digging graves// rick grimes x OC//

18 Miles Out

    Birds could be heard chirping as Shane and Rick drove along the empty road. Arriving at a four-way stop, Rick stops and gets out of the car, Shane following shortly after. Rick walks a few paces away with Shane tailing him, "I thought we were going further," he questions Grimes.

   "We are," Rick responds, "Eighteen miles out."

    "So why are we stopping?"

    Rick pauses, carefully thinking over his words, "I wanted to talk. Been waiting a week till we were gonna do this. I just wanna talk."

    "We don't need to."

    "We do."

    "No man, we don't. We're doing this. I get it. He was passed out when y'all brought him back, doesn't know where the farm is."

    Rick shakes his head, "That isn't what I need to talk to you about." Shane furrows his brows, awaiting what Rick will say. "I heard what really happened at the school. Was it to survive?"

    Shane's jaw twitches, "Yeah. One of us wasn't gonna make it out. It had to be him. One shot to the leg, Carl lives. Reality is... he had no business being here— there. Whatever."

    Rick nods, "You don't think I would've done it?"

    Shane is quick to answer, "No, man, I know you wouldn't have."

    "You don't think I can keep Lori or Carl safe?"

    "I didn't say that."

    "Or my baby? Is it gonna have to be me too?"

    "Rick, you can't just be the good guy and expect to live. Okay? Not anymore."

    Rick shrugs his shoulders, "I'm not the good guy anymore. To save Carl's life, I would've done anything. Anything. Now Lori says you're dangerous, but you're not gonna be dangerous. Not to us, not to me, not to Winona, not anymore."

    Shane's attention piques at the mention of his ex-fiancée, "What's she got to do with any of this? She spreading bullshit lies?"

    Rick shakes his head, "How about you look at me? You and Lori—" he nods, "I get what happened. When I figured it out— and I figured it out pretty quickly— I wanted to break your jaw, let you choke on your teeth. But I didn't. That wasn't weakness. It took everything. That is my wife. That is my son. That is my unborn child. I will stay alive to keep them alive. You don't love her. You think you do, but you don't. Now the only way you and me keep on, is that you accept everything I just said right here, right now, and we move forward with that understanding."

    Shane says nothing as Rick turns back to the car. He mulls over the conversation and speaks up, "When it started it was just— it was a couple of weird stories on the news. Winona would hear strange cases from other nurses. Then— then it was so quick. Everything— it just happened. Two weeks later I'm in the hospital and there were soldiers shooting people in the halls. They were shooting people, man, not walkers. Then the walkers came through. You know, I tried to get you out, Win and I tried, but we weren't gonna make it. Man, there was no way and her and I both knew it. But I couldn't live with it. I couldn't live, knowing— but I had to. Winona forced me to leave. She told me two weeks and you would be awake. So I left. I left and I didn't look back. I didn't keep Lori and Carl alive, man. They kept me alive," Shane confesses, "I want you to know that I didn't look at her before that. Whatever lies Win's been telling are that, man, lies. Brother, if I could take it all back, I would."

    The way Shane speaks about Winona doesn't go unnoticed by Rick. His jaw twitches and he doesn't even face Shane when he changes the subject, "I want to check the ropes." Going to the back of the Hyundai, Rick opens the trunk, where Randall laid blindfolded and bound. Faint rock music could be heard spilling out from the earbuds the boy had in, this was to make sure he couldn't listen in to any conversations. Randall mumbles through the duck tape that covers his mouth, but Rick continues to check all of the ropes, making sure they're secured. "It's all good," Rick states, putting the blindfold back over Randall's eyes.