"Why'd you save me back there?" Rick asked his rescuer as they climbed up a fire escape ladder.

"I guess just naïve hope that if it were me, somebody would do the same." Answered Glenn.

Rick Grimes was grateful to Glenn for saving him from the hoard of walkers in the street. Part of him found it too easy to put a gun to his head and end it all. The part of him that believed the world was over and there was no point trying to escape the tank because he would never find his son and wife alive.

He couldn't believe this scrawny little Korean boy had saved him from all those walkers, and from himself. He could barely believe Glenn was still alive at all. This world was harsh and Rick was sure they'd both be dead soon.

"I'm with a group inside. They're not gonna be happy with you." Glenn warned.

When Glenn led Rick to the rest of his group, a blonde loose cannon named Andrea put a gun to his face. "We're all going to die because of you."

Rick thought, you're all going to die, but not because of me.

"Back off Andrea. Just chill out." A man named Morales talked Andrea off of Rick.

Rick told them about the helicopter he saw in the sky and a man named T-dog mocked him. "There's no god damn helicopter. The world's gone to shit. You're just seeing things."

When they said there were others, Rick asked if it was the refugee center and this time a woman named Jaqui mocked him. "yeah right! What is wrong with you?"

Rick wondered what he had gotten into, involving himself with these people and thought maybe he should thank Glenn and go out on his own.

Just then, the group heard multiple gunshots coming from the roof.

"Was that Dixon?" Andrea asked in a panic to no one in particular.

Rick thought, oh God. They get worse?!

They all ran up to the roof where a redneck in a vest was shooting walkers down on the street with a hunting rifle and laughing manically like he was enjoying himself.

T-Dog yelled at the redneck named Merle Dixon, "Man, you're wasting bullets! and stop making so much noise! That gun isn't doin' shit! We're surrounded by walkers and you're just attracting more!"

The two men started to fight, Merle insulting T-Dog and making racist comments and T-Dog defending himself. Their words turned into punches and when Rick tried to jump in and break it up, Merle hit him one to the nose and sent him to the floor. Merle took it up another notch and started beating the shit out of T-Dog. He put a gun to his head and threatened him until he started to laugh, and allowed the pleading group to pull T-Dog away.

Merle mouthed off about being in charge and intimidated the group into agreeing and just when all hope seemed lost, Rick came from behind, hit him in the head with the butt of his gun and handcuffed him to a pipe. While Rick discussed their situation with Morales, and began to formulate a plan to get everyone out of there, Merle sat helpless and restrained. Everything out of his mouth was rude and racist or sexist.

"Hey 'sugartits', you wanna help me outa this?" he asked Andrea.

He was not making a very good case for his release. Rick looked back at him once or twice and rolled his eyes. Went back to plotting with Morales.

Daryl Dixon stalked through the woods, listening carefully to every bird chirp and every leaf rustle. He was an excellent hunter and tracker and could tell how far something was by its sound and how long ago something had been there from its tracks. He already had a string of dead squirrels hanging off of him but he was after something bigger. A deer that he had seen in the morning and had been tracking ever since.

Come on Bambi. Show yourself, he thought as he looked vigilantly through the trees.

Some of the others, including his brother Merle, had gone into town to look for supplies. Daryl opted to go into the woods alone to hunt some food. He was tired of being around such a large group of people and he craved the peace and quiet. Even his brother had been getting on his nerves more than usual and he was enjoying the relief of not having Merle yacking in his ear and telling him what to do and what to think every five seconds.

Damn it Merle.

After some brainstorming with the group, Rick came up with a dangerous plan. He was going to cover himself in zombie guts in an attempt to hide his live human smell and walk through the walker-filled street to a truck he hoped had keys inside.

He thought he probably wouldn't survive the mission, but it was the best idea he could come up with. In the zombie apocalypse there were no truly good ideas. They were all going to die and it was only a matter of when.

Glenn volunteered to go with him.

As Rick walked through the street he reassured Glenn that the plan would work. That the walkers would not notice them. Even after it started to rain and the guts began to wash off of them, and he was certain this was the end, he reassured Glenn.

"Just stay calm. It'll be aright." Rick reassured him because he had already decided that if it came down to it, he would sacrifice himself for Glenn.

Any resolve that Rick had to live was getting smaller with every passing hour. Every time he thought of Carl and Lori, which was very often, his heart hurt more and he struggled desperately to push their faces out of his mind. He thought that if he could just forget what Lori looked like, what she smelled like, then he wouldn't feel anything. If the rain washed the guts away and the walkers killed him, he wouldn't feel anything.

Even with everything that was going on, accepting that Lori was dead was all his brain was focused on.

As Daryl stealthily walked through the woods, he thought about the people he and Merle were with.

They better appreciate this food I caught for their worthless asses

Daryl always felt most uncomfortable around groups of people. He had always been socially awkward, almost never made connections with people and either withdrew from them or pushed them away.

He didn't enjoy being alone. Rather he wished he had some company that he actually liked. He didn't warm to any of the people in camp. He sort of just put up with them and kept his distance.

For most of Daryl's adult life, with no other family or close friends, Daryl relied on his brother Merle to be his only source of company. He didn't know any other way.

Merle was brash, embarrassing, controlling and mean and he gave Daryl an excuse to not think for himself. He mostly just went along with whatever Merle said, even if a lot of the time Merle had malicious intentions. Daryl could just blame things on Merle and take no responsibility.

Daryl continued through the woods, tracking the deer's footprints, relying on his own instincts. For the first time in a long time, he noticed how much he enjoyed trusting his own inner voice.

When the walkers inevitably attacked, Rick very narrowly escaped and got the truck. Glenn set off another car's alarm and drove around, leading the walkers away from where Rick would rescue the group.

"Get down to the doors now!" Glenn ordered the others over the walkie-talkie.

Everyone scrambled to get their things together and sprinted for the stairs. Merle was still handcuffed to the pipe and yelled at them to release him.

T-Dog, who was still angry about the beating he took from Merle earlier, hesitated at the roof door until he finally decided to give Merle the key. There wasn't much time and as T-Dog hurried towards Merle, the key flew out of his hand and fell down into a drain.

"You did that on purpose!" Merle shouted, in complete disbelief at what had just happened.

Merle cursed and begged and pulled at the handcuffs.

"I'm sorry man, I gotta go", T-Dog cringed out as he ran. T-Dog locked the door so the walkers couldn't get to Merle and dashed downstairs to join the others.

Rick pulled up to the door and scooped up the group just in time before they were all attacked by a crowd of walkers. Everyone except Merle, who was still struggling to escape, still hopelessly handcuffed to the roof.

"where's Merle?" asked Andrea.

"I dropped the key", said a regretful T-dog. And no-one else said a word.

As they drove away in silence, Rick couldn't believe they had made it out alive. He was almost disappointed. All of Rick's mental struggles were already working.

There were so few people alive, so many dead or zombified. It was really washing over him that there was no way Carl and Lori had survived. He had started to forget Lori and was becoming numb to her memory.

Morales, obviously noticing something in Rick's face, assumed he was thinking of Merle

"It's best not to dwell on it... Merle getting left behind. Nobody's gonna be sad he didn't come back… except maybe Daryl."

"Daryl?" asked Rick.

"His Brother"