Ellie Dixon

The Tunnels

I went to enter the tunnel, but I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Let me go first." Dad's voice told me as he pushed ahead.

"Why?" I questioned.

"In case there's walkers." Dad answered as I walked behind him.

"I just killed two." I pointed out.

"I know, babe, but if there's too many of them, I'd rather they get me than you." Dad answered simply. I furrowed my eyebrows and frowned; I felt a tightness in my chest as the recognisable feeling of guilt took over me again. I felt bad for how I'd been treating him, he hurt me a lot, but I know that wasn't his intention.

Uncle Merle walked behind me; dad had taken out a couple walkers with his crossbow but not too many of them. We suddenly came to a fork in the road. "Which way should we go?" I asked.

"You're the leader, Dora the Explorer." Merle commented.

"Is that cause I'm Latina?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Yes." Merle answered simply.

"Well, at least your honest." I sighed, flickering my eyes between the two tunnels. "The guns will be in the washing machines of the laundromat." I commented.

"Where's the laundromat?" Dad asked.

"Okay... The bar is left on Heroin Highway after you take a right. The laundromat is left on Sugar Street after you take a left. We're going left." I pointed. Dad looked a tad confused before he walked down the tunnel.

"Heroin Highway?" Merle pushed.

"It's not even a highway. But that's where most the heroin was sold so it was nicknamed. I'm pretty sure it's called St Peter's actually." I replied.

"Sugar Street?" Dad asked.

"It's where Cocaine corner is." I answered.

"Man, you let your kid grow up round all these drugs." Merle laughed.

"I didn't know." Dad responded quietly.

We had to climb up a ladder and push up on one of the floorboards of the laundromat. Dad did that. He jumped out, he shot a few arrows and took a couple walkers down with his knife before he appeared at the top again. "Is it clear?" Merle called up.

"Yea." Dad responded before walking away.

I started climbing up the ladder, I got a weird feeling I was being watched so I looked down to Merle who was watching me climb with a creepy look on his face. I stared at him for a couple seconds before climbing out of the hole, dad giving me a hand and I noticed he was holding a rifle that he didn't have with him before. "You found the guns?" I asked with a bright smile.

"Yes, ma'am." Dad grinned.

"Yes!" I cheered and jumped up to him. He caught me and held me up as he hugged me tightly. "Thank you." I whispered.

"For what?" Dad asked, quietly so Merle couldn't hear us.

"Coming back." I answered, kissing his cheek before jumping down. 

We opened all the washing machines and put everything we found on top of the machines. "You can't count very high then obviously." Merle commented.

"Carlos was a big dealer. He dealt guns, drugs... Fireworks from time to time. I guess when the world started going down the toilet, his business was booming. Didn't do him much good in the end. We just gotta hope Michonne, Rick and Carl got more luck." I ran a hand through my hair.