Recurring Nightmare by LiamHunt0618

The man rubbed his chin and smiled at his counterpart. "That's what you call a punch? Come here." Unimpressed, he grabbed the boy by the collar and lunged out. When his fist came down on the teenager, albeit with half its strength, he flinched brutally. The man let go of him then, watching him stagger back and forth in a crooked posture. "Yes, that's how it's done." The man smiled again. Then, he leaned forward and tilted his head to the side to examine the boy's face. His eyes were squinted. He wanted to hold back the pain and tears as it seemed. His mouth was bandaged with a gag made of cloth, which, strangely enough, helped him with that. "Now take this and hit harder." The man handed him a stick as thick as an arm that he had picked up among the fallen leaves.

The boy looked at him with widened eyes thereupon and shook his head. When the man pulled out his pistol, shrugged his shoulders and let one of his eyebrows slide up, the boy relented. - The sound of the dull blow was swallowed up by the surrounding broad-leaved forest. The man puffed and got down on his knees. Immediately afterwards, the smell of blood rose to his nose. The warm, reddish liquid poured over the lower half of his face without hindrance. His counterpart's arms trembled, as did the pupils in his naive eyes. Slowly, he raised his wooden weapon one more time.

"Shh-shh, that's more than enough." The man pointed his pistol directly at him now. Then, he wiped the blood from his lips and examined the young man's work. "Haha, damn it. You really got me, man." His head throbbed to the rhythm of his heartbeat. Nevertheless, he rose from the ground actively, whose pleasant mossy smell had been displaced by that of his blood. Immediately afterwards, he approached the boy and took the gag out of his mouth carefully. "Shh-shh, that's good."

"G- Good?" the boy asked, staring at him with wide eyes again, cold sweat on his forehead. He lowered his arms weakly.

The man sighed and rubbed his neck up and down several times. Then, he suddenly froze in this position and gave the boy an incredulous look. "You really got no idea, right?"

The boy shrugged his shoulders, took a step away, and then got rid of the arm-thick branch in his wet hands. "I just did what the guy with the gun told me to." Thereafter, he looked at the man with pleading eyes. "I- I don't want to die like this."

"You're a smart kid, Randy," he replied only.

"So you're not gonna kill me?"

With a smile on his face, he shook his head and put the pistol back into his cargo pants in a playful way. "Come on, man. If I was, you'd be dead. It's all part of my plan."

"O- Okay."

The man let out a deep sigh at the meagre words of his counterpart. Then, he walked up to Randy slowly and put a hand on his shoulder. Randy lowered his head, so the man leaned down to be able to make eye contact with him. "You listen good now. Do you hear me?" He didn't continue speaking until Randy nodded. "I'll let you off the hook, okay? But first, I need your help, man."

Randy furrowed his eyebrows, lifted his head slightly, and was spellbound by the man's haunting gaze. That one's voice sounded reassuring now. In addition, he nodded benevolently to what he was saying, "I get it. I'm the last one now you probably want to trust, huh? But listen, the others want you either dead or somewhere far off in the wilderness. Sounds like death to me in both cases. I'm gonna take you up out of here, okay? So you gonna help me?"

"Why?" Randy asked, trying to wrest himself from the man's gaze.

The man, however, followed the movement of his head and breathed into his face intrusively, "What do you mean why?"

Hesitantly, Randy pulled his head back and leaned it a little to the side. "I mean why would you do this?" he asked next, again with both pairs of eyes focused on the man's.

That one stepped back. His words faltered, while a slight, uncertain smile appeared on his lips. "Because, man, I- I'm just ... I'm done with their leader, man. They are doomed with him, and someone gotta take him out. That's all."

A big part of the tension left Randy's body as he completely surrendered to the conversation. "You mean the sheriff? I don't know. He seems like a decent guy."

"Oh yes?! Then think about who wanted to abandon you and leave you to a cruel death." His gaze was as haunting as before, but this time not as frightening to Randy.

He raised his still tied hands in a soothing manner as he tried to defend his statement. "I know, I know. There's a lot going on between you. I noticed your fight, ya know? I understand. Was no different in my group. But whatever happened, he didn't leave you in that bus."

An unimpressed snort hissed through the man's bloody nose. "'Cause he's not a killer. He doesn't have what it takes. But that's what you need today to survive. But he's too soft for that. He can't make tough decisions." He began to shake his head, his voice gradually getting louder and louder. "If this continues, he will have the blood of my whole group on his hands. You think that's what I want? Man, I got people there who are important to me. You get it?"

"I ... I get it." The boy lowered his hands and returned to a more cautious, almost submissive posture.

"Okay. Don't do nothing stupid then," the man spoke in an admonishing tone. Then, he pointed his finger in a derogatory manner, suddenly articulating his words unsettlingly calm, "You can try to kill me if you like. But then the others will hunt you down and kill you for sure. If you try to just get away, I come for you in person to put you out of your misery. No need for another dead weight. You see. Now I'm the only shot of you getting out of all this alive. You hear me?"

The boy had a hard time swallowing. "S- So what's the plan anyway?"

A satisfied smile spread across the man's face. "You'll get straight to the point. Man, I like that. I'm sure you'll find a good place at us when all this is over. I promise." He came closer again and said the next thing in conspiratorial silence, "I know a place, perfect for my plan. I'll show you the way now. Then you wait for me to come back. And then you shoot the sheriff. Can you do that?"

"Yes, sir. I can do that." Somewhat reluctantly, but obediently, Randy nodded.

"Great, Randall. But don't call me sir. We're a team, got it?" He freed him from the ties around his wrists. After that, he grabbed his pistol and handed it over to him. "Call me Shane from now on."

With a relieved, almost happy sparkle in his eyes, Randall accepted the offer. "Alright. We're on the same side now." They hit the trail then. After a while, the words flowed from Randall's mouth like a waterfall, "Man, I think you would have liked it with us. Got a little crazy sometimes, but it was a tough bunch of guys. You would have fit in good. Less talking, more walking." Shane gave him an unimpressed look that electrified Randall for a moment. "Look, I run my mouth when I get nervous. I can't help it. I got a lot going on, you know? It ain't all about all this. I ... I ain't saying it's about me. Just trying to -"

Shane sighed. "Give it a break. Let's talk about this, once the job is done, Randall." He stopped in front of him and turned to face him. "Now I need you to concentrate, okay?" He watched him patiently as he shared his instructions with him. "Look. Just follow this path until you reach a meadow. Then lie in wait in the bushes at the edge of the forest. I'm going to lure him out there. And then Bang. All right?"

Randall nodded confidently. But a thought crossed his mind immediately afterwards that unsettled him. "But how do we explain his death when we come back?"

"Your group tracked us down and attacked us. You helped me shoot some of those bums. And earned a well-deserved place in our group like that." Shane shrugged his shoulders as if that was the obvious explanation and logical consequence of his plan.

Randall could live with that.

***

"Rick! Rick!" Shane's voice suddenly thundered from afar.

Apart from him, all the members of the group had gathered in wonder and anxiety in front of the shed where we had held Randall. Lori was the next one after me to see Shane coming from the direction of the forest. "What happened?" she asked for an explanation immediately.

"He's armed! He's got my gun!" he shouted back and marched straight towards us.

"Are you okay?" Carl's voice rang out in a childishly worried tone. It sounded kind of soothing.

But Shane didn't stop yelling, even though he was behaving much calmer already. Maybe he just wanted Carl not to worry too much. "I'm fine. Little bastard just snuck up on me. He clocked me in the face."

"All right, Hershel, T-Dog, get everybody back in the house. Glenn, Daryl, come with us," I hollered then, bringing more disquiet back to the group.

Shane didn't pay any attention to me and wandered past me. "T, I'm gonna need that gun," he said, pointing at him, determined.

"Just let him go," Carol suddenly intervened unexpectedly. Her emerging courage, however, was immediately undermined with her following question asked in uncertainty. "That was the plan, wasn't it, to just let him go?"

I noticed that her unease leaped to the other members of our group. "The plan was to cut him loose far away from here, not on our front step with a gun," I replied firmly. After that, I turned around and walked towards the forest with Shane, Daryl, and Glenn.

"Don't go out there. Y'all know what can happen," Carol shouted after us, still worried. Her request scattered in the wind, unheeded.

I looked back over my shoulder and gave them my final orders in a quick-tempered manner, "Get everybody back in the house. Lock all the doors and stay put!"

***

We had split up. Daryl went with Glenn; I went with Shane. The sun had already climbed down behind the horizon, and it was quickly getting dark between the trunks of the extensive broad-leaved forest. With the darkness, it also became much more dangerous in it, mainly due to walkers possibly showing up. Therefore, one would proceed a little more cautiously as a rule and pay close attention to one's environment haunted by black shadows. But Shane behaved strangely impatiently. Almost like a gundog, he walked in front of me and seemed to be looking for a trace incessantly. "Looks like it's busted pretty bad," I initiated a dialogue to distract him at least a little from his compulsive behaviour.

He stopped and glanced at me with a blank look. "It's fine, man," he signalled his refusal. No emotion was reflected in his facial expressions at that. And then, he already went on. "Don't worry about me."

There was an awkward silence between the two of us for a while. As before, he plodded along without saying a word and determined our course. It seemed to me now as if he had gone lost in another world completely. "Does this way feel right?" - Just another attempt to get him out of there.

Shane stopped again and turned to me. But this time he took a few steps towards me before giving me an answer. "As right as any." He examined me from head to toe thereafter.

At the latest now, I felt that he was hiding something from me, but I was not sure what. "Snatched your gun, huh?" I asked to express my doubts about him and to give him an opportunity to finally break out of himself.

"Yeah. It's my favourite piece too. Gonna wish he'd ... Wish he'd killed me when I find his sorry ass." - Not the answer I wanted to hear. "Go on," he ended our short-winded conversation.

I followed his request, hoping that he might confide in me after all. I believed in him ...

***

"Rick!" Shane's voice tore apart the silence of the night entirely after a resounding shot had been fired at me from the woods earlier. He fired back several times. When he had finished off the shooter, he knelt next to me and examined me with a worried expression on his face. "Oh man, not again. Come on, I'm right here with you. Do you hear me? Stay with me. Shh-shh. That's it. I'm right here." Memories of our last operation together boiled up in both of us.

It tasted like iron. Then, I spluttered blood. It was truly a similar experience as then, but still significantly different. And now, I began to realise. "D- Don't act like you really care, Shane."

His eyes widened and his jaw dropped open. "Wh- What do you mean, man?" He stopped pressing on my gunshot wound in the chest. As a result, the process of dying accelerated.

I knew I didn't have much time left. This fatal bullet wound was my death sentence. Blood filled my lungs, and it became harder and harder to speak. But I still clanged to life because I needed certainty from him. "I- I realised it too late. B- But that was your plan ... a- all the time, wasn't it?" A gush of red made its way through my windpipe, and I coughed uncontrollably for a few moments. Then, I looked at him in disappointment. "Why? W- Why, Shane?"

He let go of me completely now and leaned back. "You're right, Rick. And even now you're asking why. You are not only weak, but also stupid." His iciness made my body shiver. Or maybe it was just the loss of my blood. But at least he finally spoke out what he really felt, "It was me who led the group, who took care of your wife and child. Everything was perfect. But then you come back here and you just destroy everything! You shouldn't have come back. And you won't from this."

I wasn't mad at him, just sad. "You really think you're doing the right thing?"

"Sure," he replied straightforwardly. Then, he backed up his point of view with the following words, "After all, I'm a better father than you, Rick. I'm better for Lori than you, too. It's 'cause I'm a better man than you, Rick. 'Cause I can be here and I'll fight for it." I nodded ruefully, trying to understand. And so, I got to see something like kindness on his face one last time. Something he hadn't shown me in a long time. "You don't have to hold on anymore. I take over again. It ain't gonna be easy, but Lori and Carl ... They'll be fine. No worries."

I nodded again. "Sh- Shane, I ..."

He took my hand. "Shh-shh, you don't have to say anything more, Rick. It's okay. It's over now. This time for sure."

My eyelids became heavy and fell shut immediately afterwards. I still felt warming drops beading on my face. And then - blackest darkness.

***

"Ah, where am I? What happened?" it crossed my mind, while a dull pain spread through my chest. The grey ceiling I was now staring at harmonised perfectly with the strange dead silence that surrounded me.

"Shane?" I asked into the closed room. I remembered that his face was the last one I had seen. But that's all.

No one answered, so I asked again, "Shane?" After that, I turned my head into all directions and looked around. I realised that I was in a hospital room. When I turned my head to the side, a bouquet of flowers caught my eye. A wonderfully coloured mix of wildflowers that were just blooming in all their glory and exuding a pleasant smell in the room. I looked at the clock afterwards, which was ticking calmly. Leaving aside my bad condition, everything seemed fine. Nevertheless, an uneasy feeling came over me.

I removed the tubes from my face, knocked the blanket to the side, and tried to get up. My legs gave way and I fell to the ground. "Nurse, help," I gasped weakly. No one heard my cry for help. Only after a while did I manage to get up on my own and stumbled to the door.

An unexpectedly dark hallway welcomed me. Just a few of the lamps were switched on, but they hardly gave any light. In addition to this strangely unsettling fact, it was also weird that I didn't get to see a soul in the hallway. At least not on my left. Further down to my right, I saw a woman in a white nurse outfit walking away from me slowly. I followed her as fast as I could. When I got close enough to her, I spoke, "Excuse me, nurse."

She stopped as if snap-frozen. "N- Nurse?" Only now did she turn to me. When I saw her bloodstained front and tattered face, all my memories flooded back. And I realised with a heavy heart that there was no escape from this recurring nightmare haunted by the undead.