SNEAK PEEK #1 (Chapter 4: Officer Friendly)
November 21, 2020.

"WHAT THE HELL were you doing out there, anyway?" Andrea prompted the stranger. While she made a good point in asking that question, Mike couldn't help but wonder if that really mattered right now. Regardless, his blue eyes flickered between the members of the group, and Mike could see his appearance clearly now that there wasn't a gun in his face and they weren't in a darkened storage room. He was quite handsome, for a man in the middle of the apocalypse.

He was recently shaven, spots of stubble growing up around his mouth, chin, and jawline. His skin was pale but he was pink in the cheeks from the exertion Mike knew he'd exerted to escape the damnation of the tank. There was a way he held himself that felt familiar to Mike; the man before them wasn't just wearing the uniform of someone in law enforcement but he clearly had the mental and physical conditioning of someone who worked in it. The particular way he stood his ground, eyes focused and back straight, reminded Mike of Shane, even the unnamed stranger's dark hair was reminiscent of his friend back at the refugee camp.

The thought crossed his mind that this man and Shane might know each other; even their accents sounded similar. However, his response threw Mike off guard, pulling him from the depths of his contemplations.

"Trying to flag the helicopter."

Helicopter? Mike's brow furrowed. Are those even operational anymore?

The others in the group appeared to react with the same confusion and aggressive denial as Mike, faces captured in expressions of disbelief, shock, pity. That last one caught Mike. He thought it odd that a stranger could be pitied for claiming to see something, but it seemed more motherly when it came from Jacqui.

Her head tilted to the side, she gave a little shake of it before even speaking.

T-Dog was the first to react. "Helicopter?" He voiced their first thoughts. "Man, that's crap. Ain't no damn helicopter."

"Not out there," Mike added, hoping his face didn't reflect his true feelings about the prospect of this stranger being right. If there had been a helicopter, who was in it? Who was flying it? Where did they come from and where were they going? Could they help them? Who did they work for? The questions were endless and there was a distinctive ringing of hope behind each and every one of them that Mike would rather the others didn't see. "Haven't been any since the Army fell apart."

"You were chasing a hallucination," Jacqui spoke softly. "Imagining things. It happens."

Her words didn't deter the new man, though. He shook his head insistently, voice low but controlled. "I saw it."

Mike wanted to believe him. He wasn't sure what everyone else wanted, but he wanted to believe him, desperately. Maybe he's right, he reasoned with himself. Maybe he really saw a helicopter out there. Why else would he have been distracted enough to ride onto a street filled with infected?

Morales gave Mike the feeling that he didn't want to talk about the topic any longer. "Hey, T-Dog, try that C.B." He turned to the hulking beast of a man and met his eyes directly. "Can you contact the others?"

The stranger noticeably drew to attention, hope catching in his tone as T-Dog went to work with the radio. "Others? The refugee center?"

"Yeah, the refugee center," Jacqui cracked with a sense of distaste. Her unhappiness about the refugee center that was coming into discussion ran through everyone in the room, including Mike. They all knew it was a load of crap. It didn't exist. "They've got biscuits waiting at the oven for us."

Eyes burned into Mike after that. Questioning eyes. They belonged to the newcomer.

"I'll explain later," Mike offered with a shrug. "No sense getting into it now. We have bigger problems."

T-Dog sighed. "Got no signal," he reported. "Maybe the roof."

Overhead, gunshots began firing; one after the other, and without thinking Mike knew exactly who it was and what gun they were using. Merle fucking Dixon and his Winchester rifle, who Mike had clearly instructed not to use the weapon unless it was an emergency. Mike clenched his jaw as Andrea turned to him, a mixed expression of both Oh My God and Is He Really Doing This Right Now? evident on her face.

"Oh no. Is that Dixon?"

"What is that maniac doing?" Jacqui wondered.

Glenn looked weary, but gestured to the stairs. "Come on, let's go."

—

This is from the Alpha draft, which means that it hasn't really been edited! Think of this as the rough-rough draft, haha.

HYPE ME UP GUYS, I'm so ready to keep going with this story and get it through all the stages as fast as I can. I'm still in Alpha stage and will be for awhile, depending on how much inspiration I get to work with, but hopefully one of these days I can actually start publishing.

I hope this excerpt gets you guys excited! I know it's just a rehash of what we see in the show (for the moment) but I really liked the idea of putting Mike with Rick in Atlanta. Lowkey loving this story though, I hope you guys do too.

* songsongm & sweetjawregui !! Thanks for getting me to do this, lol. ❤️