Chapter 27
Okay, so this chapter is going to be a little different because as I was writing, the first part is what is happening in Rose's head and then I switch over to Daryl's POV and he tells us everything that went down before and after Rose blacks out. I was thinking about splitting it up into two different chapters but decided it would be best read this way.. well I hope so anyway! Enjoy! :D & don't forget the ever important review afterward!
"Jake?"
I call out, seeing my brother kneeling on the ground. There's a light behind him, and it just keeps growing brighter and brighter. Finally, he stands, looking right into my eyes. The wild green eyes we shared.
"Rosa," he says to me, his voice sounds so distant, so sad, "Go back Rosa, they need you. You're stronger than this."
"Wait! Jake, are you alive? Mom and dad, where are you?" I ask, wishing I could go to him, but I'm stuck, not even my fingers can move.
Now, he's gone and that light is getting more dim by the second. I never get my answer.
. . . . .
"Rose! Rose!" I hear faintly, like a dream.
"Jake.." My lips manage to mumble out his name, but as I try to see who is calling me, I see nothing but bright white stars dancing trough my vision.
"Stay with me damnit." I hear heavy breathing, feel something pulling me.
-That's not Jake. My brain realizes this before my heart is able to, and all I want to do is go back to that bright light where my brother was waiting.
"Aaaggh!" The wailing I hear is coming from my own mouth, as a searing pain radiates from my left side now.
"Don't touch it!"
" Has she been bitten?! Has she?"
"No! There's no bites. Just that.."
I try so hard to distinguish who all these new voices belong to, but it was no use. Everything is so jumbled, nothing feels right, and the pain, oh God, the pain is more intense than anything I have ever felt.
"Get away.." I can only mumble again.
-Damnit! Why can't I talk to them!
"Rosa?!"
My eyes fly open, I see a face, only it's distorted by the little white stars.
-Only Jake ever called me Rosa.
I blink, trying to focus.
"Y'all, she's blinkin'! She's comin' to I think." I hear the man shout over me.
- You know that voice.
Yet, it was oddly different. Is it fear or concern that laces it? I can't tell, it's just too much. Then bits and pieces start flashing through my mind, the walkers, there were so many walkers. And Daryl.
I feel myself gasping, as Daryl's face is now all I can think about.
- It's Daryl's voice. That's whose been calling your name.
"Daryl." It comes out in a whisper, but I feel something close to my face so I force it through my lips one more time.
"I'm right here lil' girl." He says, and I feel his rough hands on my face again.
"Rick!" He calls out, and soon I feel another pair of hands and now I'm being lifted in the air and the pain shoots through me again. I grit my teeth together, urging myself to stay quiet though.
-What happen? Did they kill them all? Where is Carl? Everyone else, are they okay?
My mind goes trough an onslaught of questions, making the already eternal journey that much worse.
"Dad!" That's Beth, or maybe it's Maggie, I can't tell.
. . . . .
The next thing I feel is soft, and comforting underneath my body.
-Did you pass out again?
I honestly can't tell anymore, everything runs together in my mind. Remembering if I was awake or unconscious, or a mixture of the two was close to impossible.
"Aghhhh! Please stop! Please!" The screams echo in my head and I realize once again that they're my screams. Yet, they keep coming, begging and pleading whoever it was to stop touching whatever wound has been inflicted on my side. It feels more like they're taking a red-hot iron to it.
"Daryl, Rick, hold her down." Those are next words I hear and I feel the strong arms over me then.
Now, there are waves after waves of burning, white-hot pain that cause that bright light to come near yet again.
"Daryl, please stop.." The last words I say aren't a yell or a scream, they're soft and pleading and as even more pain burns through my body, my whole world dips into the darkness once more.
Continue (Daryl's POV)
"Daryl, please stop.." It slips through her lips like a whisper and Rose has finally stopped screaming, but now she's not moving at all.
"I can't do this." I say, feeling the frustration growing and my heart starting to break apart completely.
-Her last words could have just been to beg you to stop. How can you go against that?
"Yes, you can and you have to." Rick barks back at me.
I look up to meet his eyes, "Well, she ain't movin' anymore, so get off 'er." I don't yell at him, but I hear the menace dripping from those words and so does he as he moves back.
"Herschel?" Rick calls, taking her wrist, I guess to feel for a pulse, "Herschel, I don't feel anything!"
-You gotta get outta here. My mind keeps saying, but I can't leave her. I can't leave her here to die alone. I might as well just lay down and die with her.
Now Herschel has a fancy tool pressed up against her chest, and you can hear a pin drop from how quiet the has gotten.
"It's there. Very faint though, she's goin' into shock." He says in that calm voice he always has.
This only sends my anger soaring,"Then do somethin' about it!" I yell, slamming my fist into a wall, "You can't jus' let 'er die for Christ's sake!" I notice how close I am to the old man now, and I try to get ahold of myself, but Rick's arms are around me, pulling me back.
"Daryl, you need to go. Go get some air. Now." I hear Rick say in a serious tone.
-He's right. She ain't dead, you just gotta breathe.
"Getchyer damn hands offa me." I say, yanking myself away.
I'm walking through the house now, but everything is just blurring around me. I don't see any of the faces that watch me leave.
-Probably heard ya actin' like a little girl up there.
I shake my head, not having any patience left to deal with the punishing self insults. Shoving through the door, I finally make it to the porch but I don't stop there.
-Just keep moving, stop thinking, breathe. She'll make it through this, it's Rose. She's tough.
I say to myself, taking in so deep a breath of the chilled air that it hurts. Letting it out slow and long, I run my fingers through my sweat and dirt matted hair. Next thing I know, I'm on my knees, feeling an actual physical pain cascade through my body as scene after horrific scene plays back in slow motion of what happen.
. . . . .
Rose and I are back to back, I have my hunting knife and she, her machete. We're doing so good, considering the circumstances of being so outnumbered. The walkers seemed to have appeared from thin air only minutes before as Rose and Carl rode behind me on our fence check. Carl is now on his way back to the house to get help, but with every second closing in on us, my concern grows high as the mountains.
"You good lil' girl?" I ask, after catching Rose from what would've been a nasty fall.
"We need help. There's too many. Too many." She says back to me, her voice seems distant, with none of her usual strength. I turn my head for only a second, looking to see she's okay, but now one of the drooling monsters is tackling me. It knocks me into her, hard, and my knife plunges into yielding flesh.
Only it's not walker flesh my skinning knife is buried in, it's all but disappeared into Rose's side. And she's gasps, her eyes look so scared, and she's falling but I can't catch her this time. I can't stop to hold her, to do anything because now I'm swinging my fists, kicking, and just trying to keep them away from her.
"Rose!" I yell, but her eyes are already closed.
I grab her machete, fueled by pure hatred and start taking them down. I growl and snarl just as much as they do until finally I hear a gunshot and the walker behind me goes down. Turning toward the fence now, I see Rick holding the rifle and he's reloading, preparing for the next shot. Running behind him, I see Maggie and Glenn coming now, Glenn carrying an axe and Maggie has her knife.
"Oh my God, Rose!" Maggie rushes through the fence to her side, and I'm so thankful for that.
Glenn is at my side, and we're thinning out the group without a hitch with the help of Rick's coverage.
"Guys, we need to get her to my father. Now!" I hear Maggie yelling again, and I take down the last walker, not even watching him hit the ground before I'm at her side.
"Is she alive?" I ask, moving Maggie's hand away from the handle of the knife. "No. Wait 'til we get somethin' to bind it with." I say to her as gently as I can.
I'm looking down at Rose now, wondering if it's just my imagination or if her face is really starting to pale. I lean down, putting my ear to her chest and I can hear her heart beating quickly but it slows for a few beats and speeds back up.
-Well that definitely ain't right.
I start to wonder, but my eyes catch movement on her face and I stare down, seeing her eyes moving the tiniest bit.
"Rose! Rose!" I call out, putting hands on either side of her face.
Her lips move, forming an inaudible word, then her eyes flutter open, looking up to me for a second and now my heart's trying to pound its way out of my chest.
-She's alive! She's okay, she has to be.
As soon as the thought rolls through my mind though, her eyes clamp shut again.
-No, no, no, NO!
"Stay with me damnit." I say through gritted teeth as I pull her limp body towards me. She screams out, and it seems almost involuntary but none the less gut wrenching. Now Rick's kneeling beside her and I, and he starts to go for the knife but I catch his hand before he can reach,
"No, don't touch it!" Maggie says, panic in her usually smooth voice, "it could do more damage." She finishes, giving him a serious look.
Rick looks over her again, "Has she been bitten?!" He looks to me with true fear in his blue eyes, "Has she?"
"No!" I'm shouting again, "There's no bites. Just that.."
I let my head fall, and once Rick sees that it's my knife lodged in her side, his hand is on my shoulder.
"It was an accident. She'll be fine." He says it too confidently.
-Don't count your chicks 'fore they hatch. My minds say, mocking my mother's voice.
"Get.. Away.." I hear Rose's voice bubble through so faintly I could've just as well have imagined it, but Rick jerks his head down too, so I know I'm not completely crazy.
"Rosa?!" I call out, not catching that I hadn't even said her name right until a few seconds later.
-Where the hell did Rosa come from ya dumbass?
My thoughts are cut short though because Rose's eyes are now open, and she's looking around wildly like she can't really see at all, but then she's blinking rapidly, causing my whole body to rush with hope.
"Y'all! She's blinkin', I think she's comin' to." I call out, noticing how fearful I sound and I clear my throat, hoping to regain some composure.
As they look down, giving all their attention to her eyes still trying to right themselves, I hear a fragment of her voice float by like a breeze so I lean close, listening with everything I got.
"Daryl." She says, and my entire world lights up.
-She knows you're here. Knows you'd never leave her. I bring my hands back to her dirt and tear-stained face,
"Hey, I'm right here lil' girl." I manage to say back, even though I'm trembling worse than one of those ankle bitin' dogs my mom used to have.
"Rick!" I call out, pointing to her feet as a signal that's it's time to move her.
"Here, get her up here. It'll put less strain on the wound." Maggie says, as Glenn pulls Raven's saddle off, leaving it on the ground.
-Raven, if there was a time to be calm, it's now. Please don't make me hurt you.
I send the silent message through a brief moment of eye contact with the usually skittish mare as we lift Rose's body,as gently as we can, and begin the mind wracking journey to the safety of the farm-house.
. . . . .
As I hit the brick wall of reality, finally coming back from reliving the nightmare all over again, I feel a presence near me.
"He's stitchin' her up now.. you know she's strong. She'll bounce back quick." I recognize Carol's timid voice.
"Yeah, she wouldn't have nothin' to bounce back from if I wadn't so damn stupid." I say back, just wishing she'd just leave me be. Instead, I feel her place a small hand on my shoulder, and I can't help but to flinch away.
"Everyone knows.." She says in a small voice.
I turn to face her, standing up now, "Knows what?" I ask.
She looks up to me with those vibrant gray-blue eyes, "How you two care for each other." I see a flash of pain cross her face, but it's gone as she puts on a fake smile, "A blind man could see how much she adores you, and you her." She finishes with a light laugh, and I finish the conversation with a wave of my hand,
"Hmmf." I grunt out, feeling like my body is made of lead as turn toward the house once more.
-Are you really that obvious? Hell though, what does it matter? She'll hate you for what ya did. Ain't no doubtin' that.