Rick, T-Dog, Maggie, Glenn, and Dixon cleared out one of the cell blocks later that day.
"We can sleep in the cells." Rick explained. No one looked too pleased with that, but what else was there to do?
"I ain't sleepin' in no cage." Dixon said. "I'll take the perch."
"Take the perch then, Dixon. It's the perfect place to string up your walker ears." I told him. He glared at me. I smiled back and turned away. I looked at the two floors of cells and decided to take the one on the second floor all the way to the right. It was out of the way and I know if I had a nightmare, I wouldn't bother anyone. I know I've been bothering people, and I didn't mean to, I can't control my dreams, but they've gotten progressively worse. At least if I get wracked with insomnia again, like I have been few time over the last eight months, then I can do stuff in my cell and not bother anyone.
I headed up the stairs and dropped my bag on the bottom bunk. "Call it!" I called out.
"Why do you want that one?" Beth asked. I walked over to the railing and looked down.
"Because I want it." I replied. "It's far away from you because I hate you." Beth laughed and turned toward one of the cells on the ground floor.
"Once everyone's settled in, we should go find the infirmary." Rick stated. There wasn't much to settle, but everyone claimed a cell and put down their meager belongings. Rick made me stay behind this time, too. It was like he didn't remember that I killed seven walkers all by my lonesome just yesterday. I was really trying to prove to everyone that I was useful. I mean, I went on runs with Glenn all the time. We did it so often that we were in sync with each other. But I wanted to do more than that.
Hershel had shown me how to shoot and was teaching me a few things about the more common injuries we were probably going to sustain, like sprained wrists and ankles. I wanted to learn how to hunt and track, too, but only Dixon knew how to do that and like hell he was going to teach me.
So all I was good for was going on runs and making sure Glenn got back to Maggie, wrapping up the occasional sprained ankle, and watching Carl.
I watched Carl a lot after he shot walker-Shane. I was afraid it had changed him. And I was right.
Glenn, Maggie, Rick, T-Dog, Dixon, and Hershel went off to clear a way and find the cafeteria. Lori was due any day now, but Hershel was confident that she wasn't going to have the baby today, so Rick prioritized and decided that they needed to find the cafeteria first.
Rick handed Carl a set of keys, Dixon had the other set, and Carl locked the cell block gate behind them as they headed off. There were a couple of picnic tables on the ground floor and I walked down the stairs and sat down. Carl came over and sat across from me. He put the gun on the table and pulled out a deck of cards.
"New rule." I stated. "No weapons on the table." Carl looked at me an sighed. He pulled the gun off the table and put it on the seat next to him. "Thank you, Carl." He was really excited about having the gun, I could tell. He was excited and happy and proud that his dad trusted him enough to carry one and to help clear out houses during the winter.
Carl dealt the deck of cards, I had found it on a run with Glenn once, and we started playing Egyptian Rat. An hour and about thirty-something games later, I had won all but two of them, we heard yelling. I gathered up the cards and Carl took up his gun and ran to the gate.
"It's Hershel!" Rick yelled. "Carl open the gate." Carl unlocked the gate and pulled it open. Rick wheeled in a table with Hershel passed out on top.
"What happened?" I cried. Hershel was missing the lower part of his right leg and it was bleeding profusely.
"He got bit." Rick said, wheeling Hershel into one of the cells. Carol, Lori, Maggie, and Rick carefully but Hershel on the bottom bunk. Carol set to work trying to do what she could with Hershel's leg. I looked around and noticed Dixon still in the waiting area outside the cell block itself. I looked where he was looking and saw others.
"Who are they?" I asked.
"Survivors. They were in the cafeteria." Rick said. He left Hershel and joined Dixon.
"Mel, could you go get some towels, please?" Lori asked. I ran around and found as many towels and sheets and stuff that I could, just in case. Carol did what she could with Hershel's leg but...
"We can't do much. If we try to burn the end to stop the bleeding, that could send him into shock. We're just going to have to keep the wound from getting infected. It should stop bleeding on its own."
"Is he going to die?" Beth started crying.
"No. No he's not, sweetie, your father's going to be fine." Lori told her. I put my arm around Beth's shoulder and led her away. We sat down on one of the picnic tables and I let her cry.
She wiped her tears away after a few minutes and then got up and walked away.
"Hey." Carl nudged my shoulder. "Will you come with me somewhere?"
I glared at him. "The last time you asked me on an adventure, we almost died."
"We won't almost die this time, but Hershel might."
I stared at Carl. "You want to find the infirmary." It wasn't a question.
"Yeah. If we don't Hershel might die."
"You've got to be kidding me."
"I'm not. Do you still have that gun Dad gave you yesterday?"
Of course I still had the gun, I made a point of not returning it. "I mean, yeah, but..."
"No, c'mon." Carl looked at me earnestly. I sighed. Why did I always go against my intuition when it came to Carl? I mean, I even took the blame for him with Dixon's gun after the farm and let Lori yell at me even though looking for Randall was Carl's idea.
Carl smiled at me and together we went off to look for the infirmary.
We found a duffle bag and filled it with as much as we could. Bandages, antiseptic, antibiotics. Finding the infirmary was easy, it actually wasn't too far away from C-Block, which is where we were staying. Getting back to C-Block was a different story.
I guess we had made more noise than we thought. Two walkers met us in one of the hallways. Carl shot one and I, arguably being the smartest person in the relationship, had brought a knife and stabbed the second walker in the head. Luckily, Carl's gun had a silencer on it.
The rest of the way back was uneventful. Carl ran into the cell where Hershel lay maybe dying and handed Carol the duffle bag.
"Where did you get this?" Lori asked.
"The infirmary. Don't worry, Mel went with me." Lori looked at me. I had made my way to the door.
"Again? You did this again?" Lori asked me.
"It was my idea." Carl protested. "It's not a big deal, Mom. I can handle myself, and so can Mel."
"You realize he's just a child, right?" Lori spat. "You should have said no, between the two of you, you are the adult."
"Thanks." I said flatly.
"No, I meant-" Lori started.
"I know what you meant." I walked away. I didn't much care for Lori. She was selfish. Sleeping with Shane and Rick. Having Carl and the baby and then having the nerve to say she's had it just as rough as the rest of us? I don't think so.
I stayed with Beth. I even taught her how to play Egyptian Rat to help her forget about Hershel.
"You're worse than Carl!" I laughed. "At least he won by now." Beth tried to laugh, but just couldn't manage it. I understood. Her father might be dying.
There was a commotion in the other cell and Maggie started screaming. Beth and I jumped up and ran next door. Maggie was bent over Hershel and Hershel's arm was wrapped around her head. Beth pulled on Maggie while I pulled on Hershel's arm. Hershel released Maggie and the two girls stumbled backward and I let go of his arm. Lori and Glenn were just inside the door, watching with terrified faces. Rick had handcuffed Hershel to the bunk bed just in case he didn't pull through and he woke up as... well, not himself.
Hershel took a deep breath and looked at all of us in turn. His gaze lingered on Maggie and Beth before he shut his eyes and fell asleep.
"He's going to be fine." I stated after a minute. "He's just going to fall over a bunch of times."
Beth finally laughed, and Maggie joined her.
Author's Note: This chapter is sort of boring. I wasn't really sure what to do and wasn't too inspired but I got through it. I'll try to make up for that and post another chapter later today.