Cords || Daryl Dixon

I. Goodbye

' She knew beauty like the back of her hand, for everyday she looked down and smiled at it. '

"You need to leave." Marielle Gallagher spoke up weakly from where she was laying in her hospital bed, her half open eyes not leaving the unmoving figure of her husband of the last twenty-odd years in the white sheeted bed beside her.

"Like hell I do." Sabrina rolled her eyes as she continued to run her fingers through her own daughters dark locks of unruly hair.

"Honestly baby I'm worried about you and Phoebe. There's been some weird things going on lately and I'd feel better knowing you weren't in the middle of it." The Fifty-Two year old women confided in her daughter as she finally tore her eyes from her husband and settled them on her daughter and granddaughter.

Sabrina looked up and turned back to her Mom. Her dark eyes looked pained and Sabrina knew what she was talking about. Most people did by this point.

All over the world there were reports about the dead rising and cannibalising their fellow human beings, along with any other living creature large enough for them to wrap their undead hands around.

Sabrina's father had been convinced that it was all just a hoax at first, but after things got closer to home he blamed drugs. Claiming that something must have been laced with some damaging chemical that depleted the human brain functions.

Marcus Gallagher had been a chemist in the years leading up to the sudden disease, meaning he'd had many theories over time, that one had been his favourite though.

It wasn't until three nights ago when Sabrina had received a call on her way back from Indonesia with her daughter that things changed for the Gallagher family.

Her parents had been attacked when a young boy had stumbled into their home groaning and growling like the people they'd seen on the news the weeks leading up to it. The only difference was, that the boy who'd somehow entered their home was barely ten years old and the older couple couldn't just kick the helpless boy out.

In their attempts to help him they'd both been bitten and scratched multiple times before paramedics and police had arrived, detaining and later eliminating the threat before escorting the older couple to the local hospital where Sabrina met them the day after.

Military men and Women in the past two days, had made their homes in tents and hotels all around the city. Clustering closer to the hospitals more than anywhere else.

"But Mom - " Sabrina went to complain before Marielle weakly held up a hand to stop her.

"No. I'm sorry Sabrina, but I don't want you and Phoebe getting stuck here. They - " Marielle paused as he eyes watered "Baby they're saying that this illness, whatever it is. Is highly contagious, but we don't even know how it spreads yet. And I'll be damned if you get it because of mine and your fathers mistake." She pressed as a tear fell, being hastily wiped away as the woman attempted to hold her resolve long enough to convince her daughter to leave.

"I can't just leave you both like this." Sabrina stubbornly shook her head as she re-positioned Phoebe in her lap to make the little girl more comfortable.

"Yes you can, and you will Sabrina Corinne Gallagher. We both know it's only a matter of time until me and your father succumb to this disease - "

"Mom." Sabrina scrunched her eyes shut.

" - And we will, that's our own fault." Marielle kept her eyes on her daughter, memorising every detail of her possible, from the scar that ran from her left cheek to the corner of her right eye, all the way to the birth mark situated in the shape of a bird on her ankle "Now go." Marielle paused to cough into her hand, rousing Phoebe from her sleep as she sleepily sat up and reached for her grandmother "Please." She begged as her only child stood with her daughter in her arms and tears in her eyes.

"I love you." Sabrina bit her lip to refrain from crying as she bid goodbye to her mother for the last time.

"And I you." Marielle whispered as she watched her daughter disappear through the doorway of her final resting place, closing her eyes for the last time with the memories of a good life lulling her to sleep.