Sophia immediately got to work, ignoring the fact that this dude could die under her care. She took the tweezers from Gabe, before pointing to two of the adults in the room.
"Okay, I need you to hold his shoulders, you hold his leg. Once I get the bullet out, you need to hold his leg straight up in the air." Without even making sure they understood, Sophia began looking at the wound. Clearly muscle and nerves were destroyed, but that was beside the point, he was going to bleed out. Biting her tongue, Sophia dipped the tweezers into the wound, wincing when he began screaming.
"It's okay." Benjamin mumbled, eyes wildly searching the ceiling. It had to be far from pleasant, digging around in his body, looking for the damned bullet. Her tweezers made a small clink noise, hitting metal. Blood gushed out of the wound, but, she managed to remove it.
Across the room, Gabe noticed the adults whispering, the ones who Sophia hadn't demanded help her in trying to fix this guy. There was a woman, she had short grey hair, and matching grey eyes, hard as steel when her eyes met Gabe's. Beside her, was the man in charge, and Gabe could have sworn he heard someone call him, 'Your Majesty'.
Luckily, none of the adults questioned Sophia, on a, why the hell she was helping, b, how she came to know how to help someone bleeding out, or even c, which seemed to be a common occurrence, what were two kids doing, all alone.
"I need you to hold his skin tight... like that. Yeah. Alright, Benji, I'm calling you Benji, this is gonna hurt." Sophia spoke, her hands working fast, first, she managed to stitch up the bleeding artery, or at least, that was what Gabe guessed had happened. He honestly had no idea other than the bleeding slowed. Then, he held back his gag reflex, as the needle began going in and out of his skin, making an ugly stitch mark pattern.
The stench of antiseptic was already being over powered by the scent of iron, which now was all over everyone. Slowly, Sophia backed up, pressing her hand against Benjamin's forehead. A frown marred her features, before she turned to one of the men who had been holding the patient down.
"Do you have anything to bring a fever down, or pain meds? He should be stable, for now. He also needs lots of water, and sugar if you've got it." Now that the ordeal was over, or at least stalled for now, Sophia was coming down from her adrenaline high, hands shaking. Benji was pale, sickly pale, he had lost a lot of blood. Some of it even was on her. No matter. She would wash her clothes once they got back to their normal hide out. "Crush the pills up, put them under his tongue. It will go into his system easier that way."
"There are no words, to express our gratitude. Without you, I fear Benjamin would have perished." The leader walked up to her, he offered water and some soap, a rare commodity these days. "I am King Ezekiel, leader of the Kingdom." Feeling more than a little weirded out, Sophia accepted the gift, and let her eyes travel over the people who stood beside the 'king', now that she wasn't hiding behind a car, or busy trying not to get sick at how much blood was on her hands, she could get a better look.
A big guy, who she was almost positive got a blow to the face back with Negan's lackeys, a shorter man, who Benji talked with while he was lucid. One guy seemed to just be in shock, standing there, but his mind seemed to be on the moon at the moment. Then, the two people she had help her keep Benji held down. But, when she saw the woman, who hadn't been at the scene of the shooting... her mind went blank.
Nearly hyperventilating, hands shaking, blood pumping in her ears, and tears threatening to break past her defenses, ones she had set up, ever since Bella died. She didn't have time for crying, but... there, standing right in front of her...
"Mom?" Carol's heart stopped. It was like someone had kicked all the air from her lungs, and, she suddenly had her arms full, with a lanky teenager, crying into her shoulder. Unbelieving, Carol hugged her child closer, as close as physics would allow.
Here was her daughter, Sophia. She hadn't seen her in almost four years. Four years of believing she was dead, of hoping that someone had put her out of her misery, so her child wasn't stumbling around as a half rotted corpse. It didn't seem real, it couldn't be. Yet, here she was.
An unfamiliar sound hit her ears, until she realized, that she was sobbing. Carol wasn't there for her daughter, she hadn't found her. It was like all her dreams and nightmares had been confirmed. Her baby had been alone, lost in the woods. It wasn't a quick, merciful end, Sophia was still alive in this unforgiving world.
"Sophia." Taking in a shaky breath, Carol pulled back, only enough to look at her daughter. Long gone was the soft spoken child, one who had seen and heard too much in her childhood, for the constant fear of her father. No, in her place, stood a young, mature woman.
Carol could see herself in those stormy eyes. They had the same, almond shaped eyes, a pain deep within, but strength covering it. She was fierce, her hair was more dirty blonde now, tied back in a braid. She had a couple scars along her face, but nothing serious. Her child had grown up, forced to in this apocalyptic world.
"You're alive." Breathing in shakily, Carol, ran her hand along Sophia's back, trying to convince herself that this was real, that she was real. Her daughter was alive, and... so was Benjamin. But, Negan was too...