AN: I know I've been gone for forever, I'm sorry about that. Life's been very crazy these past six months. I'm back with a large chapter dump in honor of Season Eight of the walking dead, I'll also be posting the start of a new walking dead story, looking at a different take on my OC Kat, if she'd had a different family and upbringing. So keep an eye out for that, it probably won't be up until after the premiere as I'm running behind. There will be Nine Chapters posted tonight bringing us up 20. After that it will be a while before I post anymore.
SPOILER: I need to know more about Negan before continuing, so yeah he'll be in this story. Once I know more I'll be able to get back to writing, and the chapters will start back up again.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are property of AMC and Robert Kirkman. I am not making any money from this.
I do own Kat, and the Warriors (Characters that come in, in later chapters).
AN: With that out of the way, enjoy!
-Line Break-
Glenn sits next to Katrina's bed holding her hand… It had been two days since the others had left for the medicine. She was fading fast, her fever had spiked and not come down, no matter what they did, and her breathing was becoming more and more distressed. He looks up as she starts gasping for breath. He quickly runs into the next room, where Hershel is.
"I don't think she can breathe…" Hershel follows him. They intubate her. Hershel sits down beside her bed, pumping the bag. Glenn sits on the bed… hoping they would come back soon.
A few more hours pass. Rick is waiting on a look out post they had built on the wall, so they could see when the gate needed to be opened. He sighs in a relief when he sees a car drive up, Daryl in the driver's seat. He quickly climbs down, turning the lever. He lets them in.
"She still alive?" Daryl asks after parking the car, climbing out.
"Yeah, she's not doing well though, they had to intubate her a few hours ago…" Rick says.
"Well let's get these to her then… we got as much as we could carry. We have a stock now, if anyone else needs them." Maggie says coming over to them. They rush up to the prison giving the medicine to Hershel and Dr. S.
-Line Break-
Kat blinks looking around the blurry room. She groans in pain, her whole body aching, and her throat felt raw…
"Katrina?" She looks up seeing Glenn looking down at her. He quickly moves to put her glasses on her. She tries to wet her lips to say something and coughs.
"Wa… ter… pl… ease" She croaks out. He turns grabbing a bottle of water and uncaps it. He puts his arm around her back, sitting her up enough to drink, bringing the bottle to her lips. She drinks a bit, Glenn pulling it away before she can gulp to much of it.
"Careful…" He tells her, lying her back down.
"What… happened?"
"What's the last thing you remember?" She gulps.
"I was in here… after… after Eddie, Malcolm, Jones, and Allen attacked me… I think it'd been a day…" She stutters out. He nods, taking her hand again.
"You've been out for a week… I think you don't remember being sick because of how high your fever was…"
"I was sick?"
"You had an infection… Hershel and Dr. S think it was from wounds from the rape before going untreated, you had a lot of abscesses I guess, and they all ruptured because of the new attack… You had sepsis… We had to intubate you… if we hadn't gotten antibiotics when we did…" he falls silent. She nods.
"Antibiotics, I thought there weren't any more in the area?"
"There wasn't… Daryl, Maggie, Sasha, Tyreese, and Michonne, went to the veterinary hospital to get them."
"That's 50 miles away!" She stares at him shocked.
"I know… They brought them back… saved your life."
"They risked going that far… just to save me?"
"Well, yeah… and we have a stock now."
"I'm not worth that." She shakes her head.
"Don't you say that…" He says firmly. She looks up at him.
"But I'm not…"
"Katrina Rhee, you are worth that, you are worth that and so much more… and clearly they think so too, because they volunteered." He tells her. She looks away tears in her eyes.
"They shouldn't have risked their lives to save me… I… I'm not worth that…" She shakes her head again. Glenn gently but firmly places his hand on her chin, turning her head to look at him.
"Katrina… you are worth the world… You're smart, and beautiful, and one hell of a survivor… You're my wife, and almost everyone here's friend… had the roles been reversed for any of us, you would have done the same… So you do not say that… you don't say you're not worth that… because you are… you are…" He looks into her eyes, love and determination shining in his. She blinks up at him for a moment before reaching up and wrapping her arms around his neck pulling him into a hug. She starts crying, clutching onto his shirt. Glenn wraps his arms around her, picking her up and sitting on the bed, moving so she is sitting in his lap. He rubs her back holding her close, letting her cry. "It's going to be okay now… we're gonna get through this… you're going to make it through this." He says kissing the top of her head. "I love you."
-Line Break-
It was another few days before Hershel let her go back to her own cell, with strict orders to take it easy. She was to stay in bed, other than going to the bathroom, she could get out of bed to sit somewhere and talk with people… but only for so long.
After a few days of bed rest Kat was bored out of her mind… she had reread her books… twice. She had read all of Carl's comics. She had even spent multiple hours watching Judith. Now she was sitting on the bed while painting the wall of the cell, using paint Zach, Beth's boyfriend, had found on a recent run. She sits there painting the wall blue, Beth having brought her the can of paint and a paintbrush, with a laugh earlier when she asked for it. She had almost the entire cell painted.
"What are you doing?" She turns seeing Glenn standing in the doorway looking confused.
"Painting."
"Why?"
"Because I'm bored…"
"Okay…" Glenn laughs going over and sitting on the bed next to her. "I don't think painting the cell is what Hershel had in mind when he said bed rest."
"What? I haven't left the bed…" She counters.
"Then how'd you get the parts by the ceiling and by the floor?"
"I stood on the bed, and leaned off the bed… but I never left the bed." Glenn nods clearly having to force himself not to burst out laughing. "I ran out of other things to do… besides I like blue… and I know you do too." She folds her arms. Glenn finally bursts out laughing.
"Okay, well it's time for dinner… I think Hershel wouldn't mind you joining us, while your paint dries." He says standing up still laughing. She puts the paint brush on top of the paint can and nods standing up. They head down to dinner.
"Why are you covered in paint?" Carl asks her as she sits down.
"Kat decided to paint our cell blue." Glenn says sitting beside her.
"Why?" Rick raises an eyebrow at her.
"I was bored!"
"Didn't I tell you not to leave the bed?" Hershel asks, although he's grinning too.
"She didn't daddy, I watched her do most of it." Beth says. "I'm the one who gave her the paint." The others look at each other and burst out laughing. Kat just huffs crossing her arms, although smiling slightly.
-Line Break-
After people found out about Kat painting her cell, a lot of other people wanted to paint theirs as well. It became a common practice that if you found cans of paint while on a run, you were expected to bring them back… so long as the more important stuff and been taken first. Beth ended up painting her cell purple. Carl, had painted his red. And Rick planned to paint one pink for Judith when she got a bit older. The Prison had really, truly become everyone's home. Things where feeling more and more normal… or as normal as things could get in an apocalypse.
They had all agreed, after they accidently brought in the assholes who attacked Kat, that whenever anyone new came, they had to be shown to everyone in the prison, to see if anyone knew them, before they were allowed to wander on their own. That way no one they knew was a horrible person could lie their way in again, although if someone claimed they were an asshole they would be given a trial period to confirm this. Kat even agreed with that, to keep someone from causing someone to be kicked out over some old grudge… with exception to Jackson and his group… They were not taking that risk again. If Kat said they were from that group, so long as she was certain… they had bought themselves a death sentence.
Kat had come up with the idea to build a radio tower on top of the prison, so they could broadcast a signal, through normal frequency's and military frequency's, they wouldn't tell anyone where the prison was or that it was even a prison, just any survivors to come to a specific place, and they would check in once every three days. If they passed the questions they'd bring them back to the prison, if not… then they would leave them there, and drive a longer route back, making sure they weren't followed.
It had been 30 days since they had started the tower. They just needed a bit more wire to connect the tower to a CB radio they had found. Glenn and Daryl had agreed to look for some while they were on their run that day. Kat wanted to get the signal out as soon as possible, if they could get more military people, then they'd have a good chance of keeping this place around for a long time. Kat felt people were getting to careless, to comfortable, if anything went wrong… if someone died and turned in their sleep… things wouldn't end well. She was in charge of defense and she took that seriously. They had added more supports to the wall, at least two a week since it was built. Even a tank shouldn't be able to take it down quickly, well not quickly enough to truly hurt them. Add to that the sheer amount of spikes on the outer area of the wall, and no walker was getting even close. And it would take a person a while… the only clear way in was the gate, and they had a guard on that at all times, or almost all times. They had even added spikes surrounding the back of the prison, where they were planning to add another wall in a few months. They had kept the fences up, although the gates where almost always open now, only to be closed at night, or as a last defense if something went wrong. Kat had started trying to figure out a way to keep the wall from rotting, or burning.
Kat looks up from her sketch book, having been sketching Rick and Carl working in the farm, as the group on their run pull up outside the gate. She waves at them before climbing down and turning the lever letting them in. She sees the sad looks on their faces and sighs.
"Who'd we lose?" She asks walking over to Glenn as he climbs out.
"Zach." She shakes her head.
"Dammit… He was a good kid… What happened?"
"Bob got trapped under a shelf, while we were trying to get him out, the roof started caving in, walkers where falling through the holes in the roof on us… one of them got him as he helped get Bob out." Glenn explains.
"I'll tell Beth." Daryl says walking past them.
-Line Break-
Kat woke with a start to the clicking of a camera.
"Sorry." Glenn grins down at her as a picture prints out the side of his camera. Kat grins back.
"Where did you get a camera?"
"Run yesterday." She shakes her head.
"Time to change the guard?"
"Yeah, I'll bring you breakfast after perimeter check." He says moving to climb out of the guard tower. Kat snatches the picture.
"Oh god, this is horrible, we are throwing that away." Glenn takes it back with a smirk.
"Yeah, not gonna happen, it's mine." He opens the hatch. Kat leans over and kisses him. He grins and starts down the ladder out of the guard tower. She stands up putting on her weapons belt and moving to the edge to look out. She waves down to Rick, Carl, and Michonne. Kat watches Michonne start to leave, then turns hearing gunshots. Rick and Carl come running form the farm.
"Is it the Cell Blocks?" She yells to Rick.
"I don't know." He yells back running towards the prison. Carl runs to open the doors for Michonne to come back in. Michonne rides in, walkers following her. Kat rushes down to help, Carl grabs a gun and shots a few of them. Kat rushes to Michonne killing one that has her pinned to the ground. She helps Michonne, who has twisted her ankle, farther in, motioning Carl to close the gates. Kat and Carl slowly help Michonne up towards the cell blocks. Carl running forward to hug Rick when he sees him.
"Hey, you might want to stay back. Carl." Rick sighs hugging him back although not touching him with his dirty hands.
"Dad, I'm sorry. I didn't see you come out." Carl mutters into him.
"It's okay. I'm here. I'm fine. But back away." Rick kisses his head then pushes him back.
"I had to use one of the guns by the gate. I swear I didn't want to."
"I was coming back. I fell. They came out and helped me." Michonne explains.
"Are you all right?" Michonne nods.
"What happened in there?" Kat asks looking at him worriedly.
"Patrick got sick last night. It's some kind of flu. It moves fast. We think he died and attacked the cell block." He says then looks at Carl. "Look, I know he was your friend and I'm sorry. He was a good kid. We lost a lot of good people." He looks up at Kat. "Glenn is okay, but he was in there. You shouldn't get too close to anyone that might have been exposed, at least for a little while. Carl. All of you." Rick says. Kat nods as Carl rushes over helping get Michonne inside.
Kat helps Beth bandage Michonne's ankle then heads out to help bury the dead, she ties a cloth around her mouth before she does, and pulls on gloves. She goes over to Daryl, grabbing a shovel and getting digging.
"So what did you guys decide to do?" She asks.
"Quarantine, Karen and David are already there."
"Is anyone guarding them?"
"No, why would they be."
"Panic… two people already died from this… someone might panic, start taking out the sick… trying to stop the spread…" She explains. Daryl nods.
"I don't think any of our people would do that…" She shrugs.
"People do things you'd never expect them to do when they're scared."
"I trust our people…"
"So do I… but I've seen what happens when people panic because someone's sick… I watched it happen more than once in Iraq. Innocent people, kids, killed by soldier's who panicked when they came near them with a runny nose… I had to court martial more than one man for that." She says.
"Well Tyreese has been exposed, and he really likes Karen, we could put him in charge as a guard. Hell, he's so love struck, he'd volunteer." Kat laughs and nods.
"True." She digs for a while longer… "They gonna put people on antibiotics…?"
"If they think they need them why?"
"I was thinking, it might help stop the spread, have them dosed the minute they show symptoms."
"Tell Hershel that, it might work" She nods.
"Besides, we have that big stash from when I was sick… thank you for getting those by the way… I'm not sure if I ever thanked you."
"You have… a lot… it's getting annoying, so stop it." He laughs. She snickers.
-Line Break-
"What do you mean Karen and David are dead, the flu can't possibly move that quickly." Kat says looking between Rick, Carol, and Daryl.
"It didn't, it's like you worried, someone killed them… burned their bodies…" Daryl tells her.
"So much for our people not doing that." She sighs running a hand through her hair… "We have antibiotics… They could have lived, meaning whomever killed them… they're a murderer…" Kat says.
"We're moving the kids into isolation. You aren't infected, you should go to." Kat shakes her head.
"Not happening, I'll wear my mask and stay out here helping." She says. Rick sighs.
"Alright fine, but we keep the sick contained, no one goes in unless they absolutely have too…. No one needs to play hero… Sasha and Maggie are both already sick." Carol says.
"Okay… well, those of us who aren't, can bury the dead, and get supplies they need in the quarantine." Kat nods. They head off, Rick going to make sure Carl and Judith go into quarantine, Beth goes in with Judith. They make Hershel go as well. Kat walks up to her cell, looking for Glenn. She sees him leaning against their sink. "Glenn?" She starts in towards him. He holds out his hand to her.
"Don't… Don't come in."
"What's wrong?" She asks her heart sinking, realizing quickly what it must be.
"I have it." He looks over at her. She swallows.
"Then we need to get you down to Cell Block A, and get your antibiotics started." She says forcing her voice to stay steady. "I have my mask and gloves on, let me help you down there."
"No, I'll go myself… I don't want you sick." He stands up moving past her and towards Cell Block A. She follows him worriedly, making sure he makes it there okay. She sighs in relief when Dr. S helps him the rest of the way.
"You come talk to me, okay? When you can" She tells him through the glass. He nods to her. She sighs and goes out to help Rick and Carol.
-Line Break-
She leans against a wall outside the quarantine. The antibiotics where working… at least on most… some of the people were getting worse even with them, some had already died. It seems the virus just effected some worse than others. She smiles when Glenn comes up to the window with Hershel.
"Hey, how are you two doing?" She asks placing a hand on the glass. Glenn places his to hers.
"The antibiotics are working on Glenn wonderfully." Hershel says with a grin. "We had a bit of a scare there for a few moments when his fever spiked, but he's bouncing back quickly."
"Good. How's Maggie?" She asks worried for the girl who had become like a sister to her.
"She's fine, handling it well."
"And you? You're not feeling sick?" He shakes his head.
"No… Caleb isn't doing well though… I'm hoping he'll turn around after the meds are in his system for a bit, like Glenn did… I'll leave you two to talk." Hershel gives her a smile and heads off.
"You're really doing okay?" She asks him, worriedly biting her lip.
"I'm fine… we're all gonna stay in here a few more days, those of us getting better, make sure we don't spread it to you guys… but I think most of us are past the worst of it… not including people we lost when Patrick turned, we've only lost three, and only a few more are still dangerously sick." She nods and smiles at him…
"Good, some of us are going in to clean Cell Block D… we're gonna wear masks and gloves… that way when people get through this, they'll have somewhere to go." He nods.
"Just… be careful, please? I know it's been a few months… but you already nearly died from getting sick." She nods.
"I will be, besides if I'm not, I think Daryl will kill me before any illness could." She laughs, Glenn smiles at that.
"I love you…"
"I love you too… I gotta go…" She smiles at him one more time, before heading off to help clean the cell block.
-Line Break-
AN: I hope you all enjoyed. If you did please favorite. Follow to be notified when I update, and I'd love some reviews; just try to keep them civil and constructive please. Thanks everyone for reading.
Live Long and Prosper,
~Kat
