Future Ghosts • TWD

14. Explosion.

When Rosie woke up the next morning, she sat up in a panic. She had forgotten where she was. Her eyes flickered around the room, trying to figure it out. Her breathing calmed when her eyes landed on Daryl, who was passed out on the couch.

That's when the memories of last night flooded back to her. Shane was hurting Lori, and he might've hurt Rosie if Daryl hadn't stopped him.

I left my bag in Shane's room, Rosie remembered. She quickly crawled off of the cot and left the room, making sure to keep quiet to avoid waking up Daryl.

Rosie found the door to Shane's room left open. She peaked inside, too scared to actually go in, and saw the room was empty. Shane wasn't on the cot or the couch. Rosie grabbed her backpack from next to the couch and left the room quickly.

After dropping her bag off in the rec room, Rosie decided to go find everyone else. She guessed that they'd be in the same room they'd eaten dinner in last night, so that's where she went.

When she entered the room, Rosie saw Andrea, Glenn, Dale, Jacqui, Carl, Lori, and Rick all sitting at the same table they sat at last night. T-Dog was behind the counter, cooking something on the stove.

Without a word, Rosie sat at one of the other tables, separate from the others. She hoped that Rick and T-Dog would forget about seeing her act all scared last night.

Glenn was leaning over his plate, covering his face with his hand as he groaned.

It reminded Rosie of the way Fraser acted the morning after he had gotten drunk that one time. Of course, he was also groaning from the pain of fresh bruises, but also the effects of a hangover.

"Don't ever, ever, ever let me drink again," Glenn mumbled out.

Then Shane appeared from the doorway. "Hey," he said, announcing his presence. Rosie shrunk down into her seat, hoping to go unnoticed. Much to her luck, Shane walked right past her and straight towards the coffee maker.

"Hey," Rick greeted him. "You feel as bad as I do?"

Ok, so they're not acknowledging it. Good.

"Worse," Shane replied. Rosie looked at Lori. She just kept her head down.

"The hell happened to you?" T-Dog suddenly asked. Upon that question, Rosie remembered the scratches on Shane's neck. T-Dog must not have noticed them last night. "Your neck?"

"I must have done it in my sleep," Shane said, brushing it off as he sat down.

"Never seen you do that before," Rick commented.

"Me neither," Shane said. His eyes shifted to look at Lori. "Not like me at all," he said, staring at her. Then he turned his head a bit to make eye contact with Rosie. Rosie quickly looked away and buried her head in her arms on the table she was sat at.

"Mornin'," Dr. Jenner said as he walked out into the room.

This was all very foreign to Rosie. She didn't usually have breakfast. And when she did eat, it was by herself. Never in her life did her whole family gather around the dinner table and eat a meal together. Sometimes her dad would have friends over and they'd sit at the table playing poker. If she could keep quiet, he would let Rosie pull up a chair and watch. But that was the only time she could think of that she sat at a table with this many people.

"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing-" Dale started.

"But you will anyway," Dr. Jenner said in a monotonous voice as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"We didn't come here for the eggs," Andrea told him.

Rosie lifted her head out of her arms when she heard something being placed on the table in front of her. She looked up and saw T-Dog, and he gave her a friendly nod before sitting at the table with the others. Rosie looked at the table in front of her and saw that he had brought her a plate of eggs. She looked over at T-Dog to maybe say thank you, but he was already distracted with something else.