Darkness.

. . .

Darkness is all that surrounds me.

. . .

I feel as light as a feather, as if I'm floating on top of clouds.

. . .

It feels like I've been here for a lifetime.

. . .

I can still hear our pleas for him to stop echoing all around, it won't stop replaying in my head over and over again.

. . .

I see her face through the darkness, I try to reach out and touch her but she was gone.

. . .

I opened my eyes slowly into a squint, the sun had made the white room so bright. I waited for my eyes to get adjusted so I could look around. "Where am I. . ?" I thought as I began to look around the room, my eyes stopped on a monitor. I'm in a hospital, great. . . I got up from the bed and the tile felt cold on my feet, as I looked at my feet I noticed that I was wearing a hospital gown. When I began to touch the gowns material my head began to swirl, I instinctively leaned against the wall. I slid down the wall and began to mumble to myself, "How did I get here. . .?" I got up from the floor and started to head towards the bathroom for a drink of water, my throat was killing me. I grabbed a plastic cup that was sitting on the kitchen sink, filled it up with water, and drank it all.

I threw the plastic cup away and began to look at myself in the mirror, I looked awful. I felt my forehead and sighed, "Stitches, great. ." I instantly remembered everything, the car accident. Trevor took Kira and me on the road for a 'drive'. He was going too fast on a dirt road, we pleaded for him to stop over and over again but he just kept laughing at us while Kira was crying in the back seat. "We're just having some fun, darlin! Aren't we Jade!" Then we spun out of control and wrecked. My heart dropped, my mind began to race with thoughts of Kira. Was she okay? Did she also get hurt? I raced out of the bathroom and exited my hospital room.

As I entered the hallway I had to do a double-take, everything was chaos. I was so confused, there were papers everywhere, the lights flickered on and off. "What kind of hospital is this. . ? Is this some sort of prank?" I rubbed my temples, I had the worst headache ever and the thought of someone pulling a prank on me made me so angry. While I was taking the entire scene in I heard a quiet voice in the distance calling, "Nurse. . ! Help . . . !" I hurried towards the noise, there was a gurney in front of the door so I pushed it away and opened the door, when I entered the room I saw a man lying on the ground.

I quickly got to his side on the ground and started to help him up, he was breathing hard and slow. I got him settled up on the bed and went to the bathroom to get him a drink. I grabbed a plastic cup, filled it up with water and handed it to him. "Here, drink this." He nodded slowly and the water was gone in an instant. "Are you okay?" I asked as I sat down by him, looking at him with concern. He looked at the floor and nodded slowly, "Yea. . ."

"What's your name?" I asked, readjusting myself on the bed.

"Rick. . Rick Grimes, you? He said as he looked at me.

"I'm Jade Waldgrave." I gave him a weak smile.

I got up and offered Rick my shoulder, Rick got up and put his arm over the back of my neck for support, it took a while to get adjusted to his weight on me. "We should go see if there are any nurses, doctors, or someone around. . It was a mess out there." I said as I opened the door and we walked out. Rick was shocked to see how chaotic the hallway looked. "I know right?" I began, "They should really hire a maid." I smirked. As we were walking down the hallway I noticed that there was a horrid smell coming from somewhere, I didn't know if it was me, Rick or something else. I probably didn't have a shower for quite a while but I didn't know about him.

We stopped when we got to a reception desk, nobody was in sight. I moved Rick's arm away from me and grabbed the phone on the reception desk, I put the phone to my ear and began to dial my home phone number. Halfway through dialing the number I noticed there was no noise coming from it. "Damnit," I groaned and slammed down the phone in frustration. "This is too weird, someone should be here. ." I sighed and offered Rick my shoulder again.

We've been walking down these chaotic halls for God knows how long, this place was like a damned maze and we still haven't found anyone yet. I noticed that the ceiling began to have wires hanging from them. While we were walking I kept staring at them, wondering how that could've happened and then Rick stopped dead in his tracks. "What's wrong?" I asked, looking at him. He said nothing so I looked in the direction he was looking at, a door with the words, "Don't Open Dead Inside," I read aloud. "W-what? This can't be real." Like on cue, hands began to claw in between the open part of the door. "We gotta get outta here." Rick nodded and we proceeded to look for an exit in the maze of a hospital.

"So. ." I said, breaking the silence. "How'd you get here and how long have you been here?"

He didn't answer for a moment but he began to talk, "All I remember is being shot and I'm not sure how long I've been here. . . I just woke up today. . What about you?"

I nodded. "I was in a car crash, not my fault, though. So don't go around saying women are bad drivers!" I laughed. "I'm not quite sure how I long I've been here either and I just woke up today too. ."

He laughed a little but he began to cough. "Sorry. . My throat is still killing me. But at least we found each other and we aren't alone."

"Yeah, that would suck to be all alone in this hell hole. ."

An elevator began to come into view. "Hallelujah," I excitedly said as I pushed the elevator button down, but nothing happened. "God damn it!" I yelled as I kicked at it. "Calm down Jade, there's a door to the stairs," Rick said reassuringly as he pointed towards the door. When I opened the door it was pitch black, Rick pulled out a match and began to light it. "Hey . . Where'd you pull that thing out of?" I laughed. "Don't worry about it," He said, laughing. We began to go down the stairs, Rick was having a hard time so I put his arm around my shoulder and put my arm around his waist to help him steady himself down the stairs.

When we opened the door to the outside the light blinded us. We stood there for a moment till our eyes got adjusted. As we walked down the stairs I began to smell that I was smelling earlier, but it was intensified. So intensified that I could vomit right now. We saw tons of dead bodies lying on the ground as we were walking past them, as we were passing them I started to gag, but kept it down. We began up a hill towards a military helicopter, when we got up there there was vehicles, tents, but still not people. I moved Rick's arm away from me, "If you can, could you look over there for some people or some idea on what in the hell is going on?" He nodded and started to go in the opposite direction.

I looked through tents and found nothing but pillows and sleeping bags. I walked towards a black SUV and started to pull at the door handle. Locked. "Why do I have such crappy luck?" I sighed loudly. I turned around to see Rick nowhere in sight, "Great. . Now where the hell is he?" I groaned. I heard a quiet scream from the distance, I turned my head towards the sound to see Rick on the ground. I hurried towards him, "What happened?" I asked as I helped him to his feet. His face looked horrified, he pointed in a direction and my eyes followed to where he was staring at, "What the fuck?!" I said while stepping backwards, making myself fall on my butt. "Jade," Rick said, worriedly, "I need to go find my family." I nodded and got back on my feet, "I'll help you look for your family if you help me find my little sister Kira."

He nodded in response and began to sit on a bike, "You've got a deal."

"Are you sure you want to take a bike? We might be able to take one of the SUV's. . . If we break into it and hot wire it. ."

He shook his head, "It's fine, there's another bike over there you can go get it and we'll start looking at your house."

I walked over to the bike, trying to avoid eye contact with that thing that was on the ground. I hopped on the bike and we began to pedal our way to my place. When we arrived it was completely silent, Kira was usually playing outside or making some sort of noise. I rushed into the house and began to shout, "Kira! Kira! It's Jade!" No response. I checked all the places that Kira could fit and nothing. As I was in the kitchen I saw a picture of Kira on the fridge. I took it off of the fridge and looked at it closely, she had the best smile ever and could light up the room with it. It rubbed the picture with my thumb for a moment while I stared at it and put it in one of my gowns pockets.

There was only one last place to check, her bedroom. I ran into her room, nothing. Tears began to fill my eyes as I looked around the room, something caught my eye. A charm bracelet on top of her dresser. I picked it up and put it in one of the other gowns pockets, it'll keep me more determined to find her. Rick was waiting for me in the living room. I shook my head, "She's not here. . We should go and take a look at your house for your family then we'll go on from there." Rick nodded, we exited the house. As I got on my bike I looked at the house for a moment and took it all in, all the memories and good times we had had together. I let out a shaky sigh and we rode towards Rick's house.

When we got to Rick's out he instantly got off his bike and ran into his house yelling, "Lori! Carl!" I hopped off my bike and followed him into the house, we searched every room while we both called their names, but they weren't there. Rick sank to the ground on his knees and began to weep, "Lori! Carl. . ! Is this real . . . ?" Am I here. . .?" He began to hit his head aggressively. "Hey, hey! Woah!" I said as I grabbed his arm. "I want to wake up!" He yelled as a tear fell down his cheek. I kneeled down next to him and hugged him for a few minutes. I rubbed him back and helped him up to his feet. As we left the house we sat on the concrete steps in front of his house in silence.

Rick and I saw someone standing in the middle of the street, Rick started to motion the towards us. All of a sudden I hear a loud whack by my ear, "What the fuck?!" I yelled as I jumped up to see that Rick had been hit in the head with a shovel. "Daddy! Daddy!" The little boy with the shovel yelled. "Carl. . . Carl, I've found you. ." Rick whispered. I was shocked and confused. First of all is this kid Ricks son? If so why in the hell did he him in the head with a fucking shovel?! "Daddy I got the sum bitch! Imma smack him dead!" I stormed towards the boy, grabbed his shovel and threw it on the ground. "What the hell is wrong with you!" I screamed.

A gunshot startled me, I looked back to see there was a man coming towards us with a gun and he did not look happy at all. The man looked at the boy, me and then at Rick. "Did he something? I thought I heard him say something." The man said, acting like I was invisible. "He called me Carl. ." The kid said as he picked up his shovel. "Now son. . You know they don't talk. Hey, mista. What's that bandage for?"

Rick layed there, "W. . .what?" The man pulled a gun on him, "What. Kind. Of Wound." I grabbed the guy's arm, "Hey! What the hell are you guys doing?! Are you two nuts or something!? We were just minding our own business and you hit him on the head with a shovel and try to kill him!" The man pushed me off and kept his gun pointed at Rick, "Answer me! What's your wound?!" He cocked his gun, "Or I will kill you." I got in between them, "No you're not! He didn't even do anything, you psychopath! It's a gun wound for pete's sake!" I looked down to see that Rick had passed out. The man sighed and gave me a glare, "Help me with him, we will see if he's infected or not back at my place, you get his feet and I'll get the other end." I grabbed Rick's feet and we began to carry him, "Infected. . ?" I wondered as we carried Rick back to this man's house.