Surviving The Walking Dead (BOOK ONE IN THE SURVIVING THE WALKING DEAD SERIES)

Merle's Protégé

     When I awoke the next morning, I was actually warm and dry. I let out a sigh of relief, I made it, I was alive. It wasn't until I tried to sit up when I realized Merle was lying on top of me. "Merle." I gently tapped his shoulder. "Hey, wake up."

"But your so damn comfortable." Merle groaned as he held me tighter.

"Merle, get off."

"Already did, sweetheart."

"GET OFF!" THWACK! I slapped Merle upside the head, causing him to instantly sit up.

"Damn, woman, I was kiddin'." Merle chuckled.

"Now ain't to be time to make sexual jokes, Merle." I hissed.

"Hey, I did what I did to keep ya alive. Ya passed out so I laid on top of ya, my perverted ass saved your life."

"I could've died, I could've turned and bit ya."

"Don't worry, I kept an eye on ya all night."

"Ya didn't sleep?"

"Nope."

"Why?"

"I was more worried about you than gettin' some sleep."

"Aw, ya do care!" I leaned forward and gave Merle a hug. "You're the sweetest old man I've ever met."

"Get off me." I smiled and planted a big kiss on his stubbled cheek. "Ah, jeez, why ya gotta take it that far?" Merle wiped his face off on his hand.

"Because ya love me."

"Yeah yeah, whatever, pass me my clothes." I looked off towards the entrance and saw our clothes laying out by the bear. They were damp, but not completely soaked.

"Maybe we can skin the bear and use its fur for warmth." I suggested.

"Nah, that'll just attract walkers. Our best bet is to find a car in the closest town, tie the bear down, and drive back home."

"I'll go look, ya need to rest anyways."

"Ya don't know how to hotwire a car, ya gonna push the car here?"

"Just tell me what I need to do. Trust me, Merle, I'm smarter than ya think."

"Fine." Merle sighed. "Alright, do ya know how to work on cars?"

"Dale taught me a few things."

"So you'll know what to look for when it comes to the red coil wire?" I nodded. "Alright, so assumin' this car has jumper cables in it, you'll need to pop the hood and find the red coil wire. You'll need to run the jumper cable from the positive battery terminal to either the positive side of the coil or the red wire itself. After that you'll need to find the starter solenoid, ya know what that is?" I nodded again. "Good. Now when ya find that, you'll see a small wire at the top and a positive battery cable below it. Remove the positive cord. You'll need to wrap your knife up with your shirt or somethin' and touch the blade to the positive post. I mean it, if ya don't insulate that knife, ya will get electrocuted. Anyways, that'll start the car."

"I usually watched people just do somethin' under the steerin' wheel." I commented.

"Yeah, but that requires me bein' there just in case ya electrocute yourself."

"And this won't?"

"It'll be less likely to happen this way. Now, try to hurry before my balls freeze off." I nodded and crawled out of the hole and quickly climbed into my damp clothes.