Chapter Text
Chapter One (Amelia)
“Uncle Negan, I get what you’re saying but I’m still coming up to your place,” Amelia said into the phone as she frantically packed as fast as her six-months-pregnant belly allowed. “My dad’s place isn’t an option and I just don’t think I can handle what’s happening alone.”
“Mia, your dad loves you,” Uncle Negan argued on the other side of the phone. “I’m sure he’ll let you st—”
Amelia slammed her second suitcase shut. “Well, I’m sure that religious fanatic he married won’t let me stay with them. She made that perfectly clear when I told them about the baby. So I’m coming to you. I’ll help you take care of Aunt Lucy and—”
The phone line suddenly went dead and Amelia’s heart began to race even faster. Her eyes snapped to the television in the vain hope that there would be some kind of announcement about the phone lines being fixed promptly, but instead all she saw was the horrifying image of a monster tearing into a woman’s throat. When the television screen went black a moment later it was almost a relief.
Eyes stinging with panicked tears, Amelia took a deep breath to steady herself before jumping back into action.
She grabbed an empty pink duffle bag and heaved herself up to her feet before hurrying to her small closet where she’d stashed the enormous box of expensive prenatal vitamins her uncle had sent her the moment he’d learned she was pregnant. He’d been unaware that each bottle contained a three-month supply so she had enough prenatal vitamins to last three pregnancies. Too panicked to consider the fact she wouldn’t need every single bottle, she shoved them all into the pink bag before making her way to the bathroom to empty out her medicine cabinet. After that, she headed to her bedroom to grab her pregnancy books, nursing school textbooks, and the handful of pink baby items she’d purchased on a whim after learning she was having a baby girl. Her hands lingered on the small white wooden plaque adorned with the name “Lucille” written in pink.
Amelia hadn’t yet told her Aunt Lucy or Uncle Negan about her name choice yet, because she was unsure how they’d react. It would be obvious to both of them that the name choice was partially due to her aunt’s terminal cancer diagnosis. However, the truth was that Amelia had always imagined having a little Lucy of her own one day. She’d named countless dolls “Lucy” when she was a little girl and—
The sound of frantic knocking on her front door and the shout of her nickname brought Amelia out of her thoughts.
“Mia!” Amelia’s neighbor Glenn shouted, prompting her to put the plaque she’d been contemplating into the duffle bag and zip it shut. He kept shouting as she hurried out of her cramped bedroom and made her way to her tiny apartment’s front door. “Amelia, are you in there? It’s getting really bad downtown and I think—”
Amelia opened the door and Glenn nearly fell on top of her. He quickly caught himself with one hand on the door frame, but his other hand briefly brushed against Amelia’s pregnant belly before he pulled it away with an embarrassed flush.
“Sorry!” Glenn squeaked. “I didn’t mean to touch you without permission. I know that’s rude…and creepy. Super rude and creepy. But it was an accident, I swear.”
“It’s fine, Glenn,” Amelia said, motioning for the twenty-four-year-old to enter her apartment. Once he was safely inside, she shut the door and locked it.
There was a moment of awkward silence as they stood before each other, both of them remembering their disastrous first date before the whole getting knocked up by an anonymous shy redneck thing happened. It was only in the last couple of days that they’d started to repair their friendship. With the world going to hell, staying mad at each other just didn’t seem worth it.
Amelia tucked a dark curl behind her ear before awkwardly clearing her throat. “So…umm…you were saying things are bad downtown?”
“Yeah. Atlanta is supposed to be a safe zone so tons of people are flooding the city. Too many people. Desperate people who could be infected for all we know. So I was thinking it would be best if we headed somewhere more rural. Maybe out towards Mert County or—”
“Glenn, I’m going to Virginia,” Amelia said, causing her friend’s face to fall.
“Virginia?”
“Yeah. To stay with my dad’s older brother. His wife, my Aunt Lucy, has cancer. She needs my help and—”
“Mia, the airports are closed. I checked. I wanted to get us both tickets to Michigan but—”
“Both of us? Why would I go to Michigan with you?”
Glenn looked hurt. “Look I get that you didn’t feel a spark when we kissed. Believe me, I didn’t either. But I still care for you as a friend. And I know your stepmom is being a bitch about the whole unwed mother thing. So I thought you could stay with me and my family until this all blows over. My sisters love babies and…well I guess that doesn’t matter. It’s not like we can get to Michigan. I looked into driving but with the crazy gas prices, we’d run out of money before we got there. Also, according to the military, crossing state lines isn’t safe right now. So I was thinking we should head towards Mert County or this quarry I camped at a while back instead. Somewhere safe and relatively rural. But if you think we should try Virginia, I’m game.”
Amelia stared at Glenn’s hopeful face and opened her mouth to tell him that she was going to Virginia alone.
To tell him that she knew it was safer to stay in Georgia and didn’t want to put him at risk.
To tell him that if he came to Virginia with her, her Uncle Negan would assume he was her baby’s father.
To tell him that her Uncle Negan would then beat him half to death for the imagined crime of daring to touch his favorite niece.
Amelia was seconds away from telling Glenn that she would be completely fine traveling to Virginia on her own when she suddenly got a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach.
She suddenly knew without a shadow of a doubt that if she tried to drive to Virginia, her and her unborn daughter would die.
In one universe, she ignored the feeling and went to Virginia anyway.
In this universe, she didn’t ignore the feeling.
Instead, she took a deep breath and gave Glenn a tentative smile.
“So where is this quarry?”
Glenn smiled back and told her exactly where it was.
And an hour later, they jumped into Amelia’s car and headed towards safety together.