A/N: I could've posted this more than an hour earlier but I was too busy watching the film Fury. If you have the disk I strongly urge you to watch it because it has tanks and they blow stuff up.
Also Fury was amazing.
Disclaimer: I kinda wanna play that violent game my cousin plays. Then after I fail the goddamn tank and big-ass ship mission for the fiftieth time in a row (seriously, screw the tank-ship mission) I can watch the tornado skip over the barn in Season 5 of The Walking Dead and all the other big goof-ups in the show to make myself feel better. Or maybe I'll watch that dinner scene in Fury again. Did you know I didn't write or produce The Walking Dead? I know, it surprised me too.
Also The Fox Familiar made me catch something really obvious I would've missed otherwise, thanks, bro. See, this is what happens when you review my crap. You get a small note in the disclaimer. Just wanted to say thanks, without you I'd still be writing the same garbage I wrote almost a year ago. :3 Also, thanks a ton for doing the summary stuff for me.
"Meanwhile inland, Atlanta has been downgraded temporarily to an eight with attacks and rioting being reported..." Static. "... are urged to be near their radio and await further instructions..." The broadcasting filled with static. Shane flipped the on/off switch a couple times, trying to see if it would cut the static. Nothing. He leaned back into the carseat.
"So people are rioting," Lambert said. "You really think that's surprising?"
"You know anything about it?"
Lambert shrugged. "You haven't noticed? People are scared. They want to go home to their families, make sure everything is okay. This stuff that's going on - it's not getting any better. People want to feel safe, so sending them to a safe haven will satisfy that need, and, well, hoping that it'll calm the riots. If you had any family you'd be packing too. Our job is to make sure people are safe."
"Are you sure the big cities are the safest bet?" Shane asked. "Sending them to a military would be safer, don't you think? They have guns, food, water - shelter from these flesh-crazed geeks. We don't know anything about them - "
"Listen," Lambert said, "this stuff that's going on - it's getting worse. We're trying to calm everyone down, there's more hoping that we can stop this crazy shit - but we can only hope that we can manage to quarantine the uninfected."
Shane rubbed his forehead - something he'd taken to doing when he was nervous or agitated. "See, Lambert, this department, our people - they've got it all wrong. The military is the city's safest bet. They're built for outbreaks like this. What they're doing is just going to get more people killed."
"People want more than just shelter, food and water. They want to feel comfort - Atlanta, these major cities - even their families' houses - those are places of comfort, they're what they're used too. The people who are rioting, they're scared. They don't know a damned thing about the insane crap that's going on or why there are shootings. You want to know when you need to start worrying, man, is when the safe cities are no longer safe and you need to head somewhere else, somewhere where there wasn't a quarantine."
"What about the people in the hospital? What's going to happen with them? They going to be shot like one of those flesh-eating monsters? Rick is in there, goddammit, Lambert, I'm not leaving him to get shot down. If this shit gets any deeper than it already is, I'm getting his ass out, I don't care how safe people think it is right now."
"..."
Shane wanted to mourn over Rick - he wanted to tell Lori everything that happened -not just gloss over it as an "I had Leon call the hospital but I don't know how the hell he's doing". This was more than that, much more. He couldn't just pass it over as that - hell if it had been him in Rick's position, Rick would be trying his best to make time, explain it, everything that happened.
But these rioting all over town - the reported felonies - he wasn't sure. What was going on? Hell, he'd heard rumours about the military getting involved - but if it was that bad, how was this part of the town unaffected? He and Rick had dealt with criminals but this was different - the air of things being handled, even reports of people attacking others and biting each other? It sounded like rabies, but no rabies virus had ever got as crazy as to infect multiple people.
He thought of Rick again, getting shot. And how he hadn't even told Lori. She needed to know. She deserved to. And he owed it to Rick to tell her that.
"Rick's been shot," Shane said into the phone.
Pause. He could hear Lori's muffled cry in the background and it hurt. This was his fault. If he had paid more attention to his friend, she wouldn't have to go through this. And he wouldn't have to explain it to her.
"Oh my God," she whispered. "Is he alive?"
"I - I had Leon call an ambulance. He's on his way to the hospital." Shane swallowed. "I - he - "
"How is he?"she said.
"I ... don't know."
"He's alive?" she sobbed.
"He's alive..." Shane's thoughts went back to the moment when they shot Rick. "We're getting him to the hospital."
"O-okay."
"Look, Lori... I just felt you should know, okay?"
"Yes..." She sniffled. There was a long pause, then she said, "I have to pick up Carl now, okay?"
Shane got out of the car. Lori was already making her way across the grounds.
"Is he alive?"
"He's in surgery." Shane took a deep breath, ready to explain it all to her, but she asked before he opened his mouth.
"How?"
There was a radio call that said that there was two suspects in a car, but there was a third man. Somebody screwed up. I screwed up." He paused, moving his hand up to his face and rubbing it. "I ju - I did not see him in time - Lori, it's my fault."
She pressed her lips together. "I- I don't believe that." She looked past the fence at the school. Carl was running out amidst the other school kids. "What do I say? How do I tell my son his father's been shot?"
"You don't have to do it alone." He looked at her, hoping she understood.
"Okay," she said, but her tone of voice told him she didn't want him to come and help her while she explained it. "Come on." She took a breath and walked back over to the schoolyard to meet him. Shane couldn't hear what they were saying, but he could see Carl's reactions to his mother and, while he knew this wasn't his family, felt as of his heart was being ripped apart.
"Hey, man,what are you doing?" Shane shouted at a cop who was hauling out the six-gallon buckets of water into his police car.
"I'm doing what I need to. There is no way in hell I'm taking my family to Atlanta unprepared. I'm not going to waste my time looking for water if any of this shit goes down in Atlanta."
"Hey man, calm down, alright? You're - "
"Overreacting, huh?" The man picked up the six-gallon bucket of water and set it into the trunk. "You should pay more attention to those riots the military has been breaking up when they shoot these monsters down. Hell, check out the hospital your friend is being patched up in a few days and every person who was hauled in through those doors will be dead. These soldiers know what's going on, they just don't want people to panic. There's always the chance Atlanta is safe, but I'm not taking any chances." He picked up two more buckets and shoved them into the car.
Shane breathed out slowly and wiped his face. "We don't know that, man. This'll all blow over in the next week or so. The military can handle this."
"I'm telling you man: I don't take any chances in this kind of situation. We can kill them off, but the people panicking - they're the real danger. I don't care how many people tell me it's okay, it's not okay, the sooner you get it through your head, the sooner you're going to be in a safer position." He picked up another two buckets. "You have no idea how bad this could get. These rabid people - they're not the problem. Screw them. They couldn't take on the military even if they had razorblades as teeth - the real problem is society, panic, these riots - that's what's going to overwhelm the government. If they weren't acting like small children everything would be fine - but they're not."
He pushed in the last bucket and shut the trunk. "You've got to understand it, man: this shit is not to be taken lightly. Even if the attacks cease, those panicked people still are going to think we've been shooting innocents on a rampage. They'll think it's martial law, or some shit. I'm taking precautions and doing what anyone rational man would do. You'd do better taking my advice."
He opened the door to the driver's seat. "Maybe you're right, Shane: maybe this will blow over in a couple weeks. But it doesn't hurt anyone to be prepared."
Shane finished gassing up the car and opened the door. Things were getting weird. The reports he'd been making investigations on were saying that helicopters were being confiscated from the police station, and from what Lambert had been saying to him earlier things did not seem that good
He sat down and shut the door with a little more force than necessary. Lambert glanced at him.
"Before we pulled in - what you were saying earlier, about the - "
"Well," Lambert started the engine, "A friend of mine told me that he noticed lights going out in a big-ass part of the community, and our state isn't the only place it's happened in."
Shane rubbed his head, trying to think. That didn't make any sense. What could cause an outage of that much of the community? A solar flare, maybe - but if that was the case, why hadn't the smaller parts of the communities' power went out?
"Do you know anything about it?" he asked finally, as Lambert put his foot on the gas and reversed the car out of the station.
Lambert shook his head and rounded the corner. "I haven't heard any news about it - besides what I've heard from my friend." He paused, taking a brief look at Shane. "I'd have to say it's got something to do with all the riots going on."
Shane shifted in the seat uncomfortably. "You think the riots might have got out of hand?"
"It's possible," Lambert said pleasantly.
Shane shrugged, trying to ignore the slight concerns nagging at the back of his mind. "You hear anything else?"
Lambert hesitated. "Well..." He swerved suddenly to avoid a car as they took the exit near the highway, "I've heard some really weird shit going on. It could mean nothing, but ... "
Shane's thoughts briefly flickered back to Rick in the hospital. Was he still safe? And if so, how long? This in turn brought him to think of Rick's wife and son - Lori and Carl. How were they handling Rick's absence? It hadn't been more than a couple weeks since Rick got shot, but...
" ...or that's at least what the K-9 unit said."
"What?" Shane said, trying to cover his missing what Lambert had just said by trying to souns as if he had heard but did not believe it.
"K-9 unit's been coming back with dead dogs." Lambert repeated himself. "Could mean nothing, could mean something..."
He looked quickly at Lambert, trying to see if he was trying to loosen the earlier tension by taking a crack at it, but he looked serious.
"Not to mention there have been reports of cannibalism in some parts," Lambert continued.
"This some kind of joke?"
"It's up to you. In this situation, the one we're in right now, do you think I'd make up extra stuff just to joke about it?"
"No, man, it's just - " Shane unintentionally rubbed his head, glancing out the window. "It's just the weirdest shit I've heard. The riots are bad enough, but - this - this is getting weird."
A lot could change in forty-eight hours.
At least, with the rioting and other insane shit going on.
Two days later proved that. The riot cop patrols had been increased a ton. Shane was surprised that they hadn't started to quarantine the uninfected or screen anyone who had been near any places known to have riots yet. If they waited too long to do these things they would have a huge problem on their hands.
And why hadn't the military gotten involved in this yet?
Shane unconsciously rubbed his head. There were too many questions, and the answers he tried to make out for himself weren't all that convincing.
He exited the building. The sky had been relatively quiet for the last four days or so - he hadn't heard any airplanes, at least - and it felt strange when the loud roar of a plane engine sounded. Shane looked up at the sky out of habit to seea commercial airliner seemingly descending, when a loud bang sounded. The plane veered sharply to the far left and he followed it with his eyes as it made a dangerous turn, seemingly out of control.
Shane tried to shake off the uncanny feeling that this was probably just a minor thing compared the insanity going on as he crossed over to the parking lot.
Over the next few days, the planes in the sky gradually decreased, until there were no planes at all. When Shane checked the number of flights arriving and leaving, according to the board, there were none, and all of the flights that had been planned went into a seemingly infinite page of "CANCELLED".
In other words, the number of flights entering and leaving the state, was zero.
No planes in the sky.
Three days later, the riots hadn't stopped at all; if things were awful a week ago, they were absolutely terrible now and the riots going on things didn't seem like they would get any better. Shane recalled what the cop hoarding the water supply had told him about how rioting was the problem, and again when he had yelled at Lambert about not leaving Rick to get shot in the hospital.
I haven't done a damn thing, he rebuked himself. I haven't done a damn thing to help Rick and if he's not dead, he will be soon.
The hospital would definitely be getting their patients gunned down by now - the outbreak hadn't even been stemming, so the soldiers had probably figured the best way to stem it was to kill any infected in the hospital - and in the situation they were all in, Shane doubted they would bother to check whether the patients were bitten or not - in their view, it was better to get them all gunned down then pick out certain flowers and taking risks.
Shane slammed the car door after him and ran toward the hospital. He could see two armored cars outside - the soldiers were definitely gunning down the place. Either Rick was dead or he wasn't - and in that case he was going to get gunned down unless Shane got to him before they did.
He didn't have to deal with breaking down the doors - the soldiers had handled that for him - but he knew he'd have to be careful looking for Rick - assuming he was still alive. These soldiers were gunning down the infected and any live patients, there was no way Shane could get past this by telling them he was a cop.
The second he reached the second level of the building, he got off and hid behind one of the overturned beds. The area was a mess and easy to hide in, but it also burned the reminder into his head him that the area was being scoured clean and that meant he had to get Rick out of here fast.
"C'mon, c'mon," Shane muttered under his breath as two soldiers ran past him. As soon as they were out of sight he crawled out and sprinted at top speed toward the stairway. He had to duck behind one of the curtains as another soldier ran up the stairs, gun in hand.
"Whoa, whoa," he muttered, his heart rate increasing, as a group of National Guards movedva group of patients down the hall. A woman hurried after them - one of the personnel. "Ma'am -" Shane began. He knew he was in danger, but they hadn't shot him - not yet, anyway, which meant Rick still had a chance. "Ma'am, please- " Another National Gaurdsman moved her out of his way, forcing her to the end of the hall with the patients, and he quickly moved back.
"Shit, " he whispered, peering out from behind the wall as the soldier reached the end of the hall. He heard a woman scream and some barely audible protest; then multiple guns firing. Shane stared after them, transfixed on the horror he had just witnessed, but the personnel couldn't help him, not anymore - he'd have to find Rick himself. He's in one of the rooms somewhere close to the cafeteria.
Shane made a run for it. He bolted right but heard shooting for the second time and instinctively hurried into the closest room. The shooting slowly died away and he shot out of the room and down the hallway again. He checked the one he vaguely remembered visiting Rick in before the outbreak - and Rick was in there.
"No, no! Check them all - check them all!" he heard a National Guard shout.
He breathed in slowly, trying to hold in his mixed relief and held-in panic. The soldiers hadn't got to Rick. Of course, they wouldn't need to if...
"Okay," Shane whispered. "I'm gonna get you out of here, bud. Okay. What do I do?"
He looked around the room for something to carry Rick with.
"Come on corporal - move out!" one of the soilders shouted.
Shane heard an explosion in the background and instinctively crouched on the ground. The electricity had cut out, leaving the room mostly dark. He got to his feet, noticing that the life support machine Rick was hooked up to had shut off.
Shane immediately pressed his head to Rick's chest. "If you're going to wake up at all - I need you to do it NOW!" he said in a firm whisper. "Please, man, just show me a sign." He pressed his head down on Rick's chest again.
"Anything," he whispered. "Please, Rick."
The chaos outside the room was making it impossible for him to hear anything, but he couldn't feel Rick's chest moving - or he mistook it for his own movements.
"The place is coming down! Fall back! All units fall back!"
A loud outburst of gunfire interrupted his checking on Rick and Shane rushed over to the door. He opened it slightly - just enough to see what was going on.
Several National Guards were gunning down patients and their hospital staff as they tried to escape. He rushed back into the room to Rick's bed but heard a soldier approaching; he was just able to squat down almost under the bed when the soldier opened the room. He watched from under the bed as the soldier scanned the room before leaving.
Shane got back up, shaking as he lamented over Rick's death. He's my best friend. We've been through so much together...
"I'm - " Shane's mouth was suddenly hot and dry. He swallowed. "I'm okay," he whispered.
The building shook again and Shane fled the room. He hesitated a moment, then closed the door and pushed a bed against it. I can't just leave Rick in there to get his body mauled on by any of those crazy flesh-eating monsters, he insisted, even though the horrible discovery still haunted him.
Instead of heading back to the station, Shane went straight for Lori and Carl's house. It's what Rick would want me to do, he told himself, and besides that... I can't leave her and Carl for dead. He's just a kid, he and his mother have no idea what they're facing out there.
By the time he reached their house, the remaining sun had been blocked out by clouds. Is it going to rain on top of everything else? Shane wondered momentarily as he pulled the car uo at their house. He didn't even bother pulling up into the driveway but grabbed his shotgun and bolted up the path and kicked at the door. The light in the side of the house was on. "Lori!" he shouted.
He kicked the door a few times before it opened.
"Carl!" Lori shrieked. "Don't open that door - "
"It's okay," Shane said, breathing slowly through his nose. "It's okay. It's just me."
Lori shoved the door shut the moment he got out of the way. "Where's Rick?"
Shane rubbed his head. "Rick's in the - Lori - I think that's something we should discuss later. Right now we need to get out of here."
Lori nodded as she noticed Shane's expression but didn't say anything about it. Instead she started, "We- we have some clothes and a few cans of food in the cabinet - give me a moment," she said, the muscles in her face straining to hold herself back from showing her feelings and confusion.
"They say Atlanta - they say it's safe so we'll head that way first," he yelled as she disappeared down the hallway..
Lori disappeared into the back room. Carl returned from the kitchen carrying a bunch of assorted cans in a trash bag and a can opener.
"Here, I'll get those," Shane offered. "You and Carl - just - get in the car, okay? I'll be right after you."
Lori came out of the room carrying a few clothes.
"C'mon, let's go."
Shane shut the door behind them but didn't bother locking it - it wasn't as if they would be able to return to the home. Lori opened the trunk and shoved the clothes in; Carl was already in his seat. Shane dumped the cans and their can opener on top of the clothes and took his shotgun from his shoulder before fitting it in where it wouldn't jiggle around on the ride and shut the trunk before getting into the front seat with Lori via driver's seat and started the car.
"Shane?" Lori asked an hour later, as they turned out into the main road to Atlanta. "What you were telling me earlier - about Rick - is he okay?"
Shane didn't reply. He had known from the moment he told Lori to wait for later that it wasn't going to be easy telling her about Rick - how exactly do you tell your best friend's wife that he's dead - but now that he was there, with them all listening intently and in no immediate danger -
"Lori...," he stalled. "There's no easy way to say this..."
Lori looked at him as he made a sharp turn. There were more cars on the highway now and they had to slow down.
"He's not okay," said Shane, not looking back and trying to forget being in the hospital room, panicking as he detected no heartbeat. "Lori - he was - he was dead when I got to the hospital. I - I should have got him out of there sooner."
"It's not your fault," she said. He could tell she was crying by her voice, but trying to stay calm. "You did what you could - "
"It wasn't enough!" he snapped. "I should have went there sooner, Lori - it was my fault he got shot in the first place - I screwed up - "
A small cry escaped from Carl and Shane stopped talking, instead focusing on the road, while Lori comforted her son.
He looked out the window. The line to Atlanta seemed to last forever and there was no indication that it would speed up any time soon.
Roadblocks.
They had been in traffic for five hours - it must be two in the morning by now. Lori and Carl had left the car while he listened for any broadcasts on the radio; so far, nothing but static and occasional sentence fragments.
Shane opened the door and rubbed his face, trying to stay awake and pay attention to what was going on.
"Normal broadcasting will cease immediately..." Static.
A far-off gunshot, probably farther up the road, fired. It was followed by two more. Broadcasting was stopping because... why? He sat up and rubbed his head, trying to pay attention to what was going on. It didn't matter why, he decided. The broadcasting had stopped - which meant they were wasting their time sitting their cars on the roads and listening to the radios.
Shane got out of the car and walked over to Lori and Carl. Lori was talking to a older, extremely short-haired woman. Her kid was standing next to Carl.
"Did you find it? Are we gonna go soon?" Carl asked, tearing away from his mother and looking at Shane.
"I don't know, baby," Lori cut in, turning to face him. "I sure hope so."
"I'm hungry," Carl said.
"I know, Carl," Lori replied.
Shane cleared his throat. "We all are," he started.
"Why don't I get him something to eat? Ed's into all this survival stuff," the woman said. "We've got enough MREs to feed a small army."
"I'd sure appreciate it," Lori answered quickly.
"No trouble." She disappeared in between the rows of cars.
"You getting anything?" Lori asked.
"There's nothing," he responded. She snorted. "Big surprise there."
"No, I mean there's nothing. Emergency broadcasting stopped." He scratched his head. "And that recording about the refugee center. It's all gone. I'm gonna go up the road a bit, see what I can see."
"I'll come with you."
The woman returned and Carl looked up. "Ed must have forgot to pack those MREs," she said. "I found these in my purse."
"It's all right, Lori said. "Listen, do you mind keeping an eye on Carl for me? Shane and I are gonna go scout up ahead a little bit and see if we can find someone that knows what's going on."
"No," she said.
"I want to come with you!" Carl interrupted.
"Uh-uh." Lori shook her head.
"We'll be back before you know it. Okay, little man, huh?" Carl nodded and turned back to the little girl.
Shane walked with Lori, picking his way through the cars crammed nearly bumper-to-bumper.
"Why would they stop broadcasting about the refugee center?" she whispered to him as they moved out of Carl's earshot.
"I don't know."
"You think they're turning people away?"
"Hell, they're gonna have a riot on their hands if they try."
"What do we do?"
"Come here." Shane put his hand on her shoulder. "We're gonna do what Rick would have wanted us to do, get you and Carl out of here."
She nodded, but her face paled as she looked up at the sky again.
"That's not lightning," Lori said, pointing at the lights going off far up ahead. Shane noticed silhouettes of helicopters as they flew over the city. Army.
"You stay with me now," Shane whispered, trying to calm her. "Come on, stay with me."
"Oh my God," Lori said.
"They're dropping napalm in the streets." Shane put his hand against his head, trying to understand what was going on.
She started running back the way they headed. "Shane. Come here!"
"Lori?" Shane called, shutting the car door as gently as possible.
She was standing about four cars' lengths from where their car was parked.
"Carl's asleep in the car." He couldn't help feeling relieved. "It's the first time he's slept since we hit the road five days ago."
"Good." Lori nodded briefly. Shane got the hunch that she wasn't paying much attention to him.
"Lori?" Shane said, concerned.
"He seems to be taking things well." She closed her eyes tightly for a moment. "As well as we can expect from what he's - what he's been through."
"Yeah..." Shane paused. "Are you okay?"
Lori squinted and looked back at him. "No, Shane - and I probably never will be. We're never going to be a normal family again - just look at us." Her head drooped forward. "I'm holding together for Carl .. for Rick - "
"Hey..." Shane put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't take it so badly on yourself. It's not your fault Rick - got shot - " He rubbed his head. "That was my fault, all right?"
"Look at it... the whole city is destroyed. Everyone that came there for protection is dead. They'd have to be. Nobody could survive that, Shane. And Rick.."
"Lori..." He put a hand on her shoulder.
"Shane... I can't thank you enough for coming with us. Carl and I never would have made it down here on our own." Lori said. "I'll never be able to repay you." She turned her head around slightly and looked up at him.
He didn't think as they both leaned in and kissed, didn't notice until after he had done it. Immediately he pulled away. At the moment he couldn't understand what had brought him to do it. It was an accident.
"I'm sorry, Lori - I didn't mean - " He looked away. "I'm sorry."
"No..." She seemed unsure for a moment and he felt her tense. "You don't have to apologize, Shane... with everything you've went through, everything we've been through... I understand."
Shane rubbed his head with his free hand, feeling very agitated at the moment. This was wrong. What he had just done was wrong. He might have always had a thing for Lori but... I can't just screw around with my best friend's wife -
She hesitated, then in a lower whisper, said, "I need you, Shane."
