Till The End Of The Line

Days Gone Bye Part 2

Rick's POV-

Ventilator hissing, heart monitor beeping, and labored breathing sounded throughout the room Shane sounding disoriented started talking to me "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. (Sighs) 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. (Chuckles) Linda and Diane from dispatch, they picked these out. Probably could tell, huh? I'm just gonna set these on your side table, okay?" Behind the sounds of the equipment is the sound of a steady but very slow heartbeat and voices over the hospital's speakers. By the time he's done speaking the heartbeat is joined by the ticking of a clock. Complete silence I replied "That vase – That's something special. 'Fess up; you steal it from your Grandma Jean's house? (Laughing) I hope you left her that spoon collection." His laughter turns into coughing. "Shane?" I'm in a hospital bed, connected to a heart monitor an automatic blood pressure cuff and an I.V. drip. Unidentified medical equipment is parked in front of the window. I tried calling out but my throat was dry "Shane? You in the john?" I looked at the flowers in the vase, the flowers are now dried and wilted. I reached over and pinched and crushes a bud between my fingers. The petals fall to a table top that's already littered with shriveled flowers. Looking around I see the clock is stopped at 2:17:37. There is complete silence. Distressed I blinked rapidly and then tried sitting up. Grunting I shake off the finger sensor and pulls the canula over my head. I struggle onto my side, trying to get out of bed. I'm still heavily bandaged around my midsection. I try getting up by using the IV pole but I topple over and onto the floor. I yank the I.V. out of my hand and tried yelling for help "Nurse, help! Nurse help!" No one comes to my help, I got up and open the door to the bathroom still tearing sensors off. I look into the mirror and see I have a beard. I turn on the faucet and drink greedily directly from it trying to help my throat.

No POV-

Lights flickering and humming Rick pulls his door open and pushes a gurney out of his way. The hall is deserted and littered with papers. The few lights are flickering. Rick stumbles down through the corridor in his bare feet and hospital gown. A loud bang brings him from his thoughts making him jump, a voice calls from the room beside him "Help... I... I'm stuck! NURSE!" Rick walks up to the door and slowly opens it seeing a boy pulling on a pair of cuffs. He again gets dragged out of his thoughts when the boy speaks "Hey, hey sir. Can you help me? Can you go get a nurse?" Rick answers the boy "There's no nurse's." "What? Stop fooling around, go get a doctor or nurse please." The boy says confused. Rick walks further into the room looking down at him, questioning what happened "Why are you cuffed?" The confused boy replies "I... I'll explain after, look sir I'm not gonna hurt you I'm just looking for a bit of help here. Please either go find someone or find the key for this-" He pulls his arm up as far as he can showing Rick that he needed it off. He speaks again "Or get me a pin and I can unlock it myself. Come on... Please." Rick starts to leave the room first saying "I'll be back in a minute, I'll look for something." The boy smiles and thanks him. Continuing down the hall he sees a desk with a phone on it. Ricks up the phone but there is no dial tone. In the near dark he fumbles around at the desk and finds a book of matches. He lights one and looks around. Electrical humming heard throughout the building indicating something defiantly isn't right. Down past the nurse's desk a bright light flickers and buzzes. Rick stumbles toward it. The light is coming through the windows of a double set of doors. He stumbles over and through the window he sees a half-eaten corpse lying among the litter. Shocked he sees that although her face and head appears untouched she's been eaten almost down to bones. Horrified he turns and walks unsteadily back down the other way. He sees another door left open, upon going in he sees a dead older woman lying on the floor near the window, terrified he walks slowly past her to look in the dresser next to the bed. He found exactly what he needed, a couple of pins for the boys cuffs. Walking back to the room he sees the boy waiting for him, the boy questions him "Did you find the keys or something?" Rick shakes his head and walks over to him "So why you back then?" Rick bends down on his knee and looks at the cuffs. The boy spoke up again "Shouldn't be too tough to pick the county never used really good ones anyway." Rick glares at the boy but continues with the cuffs, he quickly picks the part connected to the bed but not letting the boy go, he stands up yanking he boys other arm over and cuffing his arms together confused the boy yells at him "What the hell! Let me go!" Rick yanks the boy to sit him up, he kneels a bit to get a better look at him, he couldn't be older than 18 but not younger than 15, tattoos on his arms and neck, mid length black hair, green eyes. The boy now angry tries to stand up making Rick pushing him back down to question him. Rick looking at the boy skeptically asks him some questions "What did you do?" The boy becoming scared tries to convince Rick "Look I already said I'm not gonna hurt you, I ain't ever hurt someone before in my life. And this position is making me uncomfortable, I'm injured like you sir. My side is all messed up." Rick not believing him moves the gown from his abdomen, upon noticing the injury he moved it back in place and continued to question him "Why were you cuffed?" The boy now becoming annoyed answered back "I was with my dad okay? He and a couple of his friends were morons, they robbed a place and the police almost caught them, they ran out to the car where I was waiting for 'em they started speeding down every road in county shot at the police too even shot one while they were at it. They were gonna go down the old French road but I knew it was closed off so I told 'em to jump on 18. That's where the deputy's must've been because next thing I knew the car was flying off the road flipping around where I got Impaled on something okay?" Rick quickly connected the pieces and grabbed the boy throwing him to the floor and punched him. The boy yelled "Stop! I didn't do nothing man!" Rick stopped punching him and pick him by his gown making the boy flinch "Your friends shot me" the boys face dropped "Look deputy I didn't do shit, I swear! They weren't my friends they were my dad's friends. Hell I didn't even know they were going to rob that place... Please I ain't done nothing. Ever!" Rick saw the fear in his eyes and instantly softened up, knowing that the boy probably didn't have a choice in the matter. Rick picked the lock and took the cuffs off of him holding onto them just in case. The boy started speaking again "I'm sorry you got shot, my dad was a big moron... no brain in his head you know? His friends were the same... I'm Zayne by the way." Rick shakes hands with the boy "Rick, Rick Grimes."