King ☞ r. grimes

1

She slammed the office door shut and climbed under the desk.

She could hear people running around and screaming and guns firing.

She heard a break in the gunshots and decided that it was time to make a run for it.

Before she could climb out, a doctor ran into the office looking for refuge.

Katie recognized him as a colleague and good friend of John's.

"Owen, what is going on?" Katie asked, panicked.

"Katie? Have you seen on the news the whole thing about disease that's making dead people come back?" Owen asked.

"I thought that was just in California," Katie said.

"So did we," Owen said, looking into the distance.

"We have to get out of here," Katie said.

"I'm not going anywhere," Owen said, defiantly.

"Suit yourself. I will not die cowering under my ex husband's desk," Katie said standing up.

"Katie, don't be stupid," Owen said, grabbing her arm.

She ripped it out of his grasp and started off towards the door.

She looked out the door and once she saw that it was clear she ran out and back towards the parking lot.

As she was running across the hallway, a man ran right into her. Before she had time to process what happened, she realized that she recognized him.

"Officer Walsh?" Katie asked.

"Hot lawyer lady?" Officer Walsh asked.

"We need to get out of here," Katie said, ignoring his comment.

"Agreed," he said, grabbing her arm and leading her down the hallway quickly, trying to avoid getting gunned down by the military.

They ran out to the parking lot. It was the most chaotic scene they had ever seen.

People were running around and screaming. They were trying to get into the hospital. They were trying to get to their loved ones.

The military was pulling up just as Katie and Officer Walsh got to their cars and sped out of the parking lot.

They saw the military gunning these people down out of their rear view mirrors.

They pulled up in front of a house in the suburbs of King County.

Officer Walsh got out of the car and ran through the front door.

Katie walked up slowly and knocked on the front door.

It may be a time of crisis but she did not lose her sense of politeness and manners.

She was let in by a little boy who could not have been more than twelve.

When she saw him she did a double take. For a second she thought it was Tommy.

"Are you Shane's friend?" Asked the little boy.

"Yes. I'm here with Officer Walsh," Katie said.

The boy stepped aside and let her in.

"I'm Carl Grimes, by the way," the boy said.

"Katie King. It's a pleasure to meet you, Carl," she said with a kind smile, holding out her hand for him to shake.

The kid smiled and shook her hand.

Katie walked into the kitchen where Shane was standing with a woman.

"I'm Katie. Katie King. Officer Walsh and I work together from time to time at the courthouse. I'm an attorney," Katie introduced herself.

"Lori. Lori Grimes. Nice to meet you," she said distractedly.

She seemed as though she was in a trance.

"I couldn't get him Lori. He's gone. I'm sorry. It's all my fault," Shane whispered to her.

"It's- it's not true," Lori said, shaking her head.

"I'm sorry," Shane whispered.

Katie knew that look that Lori had on her face. That was the look of someone who had just lost the person they love most in the world.

"We need to get on the road," Shane said gently.

"Katie, will you be traveling with us?" Lori asked, wiping her eyes.

Katie looked at Shane for permission.

He nodded.

"Yes. I would like that a lot, actually," Katie agreed.

"We can pack as many things as we need to in my car," Lori said.

"I need to run home and grab a few things. I have tons of supplies at my house. We should all stop there first," Katie suggested.

They pulled up in front of her 2.6 million dollar home. They had never seen anything like it.

Katie ran inside and began to pack things up.

"Take whatever you want. The pantry is full of all the food you could imagine. We need every last bit of it," Katie said.

She grabbed other things too.

She made sure that she had her family pictures.

She made sure that she had enough clothes for herself and even Lori.

She grabbed calendars because she would die before she lost track of days and events.

She even stuffed her law degrees into her trunk.

Once the crisis was over, she wanted to make sure she could go back to normalcy.

Once she was all packed, she said goodbye to her beautiful home, hoping she would get to come back to it soon.

The group got on the road.

They immediately met a traffic jam on the interstate. There were hundreds of cars stopped on the road.

The adults got out of their cars and talked to people standing around to see what was going on.

They met a nice woman named Carol and her daughter Sofia.

They had no idea what was going on either.

Her husband Ed seemed off to Katie. She immediately did not like him. The second she met Ed, she felt responsible for Carol.

A woman like Carol could never stand up to someone like Ed and Katie knew how that felt.

John wasn't her first relationship. There had been other men. Ones like Ed.

Katie worked with men like Ed on a daily basis.

The two families and Katie decided that it would be better to all stay together, much to the dismay of the men.

They drove off the interstate to a clearing in the forest.

A couple of other people they met on the road came as well.

A man named Dale, two sisters named Andrea and Amy, a woman named Jaqui, a man named Jim, the Morales family, a man named T-Dog, two brothers named Merle and Daryl, a man named Glenn, a woman named Jan, and a man named Mitch, were among them.

There were others, but Katie had a very hard time remembering their names.

She thought that she would have plenty of time to remember their names.

She also thought that this crisis would be over in a week.

She had no idea just how wrong she was.

• • •