Chapter 13: What A Lively Bunch!
We get to the roof and there's good ol' Merle, an old skinhead wearing a biker vest and jeans, standing on the edge of the building with a sniper in his hands. He's laughing after every shot he takes like a maniac.
"Hey Dixon! Are you crazy?!" Morales shouts
Dixon just laughs before lifting the scope up to eye level again and taking another shot before turning to face our group
"Hey, you ought to be more polite to a man with a gun, huh? Just common sense" He says laughing
"Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got man! You bringing even more of them down on our ass! man, Just chill!" T-Dog says
"Hey, it's bad enough I 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" Dixon sneers
"What you mean 'That'll be the day'? You got something you wanna tell me?!" T-Dog asks, angrily
"Hey T-Dog man, just leave it, all right? It ain't worth it. Now Merle, just relax, okay? We got enough trouble" Morales intervenes, trying to mediate
"You wanna know the day?" Merle asks
"Yeah" T-Dog replies
"I'll tell you the day Mr. 'Yo'. It's the day I take orders from a nigger"
"MOTHERF-!" T-Dog shouts before getting cut off
T-Dog swings but Merle holds the rifle in both hands and uses the butt of it to hit T-Dog in the face, cutting him off. He puts the gun down before grabbing T-Dog's shirt and hitting him with a left which sends him to the ground. Rick tries to help but Merle quickly turns and hits Rick straight in the face with a right which puts him on the ground too. Merle turns back and T-Dog is back on his feet so he throws another left to his chin before kicking him in the chest. T-Dog falls back and hits his head on the pipes which knocks him to the ground.
Merle gets on top of him and starts beating him into the ground. The ladies are screaming while the guys are shouting at them to knock it off but no one did anything. The scene was pandemonium and I couldn't help but think that all the fuss they kicked up over my distraction seemed like a joke at this point.
I walk up to Rick and pick him up of the ground and check if he's okay. Seeing that he's fine, I look at back at Merle while Rick gathered himself
"He's got a pretty mean right. Guy knows how to throw a punch" I say, grinning
"You just gonna stand there and let him do that?" Rick asks while rubbing his chin
"Ain't my crew. Imma let them sort their little problem out themselves" I answer
I walk over to the edge of the building and look down to see what Merle was shooting at. I counted 6 shots before he stopped and there were 6 dead Walkers with holes straight through their heads. Say what you want about the man but he had some real skill and he knew how to fight.
I look over and I see Rick walk over to Merle, grab his gun before tapping him on the shoulder and hitting him the same way he hit T-Dog earlier but harder. Ooooo Karma's a bitch. He uses his handcuffs and chains Merle to a pipe before giving his 'No racism, only white meat and dark meat' speech.
"Screw you, man"
"Well, I can see you make it a habit of missing the point" Rick states sarcastically
"Yeah well, screw you twice then." Merle replies
Rick pulls out his beretta and press it against Merle's head and he looks fed up with the situation
"You ought to polite to a man with a gun, only common sense" Ricks threatens
"You wouldn't. You're a cop" Merle says
"All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody gets in the way of that is gonna lose. I'll give you a moment to think about that" Rick states, looking him dead in the eye
This scene would have been badass but I couldn't help but think about Shane probably banging Lori's brains out right now while Rick was giving out his heartfelt threat. If I was him, I probably would've put a bullet in both of them, respectively so it was good I wasn't. That's probably why I never got tied down. Too many complications and too much drama.
'Maybe I need some counselling...' Matt wondered to himself. Old Matt was affecting a bit too much
Rick pats Merle down and find some of his 'medication' in his pockets. He inspects Merle and comments that he has some on his nose before throwing the rest of it over the side of the building, to Merle's dismay. While Merle's on the ground, shouting threats and expletives at Rick, He walks over to me.
"You good?" I ask
"Yeah, he's got a hard head" Rick complains, shaking his fist.
Morales walks over to us and starts talking to Rick
"You're not Atlanta PD. Where you from?" He asks
"Up the road a ways" Rick replies
"Well Officer Friendly from Up the road a ways, Welcome to the big city."
We turn around and walk back to the group. Andrea and the black lady are looking over the side of the building while T-Dog and Merle are on the ground, one of them being productive more than the other and Glenn sat off to the side, playing with his radio.
"How's that signal" Morales asks T-Dog
"Like Dixon's brain. Weak." T-Dog replies, earning him a middle finger salute from the man himself
"Keep trying" Morales instructs
"Why? There's nothing they can do. Not a damn thing" Andrea chimes in before walking away
"Got some people outside the city is all. There's no refugee center. That's a pipe dream." Morales explains to Rick
"Then she's right, We're on our own. It's up to us to find a way out" Rick replies
"Good luck with that. These streets ain't safe in this part of town from what I hear. Ain't that right, sugar tits? Hey Honeybunch, what you say you get me out of these cuffs, we go off somewhere and bump uglies? We gonna die anyways" Merle suggests
"I'd rather" Andrea responds
"Rug muncher. Figured as much" Merle comments, dejectedly
Morales smirks at Merle's words calling it an understatement. Rick asks them about escaping under the city, if they had ever thought about it which literally makes Morales eyes shine
"Hey Glenn, Check the alley. You see any manhole covers?" Morales instructs quickly
Glenn runs away and looks around before coming back, shaking his head
"No, must be all out on the streets where the geeks are" Glenn reports
"Maybe not. Old buildings like this, built in the '20s. Big structures often had drainage tunnels into the sewers in case of flooding, down in the sub-basement" The black lady says
"How do you know that?" Glenn asks
"It's my job...was. I worked in the city zoning office" she answers
We get to the sub basement and the drainage tunnels were there but it was dark. Glenn tells us he's scoped the building out before and found it but never went down there. When it gets to the part where he asks who in their right mind would go down there, everyone looks at him and he reluctantly accepts the job.
He tells us that we do it his way or he wouldn't go and gives everyone tasks. Everything is the same except I go down with him this time since I'm lean and probably the fittest out of all of us, looks-wise, and Morales goes to the roof to to guard Merle. I find out that the Black lady's name is Jacqui while Glenn was giving out instructions.
We both climb down and start walking but Glenn gets scared by a rat and I chuckle but I pat him on the shoulder to reassure him that it's fine. We go farther in and find a sewer entrance but it was barred. Glenn tries to look around but I pull him back, He looks at me annoyed but I just point to the sewer and he sees a Walker with his hand through the bars, reaching for him. He thanks me but I just wave it off
We go back upstairs just in time to hear glass break. We run into the store front and see Rick pointing his gun at the front door and Andrea behind him, holding her gun,
"What did you find down there?" Rick asks Glenn
"Not a way out" Glenn replies
"We need to find a way out...soon" Jacqui adds
We were back on the roof and Rick was looking through binoculars at the city, trying to find a way out. He notices a construction site two blocks down and passes the binoculars along while explaining the logistics
"You'll never make it past the Walkers" Morales says
"You got us out of the tank" Rick says, looking at Glenn
"Yeah but they were occupied on top of it and he created that huge distraction" Glenn replies, pointing at me
"Can we distract them again?" Rick asks
"He's right. Listen to him, he's on to something. A diversion like on 'Hogan's Heroes' " Merle contributes
"Just give it a rest already" Jacqui scolds him, fed up
"They're drawn by sound, right?" Rick reaffirms with Glenn
"Yeah like dogs. They hear a sound, they come" Glenn confirms
"What else?" Rick asks everyone
"Apart from they hear you? They see you, they smell you and if they catch you, they eat you" Morale adds
"They can tell us by smell?" Rick asks, dumbfounded
"Can't you?" Glenn ask
"They smell dead, we don't. It's pretty distinct" OK Bitch, relax with the sass. It's just a question
Rick looks down in contemplation and I already know what's gonna happen next but that doesn't help one bit. Despite having two lifetimes worth of experience, having human fluid all over your body, zombie or not, still felt disgusting. Rick looks like he's come to a decision and gestures everyone down the stairs while he explains his theory
"If bad ideas were an Olympic event, this would win gold" Glenn comments while being handed a pair of scrubbing gloves
"He's right. Just stop, okay? Take some time to think this through" Morales tries to reason
"How much time? They already got through one set of doors and that glass won't hold forever" which shuts everyone up
Morales and I head outside to grab the body of the Walker they had beat to death earlier while Glenn and Rick stood guard by the door. We lift it up and bring it inside and put it on a laid out tarp. With everyone suited up, Rick breaks the safety glass on a fireman's axe on display and grabs it out. He walks over to the Walker and everyone's standing around in a circle like we're about to do a ritual and he raise the axe over his head to chop it up but stops halfway and puts the axe down down
He gets down on one knee and pats down the Walker before pulling a wallet out of it's pocket and looking through it
"Wayne Dunlop. Georgia license. Born 1979." He hands the driver's license to Glenn
"He had $28 in his wallet when he died and a picture of a pretty girl. 'With Love, From Rachel'. He used to be like us, worrying about bills or the rent or the Superbowl. If I ever find my family, I'm gonna tell them about Wayne" Rick says
"One more thing" Glenn chimes in "He's an organ donor"
Rick lifts the axe up but I stop him and grab it from it
"You sit this one out partner. Let me handle this." I tell him and he nods
This was why I trusted Rick. Even after people had turned and they had to die and be used for us to survive, his humanity was still able to shine through. I wouldn't be able to say any of that sappy shit or do what he does so figured that if he was going to be the light for people, I'd handle the dark shit behind the scenes. I hoped that if I ever strayed too far, he would be able to pull me back in
After self-proclaiming myself as the 'shadow h**age', I went to town, turning Mr. Dunlop into minced meat while the others looked on in disgust and horror.