Left 4 Dead (Merle and Aubrey)

Aubrey had been part of Rick Grimes distraction for the group to escape from the department store, she had been driving a car just like Glenn had been after wandering through the streets like a walker beside them, it was a horrible experience but at least she had found out a way that she could get past the Walkers in dire situations if she needed to. Honestly she hadn't expected that it would work, but, she had been both relieved and pleasantly surprised when it did.

Now however, she had been left behind.

They had drove off in the back of the truck without her, she had jumped out of her car and left it running, causing a distraction to get all the walkers to draw closer to it with the noise. But they seemed to have not taken any notice that she was attempting to make her way back to the store on foot, and had driven off without her, leaving her in a walker infested city center, with her tiny little knife as protection.

It would be safe to say that she was currently bricking herself with fear, and she would have made for the nearest building if she hadn't have heard shouts from the department store roof. Was that Merle Dixon up there? She asked herself with a small frown, had he been left behind too? Biting her lip she hurried down the side of the building, the walkers from before were milling around in the shop front, and upstairs no doubt, but she quietly snuck past most of them, taking out one by the fire escape stairs with her knife.

Making a face of disgust at the gore on her hands, she swiftly cleaned it on her rag she kept with her, and climbed up the stairs with only a second delay. She would make it to the roof and see what was going on up there!

Finally, when she popped her head over the top of the store's roof, she saw Merle still handcuffed to the pipe, screaming and cursing about being left behind which you would do, because being chained up like that, with walkers trying to get in, was not an ideal situation. It was like he had just been left there to die! With a little grunt of effort she swung herself over the ledge and hurried over to Dixon, he wasn't her favourite person, but god he didn't deserve this!

"Merle!" she gasped "Are you alright? Let's get you out of these..."

Hopping over the pipe she grabbed the wrench out of the toolbox and smiled swiftly at him;

"Hold still."

And with that she began to try and unscrew the rusted bolts from the top of the metal he was attached to.

Merle had been tied up the chain with a pair of handcuffs by that officer friendly guy. Considering he had punched the guy out he could respect that decision to a certain degree. He would have respected the guy's dedication and all that shit. But what really got Merle angry, the reason why he was shouting as loud as he could, was because that black fucker "T-Dog" had dropped the keys down a drain and left him here to die! Naturally he was feeling some kinda way about that,

"Yer dam' fuckin' ni'r asshol'!" he shouted out loudly, no doubt bringing the Walkers closer to him, "I be' yer drop'd th'm keys on purpos'! I ev'r fin' yer, I'm gun' fuc' yer up!"

He blinked a little bit when someone gasped his name. Turning, he spoked Aubrey making her way towards him from the fire escape ladder. His eyes widdened and he frantically tugged at the handcuffs,

"Com' on gir' yer got'a get me out'a here!" he urged her quickly, "Tha' no goo' piec'a shi' ni'r dropp'd te key down a drain!"

When she began to work on the pipe itself he looked towards the door, which was beginning to bulge,

"Hey now darlin' it ain' lik' I ain' appreciatin' tis or nothin'..." he urged her as he saw fingers round the door edges, "But tem' bit'rs are gettin' migh'y hungr'y an' too clos' fer my likin'!"

Aubrey was trying as hard as she could to actually get the pipe to budge but it was old and rusted and so it was taking a little bit longer than she would have liked, especially with the walkers being attracted to the sounds of them up here, and their smells no doubt, and so, she was trying frantically to get the first stiff turns of the bolt out of the way.

Eventually it became easier to budge and she undid the first bolt, prying the pole away so she could slide the cuffs off, she had freed Merle and now they could get the hell out of here, she hoped they wouldn't have to fight many walkers though, her arms were killing her from all that effort to try and get him free.

"There!" she grinned "Here, use this for a weapon, just in case you need it."

With that Aubrey tossed him the wrench and took out her small knife from her little holdster on her leg and looked to the door, it was bulging a little bit and it worried her.

"Well lets not just rush off, we should have an idea of where we're going before we get down, we wont have much time to think or speak with all the walkers down there!" Aubrey pointed out, casting her gaze down to the street "Lots of them are still in the store, but that could change if we make too much noise."

Biting her lip she looked around the city, rather helplessly, and she didn't know what to do or where to do; "So where do you think we should go?"

Merle was getting more than a bit anxious about this whole situation considering his life was in the hands of someone he could reasonably lift with one hand. He was just hoping that good things came in little packages because he had honestly not gotten to know her very well. Probably because he had spent most of his time with Daryl to be honest.

When she managed to get the first bolt gone his eyes widdened happily and he tugged hard on the cuffs. When she managed to get the pipe up enough he yanked and the cuff came loose, freeing him from the damned pipe. Grinning happily, he stood up quickly,

"Jes's Chri't yer did it!" he exclaimed happily, "Alrigh' now le's ge' te hell out'a here! I don' kno' 'bout yer but I don' wan' te be anywher' nea' here anymor'!"

Grabbing the wrench when she threw it to him he paused when she explained that they would have to have a plan. Annoyed, he thought for a moment before nodding across the street to a hunting goods store,

"We can ge' in ther', ge' som' weap'ns an' then go ou' te bac'." he suggested, "Walk'rs are stup'd enough te no' thin' abou' goin' roun' te bac' til we're gon'!"

When she asked him where they should go he was stopped from answering by the sound of the door groaning. Swearing a little bit, he glanced to the next building. He moved to the edge and noticed that the roof of the next building was a floor lower than the one they were on and very close too,

"Alrigh' darlin'..." he smirked a little bit, "I say we jum' this her' gap, go down stairs ther' an' ten go ou' through te sportin' goo's plac' yea'?"

Aubrey nodded with a happy grin, she was honestly suprised that she could have done that, she wasn't very strong but she assumed that it was the adrenaline that was rushing through her that enabled her to actually free Merle from the pipe. If she hadn't have been able to she didn't know what she would have done, there was no way she was going into the store to get something stronger than the saw to help her out.

"Yeah...I don't think sticking around longer than we need to is going to be a great idea." she stated, looking with wide eyes at the faces of the walkers that were peeking through the gap in the door, she didn't know what was keeping them out if she was honest with herself.

Peering across the street she saw the hunting goods place, to be honest she wouldn't have even thought of looking there, probably because she would have assumed it would have been looted and cleared a long time ago, but it was a goal, a place to try and get to, and hopefully they would have something more useful than her little tidgy knife in there.

"Alright, that sounds like a plan. It would make me feel better not wandering the streets of Atlanta with a fancy pocket knife for protection, I don't know about you?" she grinned, just glad to be in this situation with someone else, and someone else competant as well, Merle was a great hunter or so she had heard, especially if he was anything like Daryl.

Gasping when she heard the door groan she hurried over to Merle and looked at the building a short jump away. Aubrey fought the feeling to look down and she bit her lip, she wasn't the biggest fan of heights, but it looked like the only way that she was going to be getting away from this walker infested building any time soon so, it was going to have to do.

"I'll go first, otherwise I know I'm going to wimp out." she sighed, pushing her nerd glasses up her nose, she took a running start and propelled herself off the edge of the building with a last push off with her foot, she made the other building safely with more than a few inches between her and the edge.

Merle had to admit that the fact that she had done it was startling. She was a little waif of a woman but she'd managed to turn the bolts almost as easily as he himself would have been able to do if he had both hands. But regardless of how strange it was, it had happened and he could not me more glad that it did because the only other option for him was to cut through his wrist. And he had seriously, seriously, not been looking forward to that at all,

"Yea' they're hungry fer ther' manwhic' an' I ain' gun' be stickin' aroun' te foot te bill." he told her with a small grin even in this situation. He was up on his feet, had a heavy object and was free from the cuffs. He was feeling a lot better even about this situation, "Cours' I won' min' bein' abl' te tak' a few'a tem fuck'rs wit' me... but livin' is bett'r."

He admitted to himself that they were probably unlikely to find anything too big or too useful in the hunting goods store but it was a start right? They needed to get some form of long range weapon and right now a hunting crossbow would go down a right treat with Merle. He smirked a little bit,

"Yer jus' a bi'a a wus' now ain'cha?" he teased her with a little smirk, "Tha' lil' knif'a yers could' keep yer saf' so lon' as yer use it righ'!"

Seeing that she wasn't too happy with this plan, Merle was actually planning on grabbing her and throwing her over. She'd make it. She was light and he was strong enough to lift and throw her. When she jumped anyway he grinned a little bit before following her over, landing easily from the height,

"Well tha' wer'n't tha' har' now was it?" he joked before leading her down the deserted stairs to the bottom floor. He stopped her at the front door. Outside it was a straight run across the street to the sporting goods store. The problem was that the walkers attacking the department store were just a few feet to the right, even if they weren't looking their way, "So... up fer runnin' it?"

Now that Aubrey was on the other side of the building she thought that it would be the right time to respond to Merle's little comment about her being a wuss. She was all for harmless teasing as long as the person didn't mind having a few jibes thrown back at them in the process. Since she didn't really know Merle she was unsure of how he would actually respond to her friendly teasing, well hopefully seeing as she just saved his ass.

"Well I guess you owe this wuss one big favour for saving your ass." she grinned, with wink "And I'd be more than happy to swap my little knife for your wrench if you think that you can use it better than I can."

Wiggling the knife in the air, as if making the offer, Aubrey laughed and then followed Merle down the stairs of the store next door, they were moving pretty fast and that was good it meant that any walkers that were in here wouldn't be able to snag them easily as they darted past rooms on their way down to the bottom level of the shop, where the exit was out onto the street.

"I think I can make it across the street, but what are we going to do if the shop is locked, breaking in will make a lot of noise and attract the walkers to us?" she asked, more than a little concerned "I guess all we can do is hope that the alarm system isn't working, or, that it's already unlocked."

As Aubrey readied herself to leave the store and make the dash outside she held her little knife tightly in her grip and set her attention on the store right in front of her, her hand hovered by the handle to the shops door. Glancing back at Merle, she saw that he was ready and yanked open the door.

"Alright then...lets go." she whispered, as she made a dash across the street towards the other store, making sure to mind where her feet were going so she didn't tred on something and make a noise that would attract the walkers attention.

He chuckled a little bit when she looked at him to respond to his comment about calling her a wus. Fair does to her though; she only tried to respond once she was already over the jump so didn't have anything to be a wuss over anymore. He smirled a little bit when she decided she would tease him back,

"Nah lil' girli' when yer pulled mah ass out'a te fir' bac' ther' yer got yerself an instruct'r on how te be badas'!" he joked with her, smirking as he did so, "But if yer wan' I'll trad' yer lil knif' fer mah wrenc'... if it'll mak' yer feel all saf'r."

He chuckled a little bit, knowing that the wrench was too heavy for her to actually use. Smirking a little bit, he twirled the wrench effortlessly before moving on. They needed to get moving and they needed to keep from being attacked by Walkers until they were sure to have the advantage. When she reaised the concern about the door being locked he nodded,

"Well if it's loc'd we break te glass. Bar' wit' me on tha' plan... we break te glass, grab whatev'r we can fin' quic', ten we tail it ou' te bac'." he suggested, "Tey'll ge' stuc' in te stor' an' giv' us tim' te put som' distanc' betwe'n us an' tem."

When she was ready they both dashed across the street towards the other store. He wasn't as stuble as she was but then again he was bigger than she was. Thankfully they didn't have to use his plan as the door was open. Hurrying her inside, he closed it and pushed a display case in front of it and in front of the windows too, blocking them off from view. Sighing a little bit, he looked around quickly. Spotting one Walker trying to pick itself up off the ground he smashed it's brains in before looking around for supplies,

"See wha' tey've go' her' yea'?" he suggested, "Kniv's an' shi' are bes'... but any campin' goods or shi' like tha'd be grea' too."

Aubrey, when she saw that the door was open was very very relieved and she hurried inside, just glad to be away from all the walkers and they were still very much distracted away from them by the department store and the noise from the car she had left a block in the other direction to them. Biting her lip a little she let her shoulders sag as she relaxed now they were in here, as long as they were quiet they should be alright.

Jumping when Merle suddenly killed a walker that she hadn't noticed in the store, she felt her heart hammering in her chest and she looked around the dusty old shop more carefully. This was the kind of place as a kid she had been fascinated by, all of the pointy and rather scary objects.

"Do you think that there will be any more Walkers in here?" she whispered quietly, trying not to make a lot of noise until she knew for sure "Do you think we should check or should we just get out of here as quickly as possible?"

When she heard she needed to find some knives, and camping gear she looked around, it was already heavily looted, and the display cases smashed, although as she looked closer, she saw many of the knives had been left, and it was mostly the shotguns that had been taken.

"There are a few knives here, enough so we can have two each just in case." Aubrey stated, taking one out of the case and twirling it a little bit, handing two to Merle she took the last one for herself.

In another part of the shop, she saw that it too had been looted but there were still things there that were useful she thought, there were several small tents still left, although they might be slightly damaged, they were better than nothing, and some itchy picnic blankets were better than nothing too.

"Do you think we'll need these tents and things, it might take us a while to get back to camp, if we're even going to try and get back to camp."

Merle could tell that Aubrey wasn't used to all this Walker killing yet but he couldn't really blame her considering she didn't appear to have had anything to do with killing before the Walkers, where as he had been hunting since the age of eight. He grinned a little bit at her when she jumped in surprise at him killing the Walker she had missed. He began to look around the store for anymore before she even asked him too. Poking his head out of the back room he shook his head,

"Ther' don' seem te be anymor'." he admitted with a little grin, "Jus' te on' I fuck'd up bac' ther'. I've chec'd te bac' room but we shoul' probably be as quie' as we can anyway yer kno'?"

Seeing that there were indeed knives left he grinned a little bit before collecting a machette-sized weapon and one that was just regular sized. Hiding them away on his person within easy reach, Merle nodded to her with a grin,

"Goo' fin' ther' girli'." he complimented her with a wink, "No' jus' a pretty fac' I see."

When she found the tents he paused a little bit before shrugging. Were they going back to camp? Yeah, if only so he could kill T-Dog. In the end he just scratched his stubble,

"Yea' migh' as well tak' em. We'll go bac' to te camp but Imma kill tha' bitc' T-Dog so migh' mak' a goo' peac' offerin'." he mused before picking up some of the small propane tanks for portable camp cookers, "Oh I thin' we're gun' tak' som'a thes'. Tey'll mak' fer grea' distrac'ns."

Aubrey automatically relaxed when she heard that there were no more walkers in the shop, she would be able to concentrate on actually finding and packing some of the things that they would need without looking over her shoulder every few seconds. Searching for something to help them carry the stuff, she managed to find a hiking backpack, it was a little ripped but, it was still usable.

"Here, we can put all of these in here, to make it a little bit easier to carry them all." Aubrey suggested, beginning to pack the bag full of the few things she had managed to find.

When Merle picked up the canisters, she smiled lightly, she thought it might be better to wrap the blankets around them so they didn't make loud clinking noises while they moved, and so, she began to place them all wrapped up into the duffle bag, as many as would fit that was.

"Of course, I have brains to match the pretty face." she grinned "And the brawn too." Aubrey laughed quietly, showing her rather non existant muscles "If you can find any more cloth or blankets, we can wrap the rest of the metal canisters in them so they don't make noise against the rest of them."

Unable to stop her mouth popping open when she heard that Merle was going to kill T-Dog when he got back to camp, she couldn't help but think that she needed to delay him, try and change his mind! There was no way that she was going to allow him to do something like that. He was angry that was for sure, she was angry too, she could be dead by now! But that wasn't the answer surely?

"Merle...I know that they left you, they left me too, but, surely causing more losses isn't the answer?" she asked softly