BLOODLETTING PART 2

Natasha pressed her back to the stair railing and tucked her legs close to her chest. She turned her steely gray eyes up and looked out across the gold and green pasture that surrounded the farm, untouched and unspoiled by the death plague that covered Atlanta. It felt surreal to her, like everything she's been through up till now didn't even happen. The peaceful illusion was instantly spoiled though once she looked at her heavy green coat laying across her lap.

The blood didn't go away even after washing it and leaving it out to dry. There was now a permanent stain on Natasha's coat. A faint blotch of redness that ran from her left sleeve all the way to the back. It felt like she went under an obsessive trance while trying to get rid of the stains. She would've scrubbed her skin off too if Maggie didn't step in and snap her out of it.

Natasha continued to sit there, perfectly still and silent until a large hand grasped her shoulder from behind, causing her to jump. She turned her head around frantically and saw that it was Otis who came out.

"You alright there?" he asked.

Natasha huffed and briefly looked back to the pasture. "Could be better…but could we all." She tossed her coat up on the railing and stood up. "Has either Rick or Shane come out of the room yet?"

"No. Not yet, but it's best that you come back inside in case they do. Come on." He gestured for her to follow, and they headed back inside the house where Maggie was waiting in the living room, nothing but a bundle of nerves like the rest of them were.

They all sat there for who knows how long until both Rick and Shane emerged from Carl's room. Rick looked worse than before and was still devastatingly pale, from both shock, dread, and lack of blood. He looked like death worn over twice. There wasn't a time within Natasha's memories that she had ever seen him look this deprived before, and it was honestly painful to see him that way.

"How is he?" Natasha said, speaking up first before any other.

"He's stable for now," Shane answered gruffly.

For the first time in probably two or more hours, Natasha finally let out a breath, but only the smallest kind. She was still riddled with endless stress that wouldn't allow her body to feel relaxed. She sucked in a deep breath and nodded her head slowly. "Alright…but what are we going to do about Lori? We can't just leave her out of the loop. She has to know."

"Nat, I hear you…and I'm going to handle it," Shane assured her.

Rick instantly recoiled at the sound of that. "But…I…I can," he sputtered out before Natasha spoke up.

"You're not going to do anything, Rick," she said to him firmly. "The only thing you're going to do is sit there and stay with your son."

"Even if he didn't need your blood to survive, I'm sure neither Nat or I would let you walk out that door," Shane said with a worn-down smile. "Man, I'd break your legs if you tried. I mean, you know that, right? If something happened to him and you weren't here…If-if he slipped away while you were gone, you would never forgive yourself for that, and neither would Lori, man."

Rick sucked in a shaky breath and bow his head, slowly nodding it to agree with them. "You're right? Both of you." He looked back up and not only met Natasha's gaze but also saw the state she was in. Pale with worry and trembling with dread. She didn't look as bad as he did, but he could tell that the situation was tormenting her mind. "Natasha, I…thank you," he said as sincerely as he could to try and lessen that burden she had placed on herself.

A faint hint of a smile tugged at the corner of Natasha's mouth as she got up and walked over to him. She kneeled down in front of Rick and reached out gently for his hands, gripping one of them tightly and patting his shoulder with the other. "It's common knowledge, man. Take care of your family first," she said this to him like it was an order, and all Rick could do was nod.

Soon after, Hershel finally came out of the room and drew everyone's eyes towards him. And with some struggle, Rick stood up to address him.

"He's out of danger for the moment, but I need to remove those remaining fragments," Hershel relayed to him.

"How? You saw how he was," Rick said.

"I know, and that was the shallowest one. I need to go deeper to get the others."

Rick starts to feel his stomach bubble with stress all over again. He bowed his head and swallowed hard. "Oh, man…" he muttered.

"There's more," Hershel said.

"Tell me."

"His Belly's distended, his pressure's dropping, which means there's internal bleeding. A fragment must have nicked one of the blood vessels. 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."

Natasha's frown deepened while slowly taking in the information. "So…you need a respirator or something?"

"That's actually what he needs," Otis said, now realizing. "What else?"

At that moment, Natasha reached into her bag and pulled out a notepad and pencil. She flipped over a couple of pages and begun to write something down as Hershel named off the things he needed.

"The tube that goes with it, extra surgical supplies, drapes, sutures," he said.

"If you had all that, you could save him?" Rick asked.

"If I had all that, I could try.

"Nearest hospital went up in flames a month ago," Otis recalled, but then a thought quickly crossed his mind. Another option. "The high school."

"That's what I was thinking," Hershel confirmed.

"What does the school have?" Natasha asked while looking up from her notepad.

"A FEMA shelter. They set it up there a couple months back. They would have everything we need," he answered.

"Place was overrun last time I saw it," Otis said grimly. "You couldn't get near it."

"Not unless you were me," Natasha calmly spoke, making everyone in the room tense up and slowly turn towards her. They saw that she was still writing things down in her notepad, but still looked completely confident in the words she had just spoken.

Rick quickly picked up what she meant by that and shook his head. "Tasha…" he said slowly.

"It's what I'm best at, Rick. You know that. You've seen it." Natasha finally stopped writing and looked up at everyone. She lifted her notepad and showed them that she was already one step ahead and writing down all the things that Hershel needed.

Otis gave her a puzzled look. "Can you really get in there?"

"If I can survive Atlanta…then I know I can survive this," she said confidently of herself. "It's no walk in the park…but there's also a chance that the crowd must've died down by now. There's no better time than now."

Shane still looked uncertain with the idea of her going alone. "We barely have time, Nat. I'll go with you," he said, immediately causing Natasha to stiffen up and give him a suspicious glance.

She didn't like the thought of going someplace alone with him. She didn't like it at all. Natasha already saw more than she wanted to from him and couldn't help but feel that there was a dark undercurrent beneath his usually reliable exterior.

"I rather you not, Shane. I work faster by myself," she said to try and convince him.

"I don't doubt that. I really don't, but…Carl is on a timer right now, Nat. If more people go with us, then we'll have more of a chance of getting the doc what he needs. I'm not risking it…not with Carl on the line," Shane said in response.

It took everything in Natasha's power to not flat out say no to him because he was more than right. He had a point that she couldn't deny. As much as it will cause her discomfort to be alone with him, she'll still do it if it means Carl gets what he needs.

Natasha clenched her fists tightly and huffed. She could already see no way around his logic and gave in to his request. "Fine, but you have to follow my lead and do exactly what I say. You understand?" she said through gritted teeth.

Shane kept himself composed and nodded his head. "Yes, ma'am."

"Ok. If there's anything else that Hershel needs, let me know now." Natasha then turned her attention to Otis. "You said you knew where the school was, right? Can you draw me up a map?"

"You won't need a map. I'll take you there," he suddenly insisted. Ain't but five miles."

Patricia, his wife, immediately spoke against it. "Otis, no."

"Honey, we don't have time for guesswork and I'm responsible," Otis said. "I ain't gonna sit here while these two risk their lives. I'll be all right."

"Are you sure about this?" Shane asked him.

"Do you even know what any of this stuff looks like?"

"Come to think, no. Nat?" He looked down to Natasha who looked just as clueless as him once it was brought up.

She shook her head. "Not a single clue."

"I was a volunteer EMT. I do," Otis said confidently. "Now, we can talk about this 'till next Sunday, or we can just go and do it really quick."

"Guess we'll take right quick. You alright with this, Nat?" Shane asked.

"We don't have any choices right now, so let's get this done." Natasha made a gesture with her head, and everyone moved at once to start getting ready.

Natasha stepped back out onto the porch and immediately honed her eyes in on her coat. There was a creeping sense of disgust she felt went looking at it, knowing that it was stained with a child's blood. Natasha didn't want to put it back on, and just thinking about it made her skin crawl. Regardless of those feelings though, she still heavily relied on Ben's coat and couldn't imagine surviving long without it. Whether she liked it or not. It was a part of her now.

So with little to no hesitation, Natasha reached for the coat and donned it once more.

Out of the three of them, Natasha was the first to get ready and waited outside on the bed of Otis's blue truck, passing the time by loading her weapons and making sure she had everything she needed for a quick in-and-out run. Ammo, knives, her coat, and etc. The only thing left was Shane and Otis, who were finally coming out of the house with the rest of the equipment.

"We good to go?" she asked Shane.

He nodded. "As good as we'll ever be. You riding in the back?"

"Yeah."

"Then take these." On his way by, he tossed her three empty bags that they were going to use to carry the medical supplies.

"Tasha," Rick suddenly called out while walking over to her. "I just…want to thank you real quick…before you leave." He wished he could have said a thousand words of thanks for her but didn't even know where to start. They were short on time too, so that was all he could muster to say. "You didn't even hesitate to take this job and was already making a list to go."

"Some people have to do the hard job, but at least I'm not alone this time." Natasha gave him a weary smile before holding her hand out. "I'll see you when we all get back."

"You better." He grabbed her hand and shook it one last time.

Rick backed away from the truck as Otis and Shane hopped in the front and started the engine up. He waved his hand at Natasha as the truck began to pull out of the driveway and head towards the direction of the school. Yet, as Natasha got farther and farther away from view, Rick couldn't help but feel something grow within his stomach. An off-putting sensation that made a cold and sharp chill run down his spine.