Nate could tell you a lot of different things about how he ended up here, waiting for the time to pass by until something interesting finally happened. His dad hadn't come home yet and Nate was sure it had been weeks since the city had been bombed. Something terrible must have happened to him because he knew damn well that his father would do anything he could to get back to his son, he had promised him that several times over in the past and Nate had been stupid enough to believe him. He still wasn't sure what he was supposed to do but he figured he would hold out for as long as he could.
It had taken a while for his food to start running out and he'd been forced to start searching his neighbors houses for supplies. He thought he'd been doing pretty okay so far. He had a small pile on his kitchen counter that was constantly growing each day. He thought it could last him a few more..weeks at the most if he was smart with it. He could wait a little while longer until his father finally decided to show up. He wasn't sure what he was going to do once that happened but he knew that he had gotten tired of being angry over it.
Nate was in his bedroom when he heard the sound of a car engine and he bolted to his window so he could peek behind the curtains but he froze in fear as he saw that it wasn't his father who had pulled into the driveway but it was three different cars, an entire group of people who had stopped on the other side of the street and were getting out and began looking through his neighbors houses. Nate quickly backed up from the window, he glanced around his room and wondered what he could possibly do in this situation but he grabbed his hunting knife and hoped that they weren't going to decide to check his house but he knew it was a lost cause the second he heard his front door swing open downstairs.
He automatically took a few steps back once he realized that these people were seconds away from entering his room and he quickly entered his closet and closed the door behind him. He could hear the voices of two men arguing but they kept their voices down and suddenly the closet door was ripped open and a large hand grabbed the back of Nate's neck. He let out a yell and shoved at the person, hoping that he left a mark when they pulled back but all it caused them to do was drop Nate to the ground. He quickly picked himself back up and grabbed for the backpack he kept next to his door and bounded down the stairs.
"Daryl!" The other guy shouted and Nate was halfway down the steps and he didn't have to turn around to know that he was being chased. He gasped as he lost his footing and he almost tumbled down the other steps before a hand reached out and grabbed his shirt, saving him from falling. Nate stared up at him with wide eyes, unsure if it was in fear or amazement or both.
"What the hell is going on?" A woman's voice had come from the bottom of the stairs and Nate automatically turned his head that way and still, the older man's hand held tightly onto his shirt.
"Who is that?" Someone else had come up to her, Nate had seen their group from outside earlier but he hadn't had time to count and so he wondered how many people were in his house.
"We're not sure, we found him." The man who was probably their leader answered from the top of the stairs. He started to descend down from them.
"You broke into my house." Nate said sharply, glaring back up at him. He was full of adrenaline, it had spiked the second he saw them park outside his house. He hadn't spoken to another living soul in months and suddenly these people were inside his house. He was surprised he wasn't dead yet.
"Will you let go of me?" He tried to jerk away from the man holding onto him, not really caring if he fell again but he had his feet set firmly on the step below him so he would be fine unless this guy decided to push him or something.
"Daryl." The leader said cooly and so Daryl rolled his eyes but finally let go of Nate's shirt. He adjusted his collar and pulled his sleeves back down to his wrists and began to walk down the steps. Too many eyes were on him, he suddenly felt unnerved and then he stepped into his living room and blinked at the amount of people who were staring curiously at him. His eyes immediately fell to their weapons, only a few were tense and had their guns pointed at him and he quickly took a step back, his heart almost leaping out of his chest and he didn't notice as the guns were lowered as he heard rustling in his kitchen and he cursed under his breath as he remembered the pile of supplies he had sitting on his island counter. When he entered the kitchen, he stumbled upon a kid wearing a sheriff's hat and an Asian guy rummaging through his things.
"Hey, that's mine!" He shouted and reached forward to snatch the can the boy had been holding onto. The kid blinked in surprise and looked up at him in shock. Nate knew it had been rude, these people looked like they were exhausted and starving and one of them was pregnant but he couldn't help his reaction. He had risked his life for this stuff.
"Who the hell are you? Give that back." The boy demanded, he was only a few inches shorter than Nate and Nate quickly took a step back as the boy tried to snatch it from him again and Nate was tempted to hold the can above his head and then three of the adults ran into the kitchen.
"Carl!" The pregnant woman exclaimed as their leader went to pull the boy away from Nate and protectively put him behind him, as if he thought Nate would hurt him. Nate brought the can in closer towards his chest, just so he could have something to hold onto and he kept a tight grip on it.
"But this is stuff that we need! Who is that?" He turned his head to look up at the leader. Nate assumed they were related, he thought they looked alike.
"I don't know, we found him upstairs, he says he lived here." The pregnant woman turned to the leader with surprise.
"He's been living here for the entire time? By himself?" She asked, he slowly shook his head. They were talking like he wasn't standing right in front of them.
"I don't know. He took off before we could ask anything but luckily Daryl caught him." He told her. Nate could hear whispers from his living room, he was half listening to the two in front of him. A few of them were even peering through the archway at Nate, one old man in particular.
"What's your name?" The old man asked, raising his voice a bit louder so Nate was forced to turn his head towards him. Nate hesitated, sharing his name with strangers was a bad call. They could kill him but he decided that since they hadn't done it earlier, then maybe they were alright.
"Nathaniel, but most people call me Nate." He told him weakly. This is the most human interaction he's had in..in five months. He averted his gaze down to the can again and then with a defeated sigh, he handed it back over to Carl. They probably needed it more than he did.
"Thank you." His mother said, almost in shock, she had rested her arms on top of Carl's shoulders a while ago, to keep him close.
"Pleased to meet you, Nate. My name is Hershel, this is Rick, Lori, and Carl." The old man introduced them and Nate nodded as he took their names in. It was nice to be able to call them something now. Rick continued to have that hard look on his face and Nate wasn't sure what he was thinking.
"We'd like to stay here tonight, if that's alright with you." Hershel continued to say and Nate blinked, his jaw falling slightly open and part of him wanted to offer one of his neighbors houses, surely they didn't want to stay in a house with some random kid still in it but he forced himself to nod.
"Yeah, okay." He swallows and then lets out a breath that he didn't realize he was holding in. He also didn't notice the look that Rick threw Hershel's way since Nate was also staring at the old man. He didn't notice it when they first showed up but each of them looked exhausted, like they were about to fall over and Nate should've figured that with the way Carl lit up when he saw Nate's stash that they were also starving.
He hesitated and then walked closer towards his stash. He could sacrifice it, it's not like he needed it all to himself.
"You can take what you need." He told them.
"Thank you." Lori said and he shrugged.
"You probably need it more than me." He replied and watched as they started to relax and got comfortable around his living room and kitchen, Glenn and Carl passed out his food to each person.
He felt awkward around them, not sure where he should go but he ended up sitting on the floor, near Rick and Carl, with his back against the couch.
"We'll leave here in the morning." Rick told him and Nate turned his head slowly to stare and then nodded.
"You sure you don't want to stay for a few more days?" He decided to ask, just to be polite. He leaned his head back further on the couch and crossed his arms over his chest.
"No. There's a herd that's about to come through here, you should probably leave too." Rick mentioned, and Nate's mouth opened, the word unfamiliar to him.
"What's a herd?" He said, his eyebrows furrowing together but his question didn't get answered.
"Wait, you don't think he should come with us?" Carl asked from his spot on the floor, as if he hadn't pulled a gun on Nate a few hours ago. He was in the middle of opening up a can of peaches and he looked up.
"Carl, we can't." He said, his jaw clenched tight and Nate suddenly felt bad. His shoulders sagged, he understood.
"Why not?" Carl insisted and his father sent a pointed look his way and Carl suddenly stopped talking. Nate felt extremely uncomfortable in the moment.
"You know, it's fine. Nevermind." He got up from the floor and walked over to the kitchen, he started dividing his stuff up, moving the majority of it over to the side and keeping barely any of it for himself. They were going to need a lot, especially with Carl's mom.
"Thank you." The old man walked over to him and Nate tried to pretend to look interested in the nutrition facts on a can of green beans.
"What for?" He asked, putting the can into their pile. He put a lot in their pile, he was going to have to branch out farther than his neighborhood next time he went out.
"We're strangers to you, we broke into your home and yet you still let us in."
"My dad wouldn't have." He whispered, looking
down at the counter.
"I'll speak to Rick. You've earned a place here, with us." And Nate glanced up at him then but the old man was already leaving. These people were weird.
He hadn't slept that night, he stayed awake with Daryl, who had kept watch by one of the front windows. He went upstairs, to grab his backpack and dropped it at the bottom of his stairs. Rick said he would have to leave because of the herd. He went into his dad's office, looked around one last time and went over to the desk. He sat in the chair and slowly swiveled in it, he never used to come in here if he could help it. He reached over to the bottom drawer and pulled out his dad's old pistol. It worked and everything, his dad believed that they should have at least one gun in the house. Nate's mom never agreed, but as long as his father kept it locked away, she allowed it.
Nate had managed to pick the lock to the drawer the first few weeks he was by himself but he had never taken the gun. He pulled it out now. He had found the spare bullets his dad shoved in the top of the office closet and loaded it up. He kept the safety on the entire time, he wasn't stupid. He put the gun in the back of his pants and covered it with his shirt. He left the office and closed the door behind him.
"What are you doing?" Glenn asked from the front of the hallway. Nate shook his head.
"Nothing. Um, saying goodbye." Nate answered, nodding towards the office. Glenn accepted his answer and they both went back into the living room.
He settled next to the fireplace a few hours later. Maggie had brought back firewood and thrown it in, it wasn't that large of a fire but it was enough to keep them all warm.
"Shit, walkers." Daryl suddenly muttered at around 2am, he got up and shook Rick awake and Nate hurriedly moved to help wake everyone up. Once Glenn was awake, he ran into the kitchen with Maggie and they put all of Nate's supplies into duffle bags.
They all went out the back door and Hershel and Rick were the last ones out.
"He should come with us." Rick threw a glare towards the old man. "He has nowhere else to go, we're taking his supplies." Nate held his breath as he stood there, he wasn't sure what kind of look he had on his face when Rick glanced at him but the leader finally sighed and nodded. Nate ran back to get his bag and then he was outside too. They all went through the door in the gate and piled into two cars.
Nate felt butterflies inside of his stomach, he hadn't ever left his house without knowing he would be coming back.
"Welcome to the team." The grey haired woman who stood next to him said and Nate barely glanced at her before giving a forced smile. She grabbed hold of his arm, giving it a squeeze before getting into the car. As Nate heard the walkers approaching, he got into the backseat besides her and Carl.
A few weeks had passed and Nate understood the group's flow even more, it was definitely an adjustment but he adapted to everything a lot better than he expected. His food ran out fairly fast. He realized he hadn't even saved as much as he thought. Soon the group was back to starving and none of them had much energy left. But within that time, he also learned everyone's names. He branched out from hanging around Rick and Carl and tried to talk to them all. Hershel talked to him the most, however and Nate decided he really liked the old man. He learned that they all met eachother in Atlanta and then arrived on Hershel's farm and when the walkers invaded the farm, they were forced to leave and that's how they found Nate.
"How long were you alone for?" Carl asked Nate, they were supposed to be on watch together, while the adults talked. He gave a shrug.
"Since the start. I thought my dad was gonna come home. Rescue me." He sighed, realizing that the other conversations around them had stopped and they were listening to him. "Once I started to go through my neighbors houses for supplies..I think that's when I figured out that he wasn't coming home."
So many months of being alone, Nate thought he would go insane. He'd broken so many dishes in his neighbors houses, just in fits of anger and he had gone a while without having to kill a walker, but eventually he had to when he visited a house and there was one trapped inside. He would never forget it, how hard it was to kill until he had to jam his knife straight into the walker's eye.
"I'm glad my dad came back." Carl sighed, looking over at Rick and their leader gave his son a sad smile and rubbed his shoulder. Nate frowned as he watched them. They stopped the conversation, as they packed up their things and got back into the cars.
As the months went past and Lori's stomach grew bigger, Nate could see the decline in their personalities. They were just surviving at this point and they barely spoke to each other. None of them had the energy. Nate stuck closest to Carl, the other being a few years younger than him helped a lot. They got into an argument once, over a comic book, tearing the thing in two after a final pull from Carl. They just blankly stared at it, none of the adults had even yelled at them about it.
"Sorry." Nate quickly said, it had been Carl's originally and the boy just sighed.
"Whatever." He stopped off to go to another part of the house and Nate simply picked it up off the floor, wondering how he could fix it. He never left it behind, and after picking through another house with Glenn and Maggie this time, he found a replica and the next issue and gave them both to Carl.
"Wow, thanks." Carl brightly said, Nate shrugged and he caught Lori's gaze who was softly smiling at the both of them. He rolled his eyes and went over to talk to Beth.
There was another night of no dinner and Rick was taking watch so everyone else could sleep, Nate walked outside and kept him company, he had heard Lori arguing with her husband earlier in the day and Carl was in a bad mood because of it for the rest of the evening.
"Are they going to be okay?" He softly asked, Rick glanced back towards the house, where everyone was curled up together. Rick let out a sigh.
"We'll have to figure out something soon or else I don't know how much longer they're going to last." Rick said, as if it was a simple answer.
They stopped in another house, Nate stayed behind with the others to keep watch outside with a gun that Daryl had handed to him and Rick, Daryl, T-Dog, and Carl went inside to search for walkers. He stood next to Glenn, both of them listening for any sudden movement.
Rick gave the all clear and they moved inside. The group settled into the living room, trying to catch their breath for a few minutes while Carl went searching through the kitchen. Daryl came back down the stairs, holding some kind of dead animal and Nate squinted at it.
"Is that a fucking owl?" He asked and Daryl nodded with a smirk on his face. "Cool." He hadn't really spoken to Daryl much, he was still upset over the fact that the man literally threw Nate down a flight of stairs but he was mesmerized by the fact that he had a dead owl in his hand. He went through the rooms upstairs, deciding there was nothing interesting, he went back down the stairs and into the living room. The others had set up for the night, huddled around each other on the floor with nothing to eat and they looked tired.
Carl brought back two cans, handing one to Nate and everyone watched as he opened one of them up. Nate looked down at it, about to do the same but then he saw the picture of the dog and felt like throwing up. He put his wrist to his mouth, twisting his face in disgust and set it back down on the floor. Beth glanced down at it and made the same face he did. Rick noticed their expressions and then stepped over to Carl, snatching the can out of his son's hand as he read what it was and then he angrily threw it at the wall. Nate didn't miss the way that Daryl stilled and then flinched at the loud noise. It was deathly silent.
They only stayed in the house for a few hours before they had to move again. It had been the same cycle for the last couple of weeks and it was wearing them out. Nate was even starting to feel as sleep deprived as the rest had been, oh and he was starving. He missed the first night that he had eaten one of Daryl's squirrels for the first time, that had been a good night. The whole group made fun of him for it, laughing at Nate's expressions as he ate.
He was with Daryl and Rick while they hunted, lingering behind them on the train tracks. Daryl promised to show him a few tricks, the only thing Nate really knew how to do was track footsteps so far. It was easy to tell which ones belonged to walkers.
"That's a shame." Daryl commented and Nate lifted his head up and looked to the side and he saw a prison. Rick and Daryl shared a knowing look and as they looked at it longer, Nate could see the gears turning in Rick's head. The walls and space, it was perfect.
"That's it." Nate said, and Rick nodded. They abandoned their hunting mission and went straight back to the group. It didn't take much convincing as they were all desperate for a stable place. They walked over to the fence, Rick cut a space open in the metal as Maggie took down a walker. Beth, Carl, Nate, and Lori stood back to back, making sure everyone would get in safely.
Daryl and Glenn closed up the fence after everyone was inside. Rick came up with a plan, Nate recognized quite fast that he was good at that. He was put up in the guard tower with Carl and Hershel as they all took out walkers in the yard as Rick made the run to close the other gate.
By nightfall, they made a fire in the courtyard, content for once. They were eating the last of their food and Nate noticed that Lori was watching Rick as he patrolled the fences, however he didn't get a chance to say anything to her before Hershel requested for Beth to sing a song. She settled on something that Nate didn't recognize, but it was nice.
He woke up when the sun rose and it seemed like everyone else was starting to wake up too. He sat up and looked over at Rick, who was sitting up. Carl laid on the other side of Lori. Nate sat up on his own, glancing out towards the fences. Oh yeah, that happened yesterday. They had a home now. Rick glanced at him and snorted.
"What?" Nate said defensively, Rick shook his head.
"You have a terrible bed head." And Nate groaned and shook his head, hoping it would somewhat fix it. He threw himself back onto the ground. Rick laughed and the others began waking up.
"We have a long day ahead of us." Rick said, looking over at the fences.
When everyone was awake and ate their breakfast, Rick took Glenn, T-Dog, Daryl, and Maggie up inside the gates.
"Can I go with you? I need the practice." He simply said, looking up hopefully at Rick.
"Yeah, can we?" Carl said from next to Nate and Rick threw a glare towards his son, shaking his head.
"No, no. You guys stay here, on the other side of the gates and make as much noise as you can and kill the ones that linger." Rick replied, and Nate nodded. The group went inside and Hershel and Lori closed the gates behind them. Nate got into position and when one got close to him and Nate held the pipe up and shoved it into the walker's eye. He quickly pulled it out and it crumpled to the ground. When the walkers close to them were all dead, Nate stood next to Beth and watched Rick's group with the others. It felt like forever when they were done killing and they finally got inside. Glenn came out to get them after thirty minutes. They gathered up their stuff and went inside the prison.
"What do you think? Home Sweet Home, for the time being." Rick said, as the others took the cell block in. Lori thanked him but Rick didn't reply and took off. The group began taking cells, going off into pairs and Nate suddenly felt out of place. Daryl went off to the perch, refusing to sleep in a cell.
"Nate, do you wanna bunk with me?" Carl asked after coming out of Beth's cell and Nate looked over at the boy and then over at Lori who just watched their exchange with a soft smile. So Nate simply nodded.
"Yeah, sure." He replied, and the two of them took their own next to Carol and Lori. Carl took the top bunk, which Nate didn't really mind. Lori came to check on them later in the night.
"You two doing okay?" She asked, and Nate nodded,he noticed that Carl didn't move from his position up top. "Well, alright. Goodnight." She said with a smile and left. Nate sighed and rolled over onto his side, letting himself fall asleep.
Finally being a part of something was a strange feeling that Nate didn't know how to adjust to yet. He never really strayed too far away from Carl, and by extension Lori and Rick. He had gotten comfortable with their dynamic, as if they were his new family. He just fit in, like a puzzle piece that had been missing. Carl fought with Nate like they were brothers and Nate never missed the content looks of happiness on Rick's face when he saw Carl acting like a kid again in Nate's presence.
The next morning, everyone was trying on armor and Carl and Nate stood next to them, Carl messing around with a helmet, sticking it onto his head quickly and he groaned like a walker, holding his arms out with the helmet over his head. Nate shoved at the helmet, Carl swaying a bit forward as they both laughed. Rick glanced over at them and came by and took the helmet from them. Carl replaced it with the sheriff's hat.
"You won't need that, I need you to stay put." He told Carl, and Carl turned his head to Nate.
"Does he get to go?" Carl pointed at the other boy. Rick's eyes flickered over to him.
"No, he doesn't. If things go south, you two might be the last men standing. I need you to handle things here." He handed over keys to Carl and Nate inwardly groaned. He leaned against the wall as Carl locked the gate behind the others. Carol rubbed Beth's back and Nate looked up to the second floor to see Lori staring down at them. She smiled at him and he didn't smile back. Nate pushed himself up off the wall and went back to the table, taking inventory again. He assumed it had been about an hour before he heard voices at the other end of the cellblock and as they got closer, they were more panicked and Nate immediately knew something was wrong and then he realized it was them.
"Carl-" He started slowly, lifting his head up but then Rick had screamed his son's name and the others were coming back. Carl quickly got up and went to unlock the gate, the others were carrying a body, Hershel's body, Nate realized.
"Lori!" Nate screamed, he went to a cell and started pulling sheets off the beds. They had all moved Hershel onto a bed when Nate went back out with the sheets. He handed them over to Carol and slowly backed out of the cell, doing his best to stay out of the way. However, he heard more voices, Daryl was arguing with someone.
"What's that?" Maggie asked, Rick looked up towards the noise.
"Prisoners. They were here before." Rick replied, he left the room and Nate and Glenn quickly followed. "No, no. I need you to stay here with him. If Hershel turns, you need to be there for that." Rick told Glenn and Glenn looked like he wanted to protest at first but then he nodded and went back into the cell. "That goes for you too, Nate." Nate furrowed his brows and opened his mouth.
"No, I want to help out there. I can't-" He paused and shuddered, glancing back towards the cell. "I can't be in there right now." Rick's eyes squinted for a moment but then he gave in. He held out a gun, pointed down at the floor and Nate slowly took it from him.
"Alright, alright but don't do anything rash. Stay right behind me, you understand?" Nate quickly nodded and the two hurried out to the front. Daryl and T-Dog were in the middle of yelling at the prisoners. Daryl was perched up on the table, his crossbow trained on them. The leader was pointing a gun towards them, asking questions about Hershel.
"Why can't you take him to a hospital?" A hospital. Nate remembered that Rick said they were prisoners here, they didn't know what was going on outside. They never would've known what was going on if their group hadn't decided to take over the prison. iT-dog and Daryl threw glances towards each other as they realized the same thing Nate did.
"How long have you been locked in that cafeteria?" Rick asked, the leader hesitated, adjusting his grip on his gun.
"Going on for about ten months." He replied, almost a year.
"Riot broke out, never seen anything like it." The big guy told him. The blonde mentioned something about Speed, which Nate had no idea what that was but he ignored him. Rick began explaining what the world was now. Nate zoned out, he tried to listen to the others, but he couldn't hear them. The realization kicked in for them, Nate only slightly felt bad.
"At least half the population has been wiped out, probably more." Rick said, the leader shook his head.
"Ain't no way." He said, Rick pointed towards the door.
"See for yourself." Rick replied, so they took them outside, some of them had to adjust to the sunlight but it was the bodies on the ground that had finally convinced them. They made a plan, they would help the prisoners clear out a cell block for half of their food.
"I don't like this." Nate muttered to Daryl as they walked back to the cafeteria.
"You and me both." Daryl replied. When they got to the kitchen, Nate's eyes widened at the amount of food they had left over. The way Tomas had spoken, it sounded like they had less than this.
Nate helped carry a bag back to their cell block. His spirits were a bit higher, they wouldn't be starving anymore. He noticed Carl was gone but he hadn't said anything yet while Lori pulled Rick aside. The others went back, to help clear the cell block but Nate decided to stay behind this time. He was finally calmed down enough that he didn't want to help anymore. He went to check on Hershel, Glenn and Carol were by his bedside and Hershel was locked to the side of the bed with handcuffs. Eventually, Maggie entered the room.
"What's going on?" She asked from the doorway, the three of them turned to look at her. Nate suddenly felt bad, the handcuffs on her father probably didn't look good.
"We had to." Glenn said reluctantly, moving away from the bed.
"It's just a precaution." Carol added, Maggie just let out a deep sigh but at least she understood.
"Do you mind if I have a minute alone here?" She asked, and Nate nodded. His hand brushed past her arm as he left. Soon enough, they all went back into the cell, Beth and Lori with them. It was a bit crowded but Nate wasn't complaining. They heard the gate creak open and Glenn was the only one who could see outside.
"Thought you were organizing the food." He said, and Nate knew it was Carl.
"Even better." Carl walked inside and threw a duffle bag onto the ground, Carol gasped as they opened it up, gauze and medical supplies were stuffed inside.
"Where did you get this?" Lori asked, a shocked look on her face as Carol unwrapped the gauze to put on Hershel's leg.
"Found the infirmary." Carl responded, clearly proud of himself. "There wasn't much left but I cleared it out."
"You went by yourself?" Nate grimaced, he could tell from her tone that she wasn't happy about that and Carl was most likely going to get irritated with his mother again. "Are you crazy?"
"Yeah, it's no big deal. I took out two walkera." He said, there was a moment of silence before Lori spoke again.
"No big deal? Do you see this?" She used both her hands to indicate Hershel's leg and looked back towards her son. "This was with the whole group."
"We needed supplies so I got them!" Carl said,
"I appreciate that but-"
"Then get off my back!" Carl snapped at her, Nate's eyes widened and he was ready to jump in but Beth beat him to it.
"Carl! She's your mother, you can't talk to her like that!" She exclaimed from her spot on the floor. Carl stared at her for a moment and then looked back up at his mom.
"Listen, I think it's great that you want to help-" but Lori didn't get a chance to finish as Carl ran out of the cell and she just watched him take off. Nate let out a sigh.
"I'll go talk to him." He said to her and then he walked out. Carl hadn't gone far, thankfully. He just went to the other side of the cell block, to where they had their supplies.
"I..lost my mom about a year before the world went to shit, y'know?" He told him, leaning against the doorway. Carl looked at him then. "She had cancer. It sucked. Before, when she was healthy, we used to get in the dumbest of fights." Nate let out a humorless laugh. "I used to hold these..grudges for weeks and I knew it upset her but I didn't want to give into it. It was so stupid." He paused for a moment, just remembering how much he took his mother for granted. Even though he was only a child and didn't understand what was happening to her, he still felt awful about it. "Point is, you don't know what your mom is going through right now. Give her a break." He paused, this was the first time he's told anyone in the group about his mother but he shook the thought out of his head, this wasn't the time for that.
"Those other guys, the prisoners. They're dangerous. They were obviously in here for a reason, their leader's crazy. That, on top of Hershel getting bitten and his leg cut off. She's right, it's serious. You have to stay close to the group or at least let someone know where you're going. Something could've happened to you and none of us would have even known."
"You saw them?" Nate remembered that Carl was still inside the cell when he begged Rick to let him go with him. He nodded.
"They had no idea what was going on outside these walls." He replied, Carl's eyes widened.
"Wow."
"Yeah." They didn't say anything for a few minutes. Nate hoped that Carl was thinking about what he said but they didn't get a chance to say anything else before they heard everyone freaking out from the cell. They hurried back in just in time to see Lori backing away from Hershel. She had saved him, just by using cpr. Carl leaned by the door along with Glenn while Nate tried to find a space inside. They all just watched Hershel, waiting for the old man to wake up. The others came back eventually.
"Hershel stopped breathing. Mom saved him." Nate heard Carl say to someone. Rick walked into the cell, there was an empty spot next to Maggie that he took. Herschel's eyes opened and Rick unlocked his handcuffs. He held out his hand and Rick took it in his as everyone let out sighs of relief that he was finally awake. Lori left the cell, Nate thought about following her but Rick put Beth's hand into Hershel's and followed her instead. Nate shuffled closer to T-Dog so he could see Hershel's face. They sat in a comfortable silence as they watched the color come back in Hershel's face. He hasn't been with them for very long and he wouldn't realize it for awhile but these people were Nate's family now and he would do everything in his power to help keep them safe.