meanstreak
rick grimes 𝘹 fem!𝘰𝘤
© WANDARYEN ──── 2024

As a group, we pulled off the top wooden boards that were meant to keep things out of the well, everyone circled around it while the walker lazily grabbed at the walls. I was hunched forward, my hands placed on my knees, and my eyes squinting past the sun.

"How long you think it has been down there?" Glenn questioned.

"Long enough to grow gills," Andrea commented.

I looked away from the walker in disgust, no longer being able to look at it as I stood up straight. "We need to get it out. Cover the well back up and close it off. We don't want to touch this well until we get it completely cleaned out — even then, I wouldn't touch this water with a ten foot pole."

Lori nodded in agreement from beside me. "God knows what it's doing to it."

"Easy. Put a bullet in its head." T-Dog suggested. "I'll get a rope."

Maggie shook her head, her hands placed on her hips as she began to protest. "Woah guys, no." Glenn slowly looked over at her, "why not? Its a good plan." He spoke softly.

Andrea raised an eyebrow, "it's a stupid plan."

I crossed my arms over my chest tightly, "If that thing hasn't contaminated the water yet, shooting it definitely will. Then this well no longer does us any good."

Shane sighed, "She's right, we can't risk it."

"It has to come out alive." T-Dog arched an eyebrow. Shane nodded while placing his hands on his hips, "so to speak."

I looked around at everyone and shrugged my shoulders, "but how?"

"Maybe some meat? I can grab some canned ham from the fridge." Maggie suggested and I nodded my head. "Good idea." Maggie was about to walk off before I quickly grabbed her arm. "Don't tell dad."

A gentle laugh escaped her lips, knowing our father would have a cow on top of the stress that was already building up. Maggie disappeared off to the house to grab a piece of meat as bait, only to return a few minutes later with it.

Together, we put the ham on a hook with a fishing line attached, slowly descending the ham down into the well. While Dale was holding the line, Shane was holding a rope with a choke at the very end to catch the swimming walker.

"Hes not going for it," Dale sighed.

T-dog was leaning against his knee as his foot was standing on the edge of the well, his wounded arm resting on top. "Maybe 'cause a canned ham don't kick and scream when you try to eat it."

Lori nodded, "hes right." She was kneeling down before the well, her hands grasping the edges, "There's a reason the dead didn't come back to life and start raiding our cupboards."

"That's funny," I murmured under my breath.

Andrea hummed, causing my gaze to flicker towards the blonde. "We need live bait." The group fell silent as they all turned to Glenn simultaneously.

"You guys aren't serious — are you?" I questioned carefully.

Glenn's tongue poked at the inside of his cheek, a sarcastic smile forming on his lips as his head lowered. "They're very serious. In fact — it's the most serious I've ever seen them."

I wanted to laugh. I waited for the punchline but everyone continued to peer at one another with similar inner thoughts, giving Glenn no chance to object what they were about to do to him.

"You guys are crazy." I nervously ran my fingers through my hair before pushing my reading glasses on top of my head, keeping my hair out of my face.

Glenn sighed, "tell me about it."

"Maggie, why don't you go ahead and get us a horse. T-Dog, grab us some more rope." Shane instructed. My sister was about to turn away but I quickly shook my head and held my hand out as protest. "Whoa, guys, no. This is incredibly dangerous."

Shane turned to me with his hands on his waist, "do you want to get this thing out or not?"

"Yes, but not—"

"It's the only way," Andrea insisted.

I looked to my sister in disbelief. She gently shrugged her shoulders before going off to retrieve one of our horses as T-Dog had already left to get some rope.

Glenn moved down to sit on the edge of the well, his legs stretched out in front of him with his feet on the other side of the well against the edge. Shane was wrapping the rope around his waist and legs, Lori handing him a flashlight. "Did I mention I really liked your new hair cut?" the younger boy asked nervously.

Shane patted his arm, "hey, don't worry about it bud, we're gonna get you outta' there in one piece."

Glenn clutched onto the flashlight while looking down. "Living piece," he corrected Shane. "Dont forget that part." He tossed over the rope that was going to be used to slip around the walker over his shoulder.

The rope that would be holding Glenn, was wrapped around a small pole that connected to the well, making it easier for us to feed him slowly into the well. Maggie stood by, her arms crossed firmly over her chest while I joined everyone by the rope that held Glenn.

"You people are crazy." Maggie shook her head quickly.

"Maggie, come on, the sooner we get it done the better." I sighed, taking a stance between the others and grabbing onto the rope.

Dale nodded, standing at the end of the rope. "Give us an eye there Maggie."

She hesitated, thinking about it briefly before trudging over to the well to watch Glenn.

Glenn slowly slipped down into the well, his weight now fully on the rope that was tangled around his body. My small hands gripped onto the object, my knuckles slowly turning white.

"You doing okay?" Maggie called down to Glenn, bending over and resting her hands on her knees.

"Yup, doing great!" He shouted out.

Very slowly, we guided the rope for Glenn, letting him into the well at ease. But as we did so, I noticed the pole was slowly starting to give out. Too much weight was being applied and pulling it up from the ground.

"Wait, guys—" I stopped mid-sentence, quickly peaking behind us as the pole came up off the ground — causing us to lose our grip onto the rope.

I gasped with panic as each of us lost our balance — nearly toppling over each other from the weight exchange, sending Glenn further into the well at a faster pace.

A scream erupted from the well as everyone quickly jumped for the rope, catching it before it completely dropped Glenn inside.

T-Dog had the pole between both of his muscular arms, the heels of his boots digging into the dirt as everyone jumped to his aid with their own added strength. I for one, quickly scrambled over towards the well, my eyes widened with fear and my arm outstretched inside the well as far as it could go.

My fingers wiggled with anticipation. "Glenn! Grab onto my hand!"

He looked up at me in panic, reaching up as our fingers slapped against each other a few times before he finally grabbed onto my hand the further he got pulled up. I placed my other hand on the edge while using all the strength in me to help pull Glenn up.

Once he reached the top, I grabbed the back of his shirt with a death-grip and yanked him out the rest of the way — both of us diving onto the ground with ragged breathing.

"Thanks," he heaved heavily while holding his hand up.

I tiredly hit his hand with my own several times before letting my arm drop across my stomach. "No problem, glad — glad I could help."

Glenn rolled over and finally got to his feet before reaching down and helping me back on my own.

"Well, back to the drawing board." Dale sighed.

Glenn handed him the rope. "Says you." He walked off away from the well, brushing his hands against his jeans, leaving us to stand there staring at each other; before Dale looked over the well, slightly tugging on the rope seeing it was in fact, attached to the walker.

I let out an annoyed sighed, wiping the sweat from my forehead. "Now we use the horse," T-Dog raised his eyebrows.

We started to guide the horse away from the well with the help of pulling onto the rope. It was tangled onto the horses saddle while the rest of us stood by the well using the rest of our strength to try and pull the walker out.

As hard as we pulled, the walker slowly appeared at the top of the well, its back against the edge while its arms were flying towards T-Dog who stood by, yelling at everyone to pull harder.

"Its stuck!" Shane shouted, but no one gave up.

The harder we pulled, the piece of rope that was wrapped around the walkers stomach, slowly split the walker in half, causing its upper body to detach from its lower.

Guts falling out onto the ground while the lower half slowly tumbled its way back into the well. T-Dog looked away in disappointment while everyone stared down at the half broke walker that groaned towards them.

I couldn't help but let out a laugh — a snicker leaving my lips as my sister looked at me with raised eyebrows. I placed my hands on my hips that were burning from how tightly I held the rope. "So there's that."

"We'll seal off this well," Dale stood beside Shane who rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, might be a good idea."

I slowly closed my eyes as the smell of the walker started to stiffly travel through my nose, causing a burning feeling to bring tears to my eyes. "What do we do about—" I was cut off suddenly by T-Dog using a pipe to smash against the walkers head.

Blood and brains spitting out as fast as it was being hit. Maggie grabbed onto my arm for the both of us to turn away in disgust.

Once T-Dog finally had stopped, he tossed the pipe to the side, out of breath. "Good thing we didn't do anythin' stupid, like shoot it."

Later that evening, after a much needed shower — I back in my usual spot on the porch in the rocking chair. A candle lit beside me on the small table as I held a book in my hand. My glasses were on the bridge of my nose as I let the sound of the crickets fill my surroundings and the small hoots coming from an owl in a nearby tree.

I tilted my head to the side against the chair and tucked my finger in between the pages I was currently reading before settling my book down onto my lap. My eyes were tired and I felt like the smell of the walker was still lingering in the air — it was the kind of smell you could never forget.

I turned to the candle and quickly blew it out before standing to my feet. Before turning to the front door, I noticed someone coming out of the camp. Someone with long dark hair traveling through the grass to get further away from any prying eyes.

I squinted my eyes at the person, recognizing the purple flannel and brown boots that belonged to Lori. I stood there for a moment, watching as she drifted further away from the house and knelt down towards a broken tree stump. My eyebrows raised curiously just slightly before I turned to the front door and disappeared into the house.

dylan
if you remember this story and you've been here when this was originally published, I sort of made Lori the bad guy throughout the plot — not directly treating her the way most people do but as I've grown up (I was 21-22, i'm now 27) I've realized this woman actually didn't deserve a lot of the shit she's received from the fandom. GRANTED her doing what she did to Rick is completely unjustifiable... I think we can agree we've met far more WORSE people on this show and she's a saint compared to the others. So as I go through and fix this story, I will be taking away a lot of the elements I added between Sienna and Lori. They're not going to be friends because Sienna... literally falls in love with Rick, but they also won't be enemies. There will be a clear mutual agreement where they stand and kind of like acceptance that things are different (especially during the prison era) and they can at least cross paths without glaring at each other like preschoolers.