Chapter 4 - New Friends

Suburbia

Tess wasn't all that sure how much further away they were from Rick's home. She wasn't from Georgia and Rick seemed a bit turned around, still feeling rather woozy but putting up a good front. They hadn't long past a body, or half a body, crawling along the ground, trying to get to them. While Rick had been stunned, Tess just grabbed him by the shoulder and led him away, seeing no need to pay it any mind.

They were walking through a flashier neighborhood now and Rick seemed to regain his sense of direction, marching purposefully toward a house at the end of the street. Tess couldn't help but feel a bit envious about the lifestyle Rick and his neighbors had obviously led. He was far better off than her and her shitty one-room in Durham. The large, two storey house with the white picket fence that Rick was now making his way into was something Tess had only ever dreamed of as a child, never having had anything close to it growing up. As Rick raced inside, calling out for his wife and son, Tess felt guilty for feeling even a little bit jealous. No matter how either of them had lived before, they were both now in the same situation.

"Anything?" She asked as she tentatively walked inside, closing the front door behind her.

"They're not here but our photo albums are gone."

"That's a good sign right? Your wife must've taken them."

"Yeah. Good sign." Rick looked dejected and exhausted and Tess couldn't blame him. He'd sat down at the dining table and was staring at a framed photo he held in his hands, a far off look in his eyes.

"What are their names?" Tess asked, pulling up a seat in front of him. He smiled softly,

"My wife's name is Lori. This is our son, Carl, he's twelve." Rick looked at them so fondly that it broke her heart.

"We'll find them, yeah? There'll be crisis centers set up around the outskirts of the city, they must be at one of them." Rick nodded absently at her words and Tess wasn't sure whether he'd heard her or not.

"Why don't you get changed, we need to keep moving." Rick finally seemed to come to and agreed, getting up from his seat. "I'll be- uh, down here, when you're ready." Tess gestured to the general downstairs area, feeling a bit awkward about invading Rick's home and private life but he didn't seem to care.

As Rick wandered upstairs, Theresa sighed and took a moment to think about her situation. It's true she said she'd help Rick find his family and she intended to do so but what would she do after? She didn't think it felt right to tag along like an uninvited plus one but did that then mean she'd have to go it alone? She supposed she could head to Fort Benning, like she was meant to initially but would it even be there still?

The next question was, what would they do if they couldn't find Rick's family? Rick didn't strike her as a man to give up easily, so would they just be destined to look forever, like some doomed dynamic duo? Maybe he wouldn't even want her around after they finished looking in Atlanta? She was definitely giving this too much thought she decided and got up from the table to find anything that would distract her.

The refrigerator was covered in drawing's done by Carl, some depicting his family. Rick was drawn in a police uniform in most of the pictures, with a star-shaped badge. Was Rick the sheriff? She'd have to remember to ask him. Tess was about to walk into the living room when she heard Rick race back down the stairs again, still in his hospital gown but now with a robe overtop, and out the front door.

"Rick?" she called out, a little bit stunned at how quickly he'd run out of the house. Hastily picking up her backpack from the floor, she followed him. As she stood on the porch, she watched as Rick stood in the middle of the road, watching a man stumble down the road away from him. Tess figured he must've known the man from before, a neighbor perhaps. As Tess watched Rick carefully, she didn't notice the young boy creeping out from behind the house until he was advancing on Rick with a shovel in hand.

"Hey! No-!" Tess yelled out and jumped down from the porch as the kid struck Rick in the back of the head, causing him to fall to the ground. The boy spun around quickly in fear, having not noticed her either.

"I- I'm sorry! Please-." A loud bang rang out as a handgun was fired. The man from before dropped dead and another man, who appeared to be the boy's father raced towards the three of them. Tess quickly drew her gun from its holster and stood in front of Rick, who was teetering on the edge of unconsciousness.

"Duane! Get behind me!" The older man shouted firmly and pulled his son behind him. "What's with the bandage? Is he bit?!" He pressed further with his gun still firmly in hand. Tess stood her ground, no stranger to being at the end of a barrel. Calmly, Tess explained,

"No, he was shot. He was a patient at Harrison Memorial. We're both clean. I'm going to put my gun away now and I'd really appreciate it if you didn't shoot me." She slowly put the safety back on her weapon and returned it to its holster.

"My name is Tess, this man is Rick, what's yours?"

"You military?" The man asked, not answering her just yet.

"Yes. I was stationed at the hospital to help manage the situation." Tess decided not to elaborate too much on why they were no longer at the hospital, not wanting to scare the kid. The man was quiet for a moment before looking like he'd decide to trust her. Gradually lowering his weapon but not putting it away, he finally replied,

"Name's Morgan. We should get inside before more of the things turn up." Tess nodded in agreement and breathed a sigh of relief before crouching in front of Rick. Grabbing him by the shoulder, she tried to get his attention.

"Rick, you there buddy?" He looked delirious and a gentle shake of his shoulder was enough for him to pass out. Great.

—

Morgan and Duane were set up a couple houses down. Some of the windows had been boarded up, others had their curtains drawn and the doors were locked and barricaded. Oil lamps were the only source of light indoors and by the time the sun had set, they cast an eerie glow that only served to make Tess feel more unsettled. Being camped out in an abandoned house with minimal light, unsure what the next hour would bring was very reminiscent of some of her more worse memories and she tried not to get caught up in it.

Tess sat beside Rick, who was still unconscious on a mattress on the floor. All four of them were in the living room but Duane and Morgan sat together on the other side of the room. It had been one hell of a day. Tess was exhausted but she struggled to find sleep. Too many thoughts raced through her mind about the events of the past few days. It was like a nightmare she couldn't wake up from. The image of Nate on the cafeteria floor was burned into her mind's eye and she dreaded what sleep would bring if she ever managed to reach it. She rubbed her face tiredly, jaw perpetually clenched and tense, recognizing the spiraling feeling she knew all too well.

Grounding herself with her hands flat against the cold, wooden floor, she internally recited the same anchoring phrase she'd repeated countless times before. My name is Theresa Murphy . I'm 29 years old. I live in Durham, North Carolina. Today is… Fuck, she didn't know what day it was. Her fingers began tapping anxiously on the floor, not used to not being able to complete the mantra. I'm in Georgia. I'm here with Rick and Morgan and his son Duane. My name is Theresa Murphy . I'm 29 years old. I live in Durham, North Carolina. I'm in Georgia. I'm here with Rick and Morgan and his son Duane. She repeated the words to herself a few times more before her tapping ended and she felt grounded enough to stop. Around the same time, Rick started to come-to.

"Easy there, Rick." She said as he tried to sit, "You got a pretty mean whack to the head." Slowly helping him up, she watched as Morgan came over to join them.

"What happened?" Rick asked as he rubbed the back of his head.

"We thought you were one of them." Morgan spoke, making his presence known to Rick who was still a bit fuzzy. "Morgan Jones, this here's my son Duane."

"Rick Grimes." As the fog in his mind lifted, he started looking around at his surroundings. "This is Fred and Cindy Drake's house…"

"Don't know." Morgan shrugged, as if it didn't matter.

"Neighbors, a few doors up. I've been here. This is their place."

"It was empty when we got here. Picked it because of the small windows. Easier to board up."

"All of these homes have been left abandoned, Rick." Tess said, trying to ease his shock as he tried to peek through the boarded up window. Reaching to pull away the curtain on another, Morgan piped up again,

"Don't, they'll see the light. There's more of them out there than usual. I shouldn't have fired that shot today. Sound draws them. Now they're all over our street. Stupid using the gun. Happened too fast. I didn't think."

"You didn't think?"

"No. I should have used the baseball bat instead. My mistake." Rick gawked at him. "What?" Morgan asked.

"You shot that man today."

"Weren't no man." Duane scoffed.

"What the hell was that out of your mouth just now? Son, you speak English, I know you do." Moran scolded his son and as Duane apologized and corrected himself, Tess felt it was about time to start explaining their situation to Rick.

"It wasn't a man. Maybe you oughta sit down for this?" She suggested as she helped him back down on the floor.

"Mister? What's wrong with you? You don't know about the dead people?" Duane asked.

"Saw a lot of that. Stacked like firewood-"

"Not the ones they put down. The ones they didn't. The walkers." The young boy continued and Tess took a deep breath, feeling guilty despite knowing she'd done her job as instructed and that regardless, there was nothing she could have done to prevent any of this.

"Rick, you saw that woman in the park. She was- she wasn't all there. This virus, it turns you into something else. Something not human. We don't know what causes it or where it came from but one thing's for certain, don't get bit. A bite kills you. After a while, you'll come back. As one of them." She'd seen it many times before while stationed at the hospital, so much so she'd forgotten how crazy the whole thing was. Rick's wide eyes told her that he didn't believe her.

"She's right. Seen it happen." Duane trailed off and it was clear that whoever he'd seen it happen to was someone he cared about.

—

It was a restless night for all four of them. It hadn't started that way however, Duane was keeping himself occupied trying to guess what Rick had done for a living before. He had suspected a bank robber but Rick was quick to assure him that he was in fact Sheriff's Deputy, confirming Tess' earlier guess. The young boy also spent a little while asking her about the army and whether he could hold her rifle. His father quickly shut down that idea.

As Duane tried to get to sleep, the three of them made small talk, mostly about Rick's family and what their plans were. Morgan reconfirmed Tess' suspicion about the crisis centers as well and also made mention of the CDC and the scientists there working on a cure. She felt as though it were a stretch, however. While the CDC was the best place as far as researching and understanding this virus, did they have the means to control it? If they were studying it, what's to say they didn't lose control of it as well?

Their night turned when a car alarm screamed out from the street and while Morgan assured them that one of the walkers had probably just bumped into the vehicle and there was nothing to worry about, Duane cowered in the corner, frightened.

The door knob on the front door jiggled as something tried to turn it from the other side and Morgan confessed that it was likely his wife, who had been bitten and he hadn't the heart to kill her. Tess had had a sinking feeling earlier that this may have been the case when Duane mentioned he'd seen someone come back from the dead. It saddened her to know that poor young boy had witnessed such a thing.

Duane cried quietly into a pillow for the remainder of the night and the rest of them sat silently, waiting for morning to come.

—

The car alarm had turned off after a while, yet the walkers outside remained active for a long while after that. When morning finally did arrive, the street outside was relatively empty, with the exception of one of two walkers. It was a good opportunity for Rick to learn how to put one down.

With bat in hand, Rick swung at it, barely causing it to stagger, clearly still hesitant.

"You gotta go for the head." Tess told him as she approached another one, "It's gotta be the brain." She brought her knife down into its skull and the crunch and squelch was sickening. Rick finally got the right idea and took the walker down with a deft blow to the head.

After a quick trip back to Rick's house, he seemed a lot more positive and lively and Tess began to feel more hopeful too. They had decided that the four of them would go to the King County Sheriff's Department to stock up on weapons and supplies. Rick also mentioned that there may also still be running water there and the prospect was too good to pass by.

Getting into the building was easy, the back door had been left unlocked and thankfully the place looked relatively untouched. Rick led them down the corridors towards the locker rooms,

"Women's on the left, men's on the right." Tess smiled at him gratefully, happy to be able to have some privacy. Tess ventured into the locker room and put down her bag and removed her guns, pulling out the spare change of uniform she'd packed yesterday and grabbing a towel from a cupboard. Tentatively turning the handle of one of the showers, she tried not to get her hopes up. The shower head spluttered to life and started to pour down above her, first cold, then hot. Tess thought she'd never felt so happy in her entire life.

Peeling off her clothes, she quickly realized how gross she was at that moment. Her uniform was covered in black grime and crusted blood; along with her sweat, she hated to think how she smelt. As the water hit her back, she groaned in pleasure as it soothed her aching, tired muscles. The tenseness she held in her shoulders subsided and she finally felt relaxed. She took the opportunity to wash out her hair as well, unwinding it from the low bun it was so used to being wound into. It always felt good to let her hair down. Tess took her time in the shower, not knowing when she'd next be able to have one and took full advantage of the hot water. In the men's locker room, Rick, Morgan and Duane were doing the same.

After what felt like too short a time, Tess turned off the shower and toweled down. Deciding to leave her jacket in her bag for now, she dressed in her spare army fatigues; long pants, boots and short sleeve shirt. She left her hair down to dry and gathered up her belongings before heading out of the locker room to meet Rick and the others.

She met them in the ammunition locker, where Rick was pulling out some shotguns, a few side arms; nothing fancy, more like leftovers. Rick was now dressed in a fresh Sheriff uniform, hat and all, looking very much like a man of authority. As he packed the weapons away in a duffel bag, he looked up to greet her, taking a moment to take in her new, refreshed appearance. She looked far less intimidating, not covered in all the walker blood and with her light auburn hair hanging down around her face. While she still looked tired, her pale skin looked livelier and more youthful than before.

"Hey, how was the shower?"

"The best, thank you." They shared a smile and she could Morgan and Duane smile as well. It felt hopeful. "You need me to take some of those? I've got room." Tess shrugged off her backpack and placed it beside the duffel bag. Not having repacked her hideously dirty uniform, her bag was relatively empty.

"Yeah. A lot of it's gone missing." Rick said as he handed her a couple hand guns and some ammo.

"There's more here than I was expecting, we'll be fine." And it was true. She was quite surprised that nobody had come before them and picked the place clean.

"Daddy? Can I learn to shoot? I'm old enough." Duane begged, looking up to his father pleadingly.

"Hell yes, you're gonna learn. But we're gonna do it carefully, teach you to respect the weapon." His father appeased, knowing all too well that his son would need to learn and the sooner the better.

"That's right. It's not a toy. You pull the trigger, you have to mean it. Always remember that, Duane." Rick added and despite his friendly tone he was very serious.

"Yes sir." Nodded Duane, not missing the seriousness of the matter but quickly got excited again, "You guys can teach me!" He looked between Theresa and Rick, "I'm sure you both have fired loads of guns!"

"I think she's probably got one up on me there, buddy." Rick laughed and Tess smiled, although not all that confident about teaching a child to shoot.

"I'm sure your daddy will do just fine. He looks like a man with a steady aim." She patted Duane on the shoulder and Morgan smiled back at her in thanks.

With their bags packed and Morgan touting a new bolt-action rifle, they did a quick check through the rest of the building to make sure they didn't miss anything helpful. In the break room, stood a tall vending machine. Lights were off but it was still very much full of food.

"Candy!" Duane squealed and raced towards the machine, kneeling down and trying to fish it out from the small door at the bottom.

"Don't get stuck, son." Morgan scolded him before pulling him away from the machine.

"You guys had a vending machine?" Tess looked at Rick incredulously, like she'd never seen something so glamorous in her entire life. Rick just shrugged. "Should've been a cop." She grumbled to herself as she walked over to the machine. Bringing up the butt of her rifle, she smashed the glass, quickly clearing away any broken shards before the kid could think about sticking his hands in it again.

"Badass." Duane breathed out, ducking out of his fathers grasp and diving to grab the candy.

—

Out in the enclosed parking lot behind the building, the group moved towards the pair of dirty Ford Explorers that had been left behind and started preparing to go their separate ways.

"You sure you don't wanna come along with us, Morgan?" Tess asked.

"Another week maybe. By then at least Duane will know how to shoot and I won't be so rusty. Improves our chances on the road." She nodded and continued stowing her stuff in the car. Ricked ducked into the front seat and pulled out a walkie talkie. He turns it on a moment, gets a healthy amount of static and turns it back off again before handing it to Morgan.

"You got one battery. Week from now, I'll start turning mine on for a few minutes every day at dawn. You get up there, that's how you find us."

"You think ahead."

"Can't afford not to. Not anymore." It was a somber reminder of what was to come and all excitement and happiness from earlier ebbed away.

"You get desperate, you call us, yeah?" Tess said firmly, looking down sadly at Duane, dreading to think what this life must look like through a child's eyes.

"Yes ma'am." Morgan nodded with a soft smile. "You two watch your asses. Don't want to get caught up in a group of them. All riled up and hungry? Sometimes it's better to run."

As if on queue, the fence clanged behind them as a walker, wearing a moldy version of Rick's uniform, pawed and the metal.

"Leon Basset. Didn't think much of him. Careless and dumb. But I can't leave him like this."

"They'll hear the shot." Morgan warned as Rick raised his Colt Python,

"Let's not be here when they turn up."

Leon Basset went down with a single shot to the head and the pairs went their separate ways.