The next morning everyone gets ready. Rick, Daryl, T-dog, Glenn, and Maggie are going in to take down the dead in the courtyard of the jail. They form a circle, shoulder to shoulder. I open the door for them and they go in quickly. T-Dog enters first and stabs a walker, Daryl, Rick, Maggie and Glenn enter after and they all take a step or two forward to kill and return to the group. While they work together to take down what's in there, we try and help by getting the attention of how ever many we can and take them down through the fence. Rick shouts to his group, but we all hear it "Almost there!" They walk around. Suddenly they hidden behind a wall before entering the next part of the courtyard.
"I can't see them." I say out loud. I ask Lori and Carol next to me "Can you see them?"
"Back there." Carol responds not pointing anywhere though. We wait, still trying to grab the attention of a few lingering near us. After they kill them we hold our breaths to see the others again. They all pile out disheveled and bloodier then before but they are all intact. They start to walk back but Rick stops them and they have a short discussion. Afterwards, they head inside one of the doors. A few more minutes pass and Glenn comes out to get us.
"What do you think?" Rick says once everyone is inside the newly empties cell block.
Glenn breathes out "home sweet home"
"For the time being." Rick adds.
Lori asks, looking around "it's secure?"
"This cell block is." Rick smiles back pridefully, as he should be.
"What about the rest of the prison?" I ask, worried others might get in and ruin this little victory for us.
Rick nods "In the morning we'll find the cafeteria, and the infirmary. One room at a time."
"We'll sleep in the cells?" Beth asks hesitantly eyeing around her.
"I found the keys on some guards. Daryl has a set too." Rick explains looking over to his right hand man.
"I ain't sleeping in no cage." Daryl spits out in return, "I'll take the perch." and just like that he walks off. Everyone else begins to pander out as well, finding somewhere to call their own. They all go looking for cells to settle in. Carol & Lori are bunking together and Maggie is with Glenn, so I decide to stay with Beth. She's a pleasant girl to be around and seems okay with me around since the incident at the farm.
After sitting for awhile outside the cell I set up in, Carol comes out of the cell she's in "what's up?" I ask her, concerned about the worried look on her face as she gets closer to me.
"Lori's worried" she tells me in a hushed voice before going off.
I push off my knees and stand, walking into her cell "come in" she holds out her hand for me to take and I do. I sit next to her on the bed as she tries to hold back tears. Hershel comes in soon after and sits across from us. "It's the baby, I think I lost it." Lori explains to him.
"You haven't felt it move? Kick?" I ask her. I never worked the maternity level while I tempt, but I would hear heartbreaking stories from nurses.
"Nothing. And no Braxton-Hicks." She wipes her face. "At first, I thought it was exhaustion and malnutrition."
"You're anemic?" Hershel asks for confirmation.
Lori nods to confirm. She tries to take a deep breathe "if we're all infected, then so is the baby. So what if it's stillborn? What if it's dead inside me right now, what if it rips me apart?"
"Stop." Hershel puts his hand on her lap. "Don't let your fear take control of you."
"Okay. Let's say it lives, and I die during childbirth..." she goes to say
I interrupt her right there "that's not going to happen."
"Why not?" She asks looking at me "how many women died in childbirth before modern medicine?" she lets the question linger for a moment. "If I come back, what if I attack it? Or you, Rick, Carl... If I do, if there is any chance," she pauses trying to get the words out "you put me down immediately, you don't hesitate!" Her tears aren't enough anymore and she begins to cry "Me, the baby, if we're walkers, you don't hesitate, and you don't try to save us! Okay?" She looks to Hershel and he nods in return. "It might have been better if..." She exhales sharply.
"If what?" I pose to her.
"If I'd never made it off the farm." She answers shaking.
"You're exhausted, frightened" Hershel explains her irrationality.
She agrees "yeah, that's true. My son can't stand me. And my husband, after what I put him through." Her head shakes, and I see the resentment she has for herself in her eyes, something I know all to well about.
"We've all been carrying that weight." Hershel adds to calm her.
"All winter." I say on to that.
Lori doesn't stop though "I tried to talk to him. He..." but gets interrupted.
"He'll come around." Hershel says.
"He hates me." She gets out. "He's too good a man to say it, but... I know. I put him and Shane at odds, I put that knife in his hands!" her tears begin again.
Hershel adjusts in his seat "you know who doesn't give a shit about that? This baby." Both Lori and I chuckle "Now let's make sure everything's alright." and he tells her to lay back.
After Hershel has checked her over, and can't find anything wrong he leaves the cell. Lori sits up, still sniffling. I go to leave but she calls me back "Sadie.." her voice is in a whisper.. I turn at the cell entrees nice and wait "if I.. if I don't make it.." she pauses, holding back tears.
"You will make.." I try to argue but she stops me.
"Let me say this.." She looks at me now, tears gone. "If I don't make it.. You need to help Rick with this baby.."
"Lori" I sigh, sitting where Hershel was a minute ago "Rick doesn't need me, he needs you. And you will be there for this baby, for your family.." I encourage her.
She nods her head as if she knows I'm right "I know.. but I need to know that if something happens to me.. they'll have someone to come too.." She looks to me, her brown eyes pleading.
"okay" I whisper back to her.
She grabs me in a for a hug and squeezes tightly "thank you" she says into my ear before letting me go.
Carol, Beth and I help the group moving into the jail gear up. I help Maggie put on a vest and we tighten up T-dogs before they go. Rick tells Carl he has to stay behind, in case something happens to them and he nods in understanding. They pile out of the cell block and we shut the door behind them.
A few of us work at cleaning the walls from old blood and hear shouting out of the cell block. "Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!" Rick shouts out "open the door!" He yells as they get closer, someone on a gerny type thing being rolled with them. "It's Hershel!" He shots "Carl, come on!" He yells at his son who has a set of keys.
He gets the door open and they wheel him in, blood everywhere "Oh, my god!" Carol says as they pass us.
"Daddy!" Beth cries out for her father.
"Go, go, go, go! In there!" Rick shouts, pointing to a cell. A lot of us pile into the small cell "get him on the bed!" Rick demands. I go around to grab his shoulder, something familiar I've helped with "he got bit." Rick explains as we gather around.
Beth cries "Oh, my god, he's gonna turn!"
Lori asks him "did you cut it off?" and Rick confirms. "Maybe you got it in time." She offers to him and to Beth.
"Ready?" I count out taking the lead "Okay. One, two, three!" Carol, Glenn, Rick and I carry Hershel to the bed.
"Oh, God!" Lori gasps out in a sigh.
I push people aside and look at the wound "Ok, I need bandages!" I yell out to everyone in the room
Glenn returns to me "we used everything we had!"
"Well, get more! Anything sanitary will do!" I shout back removing what's already there besides the first layer.
Lori directs Carl to get the towels by her bed. Beth fears the worst "Is he gonna die?"
"No, no, no, he's gonna be okay." Lori holds Beth as she cries in her arms.
Rick leans down over my shoulder "you think you can stabilize him?"
I don't take my eyes off the wound, trying to find the main bleed to block off. "I need to keep his leg elevated. Keep as much blood in." I say loudly. "Get some pillows!" I explain.
Maggie cries out "he's already bled through the sheets!"
Glenn offers an idea "we can burn the wound to clot the blood. Like Merle did" He remembers. "I can start a fire."
"Oh, god, no please don't do this!" Beth begs in the cell.
"No" I respond back "the shock could kill him. It's not gonna stop the arteries from bleeding. We need to keep it dressed and let it heal on its own. I work as fast as I can to bound his wound, looking through the blood for anything worse to be aware of.
As we go through sheets and binding there's a commotion outside the cell block "what's that?" Beth asks worried.
Rick explains "Prisoners, survivors. It's alright, everybody stay put." He directs before leaving us to work on Hershel.
"He's passed out, we need to make sure he doesn't get a fever. This needs to be wet and put under his armpits and on his head" I rip off a piece of the sheet that's clean and hold it out for someone to take. Lori nods, taking it from my hand and exiting the room. She returns shortly after and her and Beth place it where I said to.
Lori and I are still trying to slow the flow of blood lose "It has to stop eventually right?" She comments, taking away a used sheet and making room for another.
"It slowed down quite a bit already." I explain back
"If we can get him through this..." Carol starts to say.
Lori interrupts her "when we get him through this." she corrects.
"We'll need crutches." Carol finishes her statement.
"Right now, we could use some antibiotics. Pain killers, some sterile gauze. There's gotta be an infirmary here." I tell both of them as I work. I'm not a nurse or a doctor, but I was around them for some time, he needs more then just sheets.
"If there's one, we'll find it." Carol responds to me with a nod. "You gotta be worried sick about delivering the baby." She asks looking at Lori.
"Look at me. I look worried?" She asks her back, her composure calm.
I look worried?" She asks her back, her composure calm
"You look disgusting." Carol retorts.
They both laugh "so do you" she comments back to her. I keep my focus on Hershel, willing myself to save his life.