Chapter 4 Escape
As Rick stormed off, he regretted his public outburst. Rick needed to disappear, but he had handlers and attempting escape on foot would be noticed before he could make it out. He also couldn't buy more time for an escape plan by pretending to integrate, they all knew now what he thought of the place. He had to act and headed toward Curtis's warehouse. He used a large rock to smash the plate glass. He walked through the office space to the warehouse. He grabbed a tool bag and went in search of anything that could cut or smash - bolt and cable cutters, snippers.
As he came around a blindspot, Anne tried to stab him with a duct knife. He fell backward onto the concrete floor.
"Just stop," Anne declared.
"Or what?" Rick got to his feet with a pair of bolt cutters in his hand.
Anne lunged at Rick again. He smashed be bolt cutters against the knuckles of her right hand causing her to drop her weapon. She felt the next blow of hard, cold metal against her lower jaw sending shockwaves of pain and disorientation through her head. She slumped. Rick struck one more time at the back of her and her body dropped to the ground.
He grabbed the tool bag and the knife. Rick needed to create chaotic distraction to buy him time to get to the hydroelectric plant. The catwalk at the dam would lead him to the boat they use to clear nets and out. He hit as many power stations as he knew of shutting down the power across the city. He hotwired a golf cart and headed out of town. The cart at 19mph was faster than running, but it felt nerve-wracking slow.
Back in the town a panic spread. People rushed the streets, Curtis tried to pull his maintenance crew together but their lines were busy. All except Anne's number that rang and rang. Curtis guessed at what was happening and called it into the public safety department. He then headed out to the warehouse.
While Rick was still in the miles of farming fields he heard a helicopter. He couldn't get a visual on it yet which hopefully meant they hadn't found him.
He let his ghosts and memories flood him now and fuel his mission. He thought of Michonne & Judith jousting, Daryl making more bows for his crossbow, Maggie watching Hershel trying tomato for the first time, Aaron's stories about Gracie. His gut screamed at him, "they aren't dead. They can't be. We're the ones who win."
"CURTIS," Councilor Frank Costa roared as he carried an oil lamp into the community meeting room where the leaders of government and security had gathered in the dark, "you guileless fool! He murdered his sponsor and has destroyed our community."
Frank turned toward the security team who were huddled over maps checking in with observers from quadrants of the city and marking the map. "Where is he," Frank barked at the team.
"Undetermined, sir."
"Could this be a murder-suicide," another council member asked to no one in particular.
"Is he a bitter?!"
For a few seconds the dark room fell silent except for the reports over the walkies.
Frank turned to the security team, "deploy all resources. Total lockdown. Mandatory shelter in homes."
"You," Frank spat at Curtis, "take your Recovered and find him."
When the golf cart made it into the forest, Rick's anxiety lightened. The sound of the helicopter did not appear to be getting closer. He ran the plan over and over in his mind. What is the move if they spotted him before he made it to the dam, or if they spotted him in the boat? The forest broke to tall grass again. Rick once again heard the soft sound of the land's edge and the violent waves that crashed against it. Rick ditched the golf cart about a half-mile from the power plant and proceeded on foot, the duct knife Jadis tried to kill him with in one hand and a bag of electrical supplies now weapons in the other.
The dam wasn't well lit on the outside, just spotlights at key gates and paths. Faint light shone from inside where Rick assumed the hydrodam crew were working. Rick used the bolt cutters to break the lock on an unused gate entrance. He headed across what was once a large parking lot and was now mostly weeds and chunks of asphalt staying in the deep shadows and way from the spotlights.
The roar of the dam and water were loud now. Rick followed any exterior sign or door that said "Service Personnel Only" or "Warning Do Not Enter." When he finally climbed down to the catwalk he was surprised by Lance waiting further down the metal platform.
"Rick," Lance yelled over the roar of water and machinery, "no."
Rick took Lance's presence as a threat preventing his escape. He charged at the young man.
"It doesn't work," Lance screamed as Rick bounded toward him. "It doesn't go."
Before Rick could judge what Lance was trying to tell him, that his escape plan was doomed, Rick rammed Lance with his shoulder and lifted his body over the railing and into the headwaters. Even in the darkness Rick saw Lance's shock and fear-stricken face as he was swept into the current, pulled down against the trash rack of the dam and drowned.
The next seconds felt like slow motion from the adrenaline. Rick looked up from the water, to his right on the catwalk from where he had just entered stood Curtis and others behind him with flashlights. Curtis looked at Rick in horror. His face was pale. He lifted his arms up to signal peace.
Rick turned his head left. At the far end of the catwalk where stairs led to the dead boat and his dream of returning home, Rick saw another group with flashlights appear.
Curtis, his arms still raised, approached Rick with a cautious gait like a trapping an animal.
"What have you done?"
On the day of Rick's hearing many people testified about their fear and pain at what Rick had done to their community. When Curtis came forward to give testimony he put his hand reassuringly on Rick's shoulder as he passed.
"Councilors, Rick Grimes has committed heinous acts against our community. But he committed those crimes from a place of pain. A darkness that I know well. You see I aided Rick with information. Information he ultimately used to attack the community." Audible gasps could be heard in the room as Curtis continued.
"Why did I feed this information to Rick knowing that he was in pain? Because I needed proof to show you all that the Life Recovery Crew needs to be shut down.
The community thinks it is being charitable by recovering the best people from being lost. However, there is a reason we recovered lives gather every week. The reason is that we were the best out there because we had others who were counting on us. For those of us who chose recovery, there is guilt. Guilt that I've carried for two years knowing that my lost lives didn't make it without me. For those, like Rick, where recovery was chosen for him, there is rage.
So, I fed Rick information knowing he would use it enraged. Now, I can show you all the folly of your charity and demand that for the safety of us all the Life Recovery mission must end."
There were murmurs of surprise in the crowd. The council huddled together. Rick's stoic anger shattered into defeated betrayal as he realized Curtis had used him for his own agenda. He envisioned his family slipping away from him forever.
Councilor Frank held up his hand to silence the room. "Curtis, we will address a sentencing for your accessory crimes in a separate hearing. But, I speak for the rest of the council in acknowledging that you have shown us the error in our belief that lives can be recovered. We will honor your petition and disband the Life Recovery Crew, effective immediately."
Curtis expressed his gratitude, stepped down from the podium and looked Rick straight in the face as he walked passed. His mission accomplished he felt no shame in sentencing Rick to life in prison.
"Rick Grimes, we understand that you have waived your right to testify?" Rick nodded. "Then, we are prepared for sentencing. Rick Grimes, you are sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Anne Jadis and Lance Truman, and for acts of terrorism against the community. May you find peace."
Present-Day
"What the fuck?" The guard exclaimed as he stared too long at the disgusting piece pinched between his fingers. He heard Rick make a small cough below him. The guard looked down to see Rick's piercing eyes wide open and trained on him.
The guard made a motion to lurch back, away from Rick, but his reaction was slow. Rick smacked him unconscious with his own billy club that he had unwittingly laid down on the floor next to Rick.
Rick breathed deep and with all his force picked himself and the guard up off the barren floor. He used the unconscious guard as a shield from the armed guards. He made his way toward the door at the end of the hall that he hope the doctor team would rush through at any moment. When he heard them approaching, he threw the body at one of the guards knocking him over. He attacked the second guard with a charging palm strike to the chin. Then Rick grabbed their weapons. The hallway door opened. Rick charged at the additional guard, and the doctor, he pushed past the gurney and ran down the hall.
He made it to a the stairwell. When he pushed on the door blaring alarms sounded. Inside the stairwell, the sound was deafening, but Rick kept going. When he burst through the exit door of the stairs he shot the guard monitoring the stairs in the right shoulder. Rick made it outside, the frigid raw concrete sent chills up his bare feet. It had been over two years since he'd made it to the outside. He found a guard locking the gate of the yard.
"Open it," Rick demanded. The guard drew his gun. Rick shot him in the head. He reached through the fence for the key in the dead man's hand and opened the gate. He was now on the service road that led into the service entrance of the small prison. He had made it outside the gates. He heard the sound of bullets ricochet past him. He ran. He needed to strip himself of his clothes that were a perfect target orange for snipers. A bullet cut his ear and it started to bleed. Rick didn't say anything to the guards at the service road gate. He shot bullets at their bulletproof glass obscuring the clear glass and their ability to shelter in place and pursue him. He ran under the traffic arm and dashed into the wooded land beside the road.
Rick was bleeding and broken, but he did not stop running. In the forest, he heard the alarm at the prison stop. The silence reminded him of the helicopters in his first escape attempt. Silence was bad. He ran away from the direction of town, determined to finally find where the community ended. Determined to find death.
Chairman Frank Costa opened the emergency meeting with what everyone was thinking, "How the hell are we here again? How did he get out?!"
Another councilor answered, "There will be time to investigate those answers in the future. What we have to do now is gather a team to pursue him."
The attendees in the room mumbled in agreement.
"And lose more people? He's already killed two today," Frank countered, "Councilor Curtis what do you say?"
Curtis took a second to let the room go quiet. In the years of Rick's imprisonment, the community had accepted Curtis's deception as an intervention. In the next council election, he won more votes than any candidate ever and was a trusted voice. "Fellow councilors, community leaders, Rick Grimes is heading to the cliffs where he will likely die once he hits the water. It's almost winter. He has no supplies or food. I imagine he will show up in our nets within the month. If by some miracle he doesn't, and we're still concerned he can threaten us," Curtis's voice dropped as he articulated every word, "we know where he is going. We don't have to pursue, we can meet him there. Right, Dante?" Curtis turned to face the dark haired man he named who smiled and nodded expressively.