*Author's Note*
Thank you for the faves, follows, and reviews. I know it's been a while, but here's the newest chapter.
The World's Gone To Hell Right Now
After hanging up the phone, Jenny called up Merle. She only reached his voicemail, so she left him an aggravated message of: "Merle, you high, drunken, piece of shit. The world's gone to hell and you're blacked out in a flophouse. Shit, when you sober up enough to listen to this get to my house ASAP and protect Trevor from these crazy sick zombies. Also, an old friend of mine, Shane, is headed to my house with some mutual friends for shelter. He's the guy in the prom photo tacked up on the fridge, so please let him in tonight if I'm not home." Jenny would've said more if she could, but the message cut off and ended the call for her.
Taking a deep breath, she called up Daryl on Blood Mountain. She prayed that he would pick up his cheap burner phone.
Ring, ring, ring…Ring, ring, ring…Ring, ring, ring…Ring, ring, ring…Ring, ring, ring…Ring, ring, ring… "Sorry, this user is not available. Please leave a message after the tone."
"Damn hillbilly son of a bitch!" Jenny shouted in aggravation at receiving another voicemail. Clenching her teeth, she rattled off the message of, "Daryl, the world's gone to hell and your shitty phone ain't gettin' service up on Blood Mountain. Get down to my place and protect Trevor until me or my friend, Shane gets there. He's the guy that took me to prom, photo's on the fridge. Oh and Merle's passed out in some flop house somewhere while zombies are eating people, so you better get him if you don't find him at my house." Before Jenny could properly say goodbye, the voicemail cut off on her. With a sigh, she stuffed her phone into the pocket of her teal scrub.
She took a deep breath before walking out of the closet and into the chaos. Quickly, she looked up and down the hall to see if the cost was clear. She was planning on running to an exit to reach the parking garage, but that plan was halted when she saw the soldier she often referred to as G.I Joe rushing down the hall with his gun drawn.
Raising her hands, she exclaimed with tears pricking her eyes, "Don't shoot! Please, I'm only covered in blood 'cause I had to bash a patient's head in up on the ICU after they turned! You can radio the soldier up there; he'll confirm my story!"
The soldier looked her over, from head to toe, before nodding and lowering his gun. He seemed to believe her. "You know how to shoot or are ya just another pretty face?" The sergeant asked while shoving her back into the supply closet.
"My ex was Vice Squad, he taught me to shoot. I'm also certified to carry, but my concealed weapon's in my car's glove box. Why?" She asked the soldier as her back bumped a metal supply shelf.
"Cause the undead's swarming us and my men have orders to shoot anything on sight. You'd be safe from the undead in here, but if one of my men find you, they'd shoot you cause of the scrubs. If you're helping me put down these things, well, my men'll leave ya be."
"Why're you telling me this? Going against orders to help me for?"
"You got a boy at home and a man on his way to see you. I run into you often; you're a real human to me and not just a random Nurse Ratched." The soldier confessed while taking a handgun out his boot and handing it too her. "We're gonna have to clear the floor out some before we can leave." He explained as Jenny cocked the gun and quickly examined it.
"The army's pulling out then." Jenny stated, not asked, as her eyes narrowed into hard slits.
"After we clear Piedmont, yes we have orders to clear out."
"I'll be able to go home after helping you? Right?" The strawberry blonde asked, wanting assrence that she'd be making it out of the hospital in one piece.
"Yes. Now be quiet and keep an eye out for the undead." The soldier told Jenny before pushing the door open and exiting the supply closet.
The Shop 'N' Save was crowded, more so then usual. Grandma Jean shrugged it off to people panic buying due to the PSAs. People always cleared out stores whenever disasters happened. It was human nature. Grandma Jean just needed to get a few odds and ends. She figured she'd be safe enough holed up in her house once she picked Dean up from the hospital and went home.
She had to admit that some of the shoppers she rolled her cart by looked like they were getting sick. She survived all the old childhood diseases that had been eradicated with modern vaccines, so she wasn't worried. Maybe she should've been. Maybe she should've stayed home instead of venturing to town that day.
Walking a few inches from her cart and bending down to look for a box of Barilla, Grandma Jean didn't stand a chance for the freshly turned shopper that was shuffling down the aisle. Sadly, she didn't realize the walker was there until it bit a chunk out of her neck. She screamed at smacked the thing with her purse, but it did no good. Her cries had alerted other zombies, causing her to perish in the pasta aisle.
As Shane raced down the main road towards the hospital, he saw a few 'sick' people milling around and attacking the well. Keeping his mind on his mission, to get Rick out of the hospital, he ignored the strange things he saw on the side of the road. He pressed his foot on the gas pedal, speeding past the speed limit to get to his destination faster. Today he wasn't an officer of the law but was a man on a mission to get his own out of harm's way and down to Atlanta, where hopefully they'd be safe with Jenny and Trevor.
A few minutes later, he was pulling into the parking lot of Harrison Memorial, which had cars scattered every which way instead of being parked properly. He imagined that people were starting to panic even though the PSA broadcasts told them not to and to stay put for the time being. The parking lot also had a chopper on the ground and a few HUMVs, so he quickly realized that the military had been sent to the hospital. Since Harrison Memorial was a small hospital, Shane figured the Army must've been deployed there to help evacuate the patients; to bring them to either Grady or Piedmont in Atlanta or even one of the hospitals in Columbus near Fort Benning.
Once parked as close to the front entrance as he could get, Shane rushed into the building and straight to the stairs. He was leery to use the elevator to get to the 4th floor, afraid that an infected person might be on it, so he rushed up the stairs. Plus, he figured if he came across one of those things on the stairwell, he could just toss them over and keep going on his merry way to rescue Rick.
Shane pushed the door to the 4th floor open, causing it to bounce off the wall with a loud bang, and ran into the lobby. Patients and staff were rushing around in a panic as Shane made his way to Rick's room. Once he got inside, he realized that he was going to need help to get his friend out. So, he went back into the hallway, only to nearly be trampled by people running around in a panic.
"Ma'am! Ma'am, can you help me?" Shane asked a middle-aged nurse with a dark blonde bob, reaching out to get her attention only for her to shrug him off.
"No! No!" She shouted, running by in panic.
The doors to the elevator dung, only to open and let a swarm of military men out. The men automatically started to round up people, only to shoot them right on the spot.
"Check 'em. Check 'em all." He heard one of the men tell the others.
Shane felt like he was going to be sick. He just couldn't believe that the National Guard (he's pretty sure that's who they were) just shot people. People that weren't sick. Quickly, he grabbed a nearby bed and rushed over to Rick's room, determined to get his friend out.
"Okay. Okay." Shane said, more so as a calming mantra than anything else. "I'm gonna get you out, brother." Shane told Rick before picking him up bridal style. He started to walk away with him, only to stop whenever all the wires and tubes attached to his best friend began to tug and pull. He looked at the wires in confusion and dropped his friend back onto the bed.
Quickly, he went over to the power box that all the wires connected to. His rugged face contorted as he tried to figure out what to do with it, so he'd be able to safely transfer his friend to the bed a few feet away in the hall. Looking between the box and his friend, the officer asked, "What do I do?" Sadly, the only reply he got was the sound of the machines whirling in the room.
Hearing the door swing open, Shane quickly ducked behind the bed. He held his breath as a soldier investigated the room from the doorway. He silently prayed, even though he wasn't a religious man, that the soldier would leave and not shoot Rick (and him). Thankfully, his prayers were answered when another soldier told the corporal it was time to move out.
Gunfire echoed loudly in the air as Shane thanked his lucky stars that his friend was spared (and in extension himself) from a soldier's bullet. He knelt at Rick's bedside, begging him to wake up. Sadly, that miracle didn't happen. Instead, a loud bomb blast shook the building and caused the power to go out. With all of the machines off, a distraught Shane pressed his ear to Rik's chest. He searched for a heartbeat but couldn't find one. He was running on pure adrenaline whenever he decided to lock and bar room 450 with a bed in order to keep his brother safe from the undead. Even though Rick had died, Shane would rather him rot in piece in his room then be a feast for zombies.
Shane rushed out of the stairwell, holding a rag over nose to protect him from the smell of gunpowder and the rotting dead, only to see Dean Lacy, dressed in a hospital gown, running towards the hospital exit in a slow hobble. He had a broken IV line in him, causing Shane to come to the quick conclusion that the man was sick and must've been in the hospital for treatment. A small group of zombies were chasing the old drunk, causing the man to pale as he looked over his shoulder.
Before Shane could draw his gun, the zombies swarmed and attacked Mr. Lacey. The old drunk cried out in pain as chunks of flesh were torn out of him. Shane, not wanting the man to suffer even though he didn't like him, decided to put him out of his misery. He also shot the zombies as well, but that was to exit the hospital.
As he ran to his Jeep, he realized that he'd have to break the news to Jenny about Dean's death. He decided it'd be best to do that in person rather than over the phone. He knew, despite how shitty of a father Dean was, that Jenny would be hurt hearing the news that her dad was eaten by the undead.
Now, if it was his estranged dad that got eaten, he probably wouldn't care. Especially since the man tossed aside his mama after knocking her up, causing him to be born a bastard and his mom to hop on a bus to an oil rig town in Texas to seek work; to escape the shame of being an unwed mother at such a young age in rural Georgia (where that type of thing's frowned upon). Honestly, if he came across Johnny (who he was the splitting image of) being eaten alive by zombies he'd probably shoot him to put him out of his misery but wouldn't give a shit that the man died.
The man never gave a shit about him his entire life. Not even when he moved to town to live with his Grandma Jean and ran into the fucker at the county fair with Jenny and Rick. Johnny just made some remark about him being Kat's boy and how he knew her in school before running off to go join his family in line at a nearby cotton candy booth. Shane knew who the man was just by how his looks were so uncanny to his own. Jenny and Rick didn't say a word to him, instead they just tried to cheer him up by suggesting they go on a ride. They ended up riding the bumper cars, him and Jenny in a car against Rick, and they had a blast. It also helped to keep his mind off his awkward meeting with his father.
AN:
Poor Rick, he's just been left for dead at the hospital by Shane. Let's all have a moment of silence for Grandma Jean. Does anybody care about Dean? No, no really. Good. Anyways…Up next will be a few more things that happen on the first day of the ZA. Like Shane picking up Lori and Carl, Daryl heading down to Atlanta, Merle waking up thinking he's having a bad trip, etc.