Blaszczu2500- The attack with Oberson and The Governor is going to be a big one, and there's no telling what will happen when they get there.
Guest- Thanks, i'm glad you like it!
Whitetiger789- Glad you enjoyed it!
Thedarkpokemaster- Martinez has a long road of recovery ahead of him, a point blank shot from Bruce is nothing to sneeze at.
Darkfire12200- I've thought a lot about who I want to go out when it comes to Negan and I have a few candidates in mind now that Glenn is gone, and Kenny is obviously a likely choice if he is still alive by that point, but who knows who it'll be. Also, not to worry, I've already figured out how I'm going to be working in the plot points of season one into the post prison arc, and don't worry I think I've got it worked out so it's pretty seamless.
Supersonicheros- Maggie is going to be taking center stage very soon as there is a lot going on for her, and right now none of it's good.
Victor- Based of the choices I did have an idea that Billy was going to be shot without Michonne's presence as he would take the risk and without Michonne there to make a decisive and abrupt attack on the men, it left Billy out in the open. So yes, I decided it'd happen based off a few character based decisions.
Gooffy- Oh, I'd be happy to hear what you think is going to happen next! It's always fun for me to see if people do know where the story is heading or what they are thinking in general haha.
Rodan1920- Ah damn, you got me, I let you down!
Bluntwave- Things are being shaken up, and when the war does finally break out I want people to be more nervous and curious as to how things are going to go.
Don 77- The Negan kill is far off for sure, but trust me, I've been giving it a ton of thought!
Kevinrock8899- Ben's future is definitely not set in stone since in my original version he died off screen before they even got to the prison, so anything could happen!
Enjoy
Chapter 32: Life Out Of Death
Ben squeezed his eyes shut tight and braced himself for the end, a deeply painful...but overall deserved end. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry," Ben whispered one final time. Then the world lit up around him, bright lights illuminated him and even pierced his closed eyes. He squinted them open, wondering if he was about to see the gates of heaven yet only Tyreese and Andrea came running from the inside of the RV, "W-What?"
"Ben! Jesus Christ, what are you doing out here?!" Tyreese exclaimed as he charged forward, kicking down a walker and stomping on it's skull. He reached out and pulled the teenager to his feet while Andrea fired off a few quick shots at the remaining walkers, "Ben, focus, what the hell are you doing out here, huh?" Tyreese asked again, forcing the teen to look at him,
"I...I fucked up Tyreese, I fucked up again, I needed to get the gas from the cars and I fucked up," Ben began to whimper while hanging his head,
"Ben, it's okay, we have gas, we can take it inside. It's going to be okay, now come get up, we need to get inside and to the doctor," Andrea added on while glancing back to the truck, "We've got wounded,"
"No, Andrea, you don't understand, I fucked up bad. I...D-Dale...he-" Ben fearfully began to explain before screaming out and falling back to the ground as a hand wrapped around his ankle,
Looking down at the ground with guns drawn Tyreese and Andrea found Dale with a small cut on his head and a nearly stripped of all flesh ankle. "Get me inside, I'm fucking dying here," Dale groaned as Andrea's eyes instantly started to well up,
"W-What happened?" Andrea weakly asked, unable to look away from Dale's ankle,
"Woke up to one of them gnawing on my leg," Dale admitted to the younger girl, unable to look her in the eye,
"Oh Dale, oh god, oh no...we need to get inside now!" Andrea exclaimed while kneeling down and grabbing the elder with Tyreese's help.
Meanwhile back inside the prison Lori was laying down, dripping in sweat, clutching Rick's hand with each push. "That's it , push!" Stevens ushered, "The heads nearly out!" Lori let out another loud scream and pushed hard, "Good, good, the head is clear, just one more push, come now, just one more!"
"Come on, honey, you can do it!" Rick exclaimed as he cupped her right hand with both hands,
"That's it, Lori, here it comes!" Hershel widely smiled as he watched as Doctor Stevens gently pulled the tiny human life from Lori and into his arms. For a moment everyone held their breaths as Doctor Steven's stared at the small child,
"Rick…" Stevens softly said while looking up. Rick's stomach fell and his eyes went wide but all worry melted away in an instant as Stevens weathered lips curled into a smile, "Would you like to cut the cord of your new daughter?"
Rick with tears of joy in his eye walked over and took a pair of scissors out of Hershel's hand. With a quick snip, and a moment of wrapping the little girl in a blanket, Lori was finally able to hold her child. "She's perfect...just perfect," Lori whispered as Rick moved to her side, sharing in the moment.
Just then the infirmary doors bursted open, Andrea rushed in with the rest of the scavenging group, "Help, Doctor Stevens, please help us!" Andrea wailed causing the doctor to whirl around,
"Good lord, what's happened?!" Stevens exclaimed as he watched as the group first laid down Dale in a bed, the elder's leg still pumping out thick streams of blood from the remains of his ankle, followed by Martinez who was pale, unconscious, and blood soaked from a bullet wound in his stomach. Then finally, to the horror of Hershel, Billy. The young teen's eyes were closed, a wound similar to a ravine ran along the right side of his skull.
"Billy!" Hershel howled out and rushed to his son's side, "Oh my god, what happened?! What the fuck did you let happen to him Tyreese?!"
"Hershel-" Tyreese attempted to speak though the farmer continued to yell while holding his sons limp hand,
"My boy! My last boy! You let this happen to him! You got him fucking killed!" Hershel seethed,
"Hershel, he's not fucking dead!" Molly roughly screamed out stopping the farmers babbling cries dead,
"What happened?" Stevens asked, attempting to gain control while he retrieved a fresh pair of gloves,
"Dale was bitten, please help him!" Andrea exclaimed,
"Bitten? A bit victim, we aren't able to do anything with that," Alice thought aloud only gaining daggers from Andrea's crying eyes,
"And to Martinez and Billy?" Stevens quickly continued, assessing the three men,
"Martinez took a rifle round to the stomach, and Billy...one to the head," Tyreese reluctantly explained, feeling both Hershel and Rick staring at him with hard eyes,
"Billy lives?" Stevens asked once more for clarification,
"Breathing is shallow as all hell, and he hasn't woken up but yeah he's alive," Lee replied as the doctor moved to his side,
"Hershel, are you still capable? Tell me right now, I need to know, lives depend on it," Stevens sharply asked the veterinarian,
Hershel swallowed hard, prying his eyes away from the sight of his wounded son, "Y-Yes...yes, what do you need?" He said as firmly as he could,
"Martinez needs you right now, you're the only other person here who knows how to take out a bullet and close them up properly, please, help him now," Stevens replied causing Hershel to nod and walk to the next bed over,
"What about Dale?!" Andrea screamed out,
"Alice! Do what you can for him!" Stevens called back, focusing on inspecting Billy's head wound, "I asked Benjamin to keep the generators running, do any of you know if-"
"He went down there with Axel to fill them up now, they got it covered," Lee explained as he headed towards Dale's bed, "Alice, can you save him?"
"I-I…can make him comfortable? It's a bite Lee, what can any of us do?" Alice replied, her eyes wide a bewildered,
"You can save his life!" Andrea screamed back, "Cut off his leg before the infection has time to spread!"
"What? Are you insane?" Alice retorted,
"She's not, we had another member who got bitten, we took his leg off and he survived, we got lucky doing it without a real doctor last time but you two can do it right!" Lee reassured the blonde woman who gulped as she walked over and picked up a handsaw,
"I...I don't know if I can do this," Alice whispered under her breath while cupping her free hands over her eyes,
"Then let me," Lee said while taking the saw from Alice's hand and moving to Dale's bedside, "Dale...you ready for this?"
Dale panted hard and seethed through his teeth while nodding, "J-Just do it,"
Lee put the blade of the saw down just under Dale's knee and began to saw, the elder let out growling screams, his back molars cracked as his jaw locked and just as Lee reached halfway, Dale fell back limp on the bed. Lee continued to saw as quickly as he could, severing the tainted leg from the rest of Dale before finally stepping away, looking at Alice with specks of blood on his face and chest, "All yours…" Lee said under his breath, not looking back as he began to shuffle towards the exit, not able to be around the chaos any longer. However, the prisoner paused as his eye caught sight of Rick, Lori, and a new baby in a bed across from the others, with a small smile he nodded at the trio, "Congratulations,"
Rick returned the nod and watched as Lee left the room before looking to Lori, "God, this world...this fucked up world," He muttered under his breath,
Lori silently nodded in agreement before letting out a smile, "I think we should call her Judith,"
Hours passed by and before anyone knew it the sun was starting to rise once more. Hershel, and Maggie had found themselves held up inside the infirmary as Doctor Stevens worked on Billy. The youngest Greene was still under intense watch as the doctor had only just finished working on him at sun rise. Martinez and Dale, on the other hand, had been treated to the best of Alice and Hershel's abilities, unfortunately now it was out of everyone's hands. They could only hope they'd eventually pull through and wake up.
With Rick and Lori focusing solely on their new member of their family, Andrea staying at Dale's side, and Molly almost disappearing since the scavenging team returned, the prison was nearly silent. While Chuck and Patricia pulled the duty of watching the children, Tyreese gathered a few others to help unload what they had gotten from the scavenging run. The former NFL linemen made sure that Ben was joining him, he knew he couldn't just talk to the teenager about what happened with Dale, but he didn't want him sitting alone with those thoughts all the same.
With Tyreese, Ben, Julie, Lee, Carly, Mark, and Doug, the group was making quick work of offloading all their freshly gained supplies, "It's almost a wonder why we all put in that effort to make that farm," Doug joked lightly, "With all the cans we still have in the cafeteria, and now these as well, we're going to be fine for at least a year, maybe even two! Of course that's assuming we're all eating three meals a day, and if we factor in the fresh produce that could of course last even longer,"
Carly let out a short laugh, "That's exactly the point though Doug, we make the cans last with fresh produce. If we're lucky we only have to eat them during the winter months,"
"And I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to some fresh tomatoes" Lee added on,
"Maybe we could even start a grove from apples and oranges," Julie added on, looking over to Ben with a smile, though hers faded as she saw her boyfriend merely staring at the box in his hand as he lugged it towards the offload pile,
"Hell of a fucking night last night, huh," Mark muttered, "I just feel like this is all my fault. If I didn't have us stop then Billy and Martinez would be fine, and we would have been back sooner with our fuel," The short haired man lowly continued,
"Don't be like that, what happened with an accident and the only ones who hold any fault is those pricks who shot Billy and Martinez in the first place," Tyreese swiftly interjected,
"Exactly, you can't blame yourself for what others did Mark," Carly added on,
"Has anyone heard anything about them yet?" Lee asked, "I sure hope they'll all pull through, Hershel and Maggie have been through enough...and Andrea with Dale,"
"I had run in to check up on them, Stevens is monitoring them with Alice constantly, they're all still sleeping. I don't think Hershel has slept a minute since Billy got back," Julie replied,
"Gosh, I feel so bad for them, I can hardly imagine what it must be like to be sitting next to a loved one in such a state," Doug wholeheartedly added on,
"Yeah," Ben dejectedly agreed.
Meanwhile inside the cell block Carl, Duck, Rick, and Kenny were gathered inside a cell a few down from Lori. On the floor in a million scattered pieces was a crib just waiting to be put together, "Right...course they couldn't have just made it in four pieces that'd snap together...that'd be too easy," Kenny muttered while running his hand along his chin,
"I'm just grateful Lee decided to pick us up one at all," Rick chuckled as he sat down on the floor next to Carl grabbing a piece and inspecting it,
"When do I get to meet it?" Carl asked with a tilt of his head,
"It's a her, Carl, I told you, you can't call her an "it" she has a name. You can call her The Baby or Judith, but not it," Rick swiftly corrected his son,
"Judith," Carl repeated, the name very foreign to the young boy,
"That's what your mom wanted to name your sister, so yes, that's here name," Rick nodded,
"Where'd she pull that out from?" Kenny asked with a raised brow,
"I believe that was Carl's preschool teacher's name," Rick replied with a short chuckle, "If she likes it and makes her happy, I'm all for it,"
"Guess it's more original than Lori Junior, huh?" Kenny smirked while reaching his hand out and rustling Duck's hair, "You making any progress?" He asked his son who shook his head and pouted in confusion,
"When can we meet her?" Carl jumped back in,
"As soon as she and your mother have finished resting, they are very tired. In the meantime, hopefully us four can get this thing put together. Kenny, want to hand me that rod there?" Rick asked causing the southern man to pass the rod over,
"Couldn't we just look at the directions?" Duck asked while Carl nodded in agreement,
"Hell with that, we're four smart guys, we can figure this out right quick, and if we can't. I'm sure I can scrounge up a hammer and nails," Kenny said with a rare, short laugh,
"Exactly, that's half the fun, something you boys are about to learn," Rick added on with a grin.
A few hours passed by in the prison and Doctor Stevens finally left Billy's bedside, the elder doctor cleaned off his glasses and put them back over his tired eyes as he approached Hershel and Maggie, "Doctor, please, tell me what's going on? Is my son alright?"
"Is my little brother going to be okay?" Maggie almost whimpered,
Doctor Stevens let out a long slow exhale and cleared his throat, "Yes, and no," He cryptically began, "Your son was shot in the head, the bullet dug through the side of his skull, taking out much of the bone along its path. It is no less than a miracle that he wasn't killed instantly, if the bullet was only millimeters more to the right he'd have died."
"So, does that mean he's okay?" Hershel gulped,
Doctor Stevens slowly shook his head, "I was able to remove the bone fragments left behind and bandage his wound, but with the equipment we have here, there is no way to tell if he has any brain damage until he wakes up," The doctor continued to explain, "Which leads to the unfortunate news I have to give you, there is no telling if, or when, Billy will wake up,"
"What do you mean?!" Maggie exclaimed in horror,
"With head trauma, and one as serious as this, the body often shuts down. Right now he's slipped into a coma, he may come out of it today, tomorrow...next week, next month...or even, next year. But the sad truth is, there is a chance he may next wake up," Stevens explained causing Hershel to sink low in his chair and Maggie to jump to her feet rushing out of the room. "I'm terribly sorry, Hershel,"
"Thank you...I, never caught your first name," Hershel calmly replied,
"It's, um, John," Stevens replied,
"Thank you, John, now please, could you leave me with my son for awhile?" Hershel asked while leaning forward, cupping his hands and lowing his head in prayer,
"Of course, if you need anything don't hesitate to ask," Stevens finished as he headed towards Alice. The blonde woman was midway through changing Martinez's IV, "How's he looking?"
"A bit better since last night, I'm just concerned if he needs blood," Alice replied before glancing over his shoulder towards Hershel, "And them?"
"About as you'd expect," Stevens replied with a yawn, "Do you think you'll be able to hold things down here for a while while taking a short rest? I'll just take one on the cot in here if you need me for anything,"
"Of course, and I know Doug said he'd come down later as well to help out," Alice added on causing the Doctor to nod while heading down a few beds and climbing onto one, laying back and nearly instantly passing out.
As Alice finished her check up on Martinez she moved to Dale where Andrea watched her intently as she looked him over, "How is he?" Andrea asked after a few moments,
"Heart is fine, breathing is steady, his color looks good and no fever. Andrea, I think he's fine, he's just resting right now. It looks like everything is going to be okay," Alice replied in a hopeful tone,
"So...I'm still alive?" Dale's weak voice suddenly asked causing the girls to slightly jump,
"Dale, oh jeez, I'm very sorry, I didn't mean to wake you, please don't try to move right now," Alice quickly said as the elder looked to Andrea who lowered her head, not reacting or saying a word,
"It's alright, you're just doing your job. I think I rested enough though, but I feel...I feel okay," Dale said with a grin,
"Let me just...leave you two alone," Alice softly said while leaving the duo,
"Andrea?" Dale gently said while reaching out for her hand, "It's okay honey, I feel fine. I'm going to be okay, don't sit there worrying about me."
"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Andrea suddenly screamed out with tears in her eyes, "You're an old man goddamnit! You're slow! You're weak! What the hell were you thinking?! You're not a hero! You don't have anything to prove! You're just a useless, pathetic, old man! Useless! Pathetic! Oh god! Oh god!" Andrea began to cry out while Dale sat up and pulled her into an embrace,
"I know...I know you were scared, I'm sorry, I love you." Dale softly hushed the girl.
Days started to come and go, and before anyone knew it, two weeks had passed by. Dale had got himself out of the infirmary and back to his and Andrea's cell, Martinez was slowly recovering, but his wound wasn't making things easy on him, he'd only woken up a few times and only for a few short minutes. Still, Stevens and Alice were optimistic that he'd pull through. Yet, unfortunately, Billy had yet to wake and with every day that passed by, Hershel and Maggie lost a little bit of hope that he ever would.
Still the rest of the world continued to pass by and with it the group began to feel the large change of the seasons, it was clear that spring was officially over and summer was upon them. Knowing that Hershel was in no shape to keep running the farm, he took it over with Axel, Ben, and Julie, hoping that they'd relieve any extra pressure that may still be weighing on him. And thanks to what he had been teaching them over the months, things had been going very well.
On the dawn of the third week, Rick woke to the pleasant sight of his wife carefully putting Judith back into her crib, "Oh, you're up, already?" Rick asked with a yawn,
"Yeah, my little "alarm" went off," Lori teased while smiling down at Judith,
"Wow, didn't even hear it," Rick replied as he sat up, "Geez this heat is killing me already, I'd kill for air conditioning, my brain's gonna be melted by next month,"
"She's two weeks old," Lori continued, saying it in disbelief, "Two weeks old already,"
"I know, it's hard to believe, before we know it a year will be going by and then she'll be running around before we know it," Rick replied as he pulled some pants on,
"Well, lets just pray that this next year goes as well as these last few weeks, it's been so nice and quiet, despite what's going on with Billy," Lori thought aloud while taking a seat,
"I know what you mean, it's weird...nobody's died, they've come close a few weeks ago, but since then...just quiet. Hell with Lee, Carly, and Clem, we've even got a brand new family growing it's roots. I hope it keeps up…" Rick nodded back with an easy smile.
Meanwhile, in the gymnasium, Molly was intensely running up and down the basketball court, making quick long distance shots followed up by fast layups. She had worked up a sweat, but was showing now sign of stopping. In fact, it was shaping up to be a day just like all the others this week, exercise and silence, the way she liked it...the way she needed it to be.
Yet, she suddenly heard the gym door open and Michonne stepped inside. The blonde woman slowed her jog and stared at Michonne for a moment, keeping her gaze locked directly on her eyes, "How's it going?" Michonne dryly asked,
"Fine," Molly retorted as she began to bounce the basketball once more,
Michonne easily made her way further into the gym, heading towards the back to do some weight lifting, "You know, no body has been seeing much of you these last few weeks, other then meal times with Sophia, you're a bigger ghost than me,"
"And that's a problem? I'm not friends with any of these people, who's missing me?" Molly shot back with disinterest,
Michonne didn't react to the snap, continuing on her way towards the back, "Hershel asked about you," She added on just before disappearing around the corner causing Molly to fumble the basketball, letting it bounce away while she hung her head for a long minute.
Back inside the infirmary, Doug and Alice we're running the morning shift for Doctor Stevens, giving the elder a much needed break. Though Doug still didn't know much in terms of surgery or doctoring in general, his technical thinking and understanding of instruments inside the room made him invaluable to Alice. "So, what do you think we're at by now, five months? Maybe six?" Alice asked Doug as they headed away from Martinez,
"At least, we survived the winter and I think we're mostly through spring by now, it's hard to believe that the world has been in such a state for so long," Doug hummed in a mixture of disappointment as well as curiosity,
"I think about that too, for months the walkers have been here, and we know nothing more than when they first showed up. And it makes me sad that no one is asking questions anymore," Alice continued,
"I suppose I can understand that, it would be nice to know, exactly what causes them or if there was anything we could do to stop it from happening to us," Doug murmured in agreement,
"Or if there is anything we can do for them!" Alice exclaimed with a smile, enjoying having this conversation with someone who seemed to understand for once, "Of course I understand that the walkers are dead, and there is no cure to make them living people again, but what if we could figure something out still, a cure that could maybe destroy what brings them back! We aren't dumb people Doug, we could do something important for everyone if we wanted to. The only problem is, no seems to want to anymore, they're just content living this way,"
Doug ran his hand along his chin and hummed, "You're right, we could in theory bring a walker in for study, right? We could handle one walker, couldn't we? And taking that risk could bring so much good for everyone in the long run!" Alice grinned and nodded in agreement.
Alright, so that was a fun chapter to write, I wanted to give a little time skip while highlighting a few interesting conversations between the characters. But the big surprise, Billy isn't dead! Well...yet anyway, at the moment, he's alive in a coma, but that bullet didn't kill him in the last chapter. I'm curious to what you all thought so far and the next chapter is going to have a lot more interactions between characters, so I hope you all like it! But anyway, I'm curious about your thoughts and also what you'd like to see in future chapters, let me know in the reviews and I'll see you in the next one!