Act One; Chapter Three

Word Count:2530

[Season One, Episode Two]

"You son of a bitch! We ought to kill you!" Andrea shouted whilst shoving Rick against the wall and pointing a gun to his face.

"Talk about first impressions." Jules thought to herself before outwardly saying, "Hey! Glenn and I just saved his ass. So I'd rather you not murder him right now."

When Andrea didn't move a single inch, Jules sighed exasperatedly as the others attempted to talk her down. Out of all the possible responses the group could have had to Jules and Glenn bringing Rick to the others, Andrea wanting to murder him was not one she thought of.

Finally, after getting talked down by Morales, Andrea let go of Rick; however, as she did so, hopelessly muttered, "We're dead. All of us... Because of you."

"I don't understand." Rick confusedly voiced in response to Andrea's sentence.

Morales bitterly scoffed, grabbed Rick by the forearm and dragged him into the main lobby of the store. "Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies. You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving! You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the O.K. Corral."

"What the hell is that?" Jules whispered to Glenn, and without missing a beat, he answered, "Real-life western shootout." Jules let out an ah while curtly nodding her head in understanding.

Since the two were distracted, they caught up in the conversation just as Andrea said, "And you just rang the dinner bell."

This made Jules and Glenn to look at the glass doors that were slowly being cracked due to the large number of geeks pressing themselves onto them.

"Well shit-" Jules murmured, then, without thinking, sprinted back to the side entrance of the store. Glenn, of course, followed her, and when he finally matched her pace, asked, "What are you doing?"

"Grabbing my baseball bat, so if those fuckers somehow break in, I have something to protect you and the others with."

"Okay, but what about you?"

Jules knit her eyebrows in genuine confusion, then turned her gaze towards Glenn while she grabbed her bat and questioned, "What about me?"

Before Glenn could even think to answer, a loud gunshot rang from the roof. Jules grumbled curses under her breath, readjusting her grip on her bat and rushing out of the small room. Since the others were already halfway up to the roof, Jules and Glenn were the last ones to get there. Then, once the duo finally did reach it, they noticed high tensions between Merle, who was holding a sniper rifle at the others.

"What's going on here?" Jules queried as she took calculated steps towards the trigger-happy fool.

Merle ignored her question and instead sarcastically cheered. "Aww, would you look at that? The little bitch of a guard dog has come to the rescue."

"Hey, don't ever call her that," Glenn bitterly said. At the same time, T-Dog firmly warned, "Watch it."

A hyena-like laugh escaped Merle's lips. "Ah, the whore has the chinaman and Mr.Yo defending her nonexistent honor."

T-Dog clenched his jaw and murmured, "If you say one more thing, I swear."

Unfortunately, Merle heard T-Dog and took his words as a challenge because he called him a racial slur. In reaction, T-Dog rushed towards Merle, ready to tackle him to the ground, but before he could, Merle smacked the butt of his rifle on T-Dog's forehead. This of which caused T-Dog to fall to the ground and hit his head on one of the pipes on the way down. Merle then took the opportunity of T-Dog being dazed to his advantage and started beating him relentlessly.

Screams ensued, some pleading for Merle to stop and others attempting to talk him down. In the midst of the chaos, Rick attempted to intervene but was promptly hit in the face by Merle. Jules also tried to stop the violent man, but Glenn stopped her in concern that she would get hurt as well. However, when Merle pulled a gun on T-Dog, Jules immediately brushed past Glenn with her bat in hand. The asshole was too consumed in the fear of the people in front of him to notice Jules approaching behind him, so he began speaking.

"Yeah! All right! We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who's in charge. I vote... me, anybody else?"

BONK

Jules eyed the now unconscious Merle to make sure he was no longer a threat, next she looked over to T-Dog and worriedly asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah, just some scraps and bruises."

Jules nodded in acknowledgment, but she still had a look of concern while doing so. After that she turned her gaze to Merle, and as she did so, her expression turned into one of disdain.

"He's not dead, is he?" Morales questioned Jules, and Jules shrugged while still looking at Merle.

"I don't think so," After Jules said that she bent down and checked the man's pulse, when she did in fact feel one, she looked back at the others and informed. "Nope, just passed out, that's all."

"Uuh, what do we do when he wakes up?" Glenn queried, and when the group all turned their focus to him, he shifted his feet awkwardly before clarifying. "I mean, he's not exactly going to be all sunshine and roses when he realizes he got bonked on the side of the head like an old-timey cartoon character."

In response, Rick approached the incapacitated man, grabbed him by the wrist, dragged him to the pipe, and finally handcuffed him to the piece of metal.

After he did so, he wiped his hands on his jeans and quipped, "He can't attack us when he's shackled."

Jules chuckled, walked up to Rick, and patted his back, joking. "It seems you do have some common sense after all, officer friendly."

A small grin appeared on the man's face, and he shrugged nonchalantly, "I try."

── ⋅✦⋅ ── ༻༺ ── ⋅✦⋅ ──

About twenty minutes have passed since Jules knocked Merle unconscious, and unfortunately, he had also woken up in that time period. Then he proceeded to call Jules every insult he could think of—well, that was until Rick gagged him for the rest of the group's sanity.

Now Jules was trying her best to patch T-Dog's wounds whilst he kept trying the C.B. and the rest of the group tried to plan how to escape the infested streets from a few feet away.

"It's not magically going to work, you know?" Jules questioned T-Dog with a slight smirk, and he chuckled, "Maybe it's weak like Dixon's brain."

Jules faked a pained expression before saying, "Now that's just insulting to the C.B. radio."

The two of them laughed, and this angered the nearby Dixon, who started to violently spew insults; however, due to the handkerchief around his mouth, it just sounded like Mogwai from Gremlins. So it just made the two laugh even harder, and in response, Merle flipped them off. This of which causing the duo's laughter to intensify in volume.

"Man, this might be the best day of my life." T-Dog voiced, and in return Jules sarcastically remarked. "Oh yeah, the thousands of geeks below us are just fantastic."

"Hey, if that's the trade-off for seeing Dixon finally get what he deserves,"

"Pffft, please; he could lose a hand and still not be even on the karmic scale of justice."

Immediately after Jules said that, Merle started to become aggressive again and mumble gibberish.

"Shut up, asshole." The two accidentally snarked at the same time, and since Jules beat him to saying jinx, she lightheartedly gloated. "You owe me a soda."

T-Dog played along by asking. "Diet or regular?"

"Regular, duh."

Following that, Glenn and Rick approached the two, with the others closely behind them.

"You guys figure out how we're going to get out of this shitfuck of a situation yet?" Jules questioned, and Glenn stuffed his hands in his pockets before answering. "We're going to check to see if the building has a drainage tunnel. Wanna come?"

Before Jules could answer yes, she needed to make sure T-Dog would be okay alone with Merle, so she turned her gaze to him and asked, "Will you be okay here all alone with Asshat?"

"Yeah."

With that conformation, Jules sprung to her feet. "Okay, let's see if we're completely fucked or not."

── ⋅✦⋅ ── ༻༺ ── ⋅✦⋅ ──

"Alright, we're not completely fucked."

Morales gave Jules a quick side eye before turning his focus to Glenn and asking, "This is it? Are you sure?"

"Jules and I really scoped this place out the other times we were here. It's the only thing in the building that goes down. But we've never gone down it. Who'd want to, right?"

After Glenn awkwardly joked about never wanting to go down the drainage tunnel, everyone in the group except Jules stared at him expectantly.

"Dude," Jules bitterly said in a lecturing tone of voice at the same time Glenn awkwardly murmured, "Oh. Great."

"We'll be right behind you." Andrea reassured, and Glenn quickly interjected. "No, you won't. If anyone is following me down that hellhole, it's going to be Jules, and that's only if she wants to."

Jules went to say she would happily follow him down the drainage tunnel, but before she could, Andrea angrily blurted, "Why not me? Think I can't?"

Glenn's eyes became the size of saucers, and he began to nervously sputter out a response. "I wasn't saying that's what I meant." Glenn paused at the sight of Andrea's intimidating look, and Jules squeezed his shoulder comfortingly. "Go on, you can say it."

"She's right; speak your mind." Rick added firmly, with a curt nod.

After receiving encouragement from the two, Glenn confidently began to explain his plan to the group. "Look, until now, it was always just me and Jules that came here... In and out, grab a few things... No problem. The first time we bring a group. Everything goes to crap. No offense. If you want me to go down this gnarly hole, fine... But only if we do it my way. It's tight down there. If I run into something and have to get out quick, I don't want you all jammed up behind me, getting me killed. I'll take one person."

Rick instinctively stepped forward once Glenn said that, and in response, he held his hand up in stopping motion to the officer."Not you either. Jules is the person I trust most to keep me safe down there. Plus, you've got Merle's gun, and I've seen you shoot. So I'd feel better if you were out in that store watching those doors, covering our asses." Following that, Glenn turned towards Andrea and said, "And you've got the only other gun, so you should go with him."

Then he proceeded to face Jules and ask, "You wanna be my wingman? Or I guess wingwoman is more accurate." Glenn waved himself off before continuing, "That doesn't matter anyway. You want to join me?"

Without skipping a beat, Jules grinned and answered, "Of course."

"Alright great!! Now Jacqui and Morales stay here. Something happens; yell down to us; get us back up here in a hurry."

The two nodded their heads in understanding as Rick patted Glenn on the back and noted, "Okay, everybody knows their jobs."

Following that, Rick and Andrea went their separate ways from Jaqui, Morales, Jules, and Glenn. Then, with Jaqui and Morales keeping a lookout, Jules and Glenn descend down onto the drainage tunnel ladder. Once both of them reached the ground, they were bombarded by a horrendous stench.

"Yup, definitely a sewer." Jules sarcastically commented while grimacing at the smell.

Glenn gave Jules a look of sympathy, then hovered his hand a few inches behind her back and motioned ahead. "Cmon, the faster we get this done, the faster we can leave."

Jules bobbed her head in agreement and started to make her way through the murky sewage water.

Eventually the duo reached a dead end, causing Jules to curse, "Well shit, we are completely fucked, I guess." While flailing her arms in defeat.

Despite frowning at the bars trapping them, Glenn hopefully proposed. "Maybe we can cut through it with Dale's hacksaw."

"It would take way too long to do so, and if we even did manage to cut through, the geeks would have broken through the glass by then."

Immediately after Jules said that, a geek lunged for them from the other side of the grate. The two both jumped back instinctively, and when the dust settled, Glenn was protectively standing in front of Jules. It threw her off a bit that he was doing that, but she shrugged it off since Glenn is just that kind of guy who puts himself above others.

Glenn quickly realized how close he was to Jules, so he stepped away from her and awkwardly cleared his throat before saying, "C'mon, we should head back; there are probably ten more where this guy came from."

Jules nodded, then gave the snarling geek a quick guilty expression for not having any weapon to put it out of its misery since she left her bat on the roof with T-Dog for protection before turning her back to it and following Glenn back to the ladder.

When the two reached the top, Jaqui noticed Jules's defeated expression and maternally placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, then worriedly questioned. "Are you alright, sweetie?"

"Um, not really. We didn't find a usable exit down there. I'm sorry."

Jacqui sympathetically smiled and soothingly rubbed circles onto Jules's back as she reassured. "Oh, there's nothing to apologize about, sweetie. It's not like you're the one that made the tunnels."

Jules chuckled and sent Jaqui an appreciative smile before muttering, "Thanks."

The older woman returned the smile, and since she noticed Jules was still a bit on edge, she gently grasped her hand and squeezed it while once again reassuring. "If anyone's going to help us get out of here, it'll be you." Jacqui glanced at Glenn, who was standing next to Morales, and softly added, "No offense."

Glenn shook his head and waved her off. "Don't worry, none taken."

Following that, the four of them heard glass shattering in the main lobby of the store, and they reactively ran towards it. When the four of them finally entered the lobby, they were met with the horrifying sight of the first set of glass doors being completely destroyed. Meaning that the group only had one weak barrier left to protect them from the horde of geeks outside.

Since Jules and Jacqui were still holding hands, she instinctively squeezed the older woman's hand while reaching behind her back and grabbing Glenn's forearm to make sure he was still okay. Unbeknownst to Jules, Glenn's face had turned beet red when she did so.

Meanwhile, Jules' mind was racing with potential ways to escape and how, no matter what, she would get Glenn, T-Dog, and Jacqui out of this hellscape of a department store.