Finn hurried through the long abandoned building in the middle of Atlanta, his heavy gun cold in his hands. Finally, he bust through the door, the handgun raised when he had finally found his group. He saw Morales beating in a walkers head from the doorway. Glenn was running in, a man quick behind him. Finn's breath caught in his throat when he saw the uniform. The door slamming shut behind Morales brought Finn back to reality.

"You son of a bitch. We ought to kill you," Andrea said, pushing the man -- Rick -- against a stack of boxes, her gun raised to his face.

"Andrea, back off," Finn said, breaking his silence. Rick looked over at the sound of his voice. Finn walked forward, tears fresh in his eyes. "Man, I thought you were dead."

"So did I," Rick said, his accented voice gruff. Finn chuckled, bringing his brother into a hug.

"What the fuck, Finn," Andrea called. "We're dead cause of this stupid asshole."

"I said back off," Finn said, his voice raising. "He's a good guy. He's my brother."

"Your dead brother?" Glenn asked. "He looks pretty alive to me."

"We're dead -- all of us," Andrea said, her voice cracking. "Because of you."

"I don't understand," Rick said.

"Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies," Morales explained. "You know what the key to scavenging of? Surviving! You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the O.K Corral."

"Every geek for miles heard you popping off rounds," T-Dog told him.

"You just rang the dinner bell," Finn sighed, gesturing to the windows in the front of the store they led Rick to.

"Get the picture now?" Morales asked. They watched the hands banging on the window, the glass starting to crack. Finn placed his hand of Ricks shoulder and hurried him along the opposite way.

"What the hell were you doing out there anyway?" Andrea asked.

"Trying to flag the helicopter," Rick admitted.

"Helicopter? Man, that's crap," T-Dog told him. "Ain't no damn helicopter."

"You were chasing a hallucination, imagining thing. It happens," Jacqui spoke up.

"I saw it."

"T-Dog, can you contact the others on that C.B?" Finn asked.

"Others? The refugee center?" Rick asked. He turned to Finn. "Are Carl and Lori there?"

"Yeah, the refugee center. They've got biscuits waiting in the oven for us," Jacqui said, sarcastically.

"Got no signal," T-Dog told Finn. "Maybe the roof."

Just then, they heard gunshots being fired from the roof.

"Damnit! Dixon!" Finn shouted, turning and running towards the stairs to the roof. "Why did we leave this dumbass alone?!"

"Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?!" Morales asked as they barged through the access door to the roof. Merle just laughed, firing the gun off once more.

"Hey! Y'all ought to be more polite to a man with a gun!" Merle shouted. "Only common sense."

"Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got!" T-Dog shouted, rushing towards Merle. "And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass!"

"Bad enough I've got this taco-bender on my ass all day. Now I'm gonna take orders from you?"

"Dixon, shut up or this isn't gonna end well for you," Finn said, clenching his jaw. They all knew the classic racism of Merle Dixon, but they kept him around cause they needed his brothers skills with his crossbow.

"I don't think so, bro. That'll be the day."

"'That'll be the day?' You got something you want to tell me?" T-Dog asked.

"Hey, T-Dog man, just leave it," Morales said, trying to keep the inevitable from happening. "Now, Merle, just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble."

"You want to know the day?" Merle asked. "I'll tell you the day, Mr 'Yo.' It's the day I take orders from a --"

With that final word, T-Dog swung his fist at Merles face. Finn didn't even wanna make a move to stop it, but then Merle hit T-Dog with the butt of the shotgun in his hands. Everyone rushed in the try and help, Rick getting punched and falling over a pipe.

Merle had T-Dog on the ground, punching his face over and over. Finally, he pulled out a handgun, pointing in in T-Dogs face.

"Yeah! All right!" Merle shouted, standing from his kneeling position over T-Dog. "We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who's in charge. I vote me. Anybody else?"

"No person in their right fucking mind would ever vote for you, no matter how shitty the world has gotten," Finn told him.

"All in favor?" Merle asked, ignoring Finn's comment. "Now that means I'm the boss, right? Yeah. Anybody else?"

"Yeah," Rick said, hitting Merle with the butt of the shotgun. He kneeled over him and handcuffed Merle to a pipe.

"Who the hell are you, man?!"

"Officer Friendly," Rick sarcastically said. "Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no -- anymore."

"Jesus Christ," Finn sighed.

"No dumb-as-shit, inbred, white trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart."

"Screw you, man," Merle told Rick through gritted teeth.

"I can see you make a habit of missing the point," Rick said.

"Yeah? Well, screw you twice."

"Ought to be polite to a man with a gun," Rick quoted Merle, pointing the handgun to the ladders head. "Only common sense."

"You wouldn't. You're a cop."

"All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose. I'll give you a moment to think about that." Rick pat down Merles pockets, finding his drugs. "Got some on your nose there." He got up and threw the drugs over the roof, onto the infected streets below.

"Hey! What are you doing? Man, that was my stuff!" Merle shouted. "If I get loose, you'd better pray. Yeah, you hear me, you pig?!"

"Yeah, your voice carries," Rick said as he walked away. Finn followed him, looking over the views of Atlanta from the roof. "You know where they are?"

"I do," Finn confirmed.

"They okay?"

"As good as they can given the situation. Carl's been great."

"You're not Atlanta PD," Morales observed, approaching the brothers.

"I'll leave you two to talk," Finn said, patting Ricks shoulder and walking away.

***

"God, it's like Times Square down there," Andrea said as she looked over the side of the roof.

"How's that signal?" Morales asked as him and Rick walked back over to the group.

"Like Dixons brain -- weak," T-Dog responded.

"Keep trying," Finn told him.

"Why? There's nothing they can do," Andrea shrugged. "Not a damn thing."

"Got some people outside the city is all. There's no refugee center. That's a pipe dream," Morales explained to Rick.

"Then she's right. We're on our own," Rick said. "It's up to us to find a way out."

"Good luck with that," Merle told him. "These streets ain't safe in this part of town from what I hear. Ain't that right, sugar tits? What say you get me out of these cuffs, we go off somewhere and bump some uglies? Gonna die anyway."

"I'd rather," Andrea told him.

"The streets ain't safe. That's an understatement," Finn scoffed.

"What about under the streets? The sewers?" Rick asked.

"Oh, man," Morales sighed. "Hey, Glenn, check the alley. You see any manhole covers?"

"No, must be all out on the street where the geeks are," Glenn told him.

"Maybe not. Old building like this built in the 20s -- big structures often had drainage tunnels into the sewers in case of flooding down in the subbasements," Jacqui told them.

"How do you know that?" Glenn asked.

"It's my job -- was. I worked in the city zoning office."

first chapter and its a finn chapter! last time i wrote an oc x oc it was shit so i'm switching things up. you'll get both finn and phoebe chapters instead of choosing one of them to be a main character.