Before this chapter starts i just want to say that further down on the chapter there is the scene where both Merle and Rick say the n-words, i'd like to inform that i am NOT a person of color and i am NOT racist so i am not gonna write the actual word nor am i gonna write the word that they used in the subtitles on the show, i have chosen to wrote "__" instead.
Since i am not a person of colour it is not my right to write or speak the word so i'm not gonna do that.
if you read this thank you, i just wanted to clear this up since i feel like it was important and relevant for me to clear that up.

3

ACT ONE - CHAPTER THREE

"Hey, are you alive in there?" The man in the radio asked, you could still hear the sound of the walkers outside, trying and failing to get inside, Rick moved to get over to the radio, Valentina turned her head at the sound of a thud followed by a grunt, she giggled when she realised Rick had hit his head, Rick smiled at the young girl, moving to the radio again.

"hello? Hello?" He spoke desperatly into the radio after snapping back into reality.

"There you are. You had me wondering." The voice spoke again. followed by a question.
"What about the girl, the young one she okay?"

"Yeah, yeah she's here, she's okay. Where are you? Outside? Can you see us right now?" Rick asked the man.

"Yeah, i can see you. You're surrounded by walkers. That's the bad news." The man said, when he said those were the bad news both Rick and Valentina felt a rise of hope for them getting out of there alive.

"There's good news?" Rick asked. The hope the two had died down when they were met by a simple 'no' as the answer on the other end of the radio.

"Listen, whoever you are, i don't mind telling you we're a little concerned in here." Rick informed, Valentina heard a loud thud from above so she crawled over to Rick and snuggled as close to him as she could, the man accepted her touch, knowing full well she was scared as was he himself.

"Oh man. You should see it from over here.  You'd be having a major freak-out." The man on the other end said, Valentina could hear him clearer now, since she was closer, the man sounded young.

"Got any advice for us?" Rick asked the young guy.

"Yeah, i'd say make a run for it." The young guy responded, that scared Valentina, the thought of having to go out there when there where so many.

"That's it? "Make a run for it"?" Rick asked him he had noticed how much this idea scared the young girl in his arms, but yet again he was willing to do anything right about now, he wanted to find his family, and he wanted to help the young girl find her, motsly he just wanted her to survive.

"My way's not as dumb as it sounds. 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 me so far?" The young guy said, Valentina didn't hear much else as she heard another loud thud over them and covered her ears tigly with her hands and squezzed her eyes shut tigtly. She crawled out of Ricks hold and leaned against a wall.

"Hey Valentina." Rick spoke as he took her hands away from her ears, the girl looked up at him.
"We're getting out, i go out and push away any danger and then i pull you up okay?" The girl nodded at his words and followed him to the latch at the top.

She waited until he was out and did what he had to do, he reached a hand down for her she took his hands and he helped her out.

"Come on!" Rick yelled as he took her hand with one hand and the other, had his gun and he started shooting the walkers as they ran.

"Whoa! Not dead! Come on! Come on!" A young man which Valentina assumed was the guy the had been talking to on the radio.
"Back here!" He yelled as he showed thm the way.

"What are you doing? Come on!" The young guy yelled at the two on th ground as he began climbing some yellow ladder on the wall, Rick made Valentina crawl first, him following after.

They stopped at a platform, the two men out of breath, Valentina wasn't she was a kid, kids have a lot more energy than the two of them.

"Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood. You the new sheriff come riding in to clean up the town?" The younger guy asked, Valentina giggled at the name Clint Eastwood.

"It wasn't my intention." Rick answered.

"Yeah, whatever. Yeehaw. You're still a dumbass." The young guy said sarcasticly.

"Rick. Thanks." Rick said as he put his hand out for the young guy to shake.

"Glenn. You're welcome." The young guy, Glenn, spoke.

"Glenn." Valentina tried out the name, Glenn looked at the little girl with a smile on his face, he gave her a little wave just seconds after the girls arms were tigtly wrapped around his legs, her head on his stomach.
"Thank you for saving us Mr. Glenn." The young girl looked up at him with a big smile on her face.

"You can just say Glenn no need for Mr., Okay?" Glenn told her, she just nodded and let go of him.

"The bright side: It'll be the fall that kills us. I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy." Glenn said as they were going to climb another ladder, getting a look from Rick, Glenn quickly apologized when he realized that Valentina was still there.

"Are you the one that barricaded the alley?" Rick asked, they had now finished climbing, Glenn helped Valentina over this not that high wall while Rick jumped over it, since Glenn was the first to go over it.

"Somebody did... I guess when the city got overrun. Whoever did it was thinking not many geeks would get trough." Glenn said as the three of them ran across the roof to another ladder that went down this time.

"Geeks?" Valentina asked.

"Walkers." Rick informed, he knew that Glenn meant what they called walkers was what he called geeks.
"Back at the tank, why'd you stick your neck out for me?"

"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. Also you have a little girl, she's just a kid, come on i couldn't just ignore a kid." Glenn said climbing down the ladder, Valentina follwed him soon after Rick went.

"I'm back. Got two guest plus four geeks in the alley." Glenn said into a walkie as they had just ran across a room in th building and down some stairs but they stopped when there were some walkers where they were headed, or more like Glenn and Rick stopped, Valentina couln't see anything she was too short, she wasn't paying attention so she slipped past Glenn but not before tripping over his leg and face planting on the floor.
Glenn hurried forward and picked her up as two people in protection guear come out of a door and helped them.

"You son of a bitch. We ought to kill you." A blonde girl said as she, pushed Rick and pointed a gun at his face.

"Just chill out, Andrea. Back off." A man spoke.

"Come on, ease up." A woman spoke.

"Ease up? You're kidding me, right? We're dead because of this stupid asshole." The Andrea lady said.

"Andrea, i said back the hell off." The same guy who had first spoken said.
"Well, pull the trigger." At that she let go.

"We're dead. All of us. Because of you." Andrea said.

"Listen Andrea, one we're not dwead, we're standing right her breathing, two you do something like that again i'll kill you." Valentina sassed, Rick eyes widened, along with Glenn and the others who had shocked yet amused looks on their faces.
"If i had a crossow i'd kill you, so for now you're of the hook." To say the truth Valentina wasn't really planning to kill anyone, she just learned the way of extreme treats from her granfather back before everything.

"I don't understand." Rick said, getting back on track.

"Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies. 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." A man said as he kept pushing Rick forward, everyone fallowing to where they were going.

"Every geek for miles around heard you pooping off rounds." Another man said.

"You just rang the dinner bell." Andrea said, as they all looked at some walkers that were trying to get into one of the shops doors.

"Get the picture now?" A man said.

A walker hit a stone against the glass and it began to shatter everyone stepped further back into the shop in fear.

"What the hell were you doing out there anyway?" Andrea asked Rick and Valentina.

"Trying to flag the helicopter." Rick answered, Valentina nodding along.

"Helicopter? Man, that's crap. Ain't no damn helicopter." One of the men said.

"You were chasing a hallucination. Imagining things. It happens." The other woman spoke, the much sweeter one.

"I saw it." Rick said.

"Hey, T-dog, try that C. B. Can you contact the others?" Morales as Valentina thought asked T-dog as she had just learned.

"Others? The refugee center?" Rick asked, hope had now once again risen in bouth Rick and Valentina.

"Yeah, the refugee center. They've got buiscuits waiting at the oven for us."

"Got no signal. Maybe the roof." T-dog spoke, just as he said that shoots went off.

"Oh no. Is that Dixon?" Andread spoke. Dixon. The all too familiar name.

All of them ran toward the roof.

"Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?" Morales asked angrily as they all came trough the door that led to the roof one by one.

Merle Dixon, was standing right there, infront of them. He was laughing. But he was there, alive, Valentina had found not the best but part of her family.

"Hey! You ougtha be more polite to a man with a gun!" He said as he jumped down from the edge where he stood previously.
"Only common sense."

"Man, you wating bullets we ain't even got, man! And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill." T-dog yelled, he was clrealy angry, Valentina started to get worried for the man, she knew how he was, he was never really agressive toward her, sometimes he'd yell at her yes but he was never abusive toward her, but she had seen how he was toward other people.

"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." Merle said, Valentina was pretty sure were this was going.

""that'll be the day"? You got something you want to tell me?" T-dog asked, he probabbly knew where Merle was going with this too.

"Hey, T-dog man, just leave it." Morales said, but T-dog refused to let it go.
"All right? It ain't worth it. Now Merle, just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble."

"You want to know the day?" Merle asked, T-dog saying yes.
"I'll tell you the day, Mr. "Yo." It's the day i take orders from a __."

T-dog tried to jup at Merle, but was instead met by the end of Merles gun to his face, knocking him to the ground.

Merle kept pushing T-dog until he fell to the ground and then he kept punching and puching, everyone was trying to stop Merle but Valentina until.

"Merle?" Valentina Dixon's soft voice spoke, she never tried to stop his fights with strangers or his friends, but this was Glenns friend, and Glenn was her friend now, so his friends were her friends.

Merle froze. He looked up and his eyes found the familiar face of his niece.

"Tina?" He asked shocked, he got of off T-dog.

"Val." Valentina corrected, she hated the name Tina, it just didn't fit her.

"Val. Right yeah, but how did you even make it this far, i.. we thought you were dead."

"I met some friends, they helped me, then i met Rick and now i'm here." She said, a big smile grew on her face, then she ran into the open arms of her uncle, he hugged her back tight.
"Please stop figthing him." This seemed to snap Merle back into what he was doing before as he quickly let go of the young girl and pulled down T-dog who had just gotten up, a punch landing in his face right after he hit the ground, then Merle pulled out his gun, Valentina stepped back, guilt running trough her body, she had just snappde him back into it, it was her fault, she blamed herself for that.
Merle ended up spitting on T-dog instead.

"Yeah! All right! We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who's in charge. I vote me. Anybody else? Huh? Democracy time, y'all. Show of hands, huh? All in favour? Huh? Come one. Let's see 'em." Merle spoke, Morales was the first to put up his hand. Then Glenn, then the lady Valentina didn't know the name of, instead of a hand it was the middle finger. Then Andrea.
"Now that means i'm the boss, right? Yeah. Anybody else? Hmm? Anybody?"

Valentina looked at Rick and nodded her heard, she knew he wasn't gonna kill him, but whatever he was gonna do was for the best right now.

"Yeah." Rick spoke and as Merle spun around Rick hit him in the face with the same gun Merle had hit T-dog in the head with. Rick took a pair of hancuffs and cuffed Merle to a pipe, then took his shirt in each hand a made a fist while dragging him up to sit against the pipe.

"Who the hell are you, man?" Merle asked.

"Officer friendly. Look here, Merle. Things are diffrent now. There are no __ anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart." Rick explained.

"Screw you, man." Merle spoke, he didn't give two flying fucks about what Rick had to say.

"I can see you make a habit of missing the point." Rick then said.

"yeah? Well, screw you twice." Merle said, then Rick put his gun to Merles temple.

"Ought to be polite to a man with a gun. Only common sense." Rick said.

"You wouldn't. You're a cop. And there's a kid, that you obviously saved for a reason, you don't wanna shoot someone living in front of my niece do you now?" Merle said, adding the fact that the kid was his niece.

"All i am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son, and helping your niece finding the rest of her famaily. Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose. I'll give you a moment to think about that." Rick said, he then began patting Merle down before he found what he was looking for.
"Got some on your nose there." Rick spoke flicking Merles nose.

"What are you gonna do? Arrest me?" Merle laughed finding himself funny.
"Hey! What are you doing? Man, that wa my stuff!" Rick had trown it over the edge of the building.
"If i get loose, you'd better pray... Yeah, you hear me, you pig? You hear me?"

Valentina approached her uncle, sitting down infront of him, crossing her legs.

"Hey little one, you gonna help your uncle Merle out here?" Valentina shook her head no.

"No you were agressive, this is what always happens when you get agressive toward someone, normally you leave me for a couple hours sometimes days, and i'm stuck with my dad who is mad at you for getting into another fight so him i couldn't talk to, then i couldn't talk to granpa either cause you know how he is, so usually when you leave i'm all alone, but not this time." Valentina rambled, she hadn't talked to either her dad or uncle in a while, because of everything.

"You really felt alone when i would leave?" Merle asked realized how much his shitty behaviour actually affected his niece.

"I was alone wen you would leave." Valentina corrected.

"I'm so sorry kid." Merle spoke, Valentina sinffled, she was sad when she thought about how shitty her life really was but happy that she was atleast with her uncle again, she crawled over to her uncles side and snuglled into him, cuddling him from the side.

"Is daddy alive?" She suddenly asked, she hadn't asked yet before that.

"Yeah, your daddys alive kid, he's back at the camp where we were before coming here to scavenge, he's either at the camp right now, or he's out hunting with his crossbow, he brought your little pink crossbow and the big black bow for when you get older, he always knew you'd come back, so he took them with him so that he was ready to teach you more when you came back." Merle explained to the girl.

When she was a little younger than she was now, her dad had managed to save up for three pressent, one of them being the little pink crossbow, the other the bigger black norma bow, and then there was the third present, the little stuffed animal, it was just a teddy bear cause it was a bear, even if it wasn't big or was one of the once that you could dress up like every other kid had, it was a very special teddy bear, she still had it on her, she never let it go, infact she was looking at it in that very moment Merle was talking.

"How's that signal?" Morales asked.

"Like Dixon's brain.. Weak." T-dog said, Merle giving him the middel finger.

"Hey!" Valentina said as she looked at the man.

"Not you kid, you're little Dixon, he? he's dumb Dixon." T-dog said.

"So my daddy is, daddy Dixon?" Valentina asked tilting her head to the side.

"Yeah sure kid." T-dog smiled at the little girl who was smilling back at him.

"Keep trying." Morales told T-dog, deperately wanting to get in contact with the others.

"Why? There's nohing they can do. Not a damn thing." Andrea said.

"Got some people outside the city is all. There's no refugee center. That's a pipe dream." Morales informed Rick.

"Then she's right. Wer're on our own. It's up to us to find a way out." Rick said.

"Good luck with that. These streets ain't safe in this part of town from what i hear. Ain't that right, sugar tits?" Merle started talking, when he started talking dirty to Andrea that's when Valentina made her escape and stood beside Rick, until he lifted her up so she could sit on the edge he was still supporting her so she wouldn't fall, if the wall hadn't been so high she would've crawled up herself.

"The streets ain't safe. Now there's an understatement." Morales said, Valentina turning to watch as him and Rick talked, she listened closely.

"What about under the streets? The sewers?" Rick asked, Valentina snapped her fingeres with what seemed like a happy or confident face acting as if she knew what the hell they were talking about, she knew what seewers meant but she did not know what the hell they wanted to use them too, so she just acted like she knew what was going on.

"Oh, man. Hey, Glenn, check the alley. You see any manhole covers?" Morales asked, so Glenn got up to check.

"No, must be all out on the street where the geeks are." Explained Glenn when he came back over to the rest.

"Maybe not. Old building like this built in the '20s... Big structures often had drainage tunnels into the sewers in case of flooding down in the subbasements." The lady who's name Valentina still didn't know

"How do you know that?" Glenn asked her.

"It's my job. Was. I worked in the city zoning office." She responded.

The others beside Merle, Valentina and T-dog had gone down to check out what they had just been talking about.

"Uncle Merle?" Valentina asked as she walked back over to him.

"Yeah?" Merle answered his niece.

"Why do you do that stuff? The stuff Rick tossed over the roof, you're never yourself when you do that, it's what makes you leave." Her voice came out as a whisper, she didn't just want to know why he did it to himself, she wanted to know why he did what he did to her, did he not know that it affected her as mentally as it affected him physically.

"I... I don't really know V, i just started once because of all the stuff with your granpa, and then i just never stopped you know?" Valentina knew she souldn't answer anymore since he had already meantened him, he was a triggering subject for the Dixon's.

"Anybody out there? Hello? Anybody read? I'm hoping to hear somebody's voice 'cause i'm getting sick and tired of hearing mine." T-dog spoke, he was still trying to reach the others.

"Yeah, well, that makes three of us." Merle spoke but was quickly cut of by his niece.

"Two, i'm not like you, i like T-dog he's nice." She did not want Merle to talk anymore shit about people, the world was changing, it had, and so should he.

"Why don't you knock that crap off? You're giving me a headache, boy." Merle said, completely ignoring Valentina, her being a little peace of shit (in a good way) she simply got up, walked over T-dog, sat down beside him and stuck her tounge out at her uncle.

"Why don't you oull your head out of your ass? Maybe your headache will go away. Try some positibity for a change. Damn." T-dog said, Valentina began laughing at his comment.

"I'll tell you what... You get me out of these cuffs and i'll be all "Sammy Sunshine" positive for you. Hey, see that hacksaw over there in that toolbag? Get it for me, hmm? Make it worth your while. What do you say, man? Come on. Get me out of these things." Merle started talking and that's when Valentinas laugh started dying down, she rolled her eyes and threw her head back, Merle always had to ruin the moment.

"So you can beat my ass again? Or call me __ some more?" T--dog asked, he didn't trust Merle and he had a good reason not too.

"Come on now. It wasn't personal. It's just that your kind and my kind ain't meant to mix. That's all. It don't mean we can't... work together, parley, as long as there's some kind of mutual gain involved.
So... About that hacksaw..." Merle spoke.

"I guess you want me to get that rifle over there too so you can shoot that cop when he comes back up, huh?" T-dog asked, Merle didn't say anything, which meant he didn't say no either.

"Just telling ya Merle, you shoot Rick. I shoot you, ya understand." Valentina said as she stood up and put her hands on her hips, something she had seen Rick do.
Merle put his hands up in defense.
"Give me a hand?" Valentina asked as she looked down at T-dog, she pointed at the edge that she had sat on previously, T-dog nodded with a smile as he got up and helped up, then sat back down, both Merle and T-dog keeping a good eye on the girl.

"That construction site, those trucks... They always keep keys on hand." Rick said, he was standing on the right side of Valentina who was still sitting on the edge.

"You'll never make it past the walkers." Morales said looking down.

"You got us out of that tank." Rick spoke to Glenn.

"Yeah, but they were feeding. They were distracted." Glenn explained.

"Can we distreact them again?" Rick asked, they needed a plan or they would all die.

"Right. Listen to him. He's onto something. A diversion, like on Hogan's heroes." Merle said, he just had to give his opinion.

"God. Give it a rest." Jacqui as Valentina now had finally learned, spoke.

"They're drawn by sound, right?" Rick asked taking the attention away from Merle.

"Right, like dogs. They hear a sound, they come." Glenn explained.

"I want a dog. Can we get a dog?" Valentina asked, but was ignored which was her answer. no.

"What else?" Rick asked.

"Aside from they hear you? They see you, smell you and if they catch you, they eat you." Morales explained to Rick.

"They can tell us by smell?" Rick asked.

"Can't you?" Glenn and Valentina asked at the same time.

"They smell dead, we don't. It's pretty distinct." Andrea said to Rick.

Rick asked Valentina to stay with Merle, he didn't want her to go with him and Glenn and he didn't want her to be there when they gutted the walker so that's what she did, she stayed.

"So you not, gonna talk to me this time?" Merle asked.

"No. You're an asshole." Valentina said, still sitting on the edge.

"Okay fair enough, but would you please get down from there at least i won't be able to catch you from here if you fall." And that's when Valentina snapped, Merle never expected her too especially since she was a kid, he didn't think kids where capable to feel what adults felt.

"Why do you care anyway?! You always used to leave me! That must mean that you don't care about me enough to stop and stay, instead you continue and not change even when the world came to an end! Why would you care if i fell?!" Valentina hadn't planned on snapping yet , but this was most likely the last time, bottling up all these sad feelings and all this anger when she was jus a kid wasn't the best thing to do.

Before Merle could say anything, the others came back.

"Hey, what's happening, man?" Merle asked them as they all came running.

"Hey, T-dog, try that C. B." Morales said ignoring Merle.

Jacqui was the only one who seemed to notice the tear that had rolled down Valentinas face.

"Hey sweetheart are you okay?" Valentina nodded at the woman and Jacqui then gave the girl a hug.
"You wanna stay up there?" She asked as she let go of the hug, Valentina nodded at her question, she liked watching over all the walkers on the ground below them for some reason.

"Base camp, this is T-dog. Anybody hear me?" T-dog had come back in the middle of Valentinas rant but she told him to let it go so he did.
"Can anybody out there hear me?"

It had started raining. Glenn and Rick had a big problem now.

"They're leaving us." Andrea said.

"No! They wouldn't do that. Rick wouldn't do that to me, he promised!" Somewhere on Rick and Valentinas journey, he had promised wether or not they found their families he would never leave her behind.

"Come on! Let's go, Let's go!" Morales yelled, Valentina was panicked. What about Merle, what about her uncle she couldn't just leave him, she had just gotten him back.

"Hey, you can't leave me here! I'm not fooling, man! Morales! Hey, man! Don't do this!" Merle kept yelling and yelling for them to not leave without him.

Just as T-dog had turned around and got down the steps to the two waiting for him, he tripped and the key fell out of his hands, the two Dixons watched as it went down a drain.

Valentina couldn't hear what Merle was yelling she couldn only see his mouth moving, T-dog had a firm grip on her arm, dragging her with him as she screamed over and over for him to not leave her uncle.

"NO! NO! STOP WE CAN'T LEAVE HIM!!" That's what she kept pleading.

As everyone had gotten inside the back of truck Rick was driving and began driving they all noticed the little girl, who was still crying and had tear running down her cheecks.

"I dropped the damn key." T-dog admitted.

"Where's Glenn?" Andrea asked.

"Best not to dwell on it. Merle got left behind. Nodoby's gonna be sad he didn't come back.." Morales started talking.

"Shut up!" Valentina cried, Morales regretted what he just said but kept talking.
"Except maybe Daryl." Valentina had told Rick that she had a dad and an uncle out there somewhere he just didn't know their names.

"Daryl?" Rick asked.

"My dad." Valentina whispered, everyone looked back at her, sure they head her call Merle uncle but tey didn't actually think she meant it.

A car alarm was heard as Glenn came driving in a red sports car.

"At least somebody's having a good day." Morales said.

Author's note

hello! That's all I got to say lol