To Keep You Close to Me

Daryl had left early in the morning to go hunting. He left without saying a word to me, which wasn’t a surprise. Whatever we had last night whether it be an argument or not, he was mad. I couldn’t really ask him to choose between me and his brother. Even if I did, I think he’d choose his brother. That was part of the reason why I wasn’t going to ask. I didn’t want to leave Daryl.

I had to get ready for my morning shift at the nursing home. I expected Merle to be passed out on the couch, but he was gone. Daryl must have woken him up. I quickly showered, ate breakfast and was on my way. The nursing home was about 20 minutes away from where we lived, further away than the bar.

When I arrived, I greeted some of the elderly folks that were just finishing their morning walk around the building. Mr. Jefferson, who had been here for 25 years now, sat by a window as he did every day. He wasn’t much of a talker, but I greeted him anyway. My first order of business was to assist one of the nurses with daily checkups. We basically checked their blood pressure and the other basics as well as asked how they were feeling.

We walked to every room in every hallway. It took a few hours to finish everyone. There was one room left: Mr. Jefferson’s. Instead of going into his room, we turned around and walked to the hallway where he sat in his wheelchair. He was staring outside. No one ever knew why he stared outside that window. He never told anyone; he never said anything. But like this morning, we greeted him. Daisy, the nurse that I was with, reached for his wrist to find his pulse. She quickly dropped his limp arm and stared at me in shock. He was dead.

She reached up to his neck to double check, but as her arm drifted in front of his face, he suddenly came alive. A deep groan sounded deep in his throat as his teeth sunk into her forearm, grabbing onto the flesh and ripping it from the bone. Daisy screamed in pain as I yelled out for help. Several nurses came running from the surrounding hallways. The head nurse called for an ambulance. She needed to go to the emergency room. I was pulled away from the scene just in time to see them attempt to sedate Mr. Jefferson, but I was unable to see if it were effective.

---

It was my day off from the nursing home and the bar. I was glad to have a day to myself, plus after what happened yesterday, I was afraid to go back. I was constantly working to pay the bills. Daryl wasn’t really working, but he could put food on the table. Merle didn’t have a job so it wasn’t like he could contribute. Most people wouldn’t put up with what I do, but when you grow up around it, it all seems normal. My parents never really had any goals in life. Honestly, I thought they were lowlifes. I swore at a young age that I’d never turn into them. So I bettered myself and went to school and got a job.

After my morning shower, I made my way out of the bedroom. I turned on the TV to fill the silence in the house as I prepared my breakfast. I scrambled eggs in a small pan and once they were finished cooking, ate them. Another story came on about another attack. I was too creeped out to continue watching so I quickly changed the channel. There wasn’t much else on other than cartoons, so I settled on that. As I mindlessly watched the screen, I found myself yawning. Since it was my day off, I was going to do whatever the hell I wanted. And if I wanted to lay around all day, that’s what I’d do. Getting sleep last night was almost nonexistent; the image of Mr. Jefferson tearing into a woman's arm haunted my thoughts. So I grabbed a blanket and cuddled up on the couch and dozed off.

I was woken up a few hours later by violent knocks on the door. I stumbled up, throwing the blanket off of me and made my way to the door. As I pulled open the door, Cole immediately pushed past me. I sighed as I rubbed my eyes.

“You should start packing your stuff,” he said.

“Pack my stuff? For what?”

“We gotta go,” he yelled. “Haven’t you been watching the news?”

“No.”

“That damn disease is spreading. They’re advisin’ everyone to get to safety,” Cole stated.

“Disease? You mean all these attacks?” A disease makes sense. There was no way that Mr. Jefferson had any contact with whatever drug they were claiming to be the cause of these attacks.

“Yeah,” he said. “But we need to go now, there’s a group of people headin’ into the city that we can join.” After what I saw yesterday, I knew what Cole was saying was true. I had to believe him, but I couldn’t leave with him.

“No, I’m not leaving without Daryl.” Cole sighed and pulled me closer to him.

“Please, come with me. You don’t even know if Daryl will come back,” he said, his hands holding onto my shoulders.

“He wouldn’t leave without me. He’ll come back.”

“Fine,” he said, hugging me. “Be careful. Don’t get bit.”

“I won’t.” Cole ran out of the house and back to his truck. I began to worry that Daryl might not come back for me and that I blew my only chance to get out of here. He could be running off with Merle. Just then, I heard the roaring of a motorcycle outside. Daryl busted through the door with Merle behind him. Both men looked very serious as they entered the house.

“Valerie, we need to leave now,” he said. “Merle, c’mon.”

“What the fuck is going on, Daryl?”

“I don’t fuckin’ know, but we need to leave. Go pack our clothes, I’ma grab the guns.” Now that Daryl was worried, I really began to worry. Daryl never worried about anything. I was relieved that he came back for me, but I was scared. I turned off the TV and tossed the remote. I ran to the bedroom and rummaged through the closet for a large bag. Once I found what I was looking for, I started stuffing our clothes in. Daryl didn’t have as much as I did so I needed another bag. I kept throwing random articles of clothing into the bag. Soon I realized that I was going to have to sacrifice somethings. I only collected the necessities. I also packed our shoes and personal items.

Then I headed for the bathroom. I questioned bringing a lot of things. How long would we be gone? Would we ever come back? I asked Daryl, but he was unsure as well. It was his uncertainty that made me think this would be the last time here in this house. Surely they’d come up with a cure though. They have to.

“You ready?” Daryl asked.

“Almost. Daryl, what are we going to do?” I panicked.

“I dunno, but we’ll be fine,” he said, picking up a bag and throwing it over his shoulder. I picked up the other two bags and carried them out to his truck. Merle tossed a bag of guns and ammo into the back as well. Daryl and Merle both ran back into the house to gather more supplies. I went back to see if there was anything I missed. Then I made my way into the kitchen to collect what food was left. It wasn’t much, but it would hold us over until we made it to the city. Daryl and Merle had rummaged through the drawers, leaving them all slightly open.

With a bag over my shoulder, I ran back outside. Daryl and Merle each through another bag onto the bed of the truck. Who knows what all they grabbed, but chances were they were prepared.