Chapter 62 Rick, Carol, and Hershel

While John and his group are off on a medicine run some more people continued to get sick. They made their way to cell block A, to quarantine themselves. Carol fetched water for the sick and while she was walking back to cell block A, she bumped into Lizzy. Lizzy is one of the daughters of the man who died, a little girl who she promised to look after.

Lizzy was coughing and it seems she had gotten the virus that was spreading around quickly. Carol brought Lizzy to the door where all the sick were staying and told her to go in. Lizzy asked, "You're not coming with me?"

Carol said, "No I can't."

Lizzy pleaded, "Will you tuck me in?"

Carol said, "You know my friend Glen? He's the best tucker I know. And he'll make sure you are comfortable, okay."

Lizzy walked in a few steps, but she turned around and hugged Carol tightly. Carol said, "Okay. It's okay. It's okay. You'll be alright."

Lizzy then walked off and Carol who was affected by this started to shed some tears.

While this was happening, Hershel went into the woods with Carl and Rob. Hershel tried to argue with them, but they didn't listen and followed him anyway. They were supposed to stay with the still healthy people who were in their own quarantine, but they were bored of sitting around and reading comics.

They followed Hershel as he collected some round black berries, elder berries. When the teens questioned the old man about them, he said, "These are elder berries, if you use them to make tea. It helps to alleviate flu symptoms." The teens nodded in understanding as they continued to follow Hershel.

The woods were especially peaceful, and it was really quiet. There were no walkers around them at all, the woods were clear, and they were able to see a good distance around them in all directions. The sound of birds chirping created a natural atmosphere that they all really enjoyed, they had been inside the prison for far too long. The walls of the prison sometimes make them feel trapped, instead of protected.

As Hershel was collecting some more berries into his somewhat full bag, they saw a red tent in front of them. They drew their weapons and walked over quietly, looking inside they saw it was empty of any people. There was only two sleeping bags and a blanket.

They heard some movement from close by, they turned around and saw a walker sitting against a tree. It was unable to move, as a log was pinning it down. Rob walked forward and stabbed it in the head to give it mercy, Hershel was slightly off put because it was clear that the walker would be unable to hurt anyone. Hershel didn't say anything however, he knew that his beliefs couldn't be pushed onto others.

Another walker came over, it had a bear trap stuck on its leg. It was moving especially slow even for a walker. Carl walker over to it and stabbed it, it dropped to the floor like a bag of rocks. The small group then turned around and started walking back to the prison.

Hershel said, "It was so peaceful."

Carl said, "It was. Walker's ruin everything."

Rob said, "Yeah."

The group then began their walk back to the prison. They had no more issue at all on the way. They made it through the gate without problem and Hershel walked over to cell block A, as the teens wandered off.

Hershel was stopped by Rick on his way into cell block A, but Hershel was able to convince him that it was better for him to go in and keep the sick stable. Rick tried to argue back but Glen said that Glen was also in there and this caused Rick to support him. Rick cared about Glen a lot because it was him who saved his life in the beginning.

Hershel went in and began to make elder berry tea; he gave everyone some and this helped them with their cough. Glen had helped him, because even though he was sick, he was still strong enough to help out.

When Hershel was giving the tea to Dr Stevens who had also gotten sick. Dr Stevens coughed out blood and it hit Hershel's face, exposing him to the virus. With that Hershel took off his face covering and wiped his face. Then he continued to check up on everyone, as he could not leave after being exposed.

The two Android doctors were also there, they were keeping the sickness at bay with natural remedies and different techniques, but they couldn't help much. They needed different medicines to help these people combat the virus.

Carol came to the door and talked to Lizzy telling her that she would be going on a supply run to a neighborhood nearby. Carol then walked out after she comforted the young teen. Carol met up with Rick then they got in a car and left the prison. The drive was fairly short, they were in the car for about 20 minutes before they arrived at a neighborhood.

At the end of the road was a dead end, there was a roundabout and houses surrounded it. They parked behind another car before they got out. They grabbed their backpacks from the trunk, then they walked over to the car in front of them, the car had some type of luggage rack on top and it was very dusty.

Rick looked at some writing on the car, it said, "Pardon out dust." Rick then opened the driver door and looked inside, as Carol looked in the back seat.

Rick said, "The windshield has been wiped down. Can't have been here for very long." Rick also noticed that the keys were in the ignition.

Carol said, "You mean John and the others. That's what this is, right? In case they don't?"

Rick answers, "Until they do. That's what this is. Medicine cabinets, first aid kits, that's what were after-- also anything that could help Hershel. We get in and out as quick as we can. And if we can eat it, we take it."

Rick and Carol then walked up the driveway to the door of a house. The door was unlocked, strangely. Walking into the house gun in hand, Rick looked around the living room, before he walked over to a door that was slightly open. Rick opened the door, uncovering a bathroom. Rick walked in and set his bag down on the sink, then he opened the mirror. On the shelves of the mirror were some bottles and tubes. Rick looked at them and put some of them into the bag.

Meanwhile Carol was keeping watch for any walkers that might come out of hiding. She looked around constantly because walkers could somehow be very quiet when they were sneaking up on you, which is odd because they usually shamble about making plenty of noise.

Rick finished looking through the mirror and walked out of the bathroom and over to Carol. Rick then walked into another room, but it seems the little noise they made caused a walker upstairs to come shambling down. Carol just stood in front of the stair, but Rick pulled her back as the walker came falling down the stairs.

Once the walker was all the way down the stairs, Carol pulled her knife out and stabbed the walker in the head. Leaving the walker dead on the floor, blood starting to pool. Suddenly a door opens upstairs, Rick and Carol heard this and look up, Rick pulling his gun out of its holster. Rick points up the stair as a lady and a man come walking out slowly. They were both unarmed and the lady even held some plums in both her hands.

The man says, "Woah, woah. It's cool. We're... we're cool."

The lady says with a somewhat nervous expression, "We have fr-fruit."

The man says, "Yeah, we got apricots, peaches. Here catch." The man then tosses a peach down at Rick and Carol, but neither of them go forward to catch it. Rick and Carol watch as the peach hit the stair a couple times before it hit the floor.

The man says, "Or, you know, don't." Then he chuckles nervously as the woman looks at Rick and Carol nervously.

Rick continued to point his gun at them for a second before he lowered it and said, "Come on down here."

The man and women came down slowly and walked to the dining room. The man sat on the chair, as the women stood behind him.

Carol looked at the man's shoulder and asked, "How did that happen?"

The man looked up at Carol and answered, "The greenhouse around the corner."

The lady continues, "We were looking for a place to rest. The roof's broken now and it's been getting plenty of rain, so it's full of fruit. We were there for about a day and the skin eaters showed up."

The man says, "Killjoy's man. Jackin' it up for the whole world. I thought everybody was an asshole before this all went down. Now I love people. You know, people who are alive."

Carol asked as she dabbed the man's wound, "How did it happen?"

The man says, "When they were coming in through the door, I tripped going into the other side. Pulled the glass out, but my shoulder-- it still hurts like a bitch."

Carol says, "It's dislocated."

The woman says, "Can you fix it?"

Carol says, "Okay lay on your back, on the table." The man follows her instruction. Carol then says, "Scooch over to the edge." Carol then has him hold a bag, as she slowly pushes his arm up towards his head. The man is groaning the whole time, but suddenly there is a popping sound. The man breathes ruffly as Carol lift moves his arm around some before she sets it down on his chest.

The man then sits up laughing lightly as the woman rubs his back smiling widely. Rick walks back over from the kitchen he just finished looting and said, "After the greenhouse, you came here?"

The man says, "Yeah. We thought it was clear. We missed the deadie in the pjs, so we dove into the bathroom."

Rick asks, "So how long were you up there till we showed up?"

The woman says, "Like, two days."

Carol says, "There was just one. You had guns."

The woman says, "We have about 12 bullets. It usually takes us about 5 or 6 shots to bring one of them down."

Carol says, "But you have knives."

The man says, "To what, stab it in the head?"

Carol says, "Yeah."

The man then says, "We got separated from our crew a week ago. Been trying to play it safe since it's just the two of us."

The woman chimes in, "I have to with my leg."

The man says, "Yeah."

The woman explains as she shows her leg, "We were at a refugee center together and there was a fire. People were just trampling over me."

The man says angrily, "Assholes."

The woman smiles at the man and says, "Sam saved my life. We didn't know each other before. It didn't heal right, but it healed. And we found each other. It was worth it."

Rick asks, "Where are you headed now?"

The man answers, "We just keep moving. We haven't been waiting for places to go bad. I mean, it's getting a little old."

The woman asks, "You guys look alright, what's your setup like?"

Rick ignores her and says, "The skin-eaters. We call them walkers." Rick looks over at Carol before he asks Sam and his girlfriend, "How many have you killed?"

The man says, "Not many, our group used to take care of them. I'd say we only killed around 15."

Rick then asks, "How many people have you killed?"

The man looks at him weirdly and immediately says, "None."

Rick asks, "Why?"

The man says, "Never needed or wanted to." The woman nods repeatedly.

Rick then tells them about the prison and asked them if they want to join their group. The two nodded quickly, then after chatting a while, Sam went upstairs to get their stuff, as the woman, Ana waited with them.