"Rick, what the hell is he talking about?" Lori asked her husband.
Her calm and professional demeanor was beginning to crack, and the hotel patrons were noticing.
"It's like a disease or something," Rick said. "Shane and I saw it. We've been gettin' calls all day about people gettin' attacked by their loved ones. Just out of nowhere. I was thinkin' it was this rare designer drug at first. That someone was goin' around druggin' people."
"It ain't bath salts," Shane inputted.
"No, it's more like rabies or somethin'," Rick said.
"That man who attacked her," Leon said, gesturing towards the blonde woman.
"Just like that," Shane confirmed.
"You guys got to see this then," Leon waved for them to head towards the hotel room.
"Hold on, hold on," Lori interrupted. "You're tellin' me, Rick, that people are attacking each other in the streets and you left my son at school?"
"My sister is out there too!" the blonde woman said.
"I will go and get Carl," Rick said.
"You can't keep us in here, my sister is out there too!" the blonde woman yelled.
Rick offered his wife an almost pleading glance before looking back to the woman.
"Where's your sister?" he asked her.
Lori shook her head in disbelief.
"The OYO hotel," she answered. "You don't have to. I can take care of my own sister."
"I'm sure you can," Rick said, "but it ain't safe out there. I can't in good conscious let just anyone out there. What's your sister's name?"
"Amy. Amy Harrison. She's seventeen. She has blonde hair. She's in room sixteen."
"I'll bring your sister back safe," Rick promised her.
"I'll back you up," Shane nodded.
"No," Rick said. "You stay here and keep everyone safe. I'll be fine."
"You're gonna go out there alone?" Lori questioned.
"I'll go with him," Leon offered.
He knew Shane would be better equipped than him to handle these people. Who would want to listen to the brand new eighteen-year-old security guard?
"Would you, Leon? God, thank you," Lori said.
Leon nodded and looked to Rick, waiting to get confirmation his help would be accepted.
The deputy heaved a big sigh, his hands on his hips, shaking his head. Eventually the shaking turned into nodding.
"Listen, kid, the world is different than it was this morning," Rick forewarned. "You don't have to."
"He's armed," Lori defended. "He's a good kid. If you're not going to let Shane have your back out there, let Leon."
"You guys board up the windows, barricade the doors. I'll call you when we get back and let us in. DO NOT open the doors for anything or anyone else!"
"You know I got it covered," Shane said. "You go get your son."
"Thank you," Rick nodded.
Leon followed him towards the front door, noticing Rick's caution in opening it. He opened only one of the double doors, peering outside cautiously before nodding back to Leon, indicating the coast was clear.
Leon offered one last look of assurance to Lori, though it did nothing to calm her wide eyes, before following Rick outside the door.
"You keep that gun in your hands, the safety off," Rick commanded.
Leon did as he was told. A spike of adrenaline worked his way up his spine at the seriousness in Rick's voice. He hadn't really processed what Rick and Shane had said, but seeing that dead man with the tendrils coming out of his mouth, he knew that something seriously fucked up was going on.
Rick's movements were deliberate and slow, the man always looking over his shoulder, any sudden movement catching his eye and causing him to turn his head and point his gun in that direction.
Leon's reflexes were not quite as cat-like, but he did his best to copy the pace of the older man until they got to the police cruiser. Rick and Shane had certainly pulled up in a hurry, as the vehicle was parked diagonally, taking up four parking spots. But it was the splotches of blood on the hood of the vehicle that really gave the chaos of the situation away.
He sat in the passenger seat, next to Rick who turned the keys in the ignition of the Ford Victoria Crown, taking off down the road before Leon could fasten his seatbelt.
"The elementary school is only two minutes away," Rick told him.
"God, you'll get there in thirty seconds at this rate," Leon replied, holding onto his seat as Rick sped around a corner.
Sirens blared in the distance, but Rick kept his off.
Rick was right. It was a very different world than the one Leon had seen when he clocked in last night. Cars crashed into each other and into the buildings on the side of the road, creating a maze for Rick to barely be able to weave through in the cruiser. People were running through the streets, some chasing each other. The windows were up, but screams were still audible.
A woman ran out through an alley, a look of relief on her face when she saw the police cruiser, but that was soon torn from her as a man came up from behind her. He grabbed her and pulled her back into the darkness of the alleyway.
"Jesus, what the fuck happened?" Leon asked.
He looked to his companion to see the beads of sweat running down his face. From what he'd heard about Rick Grimes, he was a great deputy, in line to become Sheriff in the next five years if he played his cards right. A man of honor, so it must have been really bad if he was giving up hope on saving all these citizens.
"I know about as much as you," Rick replied.
"How does this happen in the course of a few hours?"
"It's some kind of disease, like I said. These things can spread fast- there's Jefferson Elementary."
These things? Said like something like this had happened before. Leon had been around for less than two decades, but never had he heard that tuberculosis or the Spanish Flu was anything like this. From what he'd heard this was beating out even the bubonic plague.
Rick drove over the recently mowed grass, avoiding the cars that sat blocking the driveway into the parking lot. He drove right up to an exterior door, paying no mind to the sidewalk and gardens he was driving over.
"Stay here," he said.
"No way."
He had promised Lori he'd have her husband's back, but the truth was, after seeing all that, he was terrified to be away from Rick.