Merle was still gasping when I took out my knife. T-Dog flinched, but I wasn't planning to stab anyone. Knife Combat Mastery apparently covered cheap handcuff locks too, and the cuff popped open on the third try.
"Here's how this works," I said. "When Rick's group moves, you move. You start trouble, you get what you got today, and next time I won't stop at one tooth."
Merle rubbed his wrist and glared at me with blood on his teeth. He said nothing, which for Merle was probably a personal record.
Downstairs, the others were waiting by the back door with Rick and Rose: Andrea, Morales, Jacqui and Glenn, plus T-Dog. I already knew every name, but I let each of them introduce themselves anyway. Glenn was the one who had answered my walkie-talkie.
"That trick with the horn was crazy smart," he said, staring at the dogs. "Are those wolves?"
"Tamaskans," I said. "They bite less than Merle."
The system chimed before anyone could answer.
Quest complete: Welcome to Atlanta Survivors rescued: 6 Reward: 30 Z coins (5 per survivor), 10 bread, 20 bottles of water, and the trust of the survivors. Wallet: 674 Z coins
The trust arrived faster than the coins did. Andrea shook my hand twice, and Jacqui stopped looking at the dogs like they were lunch.
Glenn knew Atlanta's back streets better than any map, so he led us out. Morgan followed in the van with Duane, because Rick had convinced him a boy needed more than a dead house. Behind us, the city stayed quiet. I had pulled six hundred walkers into that tunnel, but thousands more were still out there, and I knew exactly where they'd go the second someone fired a gun.
Merle rode in the van with Morgan, glaring at the back of my head the whole way. When I glanced in the mirror, Rose was asleep on Dawn's shoulder.
"You didn't have to hit him that hard," Rick said quietly from the passenger seat.
"Yes, I did."
"I'm a cop, Jake. I would have arrested him."
"The jail's closed."
Rick opened his mouth, shut it, and looked out the window. After a minute he said, "He would have gotten someone killed."
"Maybe not today," I said. "But soon."
We reached the quarry at dusk. Smoke curled above the trees, and when the jeep rolled in, I saw tents, an old RV, and a few dozen faces turning toward the sound of the engine.
Home Fires
Carl saw the jeep first. He dropped whatever he was holding and ran, and Rick was out of his seat before I'd stopped moving. I stayed in the driver's seat for a few seconds and let them have it. Rick dropped to his knees. Carl crashed into him, and Lori came running behind, her hands over her mouth.
I knew this scene. I'd watched it on a screen, and it still got me.
Then I noticed Shane. He stood a few steps back, stone-still, watching the three of them. For a second, his face held pure relief, and right behind it was something else I recognized from the show. He had spent months telling himself Rick was dead.
I got out and walked over. "Shane. Good to see you again."
His eyes flicked to me. "Jake? Kid, you brought him back." He clapped me on the shoulder, hard, and smiled. I watched the smile, because I knew how this story ended if nobody changed it.
Over the next hour the whole camp met us. Dale rolled his eyes at the dogs and then spent ten minutes petting Fenrir. Carol hugged Rose without a word. Her daughter Sophia took one look at the dogs and fell in love, and in a minute she and Rose were sitting in the dirt with a dog each. Andrea found her little sister Amy at the edge of the fire, and for a while the two of them just held each other and sobbed.
Amy was alive. I kept looking at her. In the show, she wouldn't be much longer, and I had promised myself I would change that.
Then there was Ed Peletier. I watched him bark at Carol over a pot of beans, gripping her arm until she flinched. Carol stayed silent. I added Ed to a list in my head, the one I'd been making since I first opened my eyes in this world, titled Problems I Am Going to Fix.
After dark, a crossbow bolt thunked into a tree at the edge of camp, and a man in a ragged vest stepped out with a string of squirrels.
Daryl Dixon stopped when he saw Merle sitting by the fire.
"Merle?"
"Little brother," Merle said, in a flat voice, and he glanced at me. For a long moment, nobody said anything. Then Daryl crossed the clearing and hugged his brother, awkward and quick. When they separated, Merle's gap-toothed grin looked almost human.
"What happened to your mouth?" Daryl asked.
Merle looked at me. I looked at Merle.
"Fell," Merle said.
Daryl turned to look me up and down, and for the first time since I'd come to this world, I saw a man decide to keep an eye on me.
Later, I sat on the edge of the quarry with my squad around me and a bowl of beans in my hands. The system pinged softly.
Territory detected: Quarry Camp. Requirements to claim: a defended perimeter, shelter for all residents, and at least eight survivors. Reward: Territory status. NPC packs unlocked.
The quarry was full of survivors, and almost none of them were safe. I put down my bowl and started planning.