Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead.

Lost Hope: A New Life

Chapter Three

I was at Carl's side in an instant. "Carl!" I shouted but he didn't reply. He had a hole in his side with blood beginning to see out. I took both my hands and placed them over the hole to keep the blood from coming out. I was bawling. I took one of my hands off the wound and placed two fingers on his neck to feel for a pulse. He was still alive, but I didn't know how much longer he would survive unless he got some serious help.

A man ran over to me carrying a hunting rifle. He looked shocked and tried putting his hands on my shoulder to comfort me.

"Don't touch me!" I yelled at him. The man backed away with his hands up. Still keeping one hand on Carl's wound I moved my other hand up to his cheek to stroke it, smearing his own blood on his face. "Please, Carl. Please don't die. I need you. Please don't die."

Rick and Shane came running over.

"No!" Rick shouted running over to his son's lifeless body.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't see him." The man said shakily.

"What do I do? My son is dying." Rick took over and put his hands over Carl's wound.

"Take him to Hershel, he will know what to do." The man said pointing in a certain direction.

Rick picked the lifeless Carl up into his arms and began running. Shane and the man followed.

"How far?" Rick asked the man. "How far?"

"Bout a half mile that way." The man said jogging behind us. "Ask for Hershel; he can help your boy."

I ran ahead with Rick. Soon we came upon a country house and realized that was the place the man was talking about.

I ran ahead and banged on the doors. "Help, help! He's been shot. Please help us." Rick came up behind me and a lady with short brown hair who looked to be in her twenties opened the door with a concerned look. "Please help us." I pleaded with her crying.

"Dad!" She called into the house. Soon an old man with white hair came out of the house followed by a middle-aged woman, a teenage girl, and a teenage boy carrying a baseball bat.

"Please you got to help him, he's my best friend." I pleaded.

"Was he bit?" The man asked Rick.

"No, shot, by your man." Rick told them.

"Otis?" The middle-aged woman asked.

"Are you Hershel? Please help my boy." Rick said crying as well.

"Bring him inside!" the man that was apparently Hershel said. Rick carried Carl inside following Hershel. "Patricia, I'm going to need my kit; pain killers, everything. Clean towels, sheets, alcohol…" he continued giving instructions and led Rick into a room with a bed and began moving sheets from the bed. Rick set Carl on the bed and they removed his shirt. I began to cry harder as I saw Carl covered in his own blood. I got out of the way of the others and ran to the other side of the bed. I knelt down and grabbed Carl's lifeless hand.

"Is he alive?" I heard Rick ask. Hershel ignored him and continued giving instructions to the others who were in the house. He handed Rick a towel and instructed him to put pressure on the wound as he listened for a heartbeat.

"I got a heartbeat." Hershel told us. I held Carl's hand tighter.

"Okay I got it." The middle-aged woman told Rick. "You need to give us space now." Rick took a few steps back.

"What are your names?" Hershel asked.

"Rick, I'm Rick." Rick told him looking like he was in shock. I said nothing.

"Rick, we are going to everything we can to save your boy, okay, but you need to give us some room." Hershel told him.

Rick slowly walked over to where I was and gently pulled me away from Carl. He pulled me outside and I collapsed onto the patio crying. I saw Shane and the other man running up to us.

"Is he alive?" The man asked shakily.

Rick rubbed his face smearing Carl's blood on it. Shane pulled a rag out from his bag and rubbed it off of him. Rick was in shock, and didn't seem to be thinking to clearly at the moment. Rick noticed the blood on his hands and began to cry more. Rick stumbled back into the house with Shane and the man who shot Carl following him. I stood up and walked inside with them.

"You know his blood type?" Hershel asked Rick when he saw him.

"A-positive; same as mine." He replied.

"Me too." I told him shakily.

"That's fortunate. Don't wander too far; I'm going to need you two." Hershel told us. "What happened?"

"I was trying to get a buck; bullet went straight through it." The man who shot Carl said quietly.

"Well it certainly slowed the bullet down; may be why the boy's still alive, but it did not go through clean. It broke up into pieces. I could get the bullet fragments out; I'm counting six.

"I never saw him." The man said shakily. "I didn't see him till he was on the ground."

The lady named Patricia walked over and hugged the man to comfort him. I could tell that he felt very guilty and bad about what he had done.

"Lori, she doesn't know." Rick said shakily. "My wife doesn't know that her son's been shot."

I walked over to the side of the bed where I wouldn't get in anyone's way and grabbed Carl's hand again. "Please hang on, Carl." I said quietly. "I need you, please don't leave me. You're my best friend." I was still crying; I tried to stop, but the tears kept coming.

"Hun, why don't you come with me, and give them some room to work." The lady with short brown hair told me pulling me away from Carl. "Are you hungry? Thirsty?"

I did reply; I just watched Carl lay there. The lady noticed that my hands were still covered in Carl's blood.

"Come on, let's go wash that off of you." The lady brought me to a bathroom and turned on the sink. She pulled some rags out from under the sink and got them wet. She took one and placed it to my hand. I gasped and pulled my hand away; they had warm water.

"What's wrong? Did I hurt you?" The lady asked, startled by my sudden movement.

"The water; it's warm." I told her quietly, surprised that they had warm water in their house.

"Is it too hot; because I can turn it down if it is…."

"No, it feels good." I told her letting her continue washing the blood of my hands.

The small smile appeared on the ladies face. "You're acting like you haven't felt warm water for a long time."

"That's because we haven't." I told her quietly. "Well I mean, we did have warm water at the CDC, but it exploded." The lady looked at me funny when I told her it exploded and handed me a towel to dry my hand off, letting me know that she had gotten the blood off. "How do you still have hot water?" I asked her.

"Well, we use natural recourses to get power on the farm." She told me. "I'm Maggie. What's your name?"

"Erin." I answered.

The lady smiled. "Well ,Erin, we are going to do everything in our power to help your friend."

I nodded and tried to smile a little, but I found that I couldn't. I realized that I had stopped crying, probably just because I didn't have any cry left in me. I then heard another cry. It came from Carl. I ran out of the bathroom and into the room Carl was in. He was awake and in a lot of pain. Hershel was trying to pull one of the bullet fragments out with others trying to hold him down to keep him from moving.

"Rick, he need's blood." Maggie told Rick as she came into the room behind me. Rick rushed in and the lady named Patricia started prepping his arm so that they would be able to get blood from him and transfer it to Carl.

"Dad!" Carl cried as he continued to struggle against the people that were holding him down.

I stood there shaking; seeing him in a lot of pain scared me. He screamed out really loudly when Hershel pull at one of the bullet fragments from his side.

"Stop, you're killing him!" Rick shouted pulling away from Patricia.

"Rick, if you want him to live, he needs blood!" Hershel yelled to him.

"Do it now, Rick!" Shane shouted to him as he ran to try to hold Carl down.

Rick gave his arm back to Patricia and he put a needle inside of him. Then I heard Carl go silent. I looked over to him; he looked like he was dead.

"He just passed out." Hershel assured everyone, noticing the look on people's faces when Carl had stopped crying. Hershel pulled the bullet fragment from his side. "One down, five to go." Hershel told everyone examining the fragment.

Patricia hooked Rick up to an instrument that would transfer blood into Carl's body and sat him down next to Carl. After snapping out of shock from seeing my friend in pain, I ran to the other side of the bed and once again held Car's hand. Patricia then attached the iv to Carl's arm and Rick's blood started going into Carl's arm.

"He's lost a lot of blood." Patricia told Rick. I realized that the others had cleared out of the room leaving just her, Rick, me, and Carl. "But I can only pull so much blood from you, before you might pass out. I may need the girl to give the boy blood, too." She said referring to me. Hershel walked back in to check Carl's blood pressure.

"Pressure is almost stable." He told Rick

"Lori needs to be here. She needs to know that her son has been shot. I got to go find her.

"You can't do that." Hershel told him softly.

"She's his mother." Rick told him. "She needs to know what happened."

"He is going to need more blood." Hershel said.

"Erin has the same blood; I can just go out and be back in an instant." Rick told them.

"But I can only pull so much blood from her too." Patricia told him. "I need you both here."

"Don't let them go within fifty feet from the boy." Hershel instructed Shane.

Shane nodded, understanding. Patricia pulled the needle out of Rick's arm and Rick stood up shakily, weak from blood loss. Patricia stabled him at first, but then Shane came and took over. Patricia then motioned for me to come over. I made my way over to where Rick was sitting. Patricia switched out the needle and a different one in. She then grabbed my arm and began cleaning it off. I had a big fear of needles and normally would do my best to avoid them, but this was for Carl, so I pushed the fear aside. She stuck the needle in my arm and I began to watch as my blood began to enter Carl.

Carl actually looked peaceful, spite the situation he was in. After several minutes, Patricia checked the blood pressure and pulled the needle out.

"It's stable now." She told Hershel referring to the blood pressure. I stood up and walked back over to the other side of the bad. I knelt on the ground and continued to watch Carl. I heard Shane lead Rick out of the room. I stroked Carl's hand; it actually felt warmer than the other times I held it. That gave me a little more hope that Carl will be alright, but just a little. I knew he still had five more fragments launched into his side; even deeper than the first. I didn't want to see Carl in pain like that ever again, but I may not have a choice.

"You should probably eat something." Patricia told me. "It will give you more energy for when I need to take more blood."

"I'm not hungry." I told her continuing to stare at Carl.

"But you will be very weak after the next time I need blood, if you don't eat something." She told me.

"I will be alright." I told her. "Besides, I'm used to not eating much now. We've been short on food for awhile now."

She nodded quietly. I felt Carl's hand move in mine. I looked up at his face to see if he was awake again, but his eyes were still shut.

"Don't worry; Hershel says he's out of danger for now." Patricia said, noticing the concern on my face. I stared at Carl's face and gently reached out to touch it. His face was cold. I hated seeing him so lifeless. I just wanted him back to his normal self. I began thinking back to the event when Carl was shot; trying to figure out if there was anything I could have done differently that could've saved his life. I wished it was me in that bed and not him. If he died he would be leaving so much behind; his mom, his dad, the group that had become our family, and me. I have no more family in this world, so it wouldn't matter a lot if I died; it should be me in that bed, not Carl.