Out of instinct, my hands shot out to absorb as much impact as possible but the moment my palms made contact, my right shoulder seared with pain and it buckled.
My stomach hit the ground with the full force of my bodyweight, the air escaping my lungs like a popped balloon.
I had a rush of deja vu, feeling the repercussions from my tumble from the tree whiplash back to the surface.
I couldn't breathe for the longest minute of my life; feeling my ribs burning with ache, like they had then.
Another shot ring out and my immediate instinct was to freeze. To stay as still as possible, even though my entire torso wants me to curl in on myself and craddle my ribcage on the ground of a dirty alleyway like a child.
I can't get to cover like this before I get shot again, this time fatally.
My eyes locked with Glenn's behind the dumpster and before he could move I curled all but one of my fingers on the ground next to my head.
Hissing, "Stay." as subtle as I could manage.
He bit his lips, swallowing with a tense nod. He looks like he wants nothing more than to jump out and grab me, but that will get him killed.
My gun is still in hand, if they come investigate their "kill" I can pop 'em before they notice. If they think one or both of us are dead, it'll be easier to catch them off guard.
The blood is thrumming in my ears, and the pain is making it difficult to concentrate around my breathing, but I can hear moaning. It doesn't sound like walker moans, but I can't tell who it is; please for the love of polka dot sprinkles, don't be Hershel. If both of us got hit, we're in serious trouble.
I heard the door creak, and my grip tightened on my piece. My core muscles tightened, getting ready to fling myself over at a moment's notice. The pain intensified around the muscles but the adrenaline flooding my system pushed it to the background just enough.
"You hit?" Rick's voice, made me flinch and I almost went through with my plan to shoot whoever came to investigate.
My jolt made my shoulder sear, bringing it back to the foreground of my attention.
Finally nodding in response. I ground my teeth as I peeked over my shoulder, watching the deputy move along the wall; two guns aimed in both directions.
I'm glad he grabbed Tony's shotgun, but firing that beast with one hand is gonna send it kicking back into your skull. Knocking yourself out is the last thing we need right now.
"Are you hit?" Rick came closer, trying to see behind the dumpster where Glenn is sitting.
"No. No." Glenn shook his head, eyes fixed on me but not my face.
I followed his line of sight to the blood on the blood pooling on the ground underneath my shoulder.
Rick crouched beside me, and I felt his hands on my sides, helping as I forced myself to my knees.
Rick pulled me towards the dumpster but I could only crawl on one arm, my gun clacking against the pavement as we took cover.
I sat next to Glenn, dropping the deadly weight in my lap; focusing more effort on my breathing than anything else.
I pulled my shoulder in front of me, trying to look through my torn jacket to find out how bad it was. Even in the dark I can see it. I don't know if that should worry me more or not but for now, I don't care.
Blood pulsed from the centimeter deep impacted gash in the outer side of my shoulder. The flesh splayed outwards from the path of the bullet, a dark red. Some of it almost black.
My entire shoulder inflamed, blazing an angry red and the throb pulsed like a concert speaker with the bass at max volume.
I gripped my elbow, gritting my teeth. I can feel the blood streaming down my arm under my sleeve.
"How bad?"
I looked at Rick and mustered an ok sign, taking my gun from my lap. I rested my forearm over my abdomen, trying to give my shoulder as much lax as I could get away with.
My attention directed to Glenn breathing heavy beside me. Our shoulders are close enough I can feel him shaking though it doesn't look like he is.
It's been awhile since we've been this close to the line. It's understandable he's shaken. I am having all the deja vu tonight, this reminds me of the night we met.
"It's alright. The car's right there." Rick reassured Glenn, having caught on.
"Okay." Glenn nodded, trying to swallow his nerves from the looks of it. He's gonna panic at this rate.
I grabbed Glenn's arm, breathing in through my nose, expelling through my mouth.
"We're almost home." Rick kept looking around. "You good?"
Glenn copied my breathing in rapid succession until he fell into a solid pace; a fast pace, but steady.
"I'm good." he nodded stiffly.
I nodded myself, rolling up on my feet into a crouch.
Rick gave a firm nod, readying himself. "Let's go."
Wait where's Hershel?
Rick moved to make a run for the car on the street barely 60 feet from us, and a shot pierced the dumpster next to him.
"Get back!" He jumped backwards, fixing his eyes on the roof opposite the bar.
Glenn stumbled back into me. I sucked in a sharp breath as my shoulder jostled.
"Are you okay?" Glenn panicked but I was quick to wave him off.
"Nothing I can't handle." I squeezed the gun in my hand, trying to wean the pain out of the forefront of my mind.
Tires squealed from the street and my head snapped up as a big heavy-duty pickup truck stopped in front of the building; between us and our escape vehicle.
"Let's get outta here!" I recognize the man in the driver's seat, shouting from his window.
"Roamers are all over the place! Hurry up! We gotta get outta here!" He's the one who was doing the talking earlier.
"What about Shawn?" the young guy called from the roof.
"They shot him. We gotta go! Roamers are everywhere." the man called again, his urgency increasing by the syllable. That must've been the second shot I heard then.
"We're leavin'?"
"Jump!"
From that height!? He'll never make that.
The kid went to the side of the roof, glancing back at his friend in the truck.
"Hurry up! Jump already!" the impatient man yelled at the kid.
My stomach lurched as he jumped to the next roof; easily a 20 foot drop.
I heard the impact from here, and watched him roll before he tumbled off the ledge outta my line of sight. Not a second later a scream pierced the stilled cold air with a sharp clang.
"Dude didn't make it" Glenn breathed, looking at the ground in front of us.
"Ahhh! Help! Help me!"
"I gotta go! I'm sorry!" I watched the truck move, leaving the kid behind while he screamed for help.
"No! No— don't leave!"
Rick looked back at me and I sighed, already knowing what's running through his head.
Sometimes I wonder if your sense of honor is over inflated, Grimes. But in this instance, I happen to be thinking the same.
We need to get outta here as fast as possible, but even I'm not so cold hearted as to leave some kid to be ripped apart by blunt grinding teeth; still screaming.
"Get Hershel." Rick all but ordered Glenn as I got up, heading for the end of the alley.
The walker growls and moans are getting louder and louder but I don't see any on the street yet. That won't be the case for long.
Let's move quick.
Rick came up and we both ran across the street, still crouched, to the other alley.
A leg atop a dumpster came into view just before I rounded the corner and there was the kid. He can't be more than 19 or 20; laying on top of a thankfully filled trash bin, with 6 inches of an arrowhead fence through his calf.
"Aaaah" the kid was all but screaming, clutching his knee.
"Keep your voice down" Rick snapped as soon as we reached him.
I walked down the alley about 12 feet, checking for walkers but it opens up back here.
We're too exposed. We gotta move, now.
"Help me, please" the kid begged, crying from the pain.
My ribs ached with the increasing tension his loud cries are assaulting my instincts with.
"Rick!" Hershel & Glenn came up behind Rick. "We have to go now."
"No!" The kid cried and my head was on a swivel to see if he'd been heard; and ache blooming in my neck from it now.
"Shh!" Rick hissed.
As much as I agree, we can't just leave him here.
"I'm sorry son, we have to go." Hershel put his hand on the kid's uninjured knee, dangling off the edge of the dumpster.
"No no, don't leave me please." he pleaded, desperation and fear prominent in every atom of his being.
"We have to go." Hershel persisted, trying to get Rick to leave.
"We can't." Rick pulled his stale-mating moral-compass voice.
"He was just shooting at us!" Glenn jabbed his hand at the kid.
"He's a kid." Rick snapped.
Ugh— princesses! We don't have time for this! Make a decision or I will act without you.
"This place is crawling with walkers!" Glenn shouted and my attention snapped to him.
What the Hell's gotten into him— that doesn't sound like the Glenn I know; the kid who would risk his life for someone he doesn't even know.
"We can't leave him!" Rick growled matter of factly. He's not going anywhere without this kid, and we all know it. Frankly, I'm not going anywhere either.
He may have been shooting at us but I won't leave him like this. Even if it means putting him out of his misery.
"Fear is not a reason to leave someone for dead." Stone cold fury pumped through my veins, bleeding into the gaze I fixed on three of the most morally grounded grown-ass men I know.
"The fence went clean through." Hershel looked at the kid's leg with the expertise none of the rest of us have. "There's no way we can get the leg off in one piece."
The fence rattled as it shook with his trembling shredded leg, and I grabbed it to silence the noise.
"Shut up, or I will shoot you."
Rick, that is not helping!
"That may be the answer." Hershel pulled Rick aside onto the sidewalk.
Glenn stepped next to me, and I moved to check the end of the alley again.
My mind's expecting a nasty surprise any moment like you do when you watch a horror movie or play a scary video game; waiting for the jump scare.
Just because there's nothing right now, doesn't mean there won't be soon.
"Shut up. Shut up" Glenn grabbed the kid's leg and the boy yelled again.
"I'm sorry." Glenn let go, backing off. "Sh-sh— shut up."
I came back, snatching the kid's arm to stop him from banging on the dumpster.
"I don't wanna see anymore killin' but this is cruel" Hershel gestured at the kid.
"Can't we just take the leg off?" Glenn suggested.
All conversation stopped, even the kid's screaming stopped, and Rick's eyes met mine for half a second before I looked at the leg and at the kid and back to Rick.
Rick looked back at Glenn, and I could see the exact moment he made the decision. "That hatchet still in the car?"
"No" Glenn answered.
Now this sounds more like you, Ace; but something's still off. I can see it just by looking at him.
"No no no. Don't— don't cut my leg off, please." The kid reached forward, desperate.
"Will this cut through the bone?" Rick pulled his switchblade.
God no— we don't have time to use that wood carver.
"Use mine." I pulled the blade with a 'shing' from it's sheath at my thigh, and held it handle first to Hershel.
"I'll have to sever the ligaments below the knee cap, cut above the tibia. He's gonna lose his lower leg." While Hershel explained/instructed what he was gonna do, the kid kept repeating 'No' over and over but thank Merlin's goat he's not screaming.
"When we get clear of here, we'll have to find some tinder, cauterize the wound so he doesn't bleed out." Hershel whipped off his dress shirt.
"Alright, no choice. Hurry up." Rick came back over to me.
"Oh god, oh god." The kid cried.
I tossed my gun onto the dumpster above the kids head and pulled my belt off, climbing up with my one good arm while Rick slammed the kid down by the chest so he was laid flat.
"Hand me that stick" Hershel instructed Glenn, doing something with his pristine white dress shirt.
I folded my belt, sticking it into the kid's mouth. "Bite."
I grabbed his flailing hand with mine, and already he's squeezing like his life depends on it. It's distracting from my own pain, at least.
"Here here" Glenn handed the vet his stick and I watched Hershel get up on the fence and tie the garment around the kid's upper thigh; using the stick to wind it as tight as possible.
"Guys, walkers" Glenn's rising panic came from the otherside of Hershel, on the street where I can barely see his back from my position.
The kid screamed, releasing my hand and I slammed it over his mouth.
"Shut up" Rick commanded, like it's gonna work. We're about to remove the kid's leg.
I heard Glenn's shotgun blast and glanced, but kept on task helping Hershel.
"Oh God they're everywhere." Rick went towards the back end of the alley, firing.
"Hold this, keep it tight." I did as Hershel told and removed my hand from the kid's mouth, putting my knee on his chest to keep him down now that Rick's gone.
"Hershel, how we doin' over there?" Rick's urgent request came between rounds of fire.
"I need more hands" Hershel fought with the kid's pants, trying to keep the gate still, and ten other things.
Even with 4(more like 3 1/2) hands we're still short. The two of us, even together, can only do so much with what we've got.
"I'm almost outta ammo!" Rick called back.
I grabbed my piece from the dumpster and whistled, throwing it to him as soon as his eyes landed on me.
The chaos around me is almost too much. It feels like a warzone.
Growls, moans, swarms of walkers headed this way from both directions, Rick & Glenn both shouting at us, the kid trying to scream around my belt, Hershel trying his damndest to solo what would take a team of EMT's to do, with a clock that could run out at any second.
"We don't have much time!"
"Come on, we've gotta go!" Glenn's frantic shouting finally drew Rick back towards us.
"We can't hold 'em off! Hershel, do it now!" He came back to the side of the dumpster. "Come on, Hershel!"
"There's no time!" Hershel shouted back at him. I can see Hershel's hands shaking, god damnit why did he have to be drinking before this.
"Hershel, come on!" Glenn shouted.
It's too late. If we stay any longer, all 5 of us are gonna have our strings cut.
Hershel jumped down, giving into Glenn's shouting, and I jumped off the dumpster, landing right beside Rick.
"Please don't leave me! Please! Please don't leave me!" The kid grabbed my jacket, shouting at us— pleading.
Rick stopped at the fence, next to his leg and looked at me.
I glanced at the leg, picking up on what he was about to do, and nodded.
I grabbed my fallen belt and shoved it back into the kid's mouth, almost making him choke on his own screams, as Rick grabbed the underside of his leg.
I braced myself, holding the kid down as best I could with one arm and watched Rick push his leg upwards with all his might.
"AHHHHHHH!"