Rick sighed. He and Lori had always had problems communicating, but recently it had gotten worse.
He remembered, vaguely, Lori sitting by his bed in the hospital, holding his hand and saying all sorts of strange things. That he wasn't really a police officer, just a member of the local neighborhood watch. That he had no business being in that shootout. That he would have been in a lot of trouble if it weren't for Shane persuading the authorities not to prosecute him.
He remembered her raising her voice, and telling him to listen to her, that the doctors said he was conscious and that he had just asked the nurse what was for lunch. He wondered sadly why she was so very angry. Lunch was important, after all.
More memories came back to him, hazily. She was trying to get him to leave with her and Carl. Something about the dead coming back to life and that she would be hiding out in the mountains where they always camped, about a mile from their house.
He remembered Shane coming in, later, and trying to get him to leave. He liked Shane. He was a good friend. When Shane put his head to Rick's chest, Rick held his breath so he could say, "Boo!" and scare his buddy. But then Rick noticed a shiny object in the corner of the room and became distracted, so he forgot to scare Shane. He comforted himself that at least when he found them in the mountains, that Shane definitely looked frightened.