YALL THIS IS TOO GOOD

YALL THIS IS TOO GOOD

Chapter Fifteen , Streigler Struggle

“Were you the one who barricaded the alley?” Rick asked once Matten Streigler showed up.

“Somebody did, I guess when the city got overrun.” Glenn replied.

“Whoever did it was thinking, not many freaks would get through,” Matten cut in.

“Back at the tank, why’d you stick your necks out for me?” Rick asked.

“Matt just thought we should because we could.” Glenn said, “Me? Call it foolish naïve hope? Just hoping one day, someone will do the same for me. Guess we’re even bigger dumbasses than you.”

After Glenn, Matten merely bypassed the ladder altogether and jumped straight down, “SHIT MAN! WATCH IT!” Glenn snapped.

“We’re back!” Glenn spoke into his walkie talkie, “Got another guest, plus four geeks in the alley!”

The trio stopped at the end of the stairwell as three walkers took notice of them. Suddenly, a door swung open and two men wearing riot gear brandishing baseball bats ran out and beat two of the walkers while a third who wore white full body armor with fresh teal accents shot at the third walker with a gun model Rick did not recognize.

As soon as the walkers were down, everyone ran across the alleyway into the building.

Rick barely had enough time to react when a blonde woman grabbed him and shove him into a crate.

“Son of a bitch!” Andrea growled as she took her gun out and aimed it at Rick, “I’m gonna kill you.” She hissed.

Rick merely put his hands up to show he didn’t want any trouble.

“Hey, Andrea, chill gal.” Matten tried. “Yeah, ease up.” Jacqui threw in.

“Ease up?” Andrea gaped, “you’re kidding me, we’re dead because of this stupid asshole.”

Then the man in full body armor approached Andrea as he removed his helmet, “Put. The gun. DOWN.”

“Or pull the trigger?” Matten shrugged.

Andrea soon relented, “we’re dead, all of us. Because of you.” She spoke.

“I don’t understand.” Rick said and Morales grabbed his arm.

“Look we came into the city to scavenge supplies.” He said, “you know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving. You know what the key to surviving is? Sneaking in and out. TIPTOEING.”

“Yeah, not shooting up the streets like some trigger-happy commando going berserk on a battalion of clankers.” Matten cut in, also pissed, “Every freak for miles around heard you poppin off shots.”

“You just rang the dinner bell” Andrea spoke

“Got the picture now?” Morales asked.

Before all of them was the shop windows, all full of walkers trying to get in. One even picked up a rock and was smashing it against the glass.

The group retreated further into the building as the glass began to break.

Well. Lord help us now. Rick thought.

☣<<<Interlude>>> ☣

“It’s late they should’ve been back by now.” Amy snapped.

“They should’ve been back two days ago.” Crosshair growled.

“Worrying won’t make it better.” Dale spoke and both Crosshair and Amy huffed.

Crosshair then went to sit next to Lovi, like a few seats away from her still.

“What are you doing?” Lovi snapped.

Crosshair didn’t even look at her, “You know what I’m doing.” He spoke.

“Yeah, so stop.” Lovi hissed as she glared at him.

“I won’t” Crosshair said as he shook his head. Lovi looked at him, anger visible on her face, “I won’t.” he repeated, looking Lovi in the eye this time. Lovi stood up and left, leaving Crosshair alone on the log.

The buzz of static caught Shane’s attention as well as everyone else’s. Dale climbed up to the top of the RV and reached for the receiver.

Whatever words were exchanged were no longer what concerned Crosshair, it was the strange knot in his stomach telling him something wasn’t right.

Shane and Amy arguing caught Crosshair’s attention. Apparently Shane was being an ass again and Amy was having none of it. He wanted to leave her sister there. Leaving brothers behind was wrong, Crosshair knew that personally so he felt compelled to help the poor girl.

“She’s trapped she’s gone.” Shane said to Amy, “so we just have to deal with that. There’s nothing we can do.”

Crosshair was on his feet in an instant, walking towards Shane and Amy, well aware of the eyes on the back of his head.

“She’s her sister, you son of a bitch.” Crosshair growled at Shane.

Shane and Amy looked at Crosshair, the former in anger at his defiance, the latter somewhat thankful to him for agreeing with her.

“’s there something ya wanna say ta me man?” Shane taunted the sniper.

“You start down that path of not even trying” Crosshair began, “you wouldn’t even bat an eye to someone begging for help? You’ll start leaving people for dead, in your group, and out of it.”

With that Crosshair walked past the former cop and ushered Amy towards the forest.

“Thanks,” Amy whispered to Crosshair.

“don’t mention it and look out, I think Lori’s gonna scoop you up soon.” Crosshair joked as he nudged Amy’s arm and sure enough…

“Amy!” Lori’s voice came from behind them.

“Oh my god…” Amy ran her hands down her face.

“Good luck.” Crosshair called softly as he branched away.

“Congratulations, you’re officially an asshole too.” Amy quipped and Crosshair laughed, “too late, I already was” the sniper threw back

He could already hear the two women arguing as he walked away towards Lovi’s car. Maybe he could do something and bring everyone home…

☣<<<Interlude>>> ☣

“Listen I know it sounds crazy, but I need you to do this.” Crosshair whispered to Amy in the back of the RV.

“You’re gonna get yourself killed.” Dale pressed while Amy put a hand to her head, “Cross, he’s right, this is too dangerous.” Amy spoke.

“It’ll only be my life on the line.” Crosshair assured.

“That’s hardly reassuring, son.” Dale looked at him.

“Cross, please, this is stupid.” Amy pleaded.

“You were the one who wanted to get your sister.” Crosshair snapped.

“yes. My sister. Why are you going?” Amy asked, “aside from Dale, everyone here was cruel to you. Even that lady you came here with. Why are you risking your life for them?”

“Because I know what it’s like to be left behind.” Crosshair said, looking at the map strewn on the table, “That’s not something anyone should go through…”

Silence fell across the trio until Amy leaned over and hugged Crosshair.

Immediately the clone’s eyes went wide. How does one handle this again?? Looking up at Dale with pleading eyes that must’ve looked hilarious on him because the elderly man chuckled pretty hard.

Crosshair huffed and tried hugging Amy back, although he was unsure of where to put his hands. He settled for resting them around her shoulders.

“Thank you.” Amy said as she pulled away, “Too bad you’re not in charge and Shane is. You seem to know what you’re doing better.”

Crosshair chuckled, “I’ll keep that in mind for the election.”

The trio chuckled again when suddenly, a distant siren reached their ears.

The sounds of shuffling on the RV roof told them that the current lookout had heard it too.

The trio rushed out of the RV, Dale and Crosshair both running for the ladder as the siren drew closer.

“Talk to me Dale!” Shane called out.

“Can’t tell yet.” The elderly man replied.

“Is it them? Are they back?!” Amy asked.

“I’ll be damned…” Dale grumbled, “What is it?” Crosshair asked, “Stolen car I’ll bet.” Dale replied just loud enough so everyone could hear.

A sleek red car pulled into the camp, it’s alarm screaming bloody murder. Crosshair trained his rifle on it just in case. When he saw Glenn in the driver’s seat he then trained his aim on the passenger seat. Wait… holy damn. That’s a reg.

Said reg stepped out of the car. He had hair the length of Hunter’s with blonde frosted tips set in small braids tied back in a ponytail.

“Holy crap, turn that damn thing off!” Dale shouted

“I don’t know how!!” Glenn shouted back.

Almost immediately the car alarm was mingled with several people yelling as Glenn popped the hood of the car and told Amy her sister was fine and Shane turned off the car alarm.

Once the alarm was off everyone turned to the newcomer.

“Who the hell are you?” Shane asked

“Who the hell are you??” the reg parroted reaching behind his back.

“HEY, HEY! HANDS IN THE AIR!” Shane shouted.

“That’s Matten Streigler, we ran into him two days ago…” Glenn introduced, “Matt can you PLEASE calm down?”

The reg chuckled and shook his head, “Not when this asshole thinks he can boss me round.” The reg whipped out a dc-17 and aimed it right at Shane.

“DROP THE BLASTER, REG!” Crosshair snapped and everyone looked at him.

“Oh,” Matten said as he looked at Crosshair, “You one of those defective clones aren’t ya??”

“I’m defective enough to kill you, scug, drop the karking blaster!” Crosshair growled

“Excuse me, do you two know each other?” Lori asked as Matten kept his blaster trained on Shane.

“Not personally Ma’am” Matten leered

“Kriffin reg,” Crosshair growled as he switched his blaster to stun.

“What’s that defect?” Matten spat at Crosshair when suddenly, a firewood wielding Amy came up and brought a log down on the back of Matten’s head, dropping the reg like a sack of potatoes.

The camp stood dumbstruck, staring at Amy who shrugged before growling at an unconscious Matten Streigler, “His name is Crosshair, asshole.”

Crosshair shared a look with Dale before smirking and jumping down from the RV.

Amy immediately went to turn her crossfire back on Glenn, “Andrea’s okay? Why isn’t she with you?” Amy spoke.

“It’s okay,” Glenn announced “everyone’s okay, well… Merle not so much.”

Crosshair snapped up at that.

Goddammit.

“You crazy driving this wailin’ bastard around” Shane scolded, “You trying to draw every walker for miles?!”

“I think we’re okay” Dale said

“You call bein’ stupid okay?” Shane snapped

“Well the alarm was echoing all over these hills, hard to pin point the source.” Dale corrected.

Shane stood up and glared at the man, “I’m not arguing, I’m just saying.” Dale said to the cop before looking to Glenn, “It wouldn’t hurt you to think things through more carefully next time would it?”

“Sorry,” Glenn apologized. “I got a cool car…”

Shane was in the process of tying up Matten when a large truck soon came up.

His enhanced eyesight enabled Crosshair to recognize Morales in the passenger seat while a man he didn’t recognize sat in the driver’s seat, but what stopped him mid-breath, was the man, the REG between the passenger’s and driver’s seats.

No way…

He’s…

Alive…

Andrea was the first to exit the truck. She ran straight to her sister, who ran to her and pulled Amy into a hug. The reunion was hearty, bringing a smile to even Crosshair’s face. Jacqui showed up next followed by T-Dog. Then came Morales, whose children ran right into his arms.

Crosshair could hear Morales talking about how they’d escaped being trapped. Then someone who appeared to be some law enforcement officer stepped out of the truck.

Crosshair noticed how Shane and the new guy seemed to freeze when they saw each other.

“DAD!”

Crosshair turned to see Carl and Lori running towards the man and then he understood. This was Carl’s father and Lori’s husband. This- oh. Shane’s in for it now.

Then… the white clone armor with teal accents. It looked like the armor was stolen from a purge trooper and was given a new paint job. The teal paint barely masked the faded and chipped magenta patterns.

The trooper’s helmet moved with his head, panning the camp.

Crosshair was sure Shane was watching the man, as well as analyzing Crosshair’s reaction to him where his reaction to Matten was hostile, his reaction to this trooper was docile.

The trooper’s scanning stopped when his sights landed on Crosshair. Crosshair tensed when the trooper advanced on him suddenly.

“Hey, hey, hey-” Shane tried to intervene when he realized the way the trooper was advancing was nowhere near a happy reunion but the trooper just shoved him away.

Crosshair braced himself for an attack as he began to step backwards, “Howzer wait, I can explain-” Crosshair didn’t get to finish.

Captain Howzer hauled off and socked Crosshair across the jaw, making the latter stumble and fall.

Crosshair swore he heard Lori or Amy scream at Howzer, but when he looked up, he saw Lovi.

“If you touch him one more fucking time I will kill you” she growled.

Howzer ripped his helmet off and to Crosshair’s horror, his right eye was burned blind. It’s almost looked like Wrecker’s scar. “Do you even realize who you’re defending?!” He shouted to the camp.

“Yes, we realize who we’re defending and you just hauled off and punched one of our own so you watch it.” Dale snapped as he stood next to Lovi who glared at Howzer like some post-apocalyptic warrior goddess in Crosshair’s eyes.

“Do you really?” Howzer challenged

“Do we realize that we’re defending a man who’d imprisoned many people? Yes we do.” Dale challenged back “That he tried to kill his own family? Yes we do. Do we have reason to believe him?-” “No we don’t” Shane cut in, “YES. WE. DO.” Dale ignored the cop’s butt in, “He’s one of us ‘Howzer’, you watch it or we’ll drop you like your friend.”

“Matten’s not my friend.” Howzer spat, “and neither is he.” He spoke, gesturing to Crosshair. Crosshair looked away as Howzer turned and left for the tree line.

“you alright?”

Crosshair looked up to see the new guy holding out a hand to him.

“uhm… yeah…” Crosshair said as he took his hand.

The man then helped him up, “Rick” the said simply. “Crosshair.” Crosshair replied. “I know that wasn’t you fault” Rick said, “he was pretty tense and hostile when I first met him”

“Pretty tense when we first met him two days ago.” T-Dog cut in.

“It is my fault.” Crosshair said.

“Sorry?” Rick asked with a raised brow.

“He had him arrested, he told us” Jim said.

“I wasn’t thinking straight then.” Crosshair spoke. “I thought I was right, but… I wasn’t. I hadn’t been right for a long time.”

“We all have our ups and downs.” Rick said, “give him some time, maybe he’ll come around”

Crosshair huffed. If only it were that easy.

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