"It might be worth a shot, there'd be medicine and it could be secure" Hershel says, looking at Rick with reassuring eyes. There really were no other options, after the farm got hit by the herd and they fled, they were becoming more and more desperate to find somewhere to stay. Being on the road was far too dangerous, especially with Lori being heavily pregnant.
"Are you sure it's this way Carol?" Hershel turns towards Carol before Rick can say anything.
"Yeah, I visited my sister sometimes, I remember the way" It doesn't take Rick long to decide what they're going to do, since admitting to everyone that he indeed did kill Shane and that no matter what happens, when you die you become a walker, group morale hadn't exactly been through the roof. They set off in the direction of the Psychiatric Hospital Carol's sister used to work at, and Rick prays to God that it isn't overrun with walkers and that they can rest somewhere.
/
Her feet pound against the pavement as fast as they can and blood thrums in her ears with every step. The aching in her heart hopes she's not too late, that he's too drunk and passes out before he does any serious damage. She finally reaches her street, after what feels like years, and thunders towards the front door; fingers fumbling to open the door. The scream reaches her before she sees it; before she sees her little sister being tortured by unforgiving hands; by her own father. The livid heat takes over her body, anger prickling its way up from her feet and reaching the tips of her ears. She throws herself onto him, thrashing against his large frame. She's tiny compared to him, but it doesn't stop her from kicking and punching at him, no matter how large he is, he's not touching Annie ever again. The young girl struggles to her feet, eyes wide with fear as her older sister claws at her father. The older girl manages to grab onto the vase by the fire place and with one tremendous swing, she manages to knock him out. His body crumples to the floor, small trickles of blood running down his forehead.
She gulps for air to calm her burning lungs before untangling herself from her father's limbs and scooping her little sister into her arms. She finds her other two sisters locked in the kitchen, and she quickly ushers them towards the basement. Their only safe haven, the only place he can't reach them. She quickly tends to her younger sisters wounds, but it's clear to her that the vile man has done more than bruise her skin.
Once she's tucked them into their makeshift beds, she sits against the door listening for any sounds of her father coming around. When she's certain that no noise is coming from the house she quietly opens the basement hatch and slips out. Silent rage ricochets around her limbs and the trip to the kitchen only intensifies her anger, there's beer cans strewn across the worktops and food everywhere. It doesn't look like it had been cleaned last night, which it had. With a long breath, she pulls the kitchen knife from its block and feels the weight of it in her hand.
With careful steps she goes into the living room, where her father is sitting in the chair, asleep with the television blaring. She makes no noise as she moves behind him. With a quick flick of her wrists, the nightmares she and her sisters have been enduring since their mother died are finally over.
Carrie jolts awake, the scene that's been in her head since the day it happened still fresh in her mind. She swallows the bile in her throat and pushes the thoughts away. She doesn't regret what she did, not in the slightest, but she hasn't seen her sisters since that night and she doesn't even know if they're alive anymore. Carrie thinks back to that night, when the neighbours called the police because her sister Jessy had followed her and screamed at the sight before her. They'd taken her to the police station first, and when she refused to talk, they threw her in this place.
Harlington Psychiatric Hospital is not a nice place, it wasn't then and still isn't now. They tried to tell her she had problems, they diagnosed her with all sorts of things like psychosis and schizophrenia. Of course, she wasn't, and whenever they gave her pills she spat them out. It didn't stop them doing the other stuff though.
When the dead first started to walk, she saw it on the television in the common room. When the nurses started getting sick, nobody came back for them. That was the worst thing, when the newsreaders were talking about evacuations and they were locked inside their own hell. Slowly but surely the others at the hospital started dropping with the disease. The only thing Carrie could do was lock herself inside her room; she'd snagged the food from the canteen and barricaded the door. There was no reason for her to leave, outside was much worse than inside according to the last news broadcast.
A noise snaps Carrie from her thoughts, it's not a small noise, like one of the dead from the other side of the door; it was big. Like glass breaking, and voices? Carrie picks up the blade from the surgical scissors she swiped a month ago and has them ready at her side, it could just be the walkers finally getting through the barricade, but they don't have voices. She feels the weight of the blade in her hand and tries not to let images mar her vision and listens carefully. The voices get louder and so do the footsteps and Carrie grips the scissors tighter. Her ripped and bloodstained hospital gown only just covers her behind, offering her little to no protection. She shuffles towards the noise, her bare feet growing cold from the tiled floor. Whatever is coming her way, she isn't scared of it. She stopped being scared a long time ago, but she's come this far, she can't die now.
The door at the other end of her room starts to buckle and Carrie edges closer. When it gives way, she lunges forwards, but three men barrel towards her holding weapons; one with a gun, one with an axe and the other a crossbow.
She immediately drops the scissors to the floor and puts her hands up in the air in surrender, no matter how determined; she couldn't take on three grown men with weapons.
"Seems like it's just her, get the others and we'll decide what to do about her" One of the men says, the dark skinned man wielding an axe nods and goes back through the busted door. Neither of the other two men faulter; staring her straight in the eye as they hold their weapons steady. One false move and she could be dead within a second, much like years ago. Within a couple of minutes, there are others rounding the door. Women, men and children. They all stare at her as they move behind the two men for safety, like she's somehow going to jump up and kill them all.
"Are you alone in here?" The man with the gun asks, using it to point around her room. Carrie nods as the second man with the crossbow moves beside her and points it directly at her head. He kicks the scissors away from her and they hit the wall with a clang.
"You're telling me you've survived on your own in here?" He asks, lowering his gun a little.
"Yeah" Carrie's voice is horse, she hasn't spoken for a while, and it's a strange feeling.
"How long has it been just you?" An older man behind speaks up, stepping forward.
"When the outbreak hit, the nurses didn't come back. Just left without us, after that every other patient started getting sick and dropping like flies. Another girl and I managed to grab a load of stuff and we locked ourselves in here. She went a month or two ago" Carrie's voice cracks when she thinks about her only friend in here, taken away from her.
"What's your name?"
"Carrie"
"What are you going to do Rick? She doesn't seem like a threat" The older man speaks, and Carrie puts the name to the man standing with the gun pointed towards her.
"She might not be a threat, but she's crazy" The southern drawl of the man with the crossbow cuts into her like knives, she can't remember how many people had called her that. Mad, crazy, psychotic, monster. Labels, that's all they were, and Carrie was none of them and she knew it.
"I ain't crazy"
"That's what they all say" he says, cocking his eyebrow. Carrie decides she doesn't like him much.
"Look at her Rick, she's survived this long and she hasn't given us a reason to kill her, so why do it? Give her an ultimatum. She goes by our rules and one false move and she's dead, the girl ain't done nothin' give her a chance to prove herself" It's the older man who pleads her case, and Carrie looks at him with a look she hasn't given anyone for a long time. It's a look of gratitude, he just saved her life and he doesn't know a thing about her.
"You hear that? You do as we say, you don't have a weapon until we say so and if you even think about bringing harm to my family I will kill you, got it?" Carrie nods and the weapons are pulled away from her.
"If you're thinking of staying here, I don't know how safe it is. Behind that door over there is a load of them things, there's a breach in the back wall of the other room too. But there's food over there, help yourself" Carrie motions towards where her bed is and where the food is stashed. Now that there are no weapons pointed at her, she looks around at the group of people. There's a young boy with dark hair, and what looks like his heavily pregnant mother standing beside him. The older man who had spoken for her standing next to two young pretty girls, and there's an Asian boy standing beside the dark haired girl. There's an older woman too, as well as the three men who came in first. They all look a bit dishevelled, and offering them her food is the least she can do for them not killing her on the spot.
Carrie watches them prepare food and talk about what to do next, it's clear that the man with the gun and the man with the crossbow are the leaders. She watches them from her bed, excluded from their circle.
"We'll stay the night, and then move in the morning. I checked out what Carrie said, there'd be no way to clear this place without being swamped" Carrie learns that his name is Rick, and his wife, though they don't show much affection, is the pregnant woman called Lori. The man with the crossbow is called Daryl and the older man is Hershel. His two daughters are Beth and Maggie, and the Asian guy Glenn is Maggie's boyfriend. Carol is the older woman and T-Dog is the man with the axe, and the younger boy that keeps looking at her curiously is Rick and Lori's son Carl.
"Someone get the poor girl some clothes, she can't go on the road like that" Carrie looks up, and it's Hershel once again.
"On the road?" Carrie questions.
"Of course, we ain't leavin' you here. If there's anythin' here that we can take, tell us now and we'll get it in the mornin" Hershel says, pointing at her. Carrie swallows, for the first time in three years she'd be leaving, she wants to cry, but she's not crazy, and she hasn't cried for so long.