This was not how you had expected your day to be
You thought you would take care of the hens, help Patricia on the kitchen while she made lunch, try to ignore how Otis put dead people into the barn, and just help around in the farm until it was time to rest.
Your life wasn't bad, considering the fact that there were corpses roaming around eating people. You had gotten lucky for once, you supposed, being taken in by the Greene's. There weren't monsters in there, and the ones that got too close were taken and locked inside the barn.
You took good care of never calling them monsters or corpses in front of Hershel, though, not after he snapped at you the first time you did, urging him to kill one that had gotten into the farm. It had almost ended with Hershel kicking you out of his land, though Maggie had convinced him otherwise, and you had learned that Hershel considered those monsters not dead people but sick people who needed treatment and needed to be taken care of.
You, on the other hand, couldn't see it like that...you had seen what they had done to the town...
+++
You all had watched the news through the tv, how some kind of virus had spread through quite a few cities, creating murder and chaos, but most people were shrugging it off as something that "happened in the cities, some disease they got there, not here", and some also saying how the news were exaggerating or making it up, though you didn't know with what purpose.
Your husband, Dan, thought like that. You had watched the news with your heart in your throat, scared and worried, but when you had told him, asking him if you should be doing something, getting ready in case the virus reached the town, he had just told you it was almost cute how dumb you were believing everything you saw on tv. Apparently, it was all a number to manipulate you into something, he didn't elaborate, getting tired of your questions and telling you to shut up. You did.
You'd have thought that for a town as small as that, in which nothing ever happened, it'd have started slowly if it started at all...but no. At one moment everything was normal, then everything was a nightmarish, bloody chaos.
You worked as a waitress and had been horrified to witness how an ill-looking man began beating the windows of the small restaurant. When your boss had gone out to drag him away, the man had thrown himself at him and you couldn't believe it when you saw him bitting his face off.
Everyone began screaming but a woman had the strong nerves and common sense to close and lock the door so the murderer couldn't get in. You were frozen in place, horrified, at some point between throwing up and passing out, but you shook yourself into movement and called the police. The man didn't seem interested in trying to get inside,though, he was...was he eating your boss? Oh god, you certainly were going to throw up. Was this what they had been talking about on the tv?
Perks of living in a small town, the police arrived quickly. When one of them tried to pull the man away from the now dead body of your boss, he bit him too, not letting him go no matter how much the policeman hit him. It took several shots to stop him.
Ambulances came too and some people who seemed quite in shock were taken to the hospital, while others just decided to go home, a couple volunteering to go to the police station to testify what had happened.
A police officer who already knew you offered to walk you home and you were about to decline, he didn't get along with your husband and you knew there'd be trouble if your husband saw him walking you home. But you were still shaken and scared, so finally you accepted.
You did well. When you reached your street you saw one of your neighbors roaming the streets and she looked beyond sick, more dead than alive you'd dare to say. She began growling and stumbling towards you, ignoring the policeman's warnings. He shot her but she didn't stop, seeming to not even feel the bullets, only dropping dead when one hit her on his head.
"Ma'am, lock yourself at home." The policeman told you once you reached your house. "Don't get out."
You nodded, scared. Through his walkie you could hear another officer calling for help, speaking about more gruesome murders.
"Dan? Dan, you here?"
You called, but he wasn't home, probably he was still working. You tried calling to his mobile phone but he didn't pick up. You tried calling your parents too, hoping your hometown hadn't been hit by whatever illness that was, but they didn't pick up either.
It was hard not to cry, it was hard even to breathe, and you felt like you were having an anxiety attack but tried to overcome it. You heard some knocks on the door and you approached cautiously.
"Y/N? Y/N you here?" You heard the voice of one of your neighbors. "Y/N? Please, please open, please!"
As soon as you opened the door she rushed inside, crying.
"Frank he...he tried to attack me, he was all bloodied up but he came for me, wouldn't stop...he bit me!" She cried out, disgruntled, showing you the horrifying looking wound. "Almost chewed my arm off...he's still at home..."
"Anne, you...you gotta go to the hospital, you're bleeding too much..." You tried to stay strong and not faint at the image of the bloodied wound.
"How, with all those people going insane out there...it's, it's the virus from the tv, right? They said it was contagious...oh god..."
It wasn't being easy to keep calm with another person panicking next to you and you tried to take deep breaths, hoping to feel less light-headed.
"Okay...okay...I'll call an ambulance then."
The line was collapsed or down, though, and the same happened when you tried calling for the police.
"Anne, they're not answering, we have to go to the hospital." You tried again but your neighbor shook her head again, seeming too scared to do anything but flop onto the floor, hugging her knees and shaking.
You brought the first aid-kid and bandaged his wound as tight as possible, hoping it'd help slow the bleeding.
"Alright...then we stay here until the police come for us...okay?"
Anne was beyond answering though, she just shivered and sobbed.
That was the first time you saw someone die. Anne stopped breathing at some point and you didn't know what to do anymore. You'd never been more terrified. Neither your husband nor your parents picked up the phone and the police and hospital were still out of reach.
You tried to get out of the house but ran back in when you saw someone or something eating a corpse. The head of the monster had snapped up when it noticed you and you had run back and locked yourself in.
And then, the most terrifying thing you'd ever endured happened when the corpse of Anne began moving, getting up and growling, making her way to you. It couldn't be real. It couldn't be possible. You were frozen in place in shock and fear and she almost reached you but you came back to your senses on time, running out of the house.
The monster from before wasn't there, luckily, but you could see more of those things roaming around not too far and you sobbed helplessly, not knowing what to do, sure that you'd be the next one to be eaten.
But then you had heard hoofbeats approaching and totally dumbfounded you saw Maggie Greene riding a horse down the street. She stopped next to you.
"Maggie?" You stammered.
"Y/N?" She seemed just as surprised. " Y/N, come on, hop in!" She urged. "There's someone else around?"
"No, no...they're all dead...or like that..." You pointed at the monsters that were approaching you slowly.
Maggie nodded and once you wrapped your arms around her waist, she took off again, the horse running fast and away from the monsters.
"Wait, wait!" You urged when you saw her making her way out of town. "I have to find Dan, he's not picking up the phone, must be at work."
"What, no, no way! I'm not risking us for that major ass!" Maggie snapped...you knew she didn't like your husband that much. "Why you even care?! Thought you'd have dumped him by now."
"He's my husband..." You replied weakly. "I...I'll go by myself..."
Maggie growled in frustration. "Okay, fine, I'll take you!"
But when you reached the place there were only more of those monsters making their way slowly to you and half eaten people dead on the floor.
"We gotta go."
Maggie said and you could do nothing but bury your face on her back and sob while she took you both to his father's farm.
"What...what're you doing here?" You asked her, still sobbing. "Thought you were in uni..."
"Yeah, so much for my last year...saw the news on tv and saw some weird things there so I decided to come to check on my family, then wanted to see how the town was doing...didn't expect to find this."
The Greene's took you in without any fuss. They already knew you. Your husband had worked for them for a short while a long time ago, back when Maggie was still in high-school, but Hershel and Dan had had some kind of disagreement, Dan never told you the details, and Hershel had fired him.
Still, they had been always nothing but kind to you, even if your husband didn't approve of you still seeing them, which had cost you a few fights until your meetings with the Greene's turned scarcer and scarcer.
Now they tended to you, took care of you while you were a sobbing mess for a whole week, barely getting out of bed or eating, almost never sleeping for fear of dreaming again with flesh-eating monsters.
You felt totally alone in the world.
Your parents were not picking up their phone and before the news stopped broadcasting it looked like their area had been affected too, so you could only expect the worse. Same with your husband, after what you had seen at his workplace, you could think that maybe, maybe he had run away...or maybe he'd been eaten or had turned into one of those things.
For once, you were grateful you didn't really have friends, so you didn't have to cry them too.
You'd met your husband back in your hometown when you were about to finish high school. He was older than you and totally charming, you'd been head over heels with him pretty soon. Your parents didn't approve at all but back then it'd only made it more exciting.
In a few months, though, Dan'd been fired from his job and he'd told you he'd go back to his hometown and he'd asked you to marry him and go with him. You'd been so elated you cried of happiness. Your parents had cried for a very different reason.
You didn't care what they said, though, neither what your friends said. Dan had told you they just didn't understand and weren't good friends after all, because they didn't support you, and soon you'd been convinced he was right. And so you had left and married him back in his hometown.
You never really quite adapted, though. Whenever you thought you might be making a friend, Dan always told you things about them and their lives and how it was best to keep your distance since you were so stupid you couldn't find someone who'd be a good friend, you were always picking the wrong people. For the most part, you agreed with him...the only time you disagreed it had ended up with a fight that you didn't want to relive and since then, you just stopped trying to make friends.
For the first year of marriage, you hadn't worked, you'd just stayed at home doing the housework, but since your husband was always jumping from job to job and money was tight, you had started working. It had cost you several fights with Dan and a split lip, but he knew you needed the money.
It hadn't been easy to find a job and you hadn't lasted that long in the first one, working as a cashier in a local, small store. Dan had claimed your boss was too nice with you because he wanted something with you and no matter how much you tried to reassure him it was not true, he wouldn't change his mind. He had not only took it with you but he'd actually got to the store and got into a fight with your boss. You had been asked not to come back after that.
After that, you started going from small job to small job until you managed to find a more permanent one working as a waitress and you took good care not to talk too much with your boss or coworker. After having seen your boss being devoured by a monster, you guessed it was kind of good you hadn't developed any kind of friendship with him.
Or with anyone...it seemed most of the people had been devoured or turned into monsters.
The Greene's tried to help you, tried to make you feel better and keep you going, and although their farm seemed almost untouched by the chaos that was destroying the town, soon they had their loses too.
Maggie's stepbrother was the first, he had been working on the fences around the farm, making sure they were alright, when he was bitten. Otis had been with him and managed to drag him back to the house. You told them what would happen, what you had seen with your neighbor, but they didn't listen. When he woke up again, none could stop him before he bit his mother.
They had been the first walkers to be kept inside the barn.
Since them, friends and neighbors joined them, few strangers too as Otis found them roaming the woods.
You couldn't understand Hershel's point of view, not after seeing his stepson like that, but he wouldn't change his mind, wouldn't talk about it, and you weren't eager to bring up the matter and risk being kicked out.
And so, months passed.
+++++++
"Y/N, come on, help me hold him down!"
No, this was not how you had expected your day to be. It was quite a disruption from your sort of quiet, sort of deceivingly safe life...to say the least.
Certainly, you hadn't expected Otis to show up with a couple of alive men, for a change, and a very injured little boy. Otis had shot him by accident while hunting and had brought them there, hoping Hershel could help him.
Hershel was a veterinarian, not a doctor, but it'd have to do...not like there were anyone else around who could help.
You were now helping hold the kid down on what had been your bed for months, while Hershel worked on it, his distraught parents watching. The other man had left with Otis to try and bring the supplies that Hershel needed to save the kid's life.
In the end, the kid pulled through and he would recover...at the cost of Otis' life, who had died helping bring the supplies back.
The rest of that family's group had been allowed to stay in Hershel's farm, settling down in their tents and cars at the outside of the house, until the kid were good enough to leave. You hadn't talked much to them, but you didn't think they'd want to leave...you were pretty sure the world outside that farm was still chaos and madness.
Besides, you were pretty sure Maggie was giving eyes to one of the guys...or at least, the guy was giving her heart eyes all the time. It was kind of cute, even in such a situation.
That little boy's accident wasn't the only tragedy the group had gone through recently, they had also lost a little girl in the woods around the farm, so they went looking for her daily.
"I mean..." You told once to Maggie. "I don't know how they can think they're gonna find her...she has no water, no food...she has probably been food herself..."
"Don't say that...I know what it looks like but maybe she...dunno, maybe she's..."
"Sick?"
You finished her sentenced, making reference to what Maggie's father said about the monsters. You knew Maggie was doubtful about sharing her father's beliefs, about those things being sick...but you also knew she didn't consider them things. After all, it was mostly her family and friends who were inside that barn.
Maggie shot you a glare.
"I'm just saying...those monsters eat people, I told you, I saw it, and you've seen how they are..." You kept going. "And you know they roam the woods...if the little girl's there..." You didn't finish the sentence.
"Then pray she doesn't find any."
Later that day you regretted having talked like that when the group returned without once again having found the girl and you saw her mother crying. They kept going looking for her, day after day, though.
That's how you ended up having to give up your bed again, right when the little boy Carl had left it, since one of those people ended up badly hurt, bad enough to need the bed. It wasn't clear what had happened, but you caught sight of him and he was all battered and bruised, besides having had his head grazed by a bullet.
Seriously, those people were quite unlucky.
That night you dined well, some of the women from the group had helped Patricia cook. They were Lori, the mother of the little boy, and Carol, the mother of the missing little girl, and you thought they were nice...Hershel, though, didn't seem thrilled at the idea of having them there cooking, or in his land any longer.
You knew he was worried about them making trouble, and honestly you weren't one to trust strangers, but this kind of end of the world thing had you guessing that you alive people should be relying on each other more than you usually would.
Besides, you knew there was another bigger and more secret reason for which Hershel wanted them gone as soon as possible, and that was what was inside the barn. He had forbidden all of you from telling them, and you knew why. You had heard how those people talked about the monsters, which they called walkers, and they were way closer to your ideas than to Hershel's.
Once dinner was done and everyone got ready to leave to their rooms or tents, you tried to sneak into your room without bothering the man who was in there, so you could get some of the clothes that the Greene's sisters had lent you. He had seemed so out of himself when they brought him that you half expected him to be unconscious.
You thought he was, or at least asleep, he was lying on his side as if sleeping, his back to you. You could see that part of his shoulder, covered in scars. You wondered if it was from fighting the monsters, since now you knew his group had been out in the wild, so to speak, for months, without a house or anything to hide from the monsters but surviving anyway.
"What the hell?!" The man wasn't asleep though, and when he heard your footsteps he turned to face you, tugging at the sheets to cover himself up to the chin and glaring at you. "What you doing?!"
"I...well...I needed some clothes..." You explained awkwardly. "This's my room...well, it's the guest's room, but I've been staying in it for months, so..." You tailed off, the man still scowling. "Sorry, didn't mean to bother you, just a sec..." Quickly, you opened one of the drawers, getting out the leggings and tank top you had come looking for.
On your way out you noticed a tray with an empty plate on the nightstand and you went to pick it up too. The man recoiled from you, shuffling to the other side of the bed, seeming startled and awkward, and frowning at you. You guessed that a life like the one those people had had out there made you distrustful...if you'd have to sleep knowing that monsters could attack you and rip through your tent at any moment, you'd be on edge all the time too.
You were about to leave but you turned to the man.
"You don't have to be scared in here, we haven't had many those things inside the farm and they won't get into the house."
You had meant it to reassure him but somehow it made the man just frown more.
"I ain't scared!"
"Okay..." You knew you should leave him alone but you had never met someone who had been out there for so long...and with Hershel around, you couldn't really talk about such things with those people. "Aren't you scared of those...walkers?" You used the word you had heard from them.
The man still seemed awkward and as if wondering what the hell were you still doing there, and you weren't sure if he was mad at you or not, with the way he was looking at you. He just shook his head.
"Really?" You couldn't believe it, knowing how terrifying and dangerous those monsters were. But they had told you the man had gotten injured while looking for the little girl alone in the woods, so maybe he was really brave...or just reckless. "I mean, they not only kill people they eat them...I'm terrified thinking that-" You bit your lip before saying you were terrified of them breaking out of the barn, "thinking that they might get into the house somehow."
The man said nothing and so you apologized again for having bothered him and you left.
N/A: English is not my first language, so I'm sorry for the mistakes.