Final chapter of Part 2! I'm happy to say that there will definitely be a Part 3, so expect that sometime to start within the next two weeks. Leave reviews or message me ideas or suggestions ya'll have, and I just might include them in Part 3, which I have decided to name Just A Little Luck. Stay classy. ~TheChuckles
ALEX'S POV
Everything was going smooth until we got to the hospital.
We left the building around dusk when most of the walkers had cleared out. We managed to get the red truck started, once all the walkers were done eating Beth's corpse and had moved on. The truck barely ran, but we managed to limp to the hospital relatively quickly. However, a few stray walkers decided to show up when we were walking through the parking lot, where we are now.
"God damn!" Daryl yells, killing one of the walkers with a well placed jab with his hunting knife. I use a pipe as a impromptu crutch, my pistol held securely in my other hand. Ashley walks up to one of the dead scumbags and promptly spits his skull down the middle with her axe. Holy crap, did that just happen?
"Back to the truck!" Daryl commands, helping me hop into the truck bed. I can't help but think of how Beth's body was in here less than an hour ago. Ashley climbs up by herself, swinging her axe wildly at a walker closing in on her. She gets part of its face, but most of her swing hits the driver's side window. Once we're all safely on the truck, I take note of our situation.
We're probably twenty or so feet away from the front doors to the hospital, but they're locked from the inside. Daryl and Ashley perhaps could make the run without trouble, but not with me in tow.
"We need to get their attention." Ashley notes, pointing towards the windows a couple levels up. I can make out somebody walking by without even taking note of us. They probably can't hear us from here.
"Hey you, fuckers!" Daryl screams, but nobody seems to notice.
I throw my pipe-crutch down, leaning on the cab. I aim my pistol at the window using both hands, careful to wait just until somebody passes to fire. My shot shatters the glass, but doesn't kill the officer that was walking by. They peer out the window a split second later, gun drawn and ready for battle.
"Wanna help here, Officer Shepard?" Daryl yells up to the officer, apparently named Shepard.
"What are you people doing back here?" She asks.
"Asking for help!" I yell.
It takes her a long moment, but finally she nods. "I'll be right down! Have your weapons down when I get there, or I leave you to the roamers." She disappears from view. I put my pistol inside the pocket of my Badgers hoodie. I really need to get one of those damn gun holsters, for real. Daryl sheaths his hunting knife, but keeps his crossbow slung around his back. Ashley sets her axe on top of the cab.
I see movement behind the glass doors. Officer Shepard comes out, along with another mean looking officer. Armed with nightsticks, they charge the walkers surrounding us. Being cops and all, they're pretty skilled. The walkers fall quickly. Daryl audibly groans.
"Great to see you, Officer Licari." I guess he's talking to the mean looking officer. He's huge, at least 6 feet tall with a bald head and really tan skin. His menacing glare doesn't make him look anymore friendly. Thick bandages are wrapped around one of his hands.
"Here to make another trade? Who we got from your group this time?" Licari sneers.
"Man, just drop it. You help people here, right? Then help us." Daryl says plainly.
"Where's the rest of your group? I don't recognize these two." Shepard asks, nodding to Ashley and I.
"They're friends. We got caught in a huge crowd of walkers, and we need a place to crash for the night and a car."
"And can you please look at my brother's ankle? It's been bothering him for days now." Ashley puts in, using her sweet charming voice and innocent appearance to her advantage. Smart.
Officer Shepard mulls Daryl's words over for what seems like hours. Finally, she reaches a conclusion.
"If you surrender your weapons, I'll allow you to stay for one night. We'll have Dr. Edwards patch all of you up, and send you on your way tomorrow morning. We'll even help you hijack a car. Sound fair?"
"Linda-" Licari starts, but Officer Shepard, or Linda, silences him with a stern look.
"Yeah, I guess so." Daryl says. "But, if you try and pull the same shit you pulled with Beth, i'll kill every last one of you."
"Unless we kill you first." Licari comments.
"Dammit Licari, that's enough!" Linda snaps. "Fine. Hand over your weapons." I hand over my pistol along with my constantly depleting box of ammo. Ashley hands Linda her axe, while Daryl takes great care in handing his crossbow and knife to Licari.
"Let's roll." Linda helps me down to the ground, letting me sling one arm around her shoulder. Licari and Daryl walk close together, silent but tense. Ashley walks in the middle. We enter the hospital and ascend the stairs slowly. Once we reach the top, Linda places me in a wheelchair.
"I'll show you to your rooms." She says, dismissing Officer Licari. He storms down the hallway and out of view. We travel down the main hallway before breaking off onto one of the smaller ones. Linda pushes open a door on her left.
"You two can stay here, unless you want separate rooms."
"It'll do." Daryl says, leading my sister inside. "Where you taking him?"
"I'm gonna have Dr. Edwards look at him. See what he can do." Daryl nods.
"Thank you." He says, looking Officer Linda in the eyes. I can tell he really means it by the way his voice gets all serious.
"Well, it's just a little something I can do to show we mean no harm towards your group. Dawn was the one who always wanted to bring people in. I don't know why." Wordlessly, Daryl closes the door, not rudely, but not in a kind matter either.
Linda pushes me down to Dr. Edwards' office and he looks at my ankle. He looks like the type of person that lives in their mom's basement, but they say he's a doctor. I explain to him the whole Terminus thing, and afterwards I tune out as he babbles medical terminology. He removes my shoe and rolls up my pant leg to reveal my red and swollen ankle. He says it'll heal, but he's still going to put a cast on it.
Dr. Edwards discovers that he doesn't have any material for a cast, and instead he fits me with one of those bulky medical boots. The inside is well padded, much more comfortable than my shoe. Edwards tells me that I can stand on my own with the boot on, but I don't believe him at first. With his help, I stand on my own two feet, completely unassisted for the time since before Terminus. I can't help but smiling.
"Thank you." I say to him, limping freely about the room on my own. It might have only been 4 or 5 days since I got shot, but it seems like I haven't had use of my leg in ages. Dr. Edwards sheepishly nods and hands me my shoe. "You'll want to wear that for a few weeks, so you can get used to walking again."
"You don't know how much this means to me. Thank you." I say again, shaking his hand. I exit the room by myself. I walk down the hallway, by myself. When I get to the room where Daryl and Ashley are staying, they look at me like i'm an alien. The smile on my face is threatening to split my skull in half, but it just feels so good.
The rest of the day we spend in our room, looking out the window or trading miniscule small talk. One of the orderlies brings us dinner, which consists of 3 bowls of soup with bread and water.
"Thanks." Daryl says with a half smile. The woman smiles back. She's halfway out the door when I see her hesitate. My mind immediately goes to all the bad things that could come out of this situation, but she just turns around to face Daryl again.
"Hey, um...is that deal still on the table? Like, I mean, can I go with you guys?" She mumbles, playing with the hem of her hospital shirt. I study her in more detail than before. She looks to be in her 30's, but the curly brown locks covering her face could be hiding her age.
"I guess, but I need to ask you a few questions first. Close that door." Daryl says. The woman complies, looking down the hallway before quietly shutting and locking the door.
"How many walkers have you killed?"
The next day, Linda and an Officer Lambson give us the keys to one of the cop cars, along with supplies sufficient for the four of us for at least a week. Daryl and Joan, the woman from yesterday sit in the front, while Ashley and I sit in the back. Linda tells us that if we're welcome anytime. Daryl thanks her again and we take off.
Most of the walkers have cleared out of the city, making it an easy drive through. We come to an abrupt stop, however, when we see a familiar red firetruck barreling down the street towards us.
"Oh my god that's them!" I yell, breaking the silence. Daryl slams on the brakes. The firetruck comes to a stop. The hinges on the door are rusty, but I finally manage to get it open. As soon as I fully make it out of the car, i'm tackled to the ground in a hug by somebody I can't see. It doesn't matter though, because I know it's a friend.
"Don't you ever leave me again you son of a bitch." Elijah sobs, turning me over so we're face to face. Tears are in his eyes, but he's smiling. Relief floods into my veins like a drug, and suddenly i'm overjoyed. Finally, after all the let downs and disappointments and deaths, something good happens. About damn time. I don't care if it's just by dumb luck or some miracle of god. Who needs luck anyways?
Elijah helps me up, letting me use him as a crutch. He hasn't noticed, I think slyly. Without warning, I push him away, standing on my own. At first, he rushes over to catch me, but I don't fall. His reaction leaves me in tears.
"I'm glad for your concern-" I start, laughing in between words.
"Shut up." He says, faking a pouty face. Behind him, Daryl, Carol, Rick and Michonne are all in a group hug. I can hear somebody crying. Eugene the liar is standing off to the side, looking sad and pathetic, but I don't let it affect my mood.
Carl and Ashley wander over to us. Hugs are exchanged. Everybody in the group joins together in a small clump, awaiting Rick's words. I scan the small crowd, but I don't see Connor or Kat. Judith is in Rick's arms, content for once. Rick dawns a new brown shirt, adding to the dark color palette he has going with his black hair and grey beard.
"It looks like we're all that's left." As soon as Rick finishes that sentence I disagree with him.
"The others have to be out there. Kat and Abraham, Michonne, Tara, my brother. They're alive somewhere." I say. Rick nods in my direction.
"They could be. Probably are. It really is a miracle that we've found each other so quickly, but this is no time for celebration. We're still separated from the rest of us. We know that Abraham, Michonne, Kat, Tara, Rosita, Father Gabriel and Alex's brother took off in a minivan. Glenn, Maggie, Tyreese, Noah and Caroline left in a blue Lincoln. Three of us are dead, and we haven't had any time to mourn. We ran into a horde just last hour, and it's heading this way. It's bigger than the one we encountered yesterday. We have no choice but to leave the city from the south, and work our way north towards the church."
"Are you sure they'll be there? It could take us days to get there. We might be too late." Daryl asks.
Rick replies, "It's a chance we have to take. I don't know if anybody will be there, but we have to try. It's all we have to go on."
"What if they're going for D.C?" Carol asks Rick.
"Carol, we've been over this-"
"No, Rick, we haven't. You said go north towards the church, but do you think they really got all of that? If anybody is actually heading north, there's a possibility they'll make for Washington. I know there's not a cure there," Almost everybody glances at Eugene. "but it does make sense. If there's any small trace of society left, it has to be there. Rick, it just has to be."
"We should vote." Joan interjects.
"What?" Rick asks, "Do I know you?"
"She's with us." Daryl says. "She wanted out of the hospital. Her name's Joan."
"Well, Joan, what do you propose we vote on?"
Joan stutters. "I don't know...where are we going? This church of yours, or to Washington, or somewhere else.
"What do you think? Where should we go?" Rick's sudden hostility towards Joan is uncalled for, in my opinion. I remain silent, though.
"I don't know...somewhere..." The beginnings of a deep blush appear on Joan's face.
"Ah, I see." Rick comments.
"She has a point." I speak up. "We should vote on where we go next. Do we try for the church, or do we cut our losses and head for D.C? Or do we search for the rest of us?" By us, I really mean Connor. Yes, everybody else in the group is important to me, but I freaking need to find my goddamn brother before he gets himself killed out here.
"Let's do that then. All in favor of going back to the church raise your hands." Rick alone raises his hand. "All in favor of trying for D.C raise your hands." Carol and Eugene are the only ones whose hands raise.
"Well, it's settled. We look for everybody else. We'll start looking near the church and around the Terminus compound, in case anybody is holing up there. After that, we head north. Agreed?"
Everybody mumbles an agreement, and we diverge into the two vehicles available to us. Daryl, Carol, Elijah, Ashley and myself take the police cruiser, while Rick, Carl, Judith, Joan and Eugene take the firetruck. We have a tough road in front of us, i'll admit. For the millionth time it seems, we're separated and scattered all over the place. We've lost so many, but we've gained so many more allies. I don't know where my brother is, and I don't even know where to begin looking, but oddly enough, I have a lurking sense of optimism.
We'll find them, I think to myself as we leave Atlanta behind. I think of it as a giant, deadly game of hide and go seek. We've dealt with so much worse anyways. Governors, thugs, fires, cannibals, liars, and egomaniacs. What's next?
We don't need luck, the people in our way do.