Back in my room, it was so quiet all I could hear was the clock ticking. I opened the closet where my old clothes were, the ones I had on before they brought me here, and dug around in my pocket for my iPod. I couldn't find it and started to panic. That's all I have left of the normal world! There's so many pictures and videos on it of my friends and family before this!

I started checking around the room.

"Lose something?" I heard a voice say. Gorman was standing in the doorway. He had my iPod! "This is yours, ain't it?"

"Give it back." I snapped. "Now!"

"Whoa. Hold on there." He walked closer to me. "You ain't gonna get anything by talking to me like that. How about asking nicely?"

I glared at him then "tried" to change my expression. "May I have my iPod back?"

"Say please." He teased and touched my face.

I pulled away and sighed. "Please."

He laughed. "One more time."

I gritted my teeth. I really wanted to just kill him right now. "Please."

He laughed and took a step closer to me. He held out my iPod for me to take then snatched it away once I reached for it. I shot him a glare.

"Just kidding." He laughed and handed it to me again. I grabbed it quickly before he could try anything again. "Well, gee, I'm just playing around. You look like the kind of girl who likes that. Am I, right?" When I didn't answer he put his hand on my waist.

I punched him square in the nose. "Don't fucking touch me!"

"Why you little—

"Leave her alone." Dr. Edwards came into the room and stopped Gorman.

"The girl should have been mine." Gorman snapped.

"Nobody's yours, Gorman. Nobody. And if you think you're getting Joan back—

"Oh, I'm gonna get her back. You think Dawn's gonna stop me?

"I will."

"You stepping up, Doc?"

"What happens when you get sick, Gorman? When you get an infection? When you get bit? Hmm."

"I think there's gonna be somebody." Gorman said. "Somebody who ain't you."

"Gorman." Dawn then walked by.

"And maybe somebody in charge who ain't her." Gorman finished then walked away.

Dr. Edwards and I were alone now. "Why do you stay? You could leave whenever you want. Why do you stay here?" I finally asked him.

He just stared at me. "Come with me."

I perked up a little. Is he going to help me get out?

"Welcome to the ground floor of Grady Memorial Hospital." The doctor said. He took me to the lowest level.

"This isn't a way out." I said.

"There isn't one." He said. "Not from here."

"Why'd you bring me here then?" I snapped.

"Watch." He knocked on the window. In seconds, there were walkers trying to get in. "When I start thinking about it too much, I come down to look at this."

"Why'd you bring me here?" I asked again.

"You asked why I stay."

I stared at him like he was an idiot. Is he really that afraid to go outside?

"Come on." He said.

He took me back upstairs and we went out onto the rooftop. I looked out at the city, it looked terrible.

"When everything started, Dawn reported to a guy named Hanson. They had orders to clear the hospital and move everyone to Butler Park. It was close to midnight when we heard the jets, the bombs. The screams. I was on the third floor. Dawn and Hanson's teams were doing a final sweep. And we knew it was bad. Just didn't know how bad till we came up here. The city had fallen. And everyone we evacuated they were just gone. We kept mostly to ourselves at first. Till the food ran out. We started going out on runs, a few of us at a time. We'd see people who needed help. Barely holding on. But we were barely holding on ourselves. Came a time I couldn't look away anymore. I found this kid. Napalm burns on his clothes, his skin. Dawn said we couldn't spare the resources. So we struck a deal. I'd use what I could to heal him and he'd compensate us for those resources through service." He scoffed. "Now you're not the problem. We lost people. That was the problem. Hanson cracked. He made some calls that got people killed. Dawn took care of things. She took care of him. She saw us past it. Kept us together. Kept us alive."

"You call this living?" I finally spoke.

"We're still breathing. Patients we brought here, they're still breathing. Outside these walls, alone, unprotected, they'd be dead. We'd be dead. We're not the ones who make it. As bad as it gets, it's still better than down there."

Yeah, right? I need to get away from this guy before I slap the shit out of him. "I should get back." I said.

"How about you look in on Mr. Trevitt and call it a day?"

I agreed.

"He's stable, due for another 75mg of Clozapine." He informed me. "And tomorrow we'll start fresh."

"Sure." I said apathetically.

Clozapine Clozapine Clozapine! I said to myself the whole way down to Trevitt's room so I wouldn't forget. I found what I needed and prepared it then injected it into his tube.

"Still at it, huh?" Noah walked into the room and smiled at me.

"Hey." I said.

All of a sudden, the beeping from the monitor started going crazy and Mr. Trevitt began seizing. I gasped. "Oh no." I said out loud. "What do I do?" I looked at Noah. His eyes were wide and he shook his head. I looked back at the patient and he stopped moving and the monitor flatlined. "No."

Dawn stabbed Mr. Trevitt in the head so he wouldn't turn. "What did you do to him?" I didn't know what to say. "He was fine until the two of you were alone with him. Something happened. I want you to tell me." Dawn looked back and forth at us.

"It was an accident." Noah blurted out. "Abby left to get some gauze. I was mopping. I must have unplugged the ventilator somehow. It only stopped for a minute."

What? No! I won't let him take the blame! I was about to say something but he cut me off.

"I got it working again."

"Take him to my office." Dawn said to her officers. They grabbed Noah's arm and dragged him away.

"Dawn, it was an accident." Dr. Edwards said but Dawn ignored him and walked away. "It was an accident." He called after her.

"That's not what happened." I said once the doctor and I were alone. "He just like…started having a seizure or something."

"Seizing? Well, you gave him Clonazepam, right?"

What? "Cloz-Clozapine." I said. "You said Clozapine."

He stared at me for a moment. "No…I didn't."

I gasped inside. Liar! I know I had it right! I said it the whole way down here! I was about to say something but I heard Noah yell. "Please!" He said. I heard noise like he was getting beat up. I tried to run but the doctor stopped me.

"Abby, we need to deal with Mr. Trevitt while he's still warm."

"I have to stop it!" I yelled. I'm not going to let anyone take the blame for me. It was my problem, not his.

"We can't—you can't stop it." He said.

I found Noah later in the laundry room. He was all bruised up. "It's not as bad as it looks." He said. "I'm okay."

"Why did you do that? How could you be so stupid?"

"A simple thank you would be nice."

I huffed. "Yeah, well you won't get one from me."

"Dawn needed Trevitt for something." Noah said. "I know that's what that was about. Screwed-up thing is, she's trapped, too."

"We're not trapped." I said. "I'm getting out of here."

"How, though?" Noah said.

"Basement's the fastest way out, right?"

After we discussed the plan, we went our separate ways. We were to meet at the elevator once our jobs were done.

I went to sneak into Dawn's office to get a key, Noah was in the laundry room gathering as many sheets as he could possibly find, and looking for anything we could use as weapons.

But first…I stopped in my room to get my iPod. Can't leave that behind. I stuck it in my bra. Then, I made my way into Dawn's office. As I was looking around in drawers, I found Joan laying on the floor, dead. I gasped. Who did that to her? I stepped over her body and opened the drawer, the key was inside. Yes! I grabbed it. I also found a pair of scissors and tucked them in the back of my pants.

"What's going on in here?" Gorman walked in.

Fuck! Well, at least I know what happened to Joan. "Dawn was just asking for her key."

"See, I was just with Dawn and I don't seem to remember that." He put his arm in front of me to stop me. I glared at him. "Tell ya what…let's make a deal. I won't tell Dawn if…" He walked over to me and started putting his hands on me. "You're the kinda girl that likes to play around, right?" I could throw up right now. "What do you say? Think we can work something out?"

I looked around me and came up with a plan. I smiled and nodded.

"That'a girl." He put his hand under my shirt and started kissing my neck. I looked away, something caught my eye. Joan had turned and she was coming back. I knew he was distracted so I quickly pulled the scissors out and stabbed him in the neck.

He grimaced and fell to the floor. Walker Joan began gnawing away at him.

I grabbed his gun and took off.

I passed Dawn and another cop as I was walking down the hall. "You okay, Abby?" She asked me.

"Uh…yeah." I said. "Oh. By the way, Joan was looking for you. I saw her and Gorman headed towards your office."

There was a brief pause.

"Thank you, Abby." Dawn finally said and they walked away.

I hurried down the hall after that. Noah was there waiting for me. I unlocked the door and we ran to the elevator. He had the sheets already tied. He helped tie it around me then tied it to a pole that was nearby.

Suddenly, we hard screaming and gunshots and knew Dawn had found the mess I left in her office. "Quickly Quicky!" I said.

"Okay, ready?"

I nodded.

After lowering me down the elevator shaft with the sheets tied together, Noah started to make his way down. About halfway down, the sheets ripped and he fell on the ground in front of me. "My ankle!" He yelled.

Shit! Why now? "Can you walk on it? I said.

He got up. "I think so."

We made our way out through the basement. I killed the few walkers that were still alive down there.

We opened the door to outside, and took off. We ran towards the fence, which was the only exit. There were some walkers around, I tried to run passed as many as I could without killing them so I could save the bullets but there were more of them coming. We had to be quick and squeeze passed them.

Noah went in front of me after I struggled to kill a walker.

I turned around, and saw some of the cops coming.

"Hurry!" I yelled.

I looked around and saw more walkers coming plus the cops. I knew that we both couldn't get out of here and well, Noah was in front of me. I couldn't let that happen, I HAD to get out of here.

Suddenly, it was like this whole thing was in slow motion. I ran in front of Noah, he was struggling with his ankle. "Sorry." I said to him. He just stared at me like he didn't understand. I raised my gun and without thinking, shot him in the leg. He screamed and fell to the ground. I ran without looking back. I was able to squeeze through the fence. I heard Noah screaming as the walkers tore him apart.

I kept running until I was far enough away. I stopped to catch my breath. Eventually, I sat on the ground, I felt numb…just nothing at all. I can't believe what I just did.

I walked around for a long time. I searched every building that was ahead of me, to try and find supplies. I wasn't having any luck. I was able to find a change of clothes, though. I was happy to get out of those stupid scrubs.

I ran up a street and I saw something in the road on fire. There were walkers around it.

"What is that?" I whispered to myself. That had to have been a person. That means there's people nearby. That had to have just happened because the fire is still burning. Maybe they're in that building? That's where I would go. A thought occurred to me, even though people are dangerous, I need someone at least. You can't make it alone these days.

I ran quietly passed the walkers and into a car garage. Once I was inside the building, I checked the rooms, didn't find anything. I was beginning to lose hope. Maybe I can camp here for the night at least?

Suddenly, I heard footsteps and hid behind a wall. I heard someone fighting a walker down the hall. A voice said something then another voice said something back. So there's two people. Shit. I don't know if I can handle both of them. I couldn't make out what they were saying it just sounded like mumbling.

I just tried to listen to them talking, but a walker came from around the corner and scared me. I was not expecting that at all. I yelped and struggled to kill it. I could hear the footsteps coming closer. The people must have heard me! "Oh, shit!" I had other things to worry about right now, though, like killing this walker. I was having a real hard time. Then as if by a miracle, I saw an arrow go through it's head! No way! The walker went limp and fell on top of me. I still couldn't see anyone because the walker was blocking my view.

It was quickly hauled off me and I was staring at none other than Daryl Dixon. I gasped. He saw me and had the same expression. And Carol was there, too! I hadn't seen her before the prison attack because I remember my dad sent her away. I wondered how they found each other?

Things were quiet for a minute. Then I jumped up. "Daryl!" We hugged each other.

"Abby, I cain't believe it." He smiled.

We finally pulled apart. "How—How'd you guys get here?"

"We was lookin' fer you." Daryl stated. "I saw that car, the one that drove away with you it, and we followed it."

My smiled faded. "…after, um…you told me to run down the road and wait for you…someone hit me over the head and knocked me out. Took me to a hospital."

He sighed and nodded. Then, it was as if he had a thought, "well, look, yer dad and the others are back at a church not too far from here."

"What? My dad? Everyone?"

"Everyone." Daryl nodded.

I could not believe it. "Oh my God!" I put my hands on my head in disbelief and smiled. I could almost cry. "Well what are we still doing here? Let's go!"

The three of us laughed then we found a truck and headed on our way back to this church they told me about.

They caught me up on a little bit of what went on after Daryl and I got separated. Sounds like they had it pretty rough.

"Oh, we forgot to mention…we got some new friends, too." Carol informed me.

"New friends?" I laughed then stopped because I thought of Noah and began to feel guilty. I looked down at the floor. Maybe I didn't have to kill him.

Daryl and Carol were talking but I wasn't really listening.

"You okay, Abby?" Daryl asked me.

I hesitated. "…yeah. Well…I will be." I tried to reassure them.

But I didn't know if it was the truth. I didn't know if I really was or if I will be? This feeling I have right now…I don't know if I can ever be the same again…