For as much as Rick irritates me, I hate seeing him like this... pale, bandaged, and weak. The doctor said that it was a fifty chance of whether he would wake up or if the rest of his life would be in this white hospital room.
"Abigale, how about I drive you home?" Shane suggested setting his hand on my shoulder. I didn't reply, I didn't want to leave, didn't want to be alone with Shane, I didn't want to say anything I didn't mean. "Abby, come on, you can't stay here forever waiting for him to wake up."
"Fuck off," I spat out shaking his hand off me, tears trailing down my face. Shane sighed and walked out of the room.
I stayed in that hospital room for three days, until the doctors threatened to fifty-one fifty me if I didn't sleep or eat something. Lori took me to her house, said someone needed to watch me, and make sure I was taking care of myself.
After about a week, I got fired from the shelter I worked at for not coming in, not calling, Lori kept trying to get me to see a therapist again, but I didn't move. Eventually I got sick of lying there not doing anything, so I got up and showered, put on clean clothes that Lori had gotten from my apartment.
"Oh, Abby, you scared me," Lori said with her hand on her chest as I walked into the kitchen. "Are you hungry? I just made dinner and then we were going to go see Rick if you wanted to." She handed me a plate, I didn't say anything, I just nodded. She smiled at me and motioned for me to take a seat at the dinner table.
"Aunt Abby!" Carl exclaimed and ran to hug me before I got the chance to sit down.
"Hey Buddy," I said softly.
It got a little easier, living life without Rick there, not by much, but it was bearable. Carl and I would go to the park and play catch, Lori and I would play cards when Carl slept, and I avoided Shane like the plague, which wasn't very hard.
One day, Carl and I were playing at the park and my phone rang, and we paused our game so I could look at the caller ID, Shane Walsh. I hit ignore and continued playing with Carl. My phone rang again, and I ignored it for the second time. If it's so important, he'll leave a voicemail. The phone rang a third time, and I sighed as I finally answered it.
"What do you want Shane?"
"Abigale listen to me. Get to the house. Now, and don't move, start packing," Shane ordered.
"Shane? What's wrong? What's going on?" I replied.
"I'll tell you later, just go. Now. Do not argue with me," he said and hung up. I looked across to Carl, trying to keep a calm face, I didn't need to him.
"Carl, buddy we have to go, race you to the car," I said and tried to usher him to the car.
"But, I don't want to go," he whined.
"No Carl. Let's go," I said firmly, and he nodded and pouted the whole way to the house, which was fine I didn't mind as long as he listened, which Carl is pretty good at for a twelve-year-old.
When we got to the house, Lori was running around the house packing. The pictures were off the walls, photo albums were taken out of drawers, the place looked like when they had first moved in; Empty.
"Lori what's going on?" She didn't answer me, so I went and packed my stuff as well. When Shane got there, he didn't say anything, just grabbed all the bags and put them in his jeep.
"Get in the car," he demanded.
"Tell me what's happening, and I'll think about it," I said.
"Abigale, this isn't the time, just get in the car." After a moment of me standing there, he sighed and looked around, his eyes not staying in one place for a millisecond. "I'll tell you on the way to the hospital. Just get in the car!" Shane yelled.
"Why?" I shouted back.
"We're getting Rick, I'm not telling you again Abigale. I will leave you here." We stood nose to nose for a moment. I was the one to break eye contact, and got into the car, crossing my arms over my chest. The car was silent the whole way to the hospital. "Stay in the car, understood?" Shane ordered, I rolled my eyes and nodded. "Okay, I'll be back with Rick." And jumped out of the car before I could question him.
After a few minutes the gun fire started, and a while after that Shane came running out. Without Rick. He slammed the car door open and closed, turned the car on as fast as possible and sped out of the parking lot, getting on the freeway.
"Where's Rick, Shane?" I asked quietly. He ignored me. "Shane."
"What?" He snapped, I flinched at the outburst.
"Where's Rick?" I ask softly.
"Dead."
"What?" Carl whimpers, Lori lets out a sob that I barely register. Everything went numb like a blanket washing over me. I didn't cry, didn't move, I was just silent and still barely even breathing.
Some time when we were diving on a highway, we hit traffic that didn't move for hours. I don't even know where we were going. It didn't really matter anyways. Everyone was out of the car and luckily, we stopped next to a married couple and their daughter was around Carl's age. Shane was in the car trying to find the emergency broadcast again, Carl and Sophia were playing checkers, while I was sitting against the back end of the car watching their game silently. Shane pops his head out as a plane or two flies above us.
"Are we gonna go soon?" Sophia asks.
"I don't know, Baby. I sure hope so," Carol answers.
"I'm hungry, Aunt Abby," Carl says looking up at me with bright blue eyes that rival his dads.
"I know buddy, so am I," I said, trying to keep my voice from being monotone as I run my numb fingers through his hair.
"Why don't I get him something to eat," Carol says, "Ed's into all this survival stuff, we've got enough M.R.Es to feed a small army." She continued as she walked around to the driver's seat of the car, while the kids continued their game. Lori walked back to our own car to talk to Shane.
"Ed must have forgot to pack those M.R.E's, but I found this in my purse," Carol said as she came back around the car.
"It's alright, it happens," I reply.
"No, I mean there's nothing." I hear Shane say. I turn to look at where he and Lori are having a not so quiet conversation. "Emergency broadcast system stopped, and that recording about the refugee center," He continued, he stood up out of the car and said, "It's all gone." As he slammed the door shut. "I'm gonna go up the road, see what I can see." He said as he passed the kids and I.
"I'll come with you," Lori said, "Abigale, do you mind keeping an eye on Carl for a minute?" She asked, I shook my head and she turned to Carl. "Shane and I are gonna go scout up ahead a little bit and see if we can find someone that knows what's going on," she told him as she brushed her fingers through his hair.
"I want to come with you," Carl told her, Lori just shook her head and hummed out a no.
"Hey, we'll be back before you know it, okay little man?" Shane told him, Carl nodded, and they were off. Carl and Sophia continued to play their game like Carol, and I watched.
"Your dad's nice," Sophia said as she moved a piece. I looked away from them for a moment.
"Shane's not my dad. My dad's dead." I look at him as my chest tightens. Planes flew over us and this time they were followed by explosions. Carl jumped down from the car and I pulled Carl to me, and he shook as he pressed into me, my stomach dropped as the explosions continued, everyone around us screaming in fear, crying, and running to the tree line to try and see where they were coming from, the sky lit up every few seconds with red, the sound ever so slightly out of sync with the lights, it was horrifying. "Where's mom and Shane?" Carl asked but I couldn't answer him, just pulled him closer to me as I tried not to cry in front of him
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His Everything
Horror"Stop lookin' at me like that," Daryl whispers, inches away from Abby's face. "Like what?" She asked running her hands through the hair at the nape of his neck. "Like- nevermind," Daryl whispered, and closed the distance between them. Meet Abb...
