CHAPTER ONE » ATLANTA
"I'm a glass half full kinda guy."

♔

"Hey dumbass. Hey, you in the tank. Cozy in there?"

There was no reply.

Glenn and I shared a look.

"Hey, are you alive in there?" I asked, growing increasingly worried for the well-being of this stranger.

"Hello? Hello?" The frantic voice that finally replied seemed vaguely familiar.

"There you are." I said, mildly relieved, for some reason, by the fact that this idiotic stranger was alive. "You had us wondering."

"Where are you?" The man in the tank questioned. "Outside?" He guessed. "Can you see me right now?

"Yeah, we can see you." Glenn said.
"You're surrounded by walkers. That's the bad news."

I punched Glenn's shoulder. "Dumbass. Now he's gonna think there's good news!"

"There's good news?" The guy asked hopefully.

"No." My best friend replied bluntly.

"Listen, whoever you guys are, I don't mind telling you I'm a little concerned in here."

"Oh man." Glenn said nervously. "You should see it from over here. You'd be having a major freak-out."

I hit Glenn's shoulder again. "Stop it!"

He wasn't lying though. It did look absolutely horrific from out here. Walkers were swarmed all over the tank. You could hardly even see the tank anymore because there were that many of them covering it.

His chances did look slim.

But by the looks of it, some of them had started to join in with the feeding frenzy of the horse. Meaning that there might be a small window of opportunity to get him out of that tank.

"Got any advice for me?"

I grabbed the radio device before Glenn could say anything else stupid.

"Yeah, I'd say make a run for it."

"That's it? Make a run for it?"

"It's not as dumb as it sounds." Glenn defended. "You've got eyes on the outside here. There's one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down. With me so far?"

"So far." The man replied.

"Okay, the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now while they're distracted, you stand a chance. Got ammo?"

The guy sighed. "In that duffel bag I dropped out there. And guns. Can I get to it?"

"No." I shook my head. "Forget the bag, okay? It's not an option. What do you have on you?"

"Hang on."

There was some shuffling about in the tank and I heard a gun being cocked

"Yeah. Yeah. I've got a Beretta with one clip. 15 rounds."

"Make 'em count." I said.

"Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards" Glenn explained. "Be there."

"Hey, what are your names?"

"Have you even been listening?" I asked, shaking my head. God this guy was so unprepared for this. "You're running out of time."

~

I could hear gunshots ringing in the distance but there was no sign of the guy in the tank quite yet.

I could see Glenn getting nervous beside me so I stepped forwards, craning my neck around the corner to see if anyone was coming.

Suddenly, a gun was pointed in my face.

"Whoa! Not dead!" I held my hands up in a surrender position. Then I frowned, realising why the stranger's voice was so familiar. "Wait. Rick?"

He looked shocked too. "Blaire?"

I was about to reply but I spotted a whole herd of walkers squeezing through the gate and coming up behind Rick.

"Oh shit, come on!" I grabbed his arm and started pulling him along with Glenn and I.

"Come on, come on! Back here!" Glenn encouraged. "Come on! Come on!"

The three of us proceeded to sprint down the alley until we reached the ladder.

Glenn got up first and then I hauled myself up, grabbing his hand when I was almost at the top.

I looked down at Rick, who had paused and was looking at the geeks. "What are you doing?! Come on!"

He started to climb up and I held my hand out for him to take.

"Come on, get up"

Once he was safely at the top, the three of us stopped and stared at each other, whilst trying to catch our breath.

I glanced down the ladder to see the bloodied arms of the walkers trying to reach up for us.

"Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood" Glenn commented sarcastically. "You the new sheriff come riding in to clean up the town?"

"It wasn't my intention."

"Yeah, whatever" Glenn said. "Yeehaw. You're still a dumbass."

"Rick" He introduced. "Thanks."

"Glenn. You're welcome."

Glenn looked at me.

"What?"

"Aren't you gonna, you know, introduce yourself?" He said quietly.

"Oh. Rick already knows me."

Glenn frowned. "How? What?"

"You know how I told you I was training to be a cop."

"Yeah?"

"Well, guess who my instructor was."

Glenn glanced at Rick, then back at me. "Oh. Cool."

I rolled my eyes with a smile and looked back down at the walkers below us.

They really weren't giving up this time.

Usually, Glenn and I run into a few on our supply runs. However, they never used to hang around so much. And they never used to be in such massive herds.

"I've never seen this many." I said warily.

"The bright side." Glenn started. "It'll be the fall that kills us." He paused before looking back at Rick. "I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy"

I shook my head, smiling a little, despite the situation.

The three of us climbed further up the ladder to the top of the store.

"Are you the one that barricaded the alley?" Rick questioned.

"Somebody did." I said. "I guess when the city got overrun."

"Whoever did it was probably thinking not many geeks would get through" Glenn added.

"Back at the tank, why'd you stick your neck out for me?"

"Call it foolish, naive hope that if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me" Glenn said. "Guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you."

Rick looked at me and I pointed at Glenn. "What he said."

Glenn started to go down the other ladder to the building and Rick glanced at me awkwardly.

"What?" I frowned.

"Nothing."

"Okay? Well, after you."

Rick hesitated before climbing down the ladder after Glenn.

I followed suit, gripping on to the metal bars and taking more time to get down, considering I wasn't about to be eaten by the geeks this time.

"Got the CB?" Glenn asked as I hopped down onto the floor.

I pulled the radio device out of my back pocket and handed it to him.

"We're back. Got a guest plus four geeks in the alley." He said, receiving a slightly muffled response from the others.

The three of us headed down the staircase to the door, where two walkers were waiting.

T-Dog and Morales jumped out with their protective gear and baseball bats. Immediately, they started slamming the bats against the walkers skulls, continuously repeating the action.

"Let's go!" Glenn shouted, directing us into the store.

We stepped inside the building, where a gun was immediately pointed at Rick.

"You son of a bitch!" Andrea snapped. "We ought to kill you."

"Just chill out, Andrea. Back off." Morales said.

Jacqui nodded. "Come on, ease up."

"Ease up? You're kidding me, right? We're dead because of this stupid asshole."

"Andrea, I said back the hell off!"

"We're dead!" Andrea yelled. "All of us. Because of you."

"I don't understand."

"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" Morales explained. "Not shooting up the streets like it's the O.K. Corral!"

"Every geek for miles around heard you popping off rounds." T-Dog added.

"You just rang the dinner bell." Andrea finished.

"Get the picture now?" Morales asked.

We all simultaneously looked over at the growling walkers, which were pressed up against the doors.

"Oh God." Andrea commented. "What the hell were you doing out there anyway?"

"Trying to flag the helicopter."

I snorted.

Helicopter.

Yeah, I wish.

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

"You were chasing a hallucination, imagining things." Jacqui said. "It happens."

Rick shook his head. "I saw it."

"Hey, T-Dog." I spoke up. "Try that CB. Can you contact the others?" I asked, chucking him the device.

Rick frowned. "Others? The refugee centre?"

Jacqui scoffed. "Yeah, the refugee centre. They've got biscuits waiting at the oven for us."

T-Dog shook his head. "Got no signal. Maybe the roof?" He suggested.

I heard a gunshot ring out in the distance.

"Oh god was that Dixon?" Andrea groaned.

"Every damn time." I mumbled, following the others back upstairs.

To put it simply, Merle Dixon was an asshole.

And just like we thought, sure enough, he was up on the roof, shooting at some of the Walkers on the street below.

"Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?!" T-Dog exclaimed.

Merle just laughed and continued shooting.

Andrea groaned. "Oh jeez."

"Hey! Y'all be more polite to a man with a gun!" Merle shouted, turning to face us. "Huh? Ah! Only common sense."

"Dude, you're wasting bullets we haven't even got." I pointed out.

Merle ignored me and decided to keep laughing.

Apparently, this situation was amusing to him.

I considered punching him in the face.

"And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass." T-Dog added. "Man, just chill"

"Hey! 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." Merle snickered. "That'll be the day."

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

"Hey, T-Dog man, just leave it" Morales cautioned.

T-Dog shook his head. "No"

"All right? It ain't worth it." Morales said. "Now Merle, just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble."

"You want to know the day?" Merle asked, knowing he was about to get a rise out of T-Dog.

"Merle, shut the hell up!" I snapped.

"Yeah" T-Dog replied, anger laced in his tone of voice. "I do."

"I'll tell you the day, Mr. 'Yo.' It's the day I take orders from a–"

"Mother f–"

"No don't!" I yelled but Merle and T-Dog had already started to fight.

T-Dog was knocked to the floor and Rick tried to intervene but ended up being punched in the face too.

I bent down to help him up, checking that he was okay.

"Hey, come on, Merle. That's enough." Morales said.

"Come on. Dixon!" Andrea shouted.

"Whoa, cut it out, man!"

"Stop it! Dixon, get off him! Dixon, you're gonna hurt him!" Andrea
exclaimed.

"Merle, cut it out!"

"Hey asshole stop it!" I stepped forwards just as Merle held a gun to T-Dog's head.

"No no no, please. Please" Andrea said.

"Yeah! All right! We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who's in charge. I vote me!" Merle yelled. "Anybody else? Huh? Democracy time, y'all. Show of hands, huh? All in favor? Huh? Come on. Let's see 'em."

Some people slowly rose their hands.

I didn't.

"Oh, come on." Andrea rolled her eyes. Then she sighed, raising her hand slightly.

"All in favor? Yeah. That's good. Now that means I'm the boss, right? Yeah. Anybody else? Hmm? Anybody?" Merle challenged.

I shared a look with Rick and he nodded.

"Yeah."

I grabbed the gun and smacked Merle on the back of the head with it.

Rick proceeded to grab him and handcuff him to a pipe.

"Who the hell are you, man?!"

"Officer friendly" Rick replied. I snorted. "Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart."

"Screw you, man!"

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

"Yeah? Well, screw you twice."

"Ought to be polite to a man with a gun." Rick mocked, placing the gun to Merle's 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" he paused. "Got some on your nose there."

"What are you gonna do? Arrest me." Merle laughed.

I rolled my eyes.

Rick picked up some of Merle's things and started walking away from him.

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

"Yeah, your voice carries." Rick answered bluntly.

"Do you hear me, you filthy pig?!"

Rick started to head to the side of the roof and Morales and I followed, both of us in awe by his actions.

Nobody has ever had the balls to stand up to Merle like that.

"You're not Atlanta P.D" Morales pointed out. "Where you from?"

"Up the road a ways."

"Well, officer friendly from up the road a ways." Morales smiled.

"Welcome to the big city."

❃

Words: 2236
Published: 8th November 2015

First chapter as promised ;)

As you may be able to see, Glenn and Blaire already have an established friendship and I tried to show that by writing the prologue as some background information. I'm really excited to play on their relationship and see what I can do with the developing feelings they will be having for each other.

I'm not entirely sure when updates will be. I have teen wolf fanfictions on my main account literalydia which I am prioritising at the moment. However, I will try my best to update as frequently as possible.

thanks for reading!