"Confidence, courage and determined spirit are vital for surviving hard times."
― Lailah Gifty Akita
"Shit, shit, shit!" I cursed a minute after we all heard gunshots close to where we were.
One member of our group took the binoculars and turned his attention to the streets as we all gathered on the edge of the rooftop of the building we were at.
Most people had similar reactions to mine, we were screwed, dead, now all of those things knew we were here.
"Give me the radio," the guy with the binoculars said to no one in particular.
"What for?" I asked suspiciously.
"I'm going to help him," he says simply, trying to hide how nervous he was.
"Are you crazy?" A blonde woman in her middle thirties, shouted at the Asian boy.
Nevertheless, the other woman of the group, Jacqui, reached for the radio and threw it at Glenn. I just shook my head and crossed my arms, not believing he was actually considering to do this.
"You are going to get us all killed," I told him before I walked away from him and joined this older man that was away from the group, not giving a shit about what they wanted to do.
"We're all screwed," he said to me but never looked up at me. I sighed.
"I know."
"Hey, you! Dumb ass, hey, you in the tank. Cozy in there?" I heard Glenn saying through the radio and I sighed again.
***
"You can't risk your life for a stranger! I shouted, trying to get some sense into Glenn, who was going to go out and rescue the idiot who was stuck inside the tank.
He said nothing, he just ignored me and walked past me and went down the stairs, followed by Andrea, T-Dog, Jacqui and Morales while I stayed on the roof with Merle, not wanting to see how my friends die.
Most people don't like Merle, he's a trouble maker and usually is offensive and rude towards others. He cares about no one but his younger brother and mostly himself. He's reckless and volatile and has quite a temper but I stand him because he had stood up for me, he comfronted my father a few times in the last month. Besides, if you get on his good side is your gain, better have him as an ally than an enemy.
"Not excited to meet our visitor?" He asked me, still not looking at me, his southern accent was very thick.
"If he ever gets to come inside I'll meet him," I say. "Eventually."
I sat against the wall as Merle continues to watch over the "sick" people who had invaded Atlanta, who had taken over our life and terrorize us in our dreams and reality. Who would knew I would run away, hide and be afraid of dead people, dead walking people, that is.
My thoughts were interrupted by a gunshot, followed by another. I stood up quickly and tried to stop Merle from shooting at the dead.
"What the hell are you doing?" I shouted.
"Let me be, girl," he said in an annoyed tone before he shot another one.
"Don't you see this is pointless? There are hundreds of them!"
"Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?!" Morales came through the door, screaming at Merle, followed by everyone else. Merle just chuckled and shot again.
"Hey! Y'all be more polite to a man with a gun! Huh? Ah! Only common sense," he exclaimed turning around to face the group, raising his weapon a bit to emphasize the last past.
"Man, you're wasting bullets we ain't even got! And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill," T-Dog exclaimed, jumping in front of him.
"Bad enough I've got this taco-bender on my ass all day. Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so, bro. That'll be the day –"
"That'll be the day? You got something you want to tell me?
"Hey, T-Dog man, just leave it," Morales said.
"No!"
"All right? It ain't worth it."
"Now Merle, just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble." Glenn told him.
"You want to know the day?" Merle continued, obviously wanting to make everything worse than what it already was.
"Yeah," T-Dog said in an obvious tone.
"I'll tell you the day, Mr. Yo." Merle said, doing a sign with his hand. "It's the day I take orders from a nigger."
"Oh shit," I exclaimed as T-Dog jumped over Merle but he hit him with the gun and both started to fight. All of them hurried towards the pair, the new guy even got a punch in the process, as everyone kept telling them to stop.
Merle kept punching and hitting poor T-dog as he lied on the floor, defenceless. Merle sat on him and took out a small pistol, that's when all of us froze.
"No, no! Please! Please!" Andrea begged but the rest of us kept quiet, being terrified as we watched Merle on top of T-Dog.
"Yeah! All right!" Merle exclaimed as he stood up, still pointing his gun at T-Dog. "We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who's in charge. I vote me. Anybody else? Huh! Democracy time, y'all," Merle continued as T-Dog crawled away from Merle and the others approached him and helped him. "Show of hands, huh? All in favour? Huh? Come on. Let's see 'em." Merle said as he raised his left hand.
All of us just stared at him in disbelief, Glenn and Jacqui were kneelt next to T-Dog, Andrea and Morales were next to them on their feet and I was behind Merle, just shaking my head at his stupid behaviour. The new guy was right next to me with his hand over his jaw, where Merle punched him.
"All in favour? Yeah, that's good." Merle kept talking as Jacqui raised her hand, with her middle finger up in the air, followed by Andrea. "Now that means I'm the boss, right? Yeah. Anybody else?Hmm? Anybody?" Merle was going to turn around to face when the new guy approached him and hit him on his head with the rifle, Merle fell to the ground. The new one quickly cuffed him to a pipe.
"Who the hell are you, man?!" Merle asked.
"Officer friendly. Look here, Merle, things are different now. There are no niggers anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart."
"Screw you, man."
"I can see you make a habit of missing the point."
"Yeah? Well, screw you twice." I just shook my head at Merle, who was being his stupid, stubborn, offensive self.
"Ought to be polite to a man with a gun," New Guy said as he pointed the gun at Merle's head. "Only common sense."
The new guy dressed in a sheriff uniform said something else to Merle before standing up and joining us, leaving Merle cuffed. The rest of us kept looking down at the streets full of dead people and T-Dog was trying to communicate with the rest of our group that stayed in our camp. Merle just kept yelling insult after insult.
"How's that signal?
"Like Dixon's brain, weak." T-Dog replied, glaring at Merle, who gave him the finger.
"Keep trying."
"Why? There's nothing they can do," I said, speaking for the first time in a while.
"Got some people outside the city is all. There's no refugee centre. We're on our own," someone informed New Guy. "It's up to us to find a way out, she's right, they can't do anything to help us."
"These streets ain't safe in this part of town from what I hear." Merle said, sounding much more calmer. "Ain't that right, sugar tits? Hey, honeybunch, what say you get me out of these cuffs, we go off somewhere and bump some uglies? Gonna die anyway."
"I'd rather," Andrea said, not even looking at him.
"Just shut up, Merle," I exclaimed at him, getting tired of him and his attitude.
"Jealous, sweetheart?" he asked with a chuckle, now looking at me. "I don't usually go for little girls this young, but hey, it's the end of the world! I ain't complaining."
"Go to hell," I tell him, giving him the middle finger.
"Right, I forgot," he said suddenly, before I could stand up to get far from him.
"What?" I spat.
"You prefer my little brother, I gotta say you hurt my feelings, sweetheart!"
"Excuse me?"
"Oh come on! You share the tent with him, what else would you do in there? Just to..."
"That's enough, Merle!" I shouted at him for like the hundredth time today, he very well knew why I had been using his brother's tent.
The group had gone down into the building, trying to find a drainage tunnel or something else where we could escape, this time I joined them. I couldn't stand Merle for another minute.
Glenn and Morales went down a tunnel to see if it was safe while the rest of us went to the entrance, where several walkers were trying to break the glass doors.
***
"Hey, what's your name?" I asked after New Guy talked to Andrea and explained how the lock of her gun worked.
"Rick Grimes," he said, offering me his hand. "What's yours?"
"I'm Cecilia," I told him as I shook his hand. "Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too."
We both turned around to see Andrea looking at some of the jewellery that used to be for sale in here, apparently this was a cloth store. I had grabbed a shirt and a sweater before the chaos started.
"See something you like?" Rick asked Andrea as we both approached her.
"Not me, but I know someone who would."
"Amy?" I asked her.
She nodded. "My sister," she said informing Rick. "She's still such a kid in some ways. Unicorns, dragons. She's into all that stuff. But mermaids, they rule."
"Well, they do," I said grinning.
"Why not take it?" Rick asked her.
"There's a cop staring at me." Andrea said with a grin. "Would it be considered looting?"
"I don't think those rules apply anymore. Do you?" Rick said simply. I guess he was right.
Andrea smiled at Rick and me before taking the necklace with a mermaid as a pendant, I smiled back as I saw something pretty in the shelf, I shrugged and took it as well and as I did we heard the glass breaking.
We turned around and gasped as we saw those things breaking the first door and moving towards the next. We needed to leave now, there was no more time.
***
The group had come with a crazy plan and unfortunately I was part of it. I tried to refuse but I must think about the rest, this is not just about me.
"We are a team," Glenn said to me, I only nodded at him.
I closed my eyes as Rick cut the now dead-dead person we had captured. We had to put some coats on, cover them with the guts of this thing, go out into the street, Rick would go for a truck to rescue the rest, while Glenn and I were going to look for another car and be the distraction. I was just going because I'm as fast as Glenn and I can shoot, I was going just in case something happened.
The rest of them grabbed the guts and spread them on our coats, making me feel nauseous. The smell was horrible. I didn't vomit at first, but Glenn did, making me instantly vomit after him.
"Ready?" Morales asked us, we just nodded.
Morales opened the door, I took a deep breath before following Rick and Glenn out of the building, probably walking right into our deaths. Morales closed the door quickly, leaving us on just pure luck.
There were a few geeks in the alley, we carefully walked next to us, trying to walk like them, limping. Thank God no one attacked us.
The three of us got into the main street, hoping for the best. I was in between Glenn and Rick, who had axes in their hands, I had a small knife in mine. We continued to limp and walk funny and so far things were going alright. I guess Rick was correct about this "disguise", it was working! It was working!
But the happiness and bit of relief I had was washed away, almost literally as I heard thunder above me. Shit! Only a few seconds later I felt a drop on my face followed by a few more. We were more than screwed!
"The smell is washing off." I heard Glenn saying, starting to panic.
"No, it's not," Rick said right when one of the geeks stopped to smell Rick. "Well, maybe."
Another one smelled us and was over us, with its mouth open, Rick killed him with the axe as he shouted at us to run. He didn't need to say that twice. I sprinted away, followed by dozens of those things as the guys killed a few while they ran behind me. I climbed the fence in less than five seconds, I took off the gut-covered coat, threw it on the floor and got my gun out as Glenn and Rick were about to climb it as well, shooting every walker that tried to get them.
When I made sure they were okay, I ran away from the fence but stopped a few feet away. Rick took his gun out as well and started to shoot the geeks that were close to climb the fence, I did the same while Glenn looked for the key.
"Rick!" Glenn yelled and threw the key at Rick, who caught it and ran towards the truck. I walked backwards to it as I kept shooting.
Rick got inside on the driver's seat while Glenn did the same on the passenger's seat, followed by me, I had no choice but to seat on him.
Rick drove fast, away from there. I sighed in relief a few times before allowing myself to close my eyes for a few seconds, processing that we actually made it.
A couple of minutes later, Rick stopped the truck. We needed a second car to make a distraction. Rick found a red, nice-looking car and broke its window, making the alarm go off, perfect.
Rick got it to work, Glenn and I didn't waste a second to get inside as Rick ran towards the truck. Glenn started driving through the city as crazy, while I had the gun in my hand, ready to shoot at anything that came too close to us but at this speed none of the geeks would, at least for now.
"Those roll-up doors at the front of the store facing the street, meet us there and be ready," I spoke through a radio, letting the rest know our plan.
As we came closer to the building, Glenn drove slower, to make sure all the geeks would be after us and not Rick. Glenn stopped in the middle of the street and waited for the geeks to walk closer to us, I had my gun ready just in case. But Glenn hit the pedal and we were safe again, for now.
We did the same thing a few times until we were sure Rick had gotten the rest. We couldn't risk ourselves anymore so we both agreed to start driving back to camp and sure enough, in our way there, we saw the truck, already out of the city, on the highway.
"You better put your seatbelt on," Glenn said to me with a grin as he drove faster and faster, having all this road for ourselves. "Whohoo!"
I said nothing only chuckled at him as I put on my seatbelt and put the gun on my lap, enjoying the ride back to camp.
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Hello guys! The first chapter is up! So excited! I have put so much effort in this story so far and I do hope you all like it!
I would love to hear your thoughts so far!
And please comment, vote & fan!! <3 <3