SEPTEMBER 27, 2003
Joel had never wanted to go on this road trip. It was Sarah's idea, and he just couldn't say no to her. Especially not after Tommy had told him how she had planned it all out; how she was so excited for it. Perhaps it was more for Sarah than it was for Joel and his thirty-second birthday. And he had to admit the level of planning that she was capable of at only thirteen years old was impressive. When he was thirteen, he had straight C's in all his seventh grade classes and spent most of his time riding around the neighborhood on his bike or skateboard. God only knew where Sarah got her smarts from because it wasn't from him nor his ex-wife.
He looked down at the watch on his wrist, ticking, ticking past the 1 AM mark. He'd never thought he'd see that again. But Sarah had somehow scrounged up the cash to fix it- God knew how much that costed. Construction workers in Austin, Texas weren't being paid all that much, and he was a single dad after all. Tommy must have had something to do with that. Tommy had been there to help Joel raise Sarah, something he was eternally grateful for. He never expressed that enough.
Tommy being Tommy had of course volunteered to wander the halls with the other men to keep people safe. Joel had his daughter to look after. He glanced over at Sarah, sleeping soundly on the other bed. He was exhausted, sitting in bed only hoping to fall asleep but just couldn't quite get there. He didn't feel safe enough.
What had happened yesterday. God, what had happened yesterday? It seemed like the whole damn world fell apart. He'd made Sarah turn off the television in the hotel room because all they were talking about was death and destruction. Turns out it wasn't just this little bumfuck town that went to hell. Something went wrong across the world. These disease, this fungus, it was spreading far and wide. Inside the hotel was safe for now, but there was no guarantee that it would stay that way indefinitely. Those cops- Rick and Shane whoever, had prevented them from leaving, but all he could think about was getting back to Austin. Sarah had wanted to see the Atlantic Ocean from a beach in Miami, but that would have to wait until another time. If there was another time. They hadn't even made it out of the state. And now he was stuck in this God-damned hotel left in charge of two low-rank deputies and some barely-legal security officer.
As much as he was Sarah's father, he was Tommy's big brother. He had a responsibility to look out for both of them. Sarah was safe and sound in here, but Tommy was out there. Anything could happen out there. And he couldn't sleep anyway, especially not without knowing that Tommy was safe. He wish he would have left the heroics to someone else.
He got up out of bed, throwing the covers off of him. He slid his boots back on. Sarah was sure to make fun of him for dressing as he did any other work day on a vacation. A plain black T-shirt, jeans, and Timberland brown boots.
Joel gave Sarah one last glance, assuring himself that she was safe and fast asleep before exiting the door into the hallway. It was only a three-story hotel. The Millers had been given rooms on the second floor, Joel and Sarah got a two-bed and Tommy took a single bed in the room next to them. It was the cheapest available hotel that they could find, and it had a decent public restaurant downstairs. Sarah was pleased enough with it. Joel couldn't understand why anyone would paint the walls the shade of bright piss yellow that they went with.
The Deputies Rick Grimes and Shane Walsh had decided it would be best that everyone stay in their rooms while the sun was down except for two men who'd wander the halls, keeping watch. Rick Grimes had gone to bed with his family, so had the security guard, Leon whoever-it-was. Shane Walsh decided to stay up, accepting Tommy's offer of help when he'd learned of his prior military experience.
In times of crisis, police officers could deputize civilians they saw fit. Though they hadn't made it official, they'd felt good enough with Tommy to issue him one of the extra Glock 22s locked up in the security office. This was Texas though, plenty of people had guns with them everywhere they went.
