Like it Was Before

The next morning dawns blissfully with me tucked into Shane's side.
Shane, who is snoring, his dinner plate practically licked clean on the floor next to my bed and best of all? The alarm clock is firmly in the 'off' position. It's his day off and I intend to let him sleep as long as possible, maybe let him wake up to breakfast in bed.
I'm loving the roll of cute girlfriend almost as much as I'm hating the rug burns on my knees. Sheesh.
The plan (and sadly, my dinner plate) quickly go the way of the dodo shortly after I catch a glimpse of the TV on my way through the living room.
There's a dumb horror movie playing on the still-muted AMC, something gory and awful.
I've never been a fan of the genre but this seems a little extreme, especially for cable TV this early in the morning. I sigh and try not to look as I flick through the channels to find something a little more palatable, thank you very much.
Except...except it's on every channel and now that I look more closely it looks an awful lot like an
all-points news bulletin, the kind with the little terror alert color in the corner, which is blinking red. Apparently, people were dying in mass quantities.
Terrifying enough in itself but they weren't staying dead, getting right back up and eating whichever unlucky souls are near enough to be dined on. Numbly, I cast my mind back-didn't Shane mention something about this last night? Someone being bit...? Oh, God.
This is when my plate goes crashing to the floor as I fumble at the remote control, already beginning to panic as I jack the volume up, catching a major news anchor in mid-sentence.
"Spread via touch, air, fluids or blood." Anderson Cooper tells the camera, looking disheveled and somehow that scares me even more. I'd never seen him in less than a suit and tie perfectly groomed even when he was on the Kathy Griffin show and that bitch was crazy.
"Keep your distance from-"
"SHANE!" I scream, over-riding the silver fox and either something in my tone of voice or just my sheer volume wakes him right up.
Thank God for all of his years in training making him immediately alert.
"What, Savannah Jane? Good God-"
I seize his arm tightly half due to panic and half just to have the proximity, pointing emphatically at the screen with my free hand and Shane shuts right up. Later, he'll tell me about the sliver of glass he'd stepped in, cutting his heel but now neither of us notice.
"-Immediately if you suspect someone of carrying the Walker Disease. Symptoms may include-"
"People are getting up from the dead and eating each other,"
I babble, trying to sum up the current events and it's only when Shane shushes me that I realize I've begun to cry. It hits me all over again: This is real. It's not some elaborate prank.
"-Seeking shelter in major metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Atlanta-"
"I have to go into work."
Shane blurts and I practically swallow my own tongue from the shock.
"WHAT?" I explode instead. "Didn't you hear them? We have to get to Atlanta, or nail our windows shut if we decide to stay put, or-"
"It's a national emergency, Savannah, not a hurricane. People are probably out there panicking. Hell, you're panicking and the station's going to need all hands on deck."
This is when I begin to cry in earnest, fully aware of it this time and still unable to stop.
"Shane. Don't. Please?"
He's close to wavering just for a moment I can see it in his face and I fervently wish he would, but the moment passes as quickly as it came when he finds his resolve.
"Listen to me. Are you listening?"
Shane cups my face and waits patiently until I nod. His patience with me that day when time is so critical is something I will always love him for. "Pack a bag, okay? As much as you can. Clothes, bottled water, medicine, whatever you can fit in the Jeep. Then head over to Lori's and wait for me there."
Lori's? This brings me up short but I keep quiet unwilling to argue.
"I'm going to the station, then to check on Rick. I'll come get you when I'm through and the four of us will get out of town from there. I promise you, Sav. We're gonna be okay-I love you."
I kiss Shane hard and hope to God it's not the last time I'll do so.
"If I'm not there by this evening, leave without me. I mean it. Six O'clock, head for Atlanta.
I'll catch up."
My throat catches at this.
"I love you. Be careful, okay? Make sure to get your ass back to me."
Shane nods, dipping his head and goes to dress in last nights wrinkled uniform while I drag my suitcases from the attic and try to pack my entire life into them.