A/N: Hopefully you all are diggin' the rewrite. I'm definitely enjoyin' makin' it. I've had SO many zombie related fics poppin' into my head lately that it's crazy. I've even started writin' a few of them cause they won't leave me alone. Anyways. Happy readin'! :D
The first thing I notice once the door to Shelby's apartment is open is the agitated cries of an infant coming from down the hallway. Noah and I both immediately relax before I hear a muffled but frantic banging also coming from down the hallway, and I tense up again in an instant knowing exactly what that most likely means...Noah closes the door softly behind us as I slowly make my way down the hallway to the back of the apartment where the bedrooms are located, and my heart breaks when I see the evidence proving my unsaid theory. The majority of the furniture in the house is pushed up against the door where the baby's cries are the loudest, and across the hallway from the barricaded room I hear snarling and frantic slamming and banging against the door. That's why I have this horrible sinking feeling in my stomach, because I didn't just lose one mother today, I've lost both...I fight back my tears as I try to stop an almost frantic Noah from clearing the furniture out from in front of his daughter's room.
"Noah! Stop," I demand firmly when he doesn't respond to my silent touch. He opens his mouth to argue with me no doubt just wanting to get to, check on, and hold his daughter as fast as he can, but I silence him immediately with a pained look while pointing over to Shelby's bedroom door. He listens for a moment before understanding dawns on his face and he pulls me into a tight embrace with a sympathetic look.
"I got her Jewbabe," he tells me with a sad smile as he pulls away from me with one last squeeze. I nod in thanks and position myself at the other end of the hallway so as to not get in his way, and after one more apologetic look he opens the door to the room. Immediately Shelby comes barreling out of the room with an animalistic snarl, but Noah doesn't bat an eye as he just calmly side-steps her before raising his bat and swinging as hard as he can as she lunges for him again. His first hit connects with a sickening crunch as Shelby drops heavily to the ground, and then he slams the bat into the back of her skull twice more to make sure she was really gone. Once we're both one hundred percent sure that the baby will be safe for now we both start clearing out furniture from in front of her door.
The very moment there's a space big enough for Noah's bulky frame to fit through he's muscling his way inside the room and rushing to his daughter's side. He immediately pulls her into his arms and starts cooing and shushing her, trying to get her calm and settled, and he seems like he has everything with her under control so I head back out into the hallway to make my way into Shelby's room. I just casually glance around her room, trying to get a good sense of the woman who wanted me just to turn around and not want me anymore. During my sweep of her room I notice a sweatshirt haphazardly thrown on a chair in the corner and I cross over quickly to pick it up. I get a faint whiff of something that smells sort of flowery and hold the sweater up to my nose to get a better smell. It smells like her...and I don't even think twice about it as I pull the sweatshirt on over my argyle one before I turn on my heel to walk over and start digging through her closet, looking for any kind of bags that may be useful. I find three decent sized bags before gathering them up and making my way back over to Beth's room. The baby is currently sound asleep in her crib while Noah is browsing through her closet.
"Good job on getting her settled so quickly Noah," I tell him with a genuine smile. He straightens up with a cocky and proud smirk of his own, another duffel-bag in his hand and replies,
"I know right? I'm a kickass dad!" He then shoots me a grin and a wink before turning back to his daughter's closet to start stuffing the duffel-bag with clothes, diapers, and other baby things.
"Ok, 'kickass dad'. I'm going to go gather supplies while you grab the rest of her things. Make it quick though because I want us in the truck and heading out of here in fifteen minutes tops," I inform him, leaving the room without waiting for his reply. I walk into the kitchen with a small smile on my face, all the while wondering how at a time like this Noah can still manage to make me smile with his dorkiness. I immediately start going through Shelby's kitchen cabinets looking for anything non-perishable like food or water. There isn't anything much in lue of water, but there is an entire upper cabinet devoted strictly to Beth. One side of the cabinet is completely devoted to canned powdered baby milk, and the other side is completely filled to the brim with baby-food and baby snacks. These cabinets are deep too. I guess Shelby's like me and likes...well, liked...to be prepared. With that thought something tells me to check the bottom cabinets right below, and sure enough there's tons of baby and toddler protein shakes, toddler's powdered milk, all types of infant and toddler medication, even more baby-food and snacks. "Thank you Moses," I say happily as I start quickly filling one of my duffel-bags. Don't get me wrong, once my fathers and I found out about Beth we immediately wrote her into our plans for this world; she even helped us realize that there was a gaping obvious hole in our plans in the form of we weren't thinking about babies and children and their future survival at all, I guess we were just going to go with it when the time came. That alone made us realize our entire plans were wrong in multiple different ways, and that we needed to rush back to the drawing board...Which we did...But at the same time extra supplies have never hurt anyone. Like I just mentioned earlier, I like to be prepared. Once all of the important cabinets are cleared out I'm dropping the last duffel by the door when Noah finally walks into the living-room with a bursting diaper bag, a bursting duffel, another random back-pack also bursting, holding Beth's car-seat in the other-hand, with the baby herself still sound asleep against her father's chest in one of those kangaroo pouches.
"Shut up, she's sleeping," Noah mutters out as he grabs two out of the three duffel-bags in front of the door to help free me up to protect us better, and stopping my teasing cooing comment in its tracks. I keep my smirk directed at him though as I throw the last duffel-bag over my shoulder, make sure it's secure, and then tighten my grip on my baseball bat.
"Let's get this over with Noah," I say instead, my smirk falling away as I instantly get serious. Beth and the others are relying on us...On me. "Wait for my all clear," I tell him as I open the door and peer outside. I notice it seems all clear so I make my way to the stairs and slowly creep my way halfway down the first flight, and as soon as I'm certain we're safe for now I motion Noah to follow me out. When I know he's safely on the move I completely clear the third floor and move to the second. I take down an older lady; easy dodge and blow to the back of the skull, before again motioning the all clear and making my way to the ground level. Where I freeze in my tracks as I notice over a dozen or so walkers slowly milling about on the other side of the parking lot. If we hurry we can all safely make it to the truck and go, but the timing has to be absolutely perfect, because this parking lot really isn't all that large.
"We good babe?" Is whispered quietly from above me and I cringe while looking over to the herd of walkers. They didn't seem to hear, thankfully, and I slowly release the breath I was holding before quickly and quietly making my way back up to the second floor where Noah and Beth are not-so-patiently waiting.
"Give me all the duffel-bags," I demand quietly as soon as I'm standing in front of him with my arms out-stretched waiting.
"Huh?" He questions in confusion as he immediately still does what he's told.
"There's a decent sized herd slowly forming across the parking lot. I don't want us taking the chance of having to fight them with Beth, so we're going to make a break for it," I explain as I secure all of the duffels and baggage to my person, leaving Noah with only the baby and her carrier. "I believe we have just enough time to get Beth settled and the supplies in the truck before they overtake us, but Noah…," I lock our eyes intensely, trying to communicate just how serious this situation is. "We have to be quick. We have two minutes and that's being generous," I tell him firmly. At his nod I take a few deep breaths and ready myself. "Let's do this," I say before letting Noah take off at a quick but light sprint down the stairs before me. He makes it around to the driver's side backseat, flinging the truck's door open and shoving the car-seat inside. I dump the duffel-bags off of me as fast as I can and jump into the back passenger's seat to help him fasten the car-seat to the seat, before hopping out and beginning to throw the supplies into the back of the truck. It's around this time, as Noah's strapping the baby into the car-seat and I'm on my last four bags, that the walkers seem to finally notice us. The moaning and snarling seems to double as some of them seem to really be straining themselves to reach us as fast as they possibly can, and I really hope that isn't going to be an issue for the future. The last thing we need is these things evolving on us. Noah finally has Beth safely in the truck and is now in the driver's seat starting it up, so I throw the last bag into the bed of the truck and snatch the baby's diaper bag off of the ground right as the walkers reach us and begin to overtake the truck. I throw open the passenger side door, sending three walkers off balance and one to the ground, before hopping in and slamming the door closed hurriedly. "Drive! Go! Drive!" I shout over Beth's frantic screams and the growls and snarls from outside. There are walkers all over the truck and we feel the sickening crunch of bones as Noah floors the gas pedal and we have to drive our way out.
"Thank God there wasn't enough to actually overtake my truck...I never got around to making those adjustments," Noah tells me thoughtfully, his grip on the steering wheel turning his knuckles white.
"Well we weren't expecting this to happen this early...or at all really if we're being honest with ourselves," I chuckle out and Noah relaxes a bit with his own soft laugh.
"Right?" Noah jumps in. "Like we followed your's and Britt's parents in everything that was wanted and stuff, but we were all so certain that all of the adults were crazy. Even my ma after hanging around y'alls parents for so long…" he trails off with his voice breaking and I hear him suppressing tears.
"How wrong we were, and how grateful I am to my father's," I say softly and I see Noah silently nodding his agreement from the corner of my eye. We then lapse into silence for the rest of the drive to Noah's old house.
As soon as the house comes into view I immediately tense up with an ill feeling rushing throughout my body, and I hear an almost inaudible whimper come from Noah beside me. I glance over to him to see him now sitting ram-rod straight with a death-grip on the steering wheel, and he's now looking a little sick while starting to sweat profusely. The closer we get to the house the sicker he looks, and by the time we pull into the driveway I'm surprised Noah's not passed out over the steering wheel.
"S-stay in the truck with Beth and the supplies," I command him as firmly as I can after clearing my throat a couple of times to try and get the golf ball out of it. I then grab my bat and hop out of the vehicle after a quick security sweep, determinedly striding up to the front door of the house and forcing myself to ignore the almost crippling pang of loss in my chest as I grab and twist the doorknob.
Before I'm even fully through the door I'm experiencing the same horrible feeling in my gut that I had at Shelby's, but I shake it off as best as I can because I already know what's wrong here. I quickly and quietly do a quick round downstairs to make sure Ruth can't sneak up on me and then sigh sadly when I realize she's upstairs still scaring the hell out of the kids. "RUTH!" I shout as I stomp on the bottom step as loudly as I can, my penny loafers not making as much noise as I'd like at this moment. "Mama Ruth! C-come on!" I call strongly, and then a loud sob rips from me as she finally stumbles into view at the top of the stairs. Her eyes are wild and milky. They almost seem unseeing, except for the fact that those milky eyes are now locked onto me and are regarding me hungrily. She's emitting a steady and low growl and her mouth is slowly chewing and chomping at nothing, and it only takes a breathy, "M-ma?" before she's stumbling and falling hurriedly down the stairs. I scramble away from the stairs while trying to control my violent sobbing as I go to stand in the kitchen doorway, waiting to lead her away. The kids don't need to see her like this anymore than they already have. As soon as she's back on her feet and stumbling toward me again I slowly lead her through the kitchen and to the now unlocked back door. I rush into the back yard, making sure it's clear of any other walkers, and then patiently wait for Mama Ruth to appear outside. While I wait I lay my bat down against the side of the house and take out my Bowie. She deserves quick and clean, not bashing over and over again like a savage. She finally trips her way outside and I lead her just a few feet away from the house. I let her get closer and closer while tears steadily fall from my eyes and down my face, and as soon as she reaches out and tries to grab a hold of me I trip her and push her face first into the dirt. "I-I'm s-sorry Ma," I sob out, completely heartbroken as I put my knee in her back and use that as leverage to shove my knife through the base of her skull. She immediately stops struggling and goes limp, and I fall to the side sobbing as quietly as I can as I violently shake. I only allow myself a few minutes to break down because the kids are terrified and we have a schedule to keep, so after taking a couple of deep breaths and wiping my face down with the sleeves of my newly acquired sweatshirt, I spring to my feet and sprint inside and up the stairs.
I barely have the chance to calmly knock twice before Noah's bedroom door is ripped open and I'm being slammed back into the wall across the hallway and crushed in a hug so tight that I'm dazed for a few moments.
"Oh my God! Thank you, Rachel!"
"You came!"
"Rae-Rae!"
Is all squealed at the exact same time as I'm being ambushed and I squeeze the kids tightly for a few seconds once I slightly recover before gently prying them off and trying to properly regain the breath that they took away from me.
"Of course I came, and there's absolutely no need to thank me, Kelly. Are you guys okay?" I question as I lead them back into Noah's room and immediately start rifling through his closet. I grab a duffel-bag and start shoving what things I assume to be important to him in there.
"Yeah, we're good," Jake answers and Kelly nods her agreement beside him as they all three watch me with rapt attention.
"Good. Now Jake, I need you to go into your room and pack up, and Kelly I need you to pack up for Sarah ok? We've practiced this," I tell them gently as I finish up in Noah's room and grab more duffels for the medical and food supplies in the house. They nod silently before dispersing from the room to follow my instructions and I slowly start making my way around the house.
"You ready, Rach?" I hear from behind me as I zip up the last duffel of food. I stand up and turn around to see Jakob and Kelly standing at the front door with their own duffel-bags at their feet and Sarah in Jakob's arms.
"Let's do it," I reply with a small grin as I load my duffel's onto my shoulders, grab my bat, and double check that the kids are good before opening the door and stepping outside. I wait a few moments and make sure the area is still clear before whispering, "Let's move quickly and quietly." I then lead the way and take their duffels as we reach the truck, and as Jakob opens the back door and they pile in next to Beth I throw all of the supplies into the bed of the truck with the rest. As soon as everything and everyone is loaded in securely I hop into the giant F-350 and sigh tiredly.
"Sam's?" Noah questions in a weary whisper.
"Sam's," I agree just as wearily.
Just as we arrive at Sam's and Noah puts the truck in park I turn to him to suggest he stay in the vehicle with the kids while I handle this, but Noah being Noah must've known what I was going to say because he just rolls his eyes before I can open my mouth to speak and turns to face the kids in the back.
"Jake, Kelly," he barks out and immediately the older two pull apart from where they were whispering back and forth to each other and sit at attention, full focus now on Noah. Sarah and Beth on the other hand are thankfully sleeping peacefully in their seats. "When we exit this truck you are to lock ALL doors. Kelly, you need to come upfront into the driver's seat while Jake stays in the back, you both are to do everything in your power to keep these children and yourselves safe and quiet, and you are to use these knives when and if needed," he instructs as he takes his hunting knife off of his hip and holds his hand out for my Bowie. I feel as if I'm handing over a piece of myself to him as I hand Noah my knife, but I know I'll get it back as soon as we do a sweep of Sam's house and that the kids need it to keep safe at the moment. All of their own supplies are currently uselessly sitting in my basement. I wait patiently as Noah hands the knives over to the pre-teens before we both grab our handguns and bats and hop down from the truck, quietly shutting the doors to the truck and listening for the lock, before silently but quickly making our way to the front door of the house. As we finally get close enough to the front door I see that it's slightly ajar, and my heart slowly sinks in trepidation and fear. Oh no...
I'm always open to reviews, questions, or comments! If you don't want to leave it publicly my PMs are open! Thanks for readin'! :D
