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English
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Published:
2025-08-29
Updated:
2025-09-26
Words:
233,532
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60/?
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The Ones Who Remember

Summary:

The day he was supposed to get shot, sitting in a cop car with Shane, Rick remembers everything. At that moment, everyone else Rick met during the apocalypse also remembers.

With only a few weeks to the outbreak, how can they prepare for the worst?

Notes:

Okay, so, let's forget the fact I have a Star Wars fanfic with over a million words that is unfinished and focus on my newest obsession.

Chapter 1: Rick

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

 

“What’s the difference between men and women?” Rick asked, passing a napkin to Shane.

 

“This a joke?”

 

“No, serious.”

 

Rick took some french fries, dipping them in ketchup as he listened to Shane. 

 

“I never met a woman who knew how to turn off a light. They're born thinking in a switch, it only goes one way, “On”. They’re struck blind the second they leave a room. I mean every woman, I ever let have a key... I swear to God. Come home, house all lit up, and my job, apparently, because... because my chromosomes happen to be different cause I then gotta walk through that house, turn off every single light this chick left on.”

 

He kept on ranting and Rick listened, though he felt off, like there was something itching in his mind aside from just the marriage problems. 

 

“Is that right?”

 

“Yeah, baby. Hm. Alright, Reverend Shane's preaching to you now, boy-”

 

It hit Rick in waves. The fear, pain, screams, blood. 

 

Shane, Lori, Carl - they were all dead. Dale, Andrea, Hershel, Abraham, Glenn, so many dead. 

 

The walkers…

 

Daryl, his brother, far more than Shane ever was. Michonne, who supported him through much more than he and Lori had ever gone through. Judith, his baby girl, not Shane's. 

 

Everything.

 

Every second, every heartbreak, every battle, every moment of shattered hope, it all flooded back to him. 

 

Rick couldn’t breathe, his hand gripping the car door, trying to get a grasp of everything in his head as well. He had gone through worse, but the feeling of everything was up there-

 

Shane screamed, a raw sound. 

 

Rick turned to him, calm on the outside but watchful, ready, his eyes following Shane's each move. 

 

Shane was wide-eyed, sweating, looking at Rick like he had seen a ghost. Then, his face twisted with rage, his hand going to his service weapon, yanking it out and pressing the muzzle to Rick's forehead. 

 

Rick wasn't worried, though. He had known Shane his entire life. No matter how much the man acted tough, he hadn't had the guts to kill Rick on that field. Even if Shane acted like he was the kind of man who would gun down his best friend, it had been Rick all along. 

 

Not that Shane was good by any means, or stable. But who was?

 

“You son of a bitch,” Shane said, keeping him at gunpoint. Rick met the challenge head-on, not flinching. “You took everything from me, Rick.”

 

Shane's hand was trembling, his eyes all over the place. Rick took a deep breath. 

 

“Look at me,” he said, steady. Shane did, clearly listening to Rick even if he seemed outwardly deranged. “I’d do it again if it meant protecting them.”

 

Silence.

 

“I told you I would stay alive to keep them alive. And I did, as long as I could,” Rick continued. “I had to do far worse than taking everything from you. And I would do it again.”

 

Shane’s jaw flexed. “You always thought you were better than me- always thought you knew what was right. Without you, I could’ve had it all. Lori, Carl, the baby. You stole that from me.”

 

Rick smiled bitterly. He hadn't been able to protect Carl and Lori, but at least Judith had lived. 

 

“I kept them alive as long as I could. I was there for my baby, and you weren't - because you forced my hand. Don't do it again.” Rick stated. “You? You were already gone, Shane, long before I stabbed you in the chest.”

 

Shane’s finger twitched on the trigger, just once, then he let out a harsh breath, lowered the gun, and kicked the door open. His boots met the road as he stormed away from the car, fists clenched, muttering something Rick couldn’t quite make out.

 

Rick didn’t stop him. He didn't have to - Shane was going to be back, one way or another. The pain they remembered wasn’t something you could walk off, and knowing the man his best friend had become, he was bound to go look for Lori or Carl. 

 

Rick looked down at his hands. Clean - no blood, not yet. 

 

He hadn't become any better than Shane, in the end. Probably worse. He truly would've done anything for his family, he had already done so much. Ripping out throats with his teeth, gunning down disarmed men, he understood where Shane had been coming from back then. He had just been too reckless, too unwilling to listen to any sense-

 

The radio crackled to life, same as it had that same day years ago. “All available units, high speed pursuit in progress, Linden County units request local assistance. Highway 18 south GTAAD W217 243. Proceed with extreme caution.”

 

Rick didn’t reach for the mic right away.

 

Because now, everything was different - and he was alive. A few weeks before the outbreak, he wasn't going to waste his chance by getting shot. 

 

If he remembered, and Shane remembered, then maybe the rest of his family did too. Daryl, Michonne, Carol, Maggie, Glenn, Hershel, Carl-

 

His breath hitched. The last time he saw his son, he died - but if that future wasn’t set in stone anymore? Rick was going to take full advantage of it.

 

He reached for the radio.

 

“Dispatch, this is Deputy Grimes. Officer Walsh just stormed off, I don't believe we are capable of assisting at this time.”

 

His voice was steady and he already felt himself filling with determination. He was going to change it all, bit by bit, and ensure everyone he cared for lived. 

 

Everyone. 

Notes:

Comments would make my day. I'll read all of them and if you have any suggestions for the story, things you'd like to see, I will consider them all.