Unexpected Visitors

Sitting on the porch in one of the rocking chairs next to Maggie, I smiled as she said something about missing talking to her girlfriends about boys and shopping. Looking to her, I said, "Well you've got me. Next time you go on a run, take me with you. These stitches have to come out sometime and I'm pretty sure I'll want to be out doing something by then. We just have to let your dad know. I would love to have a few pairs of nice underwear, even though there's no one to see them." Maggie laughed, "You and me both, Ava. Even though there aren't any guys around here, it just feels nice to wear something sexy. Who knows, maybe your Daryl will magically appear and you two will have the most romantic night of your life!"

I let out a snort, "Pfftt! He's probably stopped looking for me. His jackass of a brother has probably convinced him that I'm dead. Or worse, he's completely forgotten about me." We sat there for a while, just enjoying the breeze and the quiet before my eyes caught sight of something moving in the distance. I sat up as straight as I could with the stitches still in my side, a sharp gasp escaping my lips, "Maggie, what's that?" She stood up, squinting, "I dunno. Whatever it is, it's moving fast. Hand me the binoculars." I grabbed them and stood up next to her, passing them to her.

Lifting them up to her eyes, she let out a gasp, "It's a guy. He's holding a boy and there's blood all over his shirt." Lowering the lenses from her eyes and passing them to me, she turned and ran inside calling out for her dad. Looking through the lens, I saw the man, dressed in what looked like a sheriff's outfit, stop for a minute, adjusting his hold on the boy before starting forward again.

As he made his way to the porch, Hershel came out of the house and hollered, "Was he bit?" The man shook his head, cradling the boy closer as he panted out an answer, "Shot. By your man." Patricia spoke up in disbelief, "Otis?" The man spoke as Hershel met him as the foot of the stairs, "He said to find Hershel. Is that you?' Hershel nodded as the man asked for help. It was then that Hershel started giving out commands, "Patricia, I need my full kit. Maggie and Ava, painkillers, coagulates; grab everything." Maggie nodded as she grabbed me by the arm and pulled with her.

As we went in the other room to grab the medical supplies, I could still hear Hershel giving orders. When we brought everything that was needed into the spare room, the man was pressing a pillowcase to the boy's wound. I grabbed the bag of saline so Hershel could start an I.V. drip. We were quiet for a moment before Hershel announced that he found a faint heartbeat. I let out a soft sigh, knowing that for now, Hershel could possibly save this boy's life. I mean, if he saved mine, he sure as hell could save the boy's. When Maggie gave her father the I.V., I put my hand on the man's elbow asking him for his name, "Rick. Rick, my name's Rick." I gave him a small smile, "Okay, Rick, Hershel is going to do everything he can. We just have to give him some room." Gently pulling on his elbow, I steered him into the foyer. When we walked into the hall, Rick looked out of the window to see two men running towards the house. One of the men was Otis but the other man was, I'm guessing, part of Rick's group. Rick turned away from me and made his way outside. I shrugged my shoulders and went into the kitchen to prepare some water to boil whenever it's needed.

Later, I was called into the guest room to help with Hershel with the boy, whose name we were told was Carl. I grabbed some gloves and slid them on, putting my hand on the boy's chest as Hershel began to look through the wound for fragments of the bullet. As Carl started to react to the procedure, Hershel told Maggie to get Carl's father so we could get his blood which was the same type as his son's.

As Maggie led the men into the room, Carl started thrashing more and calling out for his father. Hershel told the other man, Shane, to hold Carl so I could prep Rick to draw blood. As I wiped the crook of Rick's elbow and got the needle ready to pierce his skin, Carl let out a scream to which Rick yelled back, "Stop! You're killing him!" I grabbed his arm before he pull away from me as Hershel asked, "Rick, do you want him to live?" I looked at Rick as he stared at his son, "He needs blood Rick and you're the only way we can give it to him. So do you want your son to see another day or not?"

He was quiet for a few seconds before he turned back to me, his free hand moving to grip my shoulder, hard. I held his other arm, tapping at his veins to get them to rise. Finding one, I pierced it with the needle causing Rick to let out a small grunt. I held the needle in place with my thumb, as I grabbed some tape. All of a sudden the room was quiet. We all looked to Carl as Shane sat up, wondering what had happened. As we all looked to Hershel for the answer, he said as he fished a piece of the bullet out, "He just passed out." Dropping the shattered piece of bullet into a can, Hershel let out a breath, "One down, five more to go."

Patricia then came over and connected Rick to a makeshift blood transfer and had him sit down in a chair. I grabbed all of the instruments and made my way to the kitchen as Hershel bound the wound loosely. Dumping the tools into the pot of boiling water, I took my gloves off and threw them away. I poured Rick a glass of orange juice and grabbed a few cookies before going into the foyer. Standing next to Rick, I handed him the glass and the cookies, telling him to eat and drink slowly. I sat down next to Maggie as Shane and Rick continued their conversation about how Lori needed to be there and how she needs to know that her son has been shot. Shane finally convinced Rick that he needed to be there for Carl because he would never forgive himself if something bad happened.

Breaking up the conversation, Hershel stepped out of our makeshift emergency room saying, "He's out of danger for the moment. But I need to remove those remaining fragments. That first one was the shallowest one and I need to go deeper to get the others." Shane let out a sigh before Hershel continued, "There's more. His belly is distended. His blood pressure is dropping which signals that there's internal bleeding. A fragment must've nicked one of the blood vessels. I'm going to have to open him up to find the vein and stitch it up. I have to put him under so he won't be able to move at all. To do that, I'm going to need instruments that I don't have." Otis stepped forward and said, "There's a FEMA shelter at the high school that has all kinds of things that you'll need."

Shane looked at him, "Give me a list and I'll go get it." Otis shook his head, "No, I'll go. I'm the one that got the boy into this mess so I'm going to help get him out of it." I nodded, "How about I go with both of you? I was in my second year of nursing school when all of this happened so I can help you look for everything you need." Hershel spoke up, "No. Ava, you need to stay here. If that school is overrun, you won't be able to run very quickly because you might tear your stitches out. Plus, I need you here to help with the boy." I let out an annoyed sigh and nodded, muttering, "I'll go make that list."

- Daryl's POV -
"We'll lose the light before too long. I'm thinkin' we should call it." I look towards our small group, knowing that we're all pretty tired and need a rest. "We'll pick it up again tomorrow?" Carol asked. Lori nodded and said that we'll find Sophia tomorrow. I hope so. I'm just tired of this whining. We better find her tomorrow 'cause there ain't no way I'm losing anybody again. I whistle and lead the way back towards the road.

"How much farther?" Lori spoke up. Damn, I swear if she don't shut up, "Not much farther. Maybe a hundred yards, as the crow flies." We keep walking until a scream broke our silence. Running towards the sound, we found Andrea on the ground, crawling away from one ugly looking walker. I grabbed an arrow and set it in my bow, taking aim before getting ready to shoot. But before I could even shoot, something rode past me and bashed a bat into the bastard's chest. Freezing in our spots, we could see that there was a random girl on a horse.

"Lori? Lori Grimes?" We all looked to Lori as the girl continued, "Rick sent me. There's been an accident. Carl's been shot." Without one more word coming out of that girl's mouth, Lori is already climbing up on the back of the horse. I reached out to stop Lori, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. We don't know this girl! 'Ya can't get on that horse!" Before she could turn the horse around, she mentioned that Rick had told her about the rest of the group on the highway, "Backtrack to Fairburn Road, two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailbox with the name Greene." And with that she rode off into the woods.

We were quiet for a minute before the walker that the girl had knocked down started to sit up. I aimed at it and shot my arrow through its head, "Shut up."

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