Chapter 5: Fun Times Ahead
We make our way across rooftops and through some office buildings, following closely behind Glenn. He pulls out a radio and begins relaying some information to his group.
"I'm back. Got guests, plus four geeks in the alley." Hmm they call them 'geeks'? Ehh I think I like walkers better, sorry Glenn but your name for them isn't catching on. We make it to the bottom of a set of stairs and there are 2 walkers in between us and the door. Glenn and Rick have paused just staring at them, so I decide to leap over the rail and take care of them.
Both walkers started coming towards us and I just unsheathed my machete and beheaded one as I kicked the other back. It stumbled briefly but raised its arms and came forward again only for me to side step and decapitate it as well. As the sound of the squelching from hitting the ground happened the door busted open with 2 dudes wearing helmets and what look like catchers vests.
They look at me and then down at the dead walkers before looking to Glenn in confusion, bats raised.
"Uhm? They're dead?" I say while shrugging my shoulder and then kneeling down to wipe my blade off on the shirt of the second walker I killed. While I'm doing that Glenn and Rick had already started walking for the door and I was only a few steps behind. Entering the room I see Rick pulled by feminine hand and when I enter I see him pushed against a stack of pallets with a gun in his face.
Hey now! That's Double D you're waving your gun at, no one's gonna be killing ole Rick on my watch. Though I suppose if he's lived this long , I'm sure some cracked out blonde won't be the one to kill him. I mean she doesn't even have the safety off her gun. I place my machete blade on her shoulder and see her tense as she feels the metal against her neck. My pistol comes free and aims at the Hispanic guy that was still holding his bat.
"Now now, how about you get that gun out of my friend's face. I promise I'm a lot faster than any of you, and you'll all be dead before Blondie here even realizes her safety is on."
This seemed to get everyone to get scared, but it did make blondie lower her gun before outright dropping it. Hmm I didn't tell her to drop it, but I suppose that works just as well. I pull my machete back and as if it had been holding her up she dropped to her knees. I sheathed my machete and holstered my pistol and got a nod from Rick as he stood up, no longer behind pushed up against the pallets.
"We're still dead because of these assholes." I hear the blonde say from the floor.
"Enough Andrea. What's done is done." The Hispanic guy said as he pulls her up, she in the process stuck her gun in her back waistband.
This group then had the audacity to accuse of us of ruining their scavenging! As if we purposely herded the walkers with us to their department store, which honestly I don't know why they were in here. This store is known for its clothes and jewelry not food or other actual necessities. Truly appalling the lack of responsibility this group has.
But I guess they did give Rick crucial info about the refugee center, so I'll let it slide for now. They also seem to have an even bigger group, and I hung back beside Glenn while they checked out the front doors where the zombies were at.
"So y'all are part of a bigger group? Any people we need to be careful around?" He seemed startled when I started speaking but I paid it no mind. All my life people couldn't seem to notice my approach unless I purposely made it known. Heh, even Marcus got a few scares from me, though truth be told I did it on purpose around him.
"U-uh, ya we are. I wouldn't say there's anybody you need to particularly be careful around, but our leader is a 'My way or the highway' kind of guy." I nod my head along as I continue to observe the rest of the group.
"You trust him?" Glenn looks to me when I asked the question.
"He's an asshole, but Shane does right by all of us. Keeps us safe." I focus on the name he said, sure there are plenty of people named Shane in the word. But, asshole, 'my way of the highway'. It was starting sound like a certain cop I knew from King's county and I felt a bit of excitement bubble up. Only Rick would stumble across a group scavenging the streets of Atlanta that has a high probability of being lead by his old partner.
"Interesting." I breathe out and Glenn looks at me confused.
"What d-.." he was about to ask a question only for a gunshot to go off that sounded like it was coming from the roof, and I heard Glenn groan.
"Ugh." I look toward him.
"Someone you know?" He shook his head as everyone else began running up the stairs and we began to follow.
"You know how you were asking about people you should be careful around?" I nod and he continues.
"Well the guy up there shooting, Merle Dixon, he's your typical redneck and he has a brother. They just kind of ended up in our group and we haven't kicked them out because well they can hunt and they know how to use guns." We're about halfway up the stairs and about 10 or so steps behind the main group.
"I see, I'll be sure to keep an eye on him." As we come through the door I hear this, Merle, talking to the rest of the group and I gotta say Glenn might have been downplaying his redneckness.
He's tossing slurs at who i now know is T-Dog and Morales. I think he's high off something too, I've been around too many of the seedier people to not recognize it. Oh! Now they're fighting.
Merle sends the gun butt of his rifle to T-Dog's face and then drops it. Yikes T-Dog ain't much of a fighter it seems, oh Rick don't do… that. Rick just got left hooked and knocked back over the pipes he had just jumped over. Eh I guess I better stop this before it gets too out of hand, and get into the good graces of all the people here. Besides another chance to be a hero during the zombie apocalypse? Sign me up! As soon as Merle's foot connects with T-Dog's stomach I bring my hand down on the back of his neck. Knocking him out cold, Rick tosses me his cuffs and we hook him up to one of the pipes.
Everyone looks at me for a moment in astonishment as it probably looked like I appeared out of nowhere. Which I always found strange as I'm not a small person. I'm 6 foot 3 inches tall and 200 pounds, I'm not giant, but I'm not small enough to feel like I should go unnoticed as much as I do. I guess I'll just chalk it up to my training.
(AN: Don't worry it's not some kind of supernatural power or anything like that, he just doesn't realize how sneaky he is from his trainings that he's done over the years)
"Thanks Will." Rick says as he walks on over to stand beside me and I just give a nod.
"No worries, Double D. Though you really shouldn't head butt people's fists like that, it's not good for your face. What's your wife gonna think when we find her and you're unrecognizable?" He chuckles at that as he shakes his head.
"I'll keep that in mind Will."
I look back at the group and I can't help but feel a little giddy inside. A month of just surviving just couldn't compare to the fun I've had in just the half day I've known Rick. Now we have an aggressive blonde with obvious problems, a crazy redneck, and this is just the beginning. I can't wait to see Rick's face if this leader of there group ends up actually being the Shane we both know. And if Shane is there, then most likely Lori and Carl are as well.
Oh damn, Merle is pretty tough. Only about 2 minutes and he's already conscious again. He gives a shake to his cuffs and now Rick is in front of him giving a speech. Wow, Rick is so cool. He's like some super hero giving the bad guy a lecture on what he did was wrong. He even brought up that there's no races anymore. Wait… does that make me his sidekick? I don't want to be Robin though.
Hmm, I think I just heard some thunder in the distance. They probably heard it too, so no need to say anything. Now they want to try the sewers? Here we go.
We're down in the basement and sure enough like Jackie said there is a drainage tunnel.
"This is it, are you sure?" Morales asks as we all, except for T-Dog huddle around the ladder that leads down.
"It's the only place in the building that goes down, but I've never gone down it. I mean, who would want to, right?" Everyone turns to look at Glenn and I have to hold back my laughter as I see his face begin to drop.
"Oh. Great." He says as he nods in reluctant acceptance.
I just observe there conversation and Glenn immediately shuts down Andrea when she suggests we'll all be right behind him. Good on you Glenn, that would be incredibly stupid if we all went down there. Probably best if only one other person went down there with him while the rest kept look out.
Hmm Rick to guard the front cause he's got a gun, makes sense. Guess that means me t..-
"And Will should be the one to back me up." My thoughts stopped as I replayed what he said again.
"I'm what now?" I ask as I look at Glenn. Keeping a determined face he continues.
"You're the only person I feel can keep up with me and most likely react faster than me if we get into trouble down there. I and I'm sure they would feel a lot safer if you came with me." Nods came from everyone around the ladder and i suppressed the urge to sigh out loud. You owe me for this Glenn, I hate feeling trapped. The tank was at least above ground, but a sewer underneath the ground. Ugh.
(AN: yes he had a basement he trained in, but that was still in the safety of his home.)
"Very well, lets get this thing started." I guess I'll be the super ultra cool ninja badass guy and help the little pizza deliver guy. Besides I'm part Korean, might as well help my fellow Korean out. Glenn begins climbing down the ladder and I go to follow him only to get stopped by Rick.
"Make sure you both get back safely, I'd feel terrible if something happened to you." He said with a serious face and I just chuckled.
"Haha, c'mon Rick don't go gettin all sappy on me. You've seen me in action, no little sewer is going to be the death of me." I do a two finger salute with a little fall backwards over the railing and hear them all gasp as I land softly on the ground below. I would say it was about a 15-20 foot drop, nothing I'm not used too.
"Dammit, Will. What the hell was that?" I hear Rick call down.
"You worry too much Double D! I did stuff like this everyday even before the apocalypse." Glenn makes it to the bottom and looks at me.
"That was so cool." I laugh and draw my machete and pistol.
"Thanks Glenn. Now lets get this started." He nods and turns on the flashlight and begins leading the way. We make quick time through the sewers only coming across rats and some bugs before finding a grate covering a sewer tunnel. Which also had a smacking sound coming from the other side.
"Can we cut through it?" Glenn asks and I just chuckle.
"You gotta blow torch?" His face falls and the flashlight does as well landing on a zombie stuffing his face with a McRat meal. This startles Glenn and he jumps back.
"Haha, don't worry Glenn he can't get through just like we can't. Lets head back, nothing here for us." He nods and we start jogging back, now with me in the lead. Jackie begins 20 questions as soon as we make it to the ladder but I just let Glenn handle it as I head to store area to tell Rick.
What's this I see? Rick you're getting a little close to lil blondie who was ready to take your head off. I mean I won't say anything, but I thought you were a family man. You dirty dog. Oop, the walkers broke through the first group of doors.
Up on the roof we're plotting our escape and now I'm learning new. The zombies can smell you? I thought for sure they could only see and hear because I've never ran into any of them unless they saw or heard me. I was able to sneak through a group to grab a cool comic I hadn't read and they didn't notice me. Surely if they could smell they would have smelt me, and I know I don't smell bad.
I guess truthfully I don't smell at all. It's a weird mutation in the genes of Koreans where they don't secrete body odors. I wonder if Glenn is the same way and that's why he was able to scavenge solo so easily? Hmm something to think about. However that's for later as Rick has somehow roped me into getting covered in zombie guts with him and Glenn. Well now I'll definitely smell.
(AN: this is actually true that a lot of Korean don't produce body odor. Because of the dominance of a certain gene ABCC11. Also I'm not actually Korean, just made my character Korean because when I heard this fact I thought it was cool.)
To distract himself from the blood and guts, Glenn asks me about my machete.
"So Will, what is that sword you carry, and how are you so good with it?" I look over to him as Andrea is painting me with walker blood.
"Well as for what they are, they are called Kukris. A weapon traditionally associated with the Gurkhas of Nepal and India. As for why I'm good with them? Well let's just say I thought they were cool, and besides how many people have you ever seen use one?" I finish with a grin, but it was covered by my mask. Whoa there blondie, don't get too closed down there. Looking down I see she getting dangerously close to the boys down there.
Now we're all zombied up and ready to go. Oop looks like Glenn needed to throw up first. Dead puppies and kittens aren't the best sight I suppose when your squeamish, but surely the walkers are nastier. Oh well, better now than when we're out there Walk-On's down the street.
(AN: I might do one more chapter today, as I'm enjoying writing and don't have anything else to do. Plus it allows me to procrastinate my other stories lol.
Next chapter will be the end of the rewrite and everything will be completely new territory, so I'm looking forward to that but also nervous.
Hope you all enjoyed.)
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