Chapter 1
Rick Grimes woke up and looked around. He was in the hospital, but had no memory of how he'd gotten here or how long he'd been here. He sat up slowly, noting how unnaturally quiet the hospital was-no overhead announcements, no conversation in the halls, no beeping monitors. He looked around for the call button and grasped it, squeezing it in the hopes that someone would appear and give him some information. He listened carefully for the sound of footsteps headed to his room, and heard none. Frowning, he squeezed the call button yet again, and kept his finger on it. There was no more sure way to piss off a nurse than to clamp down on a call button without giving them time to respond.
The fact that no one was responding and he could hear nothing in the hall outside his door made him determined to get up and go out into the hall to see what was going on. He grimaced in pain as his movement made his head throb. He reached up and tentatively felt around the back of his head to find a large lump and what felt like stitches near the base of his skull. As he shifted position, he winced as a sharp pain shot through his left shoulder. He sighed and tried to remember what the hell had happened to him.
Closing his eyes briefly, he vaguely remembered Shane calling him for backup for a drunk driver. He frowned. That couldn't be right. Shane never called for backup. He rubbed his right hand over his face and sighed again. That could wait, what he needed to do now was get out of the bed, get dressed and go out into the hall to find someone who could give him some information.
He slowly and painfully made his way to a chair that had what looked like his uniform folded on it. Stopping often to collect himself, he shakily pulled his clothes on and at last managed to pull his boots on before he sat down to collect himself again. He was shaking from the effort of dressing, and sweat dripped from his brow. He realized that the room was hot and stuffy and frowning finally noticed that no air was blowing from the vents. What the hell was going on?
Taking a deep breath, Rick headed to the door and cautiously opened it, peering out into the hall. He frowned again, puzzled at the lack of activity or staff in the hall. He instinctively reached for his gun, and keeping his hand on it he slowly stepped out into the hall.
There was no one at the nurse's desk, and he could see by the mess of papers flung about that whoever had been there had left in a hurry. He stepped along as quietly as he could, looking into rooms and down other corridors confounded by the continued silence and the lack of anyone at all anywhere.
He came to the door to the stairwell and stepped through and began to slowly make his way down to the first floor. Maybe there would be somebody there who could tell him what the hell was going on.
He cracked the door open slightly, peering out into the hallway of the first floor nearest the ER. Listening carefully, he realized the first floor was just as silent as the second had been. Stepping cautiously out into the hallway, he saw the remnants of chaos surrounding him. Papers lay everywhere, overturned gurneys and stretchers, doors ajar and supplies lying everywhere. His eyes widened at the sight of bullet holes all over the walls along with blood splatters everywhere as well as pooled on the floor in different areas. He inched his way toward the ER exit by the ambulance bay and peeked into the offices on the way, again seeing no one.
Outside in the ambulance bay, he encountered more havoc. Vehicles were stopped in the middle of the road, up on curbs, doors opened and abandoned. And again that eerie silence. No birds chirping, dogs barking, none of the usual noise of traffic or kids or anything. Rick sighed again and rubbed his right hand over his face in confusion and frustration. He knew his station was just two blocks east of the hospital but he didn't feel confidant walking even that short distance as weak and shaky as he felt. He looked about and saw an abandoned truck that had run up on the curb nearest him. He looked about and seeing no one to object, he got in and fumbled for the keys that were thankfully still in the ignition.
Rick drove slowly toward the station, going wide around some of the vehicles that were just stopped everywhere along the road. As he drove, he observed the military vehicles abandoned around the hospital and lines of sheet covered bodies in the parking lots. Whatever had happened, he was relieved he had missed it. He just hoped Lori and Carl were safe somewhere and that he could find them.
He pulled into the parking lot of the police department and noticed Shane's cruiser parked haphazardly near the entrance. He pulled his gun as he exited the truck and strode slowly toward the entrance, noting again the absence of any personnel around. The sheriff's department and jail were all together in a small building near the city hall and a small park. The jail had just four cells, it was a small rural jail used mainly for holding drunk drivers until court day. As Rick entered the office area, he again noted the evidence of hasty departure by whoever had last been in here. Papers strewn everywhere, ammo and guns unattended and strewn about on the floor. He advanced cautiously toward the jail cells and peered into the first two, seeing nothing. Peering into the last one in back he was surprised to see a figure lying on the cot. He stopped and stared in confusion. He didn't remember placing anyone in the cell, and where was Shane or anyone else if there was a prisoner to be taken care of?
"Hello?" he whispered quietly. At the sound of his voice, the figure stirred and sat up. Rick could just make out that the person seemed to be a female, before the person turned fully toward him. He heard a gasp and the figure jumped up and ran toward the cell door. It was a girl, maybe still in her teens and she looked like she'd been brutally beaten. Her face was swollen and discolored from bruising, her lips split and swollen. Her shirt was nearly torn off her exposing pale skin that was mottled with bruises on her chest, arms and stomach. Her hair was a tangled mass of chestnut curls. She wore ripped and filthy jeans and her feet were bare.
"Oh my God!" she exclaimed in a husky voice. "Can you let me out of here please?" Rick frowned at her, trying to imagine why a young girl would have been left locked up in the jail and everyone else had fled.
"Who are you and why have you been left in here alone?" Rick asked softly. His head was aching as was his shoulder and he had a bad feeling his day was about to get even worse than it had started off.
"I'm Lily Harlan. Your asshole deputy, Shane, arrested me and brought me here after he killed my boyfriend Jack and tried to kill you," she spat out angrily. She winced as she took a deep breath and clutched a hand to her right ribs.
"What are you talking about?" Rick demanded.
"Your deputy, that sorry bastard, pulled me and Jack over for some bullshit reason two weeks ago. He shot Jack point blank and then called you for back up. When you got there he waited til you went to look at Jack and shot you in the back, then hit you in the head and then he called for an ambulance claiming that you two had been ambushed by Jack and me." She winced as she took another deep breath.
Rick let his gaze take her in slowly and carefully-he could see she was in just as bad a shape if not worse as he was. She was visibly shaking, both wrists were red and raw from having been handcuffed rather tightly at some recent point.
"Those are some very serious charges you're talking about," Rick murmured, his mind trying to assimilate the information she'd given him.
Lily snorted in disgust. "Yes, very serious charges indeed," she snapped back
"Well, where were you when all this happened? How do I know you aren't lying about all this?" Rick countered.
"You don't remember, do you?" Lily demanded, staring hard at Rick. Rick shook his head helplessly.
"No, I don't. All I know is I woke up in the hospital just a while ago and there wasn't a soul there to tell me what the hell is going on." He sighed again in frustration.
"All I know is that fucker Shane beat the shit out of me, dragged me back here and continued to beat me and….." she stopped abruptly and Rick looked at her. Tears had welled up in her eyes and she had crossed her arms over her chest defensively.
"What did Shane do?" he asked quietly.
Lily refused to meet his gaze and shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it," she said quietly.
Rick crossed to the jail door and gripped the bars, willing her to look at him. "Lily, I need you to tell me what happened. Do you know where Shane is now? Do you know anything about what's been going on outside here?"
Lily continued to avoid looking at him, her eyes glued on the floor. "I know Shane left me here about four days ago. Said something about the shit hitting the fan in the world, the end of days or some crap. That you were dead and he was going to get Lori and Carl and get the hell outta here and get somewhere safe. When I told him to let me the hell out he just laughed and said he wasn't taking any chances of my fucking his new life up. Then he threw the keys over there," she pointed to the floor behind Rick and he turned and saw the jail door key lying on the floor, "said maybe I could talk somebody into letting me out before I starved to death." She gasped again and winced in pain.
Rick shook his head in bemusement. This didn't sound like Shane at all. Sure Shane had a bad temper, but he'd never beaten a prisoner, much less killed one in cold blood. And this girl was saying Shane had shot him and knocked him out?
"Did Shane say anything else? Where was he taking Lori and Carl?" Rick rasped. He was having a hard time taking this all in.
"He said something about a safe zone. Atlanta I think. But he wouldn't tell me what was going on. Said it didn't matter, I'd be dead one way or the other soon enough." Lily gazed speculatively at Rick a moment. "Who's Lori anyway?" she asked quietly, biting her lip.
Rick looked at her, frowning. "Why?"
"Well, whoever she is she must be something special to him. He kept telling me I looked close enough to her to substitute until he had the real thing." She put her hand over her mouth to stifle a sob and tears spilled down her cheeks.
Rick suddenly felt more anxious than ever to find Lori. Rick fumbled for the keys on the floor and unlocked the door to the cell. Lily stumbled into his arms and he held her upright tightly, his heart pounding with anger and worry. He led her out into the office area and began to inventory her various bruises and injuries. She was a slight girl, slender bordering on skinny and would have been unable to defend herself against Shane physically. He lifted her face to him and his eyes wandered over the bruises and black eye, split lip, choke marks on her throat, bruising on her arms and chest and ribs, welts on her back. What in the hell had Shane been thinking? And if he did this to Lily, what would he do to Lori? Or Carl?
Rick murmured soothingly to Lily as he assessed the damage Shane had wrought. He crossed to the locker room and rummaged around until he found a spare tshirt of his he'd kept in the locker and handed it to Lily. He turned his back so she could change shirts. Now he needed to find her some shoes or boots. He turned back around to see Lily staring at him blankly.
"I don't know what's happened any more than you do, but I'm not leaving you here alone. I need to find my wife and son and I need to find Shane and find out what in the hell he's been up to. The man I know, the man I've known all my life, wouldn't have done anything like this. So I need to find him and find out what is going on. If he's capable of treating you this way, much less killing your boyfriend and trying to kill me I don't want him anywhere near my family."
Lily nodded. "First though we're going to fill a duffle bag full of weapons and ammo so we can defend ourselves from whatever the hell is going on out there." He motioned for Lily to follow him and they busied themselves filling a large duffel bag full of various guns and ammo.
"Do you know how to shoot a gun? Are you comfortable handling a gun?" Rick at last asked her as he handed her a handgun.
"I grew up on a ranch out in Wyoming. So yeah, I can shoot," Lily mumbled as she checked the gun for ammo and tucked it into her waistband.
Rick gazed at her quizzically. "If you don't mind my asking, what were you and your boyfriend doing here in Georgia?"
"We're on the rodeo circuit. Jack rides and ropes and I barrel race and trick ride. We decided to stay an extra weekend after the rodeo ended. Last time I let a man make travel plans," she snapped. Rick smirked slightly. He pointed her toward the door and they went out to get into the truck he'd taken from the hospital.
