WHITE FLAG

chapter two : glass half full
{ season one - episode two }

"THAT GUY'S IN trouble, Glenn. We gotta do something," Kloe spun her head around to Glenn, who couldn't take his eyes off a man in sheriff uniform. He was on a horse, getting chased by countless amounts of geeks.

They were on a supply run with Morales, Andrea, T-Dog, Merle and Jacqui in Atlanta, which was still overrun with geeks even a month and a half later. The man that was on a horse was underneath a tank that was in the center of the road.

Then, unexpectedly, there was a gunshot from inside the tank. Glenn and Kloe shared a look briefly before the Asian boy reached for the walkie that was connected to his belt, hesitantly pushing down the button on the side of it to see if the guy could hear us through the tank radio.

"Hey," he began, pausing to find words to say. "Hey, you. Dumbass." Kloe's face scrunched up, but there was still no reply. "Yeah, you in the tank. Are you cozy in there?" The brunette gently hit Glenn's arm, playfully rolling her eyes at him with a grin, before it slowly faded.

"He's not answering. Maybe that gunshot was-" the Schmidt girl cut herself off, shaking her head as she stared at the ground. Starting to get annoyed, she snatched the walkie out of Glenn's grip, pulling the walkie closer to her face. "Are you even alive, or did you just, you know..." she removed her index finger from the button, pursing her lips before handing the walkie back over to Glenn, who had a look of reassurance.

"Hello? Hello?" a frantic voice crackled through the radio, causing Glenn and Kloe to sigh with relief, small smiles growing across their faces before Glenn answered.

"There you are. You had us wondering," Glenn sighed.

"Where are you?" the guy in the tank inquired. "Outside? Can you see me right now?"

"Yeah, we can see you," the girl answered, lightly pressing her index finger against the button on the walkie so she could speak. From having to share the walkie, Glenn and Kloe slightly brushed shoulders, which made the girl shiver a little since she wasn't used to such touch.

"You're surrounded by walkers. That's the bad news," Glenn informed. Embarrassed, the brunette pinched the top of her nose, shaking her head at what her best friend had just said to the man.

"There's good news?" the panicked guy questioned hopefully. Glenn hesitated for a moment, finally realizing why the girl was pinching her nose.

"No," he replied bluntly. Kloe released the pinch from her nose and stared at Glenn with disbelief.

"You're literally a dumbass. So much for calling this random dude a dumbass when you're one yourself-" she immediately got cut off by the man on the walkie.

"Look, whoever you two are, I don't mind telling you I'm a little concerned here," the man's voice shook with panic.

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

The Schmidt girl took in a deep breath with frustration at Glenn's comments, gently slapping his arm with the back of her hand. "You're not helping," she muttered, she had to admit though, Glenn was right. The whole tank wasn't even visible anymore, with the group of geeks beside it, gnawing on the now dead horse.

"Got any advice for me?" the man asked, his voice slightly higher with fear.

"Yeah, I'd say make a run for it," Glenn answered truthfully. Now that Kloe thought about it, she probably would've said that too, since it was basically the only thing he could do.

"That's it? Make a run for it?" Without even looking at the man, the girl could just imagine the skeptical face he was pulling.

"My way's not as dumb as it sounds." Kloe quietly snorted at her best friend's statement, considering he was once being oblivious just a few seconds prior. "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."

"You with us so far?" the girl asked, just in case the man hadn't quite understood what Glenn was saying.

"So far."

"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," Glenn explained, rushing his words a little. He stopped for a moment, unsure on what to say, until something pinged into the brunette girl's head.

"Have you got ammo?" she asked, brushing a strand of her raven brown hair out of her face as the cool breeze rushed through the air.

"In that duffel bag I dropped out there, and guns. Can I get to it?"

"Forget- forget the bag, all right? It's not an option. What do you have on you?" she continued, gently tapping her free hand against the railing of where Glenn and her were standing.

"Hang on." Glenn and Kloe turned to each other with looks of hope. The two could've possibly saved someone, but they couldn't be too sure until they got that person back to camp. The silence continued for a few seconds, the sunshine beaming through the clouds onto the two young adults' skin. "I have a Beretta with one clip, fifteen rounds," The man's voice ruffled through the radio, entering the silence that lapped between the two.

"Make them count," Kloe started, "jump off to the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe fifty yards. Be there."

There was an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds, until the man's voice crackled through the radio again, "Hey, what're your names?"

The look of disbelief poured over the girl's facial expression, causing the tension to grow higher and higher through her blood, "Haven't you been listening? You're running out of time!"

"Right," Instantaneously, the guy that the two had once seen climb into the tank from underneath, now pushed open the top of the tank and climbed out, whipping the butt of his gun across a walker's mouth, causing it to fall backwards.

"C'mon, we gotta get him!" Glenn's voice raised, motioning his hands to follow him as he began to climb down a yellow ladder, leading to the alleyway Kloe had just told the man to navigate to. Gunshots were to be heard from where the man was, putting down any geek that got close to him.

Rushing, the girl almost slipped off of the yellow ladder, placing a hand onto her chest with relief, gasping for air. She continued to climb down the ladder, Glenn already down and sprinting towards the metal fence with a gate as the brunette began to follow him.

Forcefully, the two frantically pushed open the gate, only to be greeted with the same man that was in the tank aiming his gun at their heads. "Woah! Not dead!" Glenn yelled, whilst Kloe screamed the word 'woah' over and over. Never once had she ever got a gun pointed at her head.

"C'mon! C'mon!" Glenn and Kloe continued to yell, spinning on their heels to sprint in the direction the two of them had previously just came from. "Back here!" The three of them all peered over their shoulders to see the countless number of walkers barging through the open gate, filling the alley.

The guy shot down two geeks, their bodies lifelessly falling to the ground amongst the crowd of walkers, stumbling over their bodies. "C'mon! C'mon!" the Schmidt girl yelled again, motioning her hand to the ladder.

Glenn pulled himself up first then she hauled herself, beginning to climb up. She glanced down to see if the guy was beneath her or not, but he was still standing in the same position. "What are you doing?! Come on!" she yelled, her voice cracking slightly from overuse. The guy listened to the girl's shout, grasping onto the bar of the ladder, hauling himself up.

There were hundreds of geeks beneath them, stretching out their bony fingers to try and grasp onto the guy's shoes. Kloe glanced back up to see Glenn, who was standing up, reaching out a hand for hers, "Grab on, get up!" Subconsciously, she lifted her hand, placing her palm into his as he used his muscle to pull the girl up, the both of them grunting slightly, steadying herself onto the railing.

The brunette girl spun around to help out the guy, but Glenn was already reaching out a hand for him. "Get up," he spoke calmly. The three of them panted, out of breath from the amount of sprinting they had just attended. Glenn stood between the guy and Kloe, gripping onto the railing as he continued to gasp for air.

Glenn and the girl shared a quick glance before the both of them turned to the guy, who had both of his hands on his knees. "Nice work there, Clint Eastwood," Glenn stated sarcastically, "You the new sheriff come riding in to clean the town?" Kloe breathlessly chuckled and shook her head.

"Wasn't my intention," the guy played along.

"Yeah, whatever. Yeehaw," Glenn carried on, raising one eyebrow at the guy. "You're still a dumbass."

"Today must be my unlucky day," Kloe began with a playful grin on her face, and the two men switched their gaze to her. "I'm standing here with not one, but two dumbasses," she teased, causing Glenn to roll his eyes playfully.

"Rick. Thanks, both of you," the guy, Rick, introduced. Glenn and Kloe switched their gaze to the man as he stuck out a hand in front of Glenn, who looked back and forth at Rick and his hand before placing his own in his, shaking it.

"Glenn," he relinquished his hand and gestured towards the girl standing behind him, "And this is, uh-"

"I'm Kloe. You're welcome," she shook her hand with Rick's as she respectfully smiled at the man, nodding her head. Rick stepped behind Glenn, stuffing his gun into his backpack. While he was doing that, Glenn and the girl gazed down at the endless amount of walkers that were attempting to climb up, "Oh no."

In a split second, Kloe spun around to see Glenn already looking up the second ladder that led to the roof of the building, the one that she had previously slipped on. It also didn't have any safety bars around it, so if you do fall, you're instantly dead, no matter what.

Glenn slowly turned his head over his shoulder to face Kloe and Rick. "The bright side, it'll be the fall that kills us," Glenn shrugged. "I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy," a small sheepish smile formed across Kloe's lips, looking down at her leather shoes to try and hide it.

The three of them began to climb up the ladder, which they successfully made it to the top. The three began to walk across the building roof, glancing down at the city one in a while.

"Are you guys the ones that barricaded the alley?" Rick inquired as the three of them hopped over a wall, which seemed to be a lot easier for Kloe since she wasn't carrying her bow and arrows on this run. Instead, she had a small backpack which carried supplies like water.

"Somebody did... I guess when the city got overrun," Glenn answered, beginning to fasten his pace as did Rick and Kloe, which soon turned into jogging. "Whoever did it was thinking not many geeks would get through."

"Back at the tank, why'd you both stick your necks out for me?" Rick asked, pulling open the heavy metal trapdoor that they had stopped at. Glenn began to remove the backpack off his back as he threw it down.

"Call it foolish, naive hope that if we're ever that far up shit creek, someone will come save us too. Maybe Klo's right, guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you," Glenn shifted his gaze from Rick to beneath him as he slowly made his way down.

Proudly, the Schmidt girl faced Rick with a wide grin on her face, "Knew it." She crawled her way inside, climbing down once again another ladder as Rick did the same above her, shutting the trapdoor, leaving them in complete darkness.

As they hopped down, Glenn and Kloe rushed towards the exit, leading them to a metal staircase. He pulled out the walkie from his belt and brang it up to his face, "Kloe and I are back. Got a guest plus four geeks in the alley." The two continued to rush down the steps, Rick directly behind them. Although, they came to an immediate stop as they spotted two geeks straggling by.

The three of them began to back up, until two masculine figures wearing black armor came storming out of the two doors they were headed to and began beating the shit out of the two geeks. The two men were definitely Morales and T-Dog.

Unexpectedly, Glenn wrapped his fingers around Kloe's wrist as the two began to run in between the two armored men. "Let's go!" Glenn called out to Rick, who hopped over the walkers, dodging the hits he would get if he didn't.

They rushed inside the room where everybody else was, including Andrea as she stumbled over to Rick with anger, aiming a gun right up to his head, "Son of a bitch - we ought to kill you."

"Just chill out, Andrea. Back off," Morales snarled, removing the armor, revealing his sweaty skin. Glenn and Kloe stood in the corner of the room, shocked at everything that was happening. Without realizing, the two of them had their hands entwined with one another. In an instant, Kloe pulled her hand away, feeling her cheeks begin to go red.

"Come on, ease up," Jacqui spoke, who was standing beside Andrea with her palm resting on Andrea's shoulder.

"Ease up? You're kidding me, right?" she scoffed, not taking away the gun that was still pointed to the center of Rick's forehead. "We're dead because of this stupid asshole," she shook her head, glaring her ocean blue eyes deeply into Rick's.

Morales quickly rushed over to Andrea, gritting his teeth, "Andrea, I said back the hell off." The Asian boy and the Schmidt girl stared at the gun that was still aimed at Rick in shock, not knowing what to do. "Well, pull the trigger," Kloe frowned her eyebrows at Morales, clearly not getting what he was saying, as he pulled his t-shirt over his shoulders.

Andrea gave in and turned away, shaking her head, tears filling up her eyes. "We're dead. All of us," she continued to shake her head, "Because of you."

Rick shared a quick glance with the brunette and her best friend before parting his lips to speak, "I don't understand."

Exasperatedly, Morales firmly gripped onto Rick's forearm, leading him into a room as the rest of us followed, Glenn and Kloe being at the very back.

"Look, we came into the city to scavenge for supplies," Morales pushed Rick slightly as they walked through a dark hallway, using Jacqui's flashlight for the only source of light the group had. "You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving! You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the O.K. Corral."

The group all stopped in a room full of clothing, all of their gazes to the door where numerous walkers were trying to break in. "Every geek for miles around heard you popping off rounds," T-Dog complained. Kloe swallowed thickly as she watched everyone else stare at the dead outside.

"You just rang the dinner bell," Andrea muttered beside Rick, breathing heavily, a few strands of her light blonde hair fell onto her sweaty skin.

"Get the picture now?" Morales inquired, but no one answered.

Not even after a second, the walkers began to smash the glass that was blocking them from entering, making Kloe frown deeply as she watched with slight fear.

"Oh God," Andrea commented just above a whisper before everyone took a few steps back. "What the hell were you doing out there anyway?"

"Tryin' to flag the helicopter."

The Schmidt girl scoffed quietly, if there was a helicopter, she was certain that the rest of them including herself would have heard it.

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

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

"Yeah, pretty sure you wouldn't be the only one chasing after the helicopter if we all heard it, bud," Kloe spoke up, nodding along with everybody else.

"I saw it," Rick stated firmly. Morales, Andrea, T-Dog, Glenn, Jacqui and Kloe all glanced at each other, unsure on what to say. Until finally, Morales spun on his heel to face T-Dog.

"Hey, T-Dog, try that CB. Can you contact the others?" Kloe's mind immediately fell on her brother. Knowing Zayn, he would panicking about his younger sister right now, bearing in mind they'd be gone all day.

"Others?" Rick asked with hope, sweat dripping off his forehead. "The refugee center?"

Kloe felt her face scrunch up at the man's words. Refugee center? This guy had to have some serious catching up with the world at this point.

"Yeah, the refugee center," Jacqui replied sarcastically. "They've got biscuits waiting in the oven for us."

"Got no signal," T-Dog twisted the button around to look for range, "Maybe the roof."

Just as T-Dog finished speaking, a loud gunshot rang out through the air, from the roof. It was fairly obvious who it was. Merle Dixon.

"Oh no, is that Dixon?" Andrea groaned, taking a few steps back before sprinting up the stairs. Everyone else followed suit

They all rushed up the stairs, skipping two or three at a time as more gunshots pierced the air, startling the youngest woman there every time while the shots grew louder and louder. Morales and T-Dog pushed the door open, rushing over to where Merle Dixon was standing with a large sniper in his arms.

"Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?!" he shouted, storming over to the man Kloe had hated ever since Zayn, Glenn and her had arrived in camp.

Merle began to laugh viciously, shooting more walkers down from below. Absentmindedly, the brunette girl jumped down so she could stand with her best friend, Glenn. If she was being truly honest, Glenn was definitely the one that made her feel safe, more than anyone in camp, including her own brother.

"Hey! Y'all oughta be more polite to a man with a gun!" Merle raised his sniper, dropping down from the edge of the building so he was level with the rest of them. "Huh?" he grunted with a smile on his face as his feet hit the ground. "Only common sense."

"You're wasting bullets we don't have!" Kloe hissed, gritting her teeth.

"And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill!" T-Dog added, jumping down from the platform he stood on with Morales behind him.

"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. That'll be the day." From how close Merle and T-Dog were, the girl knew Merle was itching for a fight, but as she tried to move, she couldn't. She gazed down at her arm to see Glenn's hand wrapped tightly around her wrist. Glenn was a lot stronger than she had imagined.

"'That'll be the day'? You got something you want to tell me?" T-Dog's voice began to raise, anger boiling in his blood.

"Hey, T-Dog, man, just leave it," Morales cautioned, knowing exactly what the Schmidt girl was thinking.

"No," T-Dog lifted his hand up to Morales to silence him, signaling not to interfere. Even so, Morales ignored T-Dog and continued to speak.

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

Rick turned his head to face Kloe and Glenn, in the corner of her eyes, she could see Glenn raise the one hand he wasn't using on the girl's wrist and shook it while shaking his head.

"You want to know the day?" Merle continued, as if he wanted to fight with T-Dog.

"I swear to God," Kloe muttered under her breath exasperatedly, her eyes locked on Merle.

"Yeah," T-Dog answered, "I do."

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

"Mother fu-" T-Dog threw his fists at Merle, but Merle dodged the hit and knocked T-Dog off his feet with the butt of his sniper.

"Oh God!" Kloe broke out of Glenn's grip and rushed towards T-Dog to help him.

"Hey, come on, Merle! That's enough!" Morales tried to reason. More shouts were spread out across everyone. The brunette girl knelt down beside T-Dog who, in an instant, got back up. She hurried over to Merle so he couldn't do any more damage to the poor man, only to get a massive slap across the face with the back of his hand. Burning began to fill the girl's right cheek, resulting in her stumbling backwards in shock.

"Jesus Christ..." she winced as she gently pressed her fingers against her right cheek. She glanced up to see Rick getting punched in the face, flying backwards. The brunette's gaze switched to Glenn who stood in front of her with his hands on her shoulders.

"Are you all right?" he asked with worry in his voice, in which she quickly nodded, not worrying about the stinging pain in her right cheek, but worrying about the man who was getting beat up. She peered behind Glenn's shoulder to see T-Dog getting brutally beaten by Merle Dixon.

More screams filled the air, begging Merle to stop as Glenn and Kloe rushed over to join the group.

"Merle! Stop!" Kloe screamed. Merle was now kicking the shit out of the poor man in the stomach repetitively.

Merle knelt to the ground, over T-Dog and began whacking him across the face over and over with his clenched, bloodied fist. Morales hurried over and gripped firmly onto Merle's shoulders to get him off the poor man, T-Dog, but in return got an elbow to the stomach, causing him to groan and grimace in pain.

Unexpectedly, everyone went quiet as the sound of a gun cocking filled the panicked atmosphere. Merle was holding a metallic silver gun aimed at T-Dog's head, who was gasping for air.

"No, no, no. Please," Andrea begged from beside Kloe, her watery eyes set on the two men. "Please..."

The sound of thunder rumbled through the air, along with T-Dog's whimpers. Quietly, the girl took a few steps back, brushing a few strands of her brunette hair behind her ear.

Disgustingly, Merle spat onto T-Dog's shirt and began to rub it in. "Yeah! All right!" Merle cheered, stepping off the man, but still kept his gun in place. "We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh?!"

T-Dog immediately crawled over to the rest of the group, causing them all to kneel down to comfort the beaten up man. "Talk about who's in charge! I vote me. Anybody else?!" Simultaneously, they all glared at the man with shocked expressions. "Huh? Democracy time, y'all. Show your hands," he ordered, lifting his own. "All in favor? Huh? Come on. Let's see 'em."

"Oh, come on," Andrea commented from beside the girl, watching Morales slowly lift his hand as she hesitantly raised her's.

Reluctantly, Kloe raised her hand, her other hand being on T-Dog's shoulder, rubbing it gently.

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

"Yeah." Unexpectedly, Rick smacked the gun in his hand firmly into Merle's face, causing him to grunt and fall off his feet. He proceeded to crawl on top of him and handcuffed one of his hands to a pipe.

"Who the hell are you, man?!" Merle questioned.

"Officer Friendly," Rick spun on his heel, grasping onto a pistol and began to reload it. "Look here, Merle. Things are different now. The living are supposed to work together, not the other way around."

"Screw you, man," Merle replied. Simultaneously, Glenn and Kloe glanced over at each other briefly, looking back over at the two men.

"I can see you make a habit of missing the point," Rick squinted his blazing eyes.

"Yeah? Well, screw you twice."

Gritting his teeth, Rick cocked the gun that was in his hand and placed it onto Merle's temple, "Ought to be polite to a man with a gun. 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 glared into Merle's eyes firmly before reaching his hand into Merle's pocket, finding a small bag of a white powdered substance. "Got some on your nose there."

"What're you gonna do? Arrest me?" Merle laughed. Rick stepped towards the edge of the building and threw the small bag over the edge. "Hey! What are you doing?! Man, that was my stuff! Hey!"

Beside the young adult, Glenn rose to his feet, continuing to watch the man that was cuffed to the pipe.

"If I get loose, you'd better pray..." Merle threatened. "Yeah, you hear me, you pig!"

"Yeah, your voice carries," Rick retorted, not bothering to face Merle.

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

"Merle, shut your damn mouth," the brunette girl groaned, glaring at the man who finally sat quiet.

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Words: 4144
- 15th November 2021

Hi all! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter! This is in fact the first proper chapter, the one before was a prologue and was just a background story of what happened to Kloe when it all started, it's nothing too serious!

There's nothing more for me to say except have a good day! Thanks for reading!