The Submissive Alpha Named Glenn

From inside the tank, Rick can only stare at the radio in shock, not believing that the voice was real. The walkers pound on the tank, trying to get to him, and the radio continues to static.

"Hey." The man says, "You alive in there?" The Alpha scrambles for the radio, not wanting to lose the man.

"Hello? Hello?" Rick pants, hoping his good luck from earlier will resurface.

"There you are." The man responds, and Rick thanks everything he knows for it, "You had me wondering."

"Where are you? Outside? Can you see me right now?" Rick asks.

"Yeah, I can see you. You're surrounded by Walkers. That's the bad news." He says.

"There's good news?"

"No." Rick can't help but be reminded by a teenager; the young voice and sarcastic way the male seems to hold information.

"Listen, whoever you are, I don't mind tellin' you I'm a little concerned in here." Rick says trying to keep the irritation out of his voice.

"Oh man. You should see it from over here. You'd be having a major freak-out." The voice says, his voice a little raised from before.

"Got any advice for me?" Rick asks, exasperation clear as day.

"Yeah, I'd say make a run for it. " Rick looks at the radio for a moment, like it had offended him.

"That's it? "Make a run for it"?" The Alpha asks a low rumble in his chest.

"There's one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down. The street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now while they're distracted, you stand a chance. Got ammo?" The voice says.

"In that duffel bag I dropped out there, and guns. Can I get to it?" Rick asks, hoping he could.

"Forget the bag, okay? Whatever you have on you, make 'em count. Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. there's an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards. Be there." The radio static starts up again.

"Hey, what's your name?" Rick asks.

"Have you been listening? You're running out of time."

"Right." Rick says. he drops the radio and grabs a shovel from the tank wall. Rick pulls out the gun he got from the tank Walker and checks it. He scrambles back to the dead Walker and checks him for anything else. He sees a grenade next to him and grabs it, putting it in his pocket.

Armed with a gun and shovel, Rick breathes deeply before he throws the tank lid open. He makes his way towards the ally he was told to go to, shooting any Walkers close to him. Turning into the ally Rick points his gun at the being that had pushed the gate to the ally open, ready to fire.

"Whoa! Not dead!" An Alpha, probably in his 20's yells to get Rick's attention. Rick and the Asian man make their way further into the ally, Rick still shooting any Walkers that get to close to them. Halfway through the Asian man starts going up a yellow ladder attached to the building on their left. Rick fires the gun once more at a Walker before shoving the gun into his waistband.

"What are you doing?! Come on!" the younger Alpha yells at Rick, already halfway up the latter and climbing fast. They make it to a landing, the man helping Rick up.

"Come on, get up." The men rest for a moment, panting, while the Walkers were trying to fight over the ladder.

"Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood." The man says to Rick, "You the new sheriff come riding in to clean up the town?"

"It wasn't my intention." Rick pants.

"Yeah, whatever. Yeehaw. You're still a dumbass."

"Rick. Thanks." Rick holds out his hand for the man to shake, scenting the air around the new Alpha.

"Glenn. You're welcome." Glenn's hands are sweaty but firm in Rick's. Rick pulls the gun from his waistband and places it in Glenn's backpack, Glenn taking a scent of Rick as well.

Glenn shivers slightly at Rick's scent and the natural protective feel of the Alpha. The man had to be one of the rare Mega-Alphas; an Alpha so strong they can make other Alphas submit to them. The amount of pure Alpha pheromones coming from the man was intoxicating; the man smelled heavily of protection, calm, comfort, safety and more that it made Glenn's head spin. Glenn looks down at the ladder to focus his mind on something other than Rick's scent, which the Asian Alpha realized he had basically stuck his nose in the other Alpha's arm to get more of the smell, to see that one of the Walkers had come out on top and was a little way up the ladder, with other Walkers pulling on it to claim its spot.

Glenn gets in front of the second ladder, the one that goes all the way to the roof and looks back at Rick before making his way up, Rick right behind him. Fortunately, neither of them falls off and Glenn helps Rick over the building edge after he hops down. They run across the roof and make it to a hole, leading into the building and start to throw the packs down it.

"Back at the tank, why'd you stick your neck for me?" Rick asks.

"Call it foolish, naive hope that if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me. Guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you." Rick follows Glenn down, closing the hatch for the hole as he does so. Reaching the bottom, they gather their packs and run through the room, out the exit door on the other side, and down a couple flights of stairs, Glenn getting on a walkie-talkie.

"I'm back. Got a guest plus four geeks in the alley." They make it to the bottom of the stairs where two Walkers start making their way towards them. A little nervous, the two men watch as a door opens from the building opposite of them and two other men come out in black police armor and mask with baseball bats. They start to beat the Walkers in their heads as Glenn and Rick move around them and makes their way inside.

Once everyone had piled in and the two men started to pull off their gear, a blonde Beta woman in her 30's pushes Rick against a cabinet, a gun in his face.

"You son of a bitch. We ought to kill you." She grits out of her teeth, trying to intimidate the new Alpha.

"Just chill out, Andrea. Back off." A Hispanic Alpha says, his glare piercing Rick.

"You're kidding me, right?" Andrea asks in disbelief, "We're dead because of this stupid Knot-head."

"Andrea, I said back the hell off. Well, pull the trigger." The man says after a moment of Andrea not listening to him. She drops the gun and just stares at the floor, clearly upset if her scent is anything to go by.

"I don't understand." Rick pants out from where he is still leaning on a file cabinet Andrea pushed him up against.

"Look." Morales grits through his teeth as he grabs Rick's arm (Rick has to control himself, so he doesn't growl at the Alpha, not knowing his rank within this group yet and where Rick would fall on it) pulling him into another part of the building, "We came into the city to scavenge supplies. You know what the key to scavenging is?"

The man pushes Rick down a hallway, the group following them, "Surviving! You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing." The group finally stops in what appears to be a department store filled with clothing.

"Every geek for miles heard you poppin' off rounds." The large African American Beta man says.

"You just rand the dinner bell." Andrea chimes in with a huff.

"Get the picture now?" Morales asks. Rick couldn't fault them for it. The glass doors at the front of the building were crowded with growling geeks, all banging on the glass. One of the smarter ones had grabbed a part of the concrete from the road and was hitting the doors, large cracks webbing from the impact point.

"Oh God." Someone gasp as the group backs up a little, as if the extra space would keep them safe.

"What the hell were you doing out there anyway?" Andrea sneers at the Alpha.

Rick bares a tooth with a low growl and chest rumble at the Beta. The group backed up a bit more from the clearly upset Alpha. Glenn goes as far as tilting his head in Rick's direction, unnaturally submissive for another Alpha.

Morales turns to the black man. "Hey, T-Dog, try that C.B. Can you contact the others?"

"Others?" Rick asks hopefully, "The refugee center?"

"Yeah, the refugee center. They've got biscuits waiting in the oven for us." The Omega woman answers sarcastically.

"Got no signal." T-Dog says, "Maybe the roof."

Suddenly gun fire was echoing above them. "Oh no. Is that Dixon?"

"What it that maniac doing?"

"Come on, let's go." Glenn gestures for Rick to follow them and with one last look towards the door the group makes their way to the roof.

.....

Up on the roof's edge stands a beta man with a rifle, shooting at the Walkers like he was at target practice. He lets off a few more rounds as the groups makes their way to the roof. Upon opening the door and running into the Georgia heat, Morales starts yelling at the man, Dixon.

"Hey Dixon, are you crazy?!" The man laughs and shoots off another round, a Walker falling dead.

The man was dressed in dark washed jeans, biker boots, a brown and black shirt with the sleeves ripped off and a leather vest. He had shaved fine blonde hair with a receding hair line, blue eyes, a strong jaw and lite stubble covering the bottom half of his face.

"Man, you are wasting bullets we ain't even got!" T-Dog screams as he jumps over a large pipe, landing in front of Dixon. Morales joins him as T-Dog continues to tell off the other Beta.

"Hey! Bad enough I've got this taco-bender on my ass all day." Dixon replies, "Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so, bro. That'll be the day."

""That'll be the day"? You got somethin' you want to tell me?" T-Dog snarls at Dixon before pointing at himself.

Rick looks to Glenn for an explanation. Glenn just waves his head and hands in a 'no, you don't want to get in the middle of this' formation. Dixon, Merle, didn't seem to want to give it up though.

"You want to know the day?"

"Yeah."

"I'll tell you the day, Mr. "Yo." It's the day I take orders from a nigger."

"Mother-" T-Dog takes a swing at Merle, which he ducks.

"Hey, Come on, Merle. That's enough."

Merle beats T-Dog, aiming for the other man's ribs and throwing away anyone that tries to break up the fight. Merle ends it when he pulls a handgun from his pants and shoves it in T-Dog's face. Merle looks at the man under him, then the rest of the group. Making the decision to not continue, he spits on T-Dog's shirt and wipes it around.

"Yeah, all right! We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh?" He says getting off T-Dog. "Talk about who's in charge. I vote me. Anybody else?" The others grab T-Dog and pull him away from Merle, being mindful of his injuries.

"Yeah." Merle turns around to Rick, who hits him in the face with the butt of a rifle. Merle is knocked to the ground where Rick places himself over the older man to keep him down, one knee digging Merles face into the roof. Rick quickly grabs his wrist and handcuffs him to the same pipe he had been knocked into, before hauling Dixon up to look at him.

"Who the hell are you, man?!" Merle screams at Rick.

"Officer friendly." Rick growls low in his chest. The Beta glares into the Alpha's eyes, showing defiance. Rick gets closer to Merle and rumbles again, his chin lifting slightly in a silent show of dominance. After a moment Merle lowers his eyes and tilts his head minutely to the side, admitting his submission to the Alpha before him. A growl echoes through the group, expressing Merles displeasure.

Rick ignores the man's neck which has Merle narrowing his eyes. The Beta was clearly upset about having to surrender, and Rick would respect the man's choice. He wouldn't scent the man in front of the group; to do so would officially place Merle below him in the group's ranks. With Rick being so new, that would obviously be a hit against the Beta's pride; not to mention that would make him a Gamma, a scapegoat.

He decides to turn around and finds the gun that Merle had pointed at T-Dog before turning back, taking the gun apart. "Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no niggers anymore. No dumb-as-shit inbred white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart."

Merle huffs, "Screw you, man."

Rick looks at the group before he responds, "I can see you make a habit of missing the point."

"Yeah? Well, screw you twice." Merle looks away from Rick, to his hands.

"Ought to be polite to a man with a gun." Rick rumbles again, cocking the gun and pointing it at Merles head, ready to fire but reluctant to do so. "Only common sense."

The group exchange looks as they watch the man deal with the redneck. Merle's eyes widen slightly before they narrow, calling the Alpha's bluff with a small tremor the rest of the group was too far away to hear, "You wouldn't. You're a cop."

Rick lowers the gun from Merles head, internally grateful that he wouldn't have to act like he was going to kill the man anymore. In a calm tone Rick admits, "All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose."

Rick gives the other man another once over, something about the Dixon's behavior was triggering his inner cop. "I'll give you a moment to think about that."

Rick starts searching his pockets and as he reaches into the last pocket, he pulls out a small bag of pills and a smaller bag of white powder. Rick's able to make out the pills without having to examine them closely. Suppressants; why would a Beta like Merle have these?

Rick watches as Merle lifts his head and see the pills in his hands. A tick in the man's jaw that the Alpha reads as the Beta holding back a whine. Rick lifts Merle's head up farther and sees the fear in his eyes. Not for himself but for the person the pills are meant for, and the fact that an unknown Alpha now knew that an Omega was with their group. That had to mean that the Omega was unclaimed. The Alpha decides to keep the information of an Omega to himself. The Beta wouldn't have hidden the pills if the group knew; it had to be a secret Merle didn't want to get out.

Pocketing the Suppressants, the Alpha walks over to the other side of the roof, near the door, and throws the drugs over, rubbing his wrist. Hitting Merle had put a little strain on the muscles.

Morales walks up next to Rick, watching him for a moment. "You're not Atlanta P.D. Where you from?"

"Up the road a way." Rick replies, uncertain.

"Well, officer friendly from up the road a way, welcome to the big city." Morales chuckles. The two men look out to the city. The group's content on staying quiet now, while they watch the streets below from the edges of the roof. Merle was growling loud and threatening, looking for a chance to go after Rick. The Alpha could taste the Beta's hatred in the air.

'He thinks there gone.' Rick realizes, 'He thinks I threw away the Suppressants too.'

"This isn't going to work is it?" Morales asks, "I mean three Alphas in one group is bad enough. But with an Omega and three Betas, two with Alpha complexes... I don't see how we're going to get out of here."

"We'll make it." Rick says, nodding his head, "We have too."

"How can you be so sure?" Morales sighs. Rick looks at the other man before lightly scenting the air around him. Morales freezes as Rick scents him and relaxes when it's over.

"You have an Omega, two kids too." Rick looks at his hands, so he doesn't see the look he knows Morales is giving him. The Alpha had always seen his nose as a gift, but sometimes it was too much.

"T-Dog and Jacqui are mates. Andrea has a smell on her, an Omega. Family I think, cause there's no scent that they've been intimate." Rick continues, "Can't smell anything on Glenn though."

The rest of the group saves Rick from having to answer questions Morales seems to be dying to know.

"My God, it's like Times Square down there." Andrea breathes.

"How's that signal?" Morales asks as the two men return to the others.

"Like Dixon's brain... Weak." T-Dog says, glaring at the redneck. Merle turns to him and flips him offs.

"Got some people outside the city is all." Morales explains, seeing Rick confused look, "There's no refugee center. That's a pipe dream."

"The streets ain't safe."

"Now there's an understatement." Morales looks at Rick.

"What about under the streets? The sewers?" Rick asks.

"Oh man." Morales gasps. He turns to the rest of the group. "Hey, Glenn, check the alley. You see any manhole covers?"

Glenn runs over to the part of the roof that was over the blocked ally to checks but sees only the Walkers. "No, must be all out on the street where the geeks are."

"Maybe not." Jacqui interrupts, "Old building like this built in the '20s... Big structures often had drainage tunnels into the sewers in case of flooding down in the subbasements." The group looks at her in astonishment.

Glenn blurts out a question, "How do you know that?"

"It's my job... was. I worked in the city zoning office." The black woman tenses but answers. Rick looks around before nodding to the door leading inside.

"Can you show us where it is?" Jacqui bites her lip.

"I can." Glenn steps in, "come on."

The group heads inside, careful to not make a lot of noise. Going down to the basement, the group follows Glenn to a manmade hole with a latter; a sewer entrance.

"This is it? Are you sure?" Morales says.

"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." Glenn gulps, "Who'd want to, right?"

Everybody looks at him.

"Oh. Great." Glenn swallows, looking deeper into the tunnel.

"We'll be right behind you." Andrea reassures, softly.

"No, you won't. Not you." Glenn counters.

"Why not me? Think I can't?" Andrea snaps back with a glare.

Glenn hesitates, looking to Rick for help, a quiet whine leaving his throat. "I wasn't..."

It was strange that Glenn, an Alpha, was looking to another Alpha to explain himself. Even more so when Glenn was with the group a lot longer than he had known Rick, meaning the Asian Alpha was more likely to be the Prime-Alpha than Rick, or even turn to Morales for guidance if needed. However, Rick gave Glenn permission anyway, ignoring the looks he was getting from the others.

"Speak your mind." The cop prompts him.

Glenn take a deep breath, "Look, until now I always came here by myself... In and out, grab a few things... No problem. The first time I bring a group... Everything goes to hell. No offense." He looks at Rick, who just nods from the man to continue.

"If you want me to go down this gnarly hole, fine... But only if we do it my way. It's tight down there. If I run into something and gotta get out quick, I don't want you all jammed up behind me getting me killed. I'll take one person... Not you either." Glenn pokes the cop in the chest, "You've got Merle's gun and I've seen you shoot. I'd feel better if you were out in that store watching those doors, covering our ass."

Glenn turns to Andrea, "And you've got the only other gun, so you should go with him."

"You be my wingman." He points to Morales, "Jacqui stays here. Something happens, yell down to us, get us back up here in a hurry."

Jacqui nods, "Okay."

"Okay, everybody knows their jobs." Rick pats Glenn on the shoulder and nods at the others.

Rick had seen cases like Glenn's before, back in the old world. When there are more than one Alpha in a family, one was always deemed the Prime-Alpha; the one the other Alphas would follow. The youngest Alpha was normally forced to submit to the others in most families and groups of friends. Glenn had been forced to submit to so many Alphas that he was imitating a traditional Omega. These Alphas need to gently be given command in controlled situations to regain their suppressed instincts. Glenn's scent lightens at the other Alpha's approval.

Rick and Andrea decide to leave, heading to the front of the store to watch the glass doors. Glenn leads Morales down the ladder, under Jacqui's watchful eye.

....

The group makes their way up to the roof to check in on the others. T-Dog looks up from the CB and asks, "What happened?"

"Geeks got through one of the sets of doors, and the sewers are crawling with Walkers. We need a way out of here, the glass won't hold forever." Glenn says.

Morales goes over to the bags and pulls out a pair of binoculars. He hands them to the Alpha when the cop holds out a silent hand, asking to see them. Walking over to the edge, the group starts looking for anything they can use. Rick spots a truck at a construction site that is close to their location.

"That construction site, those trucks..." Rick points it out to the group, handing the binoculars back to Morales, "They always keep keys on hand."

Morales looks at the street and then look at the place Rick pointed out. "You'll never make it past the Walkers."

Rick turns to Glenn, "You got me out of that tank."

Glenn sighs, "Yeah, but they were feeding. They were distracted."

"Can we distract them again?"

"Right." Merle chimes in, "A diversion, like on "Hogan's Heroes.""

"God. Give it a rest." Jacqui snaps. The group misses the look Rick sends her. Merle was trying to help, actually trying to help them, and they were acting like he had skinned a puppy. Rick decides to ignore it for now, making plans in his head to bring that up later.

"They're drawn by sound, right?" Rick asks, unaware that Merle had seen the minute glare he sent Jacqui because of what she said.

"Right, like dogs. They hear a sound, they come." Glenn confirms.

"What else?"

"Aside from they hear you?" Morales asks, "They see you, smell you and if they catch you, they eat you."

"They can tell us by smell?" Rick questions, amazed.

Glenn snorts, "Can't you?"

"They smell dead, we don't. It's pretty distinct." Andrea clarifies. Rick thinks for a moment before getting an idea.

"Go down to the clothing department; get any long, cloth-like coats you can find. See if you can find some gloves too. Glenn," Rick turns to the other Alpha, "I want you to go to the hardware section and find something we can use to cover our eyes. Goggles, anything like that. T-Dog you come too. We'll need your help." The group starts to make their way to the door, questions bouncing around in their brains like firecrackers.

"HEY! What about me, officer Friendly?! You can't leave me up here!" Merle yells from his spot on the ground, twisting his body around to see the others. Rick stops and looks at the other man.

"Can you play nice or are we gonna have more problems?" He asks.

"With a Dixon around, you'll always have a problem." Morales snorts.

"Wha'cha say ya taco-bender?! Come over here so I can beat yo piñata ass!" Merle tugs on the restraint a little harder, no doubt cutting up his wrist more while doing so.

"Enough." Rick growls, voice stern as he looks at the group, "Antagonizing Merle isn't doing anything but pissing everyone off. All of you will leave him alone."

Rick turns back to see the other man on his knees, an unreadable look on his face. "And if I hear one more word out of you that is even slightly offensive I will find sometime in this store to tie up your other hand and gag you."

"Yes sir, officer." Merle mocking solutes him before laying down on the ground. Rick observes the Beta before addressing the group behind him.

"You guys go look for the stuff, ok? I want to talk to Merle; then I'll be down to help." The Alpha heads over to the handcuffed man.

"Rick?" Glenn calls out. Rick turns his head and gives the two Alphas a look. Morales nods and starts to pull the group to the stairs to make their way down. The others follow reluctantly. Rick moves back over to the edge of the roof. At this point Dixon was sitting up watching his every move. The Alpha kneels in front of the Beta and raises his chin. Merle tilts his head, baring his neck to the Alpha. Rick watches the door for a moment before leaning down to scent the man's neck. The Beta uses it as an opportunity to attack.

Merle punches Rick in the gut and kicks him away from him. The Alpha is quick to get the other man under control. Pulling Dixon away from the pipe leaves him only one hand to work with. Rick pins it to Merle's back and shoves the man to the ground, kneeling on him to keep down. Rick bends down and places his teeth close to the Betas glands, causing Merle to freeze with a growl. After a few moments the Beta's breathing evens out and Rick releases him. He makes sure to finish scenting the Beta before letting him up though, programming Merle's scent into his memory. The Alpha sits on the balls of his feet while Merle leans back against the pipes.

"Now maybe you can explain why a Beta would need these?" Rick pulls out the bag of Suppressants. Merle freezes, his eyes on the small bag.

"I didn't take you as a druggy, Officer Friendly." Merle laughs it off. His eyes never stray from the pills.

"I know what Suppressants look like Merle. These are for Omegas; it's a high dosage too." Rick says looking at the tan-ish pills. "Normal Suppressants are white; the tan ones are for Omegas going into heat or already in heat."

"I ain't talking about this. Give 'em." Merle snarls, holding out his hand. Rick ignores him.

"Can I ask who they're for? Is this all they have saved?" Rick asks, sitting on the ground fully, legs crossed in front of him.

"Why do you want to know? You have a Mate, and I can smell her on you, she's a Beta." Merle says, eyes narrowed. The man's scent was familiar, as was the Beta's and the kid's that cling to him, though faint. Maybe he had already seen the Alpha's family since the world ended.

"I had a bag with me when I came to Atlanta." Rick sighs, "Inside were guns, ammo, and a few other things I picked up from places on my way here. I had a bottle of Suppressants, the Omega kind, that I got from a man I met after I woke up. Brand new, still had the plastic cover and that annoying tin cover that you gotta stab something into it to open. He said it might be useful if I got into a group; like insurance to let me in. if this is all your Omega has, that bottle might be useful."

At this point Rick had the Beta's full attention. Merle snorts when Rick brought up the Omega, " It my supply. That's all there is in the whole camp."

Rick looked at the bag again before handing them to Merle for him to pocket. Rick gets up, ready to go help the group. He makes his way to the door, before he looks back at the Beta, "How many Omega's ya'll got?"

Merle thought for a moment, "bout six, give or take. And I'm the only male one. There are a couple of Traditional Alphas at base, and you know what will happen if they find out. If I don't make it back, you take care of him, you the only one who can. You're the only other one who knows."

Rick looks at the man, "You'll make it back. We all will."

"We'll see Friendly... we'll see."

...

"So, what's this big plan man." T-Dog asks. Rick had come down stairs from his talk with Merle to find the others hiding in the stairwell, eyeing the store doors.

"You said they can tell us apart by smell. So, if we smell dead, we should be able to blend in." Rick says as they reach the department store. The Walkers are still banging on the glass.

"And how exactly do you expect to make yourself smell like them?" Andrea crosses her arms over her chest.

"If we can get a Walker's body, we can cover ourselves in its blood." Rick says looking for the stuff he would need.

"Glenn, I want you to come with me." Rick says, addressing the group. "If we use the alley way, then we can test the two Walkers there. It's better to have the situation under control with a few Walkers and some back up close by, then to jump right into the middle of down town and it not work. If the two Walkers in the alley don't react to us, then we can move forward to the street; get to the construction site and grab one of the cars. If not, we just have to run back inside without getting bit and come up with another plan."

Rick grabs coats and gloves, along with a couple of other things, and hands them to Glenn.

Morales turns on the new Alpha. "Just stop, okay? Take some time to think this through."

"How much time?" Rick points to the doors, "They already got through one set of doors, that glass won't hold forever."

The group puts on the trench coats and rubber gloves they are given. Going to the door that would lead to the alley, they go outside and drags one of the Walkers they killed into the store, being careful to avoid the other two farther up. Once inside Rick puts on protective headgear and uses a crowbar to break open the glass box holding a fire axe to cut up the body.

Glenn and Rick are soon saturated in Walker blood and guts, its hands and feet hanging around their necks. Rick and Glenn walk outside with a crowbar and the axe. They start to limp towards the other Walkers slowly. The Walkers briefly look at them but ignore them after a quick sniff. Happy that they didn't have to go back inside and put on another layer of Walker guts, Rick and Glenn crawl under a bus and come out on the other side where a huge hoard of Walkers is waiting for them. Rick and Glenn continue to shuffle through the crowd of Walkers; none noticing that they are alive. Thunder keeps rumbling as they make their way to the gates, blocking the construction site from the rest of the street.

Glenn turns to the other Alpha and whispers, "It's gonna work. I can't believe it."

Rick whispers back, "Don't draw attention."

When Rick and Glenn get over halfway down the street, rain starts to fall. A cloudburst; a little spit of rain that normally don't last long. Rick and Glenn try not to panic as they continue to walk at the normal pace. They notice that the rain is starting to wash off the guts and with it the smell. The Walkers start to move with more of a purpose as the rain continues to wash the smell off.

"The smell's washing off." Glenn breathes, "Isn't it? Is it washing off?"

"No, it's not." Rick tries to reassure Glenn. A Walker moves past him and growls loudly, taking a second and third glance at him before its pushed back, "Well, maybe."

One of the Walkers charge at them and Rick crushes its skull with the axe. With that the other Walkers give chase to the food so close to them.

Rick turns to Glenn and screams "Run!"

Rick and Glenn take off down the street, killing any Walkers that get too close. Once they get to the gates the two throw their weapons over the fence and climb over it. Glenn runs over to the box to finds the keys to the truck. Rick pulls Merle's pistol and kills any Walkers that start to climb over the fence. When Glenn finally finds the keys to the truck, he throws them to Rick.

"Rick!" Glenn yells.

They run over to the only truck, sure that it will get everyone out. They enter the truck as some Walkers start climbing over the fence and running after them. One of them reaches the truck just as Glenn closes his door and bangs on the window.

"You need to draw them away." Rick says as they speed away from the herd, avoiding some Walkers in the way, "Those roll-up doors at the front of the store... That area? That's what I need cleared. Raise your friends. Tell them to get down there and be ready."

Glenn looks at the Alpha in confusion. "And I'm drawing the geeks away how? I... I missed that part."

"Noise." Rick says as he pulls up next to a red sports car. Getting out he make sure there aren't any Walkers in the area before he takes Glenn's crowbar and smashes the window. The car alarm starts to sound, and Rick opens the door to hotwires the car. At least one good thing came out of following Shane around all the time when they were teens. Once the car starts Rick gets back into the truck while Glenn gets in the sports car. The two of them drive back towards the store with Glenn in front, leading away the Walkers.

Glenn gets on the radio and contacts the rest of the group. "Those roll-up doors at the front of the store facing the street... Meet us there and be ready."

Glenn drives the sports car in front of the store. "Come on. Come on. Get closer. Get closer. Come on. Come on." The Walkers start to bang on the car, trying to get to Glenn. He pulls the car back a couple of times until he's certain that most of them are surrounding his before he turns the car around and takes off.

...

Rick pulls the truck up to the roll up doors once Glenn has most of the Walkers distracted. The group pulls up the metal doors and Rick helps up Jacqui and Andrea before making his way up to the front. The sounds of the Walkers are getting closer and he's got to get them out. Morales helps T-Dog get the bags up before helping the man up himself, then jumps in too.

Morales looks at Rick "I'm in!"

The Alpha closes the back before the Walkers can get to them and the group makes their escape. As they drive away, everyone notices Dixon is missing. The group looks at T-Dog, knowing he had the key.

T-Dog swallows around a gulp of air, "I dropped the damn key."

The group stays quiet knowing there is nothing that they can do now. Rick drives the group away from Atlanta, following Morales's directions as the man joins him up front. It takes everything in him to not turn around; go back and run head first into the herd to get the Beta. Rick had scented the man, scent his glands and allowed the other to do the same. That wasn't something an Alpha allows just anyone to do; it was something only a pack member could do. He chokes back a whine of at the thought of leaving a potential member of his Pack behind.

"Where's Glenn?" Andrea asks noticing the small Alpha isn't with them.