Chapter 12: Bloodletting
"Please no, please no, please no." Rick's mind was screaming as he ran through the open plains of Senoia, Georgia, panting and panicked. He was carrying Carl, cradling him against his chest as he ran, bleeding and still unconscious from the bolt action rifle round he'd just taken to the abdomen.
"Come on." Rick groaned as he readjusted the hold he had on his unconscious son. It had been a while since he'd carried the boy, he hadn't realized he'd gotten so big. He only hoped he would be able to see him grow more after this day. Michael running along side him.
"Hey, you move, shithead! Come on, git I said!" Shane yelled from a few feet behind Rick and Michael, a look of anger on his face, to the man the rifle round had come from. The older, heavy set man, Otis, was following Rick, Michael and Shane. He was having a hard time with the three cops that were in far better shape than he was and Shane was getting frustrated that he couldn't keep up.
Rick knew it would be too late if he had to keep at a slower pace and wait for the man to give directions. He spun around and looked at him. "How far? How far?!"
"Another half mile that way." Otis huffed, bent over, trying to catch his breath. He pointed his arm in the direction they had been running while he rested the other on his knee. "He-Hershel. Talk to Hershel. He'll help your boy." He said between labored breaths. Rick hardly heard him, as soon as the man had pointed him in the right direction, he and Michael had turned and ran.
Shane only gave the man a few seconds to catch his breath before he grabbed Otis by the arm and started hauling him after Rick and Michael. "Come on." He'd said as he pulled the bigger man, causing him to fall to the ground from the force he'd yanked him with.
"I'm sorry." The heavy man panted as Shane grabbed his arm again to pull him up.
"Let's go, man. Come on!" He yelled, as he and Otis started after Rick and Michael, at a much slower pace.
Rick and Michael ran as fast as they could in the direction Otis had pointed them in. Rick kept his eyes on either the dying grass in front of him or the dying boy in his arms. Soon enough, they saw fencing and a white, two story house peeking out from the few trees that surrounded it. Rick readjusted Carl in his arms again as he and Michael saw the house come into view."Almost there."
Maggie, the eldest Greene daughter, had been sitting out on the front porch, waiting for Otis to return from his hunt, when she saw two figures running across the open field in front of the house. She grabbed the binoculars that they had sitting on a small end table by the chair there and looked through the lenses. With the new magnified picture, she could see a man in a sheriff's uniform and hat carrying a limp, -appearing to be- lifeless, body of a boy. And another man carrying a gun and has a sword hanging from his left waist.
"Dad!" She yelled as she turned towards the open screen door of the house. The men kept coming.
Maggie turned and quickly made her way into the house to shout for her father again. All of the occupants of the house started to the front at the sound of all the commotion.
An elderly man in a white, button down shirt and suspenders came out the front screen door of the house first. Hershel, the owner of the property. He was followed closely by a blond woman, Patricia, who was Otis' wife. Maggie, with her younger sister Beth and Beth's boyfriend, Jimmy, followed after her as they all stood on the porch. Jimmy had a baseball bat in his hands as the five stared at the men who was now running across the front yard.
"Was he bit?" Hershel shouted from the porch.
"Shot." Rick said, slowing down as he and Michael came up to the house. "By your man."
"Otis?" Patricia asked as the group started down the stairs towards them.
"He said find Hershel. Is that you?" Rick asked. The old man nodded his head at him as he came to take a closer look. "Help me. Help my boy." Rick said, now more frantic.
"Get him inside. Inside!" Hershel said as he turned back around, pointing at and heading for the house. As soon as he cleared the door's threshold, he was unbuttoning the cuffs of his shirt so he could roll up his sleeves. "Patricia, I need my full kit." Hershel said, Rick and Michael right behind him. "Maggie." He said as he led them into a bedroom right off to the side of the entryway.
"Yeah?" His daughter, replied.
"Painkillers, coagulates- grab everything."
"Okay." She said as she ran to where the old man kept his supplies.
"Clean towels, sheets, alcohol." He shouted towards her. He grabbed the blanket that was on the bed and threw it aside. "In here." He said to Rick, who laid the boy down on the bed. Rick stared down at his son, not sure what to do.
"Pillowcase." Hershel said to him.
"Is he alive?" Rick asked, not taking his eyes from his boy. "Is he-"
"Pillowcase, quick." Hershel repeated. Rick walked around the old man, who was undoing the boy's clothes to get a better look at the wound. Rick grabbed one of the pillows off the bed and started taking it's pillowcase off.
"Is-Is he alive?" He repeated.
"Fold it. Make a pad." Hershel said as Patricia and his daughters came into the room with everything he had asked for. Hershel had his hands pressed firmly onto the shot's entry wound as Rick came back around the other side of him with the makeshift pad.
"Put pressure on the wound." Hershel said as he grabbed the pad from Rick, replacing it with where his hands had been. Rick did as he was told as he pushed down on the pad over the hole in his son's stomach.
Hershel turned around and grabbed his stethoscope from Patricia. Putting the buds in his ears and the diaphragm on the boy's chest, he listened for a few tense seconds. "I've got a heartbeat." He said. Rick quickly nodded. "It's faint."
"I got it, step back." Patricia said, as she scooted her way between Rick and Hershel. Patricia had worked at the clinic with Hershel and was a trained technician. The room became a buzz of activity, then.
"Maggie, IV." Hershel said.
"We need some space." Maggie said as she looked at Rick. He still hadn't taken his eyes off Carl.
"Your names?" Hershel said, finally causing him and Michael to look towards him.
"Michael." He said.
"Michael. And you?" Hershel asked, looking towards Rick.
"R-Rick."
"Rick?"
"I-I-I'm-I'm Rick." He nodded. The man was in a state of shock.
"Rick, Michael, we're gonna do everything we can, okay? You two need to give us some room." Hershel said as he looked back at them. "Now." He said, when the men didn't move.
"Come on, Rick. Come on." Michael said as he tries to move Rick back.
Rick slowly backed away as Hershel, Maggie and Patricia surrounded the boy. He could see movement out of the corner of his eye.
"Move!" He and Michael heard Shane yell. They looked out of the window that looked out over the front of the house as they saw Shane and Otis running through the field. Rick and Michael slowly made their way to the front door. They walked outside just as Shane and Otis got to the steps. Rick stopped at the top and took off his hat. Michael stood next to him.
"He's alive? He's still alive?" Otis panted.
"They got a heartbeat. It's fainted through." Michael said.
Rick wiped his hand over his forehead in an attempt to wipe away the sweat from his brow, but in the process smeared his son's blood all over his face.
"Hey...Okay." Shane whispered as he came up the steps to his friend/brother. He took his bag off his shoulder as he went through it, pulling a rag from his pack. "It's okay." He whispered as he ran the rag over Rick's face.
Rick pulled back, not knowing what the man was doing at first. Shane put a hand on his shoulder to hold him still.
"You got blood, man." Shane said as he continued wiping off the blood. "Okay." Once his face was as clean as he could get it, he gave the rag to Rick, who looked down, seeing his blood covered hands and shirt, but not really registering them. Shane had handed it to him, hoping he would wipe some of the blood off, but the look on his face let him know he was still having trouble processing what was going on. "I'll take it from you." Shane said as Rick fumbled with the rag in his hands. Rick finally looked to his friend/brother with tears in his eyes. "Where is he? Where is he? Is he okay?" Shane whispered to him. Rick turned around and stumbled into the house, Michael, Shane and Otis following him.
The four walked into the bedroom to see a still unconscious Carl lying on the bed. Hershel was sitting next to him, pressing the pillowcase to the gunshot would, that was still bleeding.
"You know his blood type?" Hershel asked as the men entered.
"A-positive, s-same as mine." Rick answered.
"That's fortunate." Hershel said as he turned to look at him. "Don't wander far. I'm gonna need you..What happened?" He said, looking at Otis.
"I was..trackin a buck." Otis said, pointing into the air, to nowhere in particular. "Bullet went through it. Went clean through."
Hershel looked back at the boy's wound. "The deer slowed the bullet down, which certainly saved his life. But it did not go through clean. It broke up into pieces." He said, as Otis walked around Ricnk and to Patricia, who was standing behind him. "If I can get the bullet fragments out..and I'm countin six."
"I never saw him...not until he was on the ground."Otis said as he came to Patricia, who hugged him.
"Lori doesn't know." Rick said as he looked out over the room.
"Shh, shh. I know." Shane said as he let out a breath. He put his arm over Rick's shoulders as the man started crying. So did Michael.
"My wife doesn't know. My wife doesn't know." Rick said, bringing his hand up to cover his eyes.
"Shh, shh." Shane said as he pulled Rick closer to him, leaning his head against his. "You've got to stay with him." He whispered into Rick's ear. "You've gotta stay."
"It's gonna be okay, Rick. It's gonna be okay." Michael whispered also.
The Forest
The others were still looking for survivors if they find any. They then heard a gunshot and find the direction the sound it was coming from.
"You still worrying about it?" Andrea said to Lori, interrupting them. She'd turned around to see the woman lagging behind. Everyone stopped where they were and looked at the woman. Lori was a few feet away from everyone at the very end of the group, looking back towards the direction they'd just come from.
"It was a gunshot." Lori said without turning around.
"We all heard it." Daryl said as he looked briefly at Merle.
Lori turned around to look at the two. "Why one? Why just one gunshot?"
Daryl looked out into the trees around the group before he looked at the woman and slightly shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe they took down a walker." He looked back out into the woods again.
"Please don't patronize me. You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker. Or Shane. Or Mikey. They'd do it quietly." Lori said, looking at him before turning around.
"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" Carol asked looking around at the group, all of them thinking the same thing the woman had just voiced.
"I'm not liking the sound of that gunshot. It can't be one of them officers." Merle said.
"You think it was somebody else?" Amy asked as Merle nodded.
Daryl took a few steps towards them. "There's nothin we can do about it anyway. Can't run around these woods chasin echoes."
"So what do we do?" Lori turned back towards him.
"Same as we've been. Look for any survivors, work our way back to the highway."
"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the RV." Andrea said.
Everyone kept walking. Searching for any survivors.
The Farm
"Why'd I let him come with us?" Rick asked. He, Michael and Shane were sitting on a couch in the living room of the Greene's house. "I should have sent him with Lori."
Shane shook his head. "You know, you start that, you'll never get that monkey off your back." They were quiet for a few seconds.
"Go into the forest. Looking for survivors. Simple. Carl got shot because I wouldn't cut bait. It should be me in there." Rick said.
Shane rubbed at his eyes with his hand before he chuckled. "You've been there, partner. Right? And you pulled through. So will he."
"Is that why I got out of that hospital? Found my family for it to end here like this? This some kind of sick joke?" Risk started to raise his voice as he got upset.
"Shh." Shane quieted him. "You stop it. Just stop."
"Rick, don't ever think that what happened to Carl is your fault. It's not your fault." Michael said.
Rick took a breath. "Go into the forest...looking for survivors. It's plain and simple."
Rick, Michael and Shane looked to the bedroom door on the side of the room they were in when they heard it pull open quickly.
"Rick." Maggie said from the doorway. The three men quickly got up and made their way to the door. "He needs blood." She said as they walked in.
Carl's crying and groaning filled the room as Hershel tried to fish out the bullet fragments. The boy had started to wake right as he started.
"You, hold him down." Hershel said as he looked at Shane.
"Dad!" Carl cried.
"I got him." Shane said, pushing around Patricia who was holding the boy down as best she could. He rested his arm on the boy's chest, using his weight to hold him down as Patricia got up and walked to the other side of the bed Rick and Hershel were on. "Shh, shh, shh." Shane kept repeating as Carl cried and screamed. Patricia was cleaning off the site on Rick's arm where she would stick the needle to begin drawing blood. Michael is looking at Carl. Upset that the boy is in terrible pain.
Hershel stuck his surgical forceps into the wound on Carl's abdomen, grabbing at the bullet fragment again, trying to pull it to the surface. "Almost there." Hershel said, pulling another scream from the boy as he pushed against Shane.
"Stop!" Rick yelled as he listened to his son scream. "You're killin him!"
"Rick, do you want him to live?" Hershel said as he tried to put the forceps back into the wound as Carl struggled, pulling at the bed sheets.
"He needs blood." Patricia said, grabbing for Rick's arm again.
"Do it now!" Shane yelled as he looked at them.
Rick looked at Patricia, letting her take his arm again as they all listened to Carl crying. She quickly stuck the needle in his arm.
Carl looked at Shane with another grunt as he tried to push away. Shane pulled his arm back enough to run his hand over the boy's head, trying to soothe him when he stopped crying, his head falling limply to the side.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait." Shane quietly said, panicked, causing Rick to turn around. "Wait. Wait. Hey." Shane said, looking at Carl before looking to Hershel.
"He just passed out." Hershel assured him. He reached the forceps back into the wound more easily without the boy struggling, and pulled out the bullet fragment. "One down..." Hershel said as he held up the fragment with the forceps. He let it fall into the metal kidney basin with a clink. "Five to go."
After Hershel put a bandage on the boy's wound and secured it with surgical tape, Patricia started getting him ready for the blood transfusion Rick was providing.
Hershel was checking his blood pressure after awhile of replacing the blood he'd lost. He was using his stethoscope and letting the air hiss out of the small mercury sphygmomanometer he had on the bed. "Pressure's stable." He said as Patricia leaned over to make sure the small tubes for the transfusion were secure on Carl's arm.
"Lori needs to be here." Rick said from his seat in the chair next to Carl's bed. "She doesn't even know what's going on. I've gotta go find her. Bring her back."
"You can't do that." Hershel said.
"She's his mother." Rick said with a stern tone. "She needs to know what's happened. Her son's lying here shot." He held his hand out to his boy in the bed next to him while shaking his head.
"And he's going to need more blood. He can't go more than 50 feet from this bed." Hershel looked across the room to Shane and Michael by the window. The men briefly put their hands up and nodded their heads. We got it.
Patricia helped a shaky Rick to his feet, trying to hold him up. Shane walked in front of him. "Hey. Hey. Come on." He said as he gently took hold of Rick's arm to help him. Michael came to help Rick also.
"I'm all right. I'm all right." Rick patted Shane's chest before slowly making his way to the door.
Shane looked at Hershel before following him out. "We got him."
Rick opened the door up and started walking back out into the living area they had been sitting in before. He used the wall a bit to steady himself and made his way to a chair where he sat down. Michael stood next to him. Maggie, who was sitting in the living room with Otis, sat up straighter in her chair, waiting for any word on the boy. Rick didn't say anything so she looked towards Shane as he shut the door behind them. He leaned up against the wall outside of the room Carl was in. "He's stable for now."
"Lori needs to be here guys, she has to know." Rick said, looking up to his friends/brothers from his chair.
"Okay. We get that. We're gonna handle it." Shane said, nodding at him. "But you gotta handle your end."
Rick furrowed his brow. "My-my end?"
Shane pulled the legs of his pants up slightly so he could squat down next to Rick more comfortably. "Your end is being here for your son. Even if he didn't need your blood to survive, there is no way we'd ever let you walk out that door. Man, we'd break your legs if you tried. I mean, you know that, right?" He said as he looked at him.
Rick didn't reply. He just looked away from Shane and looked at the floor between his legs.
"If something happened to him and you weren't here..." Shane started. He had to stop at just the thought of the boy he loved, dying. He looked down at the ground in front of him before looking back to Rick, who was rubbing at his eyes. "If-If he slipped away while you were gone, you would never forgive yourself for that. And neither would Lori, man."
Rick kept his fingers pressed to his eyes. He finally sat back up and looked at him as he nodded. "You're right."
"When was I ever wrong?" Shane raised his eyebrows with a smirk before he laughed. He rested his elbow on his knee and brought his hand up to his mouth to cover his smile a bit. Rick smiled back at him before he turned and looked out over the living room ahead of him. Michael smiled also.
"You know, when-" Shane said, bringing his hand from his mouth to his forehead and lightly resting it there. He looked at the floor, remembering something. "when you were in that hospital, the one you were never supposed to leave, man, you shoulda seen Lori." Shane said, resting both hands out in front of him now as the men looked at each other. He scooted closer to Rick. "She was like...the strength of that woman..." He laughed. "You can't imagine it." Rick nodded as Shane put his hand on his shoulder. "See-see that's what you've gotta have now. I mean, Carl- he needs that from you. So you wire yourself tight, my brother." Shane whispered to him.
"Hmm?"
"You hear?" Shane said as he brought his hand up to Rick's head, holding his forehead to his. Rick did the same. "You've got the hard part. You just leave the rest to me and Mikey, okay?"
"All right."
"All right." Shane said as they pulled away.
The door to Carl's room opened as Shane stood up, giving Hershel room to walk out. Everyone in the room stood and watched, waiting, as Hershel wiped his hands on the cloth he had.
"He's out of danger for the moment." The old man said. "But I need to remove those remaining fragments."
"How? You saw how he was." Rick said, shaking his head.
"I know, and that was the shallowest one." Hershel said. "I need to go deeper to get the others."
"Oh, man." Shane sighed as Rick looked away.
"There's more."
"Tell me." Rick said as he looked back to the man.
"His belly's distended, his pressure is droppin, which means there's internal bleedin. A fragment musta nicked one of the blood vessels." Everyone was quiet for a second as they took in the new information. Rick, who's face was already pale from the blood he'd given, somehow turned even lighter. "I have to open him up, find the bleeder and stitch it. And he can't move while I'm in there- I mean, at all. If he reacts the same as before, I'll sever an artery and he'll be dead in minutes...To even try this, I have to put him under. But if I do, he won't be able to breathe on his own. Same bad results."
Rick looked around the room briefly. "What'll it take?"
"You need a respirator." Otis said as he stepped closer to them. "What else?"
"The tube that goes with it, extra surgical supplies, drapes, sutures." Hershel answered as he looked at him.
"If you had all that you could save him?" Rick asked.
Hershel looked back at him. "If I had all that, I could try."
"Nearest hospital went up in flames a month ago." Otis shook his head a bit. Hershel looked at him with a knowing expression. "The high school." Otis said as he understood.
"That's what I was thinkin. They set up a FEMA shelter there. They would have everything we need." Hershel explained to the new comers.
"Place was overrun last time I saw it. You couldn't get near it. Maybe it's better now." Otis said, unsure.
Shane nodded a little at the thought. Maybe. "I said, leave the rest to me. Is it too late to take that back?" He smirked a little.
"I hate you goin alone." Rick said as he looked at his friend/brother.
"He not going alone, Rick. I'm going with you, Shane." Michael said.
"Alright." Shane smiled. "Doc, why don't you do us a list and draw us a map?"
"You won't need a map...I'll take you both there. Ain't but five miles."
"Otis, no." Patricia said with a stern tone, shaking her head from the doorway to Carl's room.
"Honey, we don't have time for guesswork and I'm responsible. I ain't gonna sit here while these fellas takes this on by themselves." He tilted his head towards Shane and Michael as he looked at his wife. "I'll be all right."
"Are you sure about this?" Shane asked the man.
"You two even know what any of the stuff he's talking about looks like?" Otis smiled at them a little.
"Come to think, no."
"I've been a volunteer EMT. I do. We can talk about this till next Sunday or we could just go do it real quick."
"We'll take right quick."
"I should thank you." Rick said as he looked at Otis. Despite him being the one that got them in this situation, he was risking his life for his boy if the high school was still overrun.
Otis looked at him. "Wait till that boy of yours is up and around. Then we'll talk. I'll gather some things." He said as he walked away.
Rick, Michael and Shane looked at each other as Maggie made her way across the room to Rick. "Where is she, your wife?" She asked.
The Forest
Daryl turned towards the group, that was now stopped slightly behind them. "We'll lose the light before too long. I think we should call it."
Lori looked out into the forest ahead of them. "Let's head back."
They all head back towards the highway.
The Farm
"Just get what you need and get out of there." Rick said, putting a hand on Shane's shoulder as they all walked out to the blue pickup truck he, Michael and Otis would be taking into town.
"You stay strong all right?" Shane said to him as he and Michael loaded their bags into the back of the truck.
Patricia made her way around the back and hugged Otis tightly, sobbing into his shoulder.
Rick took his Magnum Colt Python out of it's holster and held it in his hand as he walked around the truck towards Otis and Patricia, who pulled away from each other. Rick held his gun out to the man.
Otis looked down at it then to Hershel before taking the gun from Rick. "That's a fine weapon, Rick. I'll bring it back in good shape." He nodded at him and walked to the back of the truck, putting the gun into his bag and grabbing his Remington 700 BDL rifle. Shane hit his hand on the bed of the truck a couple times, letting him know he and Michael was ready to get going.
Michael hopped in the boot of the truck. Otis looked at Patricia one more time as they got into the truck. Otis set his rifle in between he and Shane so that it was leaning against the seat. Shane looked down at the weapon. The same gun that had shot Carl. He looked up at Otis who realized what the man was thinking. Otis nodded. "Only one I got."
Shane let out a breath and shook his head a tiny bit as he rested his arm on the door. Otis started the engine. "Man, this turned into one strange day." Shane said.
"Didn't it though?"
Patricia watched the blue truck go down the dirt driveway. She turned and started walking towards the house as she shook her head.
Hershel put his hand on Rick's arm. "Let's check on your boy."
The Forest
Daryl and Merle were in front of the small group, walking back in the direction of the cars as the sun was setting around them. The group was spread out behind them as they walked at a leisurely pace.
"How much farther?" Lori asked.
"Not much. Maybe 100 yards..as the crow flies." Daryl said, keeping his eyes ahead of him.
"Too bad we're not crows." Andrea said. She started venturing away from the group a bit.
They walked like that for a little while, Andrea several yards away. She could still see them so didn't bother coming closer again. No one noticed she had walked off by herself as the group was spread out a little as it was. She climbed over a fallen tree and kept walking. Right into a very large spider web. "Oh..Oh!" She said in disgust, trying to brush the webbing off of her clothes. She started walking again as she threw the web to the ground. "As the crow flies, my ass." She said as she walked through the tall grass. The sound of low growling made her turn around. She screamed at the sight of a Walker. It had been standing behind a tree and moved towards her as she went by. It tried to grab at her shoulders as she screamed and backed up.
The group stopped, looking around at the sound of screaming.
"Andrea?" Lori yelled as she spun around, not seeing the woman. Daryl took off in the direction he heard the screams and the rest of the group followed.
Andrea tried to shove the Walker away, slicing the knife at it's chest as she pushed against it, but it kept coming. It grabbed onto her shoulders again as she pushed it back, leaving her knife jammed in it's chest in the process. She kept backing up and tripped over a large branch on the ground. She landed on her back as the Walker kept coming towards her. She scooted back with her hands and feet as it stepped over the branch that sent her to the ground. "Help me!" She yelled between her screams as the Walker tried to grab her legs. She kept pushing herself back away from it, but it was faster now that she wasn't on her feet. It tried to grab her again as she put her feet up on it's chest, trying to hold it back as the group ran towards her. She pushed her legs out as much as she could against the Walker, trying to keep it from grabbing her until the group made it to her.
Andrea could hear the sound of heavy hooves to her left, the Walker hearing it too, as it looked in the direction of the noise. It stood up slightly, only to be greeted with a baseball bat to the head as a woman on a horse ran by. The Walker fell to the ground from the force of the hit. The woman pulled the reins back and turned the horse around as she came back over to Andrea who was still lying on the ground.
"Lori? Lori Grimes?" She asked as she looked down at Andrea. "Whoa." She said, pulling the reins again to stop the horse.
The group ran up at that moment. "I'm Lori."
"Rick sent me." Maggie said as she looked at the woman who spoke up. "You've gotta come now."
"What?" Lori looked at her confused. Who was this girl? She'd never seen her in her life.
"There's been an accident. Carl's been shot. He's still alive but you've gotta come now." Maggie said as Lori looked at her with wide eyes, not sure what to do. "Rick needs you. Just come." Maggie said, tilting her head to the horse's back.
Lori quickly started taking off her back bag and handed it to Merle, making Daryl look at her. He put his crossbow in his other hand as he held his arm out, pointing towards Maggie. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. We don't know this girl. You can't get on that horse."
Lori ignored him and put her foot into the stirrup of the saddle as Maggie helped her up. "Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl?" She said.
"Uh-huh." Glenn nodded.
"Backtrack to Fairburn Road. Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailbox. The name's Greene. Hyah!" Maggie said as she gave the horse a kick and sent it running in the direction she'd come from.
The group stood there and watched the two ride off, a little unsure of what the hell just happened. The Walker that Maggie had hit with the bat sat up, wheezing and groaning as the group looked at it.
"Shut up." Daryl said as he raised his crossbow and nonchalantly pulled the trigger, sending a bolt into it's head before he just walked off.
The Highway
"Shot? What do you mean shot?" Dale asked as the group made their way back up the hill. He walked closer to the guard rail as Glenn climbed over it.
"I don't know, Dale. I wasn't there. All I know is this chick rode out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori."
Dale looked at Daryl as he and Merle climbed over the guard rail with Carol and Sophia. "You let her?"
"Climb down outta my ass, old man." Daryl said, looking at him before walking past. "Rick sent her. She knew Lori's name and Carl's."
Carol sat down on the guard rail with Sophia as Amy and Andrea climbed over. Dale looked at Andrea. She had dirt smeared on her face and clothing. "I heard screams. Was that you?" Andrea didn't look at him. She and Amy walked past him and towards the RV.
"She got attacked by a Walker. It was a close call." Glenn said.
"Andrea, are you all right?" Dale asked as he looked from Glenn over to her.
She got to the door of the RV and turned around to look at him. "Yeah. I'm fine." She said as she and Amy enter the RV.
The Farm
Rick walked out onto the porch of the Greene's house, looking out at the land. If he hadn't known any better, he would've thought it was just another normal day out in the Georgia country side. The screen door opened again as Hershel walked out and over towards him.
"This place is beautiful." Rick said to him as they looked out over the yard and fields ahead of them.
"Been in my family 160 years." Hershel said.
"I can't believe how serene it is. How untouched. You're lucky."
"We weren't completely unscathed. We lost friends, neighbors. The epidemic took my wife, my stepson."
"I'm sorry." Rick said.
"My daughter's were spared. I'm grateful to God for that...These people here, all we've got left is each other. Just hoping we can ride it out in peace till there's a cure."
Rick let out a breath. "We were at the CDC. It's-it's gone now. There is no cure." Rick said as he looked at the old man.
"I don't believe it." Hershel shook his head and smiled. "When AIDS came along, everyone panicked. One boy in town came down with it and some parents pulled their children from school so they didn't have to sit in the same room."
"This is a whole other thing." Rick shook his head as he turned to face the man.
"That's what we always say- 'This one's different.'"
"Well, this one is."
Hershel smiled again. "Mankind's been fightin plagues from the start. We get our behinds kicked for a while then we bounce back. It's nature correctin herself, restorin some balance."
Rick raised his eyebrows. "I wish I could believe that."
They both looked out to the field in front of the house as they heard the sound of hooves hitting hard ground. They saw Maggie and the horse galloping towards them, Lori sitting behind her, holding on to the young woman's waist.
Rick walked down the steps as they got closer. Maggie slowed the horse to a stop and Lori quickly hopped down as Rick walked over to her. Her eye's widened at all the blood still on his shirt. She started sobbing as he grabbed her, pulling her to his chest as she wrapped her arms around him. Rick held her tight for a few seconds before he started backing up and they both turned towards the house.
"I'm sorry." Rick said when Lori put her hand on his chest as they stopped in the doorway of the room Carl was in. Lori's mouth fell open at the sight of her son, lying unconscious, a bandage taped to his stomach. Rick held her close to him again as he kissed the side of her head. She took a shaky breath as she walked away from him and further into the room, climbing onto the bed.
She put her hands on either side of Carl's face and looked at him before she readjusted herself and laid down beside him. She put her hand on his bare shoulder. "My boy." She quietly sobbed. "My baby boy. Baby boy. It's okay." She whispered as Rick walked over to them. "Mama's here. Mama's here. You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay." She nodded her head, trying to convince herself that, more than anybody. "We're gonna make you okay." She said as she reached behind her and grabbed Rick's other hand. He had placed his other on her hip as he stood next to them. He rested his hands against her as he knelt down and laid his forehead against the mattress.
Patricia was putting bandages over both Carl and Rick's arms again after another transfusion. Rick had taken his bloody sheriff's shirt off, only donning the white t-shirt he had on underneath now. He tried to get up from his chair as he groaned, his stomach doing flips.
"Slow. Slow." Lori said as she put her hands on his shoulders, sitting him back down. "How many transfusions?"
"Two. Only two."
"He wanted to do the same for you when you were in the hospital. I had to talk him out of it." Lori laughed. Rick smiled a little as he held her hand.
Lori helped him walk as they made their way to the dining room. Hershel met them there and held out a glass of fresh orange juice to Rick.
"Thank you." He said as he took it and brought it to his lips. He took a sip before bringing the glass back down, but Hershel raised his hand, urging him to drink more.
"Okay, so I understand, when Shane and Mikey gets back with this other man-" Lori started, leaning against the chair in front of her.
"Otis." Hershel said.
"Otis. The idiot who shot my son." Lori looked way.
"Ma'am, it was an accident."
"I'll take that under advisement later. For now he's the idiot who shot our son." She said as Rick put his hand over hers.
"Lori, they're doin everything they can to make it right." He said.
"Okay, so as soon as they get back you can perform this surgery?" She asked.
"I'll certainly do my best." Hershel said.
"Okay. You've done this procedure before?" Lori nodded at him.
"Well, yes, in a sense."
"In a sense?"
"Honey, we don't have the luxury of shopping for a surgeon." Rick said to her.
Lori let out a nervous laugh as she rested her other hand on top of his. "No, I understand that. But I mean you're a doctor, right?"
Hershel nodded. "Yes, ma'am. Of course. A vet."
"A veteran? A combat medic?" Lori raised her eyebrows, almost impressed.
"A veterinarian."
All amusement vanished from her face as the words came from his mouth. She didn't know what to say as she looked at Rick. "And you've done this..surgery before on what?" She said as she looked back at Hershel. "Cows? Pigs?"
Rick pulled the chair that was next to him out as he started to feel his head spin. "I- I have- I have to sit." He stuttered as he very, unharmoniously, fell down into the chair, knocking his glass of orange juice all over the table. Lori quickly grabbed the glass, sitting it upright before bringing her hands to her husband's shoulders, trying to steady him as he sat up straight.
"Completely in over your head, aren't you?" Lori said quietly as she looked at Hershel across the table. Rick was concentrating on taking deep breaths.
Hershel looked at her. "Ma'am..aren't we all?"
Shane, Michael and Otis made their way towards the high school.
"Shh-shh-shh!" They got down by some cars. "Okay, let's take a look." They looked over to see the whole place surrounded by walkers.
"You see that big mobile medical trailer across the way?" Otis whispered.
Shane looks at the trailer. "That's where we gotta get to?" Shane asked.
"Yeah." Otis took a breath.
The Highway
"Alright. I say we all head to that farm." Daryl said to the group.
"I agreed. We have to find this farm, reconnect with our people and see what's going on. But most important, we have to get T-Dog there. This is not an option." Dale said. Carol looked around, finally noticing T-Dog hadn't joined them. They all laid their eyes on the man as they found him. He was sitting on the RV's back bumper, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. He may have been running a fever and be out in the Georgia heat, but now he was complaining that he was cold. "That cut has gone from bad to worse. He has a very serious blood infection." Dale continued. Merle perked up at the word 'infection' glancing back at his motorcycle for a second. He looked back at Dale before he started walking to his bike. "Get him to that farm. See if they have any antibiotics. Because if not, T-Dog will die, no joke." Dale finished. He looked over to where Merle had walked off to.
Merle picked up the rag Dale had left sitting on the bike's seat and looked at the old man before digging into the bag he had on the bike. He pulled out a large zip lock bag full of pills and prescription bottles. He walked back over to the group, throwing the rag in his hands at Dale when he got closer. "Keep your oily rags off my motorcycle." He said as Dale caught the rag when it hit his chest. Merle put the bag of pills down on the hood of Carol's Cherokee as he opened it and started going through it. "Why'd you wait till now to say anything? Got my stash. I can't believe I'm doing this." Merle said as Dale and the others came closer to him. Merle picked up the bottles in the bag, one by one, reading the labels he had either wrote or that they had come with."Crystal, X. Don't need that. Got some kick ass painkillers." He said as he pulled a bottle out and tossed it to Glenn before sticking his hand back in the bag. "Oxycycline." He pulled another bottle out after reading the label. He turned and tossed it to Dale, who caught it. Merle pointed to him. "Not the generic stuff neither. It's first class." Merle said as he picked the bag up and walked back over to the motorcycle to put the rest of the drugs away.
"Merle got the clap on occasion." Daryl said.
Dale smiled as he looked at the antibiotics and over to T-Dog.
The highschool
Shane crawled to the police car door, opened it slowly and pressed a button which popped the trunk which caused Otis to almost have a heart attack, but what they found inside was an intriguing way to distract the walkers.
Small red cylinders. Flares.
As one they lit the flares and threw them as far as they could, once the Walkers were distracted, Michael pocketed a spare flare while they made a break for it; they got across the car park and into the shelter without being spotted. Next, they checked the shelves for the items on their lists, skimming the shelves until they saw the items they sought.
"Oh, here."
"Endotracheal incubator, baby, for my new respirator." Otis said.
"'Atta boy!" After the bags were filled with the necessary items and a fair few medical supplies for Hershel to stock up with, they went to the door and Shane was about to opened it when Michael stopped him.
"Shane wait. They'll see us if you open the door now. But I got an idea. I am going to distract them, you get those supplies back to Herschel, DO NOT let Carl die." Michael said.
"You mean you're going to let them chase you, draw them away from the trailer so me and Otis can head to the truck, get back to the farm and leaving you here? No way, Mikey. I'll do it." Shane said.
"No Shane. I'm faster. You know that." Michael said.
"But-"
"Shane. There's no time or any other way. Herschel needs those supplies now. You guys go back to the farm. Don't worry about me. I'll find a way back. Trust me." Michael said as he looks to Shane. "Alright?"
Shane sigh. "Okay. I love you, little brother " Shane said to Michael.
"I love you, too." Michael said.
Michael slung his shotgun over his shoulder, pulled out his Beretta, grabs the door handle, then opened the door, left it ajar and sprinted down an alley shooting two walkers to get the groups attention, he ran as fast as he could down the side alley by the school's main entrance.
As he turned into the entryway of the school, he saw he was cut off by walkers on the far side, looking around he saw a simple wooden fence which he quickly climbed over and took the opportunity to shoot as many walkers as he could while they diverted to find a way around the fence, he had used up three of his four clips and was reluctant to use his shotgun. So he moved away from the area as fast as he could, the walkers hot on his heels.
By now he had attracted a lot of attention, a ton of walkers were converging on his location as he moved, and shooting any that got in his way.
He moved onto the school's sport field as he drew his katana in one hand while the other held the reloaded Beretta as the walkers approached, he lifted the pistol and fired the pistol rapidly, he had killed a portion of the walkers when the gun clicked empty.
Michael holstered the now useless pistol and gripped the sword with both hands as the remaining walkers closed the gap with surprising speed, Michael started moving backwards as the first approached him which was dispatched with a quick stab to the skull, he repeated this pattern until he was almost to the bleachers, which had been left up since the last game that had been played here long ago.
He climbed to the top while continually cutting and thrusting at the flailing limbs of the walkers in a slow but steady retreat. He moved to the end of the row and seeing that he had attracted their attention long enough, he kicked one down which caused a domino effect, so while they were returning to their feet, he climbed back down the bleachers and ran back to the front of the school.
By now his lungs felt like they were on fire, his breaths came in ragged gasps and legs protested with every step as he ran to the front of the FEMA shelter, he took the spare flare from his pocket and sent it over his shoulder, the walkers went after it instead of him, he saw the police car that Shane had opened; he quickly looked inside and saw the keys abandoned on the floor of the car.
Oh Hell yes! Thought Michael as he started the motor and backed up onto the grass, then threw the car into first and drove like the clappers back to the road.
He drove as fast as he could while keeping the car under control, he breathed hard after running for so long and felt like he was going to pass out. He hopes that Shane and Otis made it back to the farm in time.
That's it for this chapter. As always, read and review. Please give some feedback. And May The Force Be With You!
