Chapter 2

Carol stepped closer to the bed and looked down at herself, wincing. She wasn't feeling any pain now but if she ever woke up again that would change. There wasn't a visible place on her body that wasn't marred by bruises and scratches. She had a black eye; red, raw scratches down the left side of her face; a long, dark purple bruise on her right shoulder and collarbone. Her chest above the collar of her scrub top was covered in a mass of cuts and bruises varying in color and size. Her arms were in a similar state.

Almost worse than the injuries was the sight of the ventilator that was obviously forcing her body to breathe. She might have been dead if not for the machine monitoring her heart beat and blood pressure. What the hell was this? An out of body experience? Was she brain dead? Was this in fact death?

Carol thought she should be panicking at the possibility of being dead but she felt strangely calm. She walked to the side of the bed and looked down at her abused body. With a sigh, she sat on the edge of the bed.

"How did I get here?" It was a question she had been asking herself a lot over the last several weeks and she seemed no closer to the answer than before. Looking down at herself, she wondered if she would wake up. Did she really want to? If this was being dead, it wasn't so bad. Waking up would mean pain, hardship, solitude. Ever since Karen and David, she had felt alone no matter how many people were around her. The closest she had come to feeling a connection with another human being was the short time she had had with Daryl.

Daryl. All at once Carol surged to her feet. If her body was lying here in this hospital bed, where was he? Was he alive? What about the boy, Noah? The eerie calm she had felt at the thought of her own death evaporated at the thought that something may have happened to Daryl.

Trying to calm herself, she closed her eyes and pictured his face in her mind. Carol focused on his face, tracing every feature in her memory. His piercing eyes, obscured by the fringe of bangs always hanging down in his face; the beauty mark on the left side of his mouth; his lips. She felt herself begin to focus and the panic melted away. Suddenly, she could hear the sound of a moving vehicle.

Carol opened her eyes and looked around her. She wasn't in the hospital anymore.

A/N: Thank you all so much for the great reviews and encouragement! I love the idea that I have for this story – I just hope I can do it justice.