TWD/VD (Meratherine; Merle/Kat): Survival Is Everything

Ch.1: The Rooftop

It was a scorching hot day, as Merle Dixon sat against the pipe on the rooftop. The officer had handcuffed him there, since he wasn't playing nice. Then biters had started getting through the store, forcing them to evacuate, leaving him behind. One of them had tossed him the key, but it had gone through the part of the pipe with an open grate. He was stuck now. That same guy had locked the door to the rooftop, but it was only a matter of time until that locked chain broke. The more biters there were, the easier it would be for them to break that lock by pushing against the door. He felt helpless for once.

It hadn't been long after she'd gotten turned into a human, when the world had gone to crap. Since she knew humans were the worst in disasters, she'd stayed away from them. She also knew how to be quiet on her own, so she'd been lucky.

Kat was silently heading up the ladder on a building. She thought it would be a good place to avoid the walkers for a while, but could hear walkers and someone talking to himself.

She got to the rooftop and saw everything, as she stood there. A guy was handcuffed with one wrist to a pipe, talking to himself. He looked like he'd been like this for at least a few hours. She also saw walkers trying to get through the chained door. She knew nobody deserved to just wait to die, so she decided to help him out.

She approached him, before kneeling by him, taking her black, light backpack off, setting it on the ground.

"You look like you could use a rescue," she greeted.

"Who are you?" he questioned.

"Katherine Pierce," she introduced, and was able to use some tools from the ground to get the handcuffs off his wrist that it was on. Then she handed him a bottle of water from her backpack, before putting it back on. Then, since he looked like he was going to need to get his strength back after his ordeal, she put an arm around him, helping him.

He took a few swigs from the water bottle she handed him, and then allowed her to help him, before he grabbed his rifle from the rooftop.

After a little while, Kat entered a small store that was walker free, helping him inside, and then closed the door, making sure to lock it. She then closed the blinds, keeping the walkers from being able to see them.

"Why are you helping me? Most in this world would just keep going, instead of helping anyone, let alone me," he wanted to know.

She set down her backpack and sat next to him in front of a glass counter.

"I'm not like most people. It took time, but I learned that decent humans help each other. Besides, even loners like me help some people that need help. Although, most of them I just avoid. I know what people are capable of, good humans or not. I don't tend to run with any groups. It's how I've survived this long from these walkers. It also helps that I was a survivor even before the world went to crap. Enough about me, though. If you and I are going to get through this, I need to know something about you. I have problems with trusting others, so I need to know if I can trust you," she replied and admitted, looking at him.

He'd finished the bottle of water she'd given him and set it down on the ground, before telling her, "My name's Merle Dixon. My brother and I have always been survivors as well. We didn't have the best upbringing if you know what I mean. I looked out for him, even though I admit that I wasn't always there, nor was always very good at it."

"Where is he now?" she inquired.

"With the group that abandoned me on the rooftop. I need to find them, so I can find Daryl."

"If he's with a group, I'm sure he'll be just fine if he's anything like you," she assured him. "One thing I've always done as a survivor. Never ever look back, because it just might get you killed. I don't take risks that will jeopardize my survival. But then again, I never had any siblings, and my parents were killed a long time ago. It's been many years ago, and I didn't care for my father. There might be people that are still around that I do care about, but if they're smart, they'll be okay, too. They've always survived as well, but they're more likely to stay attached to each other, rather than leave each other behind."

"You do what you need to do, and I'll do what I have to do," he told her. He was loyal to his brother too much to let it go.

"Fine. If you insist, I'll go with you, but you need to have your full strength first. And it would be useful to find a vehicle. For now, we can stay here until tomorrow. Then figure out a way around those walkers," she replied, knowing he wasn't going to leave family behind. She was well acquainted with that concept. She'd dealt with that with Elijah for too many years. He'd do anything for his brother, just as she assumed Merle would. And she did owe him after saving him from turning into walker food.

A few days later, Merle got her to where the camp was supposed to be, but it appeared that they were gone. Long gone, it looked like to her. Everything from the supposed-to-be camp was gone with burned corpses left behind.

She looked at him, as he looked around at the camp.

"Where to now? They obviously are probably miles away by now."

"Judging from all these bodies of biters they clearly burned, they were overrun by biters. Nobody went off course, so my brother must still be with them," he replied, looking around at the camp and seeing no tracks going anywhere but around the camp.

"Merle, they most likely left three days ago. We have no way of knowing where they are now. We have to figure out a plan. We can't just keep searching without some kind of lead," she reminded him, as well as suggested.

"You're either with me or against me," he reminded her, not taking her disapproval of looking for a needle in a haystack. "I'm going to find him with or without you, even if it takes years to catch up with him. I'm not abandoning him."

"I wasn't suggesting that you abandon your brother. I'm telling you that we need a plan. You can't track on cement, and I don't usually go tracking people down. Going city to city in my opinion, is a waste of time."

He looked at her, knowing she was right. Then thought of something.

"Most of them in my opinion are a bunch of pussies and idiots, but a few of them, my brother included, are smart. Daryl would've gone into the woods during an attack, but the others probably would've left for another city. If they're smart enough to figure out that the cities are all overrun, the next best thing Daryl and I would go is into the country," he replied.

"Then I guess we hit the countryside until we find him," she agreed. Then they headed back to the Silverado truck they'd stolen, and got in, him driving.