[Rough Draft] Keres : The Walking Dead

Party Pooper

Rick gets ready that night for his new job and I sit out on the porch with Daryl again, having a smoke. Rick comes out and it's like I'm looking at him from the beginning all over again.

When he walked over to talk with Shane and saw me. It almost seems like it was last week that happened. But then I recall everything that happened between then and now and I gulp.

"How do I look?" He asks and Daryl scoffs.

"Fine." I say and take a drag.

"You think I'm giving in, don't you?" He asks me and I just shrug.

"These people are weak." I mutter and Rick chuckles.

"Carl said the same thing. Said that he was afraid that we'd get weak. But that's not gonna happen. We won't get weak. That's not in us anymore. We'll make it work. And if they can't make it...then we'll just take this place." Rick assures as he looks at me.

"How's that sound?" He asks and I smirk.

"Sounds like a plan." I agree and he brings me into a hug.

"As long as I don't have to become whatever the fuck Carol is." I scoff and he chuckles.

"Don't change. Ever." He warns and gives me a kiss on the forehead.

———

Morning comes around and I wake up with Rick next to me. He's shirtless and his breathing is calm. He's facing towards me with his head on his arm and I can't help but stare for a few seconds.

Once we get up and ready, we head out of the gates with Carol and Daryl to find some walkers and kill them.

"I don't see it, but it's close." Daryl talks about the walker that's walking around near the run down house where Rick his his gun.

"We won't be here long. So what do you think?" Rick asks about the idea.

"We can go in when it's empty." Carol says.

"Well, how is that? It's locked up at night." Rick counters.

"The window. There's just a latch." I point out the obvious.

"I can leave it open." Carol nods in agreement.

"A latch?" Rick scoffs.

"Yeah." I say.

"What if one of those pricks shuts it?" Daryl asks.

"Wait a couple of days, leave it open again." Carol suggests.

"We need to do it sooner than later. Right now, they're not watching us. Not worrying about meetings like this. We may need the guns, we may not." Rick explains his thinking.

"We will, whatever way it goes." Carol counters.

"They're the luckiest damn people I ever met. And they just keep getting luckier." Rick says.

"How's that?" Daryl asks.

"We're here now. We do the hard shit so they don't have to. They can keep being oblivious to what it's really like out here." I scoff and Rick nods his head.

"Listen, the others, we want them to try. So we keep it quiet. Just us." Rick says and the lone walker starts walking towards us.