Chapter 7: Rick's Adventure Part 1

*Rick POV*

I can hear the ventilator beeping. It's feels hard to breathe and I'm struggling with each breath. All I can see is the square ceiling with the light turned on. It reminded me of the story Reverend Shane preached about the difference between men and women is women don't know how to turn off a damn light switch which made me chuckle. I can see a metal stick with an IV bag hanging on it, probably connected to me.

I remember getting shot, twice. Shane and I responded to a call about an idiot driving crazy so we drove and set up a roadblock with spike traps to stop them. I car came flying down the road and the trap did it's job. The car must've flipped at least 3 times before it stopped in the field.

We all got our guns aimed at the car. I walk forward to check on them driver when the door pushed open and he crawled out with a gun and started shooting. I took one to the chest that the bullet-proof vest caught but the second sonovabitch crawled out when I wasn't looking and caught me in the back. All I remember was Shane over me, pressing down on my wound, telling me I'd be okay and then I fell asleep and woke up here

I hear someone walk through the door and I see Shane walk in, holding a vase of flowers and out of uniform.

"Hey Bud. We're still here. We're still hanging in. I'm sorry, man. I know the same crap every time I come in here" he says, sighing.

Shane looks down at the flower vase in his hand and starts fiddling with it. The flower vase was white and blue and the flowers in it were pink and white. I know Shane didn't get these flowers because he knows just as much about them as I do and I don't know shit.

"Everybody pitched in on these. They uh...they wanted me to bring 'em down. They send their love and they just...they hope you come back real soon. Linda and Diane from dispatch, they picked these out, you probably could tell, huh?" He smirks

"Imma just set these on your side table, okay?" He says before he walks to the side and out of sight.

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"That vase, that's something special. 'Fess up. You steal that for me at Grandma Hardy's house. Hope you didn't touch her spoon collection" I joked before I cough

I turn over to my side to look at Shane setting up my flowers and he's missing.

"Shane? Shane, you in the John?" I call out

I look at the same flowers he had brought but it was dead and wilted. I could've sworn Shane brought them in fresh just a moment ago. I reach over and grab a flower but it just falls apart under my thumb. I turn my head to the clock on the wall but it wasn't moving and stuck at a quarter past 2. I realize the ventilator is still beeping but I felt that something ain't right.

My body feels heavy and just turning on to my side is a hard task. I reach for the IV hanger and use it as a crutch but as soon as I stand, my legs give out and I fall to the ground with the hanger.

"Nurse, I need help!" I shout twice from the ground but no one comes. My throat feels dry. I struggle to my feet and head to the toilet. The room is dark so I switched on the light and got surprised again. I had a beard but I remember being clean shaven when I woke up that morning. Before I can think about it further, my throat starts to itch so I bend down and turn the water on so I can take a drink. It's cold and still running so I cup my hands and take a few mouthfuls.

I come back into the room and notice something weird. The ventilator was hooked up to a car battery and that's how it was running. There were a bunch of empty IV bags in the trash and the one on the hanger was still full so I figured someone must be changing them frequently but no one responded to my calls earlier.

I walk over to the door and opened it. There was a bed pushed against the door to my room to keep it closed. I pushed it away and walked around. The hospital was deathly quiet. I look around and the hospital is a mess with papers all over the ground and shelves knocked over. Some of the ceiling squares were missing and the lights were flickering

There was no one there. I walk towards the reception area but the light there is off. I get to the desk and reach for the phone but there was no dial tone. I lean over the counter to look for anything as a source of light but all I find is a box of matches. I strike a match and use it to look around the desk for anything useful but no luck.

Around the corner from the receptionist desk was a door with light flickering coming through the window. I walk towards and look through the window and see a pale blonde lady with her guts hanging out her stomach. The skin around her chest area and her legs were missing and she had a strip of green clothing on her hip, soaked in blood. The sight was horrifying and disgusting. She must've been a nurse.

I already had a feeling that something had happened and everything felt wrong but that just confirmed it. I turn around and immediately go the opposite way from where she was and kept walking. I walked through a dark and messy hallway that had a light at the end. The nearer I got to the door, the more and more anxious I felt. The walls had blood splatter and bullet holes all over it. Multiple pools of blood on the floor and exposed electrical wiring and busted pipes hanging down through the roof. I reach the end and it's the door to the cafeteria but it's locked with chains around the handles and a piece of wood was put through the handles as insurance.

The doors had 'DONT OPEN, DEAD INSIDE' written on it and before I can do anything, I hear glass shattering and growling from behind the door with something pushing against it. A pale hand reaches out from inside the cafeteria between the small gap in the door and tries to open it.

I start panicking and head towards the elevator. I push the buttons on both of them multiple times but nothing happens. I see the stair right next to it but the inside is dark. I decide to use it and start walking down slowly, using the match sticks I found earlier, one after the other until I ran out, to light my way.

At the bottom, I find the back door to the hospital with an exit sign above it. I push it open and walk out, finally outside the confines of the hospital but it wasn't a happy affair.

The car park behind the hospital was littered in corpses and they were all lined up and covered with white cloths. I walk out the gates and climb a small hill and see a chopper on the main road. There were a few Humvees and another helicopter a few metres away. The situation must be bad if the military got involved and abandoned their vehicles.

I make my way down the road, trying to get to my house. The only thing in my mind is Lori and Carl. I want to see them and make sure they are okay. As I walk by, I see a bicycle on the side of the road with another corpse with it's bottom half missing, lying close to it, barely 2 metres away. I reach down to grab the bike when I hear strained breathing. I look over and the corpse turned itself over and started dragging growling at me.

"Oh shit!" I shout mid-fall

I got scared and I fell down, trying to move backwards quickly with the bike in my hands. I look back and it's stuck in place so I stand back up and get on the bike before pedaling away.

I make it to my house and ditch the bike and stumble my way to the door I open the door and just start calling for them as soon as I get in

"Lori. Lori! Carl! LORI! CARL!" I fall to the ground, screaming. The shock and everything hit me at once and the fact there were missing pushed me over the edge and I lose it. I start crying on the ground in the fetal position while calling out there name

"Is this real? Am I here?"

I start slapping myself and touching the ground to figure out whether everything was real or not. This felt too real to be a dream and I felt everything but I didn't want to believe it

"Come on, wake-wake up"

I gather myself and a few minutes later, I walk out of my house and sit on the steps, finally accepting everything that's happening when I see a man walking down the street. My vision's still a bit hazy so I can't see him that well so I wave to him before I hear a twig snap behind me. I turn around and get hit in the face with a shovel. I was about to get angry until I saw who it was

"Carl? Carl! I found you!"

"Daddy Daddy! I got him, I got the sumbitch! Imma smack him dead" shouts 'Carl'

I turn my head and look towards where he shouting and I see another man walk out and shoot the first man in the head, point blank with a revolver. I start freaking out when he walks over to me but he walks around me and goes 'Carls' side before pushing him away from me and he starts questioning him

"He say something? I thought I heard him say something." He asks

"He called me Carl" 'Carl' replies

"Son, you know they don't talk. Hey mister, What's your bandage for?" He asks me

"Wh-what?" I say, still confused about the whole situation

"What kind of wound? You answer me, damn you! What's your wound?" He says, now pointing the revolver at me

"You tell me" he cocks the hammer back "Or I will kill you" He looked serious

Before I can answer, I feel my conscious slipping. The shovel must've done more damage than just a bloodied nose and the last thing I remember is his threat before I pass out again.