Disclaimer – not for profit. Plot and OC mine. Everything else property for Walking Dead
We had to leave soon. Two years down here since the outbreak an no amount of rationing would stretch our resources any further. At the start I'd prepared 'bug out' bags for this eventuality so that hopefully we would find another safe place away from this small bunker my grandfather had had constructed during the late 50s. He was a great man, but most considered him a little eccentric, when the Cuban missile crisis was going on he was convinced World War iii was about to start and prepped appropriately. Whilst most people let go of these fears, he was not one. I've never been more thankful to him.
When the first reports came through about riots after police had gunned down unarmed people and then the even more crazy reports about people eating people, the first place I thought to go was my grandad's estate which luckily was only two miles away having moved back to Atlanta from dc four years before the outbreak. It was just me and my children, twins, Ava and Alex. In those first few days in the bunker, I had to deal with a lot of guilt of the people I left behind, as well as worrying about the fate of those I knew. Sometimes I thought of HIM, even though we hadn't had contact since before the twins were born, I wondered if he was out there surviving, was his wife still alive. If anyone could survive it was him. He could charm the clothes off a nun.
Even though I would have been considered by any standards as the other woman it was a lot more complicated than that. I met him when I worked as a doctor in DC, I'd just completed my residency and was now working in oncology with only one other doctor above me in the chain of command. It felt amazing to finally be able to be earning enough to be comfortable without relying on family money anymore. It was a very rewarding job especially when a patient went into remission. It was very difficult not to become close to my patients. Most doctors saw hundreds of patients everyday and rarely the same one repeatedly. I spent months with my patients and got to know their families as well. Having got through medical school very quickly I was quite a prodigy in the medical field completing my residency at only twenty-two. Being young I generally spent most of my time treating children and adolescents as the hospital thought I would make them more comfortable.
The first time I met him it was when I was asked to do a consultation last minute as a colleague was out ill. He was sat looking despondent holding the hand of what would have been a beautiful woman had it not been for the cancer wreaking havoc on her body. I was instantly drawn to him; it was like one of those moments when time seems to slow down when you lock eyes with someone that your soul connects to. He was a lot older than me; at forty he had a good fourteen years on me. His wife saw that connection too but instead of instantly going on the attack and warning me away from her man she encouraged us to pursue this connection. As I said complicated. She had already been given a terminal diagnosis and she was open to allowing her husband to be happy when she was gone. The only problem with everything happened because I was very good at my job and six months later after I'd gotten her into a revolutionary drug trial, she was in remission and my heart was broken.
I stepped away before he could end things himself, it was one thing to have a relationship when she was dying but now, she had a new lease on life I couldn't be either his bit on the side or worse of all the reason she ended up alone. I'd grown to care for her like a sister. He'd begged me not to end our relationship, but I couldn't carry on given the circumstances and even more couldn't stay in the area worried I'd give in and stay with him. So, with my tail tucked between my legs I moved home to Atlanta and got a job at Grady memorial.
I didn't notice the signs of my pregnancy until two months later due to all the stress of the end of the relationship and moving across the country. I debated for weeks about what to do. In the end I wrote him, explaining how I was keeping the baby and how he could be involved however he wanted. I knew from his wife's treatment that she would be unable to have children and I wasn't cruel enough to deny him the opportunity especially with how much I loved him. I put my feelings aside so that my child could have a father. I sent weekly updates along with sonograms but go no response until I was eight months pregnant and received a legal notice with a parental termination document and a restraining order. I was heartbroken not just for my child but myself as well. I couldn't reconcile the man that begged me not to go with the one now tossing aside the only baby he would have.
The day after I received his reply to my situation I went into labour. It was a long difficult labour. Even worse was after my son was delivered the doctors then realised that I was in fact pregnant with twins. My daughter arrived three minutes after her brother, just like in the womb my little Ava is brilliant at hide and seek. After the birth of the twins, I took a yearlong sabbatical from work. However, at the end of the year I'd decided not to go back to work full time and instead opened my own business helping cancer patients find drug trials, negotiating on behalf of patients with insurance companies and other patient advocate issues. My grandfather had decided to retire to Florida and being the last member of the family, he left me my inheritance early so that I didn't have to work if I didn't want to.
Ava and Alex grew like weeds, and I was happy with my life. I didn't date again, and I'd never been the type for casual hook ups, so I was happily single. I thought of him often and I knew the questions would be coming soon, especially with the children starting school and observing other families. At three years old my children were already displaying their intelligence and were accepted to a private school for early admission. The school was very exclusive only taking children in the top five percent of their age group. Whenever I looked at them, I saw him. They had my eyes, but the rest was all him even down to the dimples.
When leaving to go to the bunker I'd grabbed as many keepsakes as I could get including the letter, I'd received two weeks before the outbreak. It was from his wife telling me the truth and asking me to come back to DC. I didn't know why she had a sudden change of heart that made her reach out to me. She apologised for everything that happened after I left and said that he didn't know about the children. She'd intercepted the letters about my pregnancy and then forged his signature on the parental termination form and faked the restraining order. She admitted she wanted to save her marriage and me being pregnant she knew he would leave her for me. As it was, she told me they never got their relationship back on track and that he had been unfaithful to her but this time it was behind her back. She realised that she was hanging onto someone who no longer loved her and hoped I could forgive her for denying us the opportunity to have a family.
I was disappointed in him for being unfaithful to her which was ironic considering our relationship, but like those who have ever been in an open relationship it is one thing to have a relationship with someone else when all parties are aware of the situation, it is very different when cheating within that situation. I had booked the flight to DC to see her and discuss what the future would be for the children. In my heart I struggled to let him go but they came first, and they needed their father. I had friends still in DC that I would be staying with who would look after the twins whilst I met with them. Three days before my flight is when the World fell apart.
In the first few days after arriving at the bunker the children and I would watch the Tv seeing what was happening outside. It was horrific. We heard the reports saying there was a safe zone in Atlanta but two days later we heard the planes fly above. Grandad had installed cameras and a CCTV system in a room in the bunker, constantly updating his systems over the years so we could see them bomb the city. We were luckily on the outskirts. We had plenty of electricity as the bunker was supplied by solar power as well as a wind turbine nearby. The bunker also had a generator. Grandad was very prepared for either being damaged when his 'bombs' hit. I spent hours in the control room watching what was happening outside. When the first 'herd' passed through the area I was so happy the children were asleep.
Occasionally we would see people, alive people pass through the area. The bunker was well concealed, unless you knew it was there you had no chance of finding it. I often considered letting some of these survivors in, but I was so scared. If it was just me, I would have been more open to having other people in the bunker but my children came first. At just four years old they couldn't defend themselves I had to do that for them.
Now two years later it was time to leave. The solar panels stopped working after a bad storm. The wind turbine was pulled down after a group had camped in the area were worried it was attracting the dead and the generator only had a weeks' worth of fuel left to run it after conservation of our power. Over the last couple of years, I'd taught the children everything I could about basic first aid as well as what plants were edible and what to do If we encountered any dead people walking.
I had a plan to head to my old hospital. Before I made it to the bunker an old colleague had called asking for my help. She also told me about a patient that had died of their cancer and had come back two hours later. She told me how the hospital was being fortified and we would be safe there. I knew it was a long shot after two years of this still being up and running but I had to take the chance. Any plan is better than no plan is what my mother always told me. My parents had died in a plane crash when I was twenty. After loosing them I'd thrown myself into school hence part of the reason I finished medical school so quickly. I missed my parents terribly but, in a way, I was glad they didn't have to live in this new world, they wouldn't have coped at all.
My car was still in the locked garage at the back of my grandfather's house. One side of the house was destroyed, it looked like it had been burnt out in a fire. I was thankful for this as it meant that no groups had made it into a base. The twins had been quiet just as I'd instructed keeping hold of each other's hand whilst Alex held mine. Turning the car over I saw we had over two thirds of a tank left, plenty to make it into the city. It was very bewildering for them having spent a third of their short lives in the bunker with only each other and their mother for social interaction. I hoped that when we found a safe place there would be other children for them to play with.
When we got nearer the city things got scarier. Dead bodies were everywhere both ones that were dead dead and those that were still by some freak virus walking around. The hospital looked abandoned a makeshift triage area appears to have been set up in the main carpark which was crawling with dead people. I was just about to give up hope that anyone was still alive in the city when a police car arrived behind me, and two cops got out.
I hoped I'd made the right decision to come here, I could have gone to DC and tried to find him for the sake of the children. I just hoped that he was still alive somewhere, the man who had my heart even now. Negan.