CHAPTER FIVE ━━ THE CITY OF DEAD,
Season One   :   Episode Two of The Walking Dead

( I AM NOT A PERSON OF COLOR, SO I WILL NOT BE WRITING THE N WORD, EVEN THOUGH MERLE & RICK BOTH SAY IT. INSTEAD, I WILL BE SUBSTITUTING IT WITH THE LETTER N. )

The sound of gunshots ricocheted off of the concrete walls of the staircase — hands twisted around the metal railing to keep bodies steady as they rushed up them. Morales was the first to breach the roof, slinging the door open with angered intentions, the rest of the survivors following close behind him. Adeline squinted her eyes at the bright sun that greeted her, immediately shooting her hands up to block the harsh light. "Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?!" The rough voice of Morales greeted her as she slowed her pace and watched the scene unfold.

Dixon, the man with a sniper rifle held in his hands and aimed to the walkers below, laughed manically before firing another shot. The Grimes girl knew his intentions behind the actions might have been good, but they would soon prove to be futile. The sound would only attract more walkers, which would add onto the already growing number of them. And none of the survivors combined had enough ammunition to shoot them all from the rooftop. "Maybe that's not the smartest idea, sir." Her voice escaped the barrens of her throat, caramel eyes squinting from the light but slowly adjusting. Adeline stood next to her brother and Glenn, deciding it was her place to stand her ground seeing as her life was now one of the ones the man was threatening by firing the gun.

Turning from the ledge of the roof, he crazily waved the gun towards the seven before him. "Hey! Y'all oughta be more polite to a man with a gun! Especially you, sweet cheeks." He smirked, his voice raspy and rough as he sent a wink Adelines way which only caused her to roll her eyes and subconsciously step closer to her brother. Receiving no answer, he hopped down from the ledge and onto the roof.  "Only common sense." He taunted.

T-Dog let the anger take over his actions, angrily tossing his wooden bat down to the ground and strutting over to the older male. "Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got! And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill!" He bellowed, Morales following him and standing closely behind incase a fight broke out.

"Bad enough I've got this taco-bender on my ass all day. Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so, Bro. That'll be the day." Dixon sneered, the blunt racist meaning behind the comment towards both Morales and T-Dog causing Adeline to furrow her eyebrows in disgust. She took a step back, refraining from doing anything even though all she wanted to do was knock some sense into him, but he was the one with a gun.

"That'll be the day? You got something you want to tell me?" T retorted, throwing his hands up defensively and motioning towards himself. "Hey, T-Dog man, just leave it. Alright? It ain't worth it." Morales began from behind him, already used to the comments Merle threw his way, "Now Merle, just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble." He attempted.

Rick looked to Glenn with a questioning face, only to quickly receive a shake of the head and wide eyes — as if to say Don't intervene, just let it happen. Adeline looked at the men, her arms crossed over her chest and small specks of sweat laying against her forehead. She was a bit paler than usual, the small loss of blood from the cut affecting her more physically than mentally. "You want to know the day?" Merle turned the conversation back up to his octave, itching to get a rise out of the man. "I'll tell you, Mr. Yo. It's the day I take orders from a N."

That single word sent everyone into a rowel of chaos, the storm sweeping them up from under their feet as T-Dog cursed and sent a punch flying Merles way at the racist remark. The man avoided the punch, ducking down only to slam the butt of gun into T's face. The man fell to the ground, Rick springing angrily from his spot across of Merle before Adeline could hold him back. "Rick, no!" She shrieked, scared her brother would tear his stitches or do something to earn new ones. Just as he reached Merle, the man twisted around on his feet and swung his fist directly into Ricks face which sent him flying over the pipes and in front of Adelines boots. Everyone else sprung to stop the men fighting, but the Grimes girl immediately crouched down on her feet and tended to her brother.

A small, not threateningly, amount of blood pooled from Ricks nose — causing the girl to curse under her breath and help her brother sit up. "Rick, this is not our fight." She spoke over the loud screams of the two women and men behind her, holding her hands around his face as he squinted at the harsh light of the sun. "Jesus, Rick." Adeline whispered, wiping away the blood with a short pat of her thumb under his nose. "You good?" She questioned as he pulled her hands from his face and nodded slowly.

Hearing the once loud group of survivors grow silent, Adeline turned away from her brother and trained her eyes on them. They widened at the sight of Merle holding T-Dog to the ground, sleek pistol pointed at the man's face and cocked — ready to fire at any wrong movement. This caused fear to strike her veins, worried of both the sound of the gunshot and the death of someone innocent. She sat still behind the wide pipes, watching with careful eyes alongside her brother. "Holy fuck..." She whispered, her voice wavering over the line of panic.

Merle spit on T-Dogs shirt, yelling as he rubbed his hand harshly into the material. "Alright! We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who's in charge! I vote me, anybody else? Huh? Democracy time, y'all. Show of hands, huh? All in favor? Come on, let's see 'em! All in favor?" He threatens, allowing T to crawl back to the others as he waves his gun around. Reluctantly and slowly, against their will, they raise their hands to satisfy the male and save their lives.

Adeline remained quiet behind the pipes, anger bubbling up in her veins at the mans racist and sexist remark towards the survivors. Which is why she didn't even stop her brother from silently climbing over the pipes and grabbing the rifle, watching with careful eyes as he interrupted Merle mid-sentence and slammed the hilt of the weapon into his face. This sent Merle flying back into the pipes, the material stopping him from going any further as Rick tightened a pair of handcuffs around his wrists and restrained him against the pipes. Adeline stepped out from behind the pipes, shimmying the backpack off of her shoulders and rushing over to the rest. She crouched down beside of them, allowing her brother to do his thing before she worked on the wounds on T-Dogs face.

"Who the hell are you, man?!" Merle growled beneath Ricks hold.

"Officer Friendly, and Sweet Cheeks over there is my sister." Rick sneered, grabbing the gun that merle once held and taking the magazine out. "Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no N's anymore, 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." He emphasized, only for Merle to sigh and tell Rick to agree himself. "I see you have a habit of missing the point."

"Yeah? Well screw you twice." Merle spat, blood dripping from his mouth. His words caused Rick to slam the magazine back into the gun and aim to the side of the mans face — Adeline shifted on her feet, watching her brother with careful eyes as he began to talk. "Oughta be polite to a man with a gun," He mocked Merles words from before. "Only common sense."

"You wouldn't. You're a cop." Merle mumbled in attempts to strike fear in Ricks heart, but Adeline knew it would only cause her brother to grow angrier at his words.

Rick shifted, "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." He lowered his voice before patting Merles pockets down and pulling out a pouch of drugs. He made a comment to the man before standing up to the ground and flicking the pill off of the rooftop. That of course received comments of aggression from Merle, but was only ignored by everyone on the building with him.

Threatening words carried through the air, not fazing any of the survivors due to his current chained up position. Adeline looked over to Rick who walked to the side of the building, holding his hand that trembled. She watched as Morales trailed behind him, which comforted her that he was gonna be taken care of and not alone. So, the brunette reluctantly turned away and put her attention onto the wounded man beside of her. "I might be able to help with those." Adeline suggested, sitting on her knees and unzipping her backpack.

"You might?" Andrea questioned her, crouching down next to T-Dog as they watched the girl. "What does that mean?" She continued.

Licking her chapped lips, she pulled out the same antiseptic spray from before and bandages. "I was a nurse. Somethings better than nothing, I guess." Adeline mumbled, moving to roll the mans stomach up only to stop and look at him for consent. He nodded, allowing her to lift it up and eye the dark bruises that already started to form. "I think I'll take any help I can get." T-Dog assured, sitting against the barrier of the roof.

After examining the bruises, she realized there wasn't much she could do to help except feel around and make sure his ribs weren't broken. When she did that and realized they wasn't, she dug deeper into her backpack and pulled out a bottle of pain pills she had snagged from the hospital. There was more in the bag swarmed by walkers, but there was no chance in hell she was getting that back anytime soon. "Here, these will help with the pain. They're not broken, so that's the good news. But I can help with your cuts." Adeline assured, rolling his shirt back down and handing him the pain pill before tossing the bottle back into the bag.

"Hey, babygirl, mind giving me some of those? I'm hurtin'... hurtin' real bad." The sound of Merles raspy voice entered through the ears of Adeline and the others, causing the woman to turn around and furrow her eyebrows at the man. "Go to hell, racist fuck." She sneered, the anger bubbling up in her mind as she turned around at the sound of him cackling loudly at her words.

After fixing up T-Dogs wounds and ignoring the many flirtatious attempts used by Merle — Adeline found herself alongside most of the others beneath the building. The sub basement was a place Jacqui, a woman who used to work for the city zoning office, told the survivors about. That the sewers might be a way out for them to get back to a camp they had outside of the city. Morales informed they had at least forty more, anyone trying to survive that escaped the wraths of city and bombs ended up there. It gave hope for Adeline — hope that her nephew and husband would be there.

The pipes clanked as they leaned over the railings and shined flashlights down into the sewers. There was a ladder that scaled the wall down, one that waited to be used. "So, this is our way out?" Adeline questioned, standing in between of Rick and Glenn as she peeked over the railing. "Are you sure?" She asked Jacqui.

"I really scoped this place out the other times I was here. It's the only thing in the building that goes down. But I've never gone down it. Who'd want to, right?" Glenn retorted, gripping the metal of his flashlight tightly as Adeline remembered the short conversation they shared. Apparently, Glenn was the only one in the camp that actually went back into the city to scavenge and bring back supplies. But this was the only time things went wrong. He was brave, that was for sure. Which was what caused everyone of them to look at the boy with expecting eyes.

Catching their stare, he dropped his disgusted look and replaced it with one of disappointment. "Oh.." He muttered, "Great."

"We'll be right behind you." Andrea started, only to be cut off by the boy. "No, you won't. Not you." He stated curtly.

She scrunched her nose up, "Why not me? Think I can't?" Andrea questioned, Adeline watching with slightly wide eyes as she turned her stare back to the sewers.

"I wasn't-"

"Speak your mind." Rick interrupted the boy, ushering him to say what he struggled to get out. Glenn swallowed his fears and nodded slowly, "Look, until now I always came here by myself — in and out, grab a few things, no problem. The first time I bring a group, everything goes to hell. No offense," He added, looking to the two siblings who only nodded their heads in agreement. "If you want me to go down this gnarly hole — fine. But only if we do it my way. It's right down there, if I run into something g and have to get out quick, I don't want you all jammed up behind me and getting me killed. I'll take one person," He informed, Rick immediately stepping up for the job only to get shot down. "Not you either. You've got Merles gun and I've seen you shoot. I'd feel better if you were out in that store, watching those doors and covering our ass. You three with the guns, go with him. Morales, you're my wingman and Jacqui you stay here and yell to us if anything happens. Make sure we get out of there."

The only words that left their mouths were words of agreement, a thumbs up from Adeline being shot Glenn's way before taking off back into the store with Rick and Andrea. The girl walked away from her brother, allowing Andrea to make her apologies with Rick as she eyed the walkers clawing at the door. Their rotted skin slinger to the glass, blood smearing against the claw marks. Adeline tore her eyes away from the sight, gulping away the fears and guilt for not being able to take the people out of their misery. "Disgusting." She mumbled, twirling her hands around the metal pole of the clothing rack.

After several minutes had passed and no news had been shared or apologies been made, Adeline stood next to the front doors just as the loud sound of glass shattering caught her attention. "Addy get away!" Ricks voice ripped through her head, overlapping the sound of the shattering. She immediately rushed to her brother, hand meeting the hilt of her gun as he already had his raised. The walkers had broke through the first set of doors, now working on the final two.

Morales, Glenn, and Jacqui rushes into the room — the two men coated in sweat as their eyes widened at the sight of the now shattered doors. "No way out." Morales panted, the doors begging to give out under the pressure. "Well, we need to find a way. And soon." Andrea added, her gun held weakly in her grasp.

It didn't take long for a discussion to be had and a planned to be sorted out. After Rick came up with his bright idea, they all rushed back downstairs and into the back part of the store to stay hidden from the already angered walkers. Adeline stood next to a dead walker, a beige trench coat over her arms and covering most of body besides her lower legs. She matched with her brother and Glenn, the three of them set to go on a march of death with the dead. At first, Rick didn't want her to go with him. But he came to the conclusion that they worked better together than apart ━ and there was also no way in hell Adeline was letting him go without her.

The group of seven survivors ( excluding Merle who remained cuffed to the roof ) wore beige coats of their own to protect their skin from the blood but only three of them were going. Adeline watched with squinted eyes as Rick lowered the axe into the mans body after paying a quick memorial to him, examining his wallet and naming his name. The sound of the axe making contact with the body caused the girl to flinch, scrunching her nose up and looking away from the scene. The smell that greeted her was putrid, surely burning any hairs in her nostrils off as she twisted her body around and avoiding eyesight. Adeline heard as Rick handed the axe off to Morales before checking it everyone had gloves on.

"Don't get any on your skin or in your eyes." Rick reminded the survivors, to which they nodded in disgust as a sign of agreement.

Reluctantly, Adeline turned back around and crouched down to the walkers body. But as soon as the smell wafted to her nose once more, a gag left her lips and caused her to spring up on her feet. "Oh my god," She muttered, holding her gloved hand over her mouth to stop vomit from escaping her lips.

"Don't... don't worry about it, Darling. I got you." Jacqui assured her, slowly walking over to the girl with a scrunched up face, blood and guts cupped up in her hand. Adeline stopped squirming, standing absolutely still as the woman spread the marks of death over her chest. She was sure to avoid Adelines skin, smothering the beige coat in walker guts. It clumped up in certain places, the substance making squishy sounds as it was applied to the trench coat she wore. Jacqui went to retrieve more, this time coming back with a long intestine that she wrapped under the collar of the jacket and across Adelines neck. The girl held in a gag at the sudden weight, more guts and blood being applied to her by T-Dog and Jacqui.

Glenn let out a loud whine, "Oh, this is bad. This is really bad." He cried, a gut of his own wrapped across his neck. "Think about something else— puppies and kittens."

"Dead puppies and kittens." T-Dog retorted from behind Adeline, smearing his hands across her back and covering the untouched spots with more blood and guts.

His words made Glenn gag loudly before turning around, hurling his last meal onto the ground as Andrea slowly patted his back in attempts to comfort him. "That is just evil. What is wrong with you?" Andrea let the question slip out of her mouth, eyes landing on T-Dog.

"Next time let the cracker beat his ass." Jacqui spoke, standing next to Rick.

"Do we smell like them?" Rick questioned, breaking the tense silent his sister had created. Groans of disgust disguised as agreement flooded through their ears. Andrea grabbed the gun she had tucked into her jeans and gave it to Glenn, sticking it in the front of his with her now gloveless hands. "If we make it back... be ready." Rick informed them, "Adeline, you have your gun?" He questioned, eyeing his sister who nodded her head and lifted the bloodied coat up to show the sleek black pistol on her side.

T-Dog looked up to the officer, "What about Merle Dixon?" he inquired to the man with the key. In a swift movement, Rick retrieved the keys from his pocket and tossed them to the man. After he caught them, Rick picked up the axe and held it tightly in his hands ━

"WE NEED MORE GUTS."

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