Is This The End?

05

Ricks POV

"Hey, are you alive in there?" the man said over the radio at the sound of the voice I started. In the small space I bangs my head against the tank "Hello? Hello?" I say "There you are. You had me wondering" the man said "Where are you? Outside? Can you see me right now?" I ask "Yeah, I can see you. You're surrounded by walkers. That's the bad news" the man said "There's good news?" I ask "No" the man said "Listen, whoever you are, I don't mind telling you I'm a little concerned in here" I say "Oh man. You should see it from over here. You'd be having a major freak-out" the man said "Got any advice for me?" I ask "Yeah, I'd say make a run for it" the man said "That's it? Make a run for it?" I say "My way's not as dumb as it sounds. You've got eyes on the outside here. There's one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down. Are you with me so far?" the man asked "So far" I say "Okay, the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now while they're distracted, you stand a chance. Got ammo?" the man said "In that duffel bag I dropped out there, and guns. Can I get to it?" I ask "Forget the bag, okay? It's not an option. What do you have on you?" the man asked "Hang on" I say, I hurriedly checked my handgun and the one I took from the soldier's corpse. I count my bullets and go back to the dead soldier to check his pockets. I see the hand grenade on the shelf and I take it "Yeah. Yeah I've got a beretta with one clip, 15 rounds" I say "Make 'em count. Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards. Be there" the man said "Hey, what's your name?" I ask "Have you been listening? You're running out of time" the man said "Right" I say, I grab a metal bar off the wall of the tank.

I open the top hatch, and one walker sees me immediately. I hit him across the face with the bar. I jumped down off the tank, landed hard on my ankle "Ah!" I say I run up the street toward the alley, shooting the walkers who are closest to me. I run up onto the alley, shooting as I go. Veers left into the face of the man on the radio, my gun still up and pointing "Whoa! Not dead! Come on! Come on!" the man said we moved back into the alley pulling a tall chain link gate closed behind us "Back here!" the man said the gate, unlatched, opens enough for walkers to follow through. I continue to shoot the nearest one while me and the man run further down the alley "Come on! Come on!" the man said the man starts climbing a fire escape ladder that leads almost straight up to the top of the building, me out of ammo, looks around at the walkers closing in on me "What are you doing? Come on! Come on, get up" the man said as we stopped to catch our breath at a utility platform "Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood. You, the new Sheriff, come riding in to clean up the town?" the man asked " It wasn't my intention" I said "Yeah. Whatever. Yeehaw. You're still a dumbass" the man said "Rick. Thanks" I say "Glenn. You're welcome" Glenn said I put the Beretta into Glenn's backpack while Glenn is looking down "Oh no" Glenn said walkers have mobbed the bottom of the ladder and threaten to overwhelm it. Me and Glenn Look up the rest of the way. The ladder extends straight up several stories without any breaks "The bright side: It'll be the fall that kills us. I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy" Glenn said, we scaled the ladder and walked across a bridge between buildings "Are you the one that barricaded the alley?" I ask "Somebody did – I guess when the city got overrun. Whoever did it was thinking not many geeks would get through" Glenn said

Glenn opens a hatch that leads down into the building that we are on top of "Back at the tank. Why'd you stick your neck out for me?" I ask "Call it foolish, naïve hope that if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me. Guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you" Glenn said as I followed Glenn down into the building, closing the door behind me. We look all around them to make sure it's clear before we hurry through the building and out into another alley "I'm back. Got a guest plus four geeks in the alley" Glenn said into a walkie talkie two men in riot gear came out of the other building with baseball bats. They run up and beat down the walkers before anyone can be bitten "Let's go!" Glenn said "Morales, let's go!" the man said the two in riot gear run in, close the door behind them. A woman angrily pushes me back into a stack of boxes and shoves a gun in my face. A second woman is in the room, too "You son of a bitch. We ought to kill you" she said "Just chill out, Andrea. Back off" Morales said "Come on, ease up" Jacqui said "Ease up? You're kidding me, right? We're dead because of this stupid asshole" Andrea said "Andrea, I said back the hell off" Morales said Andrea doesn't. I leans as far back as I can but doesn't give her any more reason to shoot me "Well, pull the trigger" Morales said she finally pulls away from me "We're dead –all of us –because of you" Andrea said "I don't understand" I say Morales grabs me by the arm and leads me along "Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies. You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving! You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the O.K. Corral" Morales said