Parallel Hearts Chapter 1
A/N: A request from fellow writer and Richonner sleepywitchysamurai. Hope you enjoy it.
Rick and Lori Grimes were trekking quietly along on Georgia soil, looking over their shoulders and watching for any threats. They had been walking for almost three days, exposed to the elements, running out of food, running out of water. Both were exhausted but kept moving, trying to make their way to Atlanta. They were told they'd be safe at the CDC in Atlanta, they could flourish there, and maybe, just maybe there might be a cure for whatever plague had spread across the state.
They climb up a steep hill only to realize they are on a cliff. Looking down, they can hardly believe their eyes. There is a camp, an actual camp fenced in with tents pitched from the front of the fence line to the very back.
Lori looks at her husband, feeling relief and excitement at the prospect of finding shelter. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"
Rick gives a smile, the first he has given in days. "I'm seeing it. Let's check it out."
They double back and slowly make their way down to the camp. Before they can come within 10 feet of the gate, guns are drawn on them and they are told to put their hands up. Rick and Lori do exactly as they're told, trying to remain immobile even when two of the men walk toward them and relieve them of their backpacks and weapons.
Once a search is completed, another gentleman, much older and stockier, approaches them. "Can we help y'all?"
"We sure hope so. I'm Rick Grimes and this is my wife, Lori. We've been walking for days now, just trying to survive. We saw the camp from that hill over there." Rick points in the direction of the hill cautiously. "We need food, water….shelter. Just tell us what we have to do and we'll do it."
"I'm Josiah and we've been holding up pretty well here. We've got what you're looking for, but know this. Everybody has to contribute and pull their weight. If you can't fight, you're not gonna make it. Do we understand each other?"
Rick and Lori nod. After several more minutes of answering questions, their backpacks were searched and returned along with their weapons. Josiah leads them inside the gates and hands them off to his wife, Aileen.
Much later, Rick and Lori sigh with contentment as they look around at their surroundings, having been assigned their own tent, complete with two cots and linens folded neatly at the foot of each one. He takes her into his arms and kisses her softly.
"Thank goodness we came upon this camp. I don't know if I would've made it another day out there," Lori admits.
"You would've made it, but I am glad we have an actual place to rest. I might really sleep tonight," Rick says with a smile. "We still have to be cautious though. Remember that."
"I won't forget, but Josiah and Aileen said this place was set up by the military. Do you think that means they'll be back?"
"I don't know. Some of these guys were part of that unit, but nobody's in military gear, so maybe things are a lot worse than I thought." He shakes his head, not wanting to overthink their situation. "Let's just enjoy tonight and we'll ask all the questions we want tomorrow. Will you be ok while I take a look around? Aileen said she'd give us a tour tomorrow, but I'm just curious," Rick tells her.
"I'm fine. Go on and satisfy your curiosity. Just don't be out long."
He kisses her one last time and makes his way out of the tent.
The camp is pretty quiet and dimly lit as he knows they've been instructed to keep it that way. Noise seems to draw the attention of the undead as well as movement and light. He makes his way slowly down the huge divide in between the tents, dirt and splotches of grass imitating a walkway. The tents are aligned face to face, the rear of each close to the chain link fence surrounding the camp.
He saw enough at the entrance of the camp, but is curious as to what is located at the rear. He is impressed to find a sectioned off area specifically for showering he assumes as he takes in the drying towels on clothes lines and the telltale noise of running water in one of the covered stalls. He smiles to himself, knowing that Lori will be glad to discover this.
He jumps when he hears a noise that sounds like something rattling the fence. He stops his thought process and focuses on the fence to be sure he heard what he thinks he heard. He notates that the water shuts off and the noise sounds again immediately after. His hands automatically go to his hip to retrieve his gun. He flinches in irritation as he remembers he left his gun holstered in his gun belt in the tent and he couldn't very well fire the weapon within the camp without drawing unwanted attention.
Before he can even think of what to do, a flurry of white races toward him, colliding with him resulting in his back hitting the ground and the flurry of white landing on top of him. His hands trapped between the two bodies, he instinctively pushes forward and encounters what he assuredly knows is part of the female anatomy.
She jerks away from him as he lifts his hands, pulling the towel with him as a part of the material is caught on his wristwatch. She gasps and grabs the towel back to her body but not before Rick was presented with a perfect set of breasts, a flat stomach and the smoothest looking skin he has ever seen.
"Damn it." She covers herself as best as she can before grabbing something from a nearby table and racing to the fence where the noise originated.
Rick shakes his head in disbelief, suddenly recalling the noise he heard and follows her after picking himself up off the ground with a groan. He makes his way to her side, mesmerized as she picks off the undead through the fence with a sword, holding the drooping towel against her body. "Please….let me help you."
He offers his hand to accept the sword so she can adjust the towel accordingly.
She hesitates for only a moment before handing the sword to him. She immediately adjusts the towel. "I'm not sure how many are out there. I'll put the lights out near the showers and come right back."
He nods as she takes off.
She returns several moments later, having donned a sleeveless shirt and jeans and acquiring a long spike that she immediately uses to kill the undead through the fence. They work in unison, neither speaking a word until the rattling of the fence stops and they can only detect familiar sounds of the night, no snarling and growling of the undead.
She drops her head with a sigh, her shoulders bowing in slightly.
"How often does that happen?" Rick asks.
"It wasn't happening at all until a week ago. That's the second time I've had to do that and there were more than last time." She finally glances his way, but can't detect much in the dark. "Thank you."
"No problem, but when you say "I've had to do that", are you telling me that no one has been helping you?"
"You must be new around here?" She acknowledges.
"Just arrived today." Rick returns.
"Well, you'll learn soon enough that not a lot of people are taking this as seriously as they should. I went to Josiah when this first happened and all he said was that the fences will keep them out. That may be true, but those things have body weight just like we do, so what happens if too many of them are at the fence?"
"Do you think it'll make a difference having a witness? I don't mind telling him what we had to do," he offers.
"It might make a difference coming from a man. He thinks I should be alongside Aileen and her welcoming committee, but he can keep wishing," she states.
Rick smiles, making up his mind that he likes her whoever she is. "I'm Rick, by the way. Nice to meet you."
"Michonne. Nice to meet you, too."
"Hey, umm….I'm really sorry about that thang at the shower. I was just exploring and heard that noise and….."
She interrupts with, "It's already forgotten."
He sighs with relief. "Should we talk to Josiah now or…."
"No, it can wait until tomorrow. What tent are you in? I can come by after breakfast. He's always in a good mood after a meal."
Rick laughs. "Number 10. So, are you here with family?"
"I got out of the city with my boyfriend, Mike. You?" She asks.
"The city? Atlanta? You were there?"
"Yeah, it's overrun. Everyone had to evacuate," she relays.
"Damn."
"What's wrong?" She inquires.
"That's where my wife and I were headed. My plan was to rest here for a couple days and move on. People told us to go to the CDC in Atlanta. That we'd be safe there," Rick professes.
Michonne gives him a sad smile, detecting the disappointment in his voice. "I hate to give you bad news, but I would not venture into the city if I were you." She gives him a minute to process that information. "Well, have a good night. I'll see you in the morning."
Rick watches as she walks away then slowly makes his way back to the tent, unsure of how he will tell Lori that Atlanta is not a viable plan anymore.
The next morning, Michonne arrives at tent number 10 and is immediately invited in by Rick. He introduces her to his wife and briefly explains about the situation he and Michonne are going to talk with Josiah about. He wanted to relay everything to Lori last night but she was fast asleep and he didn't have the heart to wake her.
Their talk with Josiah went exactly as Michonne thought it would. He discredited everything she relayed to him and the others simply because a female shouldn't be concerned about those type things. Even when Rick intervened on her behalf, reiterating the story, Josiah brushed him off because he had only been in camp for one day.
The two of them are walking towards the back of the camp to check the area before venturing outside the fences to gauge where the undead may be coming from. Once they affirm that the way is clear, they make their way to the front, informing the guard on duty that they are making a sweep around the camp grounds.
They take the time to remove the rotting corpses from the fence, placing them in a pile a short distance away. At Rick's suggestion, they walk a little further out, encountering a wooded area, but can't honestly determine where the undead may be coming from.
"So, there are only guards at the entrance? No one makes perimeter checks and guards the rear?" Rick asks.
"That pretty much sums it up," she returns.
He thinks for a moment before asking, "How do you feel about taking this on ourselves? We can do perimeter checks in the morning and at night and I'll guard the rear for so many hours and you can do the same."
"I'm all for it, but once Josiah gets wind of it, he's going to shut us down. I know it. He'll look at it as if we're trying to take over his position running this place," she predicts.
"Well, we'll do it until that happens. We just completed a perimeter check, so if you want to take watch duty now, I'll relieve you in about 2 hours. Aileen is giving us a tour or something."
"Take as much time as you need. I can do way more than two hours. Maybe 6 or…." She stops as he shakes his head.
"We start out small. We don't want to draw attention to what we're doing if you're so sure Josiah will be against it," Rick returns.
Michonne looks at him with something akin to respect in her eyes. She nods slowly. "You're right. Ok, two hours. Let's do it."
At least two weeks have passed and Rick and Michonne are diligent with their watch duty and perimeter checks. Lori is so busy acclimating herself into Aileen's welcoming committee that she rarely pays attention to what Rick is doing with his time. He is not one to complain, but he has spoken to her about sharpening her skills when it comes to taking down the undead. His suggestion continues to be ignored.
As for Michonne and Mike, he is very much attuned to her activities and utilizes every opportunity to tell her that she is taking this threat much too seriously. He wants her to relax and be assured that they are safe in the camp, so all of her perimeter checks and hours of watch duty with her new friend are for naught.
His words are playing over and over again in her head as she forces her sword into the frontal lobe of a decaying, walking corpse through the fence. They have had at least two more encounters like this, but Josiah continues to ignore the threat.
The latter has decided to call a meeting to discuss a much needed run as the camp's supplies are dwindling fast. Once he asks for volunteers, Rick and Michonne are the first to speak up.
Mike frantically grabs her arm. "You can't keep going out there."
She looks over to see Rick watching them and Lori watching Rick. "We'll talk about this later."
"When are you going to start listening to me? In here, we're safe. Out there, we're not. You can't keep risking your life like that. I won't allow it."
"You won't allow…." She begins as Josiah interrupts her.
"I was wondering when you were going to step up and put that woman in her place. Be a man, Mike."
Michonne is so shocked that all she can do is walk off as she refuses to have such a private matter between her and her boyfriend on display for the entire camp to witness.
Rick watches as Mike falls into step behind her and follows. He hopes his friend will be ok.
Lori places a hand at her husband's shoulder. "They'll be fine." She wonders for only a second if she should be more concerned about Rick's new friendship with the beautiful woman with the sword.
In tent number 20 where Mike and Michonne reside, she sits quietly while he has his rant, reiterating his displeasure with her going on yet another run.
"I understand that you don't want to go out there. That's why I've decided to do it. Everyone has to pull their weight around here, Mike. I'm good at this and they need all the help they can get," Michonne relays. "It wouldn't hurt for you to join us. You need to learn how to kill them."
"It's way too dangerous out there. I'm not putting myself at risk and I wish you'd do the same. Besides, how does it look with you being the only female amongst a bunch of men?"
"That's the least of our problems. No one's concerned with gender on a run. We're pulling together to get the supplies we need for survival. Nothing else." She states.
Mike scoffs as he looks at her. "If you believe that, then you're more gullible than I thought. I've seen how these guys look at you and I'm telling you, you are not safe out there."
"So, explain to me how I've gone on 2 runs already with no problems. The threat is the undead and the sooner you realize that, the better off you'll be." She watches as Mike deflates slightly. "Just please stop fighting me on this. I need your support more than anything right now. Is that too much to ask?"
Mike slowly opens his arms and sighs as Michonne walks into them and they wrap their arms around each other. "Just promise me you'll be careful."
"Always am, Mike. I always am."
Meanwhile, Lori and Rick have made their way to their tent after the meeting concluded. Rick had been doing a lot of thinking during the meeting and especially after watching the exchange between Michonne and Mike. He's not sure where these feelings are coming from, but he needs Lori to be more diligent in learning how to survive in this world. She has some knowledge, but her lack of proficiency scares him.
"How do you feel about joining us on the run tomorrow?" He suggests.
Lori scoffs. "Are you serious? I'd be no good out there."
"Don't sell yourself short. You were out there exposed to those things just like I was and you stepped up when you needed to. I think you should keep that momentum going."
"Rick, I'm doing what I do best and that's helping Aileen with the food supply, with the meals, the laundry. I'm fine with that. I'm still contributing." She looks deeply into his eyes. "What is this about anyway?"
He shakes his head. "Nothing. It's nothing. I just want you to be safe."
"We are safe, baby."
An hour later, Rick finds himself walking to the rear of the camp grounds. He's unsure about foregoing the watch in order to get some sleep to be at his best for the run on tomorrow, so he just wants to check on the fence before retiring for the night. He is not surprised to find Michonne already there, walking from one end of the rear fence to the other.
She smiles when she sees him. "I got it. You need to get some sleep."
"Thought we were in this together?" He asks.
"We are, but you need to be at your best for the run tomorrow."
"So, am I to assume that Mike talked you out of going?" He inquires cautiously, not wanting to overstep his bounds with his friend.
"He tried, but I hope I got him to understand that this is needed. He's not happy about it, but we'll be ok," she tells him.
Rick nods with a sigh. "Yeah, I tried to talk to Lori about being a little more proactive. She needs to learn more about killing those things, but she seems pretty content with handling food and cleaning duties. I don't want to push her, but…."
"I don't know what to say to that. I feel the same way about Mike but he's got his mind made up about not going out there. I can't force him to do it, so I do what I can for the both of us."
"Maybe I should just adopt your attitude and pray for the best." Rick looks to her, needing her approval for some reason.
"Two prayers are better than one, right?" They smile at each other and continue to talk, only breaking away when Lori comes looking for her husband.