Chains in the dead building and a rooftop escape

System panel:

[Rescue Glenn-complete!

Reward: 300 points, M4A1 carbine x1 (magazines x4), character permission x1]

Lynn drew a breath. This mission was finally fucking done.

Glenn had been rescued, and their temporary cooperation had stabilized.

"Move! Don't stay in this pile of corpses!" Merle roared, kicking a body aside. "Back to the lobby. It stinks like hell here."

The group returned to the second-floor escalator with the trembling Glenn.

They had barely arrived when Min-seon's tense shout came from below:

"Lynn! Down here! That door... something's banging against it from the other side."

The atmosphere had only just relaxed, but tension returned, and everyone's expression changed.

"Fuck! What now?!"

Merle cursed, raised his gun, and rushed to the second-floor railing to look down.

Lynn, Davis, T-Dog, and Andrea gathered there too.

Exhausted, Glenn slumped on the floor and looked up.

In the downstairs lobby, a heap of clutter blocked the entrance, and the walkers outside were pounding against it and roaring.

Min-seon pointed at the fire door. Banging came from the heavy green door.

Thump... thump... thump...

The sound was clear.

Every impact shook the door panels, pulling the chains wrapped around the handles taut and making them rattle. Dried, dark red stains marked the chains.

"Not the ones outside... the ones behind the door."

Rick stayed behind cover, aiming his shotgun at the door, tension in his voice.

"Something's locked in there?"

Andrea went pale and involuntarily tightened her grip on her gun.

"Fuck! Something's wrong with that door." Merle glared, aiming his hunting gun at it too. "Probably locked a whole bunch of those things in there. Now the gunshots have woken them up."

Lynn watched the shaking door and chains.

The chains outside were bloodstained. There might be walkers or trapped living people inside, awake now.

They had made too much noise rescuing Glenn.

"The chains won't hold much longer."

Davis spoke as he watched the screws at the chains' anchor points come loose.

"We can't stay here!" Lynn said immediately. "We need to leave right now!"

"Leave? Where the hell do we go?!" Merle roared, pointing at the blocked entrance. "The front door's blocked, and this one's about to blow! Fly out?!"

"Find a route!" Lynn scanned the lobby and the second floor. "Glenn! You know this building. Besides the front door and this door, where can we get out? Air ducts? Freight elevator? Passage to the back alley? Anything!"

At those words, everyone turned to Glenn.

Glenn shuddered, struggling to recall what he remembered, his words coming quickly. "The air ducts... too narrow for this many people to crawl through, and they're blocked in a lot of places... the freight elevator shaft... there might be a ladder in there, but the entrance is in the ground-floor storeroom. The storeroom door... I think that's blocked too. I don't know if it's safe..."

He paused, pointing deeper into the passage. "The loading area! There's an employee passage to the back alley, with a fire shutter.

"But... it's broken and won't close properly. We slipped in through there earlier. The back alley... there are walkers in the back alley, but fewer than out front."

The back alley. A broken shutter.

"That way!"

Lynn spoke with ample trust in Glenn's judgment.

"Davis, you're in charge of breaking through."

And that trust greatly increased Glenn's fondness for Lynn.

"Then we'll use this!"

Davis drew the fire axe.

"Merle, T-Dog, Andrea, provide cover. Keep the entrance and the fire door under control. Don't let the ones outside break through the barricade, and don't let whatever's behind that door get out."

Lynn assigned their tasks. "Glenn, lead the way up front.

"Rick, Min-seon, grab our things and get ready to leave!"

"Fuck! Fine!"

Merle cursed, then spread out with T-Dog and Andrea to find positions, their guns aimed at the barricade at the downstairs entrance and the shaking fire door.

He was still somewhat annoyed. He was clearly supposed to be the leader of this group.

"Move!"

Once everyone was ready, Lynn immediately gave the order, then rushed back into the passage with Davis and Glenn.

Rick followed with Min-seon's support.

The loading platform lay deep inside the passage.

The large shutter was halfway down, its warped bottom edge curling upward, leaving a gap they could duck through.

Beyond the gap was the back alley, with a few walkers.

"This is it."

Glenn pointed at the gap, unable to help letting out a relieved breath.

"Davis! Chop that gap wider. We need enough room for a vehicle."

Lynn pointed at the shutter's warped bottom edge.

Davis nodded slightly, swung the axe, and hacked hard.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Metal rang as the opening in the warped shutter grew wider.

But it also made things worse downstairs. The pounding behind the fire door grew fiercer.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The impacts became irregular. The chains creaked under the strain, and the middle of the door bulged slightly.

"Those things are coming out!"

Rick shouted from the second floor.

"Hold them! Don't let the front entrance collapse!"

Merle roared at T-Dog and Andrea, firing his hunting gun at the heads of walkers squeezing through gaps in the entrance. Shotgun blasts and pistol shots rang out together.

Andrea's hands shook, but at this close range, her aim was reasonably accurate.

Boom!

A heavy impact came with the sound of snapping metal.

One chain across the middle of the fire door broke. Half of it fell to the floor with the lock attached, and the door was forced open a hand's width.

A rotten arm with exposed bone thrust through the gap, clawing wildly, followed by a second and a third. Behind the gap, many eyes were visible in the darkness, and loud snarls rose.

"Fire!"

Merle barked, firing his hunting gun into the gap.

Rick's shotgun fired too, while T-Dog and Andrea sent bullets into the opening.

The walkers that had just emerged were blasted apart.

But more walkers crowded into the gap. The door panels kept rattling, and the other chains were close to breaking too.

"The opening's clear!"

Davis shouted from the loading area.

"Everyone! Fall back! Get to the loading area!" Lynn shouted.

Merle, T-Dog, and Andrea retreated while firing, then ran toward the loading area. Rick and Min-seon hurried after them.

Lynn left last. After emptying his pistol toward the fire door, he turned and ran.

At the loading platform, Davis had chopped the shutter's opening wide enough for a jeep to pass through.

Outside air and the snarls of walkers came in.

"Get in!"

Lynn ran to the jeep beside the platform and pulled open the passenger door. A little smoke rose from the front of the vehicle.

Davis was in the driver's seat, starting the engine.

Andrea and T-Dog stuffed Glenn into the back seat. Merle squeezed in, cursing, and Rick and Min-seon got in too.

Lynn climbed into the passenger seat and shut the door.

A loud crash and the snapping of chains came from the fire door's direction, followed by walkers' snarls and footsteps.

The fire door had opened completely.

"Go!"

Lynn gave Davis the order.

Davis floored the accelerator, and the jeep roared toward the opening in the shutter.

Clang! Crack!

The metal edges buckled and tore away as the jeep burst out into the alley behind the building.

Several walkers in the alley were knocked flying, but the noise drew more, pouring in from the mouth of the alley and both sides.

"Turn left! Get us out!"

Familiar with the roads, Glenn screamed directions from the back seat.

Davis turned the wheel. The jeep fishtailed through the alley, dodged a dumpster, and sped in the direction Glenn pointed.

Behind them, the building's back entrance was like an opened floodgate. Walkers poured out and flooded the alley.

The jeep raced through the alley. With Davis driving and Glenn giving directions, it crushed debris and rammed walkers, then burst onto a side road and shook off the horde.

Nobody spoke inside the vehicle. There was only the engine and their panting. Everyone was covered in blood and dust.

Lynn leaned against the seat back, eyes closed as he caught his breath. His main quest still wasn't finished.

He abruptly opened his eyes and looked at Glenn in the rearview mirror. "Glenn, where were you staying before? Do you have another base? Like a camp?"

Glenn panted and wiped his face. "A... a camp? Yeah! We're camped beside a quarry outside the city. Old Dale's RV is there. Our companions, Lori, Carl, Shane, they're all there."

Ignoring Merle's warning look, he told them everything.

Lynn naturally knew where Lori and Carl were, but he couldn't say so directly.

Hearing those familiar names, Rick abruptly sat upright, speechless, his hand gripping the back of the front seat.

Merle curled his lip.

"Where?" Lynn asked at once.

On the invisible screen, the countdown kept ticking: 29:18:22...

Glenn gave the location-an abandoned quarry beside Interstate 85, on Atlanta's southeastern outskirts.

"Davis, head for the quarry!" Lynn ordered immediately.

Davis turned the wheel. The jeep sped onto a side road, crushed its way across a weed-covered median, and drove onto the interstate's somewhat emptier frontage road, where abandoned vehicles still stood, heading southeast.

Outside the windows, the city receded.

In the distance were hills and rock faces-the quarry.

The camp was just ahead.