Nate began showing the same symptoms as everyone else within a few hours and they were forced to put him in quarantine. More people started to get sick not long after. He stood by his cell door to watch as Carol filtered them into death row. She made eye contact with him through the door, slightly raising her eyebrows and he was sure the woman was smiling at him through her mask but he just blankly stared back at her and then Jeanette was claiming that her symptoms were just allergies even though she looked just as bad as the rest of them. She came through, eventually and they were all given cells and roommates. Glenn came by next and Nate's eyes widened at the sight of him.
"You got it too?" He asked, slightly horrified. Glenn nodded. Shit, if Glenn got it then he just hoped that everyone else who lived in their cellblock was immune enough. He wondered if they had any precautions to keep the others from getting sick. The most he saw was cloth being used as masks. It wasn't much.
"Most likely from Sasha." He replied, Nate looked around and sure enough, he saw Sasha on the other side of the cellblock. She looked worse than either of them did.
"Huh." He said. "Well, I don't have a roommate yet, you wanna share?" Glenn let out a shaky breath and brushed a hand over his face but nodded. Nate let him have the bottom bunk, well it was more like Glenn went over to it and laid down immediately but Nate wasn't going to put up a fight for it. He felt like he was still strong enough to climb to the top anyways.
"Rick put the kids in a separate quarantine." Glenn told him.
"Good, that's good." Nate replied, he was still standing by his door when Carol opened the door again and was standing there with Lizzie. The girl looked into the sick bay once and then quickly turned around and hugged Carol. Over her head, Carol made eye contact with Nate and eventually she got the girl to let go of her.
"That's Nate. He'll look after you the best he can." Carol told her. Lizzie glanced up at him and he softly smiled at her. She walked over to stand in front of him and Carol closed the door, it looked like she could barely hold herself together. He stared at her for a moment, unsure of what to say to a little girl.
"Y'know I don't think Alice has a roommate yet, let's go find her." Nate said, he hadn't seen the other girl in awhile and he was sure the two of them would get along, with them being girls and all. He tried to remember which room Alice was in and made a show of searching for her while Lizzie lingered behind him. They found her eventually, reading a book in a chair. Nate made a face but once Alice noticed them, she brightened up.
"Hey, Nate." She frowned as her gaze landed on Lizzie. "Hi, what's your name?"
"Lizzie."
"Hi, I'm Alice." She glanced back at Nate with a questioning look.
"Oh right. Uh, Lizzie needs a room. Do you have a bed to spare?" He asked, she nodded and Nate placed his hand on Lizzie's shoulder and lightly pushed her into the room.
"Get some rest." He told her, moving to walk out of the room.
"Wait!" Lizzie called, whipping back around to face him. "Carol said you would tuck me in." Nate grimaced automatically and Alice covered her face with her hand and he knew that she was smiling.
"Oh, um, alright." Lizzie went to get into the bed and Nate awkwardly hovered by her and when he stood there too long, he felt Alice lightly push his shoulder from behind him and he startled but ducked down to tuck the corners of the blanket around Lizzie.
"Do you know how to sing like Beth?" Lizzie asked Alice and Alice paused for a moment and Nate stared at her.
"Um, not really." Alice said, tucking her hair behind her ears and a blush spreading across her cheeks.
"Oh." Lizzie softly said.
"I'm sure that Alice can figure something out." Nate said with a shit eating grin and she threw a glare at him.
"Please." The girl said with wide eyes.
"Oh, okay. Give me a minute." Alice closed her eyes as she tried to rack her brain for something to sing and then after a few minutes, she softly started to hum which turned into actual singing and Nate and Lizzie both watched as the girl sung a song that neither of them recognized. It didn't take very long for Lizzie's eyes to finally close. Nate managed to get up from the bed without waking her and nodded to Alice and left their room. It was getting worse, he realized.
A wave of nausea suddenly hit him and he reached out to balance himself against the wall as he tried to breathe and coughed a few times into his other hand, he pulled it back to look down at what just came out of his mouth and saw red. That definitely wasn't good. He dragged himself back to his room and almost made it before he collapsed onto the floor and his vision faded to black.
He wasn't sure how long it had been before he was picked up and he regained consciousness. He glanced up and noticed Glenn was pulling him up and setting him into the bottom bunk and saw Hershel, of all people right behind him.
"Hershel?" Nate gasped, rubbing his hand over his face. "What happened?" He glanced over at Glenn who settled a few steps behind Hershel with his arms crossed.
"You passed out." Glenn said and Nate just barely remembered leaving Alice's room and not much after that.
"Oh."
"Drink this." Hershel handed him a tin cup and Nate didn't even hesitate before trying to down it and immediately pulled away, wincing at the heat of it.
"Ow, what the fuck?" He exclaimed, putting his fingers to his lips, making Glenn laugh. He threw a glare towards the other.
"Nathaniel." Hershel chastised, making Nate immediately roll his eyes.
"You still could've warned me." His voice was low, too low but he drank the tea anyways. He screwed his face up again at the taste of it, but he drank the whole cup and handed it over once he was done with it. "What are you doing in here anyways?"
"Helping the best way I know how." The old man replied, taking the cup again and rinsing it out before placing it back in his bag and Nate tried to make himself more comfortable.
"It's getting worse, isn't it?" Hershel hesitated before nodding.
"Daryl and Michonne went for a run to get medicine, it might take awhile but they'll get it." Hershel told them, looking back around at Glenn.
"Well they better hurry their asses up then." Nate muttered.
"Do you want to help me with my runs if you're feeling up to it?" Glenn's eyes flickered over to Nate but he nodded and uncrossed his arms. The two left Nate alone then.
It had been a few hours, when Nate woke up again with yet another coughing attack, he picked up the glass of water on the table next to him and downed it. He wiped his hand across his mouth to dry it and then he stood up when he heard someone else coughing loudly. He pulled himself out of the room and headed towards the source. He found Lizzie, a few rooms over. The man was laying on the floor on his side, coughing up blood and once he realized that it was Glenn, Nate gasped in shock and slid onto his knees. Lizzie looked scared out of her mind and she glanced back at Nate in fear.
"Glenn!" He exclaimed, he quickly turned Glenn onto his back and quickly looked around and saw one of the plastic tubes that helped people breathe, he placed it around Glenn's head and began squeezing it after ten seconds. "Take deep breaths, come on man." He still had his hand on his shoulder and Glenn's eyes focused on him and he let out a deep breath through his nose and then the coughing quieted. Nate let out a sigh of relief once it started working, but a movement out of the corner of his eyes made him look up and the person on the bed had dropped their arm and Nate realized it was a walker.
"Shit!" He yelled, moving backwards. "Lizzie, do you have anything sharp?" He asked, she shook her head and Nate got up off the floor and ran out of the room, looking around for anything he could possibly use as a weapon but then he looked further down the hallway, dodged another walker that had come from a cell and saw that Hershel had fallen to the ground and had a walker on top of him.
"Everyone, stay in your cells!" The man shouted.
"Hershel!" He ran forward, shoving the walker off the man. It got back up and Nate shoved at it again until it hit the wall but it kept trying to come towards him and so he grabbed the back of it's head and slammed it into the concrete. He let out another yell and slammed it again until it fell to the ground.
"Knife! Give me your knife!" He told Hershel, as he tried to sit up but Nate didn't take any time and grabbed it from Hershel's belt himself. On his way back up the stairs, he pushed the lingering walker into its empty cell and slammed the gate behind it, he got there just in time to see Lizzie backing up in the hallway, guiding the walker as if it was a dog. He opened his mouth in disbelief as he watched her talk to it.
"Lizzie!" He exclaimed, reaching forward and pushing her behind him. He stabbed the walker in its head and as he did so, the little girl screamed once it fell.
"No! Why would you do that?" She asked him with tear filled eyes. She pushed Nate in his stomach and he felt wildly confused as he watched her run away.
"Lizzie!" He tried calling her but then he heard a gunshot from down below and looked over the railing to see one of the guys shooting at a different walker but then he got bit by one from behind and fell over. The gun went off again and Hershel was backing away.
"Fuck, fuck fuck." Nate quickly went down the stairs, stabbed the walker that was attacking him and yanked it away from the man. He had toppled over, onto his knees and started to have a hard time breathing.
"Nate, Nate open the door!" He looked up and saw Maggie banging on the glass and looked back down at the bitten man.
"So what did you do before?" Zack asked, his arm around Beth while the three teenagers sat around a table outside. Zack had food in his mouth, munching on a fried piece of meat and Nate had his fist curled up against his face with his elbow propped up on the table, he pushed the sides he had around on the plate with his fork.
"What?" Nate asked. Zack swallowed loudly and Nate made a face at the noise.
"Before, all this." Zack gestured widely with his hand. "You don't have any family here, right?" Nate rolled his eyes at the question. "You weren't in Woodbury."
"Neither were you." Nate shot back, suddenly in a worse mood.
"Yeah, I know but you guys already know everything about me." Zack replied.
"Okay, and I don't have to share my life story with everyone in this prison. Besides, there's not much to tell." He picked up his plate and promptly walked away.
He rolled his eyes, feeling exhausted and got up off the ground. He wasn't going to let Maggie in, no way in hell.
"Sorry, man." He murmured and slowly put the knife through his skull. He pulled it back out and grabbed the gun that was lying a few inches away from the other's open hand. Maggie swung her axe back and hit the lock on the door but it didn't budge. She aimed her gun at the door and Nate widened his eyes.
"Maggie, it's not happening!" He yelled, she glared at him and turned around. He wasn't sure where she was planning on going but he didn't care. There were still more walkers and he quickly checked the gun he had for rounds, there were only five and he moved towards the stairs that Hershel had gone up and took down one of the walkers. The second had been shot by Hershel. He had gotten the gun that was in Dr.S' room. He stared up at the old man once they both fell.
"Caleb's dead." Hershel told him. Nate nodded and caught himself on the railing to catch his breath.
"Okay." He replied. "Glenn?"
"He's fine." Hershel said. "You got the bag on him in time." Maggie showed up then, standing a few feet away from Nate.
"You should've let me in!" She exclaimed.
"I had it handled." Nate replied. She rolled her eyes.
"Where's Glenn?" Nate tilted his head up towards the stairs.
"cell 100." Hershel said. She bounded up the stairs, and Nate slowly made his way up them. Hershel stopped him and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "You did good." Nate's eyes flickered up to his and Hershel was softly smiling.
"Lizzie." He suddenly said.
"She's fine." Hershel responded. Nate shook his head.
"No, she-did you see how she was talking to that walker?" Hershel dropped his hand and nodded.
"I'll speak with her but for now, get some rest. You deserve it." Nate sighed and handed the knife back over to the old man. Hershel took it and Nate brushed past him.