A lack of control was something that Negan wasn't used to. In fact there was nothing that made him more uneasy. He felt like he could take down an army if he needed to, though uncertainty and no one providing him with the information he needed to properly evaluate a situation created an anxious vibe that wouldn't go away.
Lucille's condition had worsened by the day and it made him feel all the more helpless as she laid there in a semi-conscious state in the hospital bed.
"Hold it together," she said quietly, picking up on Negan's extensive fidgeting, pacing and wandering around the room. "You're going to have to adjust to me being gone. It'll be easier if you come to terms with it now."
Negan made his way back to her bedside and grabbed her hand gently. "You're going to fucking beat this, okay? Stop all this God damn negative thinking. You're like a health ninja who's going to broadsword the fuck out of this cancer. You're going to-
"You're off your game," Lucille told him with the smallest of smirks, "Ninjas don't use broadswords."
"I feel like I did this shit," he went on, "It's my fault. I'm a fucking piece of shit, Lucille and I'm sorry."
She closed her eyes and let out a breath. "Natural selection, Negan. It's the way of the world."
Negan shook his head and watched as she drifted off to sleep. There was nothing he could say or do to better the situation and it was slowly killing him. On the same note he was worried about Nicole - worried about her safety, her ability to defend herself and the simple fact that she was alone.
Around the hospital police forces increased and it was the military men guarding the entryway that made Negan the most uneasy. Whatever was happening around them was nothing insignificant. From what he had seen on the news stations it appeared that something was spreading toward their small portion of the country from the bigger cities around them. Schools had been shut down in the area until further notice, businesses were forced to close temporarily and the curfews that had been set to keep people inside were unlike any precautions he had ever heard of.
Negan's phone buzzed in the pocket of his jeans and he glanced at Lucille for a moment before reading the text message from Nicole.
...
"I'm in your house now. I'll text you when I leave." Nicole whispered the words to herself and immediately saw the three-dot indicator that Negan was typing back. When he immediately responded the words,Be safe! she managed the faintest of smiles before making her way into the spare bedroom.
For a moment she stopped and stared around the empty room, ignoring all of the negative emotions and feelings that stemmed from whatever was going on in the world outside. Nicole made her way to the bed and laid down on the side she had slept on the two nights she had shared with Negan. Her eyes closed and she allowed herself to indulge in her imagination; her deepest desires. In a perfect world for Nicole she would wake up next to Negan every morning after a cozy night in bed together. She would make them both breakfast as he showered and got ready for the day before taking her turn. He would go off to work and coach football; she would be out on the streets of one of the local towns nearby keeping it safe while sporting the fancy blue outfit and badge she would have earned upon graduating from the police academy. All of it felt too good to be true - and she knew that it was.
Still, in the moment she made it last, despite knowing the rug would be pulled out from under her the second she opened her eyes and found herself laying in the room alone with nothing but swirls of doubt and potential danger all around her.
Nicole finally let her eyes flicker open and she swallowed hard, remembering Negan's words and how he needed her to get back to her home safely. She sat up, reluctantly getting off of the bed and made her way to the dresser to search for the key that would open the gun safe. It was right there, out in the open, as he had stated, and Nicole quickly made her way into the closet, discovering the tall, metal safe screwed into the hardwood floor beneath a collection of hanging shirts and pants.
She let out a deep breath, noting that what she was about to do was against the law. Nicole knew the state laws like the back of her hand. Taking Negan's gun from his house, with his permission or not, was a felony. The gun was not registered to her and therefore Nicole had no right being in possession of it. Still, she was aware that something terrible was truly taking place and if she needed to defend herself there were no viable options at her own home.
Without another thought she reached in and removed the weapon she could conceal the easiest - the handgun and then retrieved a box of bullets that matched the proper ammunition to make the gun function.
"Fuck it." Nicole tucked the gun into the band of her pants, closed the safe back up, locked it and replaced the key where she had found it. She felt her adrenaline kick up a notch now as she crossed back through the doorway into the hall. For her own sake, Nicole took one last look at the empty bedroom before finally making her way toward the kitchen and out the back door, locking it up again and replacing the key where she'd found it.
For the first time, Nicole felt paranoia when leaving Negan's house. Would someone in one of the houses nearby see her? What would they think? Would they call the police? The law-abiding citizen in her knew she had something very wrong in the eyes of the law, and if everything that was going on were to blow over she could be in serious trouble for possessing the gun. It would completely destroy her chances at getting a job in any legal field for the rest of her life.
Stop it! Nicole scolded herself and shook her head, noting that she was most likely the last of peoples' worries. She was on nobody's radar and there hadn't even been a noticeable police presence on her street. It was like there was a bubble over that one spot that left their tiny corner of the town untouched.
Nicole wanted to run back to the house but she knew that would make her appear all the more suspicious and so she walked casually, making her way back into her yard and entering her home through the back door as she had come.
She reached down for her phone and was about to text Negan but her parents' name illuminated the screen as an incoming phone call.
"Hey." Nicole picked up on the first ring.
"Hey, honey. Is everything okay up there? Are you okay?" Her mother's voice was calm, though undertones of mild concern highlighted her voice.
She fiddled with the handle of the gun on her hip and then closed and locked the back door. "I don't know," Nicole admitted, "We just got issued a county-wide curfew. Holly said she hasn't been able to leave her street and downtown is closed off... so is the hospital."
"Our flight for next Monday already has been delayed," she explained, "If worse comes to worse we can rent a car and make it back by the middle of next week."
"How come your flight was delayed?"
"We keep getting the run-around. Your father is getting agitated. They haven't been able to tell us anything concrete."
"Do you have a curfew set in down there?"
"No," she informed her, "But schools are closed."
"Yeah, here too." Nicole let out a breath, "Could this be a terror attack or something? If it's affecting the whole east coast it has to be bad."
"If you need to, go to Uncle Frank's house. I know he's an hour away but just get in the car and go there."
"Okay," she agreed. "I will." When her mother let out a nervous sigh Nicole went on, "I'm fine, Mom. Really. If I become a cop I'll be right in the middle of all this kind of stuff."
"That doesn't make me feel any better," she said with a light laugh.
Nicole smiled to herself. "You raised a tough woman. I'm fine. Holly isn't far and if there's a real emergency I'll make my way there... or to Steve's or to one of the girls' houses. Okay?"
"Okay," her mother agreed, "Please keep in touch so I know you're alright."
"Yeah, you do the same." Nicole pulled down at one of the blinds that hung against the window on the door and glanced out into the back yard.
"I love you, honey."
"I love you too." She swallowed hard, keeping the phone at ear as she squinted, staring outward without blinking. When her mother hung up the phone, Nicole placed it on the counter and focused on a figure that slowly made its way from the collection of trees at the far end of the yard toward her house.
What the fuck... Her face grew hot as her heart rate climbed and Nicole kept her hand secured on the handle of the gun. She swallowed hard, watching as the figure stumbled, falling once to the ground before pressing on through the grass in a type of army-crawl.
Nicole didn't know what to do, or who the person was. It appeared as if they were injured, or possibly needed help though she wasn't quite ready to take the march outside to play the hero.
When her phone went off she jumped and held the center of her chest, though snatched her phone from the counter when she saw it was Negan asking of her whereabouts.
Nicole's thumbs typed furiously against the glass screen:I just made it home. I took the hand gun. Thank you so much Negan. Are you both okay?
Her eyes rose again to the back yard and the figure grew closer in a slow and steady fashion. Nicole continued to watch, taking it all in as the figure struggled to make it through the grass.
Again, Nicole found herself at a crossroads, wondering what the right thing to do was. She had been drawn to the profession of law enforcement for the sheer opportunity to help people and keep communities safe. With that as her motivating factor she whipped open the back door, pulled her shirt down over the pistol to conceal it and hurried through the back yard to where the person was still crawling.
"Hello!" Nicole shouted, "Who are you?"
She kept her distance, and at first heard nothing.
"Hello!"
Nicole slowly made her way closer, tiptoeing through the uneven grass in pursuit of the mystery person.
"Are you okay?" Nicole shouted again, and this time she squinted her eyes as she heard an inhumane, scratchy growl. It made her freeze in place and now she focused on the face of the man who clawed at the ground, digging up dirty and grass as he pulled his ailing body along.
He wasnot okay. Not even close. Nicole stepped back and let her mouth hang open in a state of shock and awe. The man's eyes were glazed over. His skin was beginning to peel from his face and hands and appeared like a rotting sheet of tissue paper rather than human flesh.
"Oh my God..." She shook her head. "S-sir? Are you..."
He growled louder now, opening his mouth wide as he lunged a hand in her direction like a dying predator aching for its last meal. Blood stained his teeth and Nicole could see the red stains on the front of his light, gray t-shirt when he lifted his head to growl again.
"No way... no way..." Nicole shook her head again in disbelief. Her fingers shook against the handle of the gun and for a moment she was paralyzed by fear as she stared into the eyes of rabid-looking human before her.
When her phone went off, Nicole suddenly snapped out of the daze and without warning she turned and ran, bolting back toward the back door of her house at full speed until she was back inside, breathing heavy with her back against it.
Stay inside... be safe and strong honey... Negan's message was the only thing that made sense as a dizziness filtered into Nicole's body, forcing her to sit down on the floor.
She couldn't fully catch her breath, and her mind wouldn't allow for comprehension of what had just occurred outside. For a moment she sat there listening to the uneven sound of her own breath, though finally found the courage to glance back out the window through the blinds into the overcast afternoon that fit the scene far too perfectly.
He was still there - the man. He was slowly clawing his way across the yard and Nicole had no idea what she would do when he finally, successfully reached the back step. She let out another breath, fogging up the glass and then spun around fast when she heard a soft click.
The humming of the refrigerator died, and the quiet, typically unnoticed buzzing sound of the lighting fixtures abruptly came to a stop. The digital clocks on the microwave and stove disappeared and the world grew still.
Nicole swallowed hard and closed her eyes tightly before sinking back down into a seated position on the ground. She immediately went back to her comfort zone, and wished that Negan was beside her to help talk her off the ledge. Her mind had gone to all of the worst-case scenarios as the power died out and now she was furiously typing back to him.
Power is out... someone is hurt in my back yard... shit is getting really weird...
When Nicole hit send this time, a taunting message in red flashed back in her face, making her stomach twist in knots: Message failed to send.
Frantically she hit the send button over and over again, each time receiving the same notification.
"Come on!" Nicole shouted at the screen, feeling tears begin to weld up in her eyes. She shook her head furiously and tried to call him now, though just like the text message, the call failed to go through. "Fuck..." The word barely escaped Nicole's mouth and she let the phone drop from her hands to the kitchen floor. In a sense of helplessness and confusion, she curled up in a ball and began to cry.
