VITRIOL | Shane Walsh

𝐈𝐈

2 years later

"Hey little man, stop winding up that horse. I asked you to feed her, not scare her." I scowled at my little boy who seemed to get bigger and more like his daddy every day.

"Aw, mom I'm not scaring her. We're just having fun, ain't we Nelly?" The glossy brown horse whinnied in response "see!" I chuckled at Caleb and lifted him down off the back of the horse and into my arms.

"I've got to go into town and help Otis and Grandma at the high school. You behave while I'm gone okay?" I gave him a squeeze and kiss on the cheek, which he gagged at, and pulled away from. He quickly jumped down and I went to ruffle his hair but stopped when I saw an unsettled look cross his face. 

"Mom...Charlie at school said that his mom got really sick from this new thingy on the news. I don't want you to get it as-well" He said worriedly while staring up at me with those gorgeous eyes he'd inherited off of Shane.

"Well, she's not a trained nurse and I am. I'm a big girl and can take care of myself. Now you feed those damn horses before I'm back, I'll be checking with Gramps and Aunt Maggie."

He groaned as I creaked open the stable doors and walked over to my car parked beside the house. Dad was sat on the porch simply enjoying the weather.

"Keep an eye on Caleb will ya? I'm going to help Mom and Otis out"

"No problem Darlin, be safe"

"Always am"

- - -

When I arrived at the high school it was chaos. I'd never seen so many people in our town in one place since the summer fetes they used tho throw when I was a little girl. I found mom and Otis inside the gymnasium, crammed with beds and random medical gear. Wearing gloves and a mask felt futile but every little helped.

"My god, Otis. There's so many more here than yesterday," I said shocked.

"I know...I've got a bad feeling about this bug. Last I heard they were drafting in the military to crowd control but I ain't seen none of it yet."  I checked over the list of names he'd passed me and frowned, noticing the admittance number had doubled overnight. 

Since he was coping just fine by himself, I decided to help Mom on the other side of the sports hall who looked way in over her head; She insisted she help out her community despite her old age.

"Hi honey, aren't you just a sight for sore eyes. How's my grandson?" She smiled at me, her eyes wrinkling in the corners. She'd gained those faint smile lines through the years of her charming everyone in the south and my daddy was the lucky fool who charmed her back. 

"He's doing his own thing as per usual. Anyway- what's the matter with this guy?"  His complexion was a dull, his eye sockets were shallow and beads of sweat were dripping across his forehead. He was content laying there despite the insanity of the noise and chaos surrounding.

"He came in and passed right out this morning.  We thought he had died but his breathing's been pretty steady so we moved him to the intensive care beds where I can monitor him."

Suddenly a loud scream tore through the gym hall and our heads snapped towards the source. A nurse attending to another patient across the room had been tackled to the floor, the infected person tearing into her neck. They were showing the extreme symptom everyone was terrified about; cannibalism.

"Honey go help the poor lady she's being attac- AGHHH!" Our once dormant patient had been encouraged by the violence and decided to stir awake, taking a chunk out of my mother's arm.