Holding his books close to his chest, Carl makes his way through the halls of his grade school hallway, his head staring down at his feet, his blue eyes not being able to look up from his week-old sneakers. He can’t help but notice all of the other kids staring at him or whispering things like look at the sheriff’s son, or look it’s the future serial killer in the making, and then the lot of them just burst out in laughter. The laughter coming from them is as cold as a snowstorm, pickling Carl’s skin and just wishing that he was hiding under the covers in his bed and away from their judgmental stares.
And then, the bell rings.
Carl looks up toward one of the wall clocks, his mouth curving into a huge smile. 3:00. Finally! Dodging a few other kids, Carl makes his way out of the large entrance doors of the building and stops abruptly, blue eyes searching frantically for his mom. But instead, there just a few feet away is the Sheriff’s car. The young boy takes in a breath, his heart dropping as he realizes that of course his mom can’t be here. The smile fades from his mouth as he starts to walk toward the car.
Yanking on the handle of the backseat door, Carl chucks his textbook in and then his backpack before he slides in and shuts the door. “Hey, dad,” Carl mumbles, his head dipping, looking to the hands in his lap.
Rick glances at his son through the rearview mirror. “Hey, bud. Y’wanna come sit up here with me?” It takes Carl a moment to think about his answer. Of course he wants to sit up in the front of the Sheriff’s car with his dad! He just thought his mom would be better now and she’d be here. He misses her. Lifting his head, Carl catches his dad’s eyes in the mirror and he can also see the sad smile spreading over his dad’s mouth. They are both sad. So, Carl nods softly. He definitely doesn’t want his dad to be sad, too.
Pushing the door open, Carl makes his way to the front, remembering to close all other doors as he gets into the seat that Shane usually sits in. “Where’s Shane?” Carl asks, grabbing the belt from over his shoulder to pull it over his body and CLICK it into the buckle.
Shifting the car out of park, and checking all of his blindspots, Rick puts the Sheriff sedan in drive and when he sees the street is clear of parents and children, he pulls out of the spot and drives away from the school. “He needed to visit his aunt in Atlanta tonight for her birthday.” Rick side glances Carl with a smile before he puts both hands on the steering wheel. “He’ll be back tomorrow for the barbecue.” Carl just nods. He doesn’t really care too much, he was just curious a little. What he really wants to do is— his thoughts trail off when his dad starts to speak again.
“It’s my night off, so we’ll head to the hospital to see your mom after you finish your homework, okay?” Carl sighs heavily. “But Dad,” he whines. “I really wanna see her, can’t we just go now?” There’s an eagerness in Carl’s voice. Rick can’t help but sigh when he hears his son’s plea. He too, was not happy about this entire situation. But he also knew that he couldn’t give in so easily. Lori would want structure for their son, especially with everything that was going on right now. Glancing toward his son, Rick sees the boy fall back into the chair and fold his arms tightly over his chest. And for the rest of the car ride home, they drove in silence.
The second Rick unlocks the door to their King County house, Carl bursts past his dad and down the hall to his bedroom, slamming the door in his protest for not going to see his mom. Sighing, Rick closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose as he tries to take a breath in hopes of calming the frustration of this situation before it gets to the surface fully.
For the rest of the afternoon, things had been quiet in the Grimes home. Carl hadn’t come out since they’d gotten home, and Rick knew with every fiber of his being that his boy was hurting. Hell, he was hurting just as much. But it was soon dinner time and he needed to make something for the two of them to eat before they left to visit Lori in the hospital. He hung his sheriff’s shirt on the back of the kitchen chair, and his hat sat on the table as he stood in the kitchen in his plain white teeshirt and tried to think what to make for dinner. Lori made this look so easy. At the thought, Rick couldn’t help but chuckle to himself with a shake of his head. Here he was practically drowning for not having her around for almost 24 hours knowing full well that her job was definitely much more important than Carl joked about sometimes.
That’s when his phone buzzed in his pocket. Closing the door to the refrigerator, Rick yanks his phone out and sees it’s a text from his brother asking about Lori. Just when he’s about to respond, his phone starts ringing. It’s Shane.
“Yeah?” He asks, walking by the sink to glance out the window into the backyard. Except he hears Shane, but it’s all static and a few words here and there. “Shane, what? You’re breaking up.” Rick says, pulling the phone away from his ear to glance at it for a second before he puts it against his ear again. His brows crease with worry as he can hear the worry and fury in Shane’s voice just from the little words that are coming through the phone call.
And then the call goes dead.
The text from his brother pops up again, and Rick replies back to him letting him know that he and Carl were gonna head over to the hospital tonight. But, the policeman can’t help but think about what Shane said. About Atlanta falling, at least that’s all he heard. And then his phone buzzes again, this time, Shane’s calling back. Rick answers hastily.
“What’s goin’—” but before he can even finish, he can hear Shane’s panic loud and clear. “Ya gotta get Carl and get outta Georgia man, right now.” Rick walks away from the fridge and over to the balcony doors, opening one to step outside so he doesn’t scare Carl with this conversation. “Shane, talk to me.” Rick’s voice is a little on edge, but it’s much more calm than his partner’s voice on the other line. “Rick, I’m telling you, the fucking dead started walking the streets. Nowhere’s safe anymore.” Finally, Rick closes the door behind him, his brows creasing with concern as he can only focus on the conversation at hand. But sirens blare in the distance and he can’t help but lift his head to watch as an ambulance whooshes by. This was supposed to be his night off. He was gonna make dinner for himself and Carl and go visit Lori in the hospital, but now it seemed that things needed to change drastically.
Shane’s voice breaks through Rick’s thoughts. “Meet me at the intersection just before the highway, y’know the spot where I got caught smokin’ senior year?” Rick just nods, but Shane continues on. “I’m gonna try and get the hell outta Atlanta—“ the line goes dead again. “Damn it.” Rick hisses as he pull the phone away and decides he’s going to try the hospital. All he gets in return is a busy signal and now his heart rate is starting to race. Shane wouldn't lie about something so dangerous, even if Rick still didn’t understand the hell he meant by the dead walking.
“Carl?” Rick calls, stepping into the house and snatching his sheriff shirt from the chair, slipping it on and even grabbing his hat to place on his head. Rick buttons up his shirt as he makes his way toward his son’s bedroom again, pushing the door open. “Carl?” His voice is more stern this time as he pokes his head in and finds his son reading a textbook passage.
Looking up from the textbook, Carl watches as his dad buttons the top button of his shirt. He frowns even noticing the hat on his head. “Guess we’re not goin’ to see mom.” The young boy mumbles, but Rick pushes the door open a little motion and outstretches his arm for his son to come. Sighing, lolling his head to the side, Carl unwillingly makes his way out of the bed and walks to his dad. Rick kneels down and places a hand on his son’s shoulder. “I’m gonna need ‘ya to come with me to get your mom.” And then his boy’s eyes light up with happiness. “Yes!” But his dad doesn’t produce the same kind of excitement, so Carl sulks a little. “Look, son,” Rick starts, not knowing where the hell to even begin with this kind of talk. Lori was always the one telling him to speak, and yet, here he was, having to be the one to finally get the message across.
Swallowing, Rick glances down, his fingers gripping at his son’s shoulder for a moment before he looks the boy in the eyes. “Son, listen to me. Shane needs our help. Says Atlanta’s not safe anymore. He says we need to get out of the city limits as quickly as we can and meet him off the highway. Which is why we need to get your mom as fast as possible and get out of here. It’s not safe, do you understand?” Carl can see that his dad is serious, that whatever’s going on, it’s serious. Standing, Rick swallows as he ushers his son out of the bedroom, shuts the light and makes his way to the police car. They wouldn’t need to go to the station for guns, or ammo, they had enough to last them for a while in the trunk. It hadn’t been cleaned out since the conference he went to in Atlanta yesterday.
The hospital was packed beyond its usual capacity. People were frantically running around as if the world had come to an end. Rick parked the car and unbuckled his belt. “Stay here.” He orders his son, locking the doors and getting out of the car, the door shutting behind him.
A woman almost knocks him over as she runs over to the front desk in a panic, screaming about her dead husband turning into some kind of monster, blood spewing from her arm where he’d apparently bitten her. The nurses tried to calm her and about five other people down as well.
Rick just keeps walking toward the room his wife was in.
Maternity ward. To the left.
He feels a sadness coursing through his body as he continues with his hurried jog down the hall. Since the news of Lori losing the baby, the doctors wanted to keep her overnight - she was at such a high risk because her first pregnancy with Carl hadn’t been an easy one. But this miscarriage wasn’t something that they could’ve seen coming. And thank god she was doing alright since everything happened.
As he turns the corner, he can hear a scattered news broadcast saying that the army was going to visit all hospitals in the area and help get as many people to a refugee camp in Atlanta as they could. Rick’s heart dropped as he stops moving and watches the broadcast for a moment. Had Shane been wrong? Had Atlanta been safe all along? He turns his head and watches the chaos of scared citizens of King County flock through the halls of the hospital. For now, he’s stick with the plan and once his family was together, he’d make a decision.
Pushing the door to his wife’s room open, Rick stalks over and finds her asleep, her chest moving so softly, up and down. He doesn’t want to wake her, or bother her, but he knows he has to.
“Baby,” Rick whispers as he kneels beside Lori’s bed and gently pushes some of her dark auburn hair away from her face. “We need to leave.” Lori stirs in the bed, reaching over and gently holding onto Rick’s wrist. Sleepily, she brings his hand to her lips and presses a kiss, one, then two to his hand. He smiles, though it is sad. Her slender, frail frame looks weak from the torture it’s endured. Turning, he sees her clothes on the nearby chair. “Can you get dressed for me?” Lori’s eyes slowly flutter open, nodding at him as she starts to sit up in the bed. “I wasn’t feelin’ so hot earlier, but none of the nurses came in,” Lori explains in a tired voice as she pushes the covers away from her and sits up. Rick stands and strides over to the chair, grabs the armful of her clothes and lays them beside her.
“What’s goin’ on?” She asks as she starts to untie the strings in the back of the hospital gown.
“I’ll explain in the car,” he hands her her bra first and watches as she slips it on, then he hands her her tank top shirt. She slips that on carefully too. Kneeling down once again, Rick helps her get her jeans on before he grabs her boots that aren’t too far from the bed. He puts them on her feet for her before he moves and hands her the flannel shirt that’s the last piece of clothing. “Come on,” he whispers softly, reaching down and gently stroking her cheek with the back of his finger. She looks up and nods, but to her surprise, he lifts her, bridal style out of the bed and carries her for the rest of the way out of the hospital.
“Rick,” Lori gasps, seeing all of the people frantically running around, blood and gore everywhere. Lori feels her stomach churn and buries her face to her husband’s shoulder, her eyes closing softly. His jaw clenches as he dodges people, trying not to let anyone stop him from getting his weak wife back to the police car. “I’m gonna put you in front so I can keep an eye on you,” Rick feels Lori’s hand grip at his wrist in reassurance and it for a moment causes his heart to flutter. There, in the distance, he can see the Sheriff’s car they arrived in.
Carl’s quick to unlocking the doors, even climbing out of the passenger seat as his dad puts his mom in, buckling her up. Rick cuts the door and rushes to the driver’s side, getting in and locking the doors again. His eyes glance down to the fuel gauge. It’s a quarter of a tank full. He’ll have to get some on the road.
“Hi, baby,” Lori reaches around and grasps onto Carl’s hand, Carl leans forward and hugs his mom just as Rick drives off and away from the hospital as he can get. Letting go of Carl’s hand, Lori reaches over and takes Rick’s hand in her own. He squeezes it gently.
“We’re gonna be alright.” Rick reassures his family, driving to the destination of where he and Shane had agreed to meet.
