Chapter Text
"BAM!" That was all that Rick could hear, his ears ringing as he was sent to the ground by the impact of the bullet. It just happened to pierce him in the one spot that his jacket didn’t protect. Looking at his uniform, he saw a growing bloodstain, and in a mere moment, he felt pain as his senses returned to him. He could hear the sound of Shane's shotgun firing and the impact hitting the last of the escapes.
One mistake was all it took for him to get shot, and the irony of it all was that he was about to tell Shane not to tell Lori about him almost getting shot not even a minute ago. He could see his brother, in all but blood, try to help him by ripping his shirt off to inspect the damage.
"Rick! No No no no no no no. Shh shh shh shh. No no no no no no no no!" Shane was panicking as he yelled out to the others. "He’s hit! Leon! You get that ambulance down here! You tell them, there’s an officer down! You do it now!"
Then he turned back to Rick, to make sure he was still alive. "Okay, shh shh shh shh. I’m here. Hey, you look at me. You stay with me. You hear me? Shh shh shh. Okay. I’m right here, Rick. Stay with me. You hear me? Shh shh. That’s it. Do you hear me? Shh shh shh. Okay. I’m right here with you. Stay with me."
While that all happened, all Rick could do was lay on the ground, withering in pain, as he tried and struggled to breathe. But as he was succumbing to his injuries, he remembered the words Lori said to him this morning: ‘Sometimes I wonder if you even care about us at all.’ He didn’t understand why she said that, and he still couldn’t, but he would do anything to make things right between them. Sadly, it didn't seem like he would get that chance, as he felt his consciousness slip away and the world fade to black.
The next thing he remembers is the sound of a heart monitor beeping and his own labored breathing, but when he opened his eyes, he saw Shane standing and walking towards him with a vase full of flowers.
He stood there and started talking to him with a distorted voice. "Hey bud. We’re still here. We’re still hanging in. I’m sorry, man. I know I say the same crap every time I come in here." He sighed, clearly tired, before turning his attention to the vase in his hands. "Everybody pitched in on these. They, uh, they wanted me to bring’em down. They send their love, and they just – They hope you come back real soon." Shane chuckled as he brought them close for Rick to see. "Linda and Diane from dispatch, they picked these out. Probably could tell, huh? I’m just gonna set these on your side table, okay?"
Not yet fully aware of his surroundings, Rick was stuck in that memory, so he spoke back to Shane. "That vase – That’s something special. 'Fess up; you steal it from your Grandma Jean’s house?" Rick laughed, knowing Shane would laugh as well, but was met with silence. "I hope you left her that spoon collection." He tried again, but his laugh turned into painful coughing." Shane?"
Now truly awake, Rick looked around the room he was in. It was a normal hospital room, but that wasn't what caught his attention. The flowers on his right were wilted and dried up, but that couldn't be; Shane just put them down. He reaches out and pinches the flowers to check if what he sees is real. As he crushes a bud between his fingers, the petals fall down onto the table, and Rick sees that it's already full of shriveled-up flowers.
Looking to his left, he sees the clock has stopped at 2:17, but he could be sure that it was wrong as the light shining from the windows confirmed that it was the middle of the day and not two hours after midnight. Then he noticed the complete silence, not only from within the room, but also from outside, and he knew that was impossible with the hospital being in the middle of the city.
All of this caused him to panic as he rapidly started to blink and he started trying to stand up. Shaking off a finger sensor of himself, he pulled the cannula from his nose and over his head before throwing the covers off and trying with great effort to sit straight up. He could see bandages around his midsection as he grabbed the IV pole and tried using it to stand up. Sadly, that failed, and he fell to the ground, which sent shockwaves of pain throughout his body and blurred his vision for a small moment. Lying on the ground, Rick yanks out the IV needle from his arm and, with a hoarse voice, yells out. "Nurse, help! Nurse help!"
After a good minute of waiting for anyone to help him, Rick felt the desert that saw his mouth and decided to give it another try. Truth be told, he never felt such an enormous thirst in his life, and that gave him more motivation than anything. So, as he finally managed to stand up, he booked it for the bathroom door, but he slammed into it on account of the agonizing pain. Opening the door, Rick took off all the other sensors the doctors must have put on him and looked in the mirror. In his reflection, he saw that he had a beard. He didn't think about it too much, as he needed something to drink, so he drank greedily from the tap.
With that out of the way, he stumbled towards the door to his room and opened it. Outside, he saw a dark corridor and a gurney blocking his way. Moving it out of his way, Rick, with his bare feet and only a hospital gown on, makes his way to the reception area. There, he grabbed the phone off the counter and tried to call, but nothing happened, and he could hear no dial tone. In the dark, he scours the desk for anything to light up the place. He finds a book of matches and lights one up, but even with that, he doesn't find anything worthwhile. Walking down past the nurse’s desk, Rick sees a bright flickering light and hears a buzzing sound. Curious, he stumbles his way toward it and sees that it's coming from behind a double set of doors. As he rests his hand against the door, he sees through the window a half-eaten corpse of some poor woman lying among the litter with the light shining down on her. Rick could see that even though her head was untouched, the rest of her body was stripped of flesh down to the bones. Horrified, he turns away and walks in the opposite direction, shaking his head in disbelief.
The halls were littered with trash and debris, but as Rick walked down it, he saw a wall full of bullet holes and blood splatters. As he followed the blood, he saw a puddle of it on the ground. The implications of what happened here were disturbing, so Rick tried not to think about it as he walked down the hall. Walking through a pair of broken doors and under many electrical wires hanging from a hole in the ceiling, Rick saw another set of double doors, but this time they had no windows. What they did have were the words spray painted in black saying 'Don't Open / Dead Inside' with a 2x4 inserted through the handles and chains wrapped around them held together with a lock, but no key in sight.
As Rick approaches the doors, he hears thumping, moaning, and glass shattering. Frightened, he backs away, and as he does that, he sees that door open as little as the lock allows it to. The noises got louder as whatever was behind them started banging on the doors, but then it stopped, and fingers started poking out from the dark crack between the doors. Confused and scared, Rick backs away from there in a hurry as he barges through the door on his left and stumbles to the elevator. Upon clicking the buttons, Rick's met with disappointment as nothing happens, so with no other choice, he goes for the stairwell and is met with a gut wrenching smell. As the door closes behind him, he is left in total darkness, so taking out his matches, he lights one and starts making his way down. Halfway down, the match burns down, burning him and leaving him in the dark.
"AH!" Rick yells out as the flame touches his skin.
Lighting another one, Rick makes his way down, but only on the third one does he find the exit. Opening the door to blinding daylight, Rick covers his eye from it and continues walking outside. Going down the stairs of the loading dock, he sees dozens of corpses shrouded in white cloth, all lined up in several rows across the parking lot. Rick could see not only the thousands of flies buzzing around them but also that a majority of them died from a gunshot to the head. Horrified at the sight he stumbled upon, he makes his way to the exit gate and walks to another parking area. There he sees a helicopter right in front of him, a couple of Humvees and military tents in the back, and more corpses along with ammo cans, barrels, and heaps of supplies. Even here, he couldn't escape the stench of death as he walked through the military camp. He looks around and sees no living soul; he hears no car, no person talking, only the sound of birds chirping and the wind blowing through trees.
But then Rick stops and thinks about his family, about Lori, and about Carl.
He needs to get to them, but from the looks of it, something bad has happened to the world. They could be anywhere, but he had to look for them. But where?
Where will Rick go?
A) Go home
B) Go to the police station
C) Go to Carls school
D) Go to Shane's house