Chapter 11- Carl

It had been two hours since most of the group had gone to search for Sophia. I was on top of the RV with Dale, looking for any signs of trouble or of the group returning. Dale was a kind man. He told me about his wife, and how she had passed away due to cancer. They never had any kids, but he always wanted them. His wife apparently couldn't have any of her own. They kept having miscarriages. Right now, Amy and Andrea were all he had. I told him bits and pieces of my life in return.

"So, she wanted a preppy daughter? One who would dress up, never talk back, and marry a rich man to have children with?" Dale shook his head. I gave him a smirk.

"My mama was a bitch. She wouldn't let me do anything on my own. She tried to dress me, bathe me, feed me, and teach me school. I couldn't go out to parties or get a job." I looked up at the sky, watching as the sun got closer and closer to the tree line. "Course I snuck around her and found ways to escape." I lifted my right arm, the one that was bit and broken.

I brought it close to Dale and he took ahold of it in his gentle grasp. "Sometimes, the knife was my only escape."

He ran his fingers over the faint scars. "One day, when I was 15, I snuck out of the house. I told myself that this was it. I was finally free. I stole money from my ma's purse and got myself my first tattoo." I pointed to the rose that covered the inside of my forearm. The bottom half of the stem and leaves twisting around my arm. "Told myself no more." I chuckled. "It wasn't my last, as you can see. Whenever I had the chance, I stole my mom's money and got a new tattoo. Boy did I piss her off. She even tried to force me to get them removed. Yeah right. Like that was gonna to happen."

Dale released my arm and smiled at me. He was the first person outside of the family that I have opened up to. Sure, I told the girls at the quarry a bit about my momma, but not this much.

"Is that what drew you to Daryl? For adventure and to make your mom mad?" He asked softly.

I nodded. "At first it was. I was only sixteen at the time when I snuck out and went to a bar. I didn't drink, they wouldn't let me, but I did pick a fight with some guys. Nearly got my ass handed to me. Daryl stopped them. His rough exterior drew me to him. Mom would never accept him. So I started to hang out with him. Over the next few months we fell in love, and then I got pregnant."

Dale laughed and lifted a pair of binoculars to his eyes as he scanned the highway. "Bet that really got on her nerves."

"Hell yeah it did! Especially when her precious son got pregnant. She called me a freak of nature. The evil wench kicked me out and she was the one who wanted a girl who could have children. Well, she got a boy who could. I went to go live with Daryl. I had Een shortly after my seventeenth birthday and we got married as soon as I was eighteen. I even went to school to become a nurse." I smiled softly as I sat down and leaned back on my arms.

"Do you wish you weren't so young?"

I knew he was only curious. I didn't blame him for wondering. I looked up as he looked down. "Not for a second. I know Daryl doesn't like to show his feeling to people, but he really has come far. For the first few weeks after I met him, he tried to push me away. Said I was too pure, that he would just corrupt me. But he slowly opened up, and he's slowly opening up to this group... Right now, this is our family."

Dale opened his mouth, paused, then shut it again. "Yeah... Family."

I stood back up and made my way over to the ladder at the back of the RV. I took a quick look around. A large red and white vehicle quite a way's down the road caught my attention.

"Hey, Dale? I think I see an ambulance down the road a bit. I'm gonna go check it out. It might still have some supplies in it."

"Alright but be careful. I'll watch out for you from here. If you see anything, holler, I'll come running." He told me. I nodded before making my way down the ladder. "Will do."

I walked carefully to the ambulance. I took out my gun and brought it up as I snuck around the vehicles. I moved to the back of the ambulance. I swung the door open and quickly aimed my gun. It was empty. I let out a sigh and hopped up into it. There were a few first aid kits and a medical bag that first responders use. I shoved the kits into the bag before I collected the IV bags. Perfect. There were empty syringes, lots of gauze and bandages, morphine bottles, and even some medical tape. Yes.

A gun shot went off in the distance. My head shot up and I froze. Was it the others? Did they come across a walker? I listened for more shots but there wasn't any. I quickly zipped up the emergency bag and hopped out of the ambulance. Why would they only shoot once? They wouldn't risk drawing more walkers if it was only one. They would have taken it out silently.

Ten minutes later I was back at the RV. I looked up at Dale. "You heard that too right?"

He nodded his head. T-Dog was sitting in the door of the RV on one of the steps. He let out a grunt as I handed him the medical bag and he placed it behind him by the driver's seat. "Everything within five miles heard that shot." He mumbled out. I nodded my head in agreement.

I looked up at Dale. "Keep an eye out. It will probably draw out a few walkers this way."

It was sunset by the time the group arrived back. As soon as Daryl came through the tree line, Dale beat me to what I was gonna ask.

"Did you find her?"

Daryl shook his head. I saw as Amy and Andrea lead a saddened Carol into the RV. I couldn't see Eren.

"We split into two groups. Shane, Rick, Carl and Eren went one way, we went the other. Carl apparently got shot by some dumb ass. They took him to a farm. They have a doctor there that can help him. We are supposed to go there once we came back here, but we decided to do it in the morning." Daryl grumbled, not happy at all.

"How did you find out Carl got shot?" Dale asked the same time I said, "I'm leaving now."

Daryl's head shot over to me. "No you ain't. You go when I go."

"But Daryl, Eren is-"

He gripped me by my shoulders and drew me close. "Is fine. A woman on a horse come to find us. She told us Carl was shot, said everyone else was at her family's farm, grabbed Lori, and took off."

I sighed as I hung my head, tears coming to my eyes. "I want to see him and Carl. Make sure they are okay."

Daryl drew me closer and tucked my head under his chin. "Eren's never spent a night without one of us before." I mumbled into his throat.

"I know darlin', but he has Lori and Rick. He'll be fine for one night. We gotta stay in case Sophia comes back."

I pulled away from him and wiped at my face. "No. I want to find Sophia just as bad as you, but I'm gonna take T-Dog and anyone else who is willing. You, Carol and Dale can stay here for the night and watch for Sophia. They might need me to help take care of Carl."

Daryl opened his mouth to argue but I shut him up with a glare. My decision was final. Daryl sighed and rubbed his face tiredly. "Alright. You win."

I smiled sadly and gave him a quick kiss before moving over to the RV, leaving Daryl to talk to Dale.

I stepped inside of the RV, grabbed my new medical bag and swung it over my shoulder. Amy looked up at me as I walked in. "I'm heading to that farm. They're gonna need me to help with Carl. You guys coming?" I asked softly.

Carol looked up at me and sent me a glare. "My baby is out there! You should be helping search for her!"

Glenn's jaw dropped and Andrea shot a look of disbelief at Carol. My own mouth also dropped open in shock.

My face hardened and I glared right back. "You listen here Carol. I understand that Sophia is out there alone and that you are scared, but you can't take your anger out on me. My son is out there also. I have to do what I know best, and that's healing people, and taking care of my family."

I paused. Carol stood up in anger. "All you care about is yourself! My baby could be dead you didn't do anything!"

"T-Dog was hurt, I couldn't leave him when he needed me, and now Carl is out there shot and possibly dying. I'm leaving to help him. I didn't say you had to leave. In fact, you, Daryl and Dale are staying. I'm taking T-Dog to the farm, and I need Amy or Glenn or Andrea to tell me the way. I wasn't there when that girl gave the directions." I was pissed. How dare she? I turned on my heal and stomped out of the RV.

I moved towards Daryl's blue pickup. A hand gripped my arm and pulled me to a standstill. I whirled around and came face to face with Daryl.

"Take it easy on her, will ya? She just lost her only family left."

I glared at him and pulled my arm from his grasp. "That doesn't give her the excuse to talk to me that way!"

He let out a sigh. "No, it doesn't. But think about it from her perspective."

I sighed. He was right. He opened his mouth to say something when a voice spoke before he could.

"Are we ready?" Amy spoke up from behind Daryl. Glenn was right behind her. I met her eyes and nodded. I wrapped my arms around Daryl's neck and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before I got into my Jeep with Amy and Glenn. Andrea was taking Shane's Jeep. We had ditched Carol's car a while back due to lack of gas. It was just the two jeeps, the pickup, the motorcycle and the RV.

When we pulled up to the farmhouse, I was amazed on how untouched by the dead it was. Almost as if the infection never happened.

When we stepped out of the Jeeps, Shane, Eren, and a few other people that I didn't recognize stepped out on the front porch.

"Papa!" Eren shouted as he left a teenage girl's side and ran down the porch steps towards me.

I knelt down and opened my arms. "Eren!" He plowed into me knocking me over. I stood back up with Eren clinging around my waist. I made my way to the house to greet everyone. Shane actually didn't look pissed to see me for once.

I was introduced to a man named Hershel, his daughters, a boy named Jimmy, a woman named Patricia and a man named Otis, who I learned had shot Carl on accident.

Hershel filled me in on what was wrong with Carl and I could tell that he was glad he had an actual doctor to help him. Someone who knew what they were doing. Apparently, he was a vet, not a doctor. He's never worked on a human before.

Hershel told us that he needed specific tools for surgery. He asked me just to make sure he was right, and I nodded. Otis automatically volunteered to go to a school nearby to get it. He felt it was his responsibility and Shane offered to go with him.

I walked inside and into the room that Carl was in. Lori and Rick were there. Eren automatically moved from my side to Carl's. He gripped onto Carl's hand and sat down my him. I saw Lori smile softly at him and I moved over to Carl's other side to grab the washcloth that was in a bowl of water on the bedside table.

I gently washed the sweat off Carl's exposed body, avoiding the gunshot wound. He was so pale. His eyes opened a crack and I grabbed his hand.

"Carl? Can you hear me?"

He gave a short nod, a faint smile on his lips. "Are-are you, an angel?" He rasped out in a quiet voice.

I gave a soft chuckle before I brought my hand up and moved the hair out of his face. "Course I am buddy. I'm gonna fix you right up." I smiled at him and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead. "Told you I'd never leave you, didn't I?"

His smile widened before his eyes slid to the back of his skull and his body started shaking.

"What's going on!? What's happening to him!?" Lori cried out.

I grabbed onto his body and tried to keep him as still as possible so he wouldn't injure himself any further. Hershel and Rick helped me while I tried to explain.

"He's having a seizure. We can't do anything about it. We just have to wait for it to pass."

Please God, don't take away my best friend.

I could hear Eren crying softly in the corner of the room. I am surprised with how close he and Carl were. He was usually reserved and wasn't very social.

The seizure passed and he stilled, his body falling unconscious once again. I went back to cooling him down and washing away his sweat. I needed to try to keep him cool and sweat free. I didn't want the wound to get irritated or for his condition to get worse.

...

It was a few hours later when Shane came back with the supplies alone.

"Otis, he said to go on and save the boy. Said he would give me the chance to come back and get this to Hershel." He explained. I didn't believe him for a second. His story sounded fishy. If Otis died to buy Shane time to get away, how did he have Otis' gun?

Hershel looked down as Patricia started crying over her lost husband.

He let out a sad sigh but grabbed the supplies and ushered me towards the room Carl was in. "Everyone but Avery and Rick leave the room. Avery, get an IV going. Rick, be prepared to give more blood if we need it."

Without question, I obeyed his orders and set to work. Me, being the doctor that I was, wasn't used to doing surgeries. I've aided them before, but never actually lead a surgery on my own. This was going to be tough.