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Note: Back to the main story, but with many changes. Not a huge fan of Season Two.

Chapter Thirteen: Keep Your Eyes Open

I was one of the last off the roof that morning. We all followed Rick and Shane back into the house. We were under orders to get our stuff and whatever we thought would be useful. We were leaving my house as soon as we had everything together. My kitchen and pantry had already been raided on our stop here before we went into Atlanta, so all that we took from my house was some more clothes and some pillows and blankets. A lot of us had lost stuff in the CDC, even though Shane and I tried, we couldn't get everything.

I feel nothing as I climb back up the steps to my room. I push the door open and just stand and look at it. I know I'll never be here again.

When I ran out of here that first day I was in too much of a panic and rush to realize all I was loosing. But now, staring at the room that was filled with so many wonderful things; gifts from my mother, books from my father, pictures of all of us. My college diplomas were all hung on the wall in the hallway. The thought makes me smile. I still owed over ten thousand dollars in student loans. But that didn't matter anymore.

I walk over to my closet and pull off the sweat pants and pull on a pair of jeans. I grab all the clothes I know will come in handy, t-shirts and hoodies, winter would be here in just a few months, it was already getting cold out. I set the clothes out on my bed and I sit on the side before I open the drawer on my nightstand. I reach in and pull out the pistol Shane had given me for protection after Phillip had gotten off. I never had to use it, I had only shot it a few times, and that was just so Shane would get off my back. I grabbed the box of bullets and picked up all the items before I turned my back on my bedroom and walked back down the steps.

It was time to go. It was decided to leave some of the vehicles here and siphon the gas from them. Daryl's truck, T-Dogg's van, and Shane's jeep were soon stripped. This left limited seating. All the supplies were tied to the roof of Rick's car and the RV. As we walked across my front lawn I glanced over to my right and I stopped in my tracks. Ricky was laying in a puddle of blood, but what really tore at my heart was his chest was still moving. "Ricky!" I breathe out before I drop everything I was carrying and rushed over to him.

"Ricky." I say as I drop to my knees in front of him. I reach a hand out and gently pet the top of his head. My eyes fill up with tears as he slowly opens his brown eyes. His back is a mess, gashes and bites littler his once smooth and silky fur, his tail is gone, and he has several broken bones. I can't believe he is still alive, but I know it won't be for long. "Ricky, I'm so sorry boy. I'm so sorry." I lay down next to him and put my nose against his. It's dry and cracked, but he somehow finds the strength to let his tongue poke out and lick my face. "It's okay, I'm here now. I'm here Ricky baby." He lets out a whimper that I barely hear. He is fading fast.

I hear footsteps and Rick kneels down next to me. Rick gently scratches Ricky behind his ears. "He's suffering Kelly." I nod, but I can't move from him. I wasn't there to save him; at least I can be here when he dies. He didn't run because I was on the roof. I can't leave him either.

"I can't Rick. I can't leave him. Please don't make me. He won't be here much longer. Please?" I saw, turning to face him, tears falling down my face.

"He's suffering Kelly. Let me help him." He says, pulling his knife from his belt. I quickly turn my gaze from him. I know what he is going to do, right through the heart, instant and painless. Rick would hit it too, Ricky wasn't the first dog we have had to put down, and he defiantly wasn't the first animal.

I just nod and wrap my hands around Ricky's head. I keep saying his name, wanting him to keep his eyes only on me as Rick stands up. my doggie is already laying on his side, all Rick has to do is make his move. I see him from the corner of my eye aim the weapon and I keep my eyes glued on Ricky. I say his name over and over. "It's okay Ricky, you're gonna be okay soon. You wont hurt anymore. Look at me Ricky, look at me. It's okay." I see Rick raise the knife and in a single thrust the knife enters my dogs chest. Ricky's eyes widen for a very brief second before they, as well as his chest, still forever.

I pull him on my lap and I cry into his fur while I hear everyone start loading the supplies again. Rick gently takes the knife out and leaves me to help. After a few minutes I carefully lay my dog back on the ground. I just sit and rub his head. His lifeless eyes seem to be locked with mine, and I find myself unable to really look away.

A part of me feels stupid and selfish. Ricky was just a dog, Andrea had lost her sister, Glenn lost his family, so many people had lost actual people and I was falling apart because of a dog.

But the other part of me was heartbroken. Even though to some he was a dog, he was family to me. Ricky was the one who would great me everyday when I came home from work. He was the one I opened Christmas gifts with last Christmas. He was the one I took on trips to the park. Ricky was my family as much as Amy was to Andrea. And I had a right to grieve over my innocent dog.

I quickly wipe my eyes as I hear footsteps again. I look up and see Shane. I quickly snuffle and sit up straighter as he drops down beside me. I watch silently as he reaches his hand over and gently pulls Ricky's eyes closed. I look up at him as he reaches behind himself and pulls out a thick blanket. He just holds it out and waits. I stare at him for a few moments.

There were unresolved issues between Shane and I, but here he was, helping me when I couldn't find a way to. I take the blanket from him and he helps me gently wrap Ricky up then Shane helps me stand up. Rick comes over and wraps and arm around me as Shane bends down and picks Ricky up. I stand silently as Shane walks back up the steps and into the house. He is gone only a few seconds before he comes back, locking the door before pulling it shut. He walks over to me and hands me the spare key. "He's on the couch, under the window." Shane says, his voice sounding like the Shane I knew. Calm and even.

"His favorite spot." Rick says before giving me a squeeze and pulling me away from my house. I glance and Daryl who is sitting on his bike, but I follow Rick's motions and he leads me to the RV.

Since we ditched three cars I'm stuck in the RV with five other people. Dale and Glenn are in the two seats up front, Andrea is actually doing something; cleaning her gun, at least she's not sleeping or staring off into space. T-Dogg is asleep though, I can hear his snores through the thin RV walls. I'm on the couch sitting next to Shane.

"Here," Shane says handing me a wrap and two clips. Your ankle looks pretty swollen, and I think we left that boot."

"Could you wrap it for me? You know I've never been good at that." he just nods and slips on the floor. Shane has wrapped various injuries for me over the years, its one of the things he's better at than Rick. I glance down from time to time while he gently pulls the wrap around my ankle and foot. A few short moments later I hand him the clips and then he's done.

"Thank you." I say as he moves back on the couch.

"Anytime." The air between us is thick; I wonder if the others can tell, probably can. I give him a quick smile before turning back towards the front.

I know he isn't too happy, but we can't talk right now, something he also knows. How can I even talk about it when I can barley wrap my own thoughts around everything that's happened/ Logically, Shane and Lori's infidelity should be low on my list of priorities, but it wasn't. I had millions of thoughts zooming around in my head, thousands of what ifs and possible explanations.

I know I need my own answers, but Shane didn't betray me. He betrayed Rick, and in the worst possible way. Whatever happened with this situation was between Rick and Shane. I didn't have to follow my brother, so if he wanted to never talk to Shane I wouldn't have to do the same thing. I could talk to him if I wanted too. But would I? Would he even stick around? I had seen Shane run from unpleasant things before. When his mom passed away he acted like it was nothing for the longest time. Shane, despite his huge attitude and in-your-face personality, had deep, powerful emotions.

And I had seen what happens to him when his feelings get the better of him. a lot of us have, at least everyone who saw Ed after Shane beat him up at the river.

"Where are we going?" I ask, looking up at Shane.

"I don't know. Right now we're just getting away from the city. That huge blast will draw every walker within ear-shot to the building site." He says, looking out the window at Rick's car.

"I wish we could find a safe place. I just want to stay in one place."

"So do I." Shane says.

"So do we all." Dale adds.

"Dale, what is with your hat? I've always wanted to ask you about it?"

"Why?"

"Men have odd bonds with their hats. Rick had his that in High School that no one, not even our mom, could touch. Or he would fly off the roof."

"That was Rick's lucky hat. He wore it every baseball season." Shane says, sounding hurt that I was talking bad about Rick's old hat.

"Of course you would defend it, you had one that you did the same thing too, you even named yours." I say with a smile that has Glenn laughing loudly in the front seat.

"You named your hat, man?" Glenn asks.

"No!" Shane insists.

"He named it Geronimo." I say with a smile.

The RV is soon filled with laughter. But it doesn't last.

Nothing good lasts in this life.

"Ah, jeeze." Says Dale from the front seat. I turn around and look and I see a barricade of cars and trucks. The RV stops and we wait until the loud rumble of Daryl's motorcycle cuts through the air. Daryl pulls up besides and Dale asks him there is a way through, and soon we're following him through the wasteland of cars and probably a few bodies.

The air is tense as we slowly make our way around car after car and truck after truck. We don't make it more than a few feet before the RV started to make strange noises. I got up and moved closer to Dale.

"What's wrong?"

"I think the hose again. The one they got from your house was too small." Dale says, trying to get as much ground behind us as he could before smoke erupted from the hood. He let out a sigh and stopped the RV, bringing us all to a stop in the middle of a huge disserted highway.

I stood up and went to the back to wake up T-Dogg. Then I followed the rest of the people off the bus. Carl made his way over to me and pulled on my hand. "Aunt Kelly, dad said he would take Sophia and I to the Grand Canyon some day!"

"That's great buddy. You ruined their first try to go there." I say laughing. I remember Rick driving up to my house and handing me Carl. He said he and Lori would be back that evening to get him. I had no idea what was wrong because he was an angel the whole time I had him after they left.

Carl soon left me to find Sophia and I just stood leaning against the RV. Daryl walked over from the front and he leaned against the RV beside me. "That belt went bad again. Rick wants us to scavenge the cars for stuff." He says, staring out at the woods that lay just beyond the highway.

"There are a lot of cars and trucks, surly they can find something."

"Wanna help me look? The kids will get these close cars." I nod and we both push-off the RV and walk towards the cars at the back. We split up, but I can see him out of the corner of my eye. I go up to a red ford and I open the front door and pop the trunk open.

I search though the red car, I find some medicine and some half full bottles of water. I set them all on the hood of the red car before I move on down the line. a blue car, white car, another red car, on and on. Soon I have a nice little pile. Daryl has done good himself, finding a toolbox and a bunch of food. I move to the next car and open the door, nearly jumping out of my skin when a low growl comes from the backseat. I turn my head and see a baby. The baby has a huge bite where its arm used to be. I can tell by what remains of the clothes that it's a boy. A little baby boy, turned walker is stuck in a car seat.

I back out of the car and turn to Daryl. "Do you have your knife?" He pulls it out and walks over to me. I point to the backseat and I see him shoulders slump. He motions me to stand back and I move away. He opens the back door, I can hear the sounds of the baby grow louder and louder as Daryl gets his attention. Then Daryl stabs his knife in the baby's head and the growls end.

I turn from the car as he pulls the knife from the baby's head. I hear Daryl put his knife away before he comes up behind me. "You okay?" I nod but he doesn't buy it. "Hey, it's okay." Daryl says, squeezing my shoulder.

"I've never seen one that little. Hell, I've never even see a child walker."

"Yea, I haven't seen too many of them either."

"Why is that? Why do you think we always see adults and not kids?"

"When this hit, Merle and I were at home, we lived in this tiny trailer park, kids everywhere. Well, when it hit, a lot of the adults went after their kids. Easy prey. If the momma turns, little junior isn't gonna know to stay away."

"Guess that makes sense. But it's still horrible."

"Better than changing into a monster."

The sounds of laughter catch my ears and I look back towards the RV. Sophia and Carl are playing around with a ball they found. I look at Carl; his dark brown hair seems to stick to his forehead. Then I look at Sophia, the sweetest little girl I had ever met. They were both so innocent and a thousand times more precious in this world. I don't know what I would do if I lost one of them, my nephew and his best friend were all the children we had. They were our future. Carl throws the ball and it accidentally bounces off a hood of a car and into the woods. I see their smiles fade before Sophia playfully shoves Carl before they start looking in the cars again.

I leave Daryl to his scavenging and I walk over to the kids. "Hey, why don't we find you guys some stuff to keep you occupied on the trip?"

"Sounds good, I was kinda bored." Carl says, grabbing my hand and leading me to towards the front of the RV.

"Did he tell you his parents were gonna take us to the Grand Canyon?" Sophia asks as we stop in front of a white Taurus.

"He did. I hope you all get to go soon."

"Have you ever been Miss Kelly?" Sophia asks.

"Yep, a long time ago, the same year I graduated college. I went with a friend." I let go of Carl's hand and pop the truck. "Here bud, you go through this one and Sophia and I will go through that black one." I say, pointing to the car next to the white one.

"If you find any cards would you play Go Fish with me?"

"Sure I would. I played that game with Carl all the time."

"He's really good. I never beat him once at the CDC." I popped the trunk on this car and smiled when I saw pink princess suitcase, that meant there might be things for Sophia in this car. We open the case and I smile when I see a tiny jewelry box. I open it, all that it has in it are some hand-made necklaces and some rings that kids get on the top of cupcakes, but at the bottom was a little charm bracelet with some tiny heart charms. I picked it up and held it out for Sophia.

"Here baby, do you like this?" Sophia looks at it and her face lights up. she reaches her hand out to touch it, almost like she is afraid it will disappear.

"Daddy never let me wear stuff like this. It's pretty."

"You should have it." I say, she looks up at me, surprised. I smile down at her. "Every girl should have nice things." I unhook it and place it around her wrist. It's a little too big, big she'll grow into it.

"…get down!" I turn and see Rick running along the cars, I caught a glimpse of Lori ducking under a car. "Carl, Sophia. Kelly! Get the kids down!" He says before tucking under a near by truck. Carl is already under and I gently nudge Sophia under the car.

I wrap my arm around her as my eyes frantically check the surroundings. I don't see anything, but just like before, I can hear and smell them. They sound bigger than the group that went by my house. Sophia is shaking and I pull her closer. Carl is to out left, Rick beyond him. I look down and see Lori, who has her hand wrapped tight around Carol who is shaking and fighting tears. I know she is worried about Sophia. But I mouth "I have her" to Carol, but that doesn't calm the woman's fears, and I understand fully. Carl is alone under his car.

They were getting closer. The smell was overwhelming my senses, but their footsteps made my heart pound and I prayed that they would pass and leave us be. I took a deep breath and held a shaking Sophia closer when I saw a muddy and tattered shoe make its way into my eye sight. There were so many footsteps. I looked up and saw Shane and Glenn. Where were T-Dogg and Dale? Or Daryl?

No, Daryl. He was at the back of the RV the last I saw him. He would have seen the horde, he was fine. Daryl didn't miss anything, and he wouldn't miss this. I knew he was safe, but I would feel better if I could just see him. I wanted him here, beside me. Carl kept solid eye contact with Rick. They were one after the other now. No breaks between wondering walkers. I saw some with no shoes, others with just one. Blood leaked from some and others had been bit on the leg.

I prayed there wasn't a crawler in this group. It would see us.

I closed my eyes and took slow breaths through my nose. I needed to calm down. I was letting my fears run away from me. Rick wouldn't let anything happen to me. Daryl wouldn't either. And Shane and I made some leeway on the trip here. I had three people who would help me. I would be fine. And so would everyone else.

The smell made breathing through my nose almost impossible, but they made almost no sound. Usually they made growling sounds or gurgling, but they were silent. This made me open my eyes.

There were no shoes. No footsteps. They were gone. But we needed to stay hidden a little bit longer. There could be stragglers. I locked eyes with Rick, but he was glancing around, obviously trying to see if we could get up. Sophia moved from me and before I could stop her she moved out from under the car.

Her tiny scream filled my heart with terror, but the walker that flopped on the ground next to us made me grab her and pull her out the other side. It was chasing us and by the time I got her out another one came from behind the car. I grabbed Sophia's hand and I ran off into the woods. Calling Rick's name as I ran. Sophia was trying her hardest to keep up with me; and the two walkers were in close pursuit.