Survivors

Rick and I were now following this guy named Glenn across the rooftops.

"Back at the tank, why'd you stick your neck out for us?" Rick asked as Glenn opened a hatch on the roof.

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

I understood what he was saying, but I still couldn't see myself relying on someone that much. Especially not strangers. I've been fine with going with how things have been because I don't know much about the severity of our situation. Whether this is localized to the US or if this happening all across the world. Also I've just never felt like I was truly in danger.

I know I killed myself back in the Lab, but now that I'm out here where I can do whatever I want? I don't think I would stand by these people if it meant I was going to die. Maybe that makes me no better than before, but I don't want to live for other people anymore. I want to live because I want to…

"I'm back. Got guests, plus 4 geeks in the alley." Glenn called over the radio. We were coming down some stairs and I could hear these 'geeks' as he called them. 2 were directly in between us and the door across the alley, when 2 men came running out in protective gear and bats. As they beat the walkers, me, Rick and Glenn ran past and into the door.

Rick was immediately grabbed and had a gun pointed at his face by a blonde woman.

"You son of a bitch. We ought to kill you." The woman said.

"Just chill out, Andrea. Back off, he has a kid." A Hispanic man, one of the people that ran out to deal with the walkers, said as he started taking the gear off.

"He's right, Andrea. Are you going to kill that man right in front of his son? Ease up." A black woman came up beside Andrea.

Andrea glanced at me for only a moment before glaring at Rick again.

"We're dead because of this stupid asshole!" She said.

I keeping my hand next to the beretta I kept hidden under the back of my shirt, but I didn't draw it. As long as they didn't see me as a threat and the blond didn't realize her safety was still on then there was no reason to make things worse.

"Andrea, I said back the hell off." The man from before said. Andrea finally relented, fighting back tears.

"We're dead. All of us. Because of you." She managed to get out. Everyone seemed to breathe easier now that she was no longer pointing the gun at Rick, but there was still an underlying tension. Obviously due to the fact that we had most likely drawn walkers from all over from having to fire so many shots.

We followed them into a clothing shop where we could see the glass doors that led to the streets. It was crowded with walkers beating against the glass.

"Helicopter? Man, that's crap. Ain't no damn helicopter." The black man that had helped the other guy beat down the walkers said.

"You were chasing a hallucination." Another said.

"I saw it." Rick said firmly.

"And I heard it." I spoke up beside him.

They wanted to try their radio, but weren't able to get a signal. That's when we heard the sound of a rifle going off from the roof.

"Oh no. Is that Dixon?" Andrea groaned, heading for the roof and everyone else followed.

I looked around the by the doors of the building, after all most buildings like this tended to have metal shutters that you could lower. I wasn't seeing any though.

"Damn." I cursed while looking around the room and noticed all the different stands and clothes racks. I quickly began tossing the mannequins down directly in front of the doors, following it up by dragging the clothing racks down with them. I saw banner hanging up in the back.

"Bradbury's STOREWIDE SALE" it read in large letters. I cut it down and began hanging it up directly in front of the doors, pulling taut across them just over the clothes racks and mannequins. I doubted it would hold them off for long, but it would be better than nothing. Then I began grabbing all the plastic hangers off the rack and dropping them all around. On this tile floor, something like this slipped around as easy as if there was grease on the floor.

I'm sure there's more I could do, but it wouldn't be long before they notice I wasn't with them. So I hurried up the stairs, hearing bits of a scuffle as I ascended them.

"If I get loose, you'd better pray! Yeah, you hear me, you pig?!" I heard a new voice yell, right as I made it to the doorway at the top of the stairs.

"Yeah, your voice carries. Adam, where are you?" Rick said before looking around the rooftop as he called for me.

"Here." I said, coming across the platform that went over large pipes to stand next him.

"You alright?" He asked me as he put his hand on my head.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" I nodded to his cheek that was already red.

"Fair enough." He chuckled as he rubbed his wrist.

Morales stepped up beside us, clearing his throat.

"You're not Atlanta PD. Where you from?" He asked.

"Up the road a ways." Rick replied.

"Well, Officer Friendly, from up the road a ways, welcome to the big city." He said and paused before continuing with a confused expression.

"Before, with Merle, you said that you were looking for your wife and kid. Isn't Adam your son? Do you have another child?" He asked.

Rick and I chuckled simultaneously.

"Ha, Adam isn't my son. We met in a hospital where I woke up during this whole thing. We've been traveling together since." Rick replied.

"Don't worry, Rick isn't a pervert." I spoke up and Morales gave Rick a suspicious look.

"Sorry I guess I shouldn't joke about that. Seriously Rick is a good person." I said genuinely to Morales. He watched me for a second before finally laughing himself.

"Haha. If we make it back I'll introduce you to my kids, Adam. I'm sure you'll be good friends." He said.

"I'd like that." I replied simply.

We were heading back down to check and see if this building has an access to the sewer. That's when they found the clothing area in the state that I had left it.

"What the hell happened here?" Andrea said as she looked around.

"Oh I did this." I said holding up my hand.

"Some of the walkers had bricks in their hand so I figured it was only a matter of time before they broke through. So I decided to make it a little more difficult."

I was met with dumbfounded looks until Rick stepped up to me.

"We'll talk about this later. For now let's get to the basement." He said. Everyone looked at me one last time before continuing on. Rick put a hand on my shoulder and looked at me.

"Adam. I know your parents taught you a lot but you can't separate from the adults. What if something happened to you?" He asked in a disappointed tone.

"But nothing did happen." I shrugged.

"That's not the point. You can't keep going off on your own. From now own you can't go anywhere alone, I mean it." He said seriously.

"Rick. I appreciate you looking out for me, but you are not my Father. I know you're just looking out for me, but I'm looking out for us too. When have you seen me do something with no purpose or reason?" I replied beginning to get irritated.

"Adam I-" he began.

"You don't care. I know. You want to keep me safe, but I'm not your son." I finished.

"No, its because i care. I know im not your father and you aren't my son, but i still want you to be safe. Will you just let me keep you safe? It puts me at ease when I don't have to worry about you." Rick said.

"Ugh, fine." I sighed heavily as Rick patted my back.

"Good. Now why don't you do me a big favor and go up to the roof with T-Dog and watch Merle for me. You still have ammo in your beretta?" He asked. When I nodded he continued.

"I hate to ask this of you, but if Merle causes anymore trouble can I trust you to handle it? He's handcuffed up there so it shouldn't be an issue." I just nodded at Rick's words. At least being up there would give me a bit of freedom.

When I got to the roof again I could hear T-Dog making calls over the radio.

"I'm hoping to hear anybody's voice 'cause I'm getting sick and tired of hearing mine."

"Yeah, well, that makes two of us. Why don't you knock that crap off? You're giving me a headache, boy." Merle said from where he was sitting.

"I think that's just the drug withdrawals." I said, walking across the sit by the rifle.

"Whatchu know about drugs, brat." He spat back, and I just shrugged.

"Who knows." I replied.

I took this bit of free time, to clean the cut I had made on my arm and rebandage it.

"When did you do that? Is that from a geek?" T-Dog asked nervously from beside me, Merle just watched me. Seeing the other marks on my arms I could tell that something about them registered with him. I couldn't see any marks on him, but it's likely he was abused.

"Nah, it wasn't a 'geek'. When we were trapped in that tank, I did this to put some blood on that pipe I threw." I said as i tightened the knot on the bandage.

"A real badass." Merle chuckled mirthlessly before nodding towards the toolbag.

"Hey, kid. Why don't you grab me that hacksaw over there so's that I can get out of these cuffs." Merle continued. I just shrugged in response.

"Wouldn't do you much good. That saw is too dull to cut through those cuffs. Be better off twisting them until they break since you're free to move everything but your one arm. Though your wrist would break first." I replied.

He glared at me a little, but didn't say anything. T-Dog tried the radio again and me as well as Merle sighed.

"You're not going to get through to them on that radio while we're inside the city. Especially with this storm coming. Signal is too weak." I said while looking out over the wall.

"And how do you know that." T-Dog asked.

"Father taught me." I shrugged.

"Officer Friendly down there teach you the hand cuff thing too?" Merle asked.

"Rick isn't my Father. Besides, Mother taught me the handcuff thing." I replied.

"Where are your parents?" T-Dog asked, showing genuine concern. I could see Merle watching me for my response.

"Who knows? Your guess is probably as good as mine."

I was still up top looking down at the street, except now I was watching as Glenn and Rick walked through the streets covered walker gore.

"You guys let them go covered in walker guts, when it's about to rain?" I asked dumbfounded. Aren't these people supposed to be adults? Is that why Rick made me stay up here with Merle when they found out the sewers were a dead end?

It's too late to go down and help them, so I looked around until my eyes landed on the rifle. I picked it up and checked the ammo, it only had a few more shots left in it.

"You got anymore ammo in this thing?" I turned to Merle. He grinned at me as a response.

"Do you?" I asked again, pulling out my beretta

"Whoa, easy Adam! You don't want to shoot him." Morales said, coming up beside me.

"I think that I want to cover Rick and Glenn when this storm starts to wash away that walker gunk you put on them." I replied curtly as I began to feel the first drops of rain begin to fall.

"Just get the ammo from him if you don't want your friend down there to risk his life anymore than he already is." I said, quickly running to the edge and propping up the rifle on the ledge. I bolted in a round and looked down the scope to where Rick and Glenn were.

The rain was steadily increasing and I could see a walker behind them begin to charge forward. With a quick exhale I squeezed the trigger, bracing myself against the ledge for the kick. Rick had turned around ready to swing his axe, but watched as the walker's head erupted with a bullet and fell to the ground.

I could see him turn to Glenn and they began running towards the fence.

"2 more. Where's that ammo!" I yelled as I chambered another round. I fired another round, now at a walker in front of them, the bullet went through the left eye sending the walker spinning as it fell. Last shot.

They had just made it to the fence and one of the walkers was not living up to its namesake, it was running after them, just behind. With another trigger pull the walker collapsed as they jumped over the fence.

I kept looking down the scope even though I didn't have any more bullets just to watch them as they got to the truck and bust through a different gate, away from the one they had jumped over.

A couple minutes later, that the other had spent freaking out thinking that Rick and Glenn were leaving us behind, Glenn called in over the radio. I could also hear the alarm of a car going off that was steadily moving through the city. Seemed Rick had decided to use a car alarm to distract the walkers in the same that it had drawn walkers outside the house we had stayed with Morgan and Duane.

"Those rollup doors facing the street… Meet us there and be ready."

"Come on! Let's go, let's go!" Morales yelled, and I could feel a tug on my shoulder from Jackie.

"You heard him, Adam. We have to get to the doors." She said gently and I nodded as I followed after them.

"Hey, you can't leave me here!" Merle called out them.

They pushed me through the door first and bounded down the steps, hearing the cries of Merle with every step until eventually I heard the door shut.

We waited at the rollup doors, hearing the alarm get farther away.

"They're here! They're in here!" T-Dog yelled as Rick pounded on the door.

"The stuff is slowing them down but not by much." T-Dog yelled again running and hopping into the back of the box truck. I could hear them further inside the store, as we all got inside, Rick grabbing my arm and lifting me in. Seeing the first one come through the door just as Morales lowered the truck door.

I was sandwhiched between Jackie and Andrea when after everyone had calmed down a little, Morales hopped in the passenger seat next to Rick.

"I dropped the damn key…" T-Dog eventually said. Everyone gave him looks. Not necessarily bad looks, but still looks of silent judgement. I had to hold my laugh at the irony, as they were basically loading all the blame on one person. Sure he had the key, but none of them stayed behind to help. Just running for their lives. Yet I couldn't blame them.

In a world like this you have to cut out the problematic ones, and that happened to be Merle this time. Only one's own survival truly mattered anymore.