Pandemonium in Quarry

Chapter 6: Pandemonium in Quarry

(Previously...)

Hershel was surprised at what I told him, "Please, care to have a cup of coffee with me and explain what's happened to her family." I followed him to his house porch as he entered and I waited outside for him, with Olivia by my side. "Don't worry sweety, I'll never leave you. We are stuck together forever, you hear me." I said as she hugged the daylights out of me.

"Thank you, daddy. I'm just scared, but not anymore." I messed with her hair as she knocked my hand away. "Stop that daddy. It took forever to get it down. I'm telling Carol." As she stomped her feet on Hershel's porch actin all angry and she marched Hershel back to the camper for Carols help. That was when Hershel and his family stepped out, they all looked at me and Olivia playing around and joking...

I tickled the little munchkin before she stomped away, for trying to be so grown up, hey I couldn't help it, she looked so cute stomping her feet on the porch. That was when I noticed that we were being watched as stopped playing with Olivia and looked up, seeing the Greene family staring at Olivia and me. "Well... I thought it would be a one-on-one conversation there Mr. Greene. Not a whole group affair."

I turn to Olivia, and I whispered in her ear, "go ask Carol and Sophia to come out and sit with us, sweety, go on." She nodded and ran to the camper to get the other two. As I waited, Hershel's second wife, Annette brought out the coffee and some cookies for our long conversation that was about to take place with the whole family around us, I'm guessing by the look of it.

"Are we waiting for someone else?" Asked Annette and Otis to stand by each other, then he saw Olivia run back to the Winnebago. "Yes, that would be correct. I asked Olivia to call over the other two that have been traveling with us. We met them at the last place that we stayed, about two days ago. It's a mother and daughter duo that wanted our help." 

As I turned around to watch all three girls come out from the Winnebago. "The mother's name is Carol, and the daughter's is Sophia, please be nice, they'd rarely had that in their lives." I explained their situation so they would not receive a cold shoulder from the family and Hershel agreed by nodding his head at my request. 

And two minutes later, the three girls walked out and up to the Greene house, the three standing behind me, as Carol waved hello with a slight smile on her face, Sophia holding her hand, and Olivia grabbing mine for support which made her happy that I grabbed it. "Hello! My names Carol and this is my daughter Sophia. Nice to meet you all." Carol said in a nice tone as to not upset the Greene's.

"Hello everyone, my name is Jack Keller, the two standing behind me are Carol and her daughter Sophia, sorry they already said that. And of course, you all know Olivia. Let me start by saying that we all met in different places when the world went to s**t, pardon my French. I'm from a small town called Marshallville, southeast of Macon, and that is where it all started. The people around me got comfortable, as I started to tell my story to the Greene's...

--A day ago, back at the Quarry--

--Third Person POV--

The day that Jack's group left the quarry, pandemonium ensued throughout the quarry as a man woke up and not find his wife and daughter in their normal area as they always were. "CARRROOOL!! SOOPHIIAA!! WHERE THE F**K ARE YOU TWO AT!! Goddam, no good piece of s**t wife. Where the hell are you? IF I FIND YOU, I'M GONNA BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF YOU!!"

All the people of the surrounding area started to awaken to the yelling that Ed Peletier started spewing. And Shane the leader of the group was the same as the rest. Angry and upset he'd been awakened by the one man that always yelled at his wife and daughter as if it was the man's job to do. No one in the quarry liked the man, for what he does to his wife and kid.

Shane had to threaten the man several times to leave the two alone in more than one occasion. But Ed would never learn, he was even threatened by the two Rednecks that stayed with the group, known as Daryl and Merle Dixon. And today will be another day that Shane will get in his face to do. Which will come out to nothing because the two missing in question are long gone.

As a crowd started to form around the missing people's tent, Ed was trying to explain, not in a good manner, that his wife and daughter are missing. And Shane of course in his hard cold tone was telling him, practically accusing Ed of either, Ed killed them, or he hurt them enough that they left on their own. And the crowd around the tent started to speculate what had happened.

It took over two hours of arguing between Shane and Ed to form a search party to find the two missing residents, even the two Dixion's volunteered, mainly Daryl, due to him having a crush on the woman. As everyone searched the quarry area, which is a large place, and it has so many places to hide, they searched over 4 hours and finding nothing.

Except for the Dixon two, they found a trail leading out of the quarry through a hidden trail that led to an old broken bridge a half mile away from them. Shane and the Daryl had followed the trail as much as the trail led and crossed said bridge. In which Daryl found their trail again a little further from the bridge, but it ended a mile further in the woods, which led to the torn clothing of the missing wife and daughter.

"It looks like they were trying to get away from Ed and they were in a hurry too, finding their clothes like this isn't a good thing, Mr. cop. Seems like the walkers got them." As Daryl held the clothes of the two missing women then threw them on the ground and getting further upset. All Shane could do was shake his head at the thought of what Ed had done for them to leave like that.

As they returned to the campsite in the quarry, they walked to Ed's tent and threw the clothes on the ground in front of the man. "Here, we found these a mile from here de west, and it looks like they were eaten by those things. Are you happy now?!! This is all your fault!! They fled from you, and this is what happened. I hope at least they didn't suffer long."

Shane and Daryl left the man staring at the clothes on the ground with anger and fear. Anger because the two had the courage to leave him and fear, now everyone is going to blame him for what happened to them. He dropped his tired body on the ground and kept staring at the bloodied clothes. The crowd around him slowly dispersed, but the whispers could be heard all around him.

Time passed, as seconds turned to minutes turned to hours, which leads us here. We see a group of people gathered around one individual, Gleen Rhee, the resident supply runner, the most experienced supply runner. The people around Glenn were handing Glenn several lists of potential items for him to find, because he was doing a supply run in a few minutes alone.

They quarry usually sends out a group of 4 to 6 people at a time, but Glenn knows how to take care of himself the most and he always returns to the quarry without harm since the start of the apocalypse. Soon after receiving his items list, he headed out on foot. He knew it was faster and quieter when he left alone. To many people caused to much unneeded noise and complaints about how to do things.

As he was walking through the streets of Atlanta, he suddenly stopped and looked around. He knew then that he had made a wrong turn somewhere, he was so confident that he could tell all the mid-town Atlanta streets like the back of his hand. But right now, he stood in an unknown area of Atlanta, all he could see are high value apartment complexes in his sights.

And he'd walked right into a walled off area that is boxed in from all sides, 'now how the hell did I get here without knowing.' He thought to himself as he wants to turn around and back track from where he came from. When suddenly, panic coursed through his body as he started to hear those things nearing his location and he had no place to hide.

He had been sent out on an ammunition run for a few people, mainly the cop Shane had ordered him too. Now Glenn was a nice guy and he wanted to be helpful, so he has been volunteering to do supply runs when people at the quarry needed something. But today was different that Shane guy was ordering him to go and that just didn't feel right from the get-go.

And now he finds himself trapped in three directions and nowhere to hide. He could hear dragging feet, rough, hungry, moans nearing the area he was in, and he was starting to get anxious. So, he did the one thing that he would never do, he broke a large window from the nearest shop, which was a hunting store, he should have at least grabbed a gun and some ammo before he ran away.

But he was relieved that he was no longer in danger from the walking dead that seemed to follow his footsteps as he ran away through the store. Now he felt safer and continued looting for the other things on his list. It was easy for him to find what he was looking for; he's been around Atlanta many times since the world ended and even before when he worked as a pizza delivery driver. 

He knew the city well enough to get away from tough situations if I came to it. It took Glenn an hour to find all the things he was looking for, except the ammunition for the bully Shane. And the only place he saw any ammunition was the place he was chased away from. He contemplated going back to that place or if he should head back to quarry. 

But he knew that Shane would bully him further if he came back empty handed. So, he pressed his luck, he went back to the hunting shop, maybe the walkers have already left. Hiding his supplies that he had already gathered nearby, he walked back to the shop quietly and slowly. As the shop entered his sights, he knew it was the wrong thing to do, the shop had a large crowd od walkers surrounding it.

And he knew it was going to be a difficult thing getting in there and it wasn't going to be easy. He thought of many ways to attract the walker's attention away but alone it was not feasible. So, he made his choice, he was going to face Shane and tell him he wasn't able to get his ammo. Hopefully he had the backing of the rest of the quarry group on his side to tedder Shane's anger somewhere else. 

So, he started to make his way back, that was when he heard his walkie starting to call out. "Glenn, can you hear me, this is T-Dogg. Again, Glenn can you hear me, this is T-Dogg." He picked up the call quickly and answered back as silently as he could because their calling him was doing a lot of noise and attracting the surrounding walkers to him.

"This is Glenn, what are you doing out here? You need to keep the chatter down; you're attracting the walkers with all that yelling." He said to his walkie, trying to get the other person to tone down his voice and keep calm. "Glenn, can you meet us at the same fence entrance we always enter from, some of us needed other things but you had already left, so we came out."

All Glenn could do is shake his head at the pig headedness of some people. "Fine. See you in a bit, Glenn out." It was a good thing that he wasn't close to any walkers, or he would have been chow by now. So, he rushed back to his supply pack to pick it up and then fast paced to meet up with the rest of the outgoing group at the fence entrance by the railroad tracks.

It took 20 minutes to get to the fences, and another 10 minutes to the cut open area, and there waiting for him was five people. He looked and saw T-Dogg, the resident muscle, Andrea, not the usual person that went out, Merle, now why was he here? the resident Redneck, Moales, yeah usually came along on the supply runs, and Jacqui, one of the women that helped around the camp, 'not a good line up.'

Thought Glenn as he stared at the group that came for a supply run. "So why are you all here? I was about to come back after picking up the last of the things on the list I was given." And of all people, Merle answered, "Take it easy chink, we all need our things. Now are we going to stand around all day or go find what we need?" All Glenn could do is shake his head for being insulted. 

Glenn asked them what they needed as they walked into the city, not wanting to make things bad for them he was trying to be helpful. As they told him what they needed, he took them around safely, one store at a time, and they all noticed how quickly they were going around. They saw Glenn in a new light for being efficient and how he kept them safe from the undead walker crowds.

They had reached that last place on their list that had the things on Andrea's list, "that is the last place you should go. I leave you all for a bit because I still need to collect that last of my list. Stay here until I come back to take you all back out safely. See you all in a few minutes." Glenn said as he left the group and headed back to see if he could get the ammo from the hunting store.

When he was leaving the group, he heard a horse neighing, and it was loud. That either meant that someone was riding a horse in the city, or a horse wandered in the city. Didn't matter about the two, because the walkers were heading in the direction of the noise and that wasn't good. Because the noise was heading back to the supply store, he just left his group at.

In the seemingly empty city (which was not... it was full of walking dead), we see a man, Rick Grimes following which what seems like a helicopter flying overhead on his horse right into an unsuspecting horde of walking dead. The zombies are soon attracted by the horse's neigh and commence to attack the horse, as it was being attacked, it through off its rider on the hard streets.

Didn't take long for the walkers to surround and kill his horse and attracting their attention to him. Not worrying about the bag of guns he just dropped, he started crawling away frantically under a military tank that was there. And he had a butt load of walkers follow him under it, Rick saw no way out after killing a few walkers that were nearing him, pointing his gun on himself he contemplated suicide. 

Until he noticed the bottom trapdoor of the tank as he rushed himself in closing the hatch behind him. After relaxing for a few seconds inside, he noticed the walker that was inside and shot it, after a minute or two of regaining his hearing from the shots noise, he heard a voice from the tank's radio sarcastically calling him an idiot, ask him if he's comfortable in there.

After escaping the swarm of walkers, Rick who is sitting in the tank is soon helped by Glenn Rhee, who instructs him on his choices. Picking his best choice Glenn leads Rick away from the tank and into a side alley where the two meet and climb to safety. Afterwards Glenn takes him to the rest of the group Glenn brought over earlier, where Rick meets the other members of Glenn's scavenging group. 

Not being happy in the situation that was brought on them by the new guy, he finds himself at the gunpoint of an irate Andrea and a group of upset individuals. As he is introduced to the group, and them still being upset, they introduce themselves slowly, it started with T-Dogg, Morales, Jacqui, and last but not least the irate Andrea. Glenn was looking around as he didn't see Merle and then asked, "where's Merle?"

Which got them all nervous because he was a loose cannon and could be up to anything. Soon after they started hearing gunshots coming from the roof, which Glenn slapped his forehead knowing it was Merle. Very quickly they all ran to the roof and saw Merle shooting at the dead, and attracting more of them, surrounding the building with even more undead. 

Soon after, they all started arguing and then Merle starts to beat up T-Dog and trying to assert control over the group Which Rick sneaks behind the Redneck and subdues Merle then handcuff's him to a nearby pipe on the store's roof. Seeing this Glenn being scared and out of his comfort zone tries to radio and contact the survivors' camp that is in the quarry to no avail. 

Where, unknown to the new guy, Rick, his friend Shane Walsh, his wife Lori, and son Carl are at, safely waiting for the supplies they asked for from Glenn. Remember at this point, Shane and Lori believe that Rick is dead, and they have begun a sexual relationship with each other for the past couple of months. That is an exciting time for another time, as the walkers surrounding the building are getting more aggressive. 

The group soon find an escape route through a sewer by Jacqui, because she was an office clerk in the zoning offices, back in the old days but soon find that escape route is cut off and also filled with the undead. Rick then suggests while looking at an abandoned construction site, "We could use that moving truck from over there and escape." As he points at the construction site near where they were at. 

So, Rick devises a plan to cover themselves in walker blood and guts to mask themselves from the other walkers and make their way to the construction site and retrieve the truck. They all agree with Rick's plan and execute it, after dismembering a dead walker and getting help covering himself and Glenn, they exit the store and begin walking slowly through the horde heading toward the construction site, where the truck was.

But soon as they were halfway there, a heavy rainstorm begins to wash away their walker scent and force the two to make a break for the fenced off area with a horde of walkers chasing after them. After successfully retrieving the moving truck, they drive away from the group and led the walkers away from the loading dock that the group is waiting for them. 

Rick breaks into and hotwires a nearby Dodge Challenger, letting Glenn uses the loud car alarm of said Challenger, to draw the walkers away, while Rick drives the box truck to the department store's cargo doors. In the rush to escape, T-Dog accidentally (not really) drops the handcuff key as he ran toward Merle down a storm drain, causing Merle to cuss up a storm of sleers at T-Dogg. 

He soon realizes that time was running out and he was forced to abandon him; however, before leaving, T-Dog secures the roof access door with a heavy chain to give Merle at least some protection from the walkers if they made their way up to him. The remaining group that was downstairs were already waiting at the loading dock entrance for T-Dogg and Rick to arrive. 

A few minutes after Glenn left leading the walkers away, Rick backs in with the box truck into the dock and everyone jumps into it, as they were traveling back, T-Dogg confesses that he had dropped the key to the cuffs, and left Merle on the roof alone and still handcuffed. The atmosphere of the truck soon turns somber as Rick drove them back to the survivors' camp to the quarry, with Glenn following close behind in his new car. 

Dale one of the survivors' soon notices a loud alarm that was nearing the camp, as he notifies the people there. They all stood and watched, waiting, they were tense and worried, until a red car with an alarm still blaring drove into the campsite. It turned out to be driven by Glenn their resident supply runner, Glenn, who at this point needed that moment to cut loose.

Glenn was soon followed shortly after by a box truck with the others who had gone on their own run to Atlanta. Dale watched the tearful reunions of those who were left behind, those who were returning, and some were angry as the faces Dale and a few others could see. Dale wondered if this group have put us all in danger the way they came back noisily. 

He couldn't have brought himself to embrace the reckless young man as the others were doing. And then there was a different kind of tension, as a new guy they brought back, the man who had been driving the truck stepped out, and suddenly saw Shane stared at each other across the camp. Shane looked pale as a ghost, and he looked worried for some reason. 

The moment was broken by the surprised yell of the child named Carl, as his voice crying out, "Dad! Dad!" and the child ran past Dale and Shane into the open arms of this new man, who was wearing a sheriff's uniform. 'OOOHHH, now I know why he was worried. This fool was sleeping with this man's wife, while he was somewhere else, trying to survive.' Dale thought as he shook his head and did not think about this any longer.

Lori, the woman that stayed with Shane stood frozen in place, not moving, as her son Carl and her apparently not dead husband embraced each other. A lot of people around them soon felt for her—but soon realized it was none of their business. Some showed disdain for the three adults, they appeared anything but cold if the look on Shane's his face meant anything. 

Hard to tell from a look, Lori showed, she looked confused, ashamed, and you could see not far away from the little reunion, Ed looked pleased that there was something else that was prying the attention of the quarry from himself, now why would be. Anyways back to the drama unfolding, Lori and Shane were exchanged their own look over Lori's husband's shoulder. 

While Carl recognized that his father was back, and the family was back together as the formal family reasserted itself. Looking at Lori, she thought that she was lucky that she had two men who loved her, or maybe not so lucky, because she then realized that trouble would soon follow. Did love end because an obstacle placed itself in its way? 

Was Shane really the kind of man to step back honorably from something he already had a taste of and now wanted for himself? Was Rick willing to share his wife with another man even if it was his best friend? Will this three-way encounter become more than what is shown here? Nothing but time would tell. Or I could, but I'm not telling you right now, maybe later.

Meanwhile back on the Department store's roof top the group just left from, Merle Dixon struggles to escape from the handcuffs after T-Dogg abandoned him, we hear Merle swearing vengeance on Rick and the others for cuffing and leaving him there. From the deliria, he soon starts to beg for God's forgiveness as he sees walkers start trying to force open the rooftop door. 

Merle the spots a hacksaw close to him as he tries desperately to reach for the saw with his belt, while screaming that he will never beg God again after this. Elsewhere, after all the warm hugging was over, Glenn leads Rick and the other members that just came from Atlanta to where Daryl and Merle usually stayed at, and soon hear small screams coming from the forest near them. 

They soon discover a walker, which was munching on a dead deer, they quickly dispatch it as a group. Though the fear that this may be a sign of incoming trouble, as they had yet to see any walkers make their way anywhere near the quarry and their camp. Soon, Merle's little brother Daryl Dixon returns from his hunting to learn of Merle's fate and becomes furious with the new guy, Rick.

The hunt had taken longer than Daryl had meant it to … or maybe just exactly as long. Daryl was tired of hanging around that camp with those people who always looked down on him and his brother Merle. Merle didn't help much either, he was always talking trash about the camp and waiting for them to die, so he could steal the stuff they had, just like the rest of them. 

Sometimes, Daryl thought Merle might do something about them dying faster, maybe let the walkers into the camp or something. So, he could make things go faster, but still … Daryl needed to get back eventually, no matter how much quieter or more peaceful it seemed, he was alone in the woods. In the woods, he understood who he was, and what he was meant for, back at camp through, with so many people around, not so much.

When he came back from his hunt though, he soon found himself facing off to the barrel of Shane's shotgun, and a bunch of other melee weapons held by the other men from the camp surrounding him. Right then and there, he wished he hadn't bothered returning to these sons of B**tches. Yeah, he got that, they thought he was a walker, but if they'd known he was Daryl, would their attitude be any different? He bet it wouldn't.

(To be Continued...)