The forgotten- Family
Tobias was the first to his feet, extending his hand to Alex. She took it and pulled herself up, wincing at the pain the pressure of standing brought to her right ankle. Blood stained the tattered fabric of her jeans where her leg went through the window in their frantic escape. The initial adrenaline had worn off, leaving her to feel the pain of her wound and any further damage she did to it by running not moments later.
Noticing her pain, Tobias glanced down to Alex's foot.
"Damn that looks painful." He observed, grimacing at the sight of the fresh blood "you good?"
"It hurts but I'm okay.. If that's what you mean"
"C'mon then" Tobias said walking towards the back door "let's get someone to look at it..."
"Wait wait wait!" Alex interrupted. Tobias stopped and removed his hand from the door, turning around , confused. "You can't just walk in there with two massive backpacks full of food, our cloths covered in walker brains and a massive gash on my leg. You know they just might suspect we doing something other than finding out tools in the garden"
Alex's voice was dripping with sarcasm which Tobias rolled his eyes at, but he sighed and took a step away from the door.
"I suppose..." He wondered. Tobias stood staring off into space in deep thought. Alex held in a small snigger at the look of concentration on his face. "Okay first off the food- we found it three doors down with loads of camping stuff- explaining these.." Tobias stated, lifting the two bags slightly off the floor.
"Okay but what if they ask to see the rest of this 'camping stuff'...and how do you even know there's a shed three doors down?"
"Where do you think I got these bags from in the first place?" Tobias retorted sarcastically. It was Alex's turn to roll her eyes. "I was meant to mention it but with everything going on today, I sort of forgot"
"Alright but what about our cloths, they're filthy"
"Ah that's the easy bit. Just take off your hoodie. Our trousers are black so the blood won't really be noticed- just make sure you change them later and bin that pair"
Alex pulled the jumper over her head and tossed it to Tobias, who shrugged off his own blood stained jacket. He stuffed both coats down the side of the shed before turning back to Alex.
"I'll come and fetch 'em later and clean them up the best I can when everyone is busy"
"Okay, but I suppose we just jumped over all the fences to get to the other houses without anyone seeing us for the last couple of hours?"
"I like your thinking, but not quite..." Tobias had a smug grin on his face as he walked up to one of the fence panels. He gripped it from the bottom and with a heave, he managed to lift it enough for someone to fit through. "...we went under"
"Alright smart arse, but last thing." Alex challenged as he let the panel slide back into place "what about my leg?"
"That's the tricky part.." Tobias said, once again slipping into a state of concentration, but this time wondering around the garden as he thought.
He approached her parents old garden shed and opened the doors. It was filled with mainly gardening equipment and old outdoor toys. Daniel was a roofer so he kept most of his work tools on the tallest self, out of reach of his children.
"Would you be able to reach up there?"
"Uhhhh I don't think so. I'd probably just stand on a bucket or something"
"Okay..." Tobias wandered back out the shed looking around for something else to piece his plan together "aha! Perfect!"
Tobias had spotted the small 'outdoor coffee table' that Alex's family had had in their garden for years. It was nothing fancy; metal legs with a glass top, but Tobias dragged it into the shed.
"So you stood on this to see if there was anything worth using on the shelf and..." with out warning, Tobias drove the butt of the gun into the glass, smashing it into thousands of shards. "...you fell through it"
"Wow." Alex said, nodding her head, impressed. "You really thought of everything"
"Not everything." Tobias glanced back down to Alex's foot "I take it we have no doctors back there to look at that?"
"I could get Peter to look at it for me"
"How convenient" Tobias said under his breath slightly amazed "he's not a doctor is he? "
"Not quite." Alex hissed as she peeled the tattered fabric away from her oozing gash. "A children's nurse..."
"What? No...really?!" Tobias asked stunned.
"I know. He doesn't look the type" Alex chuckled "but he's actually quite good at it"
"I'll take your word for it." Tobias shook his head in disbelief "anyway I think we should call them out here to us... Make this all look more like an accident. More believable"
"Yeah okay" Alex replied, hobbling over to the shed and begun lowering herself onto the floor amongst the glass.
"Wait what are you doing"
"Making it more believable" she answered sitting in the glass shards. "If I've just fell though a table it makes sense if I'm on the floor"
"Alright. So you got the story?"
"Yup" Alex nodded
"Okay here it goes...DANIEL! PETER!" Tobias shouted. Alex smacked his leg and hissed
"Keep it down, the walkers!"
"I think they'll forgive me... COME QUICK! ALEX IS HURT!"
"Okay game face on" Alex joked before exaggerating the pain she felt by screwing up her face. Tobias smirked but crouched down next to her with a worried expression plastered on his face.
Not seconds later Daniel burst through the back door, followed closely by Peter, Zoe, Billy and Betty; all with different levels of panic on their faces.
"What's happened!?" Daniel exclaimed, kneeling down next to his daughter, gently touching the blood soaked fabric. Alex winced and he pulled away worried. Behind her dad Alex could see Zoe let out a shaky but relieved breath- she must have thought the worst.
"I stood on the table to see if there was any tools we could use but it broke when I got on" Alex repeated, sticking to the story.
"Yeah, the glass broke and her foot went through. She's cut her leg" Tobias explained further.
"Jesus Christ you scared the hell out of me" Daniel sighed hugging his daughter "let's get you inside and Peter can have a look at you"
Peter nodded "I'll go grab my first aid kit. Sit her on the table, I'll be right back"
As if she was a baby, her dad scooped her up off the floor and begun to carry her inside
"Dad! I can walk" Alex protested, wriggling slightly "it's not that bad"
'I ran on it for Christ sake' her mind argued further.
"When Peter says it's okay then I'll let you walk" Daniel replied just as stubborn as his daughter "for now I'll carry you"
Betty had already cleared everything off the table so Daniel placed Alex down as Peter returned with his first aid kit. Peter put on a pair of surgical gloves and proceeded to cut away the fabric as he spoke
"Okay so tell me what happened again; from the beginning"
"I couldn't reach the top shelf so I stood on the table. The glass broke and my leg went through" Alex recited once more, glancing at Tobias who nodded.
"We're going to have to clean it up before I can get a good look at it, but it's still bleeding so we're gonna have to be quick, you might need stitches"
Alex shuddered and suddenly went pale. She felt sick. She hated the idea of stitches. When see was around 5 she fell out of a tree in her aunts garden and landed on a piece of metal- it went straight into her foot and she needed stitches to close it up. It was painful and sore for weeks and removing them wasn't fun either.
"You okay" Tobias asked, obviously noticing the discolouration in her face.
"I hate stitches" she answered, stomach churning.
Tobias chuckled but was quickly shut up by a glare from Alex. He couldn't believe it. After everything that had happened over the last two days; all the blood and gore, the nightmarish horrors that roamed the streets- Alex didn't falter once. But he could see the colour drain out her face at the mention of stitches? Tobias wasn't one to judge. Every persons phobia has a story- and until he knew it, he wouldn't hold it to them. For him, if someone was to lock him in a tight, dark cupboard, he'd probably pass out. Like he said- every phobia had a story. But Tobias wasn't ready to share his. Not yet.
Finally, Peter had cleaned out her wound with some sort of alcohol (which stung like hell) and managed to stoop the worse of the bleeding after he pulled out a few shards of glass. In the attempt to get her cleaned up, they used the old cloths that the children sorted earlier to reduce the use of the few bandages they had.
"The bleeding has stopped but the cut is pretty deep." Peter explained "I'm sorry, I know you don't like them but you're gonna need stitches"
Alex closed her eyes and drew in a shaky breath at the thought but nodded and mumbled an "okay"
"Are you sure? I've got no anaesthetic so it's going to be very painful"
"It's not the pain that bothers me" Alex assured "I don't know... I just hate the idea of them in general"
With that, Peter went ahead and threaded his needle. Alex reached out and grabbed Zoe's hand as he made the first incision. She got through the pain by screwing up her face and squeezing Zoe's hand until it was over.
"Done." Peter assured, cutting the thread with his surgical scissors. "Billy? Would you fetch me a bottle of water?"
Billy nodded and trailed into the kitchen, producing a half empty bottle when he returned.
"Is that enough? Most of the water is next door if you need more." He said, shaking the contents of the battered plastic bottle.
"It's alright. It's so Alex can take these" Peter clarified, holding out two painkiller pills, which Alex took gratefully with a huge swig of water. "I'm gonna bandage you up and it should be fine. You can change your bandages your self every day or so and I'll take the stitches out in about a week. For now go easy on it. You'll need to rest it, too much pressure might start the bleeding again. Now that we're all finished here...lets get next door for dinner. I'm starving"
"Got it." Alex confirmed pushing herself up to get off the table "thanks doc"
Peter chuckled and shook his head as Alex begun to slide off the table.
"And where do you thing you're going?" Daniel interrupted as Alex lowered herself to her feet
"Next door? We are eating right?"
"Did you not listen to Peter? You need to go easy on your leg"
"Dad, I'm okay honestly" Alex laughed "I'm not exactly pushing myself by walking next door. I'm fine"
"Well you're not walking just yet.."
"Well you're not carrying me again." Alex argued "I'm not so little anymore dad. You'll hurt yourself..."
"How about I give you a piggy back?" Tobias offered awkwardly, trying to solve the problem. Alex laughed again but accepted.
"Okay. if you're offering...dad?"
"Whatever...as long as you keep off that leg" Daniel surrendered, waving them off as he followed the rest of the adults out the house.
Tobias squatted slightly in front of Alex, and with a small jump, she was on his back and being carried next door, joking with Billy and Zoe about Tobias being her new slave. He took it on the chin and laughed along with them. When they reached next door everyone took turns of bustling around Alex, asking how she was. She got fed up of reassuring everyone that she was fine.
The night consisted of Alex re-telling her story and Tobias explaining all the food and camping gear that they had 'found'. Betty prepared the food with the assistance of Jayne and soon all 15 of them were again huddled in the living room eating. Even the people who were on watch sat to enjoy the cozy atmosphere for a few moments. Inside these walls everyone momentarily forgot the horrors that lay on the other side. They could almost forget the guns that they placed down to eat. They could almost forget the loved ones they lost...almost.
Billy and Tobias sat on the floor leaning against the double chair Zoe and Alex were sat on, Alex with her bad foot propped up on Zoe's lap. Layla had sat on the other side of the room, unamused that people paid more attention to Alex rather to her complaints about the shower. Alex and Zoe were annoyed at her hostile ways but chose to ignore her. She'd come around soon enough, it would just take time. For now, she sat reading the same magazine from earlier. The boys sat playing a stupid card game by the light of the fire- it wasn't late but the time of year meant it was already dark out- they playfully argued and laughed as they justified their own rules. Alex and Zoe watched over their shoulders, joining in with the laughter and arguments. The pain in Alex's leg had subsided greatly due to the strong pain relief Peter had given her but she still felt a dull throb every so often. She was lucky. 'Any deeper and it would have shredded the muscle' Peter had told her. That would have been a disaster. The parents sat chatting about food rations and watch rotations. They still mentioned the military and how they would be back for them soon. The children's hope was thinning a lot faster than the adults. They knew they were here for the long run. This was their lives now.
"Alex? Do you think we could still have that sleepover?" Zoe asked quietly
"I'll ask" said Alex, turning in her seat "dad? Could we have a sleepover tonight? Like with Billy and Tobias as well?"
"As long as you keep the noise down and the boys sleep in your brothers old room then I have no problem with it" Daniel said, earning excited smirks off the kids
"I'll be sleeping in the other room; your sisters old one." Layla asserted; she was still mad with them
"Suit yourself" Tobias replied earning another glare. These two definitely didn't get along which was unfortunate for them all.
"Well I'm staying in my room and as long as you don't wake me up, I'm fine with it" Daniel confirmed, trying to ease the tension "I was just saying to the others, this isn't just my house anymore. We all live here and you don't have to ask me permission to do something in your own home...within reason of course. So as long as we're here together.. We're family. No matter how long it takes for the military to come back, we will live here as family"
"Yeah it makes sense..." Alex nodded. They were here together. They were family.
After dinner was finished and everyone had helped clear away, Tobias and Billy headed upstairs to get their things for the night and Zoe helped Alex next door so they could do the same. They changed for bed and were soon greeted by a knock on the and the boys entered ready for the night. Billy had a pile of blankets and pillows while Tobias carried a pile of board games and a packet of playing cards. Together they spread all the blankets and pillows they could find onto the floor along side the beanbags and the air mattress that was meant for Zoe. Alex hung up and placed torches around the room so they could see one another. They settled into their fortress of comfort and begun chatting about random things, just how children of their age should of been. After about an hour they opened the chess game which Zoe completely conquered with her tactics. Billy gave up after a while and started reading a comic but Alex and Tobias banded together, determined to stop her constant winning. Finally, after their fourth attempt together, they managed to take Zoe's King, winning the game. Both of them cheered and Zoe laughed.
"Finally." Billy exasperated "Can we play another game now?"
"Yeah you pick one." Tobias said as Billy looked through the boxes
"Snakes and ladders?" He offered, holding up the tattered box
"Why not" shrugged Alex.
Just then the door opened and Layla was stood in the door way. They braced themselves for another rant about how noisy and childish they were being, but when it didn't come, Alex and Zoe both knew she wanted to join them. Zoe shuffled over and Alex patted the space next to her, gesturing for her to sit. She came over and sat silently, taking a counter from the box as Billy laid out the board. They played the game together for a while. Billy won the first round and Alex the second, but when Billy won the third again, Layla stood and left in a huff, mumbling something about it being 'a stupid game anyway'
"What was all that about?" Billy asked packing away the game
"That, was Layla Howard's way of saying 'sorry I was a moody bitch'." Zoe told them matter of factly.
"Well at least she didn't shout again" Billy joked
"True" Tobias snorted
As Alex began to deal the cards for a game of 'black jack' the door opened once more. This time, Peter was stood in the door way with a bottle of water and two more of the pain killer pills. Due to the distraction of the games and company of her friends she hadn't noticed the prickling pain she felt in her leg.
"Thanks" she said, taking the pills with a long swig of water "those things really help"
"So they should" Peter laughed "they're some of the strongest painkillers I have with me. Anyway, where's Layla?"
"She just left." Alex explained "she came in and played a few rounds with us but I think she got annoyed when she didn't win. So she left"
"Sounds like our Layla" Peter chuckled but then sighed "I'm sorry about her...she's not really a people person, but she doesn't mean it. It will just take her a while to get settled."
"We get it mr Howard." Zoe smiled "she'll come round soon. It wouldn't be Layla if she wasn't complaining about something"
"I suppose" he retorted jokingly "anyway, have a good night"
They all returned with "goodnight" as he left.
A couple of card games and a few rounds of frustration later and the children were all yawning and ready to call it a night. Alex and Zoe had retreated to Alex's double bed on the other side of the room as Billy was already fast asleep on Zoe's mattress. Tobias lay within a pile of blankets next to Billy; also sound asleep. Now the boys were asleep and had no chance of over hearing them, Zoe questioned Alex.
"What actually happened out there?"
"It doesn't matter. We got back okay so it doesn't really matter"
"Alex. You're leg needed stitches and Peter said you were lucky you didn't damage your muscle. Of course it matters"
Alex sighed and began explaining everything from the beginning, but this time the truth. The little girl, the car alarm, the shop, the walkers.
"...We were trapped. I tried to break the window but I snagged my leg on the glass" she finished. "We both got out through the window and ran home, without looking back. When we got here, we made up some cover story and yeah... That's it"
"That's it?!" She exclaimed in a frantic whisper "Alex! You nearly died. Promise me you won't go out there again?"
"But we didn't die did we?" Alex argued with a hint of annoyance in her hushed voice "we're here, and we can all eat because of it"
"Alex promise me?" Zoe pleaded
Alex sighed "you know I can't"
Zoe rolled over in their shared bed. Even though she was only looking out for Alex, she knew alex wouldn't make a promise she couldn't keep. That wasn't who Alex was. She knew she'd have to go over the wall again. It was all in due time. Zoe was just scarred for her friends. Her family.
Before settling down, Alex reached under her bed and took out her small calendar planner. After crossing out another day, she rolled over and went to sleep. For a few hours it was like being back a week or two ago, when the world was normal. For a few hours they were just kids enjoying a sleepover. For a few hours they forgot about the loaded guns which they placed under their pillows. But that time was over and the reality was faint, distant snarl of walkers and the clattering of the fence they piled against.
It was just after midnight when Daniel decided to check on the children before he went to bed himself. He hadn't heard them for nearly an hour and expected to find them reading or gossiping quietly. He expected to have to tell them to go to their own rooms to sleep as they would still be talking. However he was shocked when he opened the door to find The girls sleeping back to back on his daughters bed and the boys sound asleep on the floor. The soft breaths filled the room and because none of them stirred, Daniel knew they had been sleeping for a while. He was in two minds whether he should wake the boys and get them to move into the other room. Despite his 'dad senses' screaming at him, he decided to let them stay. The children were friends and in a world like this, they were lucky to have each other. He didn't have to like the fact two boys were sleeping a few meters from his daughter and God- daughter, but he accepted she wasn't his little girl anymore. Especially now. In a world like this, babying his daughter was definitely the wrong way to deal with her growing up. She would have to learn; he wouldn't be around forever. Daniel wasn't stupid, he knew what it was like, so as he turned and closed the door behind him, he hoped his brave little daughter would grow to beat this world. Even after he was gone.