The Protagonist System

120 A Rocky Start

I knew something was wrong with my plan to ingratiate myself with the group when it was Merle that came out the side door of the building and approached the tank. I held in my sigh at them sending the crazy nut out to meet me instead of Glenn, whom I had been nice to and thought I had established a good connection with.

“Hey there, fella.” Merle said with a slight southern drawl. “Come on down from there so we can have a nice long talk about your offer.”

Since I wasn't an idiot, I knew he was trying to get me close enough to attack and probably rob me, not to mention the implication he made about us talking that I knew he really meant interrogating. I carefully stood and walked over to the side of the tank and he took a step back, clearly not enough room for me to safely climb down without him being right there on top of me.

So, I did the only thing I could do. I jumped and drop-kicked him right in the chest.

Merle grunted with the hit and wheezed out of breath as we both fell to the ground. The rifle on his shoulder clattered and slid a short distance away and out of his immediate reach, which was great for me. I stood up, only slightly hurt from the short fall after making sure Merle took the brunt of it, and I straddled the guy's chest with my fist raised. The resigned look on his face let me know that he knew that I knew what his plan was.

I smiled and punched him as hard as I could, popping his head on the pavement and knocking him out. I looted him of his bullets for the rifle and heard the sound of running feet come from the alley where the side door was, so I quickly stood and walked over to the dropped rifle and picked it up before I rested it on my shoulder casually, just like Merle had when he walked over to the tank, and I watched as several men arrived.

They stopped about fifteen feet away and gave me angry looks as they held baseball bats threateningly.

“It seems my generous offer was rejected, if you're here to attack me instead of welcoming me.” I said and the three men tensed up, ready for an attack. “I can clearly tell when I'm not wanted, so I'll graciously let you pick that asshole up and carry him back to your group instead of arresting you all for threatening an officer of the law while performing his duties.”

Those words made them look a little pale and they took a step backwards.

“Well? What are you waiting for?” I asked and motioned to the unconscious Merle. “Go ahead and take the trash back inside and tell Andrea she made the wrong choice.”

The three men exchanged worried glances before two of them stepped forward nervously and grabbed Merle's arms and dragged him back over to the third guy that had kept looking at me, as if making sure I wasn't going to shoot them. His eyes shifted from mine to the rifle on my shoulder and back to my face.

“Confiscating a dangerous weapon during a criminal act is well within the law.” I said and rubbed it in their faces.

The guy winced and then sighed. He motioned for the other two to withdraw and they all walked backwards to keep me in sight and dragged Merle all the way down to the side door in the alley. Several other people came out to help carry him and they all went back inside together before the door was slammed shut behind them.

I walked over to my patrol car and put the rifle in the backseat, in case anyone was watching me from somewhere, and I hopped into the driver's seat and drove away. Hopefully, they took the hint and went to get one of the vans instead of ignoring all of my advice. Did everyone suddenly become less intelligent? Why would they choose to attack an officer of the law after he offered to help them? I had to shake my head at those questions.

The problem I had now was that I didn't know where the survivor's camp was. I had wanted to help the group and travel back to where Lori and Carl were, since they were there at the camp with Shane and the other survivors. My only hope now was to keep an eye out for any moving vehicles and then I could follow them at a safe distance.

Memories of stakeouts and tailing suspects floated up from the back of my mind and I smiled because they were going to be very useful. For the next few hours, patience was going to be a virtue.

*

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Andrea cursed and almost stomped around the break room as everyone talked about what just happened. She didn't know how the guy knew Merle wasn't going to be friendly with him or why he quickly disarmed him and knocked him out. Then again, in her mind, she knew it was the best way to deal with the borderline psycho.

“What do we do now?” The black woman asked when the conversation wasn't going anywhere.

“We've been away for a lot longer than we planned for already. We can't waste any more time without risking more walkers showing up.” T-Dog said and looked at Andrea. “Did you call the camp and let them know we're okay now and not trapped?”

“Yes, and they cheered.” Andrea said and sat down after burning off her nervous energy.

“Did you tell them about the cop showing up?” Glenn asked. He had stayed inside and didn't want to get involved with whatever the others were going to do to the officer. He was a gofer, not an interrogator or an enforcer.

“No, and neither are you.” Andrea said and Glenn looked surprised. “They already questioned this mission from the get go. We don't need to give them proof that we could screw up something like that.”

“We'll lose everyone's trust.” One of the guards said.

“I wish we thought of that before letting Merle make a move.” The other guard commented.

“We all supported it, too.” The black woman said, remembering her opinion had swayed them.

“It should have worked.” The other man complained. “How did he know not to trust Merle?”

Almost everyone shrugged and said they didn't know.

“Maybe he has a cop sense or something.” Glenn offered.

Andrea took a breath and sighed. “It doesn't matter now. He's gone and we're still stuck with how to get everything back to the camp.”

“We can use his idea.” Glenn said and everyone gave him pointed looks. “What? It's only four blocks. I went further than that just scouting for this place and that was with all the walkers around.”

“He's right. It's the best option.” The black woman said, her hypocrisy matched her guilt.

“Glenn, can you handle it alone or do you need one of us to go with you?” Andrea asked.

“You offering?” Glenn asked with a smirk.

“God, no.” Andrea said and shivered, because she could never do Glenn's job. “T-Dog?”

“Yeah, I'll go. I need to get out of here before Merle wakes up.” T-Dog said and picked up a bat.

“Why?” The black woman asked.

“He's going to be pissed he was taken out so easily by that skinny cop and lost our only long range gun.” T-Dog said and patted Glenn's shoulder. “Let's go.”

Glenn nodded and the pair left before anyone else could say anything. With no walkers to avoid or run from, it didn't take long before the pair reached the rental place. It was enclosed with a chain-linked fence that was easily climbed and it had several vehicles inside that were perfect for their needs. Glenn and T-Dog exchanged guilty looks because they should have trusted the cop.

They easily broke open the key storage and grabbed the numbered keys that matched the number on the closest truck, checked the gas, and T-Dog drove the moving van with the large square back area out of the lot as Glenn opened the locked gate. He hit the close button and ran to the van, climbed into the passenger seat, and they went back to the building without any incidents.

They backed the vehicle up to the loading dock at the back of the building. They had been smart and had left all the things they gathered there and the rest of the group met them and were ready to help load it up. It didn't take long with all of them working, even without Merle awake, and they loaded him in as well.

T-Dog suggested tying the guy up with rope and the others decided against it, so he sat as far away from the unconscious man as possible. His reasons for being wary of Merle were still valid and he didn't want to suffer the man's anger when he woke up.

One of the guards drove and everyone settled down to relax for the ride back to the camp. With a reliable vehicle that offered a lot more protection than anything else they had, it wasn't going to take long for them to get back to the others. They also had enough supplies that they wouldn't have to go out scavenging for a long time.

Neither the driver nor the passenger noticed the police car trailing them from far behind, even with no other cars on that side of the road. Since they thought they were safe and alone, the driver didn't bother trying to mislead anyone that might be trying to follow them and drove right back to the camp with no deviations.

The sheriff actually following them was surprised that they had no situational awareness, despite being survivors in an apocalypse, and they led him right to their hidden base camp. It was nestled at the edge of the woods and slightly camouflaged, which was both good and bad, because people were not going to stumble across it looking for survivors and it was also difficult to defend if any walkers showed up.

The moving van came to a stop near the end of a driveway-like passage that had several vehicles already there, like a jeep, a motorcycle, and a van with many windows from a church youth group. Several people rushed over to greet the returning group and celebrated as they hugged and kissed their loved ones, like they were heroes.

Andrea hugged her excited sister Amy and whispered to her that she was fine, that everyone lived, and they had brought lots of things back for the camp. Nearly everyone was happy that they had survived and had returned unscathed, except for Shane. He was a little skeptical, because one update said they were surrounded and trapped and the next update said they were clear without any explanation.

While the others celebrated, Carl was almost in tears as he told his mother he missed his dad a lot. It always hit him harder when other people returned to the camp and it reminded him that he would never see his own dad again. Lori tried to comfort him as Shane asked Andrea and Glenn what had happened to change things.

Both of them were reluctant to speak, because they didn't want to explain what happened. Before they could make an excuse to avoid answering, another car pulled in behind the moving van. A police car. It gained everyone's attention, especially the returning group, and most of them cursed their luck at the cop showing up at their camp right after what they tried to do to him.

Out of all of them, Shane was the most nervous. He recognized the markings on the car as one from his hometown and he knew things were going to change for him if there was another deputy sheriff at the campsite. When the door opened and the man stepped out and hid most of his face with his stylish hat, Shane suspected the guy also knew things would change with him there. He was also clean and his uniform looked new, too.

The guard hugged his wife and child tightly as he stepped back and away from the newcomer, making a few of the people that stayed in the camp nervous, which really made sure that everyone was focusing on the officer, then the man stood up to his full height and moved his hat back to reveal his face.

The reactions were a mix of surprise, awe, trepidation, and shock. Surprise from the older man and a couple of the women in the camp, awe from Amy and another woman at seeing the handsome and clean man that looked great in a uniform, trepidation from the group that just returned, and shock was felt by both Shane and Lori, because they knew that face well.

“Dad?” Carl's voice asked, as if unsure. He took a stumbling step, then another, then he started to run towards him with his arms out. “DAAAAAAD!”

The sheriff beamed a smile at the boy and knelt on one knee to catch him as Carl leapt into his arms. They hugged and Carl cried as he held his father for the first time in almost a month. He normally wouldn't cry, because he was a big boy; but, he had his dead father back and a few tears were okay, just this once.

“It's okay, son. I'm here. I'm here.” Rick reassured him and stayed kneeling.

Lori exchanged nervous and guilty looks with Shane and he couldn't keep his face blank like he wanted. He knew she would toss him aside, now that her husband was back among the living. It didn't matter if he thought Rick was dead when he left him at the hospital during the evacuation, because he was there now and everything would change... or so he thought.

When Lori started to walk over to Rick and Carl to join in on the family reunion, Rick held his hand up behind Carl's back in a stop motion. It gained everyone's attention, because he then wiggled his ring finger. His empty ring finger. The small band of whiteness where a ring should be, stood out like a beacon.

Lori's heart plummeted at the sight, her guilt almost crushing her because she also wasn't wearing her wedding ring, and Shane's heart stuttered for a second before it silently rejoiced. Maybe he wouldn't be shoved aside after all.

Andrea's sister Amy also felt really happy at the reveal, because it meant she didn't have to settle for either of the assholes that were still single in the camp. She hated both brothers, despite their skills at survival, and had hoped more people would eventually show up at the camp to give her some options besides bad and worse.

Rick let Carl go to stand up, or tried to, and Carl held onto him. Rick chuckled and scooped the boy up into his arms and stood, easily carrying the extra weight like it was nothing. Before he could do more than nod at Shane, there was an inarticulate yell from the back of the moving van.

The back door slid up and Merle stumbled out. “What the hell just... wait...” He stopped mid-rant and looked around, realizing he was back at the camp. His eyes saw Rick and he stomped over to him.

Everyone was prepared to witness a knock-down dragged-out fight and Rick tried to put Carl down, only he wasn't letting go. Merle reached them and raised his hand... then he burst out laughing and clapped Rick on the back.

“What... what the hell are we seeing?” T-Dog asked, shocked at the reaction.

“You gotta respect a man that can hit hard enough to knock me out long enough for you guys to drag my sorry ass all the way back here to camp.” Merle said and kept laughing at everyone's shocked looks. He walked away from Rick towards his own living area at the campsite. “I'll look for you later to talk about getting my rifle back.”

Everyone watched him until he disappeared from sight, fully expecting him to run back and tackle the sheriff. He didn't. Merle meant what he said and wouldn't cause trouble over someone getting the drop on him when he was trying to get the drop on them. Plus, he knew with a sheriff around, things were going to change within the group and he wanted to see what happened next.

“You're alive.” Lori said, her voice soft and full of disbelief.

“I am now.” Rick said, confusing her. “I'm pretty sure I died at least once back in the hospital.” He said, shocking her and everyone else. “With no power and no nurses or anyone else taking care of things, I was left all alone when everyone else was evacuated.”

Lori felt tears come to her eyes at his words.

“Hey, it's all right. I eventually woke up and made my way out and came here looking for Carl.” Rick said and Lori almost choked on the sob she held back at being so easily dismissed. “We can talk about that later.” He said and looked over at Glenn. “At least you didn't ignore everything I said and used my moving van idea.”

Glenn looked embarrassed. “The group decided not to trust you and I wasn't going against that.”

“What does he mean?” Amy asked and glared at her sister. “He's a goddamn sheriff!”

Andrea looked embarrassed, too. “He showed up out of nowhere with all the answers to our problems and even had our radio frequency. It was too suspicious and too convenient, so we discussed it and voted on it.”

Amy's glare didn't lessen at all. “Really? His job is to protect and serve! He showed up to help and you decided to not trust him? What would he have to do to convince you he was being honest? Strip off and hand over his weapons?”

“No, Merle was going to interrogate me and find out where I stashed the supplies I found.” Rick said and several people gasped, because they knew Merle wouldn't be gentle at all. “It's all right, since I handled him before he could handle me, and he apparently respects that.”

“You also took his gun from him, so he's a little lost without it.” T-Dog said.

“It's useless as a weapon in close quarters, anyway. The stock will only last a few hits before splintering and rendering it worthless for shooting afterwards.” Rick told them and they looked surprised. “I brought five more with me from the police station, so there's plenty to go around if anyone else wants one.”

They all looked surprised at the offer.

“I have some ammo for them, as well as a few shotguns. The handguns were all gone except for this one.” Rick said and patted the holster on his hip. “I won't be handing anything over without some gun safety lessons first.”

A few of the survivors chuckled at the qualification.

“Before any of that happens, who wants a meal of army rations?” Rick asked and they were surprised again. “I have a crate of them in the trunk of the squad car.”

“Why not? I've always wondered what they tasted like.” Amy said and stepped away from her sister and gave Rick a very welcoming smile. “You'll have to teach us how to prepare them.”

Rick gave her the same smile back and motioned to the car's trunk. “Sure, it's really easy. Step into my office and the lesson will commence immediately.”

Amy laughed and her hand went to his arm and gave it a gentle squeeze. “By the way, welcome to camp. It's really nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.” Rick said and shifted Carl to his hip and used the keys to unlock the trunk, then held a hand out to her to shake. “Sheriff Rick Grimes, at your service.”

Amy took the hand and held it without shaking it as she smiled at him. “Amy Harrison, and I can't wait for you to service me.”

A few people made surprised sounds and someone laughed loudly.

“I think you and I are going to get along just fine.” Rick told her and smiled back.