After a long and 'calm' discussion, it was agreed that Rick, Glenn, T-Dog, Daryl, and Elle were going back into the city to get Merle and the bag of guns Rick left. 

"You sure you wanna come along?" Rick asked the young girl. She simply nodded. Her parents weren't here, therefore, anybody who had any authority over her couldn't stop her from going. Rick handed her her weapons and she got in the truck. 

"Why the hell is a kid coming with us?" Daryl whined. 

"Because none of you are in charge of me." She paused. "Plus, seeing your brother get his ass kicked was funny and I kind of want to see how mad he is." She answered with a smirk on her face.

"How is my brother getting handcuffed to a roof funny?" Daryl asked, looking at her. She shrugged at him.

"You had to be there, I guess."

"How did it feel to be on the outside of the cuffs?" Glenn asked causing Elle, T-Dog, and Rick to laugh.

"Real funny." She said, sending him a joking glare, causing Glenn to laugh again.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Daryl asked. She just shook her head.

"That's a story for later." Rick said. The rest of the drive was remotely quiet, few words spoken.

They eventually pulled up on some railroad track right next to the city. 

"We walk from here." Rick said. They all hopped out and left the truck there. They decided, or Daryl decided, they get Merle first. Going in the direction of the department store, they passed the fence where Glenn, Rick, and Elle stole the bright red challenger. 

"What is that smell?" Daryl asked, waving his hand under his nose.

"That would be those trench coats right there." Rick pointed at the three guy covered coats that were baking in the sun all day, making them smell even worse than they originally did.

They approached the building and ran inside, after climbing numerous flights of stairs until they reached the roof. T-Dog managed to break the chain and kicked the door open. Daryl shoved past him calling out Merle's name. Everyone got there and they were stunned by what they saw. A handsaw, a severed hand, and the cuffs still locked. 

"No!" Daryl yelled, on the verge of tears. Daryl asked if anyone had a rag and Glenn gave him a purple bandana from his bag. He didn't know he was gonna wrap the hand up.

Everyone stared, in slight disgust at his action. He stuck the carefully wrapped hand in Glenn's backpack, who was grossed out by the fact that someone's had was now sitting on his back.

They then followed the blood trail left by Merle and his arm. They found hot tools he used to cauterize the wound.

After about ten minutes, they discovered he jumped out a window. How he would manage to pass a ton of walkers, in his condition even, was beyond them. If he even made it far at all.

"Even if he made it out alive, he's passed out by now. Considering how much blood he's lost, I'm surprised he made it this far." Rick exclaimed. Daryl wasn't quick to agree, but after a few more minutes of convincing, they moved on to the guns. They found a marker and drew the block on the aluminum flooring. 

"Okay, here is the tank Elle and I found you in. Here's the alley we all met up in..." Glenn started. Everyone focused as he explained the rest of the plan.

"Hey kid, what did you do before this?" Daryl asked.

"Delivered pizzas, why?" Glenn answered. 

Daryl and Elle are going to be in one alley covering for Glenn, while Rick and T-Dog will be in another alley doing the same thing. If walkers prevent Glenn from getting back to Daryl and Elle, he runs to Rick. Either way, he's covered. 

"You ready?" Elle asked Glenn. He nodded.

"You got balls for a China man." Daryl mentioned, getting ready to open the gate.

"I'm Korean." He corrected, taking off the button up and throwing it out of the way. They watched as he booked it for the bag of guns. Elle thought she heard something behind her, so she turned around to see a teenage boy try to sneak up on Daryl.

"Daryl!" Daryl turned around and hit the boy across the face before pointing his crossbow. Just then, two more guys, came out. Except these ones weren't young and scrawny like this one, they were grown and huge. They started attacking Elle and Daryl. Elle got punches and kicks in, but received some of her own.

When Glenn ran back into the alley holding the bag, Daryl took the chance to grab his crossbow and shot one of the men in the ass cheek when they jumped Glenn. They tried taking the bag of guns, but when they learned Glenn wasn't giving it up, they took him, leaving the bag.

"No!" Elle shouted, sitting up on the ground. They got in a car, leaving the young, scrawny boy with them in the alley. T-Dog and Rick ran over and Daryl told them what happened. Rick made his way over to Elle, helping her stand up. She limped over to the boy. 

She took a few breaths, holding her side before punching hard, knocking him out. Rick grabbed the bag of guns and Elle grabbed her hand in pain, before she swiped up the sheriff hat off the ground. Daryl and T-Dog dragged the boy inside. 

"You alright?" Rick asked, startling Elle who was wiping blood off of her bottom lip.

"Yeah, I'm okay." She gave him a small smile.

"You took one hell of a beating back there, you're a tough one." Daryl admitted, checking the strings on his bow.

"Are we ready to do this?" Elle asked. They conjured up a plan to get Glenn back. A simple one for one. The men have one of their group, they have one of the people from the men's group. They were going to try to make the trade, and have T-Dog on watch as a sniper. The kid was awake at this point and had told them where his group was staying.

"You want Glenn back?" T-Dog asked.

"So we're ready." Elle answered. Rick handed T-Dog a sniper rifle and grabbed a shot gun for himself and Elle.

"You know how?" He asked as he handed it to her. She nodded. "Okay, let's do this." He said. He put the bag over his shoulder. Elle sighed and grabbed Glenn's bag, throwing it onto her back. 

They made their way outside and Elle couldn't see anything with the sun positioned right in her line of sight. "Whoo, my baby blues are done for." She said as she brought her hand up to shield her eyes. Rick set his sheriff hat on her head. "Thanks." She said, readjusting it.

After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at what looked like a run down building with moss covered, stone walls surrounding it.

Two men came out. One of them was one of the guys who jumped Daryl and Elle. Rick, T-Dog, and Elle all had guns pointed, but they couldn't see T-Dog or Daryl. The boy had his hands tied behind his back with zip tie.

"You have one of our people and we have one of yours. We trade, and we never see eachother again." Rick claimed. 

"Except you also have our guns." The man said.

"They aren't yours." Elle spoke up from behind Rick.

"I recognize you," he paused, like he was trying to remember something. "You were on the news." He chuckled. 

"Yeah, remember what I was on the news for?" She asked, no definite emotion in her voice. An eleven year old was arrested for beating up a kid to the point where she landed herself in juvenile prison, of course it was on the news.

"Antonio here saw the bag in the road. We were on our way to getting it when your boy swiped it up." The man claimed.

"Well it's mine. I'm the one who dropped it when I got surrounded." Rick argued. They revealed Glenn on the roof with a bag over his head. They were gonna kill him.

"You give us the guns, or no deal. I'll just feed him to my dogs. Come locked and Loaded!" The man said before turning around and going inside, the big doors closing behind him.

"Don't do this man! Come on!" The young boy pleaded, he was ignored. 

"We cant just give them the guns." T-Dog said.

"We don't have to give them all," Elle started to give her thoughts on the situation.

"They were gonna kill Glenn." Daryl interrupted.

"I wasn't done Squirrel Boy. We don't have to give them all over, because they don't know what's inside. We give them a few handguns, two shotguns, one sniper, a few clips. They won't know there's more than that." She explained. "Then we give them 'Marijuana Tattoo' over here, and we get Glenn and the majority of the guns. Then we get out of here." Everyone seemed to agree. It was a good idea.

"Seriously though, of all the things you could have tattooed on your neck, for everyone to see, marijuana?" She questioned, and judged, the boy.

"You ever get a tattoo before?" He asked sarcastically. Elle took the hat off and pulled back her hair revealing the two blue butterflies behind her ear. 

"Not a stupid one." She put the hat back on and everyone got ready to execute the plan to get Glenn back.

They arrived once again and they were waiting for them. Instead of having a sniper this time, they were all down there, in sight. 

"We have the guns and your boy." Rick said. They let the small group in and they cautiously followed. They were lead into a room full of people. They all had guns. Why did they need more? 

"Wait here." The man said.

"Just give us our guy and let us leave." T-said.

"Did you hear me?" The man said stepping towards us.

"Yeah we heard you. You said come locked and loaded." Rick said as they all got ready to shoot. You could hear the safety of everyone's gun go off, simultaneously. "Here we are." Just then, an older woman came out. 

"What's going on here?" She asked.

"Abuela, go back. These are just some people who needed help." He reasoned, trying not to worry or frighten her. She instead walked closer to them.

"Please don't hurt anybody. They're just helping is all. Here, I'll show you. Follow me." She said taking Rick's hand. Rick didn't argue and instead followed the woman, his hand in hers.

"Let them pass." The man said. The crowd of people moved out of their way as the woman lead them somewhere. They walked through a garden and into another building. There were rooms that held elders, like a nursing home. There was a group of people standing around a man. He was wheezing.

"What is this?" Elle asked quietly when she saw Glenn.

"Asthma attack." He answered. 

"Man we thought you were getting eaten by dogs!" T-Dog claimed. Glenn pointed to a tiny dog bed that held three chihuahuas. 

"Oh my god." Elle said throwing her hands in the air and rolling her eyes.

"Can I talk to you?" Rick asked the leader. Elle tossed Glenn his backpack. 

"We come looking for a drug dealer and Rick's guns, you get kidnapped by people who help the old. Wow. Crazy day huh?" She spoke quietly, as people were still trying to calm the wheezing man.

After a few minutes Rick came back and they were on their way back to camp.

They were turning the corner to meet the railroad tracks. 

"Admit it. You came back for the hat." Glenn joked pointing to the hat on Rick's head. 

"Just don't tell anyone." Rick chuckled. 

"Who the hell took our ride?" T-Dog asked gaining everyone's attention. Sure enough, the truck was gone.

"Merle." Rick said. "We wanna get there just after dark, we run." He said. They booked it. 

After what felt like hours of just running, they finally were half way up the mountain. They started walking to catch their breath, but they heard screams from a distance.

"Shit!" Daryl yelled, running again. They all continued running as they heard a few gunshots over people's screaming. They finally made it to the top and started shooting down walkers, they were everywhere. The camp was being overrun.

A walker grabbed Elle's arm and Daryl shot it with his cross bow. She nodded to him as a 'thank you' before shooting another one.

Every time a walker was killed, another was right there to replace it. Elle stood for a moment, catching her breath while frantically looking around, trying not to get killed. She clutched her side as it still hurt from being kicked at multiple times and all the running.

"You good?" Daryl shouted from beside her.

"Just winded." She shouted back as a walker was coming up to the two of them. "I got this one." She pulled the trigger on the shot gun, only to learn that it was empty. She quickly threw it to the ground and pulled out her knife. She kicked the walkers legs, and forced the blade into it's skull. When she pulled it out, some blood sprayed on her shirt, but that was the least of her worries.

After what felt like forever, they were done. People breathed, hugged, cried. It looked like a graveyard. Bodies were everywhere. Some of their own.

______________________

drugs are cool. jk, don't do drugs
stay in school

rewritten (poorly): february 25, 2022