silent as she stared into the brown eyes on the other side of her gun.
One she'd never actually used before all this.
In fact, before the end of the world, she hadn't really touched a gun. She knew how to use one, her father was not one to miss an opportunity to teach her how to defend herself, but she was never quite fond of using them.
She wasn't her father. But if that's who she needed to become in this new world — fine.
"Woah!" Dave's voice sounded like a mumble to her, "Relax, girl. Take it easy, nobody's killing anybody. Nobody's shooting anybody. Right, Rick?"
Rick slowly stepped in front of her gaze on the bigger man, her eyes snapped up to his blue ones. Large, brown eyes stared at him, her chest was rapidly rising and falling. He sent her a comforting look — nothing will happen as long as i'm here.
Max slowly lowered her gun, but her grip stayed tight.
Rick slowly turned, finding Dave clapping his hands together, making his way to the wall of alcohol. He scanned his options, his eyes slightly lighting up.
"Now, where's the good stuff, huh?" He leaned over to grab a bottle just as Rick placed his hand on his gun.
"Hey!" Dave held up the bottle, "That'll work. You gotta understand — we can't stay out here. You know what it's like."
"Yeah, I do." Rick nodded firmly, tapping his index finger on his holster. "But, the farm is too crowded as is. I'm sorry, you'll have to keep looking."
"Keep looking," Dave repeated his words, a small smirk on the sides of his lips, "Where do you suggest we do that?"
Rick shrugged slightly, "I hear Nebraska's nice."
Dave let out a loud chuckle, "Nebraska, this guy."
Shots rang out through the building. A hand tightly grabbed her wrist and pulled her down, shielding her from potential shots. Glenn's sweaty hand held tightly to her as three gunshots left a gun.
Then, silence.
The two slowly rose, peaking over to find Rick and Hershel still standing, Dave and Tony limp on the ground.
Rick lowered his gun.
"Asshole."
Authors note !
❛ this chapter was annoying to write. ❜
word count: 2,864
published: 3/28/2023
edited: 10/23/2023