Don't look back

Two

"Where is everyone?" Rick whispered under his breath, one hand holding onto Mary, one hand clutching his reins.
"Monsters." Mary sighed gently.
"Yeah. The world is full of them now." Rick muttered back. "We need to find this refugee camp."
Suddenly the horse spooked, and Mary let out a slight scream.
"It's okay. Mary, it's okay. Steady now boy. It's just a few. Nothing we can't handle." Rick soothed, both to the child and the horse, but even still they cantered away slightly, accidentally stopping at some crows pecking at a dead man, causing Mary to wail even more.
"Mary. It's okay." Rick whispered, but got cut off by a helicopter. "We follow it." He declared with a slight triumphant smile, speeding the horse along yet again, until they came across a herd of walkers, as Mary had heard Rick call them earlier. "Stay quiet, okay? I'll get us out of this." Rick hissed to Mary and she began to sob even more. They span around and galloped away, but got cut of yet again by more Walkers, the horse bucking until the pair fell off, Mary landing beside Rick, screams erupting from her mouth. He scrambled under the tank beside them, pulling Mary after him, the little girl still screaming. Then, Rick pushed open a hatch, and pushed her up into the tank, hauling himself in afterwards.
"Monster!" Mary shouted through her sobs, pointing at a Walker slumped against the wall of the tank, and Rick shot it dead. Then he looked out of the top of the tank, before slamming the hatch shut quickly.
"Are we stuck?" Mary whispered crying, her breathing rapid.
"Yeah. For now. But it's okay. It's okay, we'll get out, and we'll... Well be fine. It's okay. We'll be okay, we just need to..." Rick panicked, his voice quick, until he got interrupted by the static of the radio.
"Hey you. Dumbass. Yeah, you in the tank. You cosy in there?

"It doesn't sound safe." Mary sobbed, after hearing the mysterious man's plan.
"It's our best shot. You hold on to me, and don't let go. If I get hurt, you run to the man. Okay?" Rick instructed, and Mary nodded through her tears. Then he opened the hatch to the tank, and climbed out, Mary on his back, clinging on to him with all her might. Rick hand, shooting a few Walkers dead, while Mary held onto him, hiding her face the whole time, silently crying; she hadn't stopped since they got into Atlanta.
Then a man jumped infront of them, shouting, "Not dead! Not dead! Follow me! Faster! Come on! Come on!"  Rick ran, following him down a tight alleyway, Mary's nails clawing into him. "Come on! Faster!" The man yelled, climbing up some steps to a building. Without a second thought, Rick followed him, hoping, for Mary's sake, that he could trust him. Finally, they got to a small balcony, and the two man stood still, panting, as Mary cling onto Rick even tighter.
"Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood," the man panted, "you the new sheriff? Come riding in to clean up the town? You're crazy, dumbass. And you didn't say you had a kid with you. That was too dangerous with her."
"Wasn't my intention to. And I had no other choice."
"Yeah, whatever. You're still a dumbass."
"Rick. Thanks."
"Glenn," the man replied, shaking Rick's hand, "you're welcome. And who are you?" He asked, his voice gentler.
Mary stayed silent, and Rick just smiled gently. "That's Mary. She's very shy."
"Nice to meet ya. We gotta go. On the bright side, it'll be the fall that kills us. I'm a glass half full kinda guy." Glenn joked, beginning to climb again, but Rick just glared at him, and Mary began to cry even louder.
"Don't say that around her." Rick snapped, and Glenn nodded, then began to climb again. "Why'd you stick your neck out for us?" Rick asked breathlessly.
"Call it foolish, naive, hope, that if I'm ever that far up shit creek... Sorry Mary, I mean, if I'm ever in trouble creek... Someone might do the same for me. I guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you." Glenn sighed as he climbed into a building, then down some stairs. As they got into a passage way, Walkers were roaming around, and Mary began to scream yet again, but two figures dressed in black began to hit them, although all that did was make her scream even more.
They went into the building, and Rick let out a sigh of relief, until suddenly, a woman pressed him against a stack of boxes and pointed a gun to his head, making Mary fall to the floor and begin to cry even more, yet again. "I ought to kill you!" She shouted, causing Mary to hyperventilate.
"Just chill out, Andrea! He has a little girl!" A man hissed, rushing to Mary's side. He put a hand on her shoulder, but that just made her scream until he backed away.
"Ease up." A woman soothed to Andrea, although her voice sounded slightly on edge.
"Ease up? You're kidding me, right?! We're dead because of this stupid asshole, kid or not!"
"Andrea!" The man shouted again, "I said, back the hell off. Or pull the trigger."
Andrea did as he said, and lowered the gun with shaking hands. "We're dead now. Because of you." She hissed tearfully, but Rick didn't listen - he was too busy comforting Mary.
A few minutes later, Rick took a shaky breath, and stood up, Mary in his arms. "I don't understand. What did I do so wrong?" He asked in confusion.
"Every geek from miles around heard you shooting this place up!" The man, who Rick now presumed to be the leader, hissed. He lead them to a new room, a shop, and realisation hit Ricks face. The sound had attracted a massive crowd of Walkers, all snarling against the glass window. Yet again, Mary began to cry.
"She needs to stop that. It's not helping." Andrea hissed impatiently, receiving a glare from Rick. "We need to go! What the hell was you doing there anyway?"
"Trying to alert the helicopter!" Rick hissed.
"Helicopter?" Andrea smirked.
"Man, that's crap," a large black man scoffed, "there ain't no damn helicopter."
"Was." Mary whispered, and all eyes looked at her.
Then man in charge sighed, then looked at the black man. "T-Dog. Look at the CB, see if you can contact the others."
"Others?" Rick asked hopefully, "The refugee centre?"
"Yeah, the refugee centre." The other woman scoffed.
"Got no signal," T-Dog sighed, "maybe the roof." He muttered, until they heard gunshots.
"Oh God. Was that Dixon?" Andrea sighed, and they all ran up to the roof, following the dreaded sound.
"Are you crazy!?" The man in charge screamed, making Mary cover her ears as Rick carried her on his hip.
The man - Dixon - was tall, wearing jeans and a sleeveless leather jacket. The sight of him, laughing, holding a gun on the roof of the building, scared Mary to silence. "Hey," he laughed, but he laugh was so unlike Ricks friendly, teasing one, "you ought to be more polite to a man with a gun. Huh? Only common sense!"
"Man, you're wasting bullets we ain't even have got, man! And you bring 'em all down here on our ass, man! Just chill!" T-Dog shouted, but his voice was full of fear.
"Hey! Bad enough I got this taco bender on my ass all day, now I'm going to take orders from you? I don't think so bro." Dixon spat. "That'll be the day."
"That'll be the day?" T-Dog challenged. "You got something you want to tell me?"
"Hey, T-Fog man, just leave it." The man in charge pleaded, trying (and failing) not to sound desperate. "It ain't worth it. Now Merle, just relax, okay? We got enough trouble."
Merle Dixon. Mary knew already that name meant trouble. She clung onto Rick's shirt in fear, hiding her head from the man.
Then Merle began to talk again, and a strange word fell out of his mouth, one that Mary had never heard.
"What does that mean?" Mary whispered into Ricks ear, but before he could answer, T-Dig was fighting Merle, and Rick ran over, earning a kick in the stomach from Merle. Mary screamed, and ran over to him, whilst the others ran to try and stop Merle as he continued to punch T-Dog.
"I'm okay. It's okay." Rick soothed to Mary, but leapt up as Merle held a gun to T-Dogs face, then spat at him.
"Okay! Who wants to talk about who's in charge! It's not yer daddy, little girl! I vote me! Anybody else?" Merle spat, getting up. "Democracy time, yall, show of hands!"
"Rick?" Mary cried warily as she saw rage in Ricks blue eyes, and he put a soft hand on her shoulder.
"All in favour? Huh? Come on. Let's see em. All in favour?" Merle shouted in rage, pointing his gun at all of the others. Slowly, the black woman raised her hand, as did Glenn, then Andrea. "Good. Now, that means I'm the boss, right? Anybody else?" Merle taunted, not realising Rick was behind him. "Anyone else?"
"Yeah." Rick spat, and, as Merle turned around, Rick punched him in the jaw until he fell to the floor and handcuffed him to a pipe.
"Who the hell are you man?" Merle shouted to rock, and Mary looked at Rick in a mixture of fear and admiration.
"Officer friendly." Rick spat. Mary arched the two men argue, stood alone, until Glenn walked over to her.
"It's okay," he whispered over their talking, "your daddy will be just fine. No need to be scared."
After a few more seconds, Rick walked away, Merle hurling insults after him. "It's okay, Mary. He won't hurt you. Or anyone else." Rick assured, as the man in charge ran up to him.
"You're not Atlanta PD," he declared, "where you from?"
"Up the road always."
"Well, officer frjendly, from up the road aways, welcome to the big city." He sighed, as they looked at the desolate city.
"It's so quiet." Rick whispered. "It's like you, Mary." He teased slightly, and Mary rewarded him with a rare smile.
Then Glenn looked at him and muttered, "quiet except for the geeks, dumbass."