Broken Sundown

The walk back to camp was extremely long and tiring, and my thighs felt like they were turning into jello. I had walked so far in so little time and my small body was really beginning to feel it. Rick slowed to match my pace for a majority of the walk. Neither of us said much, but it was nice to be in his company.

"Almost there." Glenn sighed, obviously tired too.

A few minutes later we heard gunshots come from the direction of camp and I felt my heart stop for a second in my chest. All of us froze, looked between each other and ran the last bit of the way that we had.

"Go! Go!" Glenn shouted.

The sight as we entered camp almost made me want to fall over and let go of the food that had filled the emptiness in my stomach. There was blood everywhere and screaming from every corner of what used to be our camp. There was no time for me to stop and think, I just pulled out my gun and began firing at every single walker that had already added to the destruction of our civilization.

I heard Carl screaming and Rick calling for him before my ears started ringing from the shots and my own pulse beating loudly in my ears.

"Delilah!" I heard someone scream from behind me. I turned around to see a walker reach out for me. I stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, and everything went black again.

---

"My fucking head." I groaned as I slowly sat up and put my head in my hands.

"Hey, slowly." Someone said and placed a hand on my back. "Not too fast."

"What happened?" I asked and looked beside me to find Shane.

"Walkers attacked the camp last night, one went for you and you fell backwards and got your head."

"Did I get bit?" I panicked.

"No, no...but after all the trauma to your head, you do have a concussion. A pretty good one, too."

I rested my arms on my knees that were not pulled up close to me. "Is everyone okay?"

Shane was silent for a minute and he looked away from me. "We lost some people last night. Carol's husband, Amy. Everyone's a little shook up, Andrea won't even leave her sister."

"Is Rick okay?"

Shane smiled slightly. "Yeah, he's fine. He's outside with the others. We're gonna start burying people soon."

I nodded slightly and stood up as tall as the tent would let me.

"Take it easy, okay? You're gonna dizzy for awhile."

"I'll be alright, thanks Shane."

I walked out of the tent slowly and the light of the day burned my eyes for a few seconds. Shane slipped out of the tent behind me and walked over to the group and Rick headed for me the second he saw me. He glanced behind him to make sure Lori wasn't within range. He cupped the back of my head with his hand and looked into my eyes.

"Concussion, but you'll be alright."

"I didn't know you were a doctor." I joked and smiled at him.

"I've had my fair share of concussions." He smiled back, but I could see the sadness in his face.

I put my hand on his cheek and met my eyes with his again. "It's not your fault. I know you feel like it is, but it isn't."

"I know." He sighed. "But if I was here, if we were-"

"But you weren't, we weren't. This is the world we live in now, it's hard and shitty, but this is going to happen."

"Rick!" Someone yelled and we pulled away from each other immediately.

Glenn came around the other side of the tent to us. "Hey guys, we're going to do the burials soon."

There was a gunshot and Rick took off to the main part of camp. Glenn and I followed but Lori stopped Rick in front of us.

"It's alright. Andrea just put Amy down."

"There's nothing you could have done." I whispered to Rick as I followed Glenn to help with the bodies.

It kind of scared me how nonchalant I had become about situations like this. I wanted to feel sad for these people as they buried their dead. But I was technically on my own now. I didn't have a husband or a child, and I had no real way of know if my family was okay. And like I said to Rick, this was the life we lived now.

Jacqui was talking to Jim off to the side of the graves. Jim looked extremely pale and sickly, and he had a cold sweat all over his face.

"A walker got him. A walker bit Jim." Jacqui said frantically to Rick.

"I'm okay." He said and repeated himself when Rick, Daryl and Shane surrounded him.

"Show it to us." Daryl said.

Shane took a step forward. "Easy, Jim."

"Grab him!" Daryl said to Shane.

Jim clutched the a shovel in his hands, prepared to take someone out with it.

"Jim, put it down." Shane said cautiously.

T-Dog grabbed Jim from behind and held him up.

Jim repeated "I'm okay" over and over, trying to convince himself more than anyone else.

Daryl lifted up his shirt while T-Dog held him steady and revealed a deep, already infected wound. Someone took a whole bite out of his abdomen.

After the burial, the guys, Lori and Jacqui gathered and discussed what to do about Jim. I on the other hand went down to the quarry to get water for Jim. I sat with him in the RV and placed cool, wet cloths on his forehead and chest to cool him down and adjusted the pillows around him to make him comfortable. We talked about what he did before the outbreak and he shared details of his life with me.

Suddenly, Jim grabbed my wrist tightly and began to repeat "no" over and over. I pulled my wrist free from him and blotted his forehead and tried to console him as he hallucinated.

"Rick!" I called and waited a few minutes before calling for him again.

"What's wrong?" He asked, coming into the RV with Shane not far behind him.

I stood up and left the bedroom, pulling the door almost shut behind me. Jim was still repeating no over and over again.

"His fever is extremely high and he's beginning to hallucinate."

Rick pushed the door open and slowly walked in and sat beside Jim on the bed.

"You save a grave for me?" Jim asked Rick.

"Nobody want's that." Rick answered.

"It's not about what you want. That, uh... that sound you hear, that's God laughing while you make plans."

"What I want, Jim, if God allows, is to get you some help.

Jim fell back into his hallucinations, speaking about mangroves and a boat and asking Rick to watch the boat. Rick complied with Jim's request and sighed, looking up at me. I tried to give Rick a look of reassurance, but I couldn't muster one this time.

I left the RV shortly after Shane, leaving Rick to sit with Jim. Lori was there with him, and Shane seemed frustrated. The two of them were arguing and as I stepped down to the ground from the RV, they were silenced.

"Sorry to interrupt." I said and glanced at Lori. She had an irritated look on her face, but whether that was because of Shane or because I walked in on them, I wasn't sure. All I could think was, maybe Lori knows.

Rick stepped out of the RV a few seconds after and looked between Shane and Lori.

"I need a plan, man. Are we leaving or not? Maybe y'all just want to stay here. We can set up a better perimeter." Shane rambled on.

"We can't stay here. We both know that." Rick shook his head no.

"I was just telling Shane I think we should trust your gut." Lori followed.

"I was just thinking I should go back." I said to Rick, who smiled at me slightly.

"Maybe you should pack to." He said to Lori and walked away from us.

---

The night was rather quiet and solemn. Andrea hadn't been seen since the burial, not by anyone besides Jim at least. We all thought it best to give her some space and we would see her in the morning. I settled into my sleeping bag relatively early after packing up the clothes Carol had washed for me the day before. That night Shane never came to the tent.

I woke up early to find a quiet campsite with the fires smoking the last bit of their flame away, and the sun was just barely lighting the sky. I stretched and headed down to the quarry to clean up. The water was frigid but it felt nice to clean my hair and body with the little bit of soap I kept after the police station.

Upon walking back up to camp, I heard Rick talking. I followed the sound of his voice.

"Morgan... I hope you were right about that place. I need you to be." I overheard as I found him.

He was sitting at the edge of a small cliff, looking down at the sun coming up. I walked up beside him and he looked up at me before I sat down. I smiled at him and nudged his arm with mine.

"No response?" I asked.

"No, not yet." He sighed and looked back to the slowly warming sky.

"I'm sure your plan is going to work. I have faith."

"Thank you." He said quietly.

He looked at me after a few minutes and gave me a half-smile. "It's really hard to be positive through all of this."

"I know it is. I'm starting to give up home that I'll ever find my parents. But, I won't know that for sure until I see it for myself. So how can we know the CDC isn't there if we don't see it for ourselves?"

He nodded and smirked slightly. "You and your positive talk."

I laughed slightly and looked down. "Someone has to be positive."

"After last night, I don't see how we can be positive."

I thought for a minute of what to say and looked over at him. He was watching the sun begin to come up over the horizon and start the long day we had ahead of us.

"Look at that." I said and smiled, looking at the sun too.

"What?" He asked.

"You made it to the sunrise." I said as I held my smile and my gaze at the sky. "There, my friend, is your positivism."