𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐋𝐀𝐖𝐒, rick grimes

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐰𝐬, 𝟎𝟎𝟑

"SOMETIMES, SECRETS ARE MEANT TO BE KEPT,

EVEN IF THEY COULD CHANGE SOMEONES WHOLE WAY OF SEEING EVERYTHING. . ."

𝟎𝟎𝟑
𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯

FOR THOSE THREE MINUTES THAT AMARI AND RICK STARED OUT OF THE WINDOW, the only thing the two could think about was how one knew the other, and how the other should explain it. "You— you know me, right? How exactly?" Rick finally asked his big question to Amari, "I don't recall having met you?" He kept his eyes on her, trying find the answer. The blue orbs studied her brown ones, meanwhile Amari was starting to become extremely stressed. Should she tell the complete truth about her meeting Shane to defend him against a lawsuit, where he was charged for assault against four men, or, should she just say that she came to town and met Shane, and then somehow ended up on a date with him?

She choose option number two.

Because for some reason, it didn't feel like it was her place to say that information. Just like she didn't want to admit her own personal stuff to the man in front of her.

Instead, she came up with a lie. "I met a guy named Shane after I drove a little too fast on my way to King County, and, well, I somehow ended up with him showing me around town," she lied effortlessly, unlike the man spoken of, "I think he found me attractive, and that was probably why he asked me out so quickly. He even forgot to sign a speeding ticket for me," she chuckled, making the story seem more realistic than it was. 

"He told me about you,— how you were shot while you and your other policemen were chasing escapees?" He nodded to her. "Anyway, then he bought flowers for you, and asked if I wanted to go with him or if he should set me off at my friends house. And I was curious, so I said yes," she twisted her words again, the backstory of her reasoning of being there, sounding perfect. "That was the first and last time I saw the two of you before all this happened," she finished, waving her hands, expressing all the stuff going on around them— outside of them.

Rick bought the story. "And you ended up stuck here?"

"No, I went home a day later, and that's when it all happened. It isn't all that far away, but it was way worse there because of the city being crowded," she corrected her own lie, "I went back here because I knew it was a small town. Figured it was better than over there," she crossed her arms, feeling the cold air in the house get to her. "My friend was all I had. But she wasn't here when I knocked on her door. Probably gone too. She was the only one I really had a relationship with," the woman continued her lie, however this time, the words were more or less the truth, "I stayed in her house, and then I met Morgan here after a week, and I guess that leads to now."

      Amari didn't actually have a friend living here in King County. It was just pure coincidence that she ended up back here.

      However, it wasn't a lie when Amari said she didn't have anyone caring about her.

_____

The morning arrived rather quickly since the three adults ended up conversing for another hour after midnight. They talked about their past, and what they had done up until now. Kinda like how a friendship starts. Amari slept upstairs in the very bed Rick was tied to earlier. His scent still lingered there even though he had only been on it for a couple of hours.

     Rick had changed his clothes, now appearing in a white tee and blue jeans that he had taken from his own house after they all ate breakfast. It was a rather relaxed fit for a policeman, Amari thought while staring at him from button to top.

      Definitely ain't a ugly one, either. . .

"They're dead," Morgan grabbed her attention back from looking at Rick, "well, except for something in the brain," the man stated while Rick and Amari walked in front of him and Duane, "that's why it gotta be the head," he explains just as Walker suddenly stood up from the white fence, groans and stumbling legs closing in on them very slowly.

     Probably a starved Walker, Amari guessed.

Rick ended up being the one hitting the Walker repeatedly until the head was smashed to grounded insides. However, because of the intense action Rick performed with his hands raised above her head, an action he had not done since before he was shot,— Rick ended up on his knees, hands clenching around his wound while breathing heavily.

"You okay?" They all stared at him.

". . . Need a moment. . ."

_____

"They're alive,— my son and wife," having recovered from his aching wound, Rick, Amari, Morgan and Duane all four walked down the streets and entered the house belonging to the officer. "At least they were when they left," he mumbled, entering the hallway with the others behind him, whose eyes were taking in his home, which, were much more decorated than the one they slept in.

However, even if what Rick said could have been a possibility, Morgan still didn't want to be believing. "How can you be sure? By the look of this mess,—"

"I found empty drawers in the bedroom," He was interrupted by Rick before he could even say his words, "they packed clothes, not a lot, but enough to travel," he had taken notes in his head when he changed his clothes earlier. He guessed that Lori took clothes from both her own drawer and Carl's, meanwhile the woman must have left his untouched because his own closet stood filled.

"You know anyone could've broken in here and stolen some clothes, right?" Morgan once again tried being 'realistic', but Rick's thoughts weren't changing.

"You see the framed photos on the walls?" He pointed on different areas around the living rooms walls. "Neither do I. Some thief take those too, you think?" A little smirk spread across Amari's face once she saw a sigh leaving Morgan's mouth. Not everyone had lost hope, it seemed.

"They're in Atlanta, I bet," Duane suddenly spoke up, standing besides Amari.

And this time, Morgan didn't try to ruin Rick's hope of finding his family. "That's right," he decided to agree, "refugee center," he said, "huge one they said, before the broadcast stopped. Military protection, food, shelter," he explained with the exact words the news had said before they were shut down. "They said to people to go there. Plus, they got that disease place,—"

"—The Center for Disease Control," Amari took the words from Morgan, "they said that they were working on how to solve this thing," she had, once again, a short eye contact with Rick. The man, however, quickly broke it and instead nodded in appreciation to all three of them, walking over to his kitchen, a cabinet with keys on the cupboard door hanging loosely with the help of screws.

      Time for him to find the son he's missing and the wife who's cheatin'.

_____