Broken Sundown

"Are you going to be alright here?" Rick asked me, away from the others.

"I just don't think this is the best idea." I said quietly, helping him into a trench coat and thick rubber gloves. "Isn't there an easier way."

"No, and if we smell like them, we have a chance."

I nodded and sighed quietly, worried for the hundreth time in a few hours that I could lose him.

"Hey, it'll be okay." He reassured me, trying to smile. "We'll make it over to the van and we will get out of her together. I promise."

"Just don't get yourself killed out there." I say.

"I won't." He nodded and hugged me quickly, awkwardly.

Once fully protected, the guys rushed a geek in the alley, beating his skull in and dragging him back to the building. Once the body was inside, it was Rick who hesitated to chop the body, and he quickly searched the walker for a wallet.

"Organ donor." Glenn commented, looking at the wallet that Rick handed to him, as Rick explained the contents of the once living man's wallet.

"If I ever find my family, I'm going to tell them about Wayne." Rick commented.

My weak stomach made me turn away as the others tore the body to pieces. I couldn't handle the smell or the sight of it, fuck, the geek still looked like a human. It wasn't his fault this happened to him. When the body was chopped enough, everyone began to cover Rick and Glenn in dirty blood and guts. Rick threw T-Dog the key to the hand cuffs to release Merle when they returned.

Before Rick was so covered that touching him would become dangerous, I pushed back the bottom of his trench coat and slid one of my stolen pistols into his front pocket. He looked at my confused for a moment but then his eyes met mine.

"Just in case." I said and he nodded at me.

"Thank you."

Once Rick and Glenn left the building into the alley, covered in blood and guts of our walker sacrifice, the rest of us raced to the roof. My heart was racing from more than just the run, but also with the fear that this plan wouldn't work and I could potentially lose Rick. He had already retaken the hold on my heart he had when we were teenagers, and his familiarity was all I had this world right now, and maybe ever again. If anything happened to him, it would be on my shoulders because I let him follow through with this insanity.

"Do you see them?" I asked breathlessly.

"Noo- wait, there they are." Morales said and pointed out.

Thunder caused us all to look up at the sky, seeing the approaching storm.

"Shit." I murmured.

"That asshole is out on the street with the handcuff keys?" Merle yelled.

T-Dog simply looked at him and held up the key, wiggling it in front of Merle who surprisingly had to comment. T-Dog was making an emergency broadcast to the rest of the group to let them know that we were having trouble getting away from the department store. The reception was bad, and their message didn't seem to come back through.

I couldn't focus on what was going on below me, too scared for Rick and Glenn. Glenn was just a kid after all, how was he brave enough for this? I sure as hell couldn't be. I couldn't believe that not one walker was going after the two of them. Fingers crossed and hopes high, we all waited in anticipation.

But that damn thunder. That brought bad news. We felt it first as it started to hit the roof, but the rain didn't take long to start coming down. We were fucked now.

Morales tried to reassure us that it was just a cloud burst, that it would pass. But we could already see on the streets that the walkers who previously walked right past Rick and Glenn were now approaching them, staring at them and then they were chasing.

"Rick!" I screamed, even thought I knew he couldn't hear me.I didn't want to sit back and watch as something happened, so I took off down the stairs. We had to be prepared if and when they came back. If they made it over that gate safe, we would need to be just as ready.

Morales and Jacquie,now finally introduced by name, took off after me.

"They're leaving us!" Andrea yelled.

"No they're not, we need to get down there!" I screamed. "Rick wouldn't leave us, he's not like that."

As the three of us ran down the stairs, I could see that the geeks had just about broken through the last wall. Glenn radioed us to tell us that they were coming. But T-Dog was still on the roof, and that meant Merle was too. But I didn't have time to think about them. I needed to save my ass and Rick's ass too.

It didn't take long to run to the loading dock, where I peaked through a chained door, waiting for the sound or sight of Rick or even Glenn approaching. Morales and Andrea held onto the chain that would pull open the loading dock and Jacqui and I gathered the rest of our bags so we could jump in and go.

"What is that?" Andrea asked and I braced myself for the impact of the van against the door.

"It's them." I said.

Suddenly there was a banging on the door and the loading dock was pulled open as quickly as we could get it open, T-Dog running into the room and screaming at us not to leave him. As soon as that door was opened wide enough, we started throwing bags into the back. Rick yanked me up into the back of the truck and into his arms, but there was no time to enjoy being reuinited just yet. We still weren't completely safe.

Rick ran to the front of the truck and got back into the drivers seat, having not shut the engine down in the first place and took off. And just in time too, because the zombs were here and we were about to be dinner. After we were in the clear, everyone sat in the back panting and I climbed up to the passenger seat.

Rick looked back to see fi we have everyone and the girls looked around and then at T-Dog. Everyone was thinking the same thing, but didn't vocalize.

"I dropped the damn key." T-Dog finally said, pissed at himself.

To this, no one had anything to say.