The Walking Dead

Days Gone Bye pt3

Rick woke up lying in a bed with floral sheets. His hands were tied to the bed posts. The kid who hit rick is standing in by the door holding a wooden bat. "Got that bandage changed now. It was pretty rank. What was the wound?" The man asks.

"Gunshot." Replies rick.

"Gunshot?" He questions him. Rubbing a cloth on his hands. "What else? Anything?"

"Gunshot ain't enough?" Snaps rick. The man walks up to rick.

"Look, I ask and you answer. That's common courtesy, right?" He commanded. He leans over ricks head and says emphatically "did you get bit?"

"Bit?" Questions rick.

"Bit, chewed, maybe scratched-- anything like that?"

"No, I got shot. Just shot as far as I know." The man reaches to feel ricks forehead and rick moves his head out of the way.

"Hey. Just let me." He softly touches ricks forehead feeling for a fever. "Feels cool enough." He says to his son. "Fever would've killed you by now."

"I don't think I have one." Rick says.

"Be hard to miss." The man takes out a pocket knife and holds it close to ricks face. "Take a moment, look how sharp it is. You try anything, I will kill you with it. And don't you think I won't." He reaches up and cuts off the ropes letting rick go. Rick grabs his wrists and rubs them. "Come on out when you're able." The man says. His son follows him.

Rick gets up and raps himself in a blanket. The house is dim lighted and the windows are boarded up covered with blankets blocking the light from getting outside. Rick walks into the dining room and the man and his son are making dinner. Rick walks around examining the place. "This place-- Fred and Cindy drakes?"

"Never met them." Replies the man.

"I've been here. This is there place." Says rick.

"It was empty when we got here." Rick walks over to the window about to peek through the blanket. "Don't do that. They'll see the light. There's more of them out there than usual. I never should've fired that gun today." He walks over to pick up a pot and moves it off the table. "Sound draws them. Now they're all over the street. Stupid-- using a gun." He blows out a candle and sets it aside making room on the table. "But It all happened so fast, I didn't think." He sits down in a chair next to his son.

"You shot that man today." Argues rick.

"It weren't no man." Says his son.

"What the hell was that out of your mouth just now." His father strickted.

"It wasn't a man." The boy corrected himself.

"You shot him in the street out front-- a man." Argues rick.

"Friend, you need glasses. It was a walker." He says. "Come on. Sit down before you fall down." He said gesturing to a chair as he poured some beans on his plate.

"Daddy, blessing." Said his son. He grabs his sons hand and the boy grabs rick hand.

"Lord, we thank thee for this food, thy blessings. And we ask you to watch over us in these crazy days. Amen." He finishes. They all start to eat there food when he asks, "hey, mister, you even know what's going on?"

"I woke up today in the hospital, came home that's all I know." Says rick

"But you know about the dead people, right?" He asks.

"Yeah, I saw a lot of that-- out on the loading dock, piled in trucks."

"No, not the ones they put down. The ones they didn't-- the walkers, like the one I shot today. 'Cause he'd have ripped into you, tried to eat you, taken some flesh at least. Well, I guess if this is the first you're hearing of it, I know how it must sound."