Thanks for all the favorites, follows, and reviews! You guys are awesome!
Sorry for the late update. I have been on vacation and actually having to talk to people instead of writing (*groans*)
Thanks to Kansas for the idea of getting to know Rachel more! This chapter is dedicated to you!
As always, thanks to BreenaBelle-xoxo for her constant support, advice, and getting my butt into gear! Check out her stories! They're awesome!
"Princess, where did you get all these scars from?" Beth asked me as she searched for me some clothes to change into.
"From hunting and playing in the woods." I replied through a mouth full of PB&J. I pointed to a long cut on my side. "That's from playing with Marcus' hunting knife." My hair was still dripping wet from my extremely long bath. I used the towel to dry off Blade, who's fur was finally white again. He licked my fingers that were covered in jelly.
"Your parents let you hunt?" Beth asked curiously as she threw a large t-shirt and a pair of mesh shorts at me.
"Sure. Why wouldn't they? I only got hurt when I didn't know how to do the stuff." I yanked the clothes on before grabbing my sandwich and running down the stairs. I could hear Beth and Blade following me. I walked into the side room to go and see Carl, who was looking just as pale as before. Rick looked pale too as he ate his own sandwich. I was surprised to see Lori there.
"Princess! They found you." Lori said. Her eyes were red from crying, her face still wet, and the smile she sent me was a sad forced smile.
"Carl found me." There was a pregnant pause. "Is Shane back yet?" Rick shook his head.
"Don't you have something you have to put on your bites?" Rick asked, gesturing to my leg. I nodded in response. "Better go put it on there then. I'm guessing you haven't put any on since yesterday morning." I nodded again before running to the living room. I stuffed the last bite of my sandwich in my mouth as I dug through my satchel.
"Come on, let's go tame that mess of hair." Maggie said, taking my hand as we sat down on the couch.
Rachel's POV:
"I didn't think you would voluntarily leave your brother's side." T-dog spoke up from the front seat as Glenn drove us to the farm.
"I don't like being away from him, especially with Princess missing. But we need you guys, and Marcus wont decide to split up from y'all while looking for Princess if I'm with you here. If I had stayed, by the morning, you wouldn't have been able to get him to leave there until he found her." I stared out the window as I the dark country landscape flew by.
"You talk like Dale. How old are you anyways?" Glenn chuckled.
"I'm 16." T-dog whistled in surprise. "Princess told me I was born with the soul of a grandma." T-dog and Glenn chuckled.
"You three seem close." It wasn't a question, just an observation. I chose not to answer. It was well known that Princess was Marcus' favorite. She had him wrapped around her little finger. It didn't bother me; she was my favorite as well. I just didn't let her get away with things like he did. And just because Marcus and I weren't each other's favorite sibling didn't mean that we weren't thick as thieves. It has always been the two of us against the world. Marcus is only three years older than me, so we hardly remember doing anything without the other. I would think up the plans, and Marcus would execute them for us, whether it was hunting or stealing a cookie after dinner. When Princess was born, our mother didn't survive the delivery. Our father became distant and unemotional toward us. Marcus and I have always been the one to provide Princess with love and support. In a sense, we were her parents. We taught her everything she knew. I've always thought of her as more than a sister, like there was a faint hint of a maternal bond there.
"We're here." Glenn's voice brought me from my thoughts. I looked out of the car as we drove up to the front of the house. We slowed to a stop. Glenn cut off the lights as we all got out of the car. The three of us walked quietly to the porch steps, noticing the drops of blood on the front. "So do we ring the bell? I mean, it looks like people live here." Glenn looked at T-dog and I uncertainly.
"We're past this kind of stuff, aren't we? Having to be considerate?" T-dog grumbled out as we climbed the steps.
"If it is, somebody shoot me." I mumbled. Our attention was drawn by the rocking chair creaking.
"Did you close the gate up the road when you drove in?" The girl who road in on the horse asked us.
"Uh, hi." Glenn mumbled. Was it me or was he starting to get flustered. "Yes, we closed it. Did the latch and everything." Aww, look how shy he was being. T-dog and I shared a look. T-dog looked like hell still and he was completely unamused by Glenn. I smiled wider, but he just rolled his eyes. "Hello. Nice to see you again. We met before, briefly." T-dog cut off Glenn's rambling.
"Look, we came to help. There anything we can do?" T-dog groaned as the girl stepped toward us. She eyed T-dogs hurt arm wearily.
"It's not a bite." I told her. She glanced at me, like she was trying to decide if she believed me or not.
"I cut myself pretty bad though." He admitted. The girl nodded at us.
"We'll have it looked at. I'll tell them you're here." She walked toward the door, pausing as Glenn talked to her.
"We have some painkillers and antibiotics. I already gave him some. If Carl needs any." Glenn held out the bottles to her.
"Come on inside. I'll make you something to eat." She told us. She opened the door, allowing us to follow her inside. I froze in the doorway. Sitting on the couch in the living room was Princess and her dumb dog. She was wearing clean clothes that were too big for her, she looked recently bathed, her hair braided and wrapped around her head. She had just taken a large bite of a sandwich when she saw us. She jumped up and ran over, jumping into my arms. Blade ran to my ankles, yipping and biting at them.
"How are you here?" I asked, holding her to me tight as I tried not to cry. "I thought you had died."
"Imm mmmfffoo uughhm." Princess said through a mouthful of sandwich. Glenn laughed next to me.
"That's disgusting. Just cause the world ended doesn't mean that you get to be gross." I scolded as I kicked Blade away from me. Princess opened her mouth and showed me her chewed up sandwich. "Yep, it's official. You spend too much time with Marcus." Princess closed her mouth, swallowing, before laughing. I set her on the ground, but still held her close to me.
"Where's Carl?" T-dog asked. Princess' face fell, she glanced at the other girl, before they led us to a side room. Carl lay in the bed, deathly pale as his parents sat at his side. I clutched Princess to me tightly, remembering that it could have easily been hers. He was dying, and it was easy to see and feel with the depressing attitude. I glanced at T-dog and Glenn. Glenn took off his hat as he scratched his head.
"Hey." Glenn spoke up. Carl already looked like a corpse. There wasn't an ounce of color in his skin.
"Hey." Rick grumbled back. He was looking a little pale himself. We stayed quiet for a minute as we watched the old guy finish checking Carl's blood pressure.
"Um, we're here, okay?" Glenn said uncertainly.
"Thank you." Lori said quietly.
"Whatever you need." T-dog told them. Rick nodded as we turned and wondered out slowly.
"My names Maggie by the way." The brown-headed girl told us. We nodded in response, all of us now sad from seeing Carl so close to death. Princess quietly began eating her sandwich again.
"Seriously, you're still eating?" Glenn asked her. Princess glared at him as she quickly chewed her food.
"I eat when I'm upset." She snapped before aggressively taking another bite of her sandwich.
"You eat a lot with every strong emotion you feel." I mumbled. Princess glared at me in response as Glenn and T-dog chuckled softly. She aggressively ripped off the crust from her sandwich and threw it on the ground for Blade. An older woman came into the room.
"My name's Patricia. Maggie tells me that one of you is hurt." She said kindly. T-dog lifted his arm. "Come sit at the dinning room table and I'll take a look at it." Rachel and I followed T-dog over to the table and watched as Patricia removed the bandage. T-dogs wound was wide open and you could see the infection.
"Sick." Princess smiled, watching in fascination as Patricia began cleaning it. Glenn coughed behind me.
"That's disgusting." He looked like he was holding down puke.
"It's starting to smell too." I commented. T-dog glared at me as he winced.
"If you think it's disgusting, then why are staring at it like it's not bothering you?" Glenn asked, pointedly looking away from the infected wound.
"Marcus really liked to play gut explosion." Glenn looked at me in confusion. "Which is exactly what it sounds like. When Marcus was cleaning his game, he would yell "GUT EXPLOSION!" and then throw the contents of the games stomach on me." Glenn looked at me grossed out as Princess laughed.
"I forgot he did that! It was always really funny. You're reactions would range from screaming so hard you're face got red to throwing up." Princess giggled as Glenn threw his baseball cap on Princess' hair, walking out of the room. We watched in silence as Patricia finished up and began sowing up the wound.
"You got here right in time. This couldn't go untreated much longer." I patted T-dog's shoulder as he cringed while they stitched him. Princess watched with rapt attention. "Merle Dixon. Is that your friend with the antibiotics?" Patricia asked.
"No, ma'am. Merle's no longer with us. Daryl gave us those, his brother." Glenn explained.
"Not sure I'd call him a friend." T-dog winced as Patricia continued to stich him up.
"He is today. This doxycycline might have just saved your life. You know what Merle was taking it for?" Patricia asked.
"The clap." Glenn answered. Patricia, Maggie, and Princess turned to look at him. "Um, venereal disease. That's what Daryl said."
"I'd say Merle Dixon's clap was the best thing to ever happen to you." I chuckled at Patricia.
"I'm really trying not to think about that." T-dog winced out. Glenn quickly walked out the room.
"What's a venereal disease?" Princess asked, turning to me. I just remembered that we haven't given Princess the talk yet…I might need to get on that.
"Iiiiiit's when you eat to much venison. When you do, it makes your farts sound like their clapping." I told her. Everyone turned to stare at me. Princess scrunched up her face in thought.
"There we go. All done." Patricia said as she tied off the string. "Y'all go wait in the living room and I will get food you some food." I helped T-dog walk into the living room. We plopped on the couch, Princess climbing in my lap. I thanked Patricia as she brought us food and munched quietly. Blade snored quietly at my feet. Of course the dumb dog snores. The sound of a truck caused Princess to jump from my lap.
"It's Shane and Otis!" She yelled, running toward the door. We followed her to the door. Who the hell was Otis? Shane came limping out of the truck, but he was by himself. T-dog, Princess, and I watched as Shane passed off bags to Glenn.
"No one tell Patricia. Not until after we are finished with Carl." The old guy told us.
"Come on, T-dog, you should sit down." I said quietly, taking Princess' hand as I we went and sat in the rocking chair. Princess climbed into my lap while we waited with the others for Carl's surgery to end.
"Sing me a song." Princess whispered to me. I quietly began to hum our favorite tune, rocking us back and forth. Princess was asleep within seconds. The old man, who I learned was Hershel, came out. Everyone stood up but me.
"He seems to have stabilized." Hershel told us. Rick came forward and gave Hershel a hug.
"I don't have words." Lori said as she cried happy tears. Hershel's face began to fall.
"I don't either. Wish I did. How do I tell Patricia about Otis?" Hershel said solemnly.
"You go to Carl. I'll go with Hershel." Rick told us. I scooped up Princess in my arms. Oh God this child was getting heavy. I struggled as I walked inside to one of the couches in the living room.
"Need help?" Glenn asked as he watched me flop down on the couch, lying against it with Princess on my chest. Blade hopped up on my feet.
"Like five minutes ago." I huffed. I looked down at Princess' head. I picked up Glenn's hat from her head and threw it at him. "Don't wake me until morning." I mumbled, closing my eyes.