Dixon's Daughter

Chapter 15: Where's Uncle Merle?

Third Person's POV

Sadie and the group all ran to the roof and over to the edge to be able to get a glimpse of Glenn and Rick who were out on the streets. Sadie couldn't see very well, but Morales had binoculars, so she figured he'd have a better chance of making sure the two men were all right.

"There!" Morales exclaimed, pointing down in the group of walkers. Sadie squinted her eyes, trying to see what he was trying to show them, but she could not tell Glenn or Rick apart from the walkers from this high up.

T-Dog was sitting against the side of the roof, trying to get someone – anyone – on the radio.

"That asshole's out on the streets with the handcuff keys?" Merle demanded and T-Dog just held the key up for him to see.

"You're fine, Uncle Merle." Sadie spoke, not even glancing back at him. She was too worried for Rick and Glenn. Noticing this, Morales handed her the binoculars and she quickly used them to locate the two men. She let out a breath of relief when she saw that they were fine and the disguises were working.

She handed Morales back the binoculars just as T-Dog managed to get their base camp on the C.B., gaining the group's attention. "Hello. Hello. Reception's bad on this end. Repeat. Repeat."

"Shane, is that you? We're in some deep shit. We're trapped in the department store. There are geeks all over the place. Hundreds of 'em. We're surrounded." T-Dog spoke through the C.B. but there was no response, just static.

The slight shimmer of hope Sadie had when first hearing someone on the other end of the radio died out as she realized there was no reason to believe that they had heard anything of what T-Dog said.

So the group focused back on Rick and Glenn. The disguises were still working and everything seemed to be going to plan. Well, until Sadie felt a drop of rain hit her hand. She glanced up at the sky just as it started to pour.

"Oh, this isn't good," Sadie groaned quietly, her fear for Rick and Glenn spiking as she figured out that the rain would wash away the guts they had smeared on theirselves.

"It's just a cloudburst. We get 'em all the time. It'll pass real quick," Morales told the group, but looked at Sadie as he spoke, trying to reassure her that they would be fine. The young brunette wasn't convinced.

Although she hadn't been able to differentiate Rick and Glenn from the walkers when they were trying to blend in, as soon as they started hacking down walkers and making a run for it, Sadie could spot them even without the binoculars.

But then they got to a certain point where the crowd of walkers and the angle Sadie was looking from made it impossible to see them again.

"Wait, what's happening?" Sadie asked Morales as she desperately moved her head, trying to find an angle to be able to see the two men from. "They just climbed over a fence." Morales answered just before gunshots were heard.

They couldn't see Glenn and Rick from that far away but they could see when a white van started driving away less than a minute later. The same van that they were supposed to come pick them up in.

"They're leaving us," Andrea immediately assumed the worst. "What? What?" Merle questioned as everything started voicing their concerns and worries, their voices overlapping.

"Guys!" Sadie's voice cut through theirs and everyone glanced towards her. "They wouldn't leave us here, they're not that type of people. They had to get away from the crowd of walkers so they must've had to find another route. They'll be back for us – you'll see."

The group didn't look convinced, but Sadie was proven right when Glenn's voice came through the C.B. telling them that he was going to draw the walkers away with a blaring car while Rick came to pick them up at the loading doors at the front of the store, so to be ready.

Everyone started rushing to grab as many bags and supplies as they could to carry down from the roof. "Hey, you can't leave me here! I'm not fooling, man! Morales! Sadie!"

Sadie stopped in her tracks, knowing she was not going to leave without her family. She glanced back at T-Dog who held Merle's key. T-Dog hesitated for a moment but when he saw the pleading look on her face, he knew he couldn't even entertain the possibility of not freeing her uncle.

"Go! I've got the key. We'll be right behind you!" T-Dog motioned for her to run downstairs with the rest of the group. Sadie glanced once more at Merle before starting to run down the stairs. She trusted his words to be true.

When they got down to the main level, Sadie glanced over at the entrance doors as she ran by to see the walkers had almost completely broken through the last layer of defensive. Her eyes widened slightly as she just kept on running.

Sadie caught up to the group just as the van arrived. Rick opened the back of the van and everyone started throwing the supplies and themselves in it. The van took off less than twenty seconds from when Rick opened the doors and in that chaos Sadie hadn't been able to see who was there and who wasn't.

But when the van started driving and Morales shut the back of the van, Sadie glanced around and quickly saw that who she was looking for was missing. Her heart immediately sank as she realized it.

"Where's Uncle Merle?" Sadie questioned, trying to keep her fear and anger in check but failing. T-Dog wasn't able to look her in the eyes and that's all the answer she needed at the moment.

Sadie immediately sprung to her feet and rushed towards the door at the back of the van. "No! We can't leave him there! We gotta go back!"

Morales put his body between the young brunette and the door, keeping her from being able to open it, not trusting that she wouldn't jump out to try and go back. And while none of them really cared about Merle, they did care not to let an eleven-year-old essentially commit suicide as that would be what would happen if she tried to exit out the back.

"Get out of my way! I have to go back! He's my family – one of the last two members I've got. Let me through!" Sadie started striking Morales' chest with her fists, overwhelmed with panic and rage. She had just finally found her family, she couldn't lose him. Not now. Not again.

"Let me out of here! I have to go back! I can't leave him!" Sadie shouted in anguish before whirling around on T-Dog, realizing that she wouldn't be able to get through Morales.

"You said you'd both be right behind me! You lied! Why?!" Sadie couldn't help the tears that threatened to pour out of her eyes as she yelled at the man in front of her.

"I dropped the key," T-Dog admitted but that just confused Sadie more than anything. She expected a better explanation than that.

She looked at him incredulously. "Was it made of iridium or something – why couldn't  you pick up the damn key?!"

"I dropped it down a pipe," T-Dog explained further, still not able to look at her. Sadie stopped moving for a moment as she took in this information. Then, to everyone's surprise and concern, Sadie started laughing.

It was a quiet laugh of disbelief at first but it grew louder and louder until it was one of hysteria. Everyone exchanged uneasy and worried glances as Sadie just continued laughing as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

"The key fell down the pipe," Sadie repeated as she laughed. "That - That's just perfect."

Rick was driving so he couldn't do much to comfort the girl, and even if he could he didn't know what he would say, so he just kept glancing at her in his rear view mirror.

Andrea tried to place her hand on Sadie's arm in an attempt to calm her down, but as soon as there was any tint of contact between them, it was like a switch was flipped in her and Sadie was aggressively pulling her arm away as she immediately stopped laughing and coldly said, "Don't."

Then Sadie sat in the corner of the van, not looking or interacting with anyone, just staring into nothingness as she tried to process the loss she had just taken. And that was the last anyone spoke on the drive to their base camp.