Forbidden Love- Rick Grimes Love story

22

Rick's POV
I pushed open the door to see the old man sitting at the bar, "Hershel." "Who's with you? Madison?" He asks and I shake my head, "Glenn." He laughed, "Maggie sent him?" I shake my head walking into the bar, "He volunteered. He's good like that. How many have you had?" He taps his glass on the counter, "Not enough." "Let's finish this up back at home. Beth collapsed, is in some sort of state. Must be in shock. I think you are too." I said to him softly. "Maggie's with her?" He asked me and I nodded, "Yeah, but Beth needs you." "What could I do? She needs her mother. Or rather to mourn like she should've done weeks ago. I robbed her of that. I see that now." He says softly. "You thought there was a cure. Can't blame yourself for holding out for hope." I tell him. He laughs, "Hope? When I first saw you running across my field with your boy in your arms, I had little hope he would survive.." He starts before I cut him off, "But he did." Hershel nods, "He did. Even though we lost Otis. Your man Shane and girl Madison made it back and we saved your boy. That was the miracle that proved to me miracles do exist. Only it was a sham, a bait and switch. I was a fool, Rick, and you people saw that. My daughters deserve better than that." Glenn pulls me aside, not being very quiet though, "So what do we do? Just wait for him to pass out?" "Just go. Just go!" Hershel screams at us. I shake my head, "I promised Maggie I'd bring you home safe." He laughs, "Like you promised those little girls? Like you promised Madison, you'd bring back her little girl for her?" I did my best to bring those little girls back, Sophia may be gone, but we aren't for sure about Joey yet. I scoff, "So what's your plan? Finish that bottle? Drink yourself to death and leave your girls alone?" He slams his glass on the table, "Stop telling me how to care for my family, my farm. You people are like a plague! I do the Christian thing, give you shelter, and you destroy it all!" I step towards him, "The world was already in bad shape when we met." "And you take no responsibility! You're supposed to be their leader!" Hershel screams pointing to me. I scoff, "Well, I'm here now, aren't I?" Hershel laughs in response, "Yes. Yes. Yes, you are." I stand next to him, "Now come on. Your girls need you now more than ever." Hershel sighs, "I didn't want to believe you. You told me there was no cure, that these people were dead, not sick. I chose not to believe that. But when Shane shot Lou in the chest and she just kept coming, that's when I knew what an ass I'd been, that Annette had been dead long ago and I was feeding a rotten corpse! That's when I knew there was no hope. And when that little girl came out of the barn, the look on your face--I knew you knew it too. Right? There is no hope. No hope for Madison's girl. And you know it now, like I do. Don't you? There is no hope for any of us." I shake my head, "Look, I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore, cleaning up after you. You know what the truth is? Nothing has changed. Death is death. It's always been there, whether it's from a heart attack, cancer, or a walker. What's the difference? You didn't think it was hopeless before, did you? Now there are people back at home trying to hang on. They need us, even if it's just to give them a reason to go on, even if we don't believe it ourselves. You know what? This--this isn't about what we believe anymore. It's about them."

Suddenly the door to the bar opens and our heads snap to see two men. I put a hand on my gun and the skinny guy walks over to the bar, "Son of a bitch. They're alive. I'm Dave. That scrawny-looking douche bag there is Tony." Tony laughs, "Eat me, Dave." "Hey, maybe someday I will. We met on I-95 coming out of Philly. Damn shit-show that was." Dave shrugs. Glenn steps forward, "I'm Glenn. It's nice to meet some new people." "Rick Grimes." I say aloud. "How about you, pal? Have one?" Dave asks Hershel. Hershel pushes his glass away, "I just quit." Dave laughs, "You've got a unique sense of timing, my friend." "His name's Hershel. He lost people today, a lot of them." I answer for Hershel. Dave looks to Hershel before raising his glass, "I'm truly sorry to hear that. To better days and new friends. And to our dead--may they be in a better place." I looked at his gun and he noticed picking it up, "Ah. Ah. Not bad, huh? I got it off a cop." I nod, "I'm a cop." Dave laughs, "This one was already dead." "You fellas are a long way from Philadelphia." I point out and he nods, "Feels like we're a long way from anywhere." "Well, what drove you south?" I ask them. "Well, I can tell you it wasn't the weather. I must've dropped 30 lbs. In sweat alone down here." Dave jokes. Tony scoffs, "I wish." Dave shook his head, "No, first it was DC I heard there might be some kind of refugee camp, but the roads were so jammed, we never even got close. We decided to get off the highways, into the sticks, keep hauling ass. Every group we came across had a new rumor about a way out of this thing." "One guy told us there was the coast guard sitting in the gulf, sending ferries to the islands." Tony told us. "The latest was a rail yard in Montgomery running trains to the middle of the country--Kansas, Nebraska." Dave said and Glenn looked confused, "Nebraska?" "Low population, lots of guns." Tony shrugged. Glenn nods, "Kinda makes sense." "Ever been to Nebraska, kid? A reason they call 'em flyover states." Dave asks Glenn. Something about theses guys don't seem right. Dave looks up, "How about you guys?" "Fort Benning, eventually." I answer. Dave sighs, "I hate to piss in your cornflakes, officer, but...we ran across a grunt who was stationed at Benning. He said the place was overrun by lamebrains." "Wait, Fort Benning is gone? Are you for real?" Glenn asks in shock. Dave nods, "Sadly, I am. Oddly, the truth is there is no way out of this mess. Just keep going from one pipe dream to the next, praying one of these mindless freaks doesn't grab ahold of you when you sleep." Tony scoffed, "If you sleep." Dave nods before looking at us, "Yeah, it doesn't look like you guys are hanging your hats here. You holed up somewhere else?" I shake my head, "Not really." I'm not gonna tell these people where Lori is, where Carl is, where Madison is. "Those your cars out front?" He asks pointing to the door. "Yeah. Why?" Glenn asks. "We're living in ours. Those look kinda empty, clean. Where's all your gear?" Dave asks. "We're with a larger group out scouting, thought we could use a drink." Hershel answers. Dave laughs, "A drink? Hershel, I thought you quit. Well, we're thinking of setting up around here. Is it--is it safe?" Glenn nods, "It can be, although I have killed a couple of walkers around here." "Walkers? That what you call them?" Dave asks us and Glenn nods. Dave smiles, "That's good. I like that. I like that better than lamebrains." "More succinct." Tony points out. "Okay, Tony went to collage." Dave jokes and Tony shrugged, "Two years." "So what--so what, you guys set up on the outskirts or something? That new development?" Dave asks trying to find out any information. "Trailer park or something? A farm?" Tony asks. "Old McDonald had a farm." Dave sings Tony stands up and starts peeing in the corner. It's disgusting really. "You got a farm?" Dave asks. "Is it safe?" Tony asks while peeing. "It's gotta be. You got food, water?" Dave rolls his eyes looking to us. Tony laughs, "You got cooze? Ain't had a piece of ass in weeks." I look over at him with disgust in my eyes. Our women are not objects, that you can just have your way with. "Listen, pardon my friend. City kids--they got no tact. No disrespect. So listen, Glenn..." Dave starts before I cut him off, "We've said enough."

Mads POV
We turn and walk in the direction of the bar. When we arrive I see two cars parked by the car we took. I grab my extra clip out of the car, reloading my gun. We walk up to the door and before we open it, I pull my gun out and nod to Joey. She pulls her gun out too, and I kick open the door. We both have our guns pointed and Rick, Glenn, Hershel, and two randoms look at us. I see Rick and Glenn's jaws drop at the sight of Joey. A tear falls from Rick's face as he walks over and hugs her. Glenn comes over hugging her too. Rick pulls me into a hug and whispers, "You did it. You found her." I nod, "I still can't believe it. It feels like she's not real." We're interrupted by some skinny guy behind the bar, "Rick," He starts before looking at Joey and I, licking his lips, "You didn't introduce us to your friends." I scoff in disgust pulling Joey closer to me. He walks over to me looking me up and down before he brushes a piece of my hair behind my ear. I look over to see Rick angrily put his hand on his gun. I launch my head forward head butting him and he stumbles back with a smile on his face, "I like them feisty, sweetheart." He steps back looking to Rick, "This farm--it sounds pretty sweet. Don't it sound sweet, Tony?" "Yeah, real sweet. Especially if this is our company." Tony says looking to me and Joey. I pull Joey behind me and pull my gun out, "Don't you dare look at her." "Madison, no." Rick warned. The scrawny one looked over to me, "Madison is it? That your kid? Course it is she looks like a carbon copy of you. You know the whole momma bear thing is really working for me right?" I look over to see Rick looking at the guy very angrily. I look back to him I roll my eyes, "Bite me." "How about a little southern hospitality? We got some buddies back at camp, been having a real hard time. I don't see why you can't make room for a few more. We can pool our resources, our manpower. Some men for your ladies." Dave says to Rick before looking over to me. Rick steps closer to me, "Look, I'm sorry. That's not an option." Dave scoffs, "Doesn't sound like it'd be a problem." Hershel shakes his head, "I'm sorry. We can't." "We can't take in any more." Rick says simply. Dave shakes his head laughing, "You guys are something else. I thought--I thought we were friends. We got people we gotta look out for too." Joey shifts uncomfortably into my side. "We don't know anything about you." Rick states stepping closer to me. Dave nods, "No, that's true. You don't know anything about us. You don't know what we've had to go through out there, the things we've had to do. I bet you've had to do some of those same things yourself. Am I right? 'Cause ain't nobody's hands clean in what's left of this world. We're all the same. So come on, let's--let's take a nice friendly hayride to this farm and we'll get to know each other." I scoff, "That's not gonna happen." "Rick..." Dave starts before Tony stands up yelling, "This is bullshit!" "Calm down." Rick says sternly. "Don't tell me to calm down. Don't ever tell me to calm down!" Tony yells coming over towards us. "Whoa!" Glenn says trying to diffuse the situation. "I'll shoot you three asshole in the head and take your girls and your damn farm!" Tony screams.
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Relax. Take it easy. Nobody's killing anybody. Nobody's shooting anybody. Right, Rick? Look. We're just friends having a drink. That's all. Now where's the good stuff, huh? Good stuff, good stuff, good stuff. Let's see. Hey. look at that. That'll work." Dave says causing Tony to chill out. Dave sighs, "You gotta understand--we can't stay out there. You know what it's like." Rick nods, "Yeah, I do. But the farm is too crowed as is. I'm sorry. You'll have to keep looking." "Keep looking. Where do you suggest we do that?" Dave asks him. "I don't know. I hear Nebraska's nice." Rick tells him. Dave scoffs, "Nebraska. This guy." Dave reaches for his gun raising it at Rick, and I pull mine out quickly and pull the trigger. The bullet goes through his head and his body drops to the ground. Rick shoots Tony before he can shoot us and I just stand there frozen. I just killed someone.