When I finally regained my hearing, Rick was talking on the radio with some boy. He walked us through how to get out, and we managed that. I was in my adult caracal form to move swiftly, and try not to draw more walkers by seeing to humans. Rick was shooting any walker that got close to us, and nearly shot the boy that saved us when we were running past a gate.

"Mot dead!" He exclaims before grabbing Rick. "Cmon!"

He led us deeper into the alleyway before climbing a yellow ladder. I would be able to climb, so I jumped on Rick's back and dug my claws into him, sending a silent apology as I did so. He quickly started climbing and the two men stopped on a little ledge thing to catch their breathe and see where to go from there. When we saw a geek start climbing, the boy knew then to lead us out again.

"Bright side: it'll be the fall that kills us. I'm a glass-half-full kinda guy."

I jumped off Rick's back as soon as we got on the roof. I walked a bit ahead, monitoring the situation. We came to an area that would cross over to the other roof. Down below the alley was blocked by a bus.

"You the one who barricaded the alley?" Rick asked.

"Somebody did. I guess when the city got overrun, whoever did it was thinking not many geeks would get through." The boy told us.

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

"Call it foolish, naive hope." The boy takes off his jacket, throwing it down the hatch. "That if I'm ever that far shit creek, somebody might do the same for me. Guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you. Oh, and I didn't want to see this unique cat get torn apart like the horse. She yours?"

"In a way." Rick shrugs and the boy starts climbing down. "We've got some type of luck, Rosie. Stay in that form until we know its safe for you."

I nodded and jumped on his back again, clawing it, which I knew I'd help bandage and clean it later, and Rick began climbing down and closing the hatch. When we got to the bottom, I jumped off and followed the two out into the alley. The boy talked in his radio about four geeks and two guests. When the walkers started coming for us, two figures appeared in all black from a doorway across from us. The boy made us run through the door as the figures beat the walkers till they were dead dead. Immediately a blonde woman pinned Rick to the wall with a gun to his head. I immediately shifted and grabbed her wrist as a warning, my other hand on my hunting knife, still in its thigh sheaf.

"Just chill out, Andrea. Back off." A hispanic man told her. I growled.

"Ease up." A dark skinned woman pleaded, watching the blonde woman, Andrea, as the other three males had their eyes on me.

"Ease up? You're kidding me, right? We're dead because of these stupid assholes." Andrea says, glaring at me from the corner of her eye as she still held Rick at gunpoint. I felt my eyes turn yellow and into slits.

"Andrea, I said back the hell off." The hispanic man said sternly. She still held Rick at gunpoint as her eyes got teary. "Well, pull the trigger."

"We're dead– all of us." She said, pulling the gun away. "Because of you." She said, looking straight at Rick as she said that.

"I don't understand." Rick said, catching his breath as I sigh.

"Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies." The hispanic grabbed Rick and pulled him off as the boy from before held a hand on my back and gently lead me along with them. I ignores the talk.

"Hey, I'm sorry for uh, assuming you were a cat?" The boy said weakly.

"I am a cat. A caracal to be exact. I've been able to shift between human, caracal, and a horse ever since I was a child." I shrug. "I'm Rosie."

"Glenn." He shakes my hand before noticing my stomach. "Oh." He then starts to get a bit awkward. "Uh, how far along are you?"

"7 months." I pat my stomach as the dark skinned woman comes over.

"How about I take you to the roof? It's much safer than down here." She says, glancing to the glass doors as a lot of geeks pound on it.

"Sure, thank you." I then hear gunshots and the men say something, but I only hear one word from their talk. 'Dixon'. My heart stops.

"Dixon?" I repeat before running up the stairs behind the men as the whole group run to the roof. We get out and I'm blocked from seeing the man. Glenn and Rick are blocking me from the man's view.

"Now, Merle, just relax, okay?" The hispanic says as I try to place the voice. I freeze when I hear the name. Merle Dixon is still alive and kicking? I missed the rest of the conversation, but I didn't miss a beat as I broke through Rick and Glenn, and called Merle's name when I saw him beating T-Dog.

"M-Merle?" I stutter out a whimper as I see him freeze, still pointing a gun to T-Dog's head. "I-Is that you, Merle? Merle Dixon..."

"Ro..." he mutters, not looking back to me, and Rick gets up from where Merle punched him, and then handcuffs Merle to a pipe. "Who the hell are you, man?!" Merle exclaims as Rick sits him up on the floor.

"Officer Friendly." Rick says, turning away. "Look here, Merle. Things are different now." Rick tells him as I still stand, frozen beside Glenn. "There are no Niggers 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."

"Screw you, man." Merle said weakly and Rick looked at me and back.

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

"Yeah? Well, screw you twice." Rick gets mad and holds a gun to his head.

"Ought to be polite to a man with a gun. Only common sense."

"Rick..." I whimper softly as I watch my brother and an old friend.

"You wouldn't, you're a cop." Merle rasps out.

"All I am anymore, is a man looking for his wife and son." Rick says lowly. "Anybody who gets in the way of that is gonna lose. I'll give you a moment to think about that." Rick pats him down and finds something. "Got some on your nose there." He flicks Merle's nose and gets up.

"What're you gonna do, arrest me?" Merle laughs before seeing Rick toss it. "Hey! What are you doing? Man, that was my stuff! Hey!" Merle grunts, trying to get out of the cuffs. "If I get loose you'd better pray! You hear me, you prick?!" Merle proceeds to struggle. "You hear me?!"

"Yeah, your voice carries." Rick says walking away with the hispanic.

I stayed in my spot by Glenn, waiting for Merle to calm down. When he does, he motions me closer and finally notices my stomach.

"Don't tell me that's Officer Friendly's kid." Merle groans.

"No. Definitely not. 'Officer Friendly' is my big brother." I giggle. I gently lower myself to sit beside him and he wraps his free arm around me.

"I see no resemblance." Merle says, glaring daggers into Rick's back.

"He's my adoptive older brother. I was... an orphan and his family took me in. I thought I told you and Daryl this already?" I question.

"Probably did, Ro, but I must've forgot." He shrugs.

"That tends to happen when you do drugs." I pinch his side.

"So, who's kid?" Merle asks, rolling his eyes slightly.

"Um..." I look away slightly before deciding to scoot away from him.

"Don't tell me it's Daryl's? Did you two hook up while I was in jail?"

"No. I haven't seen you or Daryl in years, Merle. The... the father is just someone I..." my eyes start to water somewhat. Merle stiffens.

"Ro, don't tell me..." he mutters, watching my face sadly. I curl into myself and he grabs me and pulls me close as I cry softly. "'M sorry, Ro."

"Rosie, cmon. We're going downstairs." Rick tells me.

"I'm... I'm going to stay up here, Rick." I lean into Merle as I say this.

"Oh, alright. Be careful." Rick says, sending Merle a warning look before going downstairs with the others, leaving only me, Merle, and T-Dog. I got up and out of Merle's arms, going and checking on T-Dog. Merle huffed.

"Anybody out there?" T-Dog spoke into the walkie talkie. "Hello? Anybody read? I'm hoping to hear somebody's voice 'cause I'm getting sick and tired of hearing mine." I smile softly before frowning at Merle.

"Yeah, well, that makes two of us." Merle piped in.

"Merle, zip it. You're in enough trouble as it is. I just got you back, I don't want to have to shoot you because of your racist input."

"Why don't you knock that crap off, boy? You're giving me a headache."

"Why don't you pull your head out of your ass, maybe your headache will go away." T-Dog snaps back at Merle. I sigh as I put a bandaid on him. Merle chuckles as I roll my eyes. "Try some positivity for a change. Damn."

I ignore the two until Rick comes back up to the roof with the rest. Not long later, we get a plan. A nasty plan, but if it'll get us out alive, so be it.