Hello again!

When it comes to posting new fics, I like to upload the first few chapters to give people a better sense of where the story is going, hence why this chapter is going up so soon lol.

A quick thank you to Georgetteb321, ashbandicoot, daryldixonlover18, dollinchains, and Thetroublewithexes for favouriting/following the story. I'm glad the first chapter has sparked your interests, so thank you for the support!

Anyways, things get a bit more interesting in this chapter, so I hope you all enjoy!

I do not own the Walking Dead, only my OC.

One month later

It was her second 36-hour shift of the week. Every muscle ached something fierce and it felt like her bones were made of metal. It had been a long, tedious night at the local hospital; it seemed like a handful of people had come down with the flu. At least two dozen people had come in with fevers, pale skin, dizziness, and the chills. A few had begun throwing up or fainting, and it seemed that all of them were suffering from dehydration as well.

Scarlett was slumped over in a chair near the main desk, watching as nurses and doctors scattered about like chicken with their heads cut off. They were trying to keep their composure, she could tell, but they were definitely not fooling anyone.

With her notepad in hand, she glanced down at her handwriting. A list of symptoms remained on the paper but it only made Scarlett narrow her eyes in perplexity. The symptoms clearly pointed to some sort of infection, but the hospital's treatments had yet to show any results of improvement.

"Well, you look like the embodiment of health, Holloway."

She continued to look down at her notes, not needing to glance up to see who had spoken. Her patience was running thin and her bloodshot eyes continued to burn, but she couldn't help but talk back to the policeman.

"Kind of busy right now. Come back when I'm not drowning in flu patients or having a mental breakdown." Scarlett replied, making Shane let out a short laugh.

"I'm here to see Rick, you wanna come with?" He asked, his tone more serious now. "You look like you could use a break."

She finally glanced up and looked at Shane, spotting the vase of flowers tucked under his arm. The man looked tired as well, the job as well as his comatose best friend most likely weighing heavy on his mind.

"Yeah, I'll come." She sighed, tucking her notepad into the front pocket of her pants.

The two of them made their way to the fourth floor, much to the discontent of Scarlett's aching body. She was a bit nervous about seeing Rick. She'd only seen him once back when he'd first gone into the coma. While she liked to think she didn't have the time to visit him, she knew deep down that it was because she was scared.

"How's Victoria doing?" Shane asked as they walked down the busy hall of the fourth floor.

"I wouldn't know. She's been on a field trip for the past week." Scarlett answered, sidestepping out of the way of a jogging nurse.

"Yeah? Where's the field trip?"

"She told me they were going to visit a few older towns to learn about the history of Georgia." Scarlett explained vaguely, obviously having no clue when it came to the school's outing. This made Shane laugh softly once again.

After what seemed like forever, the two adults found themselves standing in front of room 450. Shane had grown quiet as his mouth formed into a stern line while Scarlett furrowed her eyebrows with worry and concern about what she was about to see. With a quick breath in, she opened the door and they stepped into the room.

The room looked like all the others; plain white walls, dull sunlight flooding into the room, the steady beep of Rick's heartbeat on the monitor, and of course, the patient himself.

Shane approached Rick carefully as Scarlett shut the door behind her.

"Hey bud," Shane began, looking down at his pale best friend. "You're still here. We're still hanging in."

Scarlett slowly approached the bed where Rick resided, watching as Shane continued to watch his friend with worried eyes. She heard people running down the hall outside of the room, but she assumed it was another wave of people infected with the flu.

"I'm sorry, man. I know it's the same crap every time I come in here," he began again, standing back up straight and letting out a huff. "Everybody pitched in on these. They wanted me to bring them down and they send their love. They just…they hope you come back real soon."

Resting her hands on the side of the bed, Scarlett could see the soft breaths leaving Rick's mouth. They were shaky and shallow, but before she could get emotional about it, a quick chuckle came from Shane.

"Linda and Diane from dispatch picked these out. Probably could tell, huh? I'm just gonna set these on your side table, 'kay?" Shane said, placing the flowers beside Rick's bed. "Oh, and I brought Holloway with me. Things have been crazy here at the hospital, you wouldn't believe it."

Scarlett simply smiled down at Rick and placed her hand on his. She thought she heard a helicopter flying overhead, which was odd, but she chose to ignore it.

"Hey Rick," she began, her voice calm. "Victoria and I miss you tons. Things aren't the same without you around. Who else is supposed to keep Shane in line? You know he doesn't listen to me."

Another scoff left Shane's lips as Scarlett shot him a smile before continuing on with her words.

"I hope you come out of this soon. We still need to have that dinner together, you know? You, Lori, Carl, Shane, Tori and I. A little family get together would do wonders for everyone right about now."

Scarlett hadn't even noticed that the word 'family' had slipped from her lips until it was already said. She didn't regret it, nor did she think that Shane would bother her about it. It simply made her more sad to think about because there was, after all, what felt like a huge hole in their little family. It felt wrong not having him around.

Before either of them could say another word, yelling had begun on the other side of their door. It sounded from down the hall at first before Scarlett heard the sound of feet running followed by more yelling from multiple voices.

"What in the hell?"

The two of them ran to the door and threw it open, revealing nurses and staff running down the hallway. That didn't surprise or worry Scarlett, but what worried her was that there were soldiers in the halls as well. With guns pressed to their fronts, she knew they were planning on using them. She saw a familiar face in the crowd and shouted out.

"Karen! What's going on?" Scarlett yelled, only to be ignored.

"It looks like everyone's being evacuated." Shane mumbled as they left the room.

A gunshot rang from down the hallway as the two of them ran towards the sound. A gurney sat at the end and both adults seemed to have the same idea, though Scarlett wasn't pleased.

Once they reached the gurney, Scarlett and Shane looked down the other hallway to see soldiers lining up patients before letting their guns go off and essentially filling them all with bullets. Blood splattered up the white walls as Scarlett froze with horror and watched as one soldier began firing shots into the already deceased's heads.

The door at the end of that hallway opened up and more patients came through, though they didn't exactly look normal. One of them grabbed a soldier, which caused him to fire up into the ceiling as he struggled to get away. More patients began to attack them and bite at their combat gear.

"Scarlett, we need to get back now!" Shane yelled as he pulled both her and the gurney along with him.

Coming back to her senses for a moment, Scarlett helped Shane push the gurney back to Rick's room before throwing the door open and making their away over to their comatose friend.

"We need to get him out of here." Shane stated, placing his arms under Rick's legs and back as he began to lift him.

"No! Shane we can't, he'll die if we take out his IV," Scarlett panicked urging him to place Rick back down. "Moving him out of the room alone would probably kill him."

More gunfire could be heard outside the hospital as well as in the hallways. The shouting continued, some out of agony and some giving out orders. Scarlett ran over to Shane's side near Rick's monitor and pulled the man down behind the bed.

"What the-" Shane began, only for Scarlett to cover his mouth.

The sound of a soldier bursting into the room reached their ears as the man began looking around the room for anything moving. After a few seconds of scouting, the soldier left the room and hurried down the hall.

The both of them sat up from their hiding spot before Shane turned his attention to Rick once again.

"Listen to me, if you're gonna wake up I need you to do it now," Shane forcefully spoke to Rick, the desperation in his eyes evident. "Now. Please man, you need to show me a sign. Anything. Please Rick-"

A sound as though a bomb had been dropped on top of the hospital rang throughout the room, all the power going out as Shane threw a protective arm over Scarlett as a few tiles came down from the ceiling and the ground shook beneath them. The sound of the monitor turning off had Scarlett jumping up to check on the machine, only for black to be on the screen.

"No, no, no." Scarlett mumbled, panic running through her as she fiddled with the machine. She turned all the right nobs and pressed all the right buttons, but the monitor refused to turn back on.

Shane got up and pressed an ear to Rick's chest. After a quiet moment, Scarlett watched Shane's face pause with dread and his eyes fill with fear. He pressed his face into his best friend's hospital gown as Scarlett's eyes filled with tears. Shane stood up and looked down at her, his eyes watering as well with his face all scrunch up in emotional distress.

"I'm sorry." Shane mouthed to Rick's lifeless body, pressing his hand over his best friend's face. Scarlett watched quietly, tears running down her face as she stared at something that wasn't there.

"Okay, okay," Shane mumbled to himself. "Scarlett, we gotta go."

Scarlett looked up at Shane, eyes wide with fear and hopelessness. She knew he was right, it was the rational thing to do, but her body wouldn't move. She felt like she couldn't breathe, listening to the gunshots and the screams as her eyes shifted back to Rick. A quick sob left her mouth before she mustered the will to stand up and follow Shane to the door.

He pulled out his gun and looked down the mostly deserted hallway. Scarlett peaked out from behind him to see more soldiers shooting down people at the far end of the other hallway. Behind them, Scarlett heard moans and turned to see some of the patients slowly shuffling down the hall towards them. They looked sickly and were covered in blood, the stench filling both her and Shane's nostrils. It smelled like a rotting corpse and Scarlett came to the conclusion that it was the patients.

"We should close the door." Scarlett mumbled as Shane spotted the patients coming towards them.

The man nodded and quickly closed the door. Scarlett shoved the gurney from earlier in front of Rick's room as well, even if the man's heart had stopped beating.

"Come on, we gotta go!" Shane yelled at her and the two of them ran in the opposite direction of the patients.

"We should go out the back." Scarlett stated, turning and running down one of the staircases with Shane right on her heels.

Once they had reached the back exit, the two of them burst through to see nothing but chaos outside. Multiple helicopters had landed and military were everywhere, some shooting at civilians while others were being attacked by the same sickly-looking people as the patients inside the hospital. An explosion rang out from their left as they watched one of the airborne helicopters fly into one of the buildings. The screams and blood seemed endless as Shane tugged on Scarlett's arm and the two began running once again.

Managing to make it passed the military and back into the streets, the anarchy continued as people fled from their homes and packed their cars. The gunfire was still ringing loud and clear through the air around them, though Scarlett couldn't focus on who or what was being shot at. She had spotted a little girl sitting on the side of the road wailing in pain as her mother wrapped bandages around her wounded leg. The wound was bleeding a lot and it almost appeared as if a chunk had been taken out of her leg.

"I'm gonna go grab Lori and Carl and bring them back to your place. I'll meet you there in ten," Shane said as they continued to run through the distraught neighbourhoods. "You still got Stella by your front door?"

"Yeah, I do." Scarlett answered, her breathing a bit strained.

"Okay good. Lock all doors and only open them if you hear four quick knocks on the front door, then you'll know it's me," Shane stated and Scarlett nodded. "Stay safe."

"You too."

Shane split off from her side and turned down one of the streets that lead away from Scarlett's own home. She didn't like the idea of being left alone, not one bit. Her stomach was turning and her eyes were wide with fear as she continued sprinting down the streets. Spotting a man pointing a gun at an older woman, Scarlett watched as the man riddled her body with bullets, only for her to keep moving towards him despite all the blood that was pouring from the wounds in her stomach. The older lady grabbed ahold of the man and bit into his shoulder, blood spraying everywhere as he fell to the ground. The lady remained on top of him, appearing to be eating away at his flesh. Scarlett picked up her pace as she barely held in the bile rising in her throat.

About another minute of running and she had finally reached her house. Grabbing the key from her pocket as she sprinted up the steps to the front porch, Scarlett stuck the key into the lock and turned it sharply, quickly throwing open the door and slamming it behind her. Hurriedly locking the front door, Scarlett ran to the back door and flicked the lock there as well. She began running around the house, locking the windows and drawing the blinds on every single window in the entire home. When she had come sprinting back down the stairs, Scarlett spotted her most prized metal bat by the front door. While she hated the thought, it appeared as thought Scarlett would be getting use out of Stella.

Four sharp knocks pounded on her front door and Scarlett grabbed the bat, thinking the worst. While that had been Shane's signal that it was him, she realized that anyone could have randomly knocked on her front door four times. Taking a quick breath in Scarlett unlocked the door and threw it open with her bat held high, only to see the scared faces of Lori, Carl, and Shane.

"Get inside, quickly." Scarlett said, her voice just barely shaking as the three of them rushed into her home.

Once they were inside, Scarlett closed the door and locked it once more. She watched as Lori took Carl to the couch in order to try and calm the crying boy down. Shane turned his attention to Scarlett after looking around the house to make sure that everything was locked.

"I have some spare planks of wood downstairs," Scarlett said after a moment of silence. "I think we should use them to board up the front and back windows."

Shane nodded, obviously still trying to catch his breath. By the wide frightened look in his eyes, she knew that they had seen some bad things going on out there. Maybe even worse than what she had seen herself.

Scarlett led him downstairs and turned on the single light bulb that remained down there. The planks were stacked in the corner of the basement and the two of them quickly began grabbing them and bringing them upstairs.

Once a pile had been made at the top of the stairs, Shane brought some into the living room while Scarlett looked for her hammer and pack of nails. Finding them in the far left drawer in her kitchen, she ran back to where Shane was. They immediately began putting the boards up over the windows, each individual window getting four planks hammered in over them. Scarlett was surprised at how fast they had managed to get them done, and the back windows took even less time than the front ones. However, she didn't like the fact that there were spaces in between the boards.

"People can still see in here." Shane said, as if he were reading her mind.

"I have some dark bed sheets that we hang up," Scarlett suggested, looking over at him. "It'll block the view into the house."

"Let's do it." He breathed as Scarlett ran upstairs in search of the dark material.

Roughly a few minutes later and the two of them had covered up each window with the dark cotton sheets. It was difficult, but Lori had eventually come and began helping them hammer the sheets to the wood. The crashes and gunshots still rang from outside, but no one dared look. It had begun to darken outside as the horrific screams still echoed throughout the small town, making everyone jump with each cry.

Unable to sit still and continue listening to the anarchy outside, Scarlett made her way over to the radio. She had never been more thankful that she had a satellite radio, quickly flipping the device on. Static was all she could hear for a while, no matter how many times she adjusted the antenna in search of some sort of transmission. About to give up and head back to her spot near the window, the sound of an automated voice broke through the static and filled the quiet room.

"…government officials are advising citizens to head to Atlanta where the military is providing shelter and protection until the pandemic is dealt with. Avoid all contact with the infected populous…"

The static roared once again, completely decimating the broadcast and making Scarlett smack the side of the radio out of irritation.

"Stupid thing." She mumbled, deciding to just turn it off.

The house filled with silence again as Scarlett moved back to her chair near the boarded up windows. She knew that both Shane and Lori had heard the short clip of the transmission and were quietly taking in the information. A dreadful feeling had crept up in her chest because she knew that they would want to go to Atlanta. The problem was that she wouldn't be able to go with them.

"I say we pack up what we can manage to carry in the morning and make our way to the city." Shane stated calmly as he looked over at Lori.

"We could take the car. All four of us could fit." She specified but all Scarlett could do was shake her head.

"I can't come with you guys." The red head mumbled, staring at the lantern that sat in the middle of the room. There was a pause and Scarlett could feel all eyes on her but she couldn't bring herself to meet anyone's gaze.

"Why the hell not?" Shane demanded from the doorway where he stood.

"You know why." She answered, furrowing her eyebrows.

"I clearly don't, so feel free to enlighten me-"

"Shane, quiet down." Lori interrupted him as multiple bangs could be heard from outside the house. Getting up from her chair and going over to the window, Scarlett moved one of the sheets out of her way in order to look outside to see people breaking into the house across the road.

"Turn off the lantern." Scarlett insisted as she stuffed the crack full of the black fabric once again and Lori quickly blew out the candle within the lantern.

A few moments passed as the group of them sat in silence listening to the crashes and bangs coming from the neighboring house. Screams soon followed and the sound of a gun firing echoed through the previously quiet street. Carl began crying once again and Lori grabbed a hold of him, her own eyes were watering. Shane's gaze was fixed on the boarded up windows as Scarlett grabbed her bat and held it close to her chest.

"My sister is still out there, Shane," Scarlett began explaining as she sat down with her back pressed against the wall. "I need to stay here and wait for her. She'll most likely make her way back here."

"That's if she even makes it that far," Shane said, only to receive a hard glare from the red head that made him immediately regret his choice of words. "Holloway, she'll probably end up going to the city too! There's no point in waiting for her on the slight chance that she might come back here at all."

"I can't risk it, I can't," Scarlett attempted to justify the motive behind her actions. "If she comes here to an abandoned house, she would have come this far for nothing! I need to stay, I'm sorry."

"Scarlett, please." Lori mumbled, finally tuning in to the conversation.

"Look," Scarlett began, letting out a big breath of air. "If she isn't here in two weeks, I'll come join you in Atlanta. I promise."

Both Shane and Lori were looking at her with pleading expressions, realizing that there was nothing they could say to change her mind.

"I'll be okay. The window's are all boarded up, I've got shelter and food," she explained to them. "Plus, I've got Stella if I need her. I can fend for myself."

Even as she said the last line, her confidence seemed to weaver. Scarlett just hoped that they had failed to notice it.

Shane's stern and dread-ridden eyes were still staring at her harshly but she managed to hold her ground under his gaze. With an angry huff of air, he reached into his belt and pulled out his gun. While fear had shot through Scarlett's body, it fell away when Shane held the weapon out to her.

"If you're not coming with us, at least take this," Shane demanded. "Please."

She met his determined eyes and slowly reached out to grab the gun. It was cold to the touch and weighed a decent amount in her hands.

"You remember how to shoot it?" He asked her as flash backs from both Shane and Rick teaching her how to fire a gun a few years ago.

"Yeah." She muttered, staring down at the gun before meeting his eyes again.

"Good," Shane said, his gaze staying on her form for a moment before turning away. "We should all get some rest. The three of us will leave as soon as the sun rises in the morning."

While everyone else made their bed out of the sheets she had brought down from the second floor, Scarlett remained seated on the floor with Stella on her lap and the gun in her hand. Her gut was telling her that what she was doing was the right thing, but her chest felt as though bricks had been dropped on top of her. She wasn't looking forward to the isolation. She just prayed that her sister would come back in one piece and as soon as possible.

Second chapter complete!

I hope this chapter turned out alright. I've been writing like crazy these past few days so feel free to let me know if it was up to par or not :)

The storyline picks up in the next chapter, I can't wait to share it with you guys.

Will update as soon as I can,

- GuiltyCalamity