(Anne Marshall belongs to AquaDestinysEmbrace.)
(I DO NOT own The Walking Dead, Code Lyoko or any of the names or brands that appear in this story. But I do own my OCs)
On the front porch of the cabin, Jennifer was sitting in a chair with her Colt revolver in her hands as she kept a watchful eye out for walkers or for any of the people who went to find Rick's group. Hours earlier she swore that she could hear a single gunshot somewhere far off in the distance, but she wasn't exactly sure why it was just one shot and she certainly wasn't going to go and find out for herself.
Bored beyond all measure of belief, Jennifer sputtered her lips as she kicked her feet up on the porch railing. She cocked, un-cocked and re-cocked her silver six-shooter over and over again while looking down the sights. The story goes that this revolver had been in her family for many generations going all the way back to her great-great-great grandfather Isaac Hudson, who apparently won it from some guy in a San Antonio poker game in 1890-something. Jennifer heard that he ended up killing ten Spaniards with it as a member of the Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War, but she wasn't entirely certain if that was true or not. When she received it as an heirloom from her father on her 10th birthday, Jennifer made sure to work on restoring the handgun to a working state herself. It took a long time and a lot of effort, but she was proud of the finished product.
Sighing with sheer boredom, Jennifer gave a skilled twirl to her handgun before she set it back in her holster. She checked her wristwatch and she almost cheered when she noticed that her shift of guard duty was finally almost over. The first thing she planned to do was to just head inside, find some sort of snack to munch on, plop down on the closest bed she could find, get nice and comfy and then sleep until she was literally comatose.
She wasn't joking. She hadn't slept at all in the last two days and the only thing she wanted on earth right now was to sleep until she was very, very comatose.
However, Jennifer's plan was almost immediately changed against her will. Just before she was about to get out of her chair, Jennifer noticed some movement in the treeline. Her eyes widening, Jennifer unholstered her gun and she aimed it directly at the trees since she knew that it was most likely a walker or multiple walkers. But thankfully the first thing that came out of the woods was just Lee Everett, not a walker. Jennifer's nerves calmed down and she felt relieved as she lowered her gun and put it back in its holster once more. After Lee came Chase, and then Ulrich, but Jennifer's eyes widened when she saw who was behind the three...
Yumi, Robert, Kyra, Charles, Rick, Glenn, Andrea, Lori, Shane and Carol came out of the trees as they followed the three remaining members of the search party. Without hesitation, Jennifer bolted straight for the front door so she could head inside and tell everyone that the search teams had found Rick's group. Within seconds, the cabin group and the other Lyoko Warriors hurried outside.
Miranda, Alexandr, Rebecca, Verity and Patrick all hurried out ahead of the cabin group. Once they saw their lost friends, they all including Jennifer immediately broke out running down the front steps of the front porch to meet them. Even Patrick was hurrying at a fast speed despite the cane he was using. Yumi, Robert, Kyra and Charles all ran towards them, and soon the teens all met in a large group hug as they finally reunited. There was a lot of tears, there was a lot of smiles, and all of the Lyoko Warriors from Rick's group and the Lyoko Warriors from the cabin were overjoyed that their lost friends were still alive. It was truly a miracle.
"We looked all over the place for you guys!" Ulrich smiled at his no longer missing friends.
"We're so happy to see you guys again!" Alexandr stated with a smile to the four found Lyoko Warriors.
"We're happy to see you guys too! I can't believe you guys all made it!" Charles laughed, joyfully.
"This is miraculous! This is actually a miracle!" Yumi happily told the five Lyoko Warriors who came out of the cabin.
Within moments, Sophia cautiously walked out of the front door to see what was happening. Her eyes widened when she saw Rick and the others, but she openly began crying with joy once she noticed her mother. Carol noticed her on the porch, and she began crying too as she and Sophia hurried to reunite with each other. The mother and daughter engulfed each other in a tight hug and cried with joy and relief.
The mother and daughter were finally reunited...
Alas, the happiness of their reunion was cut short. Everyone heard some more rustling in the trees along the road leading towards the cabin, causing literally a dozen or so rifles and pistols and revolvers to be aimed in the general direction they heard the noise from. To their surprise they saw it wasn't a walker. Odd was stumbling out from the trees and he tried to walk towards the group, but he weakly collapsed down onto his hands and knees a good distance away. Ulrich, Yumi and the other Lyoko Warriors saw this and they immediately hurried over to check on him.
"Odd?!" Ulrich asked with concern about his best friend.
When the Lyoko Warriors got to Odd, they were all taken aback by shock towards his appearance. Odd was a mess... His right eye was blackened and his bottom lip was very bloody, and it looked like something had pulled out some of the hair from his scalp. Odd was missing a tooth and his rifle was who knew where, his shirt was missing, and he alarmingly had his torso covered with tons of bruises... almost as if something or someone had specifically targeted him. Luckily, they saw that Odd didn't have any bites on him.
"Jesus Christ, Odd! What the fuck happened to you?!" Miranda gasped with horror at what she was seeing.
"Odd, you look like someone attacked you!" Yumi exclaimed to her friend as if she couldn't believe it.
Odd tiredly looked up at the Lyoko Warriors who surrounded him. The last few hours were nothing less than hellish for the poor cone-haired teenager, but he was very happy and relieved to see the group again. He almost just as happy to be away from... him. Coughing for a moment while he tried to catch his breath, Odd somehow found the strength to stand back up on his two feet, albeit with a hand on his very sore ribs. Charles and Kyra tried to help him walk, but Odd politely informed them that that wasn't necessary.
The Lyoko Warriors watched as Odd silently began to walk past them and towards the cabin group, causing them to follow close behind him. The cabin group along with Rick and his people were shocked to see the teen in such a state, but many were very impressed that he was still up and about despite his injuries. As everyone watched, Odd walked until he was just a few steps away from Carlos, who was standing up on the front porch. Carlos eyed the teen and studied his wounds but he came to the conclusion that Odd didn't really need any serious medical treatment. But Odd wasn't there to ask Carlos for medical aid. He needed to tell Carlos what his attacker told him...
Odd cringed and continued holding onto his sore ribs as he looked up at Carlos. What Odd needed to say was extremely important, but at this moment he only said a mere four words to the doctor:
"We need to talk, Carlos."
Back at Hershel's farm, Jeremie sat out on the front porch with Dylan while Pete simply stood out in the yard with his rifle. The poor blond-haired teen's turtleneck still had some of Aelita's dried-up blood on it, but he used some water from one of the Greene's wells earlier so that he could at least clean up his face and his hands. It's been about three or four hours since they first arrived with Aelita and Anne, and Dylan and Jeremie were simply praying that Hershel's treatment of both girls was working. It had to work... there was simply no other option.
As if on cue the two teens heard the door open and close. They turned and saw Anne was walking out to join them, albeit now with a lot of gauze on her shoulder and with a pained expression on her face. Dylan immediately went to check up on her since he was still gravely worried about her condition.
"Woah, what're you doing out here?! You need to have Hershel help you, Anne!" Dylan stated with concern at what he was seeing.
"I- I'm okay, Dylan... Hershel said I can wait out here while he works on Aelita. I'm not bleeding as bad as I was earlier..." Anne assured her friend, cringing a bit as her shoulder still had a deep burning sensation from her wound.
Dylan was still very concerned about Anne being up on her feet after taking a bullet fragment in her shoulder, but he reluctantly nodded and he didn't try to stop her from coming outside. Anne smiled at her friend and then she went to sit on the front porch next to Jeremie while Dylan simply went to lean against the fence railing. All three of the teens and even Pete were thinking the exact same thing: The last few hours were completely fucked up.
"How's Aelita doing, Anne? Did Hershel say anything to you about that?" Dylan inquired to the bandana-clad teen.
"He was still working on getting some of the fragments out last I checked..." Anne replied with a soft shrug, cringing as another flash of pain hit her.
Dylan nodded and he continued leaning on the railing as he looked out onto the farmland that surrounded Hershel's home, and Jeremie found himself looking out at the fields as well. Hershel had some beautiful farmland, but the teens noticed something that was far more important: the land looked untouched.
The windmill, the water wells, the cattle, the crops, the barn, the fences, the solar panels, the farmhouse, the horse stable and the sheds all appeared to be pristine. Of course there was some average wear and tear that came with farm life, but the fact of the matter was that this farm appeared to be almost entirely untouched by the dead. If they could get their friends back at the cabin and if they could find their friends with Rick's group, then maybe the Lyoko Warriors could find a new home here if Hershel permitted them.
However, the two boys had only one main concern to think about at the moment: Aelita Schaeffer. They could worry about Hershel's farm possibly being a new home later when she's back in good health. The two teens along with Anne and Pete suddenly heard the front door open, and when they turned they saw Maggie was gesturing for Jeremie and Dylan to come back inside.
"Jeremie, Dylan, we need you guys." Maggie informed the teens.
Dylan and Jeremie nodded and the two boys immediately went to follow Maggie back inside the farmhouse. Dylan paused for a moment to again check on Anne to see if she was okay, but after she assured him that she would be okay he left her and hurried inside with Jeremie. The two teen boys followed close behind Maggie as they walked through the house, but to their growing horror they could hear a muffled noise as they approached the guest bedroom. Within moments they recognized the noises as screams of pure agony.
Aelita was awake.
She was awake and she was feeling every last bit of the pain in her gunshot wound...
Maggie opened the guest bedroom and she hurried inside to help her father with whatever he needed. Jeremie and Dylan cautiously walked into the room as the screams of agony grew louder since the door was opened. Inside the room they could see Hershel struggling to pull out one of the bullet fragments from Aelita, who was in so much pain that she was convulsing and thrashing around wildly as Patricia struggled to hold her down. Jeremie and Dylan were nothing short of horrified at seeing Aelita in such a state.
As Aelita kept thrashing and screaming and wailing and sobbing as loud as she possibly could, Hershel gestured for Dylan to hurry over as quickly as he could. Patricia wouldn't be able to hold this girl down for long...
"Dylan, I need you to help hold her down!" Hershel informed the teenage boy as he tried pulling out the fragment.
Although Dylan was stunned with horror at what was happening, he managed to shake himself out of his trance before he hurried over to a side of the bed. Dylan placed a hand on Aelita's blanket-covered thigh and another on her shoulder and he helped Patricia try to keep Aelita as still as possible while Hershel worked. To the poor pink-haired girl, every last movement of the medical instruments in her gunshot wound felt like a white-hot torch was being pushed deep into her body. It was hellish, it was agony, and she simply couldn't take it. She wanted it to stop. She needed it to stop...
"RRRRAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!! AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHGOOOOOOOODDDDD!!!" Aelita screamed and sobbed at the top of her lungs as Hershel tried pulling a bullet fragment out.
"Keep her still!" Hershel told his two assistants as he felt he was getting close to getting a fragment out.
Dylan began to sob about what was happening to his stepsister as he and Patricia tried to keep Aelita as still as they could. He felt so frustrated and desolated that he couldn't help his stepsister through this ordeal. Likewise, all Jeremie could really do was walk over and took Aelita's hand into his. Jeremie tried his hardest to be there for the love of his life as she went through so much pain, but to Aelita the pain was far stronger than the distraction he could offer from it.
Suddenly, Aelita let out a much-louder scream of agony as Hershel's instrument pulled the fragment a bit too hard and made the white-hot sensation feel much more intense, much to Jeremie and Dylan's growing fear and worry. Their fears began to take over... He was hurting her! He may end up killing her!
"STOP, YOU'RE KILLING HER!!!" Jeremie shouted to the farmer as his tears kept going down the sides of his face.
"Jeremie, do you want her to live?!" Hershel countered as he kept working on getting that fragment out.
Jeremie tightly gritted his teeth to prevent himself from going off on Hershel. He was furious about how he was causing her this much pain but at the same time he was completely aware that this was the only method that Hershel had to get the fragments out of Aelita, so his anger at the doctor gradually began to subside. Unfortunately, despite how angry he was, he knew that Aelita would have no choice but to deal with the pain as best she could while Hershel worked on fixing her up. Jeremie was barely holding himself together, and both the image and sounds of Aelita's suffering would haunt him for the rest of his life.
But suddenly the pink-haired teen's screams ceased, and the group noticed Aelita's body go limp. To Jeremie and Dylan's horror they saw that Aelita's eyes had closed. Hershel saw that the two boys seemed to be wondering if Aelita was dead or not, so he tried to put their minds at ease as he felt the bullet fragment beginning to come loose.
"She just passed out..." Hershel informed the two teens.
Both Jeremie and Dylan were extremely relieved that Aelita was still alive. Both Dylan and Patricia pulled away from Aelita since she was unconscious and they didn't need to hold her down anymore. Patricia went to Jeremie and she informed him that Aelita was in need of blood, so without any hesitation Jeremie allowed her to stick a needle into a vein on his right arm so she could start drawing some of the O-Positive blood that could be donated to Aelita.
As Patricia started to take some blood from Jeremie, Hershel finally pulled out the bullet fragment and studied it. It was very small and it was very warped due to the fragmentation of the bullet, but it certainly helped do a lot of damage to this poor girl. He had absolutely no idea how he was going to get the other fragments out of her if she would regain consciousness during the middle of an operation again... With a sigh, Hershel could only say one thing as he set the fragment in a surgical dish nearby.
"One down... six to go."
"...Carver. He said his name was Carver."
At the cabin, the cabin group, the Lyoko Warriors, and the people from Rick's group all gathered around the dining room table as Odd finished explaining what had happened to him. He wasn't able to find the other search party, but someone had sure as shit found him. And unfortunately, that someone was a person that the cabin group dreaded to see again. That person beat the shit out of him and questioned him over and over again about the cabin group, and eventually Odd broke and was forced to tell him whatever he wanted to know. After that, the person, who told Odd his name was 'Carver', let him free so he could go back and tell the cabin group that he was coming.
The cabin group had originally fled Tennessee just to get away from William Carver. They viewed him as more of a jackass than a psychopath, but he certainly had to be psychotic if he was willing to travel hundreds of miles to Georgia in the middle of the apocalypse and beat up a teenager just to find them. If he was trying to track them down, then he certainly had to have some guys with him as backup too...
The Lyoko Warriors, Rick, and the others from Rick's group noticed that the cabin group was stunned or deeply disturbed by everything Odd had told them. Even the normally-calm Carlos appeared to be trying to keep himself together at the moment. If Carver had truly found them, then they were certainly no longer safe at the cabin.
"And you're sure he said his name was Carver? You're absolutely sure, Odd?" Nick asked and prayed that he had somehow misheard the teen.
"Christ, Nick, you heard him! Was his description of that fucker not enough for ya?!" Luke snapped at his best friend due to the worry the thought of Carver caused him.
"Who the fuck is Carver?" Shane demanded to know since it was obvious that he was a threat.
"He's the reason we left Tennessee." Alvin explained to the former cop. "The guy was horrible to all of the people in his community, and eventually he was getting so unstable that it came to the point where we had to leave before he could do something bad to us." he further explained.
Sarah was overhearing all of this from the cracked door of her bedroom. Beginning to quietly hyperventilate from worry, Sarah shut the door and she went to hide under her bed so that evil man wouldn't get her. Clementine saw her friend was getting terrified, so she told Carlos and then she hurried to Sarah's room to try and calm her down. Carlos would go to help his daughter in a few moments, since he still needed to talk with Rick.
His group needed to evacuate the cabin, but he always believed in the age-old montra of strength in numbers. If they were to leave, then he'd much rather leave alongside Rick and his people. If the teens trusted him then that was good enough for him too.
They had to leave.
"Rick, my group cannot stay at this cabin so long as Carver and his people are hunting us. We are able to pull our own weight, and on behalf of us all I request that we combine our manpower and our groups." Carlos said to the other leader.
The Lyoko Warriors eyes widened when they heard this. They couldn't leave the cabin until Aelita, Jeremie and their search party was found! If they came back to an empty cabin then who knew what would happen! Especially since that Carver guy was lurking around the forest somewhere...
"What?! We're not leaving as long as the others are out there, Carlos!" Odd protested at the doctor's request.
"I'm not leaving Aelita and the others in the forest and neither is anyone else!" Yumi agreed with her friend.
"We are not going to abandon them." Carlos replied to the outraged teens with a nod. "If Rick allows us to join him, then we will leave them a note saying that we found Rick and both his group and ours merged together. We can wait at that highway that Rick and his people came from." he stated.
"Is Carver really so dangerous that you're just gonna bail like this?" Jennifer inquired to the doctor.
"To ensure the safety of my daughter? Absolutely." Carlos retorted to the teenage girl.
The cabin group, the Lyoko Warriors and Rick and his people all went silent. The sounds of sniffling filled the room as Clementine gently led a completely-terrified Sarah out of her room and back over towards the others, but Carlos finally walked over to them so he could try and calm her down. Carlos went down onto his knees and he took his daughter's hands into his, getting her to look at him.
"Estará bien, mi preciosa hija. Juro que estaremos bien. (It will be okay, my precious daughter. I swear that we will be fine.)" Carlos quietly swore to his little girl in his native Spanish.
"E- Está bien, papá... confiaré en ti. (A- Alright, dad... I'll trust you.)" Sarah sniffled, also in Spanish.
As Sarah began to calm down, Carlos gently gave her a hug and a kiss on the forehead before he stood back up, happy to see that she was smiling up at him again. Carlos then turned and walked back over to Rick since he wanted to hear the answer to his proposal. To Carlos's relief, Rick simply smiled at the doctor and he held out his hand.
"We could use the company, Carlos. If you and your people wanna come with us, then we'll help you stay away from Carver." Rick replied to the doctor with a nod.
A very grateful Carlos took Rick's hand and shook it. After the two separated, everyone went to work at packing up all of the supplies and weapons within the cabin. The Lyoko Warriors aside from Patrick reluctantly began to help the cabin group start packing up their belongings too. None of the teens wanted to let the other search party come back to an empty cabin, but they needed to get back to that highway Rick, Yumi, Robert, Charles, Kyra and the others were camped at. They had no idea what threat Carver was bringing with him, but they knew that to avoid bloodshed the best thing to do was to just leave.
Hopefully the other search party will get back before they have to go, or at the very least they could bump into them while on the way back to the highway...
Back at the farm, Hershel was sitting at Aelita's bedside and he was busy taking her blood pressure. It's been roughly one hour since he got one of the bullet fragments out of her body, but her condition was still not good and he was not sure how he would be able to help it improve. He couldn't operate on her without her waking up again, and he couldn't get more fragments out if she was thrashing and screaming like how she did earlier. He had to think of something...
After another couple of minutes of checking her blood pressure Hershel took off the blood pressure cuff that he had put on her left arm. Aelita was still unconscious, but at least she was still breathing.
"Her blood pressure is stable." Hershel informed the occupants of the room.
Jeremie, Dylan and Anne all breathed a huge sigh of relief at hearing this, and Maggie, Pete, Patricia and Otis were all very relieved to know that Aelita wasn't dead yet as well. Jeremie was holding himself together for the moment and he was sitting next to Aelita again, still holding her hand as he tried to be there for her. He had no idea if she could or not, but he really hoped that she could comprehend his presence. Dylan walked over to kiss Aelita on her forehead, feeling saddened to see her still unconscious as he walked back to the other side of the room.
"Chase needs to be here for her..." Dylan sighed, rubbing his exhausted eyes.
"All of our friends needs to be here. They don't even know that Aelita and I have been shot..." Anne added,
Jeremie brushed a strand of hair out of Aelita's face with the back of his hand. Despite how horrible this entire situation was, he couldn't help but admit that she looked beautiful even now. Of course he always thought she was beautiful, even during the early days of fighting against XANA, but the added sense of peacefulness she seemed to be in at the moment seemed to add to it a bit.
With a sigh, Jeremie gave Aelita a loving kiss on the lips before he let go of her hand and stood up from the chair. He felt slightly woozy due to the blood he had to give earlier, but he knew that the rest of the Lyoko Warriors needed to be here for her. If she died before they even heard she was shot, they'd be devastated... he had to find them.
"I'll find the others and I'll bring them back..." Jeremie told the others.
Everyone was surprised to hear this coming from Jeremie. For a normally-timid and shy boy, him wanting to brave the walker-filled woods to get back to the cabin was pretty unexpected. However, Hershel simply dismissed this with a simple shake of his head.
"You can't do that." Hershel informed the genius.
"Aelita and Anne has been shot! Our friends need to know about this!" Jeremie protested to the doctor.
"And Aelita is still gonna need some more blood, Jeremie. You're the only donor we have at the moment." Hershel countered with logic.
Jeremie shuffled a bit where he stood and he averted his gaze, seemingly being convinced by Hershel's statement. Aelita needed more of his blood in the near future, and he certainly wouldn't be able to make it through the walker-filled forest and back to the cabin alive. Hershel looked over at the others in the room before he gestured back over towards Jeremie.
"He can't go more than fifty feet from this bed." Hershel informed the teen and two adults.
The others all nodded in confirmation. Since Hershel told them that he needed to remove Aelita's shirt and bra to get a better medical examination of her torso, everyone began to shuffle out to give him some space. Jeremie and Dylan both walked over to her and they each gave one last kiss to Aelita's forehead before they left with the others. Hershel left the door cracked open in case he needed them.
Jeremie, Anne and Dylan walked back out onto the front porch to get some fresh air. Hershel had treated Anne's wound some more earlier and eased some of the pain that it was bringing on her shoulder, but it was still very sore and the bullet fragment was still buried in there somewhere. As Dylan and Anne sat down on the steps, Jeremie's emotions got the better of him and he stormed over to a decorative old spittoon that was sitting on the porch, angrily kicking it over and startling both Dylan and Anne.
"She's in there dying on that bed right now and none of the others know that it's happening! NONE!" Jeremie exasperated to the other two teens.
"Jeremie..." Anne tried to get his attention to try and calm him down.
"That son of a bitch Otis couldn't see a girl with PINK hair and clothes in the middle of the forest?! How fucking stupid and careless can a human being possibly be while hunting?! She was right there next to that deer! He should've been able to have seen her from a mile away!"
"Jeremie...?"
"She got shot! SHOT!!! I promised Aelita that I'd keep her safe! I promised her that she would have a long, great and happy life on earth with us after we finally got her out of Lyoko! AND I COULDN'T FULFILL ANY OF IT! AND NOW SHE MIGHT DIE!!! ALL BECAUSE OF HIM!!!"
"Hey! Einstein! Are you even listening?!"
"The vast majority of the people she cares about don't even know that her life is in danger of ending! Her other brother, the rest of the Lyoko Warriors, and even her own parents don't know! That even if Anthea and Waldo are even still alive back in France!"
"Dude, seriously, I'm trying to talk to you!"
"It should've been me who had gotten shot by Otis instead of Aelita! She has an entire life ahead of her, she has two brothers who think the world of her, and she should-"
"JEREMIE BELPOIS JUST SHUT UP FOR ONE SECOND AND LISTEN!!!"
Jeremie immediately went silent as he turned to look back at the two teens, wide eyed with shock. Dylan was also completely taken aback by how Anne got Jeremie's attention, but the bandana-clad girl simply remained silent and gave Dylan a shrug. Dylan could only blink with confusion before he turned his attention back at Jeremie.
"Uh... well, look, Jeremie, I get it." Dylan told the formerly-rambling genius. "I promise that later we'll handle telling the group about what happened. But right now you just need to focus on handling your end..."
"M- My end...?" Jeremie inquired as to the meaning of Dylan's words.
"Your end is being here for Aelita." Dylan wisely told the blond teen. "Mine is to be here for Anne. Even if Aelita doesn't need any of your blood to survive, there is still no way that I'd ever let you leave her and walk towards that forest and try to get back to the cabin by yourself. Hell, I'd break your legs if you tried!" he stated.
Jeremie, now much calmer thanks to Dylan and Anne, simply lowered his head and walked over to the porch railing, leaning against it while in deep thought. Dylan and Anne felt very bad for the poor teen so they both walked over to him, with Dylan setting a hand on Jeremie's shoulder to try and console him.
"Jeremie, if... If she died while you were gone... then you would never forgive yourself for not being there when it happened. You need to stay, dude... You need to hold your own, and the only thing you need to worry about is that girl you love in there." Dylan stated with a sad tone.
"Exactly... Jeremie, she needs you more than you realize. Just being there for her is enough. Eventually someone will head out, find the others, tell them what happened and then lead them back to this farm." Anne assured the genius.
The blond teen glanced back at his friends and after a few silent moments he finally sighed and nodded in resignation. They were completely right. He had to stay and be right there at Aelita's side no matter if she survives or not. He owed her that.
The teens were taken out of their discussion by Pete, who had opened the front door to let them know that Hershel needed to speak with them. The three proceeded to follow Pete back inside and they went to wait in the living room for Hershel. They heard the door of the guest bedroom open and shut, and within moments the elderly farmer walked into the room to speak with them.
"She's out of danger... at least for the moment. But I need to remove those remaining fragments..." Hershel informed the teens.
"How? We all saw what happened last time you tried that." Dylan stated in reply.
"I know. And that was the shallowest one... I need to go deeper to get the others." Hershel told the group with a grave tone.
Dylan, Jeremie and Anne's eyes all widened. If Aelita reacted the way she did when it came to the shallowest fragment being removed, then there's simply no way that Hershel would be able to get the deeper ones out of her or the one which was still in Anne's shoulder.
"Oh my god..." Jeremie whispered with horror.
"There's more." Hershel sighed. "Aelita's belly is distended and her pressure is dropping, which means that there's internal bleeding." he informed.
Jeremie was so disturbed and distraught about Aelita's condition that he shakily went to sit down in the chair next to her bed, his face pale from worry. Jeremie knew that internal bleeding was a very serious threat to a person's life, but it was even more dangerous now that there was no hospitals and trained surgeons left to help her. Dylan and Anne knew that as well and they were just as worried as Jeremie was.
"A fragment must have nicked one of her blood vessels." Hershel further explained. "I have to open Aelita up, find the bleeder, and stitch it. And she can't move while I'm in there, I mean at all... If she reacts the same as before, I'll sever an artery and she'll be dead in minutes..." he said.
A silence settled upon the three teens as they tried to comprehend what Hershel was telling them. Pete, Maggie, Patricia and Otis all came into the room as this happened and they each kept a respectful distance from the teens. Dylan and Jeremie couldn't even look at Otis due to how disgusted they felt by his presence.
"To even try this I have to put her under. But if I do that then she won't be able to breath on her own. Same bad results... It'll be the same way with Anne when I work on getting her fragment out too." Hershel explained.
"So what would it take to be able to put Aelita and Anne under and be operate on them as well?" Jeremie inquired.
Otis finally walked a few steps to join the conversation. Jeremie and Dylan glared at him with anger as he approached, but Otis knew of a way that could help solve the problem of operating on Aelita and Anne.
"You'll need a pair of respirators..." Otis stated to the teens and the doctor.
Dylan was still pissed at Otis about the accident but he didn't really care if he joined in on the conversation or not. Jeremie, however, continued glaring at the hunter for a few extra moments. He knew Otis was remorseful about the whole ordeal but Jeremie's anger simply couldn't be ignored. His girlfriend's life may end because of that guy! However, if Otis truly wished to help atone for the accident he caused, then Jeremie wasn't going to stop him.
"...what else do you need, Hershel?" Jeremie frowned, reluctantly allowing the hunter to join the discussion.
"The tubes that go with it. Extra surgical supplies, drapes, sutures..." Hershel added to the list of the things he needed.
"If you have all of these things then you can save Aelita's life...?" Anne asked the doctor.
"If I had all of that then I could try..." Hershel stated back to the wounded teen.
Maggie immediately went to write down a list of the medical supplies and equipment that she knew was needed, and if her father had some more stuff that was needed for the surgery that she didn't know about then she'd give him the list and he could fill out the rest. As she found a pen and paper and began writing down items, Otis kept trying to think on where exactly they could find a pair of respirators and whatever else was needed.
"The nearest hospital went up in flames a month ago..." Otis stated, deep in thought before his eyes suddenly widened with realization. "The high school..."
"That's what I was thinking..." Hershel replied before he looked at the teens. "They set up a FEMA shelter there. They would have everything we need." the farmer informed.
"Place was overrun last time I saw it. You couldn't get near it... maybe it's better by now?" Otis theorized to the others.
"We'll worry about the semantics of this later." Pete interjected. "If I can find the way back to the cabin then I can get Carlos and whatever med supplies are still left, and then I could get him back here to help Hershel if need be." he suggested.
"If your man's got medical training then I won't refuse the help..." Hershel replied with a nod.
Pete nodded and he went out of the room to get his National Guard rifle which he had left laying against the hall outside of the guest bedroom. Maggie finished writing the list and she handed it to her father so he could look it over and add anything else that he needed, and then Maggie walked over to the three teens to speak with them.
"Where exactly are your friends at?" Maggie inquired to the young teens.
"They're in a cabin deep in the woods somewhere. I think it's southeast of here, but I don't know how far." Dylan replied to the farmer's daughter.
"I'll ask Pete to take a horse and come with me then." Maggie told the teens. "We'll head out and find your farm, and we'll tell your people about what's going on. We'll find that 'Carlos' guy as well." she explained.
The teens all smiled at Maggie when they heard that. Maggie smiled back at the teens and then she walked out of the room to get the supplies she needed to go out with Pete. Mainly she just needed her hat, her horse, her bag and a knife. She didn't use a gun since her father wouldn't allow it. She was probably also going to take her stepbrother's old baseball bat with her though, just so she could feel a little more safe.
Maggie went to find Pete and let him know that she would help him find the cabin again. As she did that, Dylan and Anne continued to talk to Hershel while Jeremie walked back into the guest bedroom. He sat back down in the chair next to Aelita's bed and he took her hand into his once more, sighing as he leaned his head back and tiredly shut his eyes.
He hoped Maggie and Pete would be able to find the group...