When night time arrived, we both decided to stay outside to stay on watch together until about midnight or so. Since it was going to be our only night there, we decided to just have one stay up for five hours and then switch off so we'd both get enough sleep to leave early tomorrow. It sounded like a decent plan to me, anything to get some sleep. I feel like every night since the beginning I'd been running on total fumes. I never could get that much sleep at that horrible convenience store either since I was constantly plagued by those god damn nightmares.
I sat next to Rick, taking in the cool air and relaxing with one leg propped on the bench we were on and the other dangling lazily. Sleep was starting to overcome me, but I wanted to stay out here as long as I could. The thought of leaving him out here by himself kind of bothered me, and what bothered me even more was that I was actually starting to care about him too. I felt like a teenager again, but I couldn't help it. He was the one kind enough to let me stay with him, making me the hassle. I'd only gotten this far with luck.
But honestly, the last thing I want is my childish thoughts ruining what we have here. I can't afford for things to be awkward since this whole thing is a matter of life or death, y'know, since we're living in an undead world. We can't afford to let emotions get in the way, as tempting as it is. And we both have a crazy amount of baggage, hell he just divorced his ex-wife. That doesn't mean he's single, well technically he is but I'm sure not emotionally. As in he's not emotionally available. So that doesn't mean we couldn't have fun...it is the end of the world after all, nothing like having someone you actually like to hook up with in all of this. Wait, who said anything about liking him?
For fuck's sake, breathe, Isabelle!
I can't believe I just had a run on sentence in my own thoughts.
You've never been this flustered before, I told myself. Man, not being around a man for this long really takes a toll on you, huh? And that's saying something, considering the first thing I wanted to do to this man was punch him in the mouth for pulling a gun on me in the first place.
I needed to break the silence, otherwise it felt like my brain was going to fry from all the overthinking I was doing. This was embarrassing and I felt extremely grateful that no one could read my thoughts at that moment.
"Rick," I began, needing to interrupt my stupid, distracting thoughts. He turned his head in response and looked at me with those beautiful baby blue ey- agh shut up, brain! I turned my head to look in front of me to not get distracted and continued saying what I was going to say, "I just wanted to tell you that…" I paused for a second to recollect my thoughts and rubbed my sweaty palms together to try to keep my nerves together, "I know you probably got this hint earlier, but I just wanted to say it. I want to help you find your family." I said slowly to make sure I wouldn't somehow stumble over my words like a dumbass.
He sat up straighter, "What about yours?" he replied softly.
I shrugged and gave him a half smile in response, "I know where they're at, so I'm fine." I felt like I was lying to myself about being fine. But at the same time, there was no way I would make it across the whole country by myself. Maybe after I helped find Rick's family, he could return the favor? "'Sides you know my brother's military so he'll be fine." I said aloud more to reassure myself and my decision.
He gave me a small smile in return, "Thanks, Isabelle, I really appreciate it."
"No problem, I just…wanted you to know that you're not alone in this." I turned to him and mustered up the courage to place my hand over his on the bench, "I'm here for you, Rick." I said softly, eagerly awaiting his response while at the same time hoping he wouldn't pull back and be like "eww!", but that doesn't seem too likely.
He didn't say anything, or even flinch away from my touch, surprisingly. He softly took my hand and held it for a moment as if he were thinking of a way to respond.
"I'm here for you too, Isabelle."
Can't sleep. It's sort of because of a bad nightmare I had, which I've gotten used to, but I also feel like ass. It's probably slight dehydration since I haven't been drinking as much water as I should be.
God damn this room for being so stuffy. I kept turning in the bed, hoping that I'd be able to find a comfortable position to fall asleep but the feeling like shit part and the stickiness weren't helping at all.
I need fresh air.
I dragged myself out of the bed and squinted to try to see the time on the clock. It was hard to tell due to my terrible night vision, but I assumed it was probably 2 or 3 in the morning since Rick hadn't woken me up yet. I would open the window by the bed, but due to my intense fear of the dark and hours up of playing horror games, there's absolutely no fucking way I'm looking out that window.
Instead, I decided to just go outside and see if he was around so that it would be his turn to get some sleep.=. One of us should be well rested.
The door creaked slightly when I applied a little pressure, and I opened it more and enjoyed the fresh cool breeze of the night. I stepped out and saw that Rick wasn't even there, and I swear I could feel my heart jump out of my chest.
I rushed back into the guest house to get my gun and went back outside again, keeping my gun gripped in my hand tightly and praying that there wasn't anything out here.
"Rick?" I whispered aloud while assuring myself that he wouldn't just leave me here alone because he knows I'd be a bigger threat than the walkers themselves.
I circled around the guest house a couple of times and he wasn't anywhere.
He could also be at the main house…
But there's no fucking way I'm going there. I don't think my stomach would be able to handle that smell again.
I placed both hands on my gun and tried to stop my arm from shaking as I made my way towards the main house, in case any walker decided to jump out and pounce me.
I yelped as I felt something grip my waist tightly and shove me into the wall, it was a tall shadow that I could barely make out, "Isabelle! What are you doing out here?" I recognized the voice immediately and I almost wanted to slap him for scaring the shit out of me like that.
"Where the hell were you?" I retorted angrily, ignoring his original question.
"Isabelle, please keep it down." He let go of my waist and I holstered my gun while slowing my breath down, "I heard something from the main house and I wanted to make sure everything was in check over there."
"You could have just woken me up! You can't just leave me here alone without saying anything!" I tried my best to keep my whispers quiet, but that wasn't happening.
He sighed, "Look, I'm sorry, Isabelle," He placed both his hands on my shoulders and continued, "I just wanted to make sure we were both safe for the night." He assured me, but I still stared at the ground.
"I know, I just needed some fresh air and was freaked out to not see you here-"
We both turned our heads as we were interrupted by not only the sound of a wooden door being broken through, but by the recognizable moans and grunts of walkers…
"Shit, shit, shit." I muttered and stared back at Rick, "What do we do?"
He gripped his gun and turned the corner to go to the front of the house, "It's probably one or two, Isabelle, I can handle it."
I leaned forward quickly to grab his shoulder, "I'm sure you can, but I'll go with you." I turned around to see if I could find anything to use instead of shooting, I really didn't want the gunshots to alert any other walkers in the area.
"Isabelle, are you sure?" He asked and I nodded, "I'll be fine, pinky swear."
I told him to wait a second, since I found a small piece of wood sticking out near the bottom of the house. Kicking it several times, a thin plank broke off - good enough for a couple of hits, at least.
I went in front of him, ducked, and motioned him to follow behind. I wanted to stay in front so I could take out any walkers with the wooden plank, and as a last resort, Rick could use his gun.
Staying low, I reached for the handle, cursing under my breath as my hand kept shaking so much that I could barely get a good grip; keep your nerves together, Isabelle!
Turning the handle slowly, I tried my best to keep quiet as the vile smell of decomposing flesh hit my nostrils. As soon as I stepped further inside, I paused to try to let my eyes adjust to the darkness, which only really helped a little.
We reached the kitchen, with me still in front, when I noticed a hammer on the counter. Perfect. I know that'll last longer than this flimsy plank. I snatched it from the counter and checked the rest of the kitchen - a dead end.
Rick and I both turned our heads when we heard some shuffling upstairs, and with a death grip on my hammer, we both began to move upstairs.
"Let me take the hammer, you don't have to go up there," Rick whispered.
"No, I can take care of this. There shouldn't be that many…" I trailed off when I could hear the hiss of a walker down the hallway.
I charged down the hallway, better to get this done and over with, and jammed the claw of the hammer into the walker's head. I was grateful that it didn't put up much of a fight, since it sunk into its skull.
But I wanted to make sure it'd stay dead.
I turned the hammer, using the blunt edge and smashed it into the skull multiple times. I wanted to make sure it'd stay down and I wanted to put it out of its misery. I didn't even care at the mess I was making, wasn't my house anyways.
I had to stop though, as soon as I could hear Rick rushing over to tell me it was dead, that I didn't need to keep bludgeoning it.
He was right, I didn't have to keep going, it was going to stay down.
I stopped and dropped my hammer to the side of the body. I could only hear the low whistle of the night and Rick's faint breaths, we were actually alone now. It was only one walker. Only. Sheesh, I almost sound disappointed.
I picked up my hammer and stood back up with Rick, I was going to need to wash this shirt. It was soaked in the walker's coagulated blood, brain matter, and some of its skull fragments - not exactly the prettiest sight.
There must have been a window cracked open, since the door to a bedroom kept swinging due to a slight breeze.
I cautiously stepped in the room, with my grip still tight on my hammer.
The window wasn't open.
It was broken.
Someone was trying to break out. In fact, more than one person was locked in the room. That's why the parents killed themselves, they couldn't live with the guilt that their kids were infected and they couldn't do anything about it.
Only problem was, there was only one walker.
Memories of being locked in a room with Jane came flooding back and my head was feeling dizzy. I lost my step, my knees buckled and the wall behind me broke my fall. I could hear Rick calling my name, but it sounded muffled, I only sat on the ground with my knees to my chest.
