Serpents Tongue, The Walking Dead

o. thirteen days in

CHAPTER ZERO ━━━ THIRTEEN DAYS IN.
Act One : Season One of The Walking Dead

SHE KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG WHEN SHANE IGNORED HER PHONE CALL. She wore dark blue scrubs, the Blackberry clutched between her fingers as she lowered the device from her ear. The hospital was abuzz, as it had been for the last few days. But this time around, things were a little crazier inside the sanitized walls. Here's what happened: Adeline Grimes-Walsh had to pull a double. Which, wasn't an odd thing. She did that at least twice every week. But, this is where things start to get tricky. She went into the on-call room, planning on taking a thirty-minute nap tops. Instead, she ended up sleeping into the next day. And that? That meant she hadn't seen her husband in two whole days.

Adeline was nothing but distracted, her mind weighing heavy with new responsibilities that found their way into her lap. Her twin brother was in a coma and she had to make sure his family was okay all while keeping herself sane and her husband. Not to mention the double; it seemed everyone else had caught that new sickness that was going around, leaving it all up to the little 'ole her to keep things in order.

Which was just great. Truly. That was exactly what she needed. A part of her truly believed that because the extra work did help distract her mind but then again, being in the same place that her coma-induced brother was in didn't have the same effect. In fact, it only reminded her of everything she had to do. Her nephew, Carl, had been spending the night with her and Shane ever since Rick was shot. Lori Grimes chose to stay with her husband at the hospital, or it was more so like she wouldn't dare do anything else except that.

Adeline, unfortunately, couldn't convince her otherwise, so she opted on focusing on the little boy placed in her care.

Then today rolled around the corner. She was called in fifteen minutes after she'd stepped through the front door of her home at 6:27 in the morning. She then proceeded to pour herself a cup of hot coffee that she had to brew while keeping quiet to not wake her husband and nephew, change into a semi-clean pair of scrubs, then leave once again. Like she was never there. She even started to question if she had imagined going home.

Because when she woke up from her day-long nap, the hospital seemed to be in the middle of an evacuation. And she had locked the door to the on-call room, meaning if anyone did come looking for her, the last thing they could do was get inside.

Adeline hadn't allowed herself to panic. Yet. She managed to sneak into a surprisingly vacant stairwell, which is where she stood with her back pressed into the railing. A small huff of aggravation left her lips, eyes glued to the smaller screen of her phone in her grasp. She eyed the string of messages she'd received from Shane, ones that she had yet to answer. Not to mention the forty-five missed calls. All of the texts were almost the same, to sum it all up it was a heap of; Where the hell are you? Addy, answer your damn phone. We're worried sick here. Everyone is evacuating to Atlanta. We should too.