Chapter one: Cornelia Street.
"Family is where life begins and love never ends."
As far as I could tell, the hospital was empty, I mean from the outside it looked like a charred out husk so…how much worse could it be on the inside? I thought about leaving the building, but not for long, it could be a goldmine of supplies and maybe even a bit of safety for one night or two; I entered through the fire exit, turning on my flashlight so nothing jumped out at me in the dark stairwell. I made my way up to the first floor and found the door locked and chained shut, no way was I going to open it so I continued to the second floor; that door was open and the adjoining corridor was ghostly quiet, I crept along and picked things up, only things that were sealed and didn't look to have been used.
The nurse's station was deserted as I had thought it would be and there wasn't much stuff I could use in the desk; maybe a half packet of throat soothers but it was better than nothing. I heard a scuffle from behind me and turned with a gasp as a man reached for my shoulder, he was pale and wearing a hospital gown, but alive. He frowned as I calmed myself and then grinned, holding out my hand and he took it.
"I'm Ellie, what's your name, friend?" I asked softly, reluctant to be much louder than necessary.
"Rick Grimes…"He looked around worriedly. "What uh…do you know what happened here, exactly?" He croaked and I nodded, looking up and down the hall before sitting in one of the desk chairs, pointing to another for Rick. I leaned in close before I started to talk, Rick leaning closer as well.
"It's the end of the world Mr Grimes, people were dyin' and comin' back…I watched a couple of these things bein' shot in the chest and still gettin' right back up. That ain't normal but the government didn't wanna cause a mass panic so they lied about it. Los Angeles was the first city to fall, I heard that from a soldier where I lived in Iowa, he told me Georgia was still safe and it was up until about…two or three weeks ago." I began, the man shook his head but I pulled out my phone, on about ten percent battery. "I'm not kiddin' watch this clip I downloaded."
I showed the man the video clip, one of these dead things lumbered towards the cop, with his gun raised he shouted for the person to freeze, opening fire when they didn't. We watched together as the man simply rolled back to his feet even with a bullet wound in his chest, where it should have punctured his lung.
"That has to be just a…a…one of those prank videos." Rick whispered in disbelief, I shrugged and snorted.
"I wish it was buddy, but it's all too real, I was lookin' for my three brothers when Georgia went down, they wouldn't even let me hop the border into Florida where they live." I replied bitterly, turning off my phone and leaving it on the desk, I wouldn't need it anymore.
"I need to find my wife…my son." I nodded and offered him my hand to help him up.
"I tell you what," he looked up at me despondently, "you stick with me and we'll find your family buddy. But first you need clothes, food and probably a bandage change." He nodded and I followed him back into a room, he found what I presumed was his uniform in one of the drawers and I turned my back while he got dressed; I then gave Rick a packet of crackers and a bottle of water, which he ate silently while I cleaned and re-dressed his wound, it was nearly healed actually. "Come on, we'll skip this joint and find a car." He nodded and followed me out, catching sight of something and wandering over to a door, staring through the glass; I looked briefly before shaking my head. "Like I said, it's the end of the world."
We exited the hospital a few moments later; Rick climbed the hill and looked over the charred remains of the military camp that had been in front of the hospital in the early days.
"Where are the soldiers?" He wondered out loud and I shrugged, pulling my knife from my belt.
"Dead hopefully, those cowardly bastards high tailed it out of here and left us all to fuckin' die once shit really hit the fan." I answered angrily, putting my flashlight back in my bag and looking around nervously.
"I need to go home and find my family." Rick muttered, stumbling off towards a street he recognised and I groaned before hurrying after him.
"You know, I doubt they'll have stuck around, women and kids were some of the first evacuated to Atlanta, heard there was a safe zone up there but I didn't believe it." He ignored me, powering along until he found his house and entered it, calling for Lori and Carl, who I assumed were his wife and son. "Jesus Christ," I entered after him, looking about and seeing the patches on the walls that looked cleaner than the rest, "hey, some of the pictures have been taken down." Rick returned to my side with tear tracks on his cheeks and nodded.
"The photo albums and their clothes are gone too, they were here but they aren't now."
"Maybe they went to Atlanta, maybe they didn't, maybe they got stuck in one of those traffic snarls…we shouldn't stick around for too long, it'll be dark soon." I said, he met my eye and then nodded once. "C'mon, is there anywhere else you can think of that might have supplies or any clues as to where your family went?" Rick hesitated for a few minutes and then looked out the open door.
"Maybe we could try Shane's house or the police station or the school." He listed and I sighed, unclipping my gun and handing it to him.
"You'll probably be a better shot than me seein' as how that uniform fits you perfectly." I explained, watching as he checked how many rounds he had and that the safety was off. "We'll probably get more at the Station…right?" He nodded, jaw working back and forth before he met my eye and smiled slightly.
"Thank you, I wouldn't have made it without you." He said sincerely and I waved him off.
"You would have…I have a good feelin' about you Rick Grimes, you're gonna make it just fine."
It was getting dark as we crossed the neighbourhood to where Rick's friend Shane had lived, but his house was a blackened ruin, so we gave it a miss and headed for the Station; Rick was, at least, right about that though, it was a goldmine for ammo and guns and we packed a duffle bag full of weapons before deciding to settle there for the night. I sat up most of the night keeping watch in case the other survivors came by, a man named Morgan and his crazy son Duane; they had tried to attack me the other night, it seemed the two idiots couldn't tell the dead from the living, just smashed heads whenever they spotted them moving. By the next morning, Rick was looking a lot better than before, he had a bit of colour to him now and he looked better still after we'd eaten some breakfast, mainly some stale cereal we'd found in one of the break room cupboards. We talked at length about where we would try to look and Atlanta kept coming back as our main objective.
I tried to convince Rick that it was a bad idea, but he wouldn't hear anything of it.