wildest dreams ━ rick grimes × male!oc

chapter six:

ƇӇƛƤƬЄƦ ƧƖҲ: "now there's a lot of people in the crowd, but only you can dance with me. so put your hands on my body."

Thunder rumbles in the distance. Rick scents the air. He can almost taste the ozone settling on the back of his tongue and it makes his mouth water. "We need to get out of here,'' he says, wiping sweat off his brow with the back of his hand.

Merle grunts. "Good luck with that. These streets ain't safe in this part of town, from what I hear." He turns to look at Andrea, "ain't that right, sugar tіts?"

Andrea scowls, searching through her backpack. At her silence, Merle continues pestering her. "Hey, honeybunch, you get me out of these cuffs an' we can go off somewhere an' bump some uglies." He shrugs. "Gonna die anyway."

Rick's lips curl downwards in disgust. Was Andrea's silence not a clear no? "Andrea,'' he orders, "introduce Merle to your gun."

The blonde beta doesn't even hesitate. She pulls out her gun from her backpack, swift and precise, with the safety off just like Rick taught her moments ago, and points it at Merle. "Rather be dead than with you," she says, voice soft and shoulders tense.

"Rub muncher," Merle wrinkles his nose, "figured as much." He stays quiet after that, eyeing Andrea's gun from the corner of his eye.

"The streets ain't safe," Morales scoffs, "now there's an understatement."

"What about under the streets?" Rick asks, squinting his eyes. "The sewers?"

"I'll check," Glenn voices, already moving to look over at the alley. "No manholes over here,'' the omega says, shaking his head, "must be all out on the street where the geeks are."

"Maybe not," Jacqui, as she had introduced herself earlier, pipes up. "Old building like this was built in the '20s. Big structures often had drainage tunnels in the sewers, in case of flooding down in the sub basements."

Feeling hopeful, Rick leads the group, minus T-dog and Merle, down into the building. It doesn't take long to find a steep stairwell leading into a drainage sewer.

"This is it?" Morales asks. "You sure?"

Glenn nods. "I really scoped this place out the other times I was here. It's the only thing in the building that goes down, but I've never gone down it." He makes a face, "who'd want to, right?"

Rick and the others all simultaneously look at Glenn.

"Oh," the omega says softly, the realisation clear on his face, "great."

"Well be right behind you," Andrea reassures.

"No, you won't," Glenn shakes his head, "not you."

"Why not me?" Andrea asks. Her lips curl into a scowl. "Think I can't?"

"I wasn't..." Glenn trails off, looking unsure.

"Speak your mind," Rick says, gently touching the omega's arm. He sends Andrea a look and the beta immediately quiets.

Glenn sends Rick a thankful glance and leans into the touch. "Look, until now I always came here by myself. In and out, grab a few things... No problem."

Rick blinks, surprised. This kid kept coming back here all on his own? He moves his hand to Glenn's back and places it between his shoulder blades, feeling something like protectiveness stir within him. He's only ever been protective of his pup, terrifyingly so, and it's never resulted in peace, only blood. Rick wonders why his instincts are acting up now of all times.

"The first time I bring a group," Glenn sighs, "everything goes to hell." He raises his hands in mock surrender. "No offence." The kid glances down the drainage tunnel, "if you want me to go down this gnarly hole... fine. But only if we do it my way.''