Darker Skies *The Walking Dead*

Chapter 6

"Skylar, get up!" Daryl's dirty face was not a pleasant sight to wake up to. He grabbed her arm and pulled her up and out of the cell roughly. She was way too tired to comprehend the screaming and other people running.

"What's happening?" Skylar yelled at Daryl.

"Don't know, keep running." He shouted back. Skylar didn't like that answer. She wanted to find out what the problem was and wanted to find her new and only friend Patrick.

"Wait, let me go!" She stopped moving and tried to sit down, making it harder for Daryl to drag her. "I have to get Patrick!"

"He could be safe already, come on!" Daryl shouted back. Skylar didn't buy it though. She twisted against Daryl's grip, but he wasn't letting go. She then swung her free arm, hitting him in the jaw. He let go, shocked. Skylar gave him an apologetic look before running away.

The adrenaline pumping through Skylar made it easy for her to fight against the flow of people running to safety. Everyone was carrying as much as they could trying to get away from whatever was happening. There was a sudden opening in the crowd and she came face to face with a zombie. A zombie she just barely recognized; Patrick. He wasn't wearing his glasses, but his black hair was tousled everywhere as if the wind had styled it. His eyes were foggy white and blood covered his mouth and dripped off his chin. She couldn't move a muscle, frozen from terror, but Patrick sure could, and he had eyes on her. He moved as swiftly as his weak legs could take him. Skylar's knees buckled as images she didn't want to see of her mother flashed across her brain and she fell to the cold stone floor and zombie-Patrick was soon on top of her. She pushed against his head, not letting him take a bite out of her, and cursed Rick for taking her knife.

Just as Skylar's arms were about to give out underneath her, there was a crunching noise and splatters of blood coming out of Patrick's head. The now dead zombie fell against her, heavy on her chest. She looked over Patrick's shoulder and saw Carl. He pushed Patrick off of her and pulled her up. He had a tight hold of her hand and he made her run to the exit.

~~

Skylar was laying on the ground waiting outside the library door where Rick, Hershel, Daryl, and others Skylar hadn't met yet were having a meeting. Maggie and Carol were sorting out beds. Carl was leaning against the wall a little ways away from her. His eyes were closed and his hat sat in his lap. His face had some dried blood on it, but it didn't seem to be his. It might have been from Patrick when Carl saved Skylar. Which reminds her, she hasn't thanked Carl.

"Hey Carl?" Skylar looked up at him. His face flinched, showing he was listening. "Thanks. For saving me." He grunted and stood up, leaving her. Skylar was now more confused. He could have at least said, "you're welcome". Why is he being so stubborn? She would love to at least try to rekindle their friendship. But Carl's being stupid. Sure he's been through a lot but so has she and she still acts like a decent human being. Why can't he?

~~

Maggie had shown Skylar where to sleep after she fell asleep in the hallway. Rick came to her cell to explain that they had to quarantine some people because there was a strange flu going around. Then she was tucked into the bottom bunk in her new cell, alone with her thoughts.

How did this flu have anything to do with what happened to Patrick being a zombie? People turned into zombies when they were bitten, not when they're sick. That was the only way Skylar knew. Was there a zombie hiding in a room they never checked? Her mid also wondered to her reaction to seeing Patrick. She had faced zombies after her mom died, why did she crumble? Why did the scene have to replay as she was being attacked? She could have run the other way but she didn't.

Skylar's just tired. Too tired to sleep.