Chapter Eight – Back in the City

They arrived at the entrance to the city and, as expected, it was filled to the brim with Walkers. Rick, Daryl and T-Dog had managed to sneak in without being noticed, by ducking and dodging behind abandoned trucks and cars. All around them, they could hear the moans and groans of the rotting, walking corpses which really put them on edge, the situation in the city had clearly worsened…

"Over there!" T-Dog whispered in an urgent tone as he pointed to the store across the street from where they were ducked behind an old FedEx truck.

He was pointing at the Pharmacy. So far so good…the only problem was that the front entrance was swamped with dead people. It looked secure though, almost as if it hadn't even been touched yet. If they could just manage to get in without being noticed, and not make any sound to attract the walkers, they should be safe to loot the place.

"Now we just need to get in…" sighed Rick "Got any ideas?"

"Yeah, I do…" replied Daryl "Gimme one of them walkie talkies."

"Okay, what's the plan?" asked Rick as he handed Daryl one of the talkies that he had stuffed in an old brown, leather satchel he had brought with him to carry the meds in.

"Right, I'm gonna take one of these talkies, sneak on up to that school bus over there" Daryl said as he pointed towards an over-turned, yellow school bus "-and i'm gonna hide it under the back seat. T-dog, you got the loudest voice so I want you to hide in that bunch of bushes over there with the other talkie and make some kinda sound into it. That'll cause them to follow the noise into the bus and when It seems clear enough, Rick you give me a signal and I'll close the doors and trap em."

Rick and T-dog stared at Daryl, almost shocked at the fact that he actually came up with a really elaberate plan. Daryl wasn't stupid, but he very seldom thought a situation through. Despite it being a decent plan, they were still a little wary as It wasn't the safest of plans.

"Man, ain't that a little risky?" said T-dog, wiping the sweat off of his brow. "I mean, you gotta be IN the bus to shut them doors, what if you get trapped in there with those things?"

"Look, you wanna get the meds for Glenn or not?" Daryl snapped back as he readied his crossbow.

Rick sighed as he surveyed their surroundings once again. Yeah, it was a risky plan but they HAD to take the risk.

"Okay, great. We got a plan" he smiled to Daryl "Let's do it!"

Back at camp, Dale was still keeping a close eye on Glenn. He was fast asleep on the sofa bed but his breathing was labored and heavy. He couldn't understand what was wrong with him. He seemed to get better one minute and the next minute he seemed to be worse than ever before. There had to be something more than the flu wrong with him.

"Dale?" piped a small voice from the doorway.

Dale looked over to see Carl standing there with a concerned look on his face.

"Hey son, everything okay?" he asked the dark-haired little boy.

"Yeah, just wanted to see if Glenn was okay." answered Carl as he kicked the dirt under his shoes.

"Yeah he's asleep right now but, i'll let him know you were asking after him, when he wakes up."

Carl simply nodded. Dale could see that something was worrying the boy.

"Carl, is there something wrong?" he asked him "You can tell me."

"It's just that...I heard Ed...saying some stuff..." Carl mumbled as he fiddled with his fingers, nevously. "Saying that...someone would be...better off...Killing Glenn before he freaks out again..."

Dale's stomache began to churn angrily. Though he hardly felt surprised. He knew that Ed had been talking crap about Glenn but he never thought he'd say stuff this severe.

"I just...thought I should say something to you about it..." Carl continued "I didn't wanna tell Shane, it'd just cause another fight..."

Sudden whimpering came from Glenn's direction. Dale and Carl glanced over to him only to see him tossing and turning under the covers. Dale made his way over to him to try and wake him up before another nightmare started but to his surprise, he was already awake.

"Glenn? What's wrong, son?" Dale asked worriedly.

"My...chest" gasped Glenn "It really hurts."

On that note, Dale helped him to sit up. Glenn began to cough violently as he held his hands to his chest. Dale signaled Carl to get the bottle of drinking water that was on the counter. Glenn's breathing became heavier and he began coughing and spluttering even harder.

"Breathe Glenn, breathe!" said Dale as he patted Glenn's back roughly.

Without warning, Glenn coughed up a clot of blood all over the blanket. Once he'd done that, the pain in his chest lifted. His eyes widened as he saw the red stain on the blanket which shocked him. He knew he was sick but he didn't think he was that sick.

"Oh my god, I really AM dying..." he said with a shakey voice

"Now stop that..." Dale replied as he hastily removed the blood-stained blanket. "Sometimes with chest infetions, people cough up small amounts of blood...that's probably what's caused that cough..."

Carl handed the bottle of water to Glenn who took it and gulped a huge swallow of the cold liquid.

"Thanks bud." he smiled as he handed the bottle back to him.

But that water didn't stay down for long. No sooner did the water hit his stomach, he had to grab the nearby black bucket once again and it came right back up.

"Gross..." Carl said quietly as he watched Glenn fill the bucket.

"Tell me about it..." Glenn wretched once he had finished. He then rested his back against the wall of the RV.

Dale shoved the old blanket into the pile of dirty laundry that resided in the corner near the bathroom door and retrieved a clean one from the drawer compartment under one of the chairs near the table. He then threw the blanket over Glenn who was still shaking from the sudden chill that swept over him when the old blanket was removed. He had an idea of what was wrong with him but he wanted to be 100% sure...

"Hey Glenn,I gotta ask..." he began "when you get sick, is it usually this...well...spurratic?"

Feeling really tired and drained, Glenn laid himself down, pulling the blanket up and over his shoulders in order to keep in the heat.

"What do you mean?" he asked shakily as he felt the familiar aches and pains began plaguing his joints once again.

"Well, one minute you're shivvering and can barely stand. Then you seem to get a little better and then you suddenly get worse than you were before. Is this normal for you?"

Glenn let out a labored sigh, he really couldn't be bothered to have this conversation , he simply gave a weak smile and closed his eyes tiredly.

"No offence guys but I don't really wanna talk about it..." he sighed "I kinda just wanna sleep it off now..."

Dale and Carl both decided that it'd be better just to leave him to rest. Hopefully his fever would stay down until the others got back.

Back in the city, Daryl's plan was being set into motion. T-Dog was in place, safely tucked away in a nearby phone box with one Walkie Talkie. Rick was bunked down in an abandoned car, with his head just high enough to see over the dashboard, ready and waiting to give the all clear to Daryl who was slowly and carefully making his way towards their goal, the old yellow school bus. Managing to make the least amount of noise as possible, he climbed inside the bus and placed the walkie on the back seats.
Satisfied with what he'd done, he began to make his way back towards the bus door when suddenly, one of the walkers clambered into the bus.
"Oh shit..." Daryl growled under his breath as he ducked behind one of the seats. The walker came closer and closer so before it even had a chance of noticing where he was, Daryl grabbed the small screwdriver he kept tucked away in his back pocket and quickly silenced the walker by jamming the small tool in its left eye socket.
Checking that the cost was clear, Daryl exited the bus and hid around the other side, with Rick's hiding spot just within eye-shot.
Now it was T-dog's turn to carry out his part in the plan. He began shouting into the talkie.
"Hey! Hey!"
Hearing the comotion coming from the bus, the walkers began slowly making their way inside the bus. One by one, the no-brained monsters climbed into the bus, making it rock and shake. Rick signalled to Daryl as the last one climbed into the bus, letting him know that it was time to close the bus' doors. With all the stealth he could muster, Daryl crept around to the enterence to the bus. He reached into the walker-filled bus, pushed the button that activated the doors and quickly got out just as the doors were about to shut. This, of course, attracted the attention of the now-trapped Walkers, causing them to force themselves up against the flimsy doors and windows. Rick and T-dog rushed to Daryl's side and assessed the situation.
"Those doors won't hold for long..." T-dog gulped
"He's right." aggreed Rick "Come on! Lets just get those meds and get home.

They now made their way to the now-clear doorway of the pharmacy. They entered the abandoned building, taking care to close the door behind them and barricading themselves in with some nearby, over-turned shelves.
"Okay, so what do we need?" asked Daryl "I have no clue how this medical shit works."
"I'll tell you what we need..." said T-dog "We need something called Relenza!"
T-dog rushed to one of the nearby shelves and began forcing his way through the various boxes and viles, reading the labels.
"What does it look like?!" asked Rick as he and Daryl began looking also.
"It's like a powder!" answered T-dog "we need an inhaler too!"
"How do you know all this stuff?" asked Daryl as he looked through a box of junk
"My mom was a nurse" answered T-dog "Aha! Got some!"

He had found a case full of the stuff. All they needed now was an empty, working inhaler. Rick rushed behind the store's counter, thinking that the empty inhalers would be kept behind there. Just then, a loud crash could be heard outside. Daryl looked out one of the windows and saw that the walkers had finally broken through the bus' door and were now spilling out into the street once more.
"Shit!" he growled "We need to get outta here!"
"Can't we manage without the inhaler?!" Rick asked T-dog frantically
"No, it needs to be inhaled directly into the lungs" T-dog answered

"Well, there aren't any here!" Rick snapped back "We gotta get out before we get trapped in here!"
On that note, they slipped silently out of the pharmacy and back to their car. They had no choice but to leave and head back to camp with the meds that they had found, but without the inhaler.

(AUTHOR'S NOTE:)

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG I'm SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SORRY For not updating in a while
No excuse this time :( Just got bad writers block :( SO SO SORRY

Next chapter will be up soon I promise
I'M SORRY!