For the first time in a long while, Michonne felt light. Light in spirit, light in mind.
Light in life.
Those heavy clouds of dread and hopelessness she'd been carrying around suddenly disappeared. She could actually feel her face smiling.
Her euphoria was such that she noticed the rich western wheat color of the kitchen walls.
"I really hate the color of these walls", she giggles.
In her observation, she spots a polaroid picture on refrigerator so she walks over to take a look at it.
Briefly eyeing a school announcement then plucks the polaroid from the frig.
It's a picture of Shyanna, Nina and Wynonna laughing, below the picture someone wrote "Nina's 12th birthday."
Michonne smiles warmly at the picture putting it back on the frig.
She's not really hungry after finding out the news but, she opens the frig anyway.
Pushing through what was inside, Michonne reminisces over every detail she could recall of her and Rick together earlier. The smell of his skin close to hers, or the distant echo of, "Angel", he whispered in her ear as he undressed her on the dresser in Wynona's guest bedroom.
But once Wynona confirms that Rick knew she was there, that they had actually spoken directly to one another, Michonne feels like she hit the lottery. Back when hitting the lottery meant something.
However, everything from the kitchen to the living room felt surreal, given to past periods of sanity because that's exactly what they were, periods.
Still in her reverie, she floats through the living room towards the light coming from the patio, she turns on the television in passing, paying very little attention to the words coming from it.
With her new extreme dose of confidence, she peacefully gazes in to the back yard.
The view's quiet and serene, every blade of grass glistens as the sun peaks through the center of circling storm clouds.
If she ever had to describe what an out of body experience felt like, she would describe this exact moment.
After reassuring herself that everything was ok, she notices storm clouds quickly patching of the hole of from which the sun was shining.
Michonne closes her eyes placing her hands on the patio glass.
The coolness of the glass on her hands shocks her body as she fights off the feelings of dread.
When she opens her eyes, specks of rain drops begin to sprinkle on the window.
The soft chatter coming from the television echoes at first then it grows louder and clearer.
"…All I know is everyone in the school auditorium was having a great time setting up for the event. Then we heard a loud boom that sounded like thunder then the lights flicker out. When they came back on all I could hear was the sound of rapid gun shots coming from the corner of auditorium and people screaming and scrambling everywhere…"
Michonne shakes her head while listening to the television. A lump starts growing in throat as her euphoric state comes crashing down,
"Not…again", she tearfully whispers, "...Don't let this be happening again".
She wipes her nose and eyes with her sleeve then dashes for the coat closet looking for weapons of any kind.
She's tossing everything around in the closet but only finds cartons of bullets. No guns.
Fear begins to grip her chest as tears flow to the point of blurring her vision.
"Noooo", she cries aloud, she stands up straight and scans the entire closet.
She finally looks behind the closet door seeing her the sword from pawn shop leaning against the wall and her knapsack on the floor.
The last time she laid eyes upon both items she was about to leave the Harjo ranch forever, but was convinced to stay on the promise that she would see Carl once more.
She rushes over and checks the knapsack for the gun she took off Rick earlier.
After seeing the gun she pulls it out, checks to make sure it's loaded then looks to see if she took any clips off Rick as well.
"Breaking news just in chaos has taken over the local casino as looters come in looking for any cash they can get their hands on. Shots have been heard inside the casino as well as in the parking garage. Most of the police force are over at…"
The voices in Michonne's head start drowning out the television.
"No, no, no…she did say that. Nonie said that that they were here. The both of them are here I just gotta go find them", she reasons aloud.
Michonne rushes out the closet and places her sword and knapsack on the table.
She looks out the front window to see Wynona's silver Dodge Charger was still outside.
In a full blown state of panic Michonne starts looking for car keys everywhere. She looks in the coat closet again, throwing stuff in to the hallway this time. She rips out kitchen drawers trying to locate the keys all the while in her head she's hearing, "You did this to yourself. You got too greedy. You know the minute you wanted to see Carl that this would happen, just like last time."
In of moment of hysterics she bends over and screams, "Shut up and find the fucking keys, Michonne! Find the god damn keys!"
She looks through everything on the kitchen floor, still no keys.
Michonne begins to eye her knapsack as she feels a brief moment of relief as she clings to thought of how to end all her suffering.
Within seconds of her moment of calm, she glances along the western wheat colored walls and spots a wooden key rack next to the front door with one set of keys on it.
In a whirlwind, she grabs her knapsack, katana, the school announcement off the frig and the keys all the while telling herself, "I can make it there, I can make it there."
Carl shields the light coming from his phone with his hands as he checks to see if his father has texted a message to him.
Nina sits on the floor with her knees pulled in to her chest. She watches Carl as he checks his phone, "Anything yet?"
He locks the phone back up, "No."
He walks over to the closet door and peeps through one of the bullet holes, all he sees are partially eaten bodies sprawled in a pools of blood on the floor.
His stomach becomes queasy at the site.
An exchange of gunfire can be heard coming from the hallway, Carl alerts Nina to get behind him.
The gunshots bellow from the hallway as someone burst in to the nurse's office.
They hear someone slam the door shut.
Carl looks through a previous bullet hole and sees it's the army guy he saw earlier.
He watches as the guy removes his gun strap from his shoulders then he release the gun clip to see how many shots he has left.
Carl motions to Stacey sitting in a class room chair to quietly get up.
He softly walks over and grabs the chair by the leg then motions for her to stand behind Nina by the door.
Nina spots some crutches in the corner, she quietly grabs them both then hands one to Stacey.
Carl's phone vibrates, it's a text from his father,
"If you go up against any of the sick, stab them in the head or beat their heads in. Just don't let them bite you. Love you son. Stay safe until someone can get you out of there."
The guy in the office also hears the phone vibrate. He starts turning the door knob to the closet but stops when he hears the police trying to break the office door down.
By the time he picks up his gun the police bust in and a barrage of gunfire is exchanged in the small office.
Stacey begins screaming hysterically while Nina leans her head on Carl's back trying not to lose her shit while he quickly turns around to cover Stacey's screaming with his hand.
The gun firing dies down and all they can hear are cries and moans coming from the wounded or dying lying on the floor on the other side of the supply closet door.
"We got him…", someone yells, "…but we have officers down!"
A number of rushed footsteps can be heard coming up the hallway, "Come on let's go! There's too many of them. We can't hold off them off, the dead are coming!"
"But Williamson and Coates are down" the person in the doorway yells.
"We gotta get going, we've got orders to plug the school up to stop the dead from getting out."
Carl, Nina and Stacey hear the person in the door way running away from the office.
The Hercules begins its landing approach on the Escambia football field.
"Alright reports says that there are hostiles all over this campus, we're going in to the school. Save who you can when you can. Please be advised, you will see students that are sick or dead. And when I mean dead I mean undead so stay alert. And remember my order, I want Carter alive if you see her."
Shane stands next to the platoon Sergeant as guardsmen flush out the plane.
The Sergeant looks to Special Agents Walsh and Paul, "Hopefully, we can get most of this done before the rest of that storm gets here", he yells over the noise of the Hercules.
"A little rain never stops a real soldier maybe a national guardsmen but never a real soldier", Shane replies just as loud, He looks over at Gareth, "You ready?"
Gareth nods his head yes.
"Then let's do this."