We're The Ones Who Live | The Walking Dead (2)

Part 6 - I Found Them

RICK GRIMES...

His story of the end of the world began in a different way to most others. He was shot in the line of duty before things fell apart around him, and he woke up in a world that not even nightmares dared to picture. 

He wasn't there when the craziness of city-wide evacuations were taking place. He wasn't awake for the mass of news stories of dead bodies reanimating and attacking the living. He wasn't remotely aware of his own surroundings when the very hospital he was lying in was taken over by military.

By some miracle, he woke up. Alone in a hospital that for what it looked like, could have been empty for a long, long time. Tired, injured and confused, he got out of the hospital and cycled through the town his whole life was built around, and he went to the only place any man or woman in his situation would go. Home. 

He could only pray that his family were there waiting for him. That he would walk through the front door of his house to find everything was completely normal. That his wife would be there to tell him everything was okay, and that he was just dreaming. But no such thing happened. 

He stumbled through the door of an empty house, his wife and young son nowhere to be found. All traces of them had vanished from their home, and he was alone. He yelled out and cried for the people he loved, collapsing to the floor and being forced to question if what was happening was even real. 

Rick Grimes went on to find a man named Morgan, who saved him and helped him understand what was happening. "I'm looking for my family," the sheriff kept saying. Morgan tried to explain that everything was gone, and the possibility of Rick's family being out there somewhere was slim to nothing. 

But Rick Grimes wasn't one to give up hope. Not ever. He parted ways with Morgan, and he travelled through unknown territory, finding himself trapped in the city of Atlanta: the city of the dead. 

The lonely sheriff was rescued from almost certain death by a group that accepts him, and he returns the favour by helping them get home to their own families. On arriving to their camp, he couldn't believe his luck when his wife and child were there together, having thought him dead for so long. 

The people of the camp become more important to Rick as time went on. Through love and loss, joy and fear, birth and sorrow... those people became family. 

They got through hard times together, helping and supporting each other through grief and anger at the world they now lived in. One day, when they had thought themselves safe, their home was split apart by a man who let the world drive him mad. People were left alone, families were split, many lost their lives.

Upon finding each other again after another fight, Rick and his group were left with nothing until they reached their final destination in Washington, Virginia. It took a while, but they finally found their feet in a community that was much like the old world they once knew, and they were able to settle down together. 

Friendships were rekindled and grown. New relationships and hidden feelings were finally not only acknowledged but embraced and explored. The love the group had for each other was never something that was lost, and it never could be. 

Another war broke out, this one much bigger than anything Rick Grimes had been forced to lead his people through. A man, a monster named Negan, took more from Rick and his family than any one had ever come close to taking. 

Rick lost good friends, family. He lost his ability to lead those he still had left with confidence, and he came close to losing his faith. 

His son, Carl Grimes, passed away. The boy left letters for the people he was leaving behind. He left one for his father, his adoptive mother, his best friend, and even his enemy, Negan. Carl spoke of a dream he had were every community lived in peace together. He even pleaded that Rick try to make amends with their enemy and prove that hope wasn't dead.