Is This Real? (Nick Clark X OC) Fear The Walking Dead

Troy

       Nick gazes down at Frankie who's deep asleep. He finally fully takes in the state of her appearance. If she had stood just a few feet further away at their reunion, and kept quiet, he wouldn't have recognized her. The only way he knew for sure was because of her voice.

      He gently picks her head off his lap and lays her on the ground. He walks back around the building they sat behind and sees the group of people all gathered around different campfires. He goes to the pile of sticks that's leftover nearby.

      "Nick!" Luciana whisper yells to him a few feet away. She walks up to him. "So, how did it go?"

       "Things aren't so good right now." He sighs in frustration.

       "Frankie didn't forgive you?"

       "No, no, it's not that. She's just been through a lot. It's really weighing on her." Luciana nods.

       "I hope she gets better." She mutters and walks back near a fire. Nick grabs some of the firewood and takes it back behind the building. Frankie is still dead asleep laying on her side. He sets up a constructed pile of sticks and lights a match. He puts the match to some scraps of paper and puts that to the pile. In just a few minutes a whole fire is going a few feet away from where Frankie lays.

       He takes a seat behind her and gazes into the flames. How can I help someone who doesn't want me to? He thinks to himself. He lays down next to her, and puts an arm around her. It feels foreign. Unfamiliar to lay next to her. They used to sleep like this all the time together, but at this moment it feels like a first.

       In a matter of a couple weeks, the nature of their marriage had shifted entirely. He puts his face into the matted hair at the back of her head and tries not to let his mind wander. It does. He falls asleep.

—---------------------------------------------------------

Two Weeks Ago

      Nick walks along an endless dry road. He carries a bag on his back and faces forward, trying to not look back. He thinks of the last thing his wife said to him. It replays over, and over, and over in his head, leaving an angry look on his face. He feels awful for the mistakes he made that lead to her death.

     After a couple days he runs out of water. He searches but there is no sign of it to appear any time soon. He hasn't slept too much in the last few days either. He sits in an abandoned concrete building to give himself shade from the desert sun.

    "And look who it is! Nicholas Clark!" Frankie's sarcastic voice echos against the walls from behind him. She sounds like a sports announcer. He turns around to see her leaning against a wall. She has an obvious hole in her head, from a gunshot wound. It drips blood every so often.

     "You're not real. Frankie wouldn't call me that, she knows I hate it. Besides, she's dead anyways." He says in a numb tone. "What happened to your head?" He gestures to the injury.

      "What's the matter? You don't think I look pretty like this?" She teases and crouches down in front of him. "I shot myself before the fire could kill me. You know cause I was locked up without an escape? Left to burn in the fires of hell. You put me there. Remember?"

       "You're not real." He repeats himself annoyed.

      "Doesn't matter. What I said was true. This your first time hallucinating? Guess you know how she feels now. Or should I say felt-" Nick quickly cuts her off.

      "Can you please just leave me alone?" His voice breaks. He puts his face in his hands and his breathing gets faster.

     "Fine. Whatever." She disappears.

—------------------------------------------------------------

      Nick opens his eyes to see the sun rising in front of him. Frankie hasn't moved at all. He sits up and hears someone coming over to them. Luciana tosses him a granola bar.

      "Is she still asleep?" She asks

      "Yeah, I'm sure she needed some sleep. Being out there on the road alone like that can do that to you." He nods.

      "Well, we should leave in ten minutes. Pack your stuff." Luciana suggests and leaves the two. Frankie begins shifting around. She slowly sits up.

      "Hey..." She mutters in a scratchy voice.

      "Hey." He replies looking at the ground between them.

       "I'm sorry about what I said last night. I snapped at you. Sort of have a bad habit of doing that." She gives a small nervous laugh.

        "It's okay. I don't blame you." He dismisses her apology quickly.

      "I know I said I didn't want you to love me, but that isn't true." Nick raises his gaze to her at that statement. "I wish I could say the stereotype. Talk about the good old days. But we never had that. Me and you have always been surviving like this, we always have had problems. Whether it was my dad, addiction, a mental hospital, rehab, homelessness, or the end of the world." She pauses. "I want us to be together, but that's risky."

     "Living in this world is risky. Not ending it now, not going through a suicide pact, is the risky part for a painful death. My opinion hasn't changed on you Frankie. Even if you are different now." They both stand up. "We should get going."

      The two go rejoin to the main section of the group and begin moving. They travel together almost like a caravan from many years ago in the desert, sticking closely together. Many hours pass of searching for a place to make a permanent home. They stop for a quick rest under a bridge.

      Out of almost nowhere, gunfire shoots off from in front of them. Frankie grabs Nick's arm and yanks him behind a car to take cover. The people split up entirely, screaming and running in every which way. Luciana can be seen running off into the distance until it's just Nick and Frankie left behind the car.

      "Are you hurt?" She whispers to Nick. He shakes his head 'no'. "I'm good too, but there's no way we can take all those guys in a fight. I'm a pretty good fighter, but there's got to be a little more than twenty out there."

      "Who says anything about fighting?" A man's voice jokes behind her. Two soldiers walk over to Nick and Frankie and pin them to the ground. They are both put in handcuffs. She glares up at the man standing over them. "I'm Troy."