Rick woke up cold, winter had come to Georgia, and it was obvious. The southern state rarely experienced snow but over the past couple of days you wouldn't know that. Every day it seemed like it snowed a little bit harder. It wasn't large amounts of snow, and it melted rather quickly, but it still made it unbearably cold, especially when you live in a prison that doesn't have a heating system or an abundance of warm clothing.
Rick dressed and left his cell, he could tell from the lack of noise that no one else in the cellblock was awake. He ate a quick breakfast before going to do keep watch for an hour or two. He needed the alone time to think about the day ahead.
When he exited C Block he saw that it was snowing twice as hard as it had been last night. He let out an annoyed sigh; he was planning to bring Morgan to the prison. When the Governor came back they'd have even more weapons, and Morgan's knowledge of traps would be another benefit of having his friend here. But with this rapidly increasing snowfall getting to King's County would be more difficult.
When Rick got to the watchtower he was surprised to find Michonne already up there. "What are you doing?" He asked upon seeing the swordswoman.
"I woke up about an hour ago, thought I'd keep watch while everyone else was asleep." Michonne answered as she turned to look at her friend. "You still think it's a good idea to make that run today?" She asked, knowing that the snow would make the journey more difficult.
Rick nodded, "Yeah. There's no telling when the Governor will attack again, the sooner we get Morgan here the better."
"You still think it's a good idea to bring Carl along?" Michonne knew that Carl and Rick's relationship was under a lot of strain lately. It'd been that way since the Governor's first attack. Originally Carl had just been mad at Rick, but now it had gotten worse. Carl had been avoiding his father, and wouldn't talk to him. Rick wasn't sure how to deal with how his son had been acting.
"Yeah, he's been cooped up in here since the attack. Getting out of here will do him some good." Rick replied, he was trying to sound confident but it sounded much more like he was trying to convince himself more than Michonne. The woman only nodded before turning back to look over the prison yard.
"Go get ready," She told him, "If you leave now you'll have the best chance of avoiding any weather related problems." Rick nodded once again before turning and heading back into the cellblock.
Daryl took his seat in the back with Carl. Rick and Glenn were in the front, driver and passenger sides respectively. Everyone was wearing the warmest close they owned, at least three layers. Daryl guessed that when the rest of the world went to hell it must've taken the climate with it. Everyone was also very tired, Rick had woken them up at the crack of dawn, and they were none too pleased about it.
They were about halfway through their journey, Carl had fallen asleep and Daryl felt like he was pretty close to joining him. They had the heat cranked as high as it could be and none of them had been this warm all week, compared to the prison the car might as well have been a beach in the middle of summer. Right as Daryl felt like he was going to drift off though he was jerked into the door next to him, and after that he saw the world around him start to spin as the car tumbled over. The vehicle finally stopped rolling when it slammed into a tree off the side of the road. Luckily it had landed upright with its wheels on the ground.
"Is everyone alright?" Rick asked after taking a moment to make sure the car wasn't going to keep tumbling.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Glenn answered.
"My head hurts like a bitch, but I'm alright." Came Daryl's reply, after a short moment of silence Rick looked back at his son.
"Carl? You alright?" He asked as he reached out and shook the boy's shoulder, when he didn't wake up Rick started to become concerned. Daryl unbuckled his seatbelt and moved over next to the boy, placing his hand on Carl's neck.
"He's alive, just out cold." Daryl said after taking a moment to check the child's pulse. Rick let out a sigh of relief at the news that his son was still alive.
"Wake him up. He might be hurt, and if he is we need to do something about it." Rick explained before turning back to the front of the car. Daryl nodded before he went to work trying to wake up the unconscious child. After a few moments Carl's eyes blinked open, not long after the teen became acutely aware of how badly his head hurt.
"What happened?" He groaned while looking around the car and then out the window, seeing that there was a tree pressing into his door.
"We swerved on some ice and the car flipped over, you got knocked out. Are you alright?" Rick asked gently.
Carl nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine." He answered, momentarily forgetting that he wasn't speaking to his dad. "My head really hurts though." He added before pressing one of his hands against his head, when he pulled it away and looked at it his eyes went wide as he noticed that it was covered with blood. The others noticed and Daryl grabbed the teen to get a look at his injury. Carl's hair was matted with blood, and when they looked at Carl's window they saw that there was blood smeared on it.
"Shit." Glenn breathed at seeing the injury; Rick pinched the bridge of his nose while he processed this new piece of information. He reached across to the glove compartment and looked inside for some bandages.
"Damn it." He groaned when he didn't find any, "Alright, there's a general store up the road a few miles, we'll drive there and grab some bandages." He explained calmly. Rick then turned to look out the front window, only to find that it was completely engulfed in snow. The former police officer groaned for what felt like the hundredth time that day. He got out the crashed car and brushed the snow off the windshield. Getting back in the vehicle he attempted to drive, only to find that the tires didn't have enough traction.
"Son of a bitch!" Rick shouted, he turned back to look at Carl who looked like he was going to pass out, "Carl, you need to stay awake. You might have a concussion and if you fall asleep you could go into a coma." Then Rick opened up his door and got out of the car. "I'm going to walk to the store."
"I'll come with you." Glenn volunteered as he got out of the car. Rick nodded and turned to Daryl and Carl.
"You two stay here, Daryl make sure Carl doesn't fall asleep." He instructed. Then he and Glenn started their journey to the store. It couldn't have been more than ten yards before they disappeared inside the blizzard.
Rick and Glenn had been walking for about an hour when they finally reached the general store they had set out to find. They ran two the front door, wanting to get out of the snow storm as soon as possible. They found that the door had a large buildup of snow in front of it, but they quickly dug through it.
Upon entering the store the two men let out sighs of relief. The general store didn't have any sort of heating system on, but compared to the blizzard outside the store was a dozen times better. Their relief didn't last long though; they were here for a reason. They needed to get Carl some bandages. Rick also thought that grabbing some painkillers would be a good idea. So they set about searching for the supplies they needed.
After finding what they needed Rick and Glenn headed for the door, when they tried to open it however the door wouldn't budge. Rick tried again to force the door open, and again to no avail.
"God damn it!" Rick yelled, "There's so much snow outside that the door won't open." He explained as he started to pace back and forth.
"What do you mean there's too much snow? We haven't even been in here for five minutes!" Glenn complained, "What the hell are we going to do?" He asked, his voice making his concern evident.
"I don't know. Maybe there's a back entrance, one that an employ would have used." With that Rick and Glenn set about searching for such an entrance, they found one. Only to find that it too was frozen shut. Rick kicked the door in his frustration. "Great! What are we supposed to do now?" He shouted.
"We'll just have to stay calm and wait for the blizzard to die down. Eventually Daryl and Carl will come looking for us. Once they find us we can get out of here." Glenn answered, trying to calm his friend down. Glenn's plan didn't make Rick feel much better about their predicament, it actually made him feel worse. His son and best friend were out there, in the middle of a blizzard. How long would it be before they started to worry about him and Glenn? And if they did come looking for them would Carl be alright? If he had a concussion like Rick suspected then trudging through a blizzard would do him more harm than good.
Rick let out a heavy sigh as he sat down against the wall, the only thing he could do at this point was hope that the storm let up before Carl and Daryl became concerned enough to start looking for them.
