Athens

H-Day, he had started to call it in his head. The day they decided to check out that Helicopter crash, when everything changed.

The day they had fought for their lives with everything they had, the day he had seen his companions break down and fall around him. Ironic how lonely he had felt all of a sudden, as he had always considered himself a solo act. Maybe not quite, in this new world.
Ambushed in their shelter, smoked out like vermin, just to be assaulted by the hordes. He still feels guilty, three months after, for giving in to fatigue and going to sleep so thoughtlessly, that night. Maybe if I had stayed awake, keeping watch with the others...

But the time for Maybes was long past. He had to adapt and survive.

To give Richard a chance, the only one among them that had not walked out of H-Day on his own legs.
Billie-Faye, that he thought couldn't be hurt by anything under the sun, bullets and zeds included, survived H-Day like a shadow of her former self. He tried to be near the woman, but Richard's comatose state seemed to drain her energy.
Shayna had somehow emerged from under a masisve pile of walkers, in a bad state, but miracolously unbitten, just like him. Sharing the ordeal had made them closer, he felt more sympathetic to her, wondering what heavy burden she carried. We all do.

He later had learned of the attacks to the rest of the group, of the death of Martin, and Selena. Shit... so young. So pretty.

By some miracle, Vinh had survived, and reuniting in Athens with his Vietnamese friend had felt like the closest thing to going back home in years. If he had gone too, Maybe...

But the time for Maybes was long past. He had to adapt. He had to survive.

So he watched this new community, tried to learn, and to make himself useful. Trying to stay away from the killing - if you could call killing an undead thing that - he had volunteered for anything within the city walls perimeter. Repair jobs, carrying loads for construction units, couriering for messages and items, anything. It gave him a space to think while keeping busy, and while staying close to the others. the original group.

Now Joshua's shrill calls wake him up from his reverie, and it takes him a while to read the situation. So many weeks had passed that he had almost lost faith... could this be?

Springing to his feet, he runs down the ladder he placed outside his makeshift room window and starts running towards Joshua, calling out "Are you sure, man?? VINH! Guys! Richard's awake!! BILLIEFAYEEEEEE!! "

Richard's eyes snap open. Before he can even think, the pain comes, barreling over his body.

This must be what it feels like to be run over by a freight train or any train for that matter.

His moans soar to a crescendo. "Where am I?" he whispers through the few seconds of abated pain. "Marsha?"

Then the world goes black. Sometime later he wakes and hears excited shouts. Pounding. He turns his head. It hurts. He doesn't know where he is or what happened. Maybe the voices will tell him.

Shayna wakes and nearly pukes, the sudden pain in her side from the gunshot twinges her most fierce when she wakes. Once she's moving it's better, so she rolls off the cot and stands up, leaning a hand against the wall. Sure enough, the movement releases the phantom ache, and she's fine. I'm fine, sugah, everything is just peachy dandy.

Pulling on her cargo pants, she steps into her boots and laces them nice and tight. The act of getting her boots just perfect gives her a moment to process. Richard was awake! She'd hardly left his side for first few weeks, but after he was stabilized and him getting up was in God's hands alone, she had to make herself useful.

The folks at Athens were in rough shape, at first. Without a doctor, they had needed some non-stop care for awhile. Everyone was real friendly when doctor came around. The fat kid who wouldn't eat berries and had developed scurvy, she had had to use tough love. "He ain't got sense to eat right, give him some grenades and feed him to the walkers in that ole bodega outside gate 3." He'd smartened up then. How does anyone remain spoiled in these times? Was a puzzler. Only, now the kid followed her around looking at her ass.

Owen hollers again and she yells back, "Allright we heard ya. Now be a dahling and run on to Starbucks and get me a red-eye mocha ice cap, would ya?" She grabs her jacket and her neckerchief and heads to the med building.

Billie-Faye Cooper is as tough as they come. Many people throughout her time on this fucked-up planet have seen it, have seen her sheer force of will and a strength that doesn't match up at all with her lean body. Owen saw it, over and over again those months ago. Fighting walkers, shooting at crazed survivors, making daring runs on that motorbike. She seemed super-human in some ways... until that night.

Something broke in her. She pushed herself too far. Let herself get attached to Richard -- or to the idea of Richard -- and then wasn't able to make it right when everything went fucking sideways. She just wasn't the same after that, and Owen and the others... well, they got to see the other side of Billie-Faye Cooper. The one that in the before times landed her over and over again in jail, in abortion clinics, in meth-houses, in situations with abusive men she should have steered well clear of.

Now, no one in Athens knew Billie-Faye Cooper was worth a damn for doing more than getting drunk, snorting oxy, smoking meth and giving the hand and blowjobs to keep the supply flowing. It was hard to watch her do that to herself, but there seemed no way to stop it. She didn't go on supply runs, she didn't work the perimeter, she didn't work in the kitchen or the supply room (that had stopped after she was caught stealing)... Billie had crashed after that night, and she was still in pieces.

"Shut up you little fucker!" the tattooed blonde says to Owen as she staggers out of a random house, almost falling down the steps. "Richard's not fuckin' waking up and you know it."

Billie is barefoot and topless as she wanders into the street, just wearing a pair of panties as she stops to take a slurp from her foaming can of beer. Swallowing and wincing, the high, loaded drunk woman adds, "What's wrong Owen, you never seen a naked lady before? Pretty hot, right? Not bad for the fucking apocalypse, right?!"

Martin. I should have boffed him. Why didn't I? Stop it. Disrespectful that is. Truth was the man bugged me. I could see plain in his face what he wanted. Hell's bells, didn't I want it too? A little comfort to go with the endless muck? He was a strong man, strong in mind at least, willing to lead even if no one said they'd follow. Takes courage, that does, and patience. Confidence even. That time I said goodbye and wouldn't even give him a hug. No, not my way is it? Always got to hold on to my own bullshit. But now he's gone. Who will comfort me? Don't deserve it neither. I know that if I get complacent, if I settle down and let a little happiness in, everything will get much much worse. Better this way. Better to ... what? What has this got me? More tears locked behind eyes that won't cry. Should have boffed him. He would have appreciated and wouldn't have cost me anything. .

She wipes her eyes as she walks for the makeshift hospital to check on Richard. Maybe speed walks. Just in case.

He is just processing Ron and Angela's appearances, when Billie-Faye staggers out, with her topless theatrics! He stops in his tracks, seeing Billie's enviable Don't give a shit attitude, but also the darker, booze and drug-fuelled side of the woman.

Shit. Maybe it's best if Richard DOESN'T see her like that, is the thought that comes to his mind.

"Yeah... You look... Just great. Nevermind..."
He starts walking again, "I'll go check on him..."

Owen rushes after Joshua, towards the place where Richard was kept for the past few weeks.

"I'm coming, I'm... I'm fucking coming!" Billie shouts after Owen as he heads for the medical area where Richard had been under pretty much constant supervision. Staggering along behind him, she follows.

"Little shit... are you... not even going to offer a... a lady your jacket?"

"What? Oh... Yeah..." he takes his torn hoodie off and extends it to her, slowing down for her to catch up. His old Radiohead T-shirt, frayed and wrinkled, is revealed.

"Forgive my manners, Milady, he adds, " shall we go take a look, now? "

A flicker of recognition passes across Richard's face as people enter the room.

"Where am I? What is this place? Where's my wife?" The confused man suddenly notices movement at his side. "Aww. A dog." His bandaged hand strokes it softly as he tries to decipher who these people are that are looking at him.

Suddenly he bolts upright. "I need to go. Where's Marsha?" he demands. Panic sets in but so too does the pain. Moaning he slowly lays back down again, his hand gently draped across the mangy dog's back.

It takes Billie-Faye a moment to pull on Owen's hoodie as they walk, but once she covers at least some of her bare flesh with the worn garment, she grins. "Oh I say, I shall at that, my good man," she says in a bad British accent that's lost somewhere between posh and cockney and tequila. The blonde quickens her pace when she sees that Owen is double-timing it, so in short order they head into what passed for a medbay in Athens.

Shayna feels their eyes upon her as she passes the Barker boys, or men, but tries her best to ignore it. Jogging up the steps into the building then into Richards room, she's concerned.

When he starts babbling, she steps to his side and presses his head back into the pillow, looking into his eyes with a little penlight. "Richard, it is Shayna. You're in Athens. You've been asleep for a bit. What do you remember?"

She pushes the dog aside with her boot but it doesn't move away.

"Whoa, too bright." Richard's hand shoots up in front of his face to shield his eyes. "Where's Athens? What's in Athens?"

"Heyyy, be nice to my dog." He doesn't like Shayna's boot on him.

"Hey Richard," he says softly, taking a step forward. "It's Owen... hiding behind the messy beard. Glad to see you're awake..."

Shayna has a small, sudden intake of breath, was Bill appears as if from nowhere, she turns back to Richard and puts her penlight away. "Barker, your kin about earned themselves a thrashing." Her back is to him so her can't see her smile.

She gives Richard some room. "Athens is a colony. They found us when we were carrying you. Do you remember the fight at that little shop after we had just visited that crashed helicopter?" She asks him random questions trying to ascertain his memory. Too many questions? Perhaps

"Colony. Hmmm. Safe?"

Richard absentmindedly strokes the dog, his brow furrowed in confused contemplation. "Owen? You're ok? You need a shave."

"Crashed helicopter. Yeah. There were boxes. Don't remember much else." Suddenly, wide eyed, he blurts out, "Billie-Faye. She okay?