His Everything

Chapter Three

         "Dad!" Carl yelled and Rick pulled away from me quickly and knelt on the ground almost falling over when Carl smashed into him.

   "Carl, oh, my god," Rick said starting to cry. Lori walks up looking shocked as Rick stood still holding Carl and hugged her.

   After the shock wore off just a little bit, I was angry. At Shane.

   "Shane. Can I talk to you? In private." I said through my teeth. He nodded and we walked into the trees for a little privacy. "You said he was dead. Why would you say that if you didn't know for sure? Huh?" I snarled.

   "I thought he was dead, I put my ear to his chest and heard nothing." Shane defended.

   "I don't give a shit; you better stay the fuck away from me. If you don't, you might end up on the ground or six feet under it," I said and stormed away.

   I went to find everyone that went on the run, I found Glenn first.

   "Hey, you alright? Anything need bandaged? No bites?" I asked him.

   "Yeah, I'm okay... not everyone made it back..." He said.

   "What? Who, I saw Andrea, Jacqui, T-Dog, Morales... Merle... What happened, is he dead?" I asked.

   "No, Rick had to hand cuff him on the roof, he was beating T-dog, Abby." Glenn said.

   "Okay, that doesn't explain why he isn't here."

   "I don't know, T-dog had the key last time I knew," Glenn explained, shaking his head.

   "Okay, but you're good?" I asked, looking him up and down for blood.

   "Yeah, I'm good," he said I nod, and I start walking away. After I did my rounds, it was dinner time, and everyone was circled around the low fire, well everyone but Ed, Carol, and Sophia, who were circled around their own low fire.

   "Disoriented. I guess that comes closest," Rick started, "Disoriented. Fear, confusion... all those things but disoriented comes closest." He repeated.

   "Words can be meager things. Sometimes they fall short," Dale said.

   "I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever." Rick said softly. I put my hand on his arm from his left.

   "To be fair, I thought something of the same when this all started too, so you're not alone there, Ricky," I reassured.

   "Mom said you died," Carl whispered looking up at Rick as he was laying on his chest.

   "She had every reason to believe that. Don't you ever doubt it," Rick said as he looked down at his son.

   "When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna Medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened," Lori said looking over at Rick like he wasn't real, like she didn't fully believe that he was here. I didn't blame her for looking at him like that, the first time in a while I didn't blame her for something.

   "Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell." Rick told her. And she mumbled, agreeing with him. "And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun." He continued.

   "Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out, you know?" Shane said. I scoffed, shaking my head.

   "I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it," Rick said and Shane just kind of looked at him, with a blank expression, maybe an ounce of anger, I've never been able to read Shane.

   "There go those words falling short again. Paltry things," Dale said. Shane looked behind me as we heard wood hitting the ground.

   "Hey, Ed, you wanna rethink that log?" Shane spoke up, everyone turned to look at Ed.

   "It's cold, man," Ed snapped out.

   "The cold don't change the rules, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance, right?" Shane explained.

   "I said it's cold. You should mind your own business for once," Ed snapped harshly. While I agree, Shane should mind his own business but, Shane was right, we keep the fires low, so people or even walkers can't see us from far away. Shane stood up and walked over to Ed's fire.

   "Hey, Ed... Are you sure you want to have this conversation, man?" Shane said threateningly. After a moment of glaring at each other, Ed relented.

   "Go on. Pull the damn thing out." Ed snapped at Carol. And when she didn't move, he snapped again "Go on!" And Carol jumped going to pull out the log, but I stood up and walked over, doing it for her, because I had thick gloves on that wouldn't catch fire easily.

   "I got it Honey, don't burn yourself." I smiled at her, and I stomped out the fire that was still on the log.

   "I'm sorry about the fire," Carol apologized.

   "No, no, Honey, it's alright. Have a good rest of your night guys," I said as Shane and I walked back to our own fire, our arms brushed against each other, and I quickly yanked myself away from him.

   "Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind," Dale brought up after we sat down.

   "I know I wouldn't," I glare at Shane, who just looked away from me.

   "I'll tell him. I dropped the key, it's on me." T-Dog said.

   "I cuffed him. That makes it mine." Rick spoke up.

   "Guys, it's not a competition, I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from someone that's white," Glenn said.

   "I did what I did. Hell, if I'm gonna hide from him," T-Dog argued.

   "We could lie." Amy said.

   "If you think he wouldn't see through it, then you're dumber than you look," I say looking at her like she was crazy. Andrea glares at me.

   "We could tell the truth. Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed," Andrea started and before I could say something back, she looked at Lori and said, "Your husband did what was necessary, and if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merles," she finished.

   "No. that would go over worse than lying to him. And sure, I agree that he needed to be subdued but, no one deserves to get left handcuffed to a roof in Georgia heat," I snapped at her, glaring lightly at Rick and shook my head. "All I'm hearing is this is going to end with a fight. God knows that I would fight if someone left Rick on a roof, no matter why they did it," I continued.

   "If you think it's going to be a fight, why don't you tell him, you're the only one here he might even think of listening to," Andrea spit out, and everyone hummed in agreement.

   "Fine, I'll tell him, but it's still gonna end up going to shit," I said as if it were final.

   "I stopped long enough to chain that door. The staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through that... Not that chain, not that padlock. My point... Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof, that's on us," T-Dog repeated what he had told me earlier.

   "Oh, and if I'm going to do this, I need to be able do it uninterrupted," I say as I stand up and head towards my tent.

   That night I couldn't stop thinking about how Daryl would react. It won't be good. I fell asleep with Daryl, being the last thing on my mind for the first time since we had met.

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