Don't You Remember?
Chapter One - Awake
Author's Note: Alright, readers. So what I learned from the last story I started to write is that I really need a clear outline to get through to the end. Also, things were getting heavy in "All I Ever Will Be" so I wanted to write something a little bit lighter because I was having trouble finishing my last chapter. So, here we are. Please enjoy and please take a minute to review!
The world had gone black, quickly and suddenly and came back into view just as fast. Beth Greene's eyes shot open and she gasped desperately for a breath. She caught air in her throat, inhaling too fast and coughed violently as she sat up.
She steadied herself, her breathing returning to normal and tried to remember what the hell happened last. She'd plunged a pair of scissors into Dawn, that was for sure, heard a deafening bang and now, she was here. Alone. White walls. Shades drawn. Clock ticking up on the wall. Thin sheets, stiff around her body. Moveable table to the left of her with a plastic cup and a pitcher. She shifted, her body feeling tense, and looked down to see a small tube in her arm. Her brain clicked.
Hospital.
"Oh hell no," she whispered, her mouth feeling dry, throat on fire. Frustrated, she tore the IV out, holding her arm for a minute to stop the inevitable blood that would follow. She swung her legs over the side of the bed, bare feet hitting the floor firmly. Her legs tingled, still asleep. How long had she been in bed?
Beth reached to the table for the flimsy plastic cup and dumped water into it from the pitcher that accompanied it. She took a nice long swig to try and soothe the uncomfortable soreness in her throat. It coated her esophagus nicely, so she took another gulp, letting ice cling to her upper lip. And then, she realized, something was off.
Ice? No, that wasn't right. There wasn't ice in the apocalypse.
She looked up, towards the far end of the room where a table sat, scattered with…gifts. Small balloons with plastic sticks. Cards. Flowers. A ridiculously large teddy bear holding a bright pink heart that read "Get Well Soon!" She stared at them, narrowing her eyes, hating them because she didn't understand why they were there. The items were so out of place, it scared her.
A siren wailed suddenly and Beth whipped her head towards the large window to her right, practically jumping in the air from fright. She scrambled to the sill, crushing the plastic shade to the side of the window. The sunlight burned her eyes, whiteness blinding her momentarily until her sight adjusted. And then, she saw it - red and blue lights, flashing, coming into view slowly, matching the sound of the siren. The vehicle raced down the road she was staring at, weaving in and out of cars.
Wait, cars?
She squinted, knowing she definitely wasn't seeing things properly. But sure enough, clear as day, there were other cars. And they were all moving. No, not just moving. Driving. With purpose.
She pressed her face to the glass, nose squished and her breath fogging up her view, but she needed to see, god damn it. Why were there so many cars? Why were they all moving? She looked around at the city, the buildings in tact, the sun bright in the sky behind them. She strained her eyes, trying to make out smaller movement on the sidewalk, realizing there were people, crowds of them, and from the looks of it, none of them were dead.
A gasp rose up in her throat and she stepped back from the window, terrified, wrapping her hands around her body like she wanted to curl up into a ball and disappear. The crushed window shade fell back into place and she stared at it, her mouth open and her heart racing, thudding loudly in her chest. She was losing it. That was it. She had lost her mind.
Beth turned around, looking at the entrance to her room, a long wooden door that was closed tight. She walked towards it quickly, reaching for the handle, meeting it and tugging the door towards her to exit the room.
She was met with bright lights from the hallway and a hum of voices from down the hall. Beeps and clicks came occasionally, completing the symphony of hospital noises that would have, under all other circumstances, been completely normal. But for Beth, it was horrifying. Instinctually, she reached to her hip, for her knife, but was met with her flimsy hospital gown instead.
She was so alone. So unarmed. Back in the place she'd been trapped in for so long, again. And on top of it all, she was most certainly losing her mind. She clung to the doorframe, peering down the hallway. A woman walked out of a room with a clipboard in her hand, giving a hearty laugh like everything was fine. She watched her as she carefully slipped into the next room with practically a skip in her step. Something definitely wasn't right.
"Beth?"
The sound of her name startled her and she jumped away from the opening of the door, releasing the frame, walking backwards until she hit the edge of the bed she'd woken up in. There was nothing else to do then but sit down.
"Oh god. Sorry." A small, round woman came into view in the doorway. Her face was framed with large circular glasses that made her eyes look too big for her face, short hair and a button nose. She held a hand up to signal that she meant no harm but Beth stared at her angrily anyway.
"I didn't mean to startle you," the woman said kindly, coming closer towards her. She was dressed in all white, a long doctor's coat with white pants, holding a clipboard in her left hand. Immaculate. Just how Dawn would want her.
"Who are you?" Beth asked, her voice sounding foreign to her own ears. "One of Dawn's new recruits?"
"Dawn?" the woman questioned. "There's no one by the name of Dawn here, Beth. My name is Doctor Lee and you've been in a terrible accident." She smiled at her then, as though she'd just told Beth she'd won a nice prize. "But you're going to be just fine. You're at Grady Memorial Hospital, and we've been fixing you up real good. You'll be out of here and home with your family in no time!"
Beth cocked her head to the side. "Family?" she asked. "You mean Maggie? Daryl? Rick?"
The doctor lady smiled at her. "Why yes, Maggie, of course, but I've been lucky enough to meet your whole family. Your mom and dad and Shawn. Jimmy comes in every day to see you," she said with a wink. "Real nice catch you got yourself there."
"Oh no," Beth said, giving a nervous laugh. "That's impossible. They're all dead." She'd said it so certainly, but the look on the woman's face told her that she wasn't quite making sense to her. And well, that was okay, because nothing was really making sense right now anyway.
The doctor shook her head at Beth slightly, and then stopped. "You've suffered an awful head wound. It's normal to feel confused." She nodded reassuringly at Beth, who stared up at her furiously. "It'll all come back to you soon enough. I'll order you another CT scan, just to make sure everything's ship shape."
Beth seriously doubted anything new was going to come back to her. She hadn't forgotten a thing. Not one detail. The past few days, weeks, months - hell, the past two years were still clear as day. What was happening now - it was madness. It was wrong. She refused to believe it was real.
"I'm not confused!" Beth exclaimed, feeling slightly hysterical. "I need to leave. Rick and Daryl made a deal. I'm meant to leave."
The doctor had a pained look on her face. "Oh, now we can't have that quite yet," she said, as though she were talking to a small child. "You're not fully recovered. Once you're on the mend you can head home, but right now, it's best if you stay with us."
"How long have I been here?" Beth asked slowly, not sure she wanted to hear the answer.
"About a week," the doctor replied, jotting notes down on her clipboard. "You're our best patient!" she said in a tone that suggested she said the same thing to all of her patients.
"Right," Beth replied, accepting momentary defeat and pulling her feet back up onto the bed to shove them underneath the covers.
"Hungry?" the doctor asked, walking towards the door and sticking her head out into the hallway. She motioned towards someone who Beth couldn't see and suddenly she had a tray in her hand which she placed on the table next to Beth. "You should eat something."
"Fine," Beth said defiantly, her stomach growling at the smell of hot food. She supposed she'd accept this doctor's ridiculous story for something to eat.
"That'a girl!" the doctor said. "I'll be back to check on you soon. In the meantime, eat up and try to rest. I'm sure your family will be here soon to have a visit. They'll be so thrilled to see you're awake!" Beth stared at the doctor who was so excited, her face was glowing, her grin spread from ear to ear. Beth wanted to slap her. Instead, she tugged the table towards her so that it came level to her chest.
The doctor nodded at her and exited the room, leaving Beth to her meal. The tray in front of her held a covered plate, some plastic utensils and a covered styrofoam cup of Jell-O. Well, she guessed it didn't get much better than this. The plastic dome that covered the food was flimsy, and she threw it to the side of her bed to reveal a plate of spaghetti with some soggy garlic bread on the side. Beth didn't care. She took the fork and dug in, shoveling the food into her mouth, eating hurriedly, afraid someone would come to take it away from her at any moment.
Another siren came from the direction of the window and Beth stopped eating for a minute to listen. It sounded so real. Scary real.
The food was the best thing she'd eaten in a while. She hadn't remembered feeling so full since the prison and it felt good. It felt normal. But everything was still wrong. She couldn't get the image of the street out of her head, so once she was done, she hopped out of the bed again to look out the window. She wanted to prove to herself that she'd made it up.
As she reached the window, she crushed the shade to the side again and looked out, her eyes scanning the ground below, still scattered with real, living people and the road still congested with real, moving traffic. She wanted to scream. It wasn't real. It couldn't be.
She turned to face the room again, going towards the table full of gifts and she yelled at them, crashing into the table with all her might, throwing her arms out so that she could scatter the dumb superficial crap across the floor. She felt an overwhelming need to destroy all of it. She didn't understand why any of it was there.
The flowers went flying, vases crashing into the solid ground, shattering, spilling tinted water across the linoleum floor. The balloons bounced off the walls, the stuffed animal slumped over to the side and then, she saw it. It was unmistakable. Daryl's black bandana - the one he had handed her when she was trying to collect berries out in the woods. After the prison had fallen. Folded up neatly, just waiting for her to find it.
She gasped when she saw it, letting a sob leave her lips as she sank to her knees, her skin hitting the floor hard as she knelt in front of the table. She grabbed the fabric, clutching it in her hands, inhaling it. It smelled like him, like Daryl. Like outside. Exactly how she remembered.
He was real. He had to be. Why else would the bandana be here? She gripped it firmly in her hands, holding it to her chest as she wandered back to the hospital bed. She laid there, head in the pillow, pulling the fabric taut, then crumpling it back up. Finally, she settled on folding it neatly in her hands, tucking it underneath her pillow, the comfort of it being there enough to help her fall back asleep.