Rick Grimes looked pitiful.

Min was standing in the bedroom Morgan had him in, hands tied to the headboard. He was pale, gunshot wound rebandaged and he had a bruise across the bridge of his nose from where Duane smacked him in the face with a shovel.

She heard the gunshot and feared the worse, making her way to where Morgan and Duane were. Not the worse, actually, exactly what she was waiting for. But still, she was miffed at Morgan for firing a gun for a single walker. Now the street had more than a few stragglers and they were going to have to take care of them before the four of them could make their way back to the Zhang household.

"No fever," Lily noted, pressing a hand against his forehead. "Means it's likely not infected, which is good. We don't have antibiotics."

Min stopped keeping track of time. All she knew is today is The Day and she was straying from her preppanned path. Lily had come through the funk she was in, and though she wasn't the happy go lucky housewife she was before, at least she talked to them, and didn't let the boys run out of the house unattended.

Lily also had medical training. She went through three years of medical school before dropping out to have Connor. That meant she was also younger than Min had first pinned her as. She was almost thirty.

"Good," Morgan responded, "if he was bit, the fever should've been here by now. Min," said girl looked towards him, "mind starting dinner?"

Connor and Lily never questioned her on why she introduced herself with another name. Chen only asked if he should call her Min, too, and she told him only if he wanted to.

She made baked beans. They were unevenly cooked, the camping stove Morgan found in the closet was a bit old, but it was better than cold beans. Lily served them, and they all seemed a bit shocked when Rick came out to join them.

"Hey mister, do you even know what's going on?" Min gave a pause, swallowing a mouthful of beans as her eyes glanced over at Morgan. That sentence sparked familiarly in her mind.

"I woke up today, in the hospital, came home. That's all I know." She gave a full stop, then. This was word for word from the actual TV show. She shivered. Even with four extra people, it still went on as foretold.

The two continued their conversation, but Min only looked up when the table got quiet. Duane had said something, judging by everyone looking at him. She gave a small sigh. "What's your name?"

Rick looked towards her, giving the faintest hint of a smile, "Rick Grimes."

"Min." She didn't offer her last name. Zhang wasn't it, but her old one would have felt foreign on her tongue. And not while Lily and Connor were there, ready to dispute. "That's my little brother, Chen."

Suddenly shy, Chen ducked his head and offered a tiny wave. Rick gave the appearance that he already assumed they were related. "And that's Connor and his mom, Lily."

Connor beamed, waving excitedly at the man. "Are you a secret agent?"

Him, Chen, and Duane had tried to decide what Rick did to get shot. Duane had said a bank robber, Connor a secret agent, and Chen an FBI agent. They had asked Min for her opinion, and she said a police officer. She was cheating.

Rick looked amused at his question, "Pardon?"

"The kids all took a guess," Morgan filled in, "'bout what you did, to get shot. My son thinks you're a bank robber."

"Oh, yeah?" Rick took another spoon full of beans, "What did the rest of you think?"

"FBI agent." Chen answered, without a moment of hesitation. He was so sure, too.

Min took a sip from her bottle of water. "Cop."

"Sheriff Deputy," he nodded towards her, revealing that her answer was right.

Morgan raised a brow, "No shit?"

"No shit."

All of them slept in the house the Jones' had made residence in. Chen asked about Penny, and Min told him not to worry, the dog would still be there tomorrow. Well, she hoped she was, or she'd have some pissed off kids on her hands.

The next morning, Morgan got Rick some clothes and went with him to try and teach him how to kill a walker. Min didn't join them, letting canon go as it should, and instead focused on killing a few walkers in between the Jones' house and the Zhang's house.

That was something that changed. Min didn't flinch when killing walkers now, she couldn't. And she learned how to make due with her short height, which meant most walkers were taller than her. Like with Erik, she'd kick them in the leg, and shove a knife through their head when they landed on the ground. She was the only one, other than Morgan, to have ever killed one.

That needed to change soon.

When she decided the pathway was safe enough, she told Morgan they were going back home. He nodded, "Stay safe." She promised to. They both ignored Rick's inquiring look. He'd get filled in later. Or not, she wasn't sure she'd even see him again before he left for Atlanta.

Lily decided to stay back, to make sure Rick's bullet wound was healing correctly. Min didn't fight her, but didn't tell her it was a good idea either. She rounded Chen and Connor up and led them back home, having to kill a single walker on the way.

"I wanna do that," Chen told her, as he played tug of war with Penny, using an old sock, "I wanna kill walkers."

"Do you?" Min asked. She was making ramen soup for lunch – that was something they were lucky to be able to have, three meals a day. None of them seemed to have lost weight yet, which was good. Maybe she could have kept the rations for even longer by not eating as much, but she refused to let children go hungry if she could help it.

Chen lost to Penny, who offered up the sock again for another round. He obliged. "Yeah, I wanna be like you. I wanna kill the bad things."

Now, maybe anyone else would be horrified by this. She had flashes of Lori's face anytime Carl said something concerning. She was not Lori. She felt a surge of gratitude at this. This was not a world to raise a well-adjusted, normal kid. Everything was about survival now.

"Good."

Lily came back shortly after, her blonde hair pulled back into a bun. "Min?" She beckoned, and the girl walked up to her. Lily had taken to calling her Min as well, probably to not confuse the men, "I think we should leave."

Min paused, perplexed by Lily's words. Not once, in the weeks they had coexisted, had she even spoken of future plans. "What makes you say that?"

"Morgan said," she paused, "Morgan said the CDC might be good. Safe. They have to be looking for a cure. And Rick's looking for his family, his wife and child. He's going to Atlanta to look for them."

Min's stomach churned. All she wanted, all she fucking wanted, was to avoid the plot. To avoid Rick and his ragtag group of survivors. To keep her own people safe. And here Min was, presented on a silver platter a way to get involved, to change the future. To do some good in the shitty world she found herself in.

"We don't know what Atlanta's like." A lie, she knew exactly what it was like. Overruned, destitute. A group of people stuck, determined to get back to their group.

Lily sighed. "We can't stay here. And Rick, he's a police officer. He knows how to survive –" she politely ignored Min's snort (not towards Rick, just the idea that police = survival skills) "– I need to be with other people. I need to socialize."

"There's Morgan, and Duane."

"Let me correct myself." Lily continued, "I need to be around other women."

Ah.

"You're just a kid, Min, no matter how… mature. And I am still Connor's mother, even if I haven't been a good one, lately. I need to do what is right for me and my child, I just hope you'll understand. I don't want the boys to lose their friends."

Min didn't have much time to think it over. Rick came knocking, speaking of going down to the Kings County Police Department. He gave Min a long look, like he was actually seeing her for the first time, and said, "You're in my son's grade."

"Carl?" She asked. She had never really seen the boy, or held a conversation with him. She kept to himself.

Rick nodded, "Where's your parents?"

"When this all started, they went to work, never came back." She shrugged, she hadn't thought of Mr. or Mrs. Zhang for a while. "It's just me and my brother now."

"They'll be coming home soon, though," Chen added, "One day! They're just lost."

Oh. Oh no. She had always thought Chen just got over their death easily, since they were emotionally distant and borderline neglectful. "Bud…"

Chen turned to her. Wide eyed and innocent. This was the same kid that told her he wanted to kill walkers just moments before. He was still only eight. Rick excused himself, letting this be a private moment.

"Chen, bud, they're not… they're not gonna come back."

Chen blinked. "Huh?"

"They're… gone. Like Connor's dad."

A moment of silence passed, before Chen started bawling, like a switch had been flipped to release the tears. He didn't yell at her like Connor, or accuse her of lying. Instead, he ran into her open arms, and cried into her shirt.

Min rubbed his back, "I know," she mumbled, though didn't know what else to say to calm him. Chen wasn't a very emotional child, not really. In all the time she's known him, he's cried only a few times, and all situations that he had the right to cry over. Like his goldfish dying, or Mr. and Mrs. Zhang dying.

Chen had stopped crying shortly after, though he was still melancholy, and kept to himself. Connor had tried a few times to engage him in conversation, but Chen would ignore the boy, focusing his attention on the dog or coloring.

Min wanted the boys to stay home while the rest of them went to the police station, but remembered that there were working showers. They stank. She wasn't going to deny them getting clean. She packed a pair of clothes for all of them, Lily too.

They drove, all seven of them shoved into Lily's 2004 Chrysler, Chen sitting in Min's lap and Connor in Duane's. There was a good amount of supplies shoved in the back, one of the two escape vehicles Min made sure was packed and ready to go.

Rick enters the building first, holding a flashlight, with Morgan following behind, holding a lantern. Duane had a flashlight as well, but it was slowly dying, and the rest of them were left with using the men's lights to see. "There's showers," Rick noted.

"Showers?" Lily asked. Her and Connor hadn't been showering daily when the world ended, not like Min and Chen, too focused on the slowly dying Erik. Their blonde hair was so greasy, it was shades darker than when Min first met them both on Halloween.

That felt like a lifetime ago.

Rick didn't respond, instead leading them into what must have been the department's bathroom. Toilet stalls, sinks, and a row of showers. This room had windows, so they didn't need the lights anymore.

He reached forward and turned on one of the shower knobs, the group of them watching in amazement as water started pouring from the spigot. Morgan whistled, "The gas lines been down for maybe a month."

"Less than that," Min corrected, "but still too long without a shower."

"Station's got its own propane system. Pilot's still on." Rick looked towards Min and Lily, "The girls room across the hall should have working showers too."

"Thanks," Min responded, since Lily seemed too stunned to speak. They left to head across the hallway, the room marked WOMEN'S SHOWERS – even still, like the men's bathroom, there were more than just showers. They also brought Chen and Connor with them.

They didn't really know Morgan or Duane or Rick. Sure, Min knew of them, knew how they acted on a screen, knew they could be trusted. But in real life, she didn't know them. She'd known the father-son duo for a week, maybe two, but still. She didn't know them.

She felt much better with her brother around her. And she could only assume Lily felt the same about her son.

The warm water felt like being baptized. Someone else said that in the show – Shane, maybe? But she could see where he was coming from. The water was borderline boiling, and she used the whole bottle of travel shampoo someone left in there, along with a bar of soap. The water came off her dirty, red tinted.

Lily laughed, she was a few showers down, the boys in between them. "God, this feels amazing!" Whoever used her shower last left some floral scented soap, and Min could smell it in the air. "I haven't been clean in weeks."

Min found herself laughing, too. She was surprised she hadn't started breaking out from all the dirt and sweat on her face. The generic bar of soap she used made her skin feel tight, and she was almost tempted to ask Lily to share her fancy stuff. She resisted, out of embarrassment, mainly.

"I feel clean!" Connor called, and then his water stopped.

Lily laughed again. "Did you wash behind your ears?"

"Yeah, mom." Connor responded, a new found attitude lacing his words.

Min chimed in, "Since when were you sassy?"

"Since now." She was sure he didn't even know what sassy meant.

Min turned her water off as well, followed by Chen, then Lily. She grabbed the towel she brought with her, and started to dry off. Then she changed, all within the shower cubicle. It felt good to wear clean clothes, too.

She helped Chen dry his hair, and then forced him to put his shirt on. It was green, with a t-rex on it, and the words 'I'M UNSTOPPABLE' written in bold, black letters.

"I want something more serious," he whined, "like a Batman shirt!"

Min rolled her eyes, fondly. "You don't have a Batman shirt. Suck it up, clothes are clothes."

Lily got herself and Connor dressed, and let the two boys go across the hall to bother the rest of them. "Min," she started, "Have you thought about it?"

Min played dumb, "Though about what?"

"Atlanta."


authors note

1.) i have the exact moment where the whole twd plotline gets changes set in motion, so stay patient! it will be coming :)

2.) i saw a lot of people don't like lily, and i agree with you. at this current stage, she's not doing well for herself. though, do take a moment to consider her situation. not everyone has min's luxury of knowing the world was going to end weeks in advance.

3.) i was thinking about writing an AU for this story where min never overtakes yue's body, and it is yue and chen trying to survive on their own. they would turn out to be completely different stories, and i'm interested to see if anyone would want to read that?

4.) i got some hate reviews on the last chapters. i'm not that bothered, don't worry, but i would like to comment on this. i love writing, and i write for myself, it's just a benefit that other people enjoy reading my work as well. if you don't like my work, either leave some constructive criticisms (nicely!) or just… don't read. that simple. and, to TrumpasaurusRex: it sucks that you felt this way, but thanks for reading!