A Broken World

Nine

As soon as Glenn and the man got back the rest of us went into action. Jacquie and Andrea stayed by the door, T-Dog and Morales took out a few walkers, and I kept watch to make sure no more walker's appeared from the end of the alleyway. The door was closed and locked once everyone was safely inside. The man who Glenn had just saved was wearing a police uniform. Andrea was quick to push him into a table that was near the door and shove her gun in his face. Of course, Andrea, not knowing anything about guns or how to use them, still had the safety on. "Andrea, put the gun down," I said.

"We're dead because of you!" She said to the guy before pulling away from him. "I don't understand." He looked around at all of us in confusion. Morales grabbed him by the arm and pushed him towards the store front. "Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies. You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving. You know what the key to surviving is? Sneaking in and out, tiptoe. Not shooting the streets up like it's the O.K. Corral."

We stopped and looked at the doors. Walkers were crowding the glass doors, pounding their dead fists against them. "You started shooting and shooting makes noise and noise attracts walkers," I said, nodding towards the doors. "Every geek for miles heard you popping off rounds," T-Sog said. "You just rang the damn dinner bell," Andrea told him. Right now we were relatively safe. The walkers hadn't broken through the first set of doors yet. Key word being yet.

"Get the picture now, sheriff?" He looked at me and down at the badge and nodded. The glass on the Kotter doors started to crack the more pounding and pressure it received from the geeks outside. I took notice of one of the walkers. It had a large rock or maybe part of brick or concrete in its hands, and was hitting it against the glass. We all moved back further into the store. "What the hell were you doing out there?" I asked.

"Trying to flag the helicopter," he said. We all looked at him like him in confusion. "Helicopter? Man, that's crap. Ain't no damn helicopter," T-Dog said. Jacquie looked at him trying to be gentle. "You were chasing a hallucination, imagining things. It happens." That didn't seem to make him happy. "I saw it," he argued. Morales turned to look at T-Dog and asked if he could try the C.B to contact the others. He brought it up and tried to tune into the channel.

"Others? The refugee center?" We all looked at the new guy. "Yeah, the refugee center. They've got biscuits waiting in the oven for us," Jacquie said. "Got no signal. Maybe the roof," T-Dog said. Just as he finished we heard gunshots. "I'm going to fucking kill Dixon," I mumbled. We all ran towards the stairs to the roof and quickly ran up them and out the door. Merle was standing on the edge of the building, shooting down at the walkers.

"What the actual fuck are you doing, Dixon?!" I yelled. He hopped down and looked at me. "You are such a fucking asshole! What the hell is wrong with you?" He spread his arms out and laughed a little. "You outta be nicer to a man with a gun, sugar tits!" Before I could say anything T-Dog said something and then that turned into a fight and Merle trying to make himself the one in charge. That's when me and the new sheriff that strolled into town on a horse took care of him.

Merle was now handcuffed to a piece of metal. I knelt down in front of him and went through his pockets. "Oh, well, look here! Well, that's no surprise." I stood up with a small little bag of cocaine that I found in his pocket, walked over to the edge, and threw it over the side. "Hey, that was my good shit!" I went back over and bent down to look at him. "Yeah, you got some right…." I flicked the tip of his nose. "There."

I walked away and back over to look over the side of the building. The street was covered in a blanket of dead people shuffling around until something living caught their attention. I saw Morales talking to the sheriff for a few minutes before he walked over to stand beside me. “How can I help you, sheriff?” I asked. He sighed and leaned on the edge where we were standing. “Sheriff's Deputy actually. Name’s Rick,” he said, holding out his hand.

“Y/N. Homicide detective for Atlanta PD, but I started off as a police officer back in my hometown. What brought you all the way here, Rick?” I asked. “I’m looking for my wife and son. Heard there was supposed to be a refugee center here in the city. I was hoping I would find them there.” I hummed in response. “Yeah, It was here at one point, but it didn’t last long. It lasted maybe a week before it all turned to complete chaos. The dead outnumbered the military by a lot, it all fell…so quickly. When they finally figured out that they wouldn’t be able to control it they bombed the city.”

We talked a little more before we all started to talk about how we were going to get out of here. Jacquie had mentioned that she used to work in the city's zoning office and suggested we try the tunnels. So a few of us went down to the basement. I stayed up on the roof with T-Dog, who was trying to get in touch with the group  back at the quarry, and Merle. "Hey, sweetheart, why don't ya let your old pal out these handcuffs, huh?"

"Shut up, Dixon, you did this to yourself," I said. He scoffed and spit to the side. "Daryl ain't gonna be too happy when he hears about this," he said. I knew what he was trying to do and it wasn't going to work. "I don't give a shit what you brother thinks, Merle." I was glad when the rest of the group came back. Unfortunately we weren't able to get out through the tunnels, but Rick did come up with an idea after asking more questions about the walkers.

"They see you or smell you, they catch you, they eat you." Morales said. "Can they tell the difference from smell?" Rick asked. "Can't you?" Andrea asked. "They smell dead, we don't. It's pretty distinct," I told him. After looking over the side of the roof he made a decision. We left Merle up on the roof and headed back downstairs where we brought Rick in.

The plan was to cover him and Glenn in guts from a walker. Nobody enjoyed it. We had to cut the walker open and then we started spreading the guts on him and Glenn, who wore lab coat type coats. We all also wore gloves and protective eyewear. Once they were all covered and out the door the rest of us rushed back up to the roof to watch them navigate through the walkers filled streets.