GRIMES

V

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"Shit!!" exclaimed Rick. Morgan wasn't breathing. Carl and Judith opened the truck door, dragged Morgan out and placed him onto the ground. Rick was sobbing, full of tears.

"Please! Please help me!" screamed Rick to his children. Judith and Carl didn't know what to do. "The medicine! It'll help restart his fucking heart!" yelled Rick. He grabbed a dose of the prescriptions and opened up Morgan's mouth.

The prescriptions were forcefully shoved down Morgan's throat. "Stop, Dad!! It's choking him!!" yelled Judith. Carl tried to restrain his sobbing father, but Rick shoved him away.

"It's gotta work! Oh god, Morgan stay with me..." Rick wailed as he shook Morgan's body awake. Morgan suddenly woke up, but was still dying. "You overdosed him, Dad!! NO!!!" exclaimed Carl.

Rick realized he stuffed the entire dose of prescriptions down Morgan's mouth. Foam erupted from his mouth suddenly. "R-R-Rick..." Morgan tried to say. Rick cried and held him in his arms, like a baby.

"I-I was bitten...you left the door open," said Morgan. He suddenly revealed a bite on his neck. Rick sobbed.

"Remember...when I saved your life from the hospital in Atlanta?" asked Morgan. He was trying to make Rick remember the good memories. "The good times...even when I'm f-fucked up on drugs, those thoughts stay in my head to t-this day..." Morgan explained.

Rick held Morgan, as he was passing out. Carl and Judith watched and wept away their tears.

"I'll-I'll miss you...Morgan," whispered Rick. He hugged Morgan, who hugged him back. He was now succumbing to his wounds and the heart attack. "I'll...miss you..." said Morgan.

Morgan died.

The following morning, Rick finished up burying Morgan's body. Carl and Judith wanted to pay their respects. The gravestone was placed near a lake. "Morgan always wanted to be buried near a river," whispered Carl to Judith.

Rick couldn't say a perfect eulogy. The fact that he had lost his closest friend since Daryl, had emotionally destroyed him.

"He's got a...h-he's got...he's got a l-lake..." Rick only said while tearing up. He sighed of exhaustion, setting the shovel violently into the ground. Carl patted his father on the shoulder.

"Morgan was a good man...he helped us out a lot....and I hope he and his son, Duane reunited up there," Carl said in his brief but satisfying eulogy. Rick thought about the Jones family, now all together. Morgan, his son Duane, and his wife Jenny. The cogitation was pure bliss and heartwarming.

"I never exactly knew him when I was just an infant, but I got to know him in his final days and he was a wonderful gentleman," Judith declared in her eulogy. The three held hands together, circling Morgan's gravestone.

"He's buried six feet below the ground...and just a few days ago I was reminiscing with him," explained Rick. He walked away solemnly from the gravestone. Another live lost in his life.

"Where we headed now?" asked Carl. "We were thinking heading back down south like the good old days in Georgia," replied Rick. "Reliving past memories huh?" questioned Carl with a raised eyebrow. Rick nodded to his son, and then cued him towards the vehicle.

The three poured in gasoline into the truck, and it successfully worked again. Carl got behind the wheel this time, a more experienced driver than young Judith and weak Rick.

Over the course of a few days, they drove south of the United States. They passed by interstate marks on the empty highways, and no signs of human life were found especially when leaving the border of Ohio.

Arriving in the state of humid Kentucky, the vehicle died again. "Goddamn it," Carl muttered as he tried to kick-start the gas pedal, but to no avail. Rick calmed his son down.

The three exited the vehicle, deciding to walk this time. "The journey doesn't end. We can take a break in this state, but we must keep moving forward thereafter," said Rick to his children. Judith rolled her eyes, taking the lead as Rick stumbled behind them. He had forgotten his cane.

They approached a police station, dying of heat exhaustion and no water. The three were sweating and boiling up. "Must...need...water," whispered Rick. He then collapsed on the ground, panting heavily.

"Hello?" said a voice. Carl and Judith immediately drew their guns on the unknown voice. They pointed their pistols at a young couple, who raised their hands up.

"We mean no harm!" replied the young man. "What happened to your friend over there?" asked the young woman. Carl turned to see his father, coughing and suffering from the heat.

"Oh my, Dad!" exclaimed Judith. She ran over to him, calling Carl over to carry their father up. "Get us inside, it's so fucking hot!" exclaimed Carl to the couple. They let them inside the police station.

Rick was laid down on a table in one room of the police station. It was the interrogation room. "Who are you?" asked Judith to the couple, who entered inside the room to check on the Grimes family. "My name is Sarah and this is my husband Georgie," said Sarah. Georgie waved.

"We're no doctors but I can tell that your father is at an age where exhaustion is at the top of the list of typical behaviors," pronounced Georgie with intellect.

"Do you have any food and water?" demanded Carl. Sarah and Georgie nodded.

Later that night in the station, the five survivors sat around a bonfire outside the police station. The campfire was perfectly lit, and the nighttime wasn't humid. It was quite foggy and quiet. No crickets were heard. No walkers to be heard as well.

"So what did you do before this all started or during?" asked Georgie to Rick, who was feeling better. Rick sipped a cup of soup and spoke.

"Before all this, I was a sheriff. Stationed in Georgia. I woke up in a hospital from a coma, after being shot. That's when it all started. I got help from...a man named...Morgan. I tried to go to Atlanta to find my wife and son, but it was overrun. I was saved by another named Glenn. He had a camp, which so happened to have my wife, my son, and even my...best friend, Shane. Speeding forward, we went to the farm and met Hershel, Maggie, and Beth. All hell broke loose, I had to kill my best friend. We all came across a prison, but it didn't last long. My wife died of childbirth during the apocalypse. The baby is this young girl right here sitting with us tonight, Judith. She grew older as the days went by, and we went to this town called Alexandria. A war broke once I lost Glenn and Abraham, and we won against the Saviors. This man named Negan, we jailed him. Then the Whisperers...and the New World Order...they executed almost all of us. Me, Morgan, Gabriel, Carl, Judith, Daryl, and Michonne managed to escape. But Daryl and Michonne were bitten as years went by...so here I am now in Kentucky," uttered Rick.

Sarah and Georgie were stunned. "Oh my goodness...wow," Sarah said. Judith and Carl sat silently, without a further comment. Rick began thinking about the past, and started to sob a bit.

"Do you guys have any meat to eat?" asked Carl to the couple. They were silent, not answering him. Before Carl could repeat himself, Sarah chimed in. "No," she simply said. Georgie licked his lips to be funny.

"Well we must get sleep. May we join you on your way down south?" asked Sarah and Georgie. Rick nodded, as he fell asleep quickly.

"Sure. Goodnight guys," said Carl to the couple. The five survivors then got their rest inside the police station, after letting the bonfire's blazes die out.

A new day was coming.

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