The night had come and gone with no sign of the two men that left hours ago. I was heading inside the house to take a break from chopping wood when I saw two new men quietly talking to each other on the porch. When I saw the Asian man from the wood when I got Lori, I knew that they were on the more friendly side of things
I walked up behind them and accidently scared them when I started to speak. "Did you close the gate up the road when you drove in?"
They both jumped and their hands went straight for their weapons. When the Asian guy saw that it was me, his body relaxed a bit. "Yes, we closed it. Did the latch and everything. Hello. Nice to see you again. I'm Glenn, we met before briefly." Glenn cleared his throat. "Look, we came to help. Is there anything we can do?"
I looked at Glenn, then at the Black guy next to him. His arm had blood stained gauze wrapped around it. "It's not a bite." He explained when he saw me eye the bandage. "I cut myself pretty bad, though. I'm T-Dog."
"Vesper." I introduced myself and sat the ax down against the porch railing. "We'll have it looked at. I'll tell 'em y'all are here."
"We have some painkillers and antibiotics. I already gave him some and there's more if Carl needs any." Glenn told me.
"Come on inside. I'll make y'all something to eat." I led them inside the house, glad to be out of the Georgia sun for a bit. Glenn and T-Dog went over to Rick and Lori, and I made a beeline for the kitchen after telling Uncle Hershel about T-Dog's arm.
My goal right now is to avoid people and make food. I didn't want to deal with another reunion, and Otis and Shane still aren't back yet with the medical supplies that are needed to take the rest of the fragments out. And even though I've been out of the house for a few hours, I knew that if they didn't get back soon, Uncle Hershel will have to do the surgery or else the boy will die.
Maggie and Beth soon joined me in the kitchen to help me cook. Just like when we were younger, Beth gathered supplies and washed off anything that needed to be washed; I cut up and peeled the food; and Maggie stood at the stove cooking whatever needed to be cooked. It was an efficient system that nobody dared to interfere with. It also brought us a sense of normalcy in this twisted ass world.
Once we were done cooking, the three of us decided to divide and conquer. I had Beth take some food to Patricia and Jimmy. Maggie took two plates over to the newcomers. And I took food over to Lori, Rick, and Uncle Hershel.
The couple accepted the food and Uncle Hershel just sat it down next to him. Whenever he was in his 'doctor mode' he usually sat food to the side, but he always made sure to eat when he deemed everything to be okay with his patient.
A little voice asking where he was pulled me from my thoughts. "Hey, little man." Rick sat his plate to the side and went over to his son. "This is Hershel and Vesper. We're at their house. You had an accident, alright?"
Carl whimpered in pain when he shifted around a little bit in the bed. "It hurts, a lot."
"Oh, baby, I know. I know." Lori was quick to join her husband's and her son's side.
"The deer. It was so pretty, Mom. It was so close. I've never been..." His voice trailed off and his eyes rolled back in his head. Shit, he was having a seizure.
"Carl?" Rick called out to him. The same fear that he held in his eyes the day before returned. Lori tried holding Carl's arms as she asked what was happening.
I gently grabbed Rick and Lori's arms, pulling them away from the bed. "Don't. It's a seizure. If you hold him down, you could end up hurting him."
Lori started to cry. "You can't stop it?"
"He just has to go through it. His brain isn't getting enough blood." Uncle Hershel took the stethoscope out of his ears and quickly released the pressure on the blood pressure cuff. "His blood pressure is bottoming. He needs another transfusion."
Rick stepped away from Lori and I, pulled up a chair next to the bed and sat down with his arm stretched out. "Okay, I'm ready."
"If I take any more out of you, your body could shut down. You could go into a coma. Or cardiac arrest."
Lori turned into me as she cried. I awkwardly hugged her, telling her everything will be alright. Instead of stopping her crying like I hopped she would, she just cried harder. Uncle Hershel finally gave in and started up another transfusion with Rick.
After a few moments, Lori's crying subsided enough for me to lead her out of the room. I sat her down in the living room where the others were and left to go get her some water. It was a good thing Rick ate some food before giving more of his blood.
When I joined the others again, I noticed Patricia had just finished stitching up T-Dog. "You got here right in time. This couldn't go untreated much longer." She grabbed hold of a pill bottle and read the name that was on it. "'Merle Dixon'. Is that your friend with the antibiotics?"
The name 'Merle Dixon' rang a very large bell. Before The Fall, I was into street fighting and Merle Dixon was a bit of a friend and someone that I was up against quite often. It was a bit of a tit-for-tat situation between us. I kicked his ass, he kicked mine, and it just went back and forth. Last time we fought each other, I won.
"No, ma'am." Glenn shook his head with a look of guilt on his face. "Merle's no longer with us. Daryl gave us those... His brother."
Well shit. It looks like I won't be fighting him again...
"Not sure I'd call him a friend." T-Dog muttered.
Patricia sighed. "He is today. This Doxycycline might have just saved your life. You know what Merle was taking it for?"
"The clap." The way Glenn said those words caused me to choke on my spit and bite back back a smile. "Um, venereal disease." He corrected himself. "That's what Daryl said."
The next words to come out of Patricia's mouth was more than enough for me to quickly get up and excuse myself back outside. "I'd say Merle Dixon's clap was the best thing to ever happen to you."
The front door slammed behind me as I quickly grabbed the ax that I was using earlier as I sped off the porch. My laughter started to slip out against my will, making me walk back faster to the piles of wood. I know laughing about that particular situation isn't funny, but goddamn! The same man that constantly hit on me and fought with on a regular basis was taken down a notch by the clap.
It took me a good hot minute to stop laughing, but even as I kept chopping wood, I thought back to it and laughed some more. Oh, I am so going to Hell.
Shane had made it back, but without Otis. Shane had said something about Otis covering him while Shane kept going, but I knew that that was a load of bullshit. I've known Otis for most of my life and he wasn't exactly the one to sacrifice himself. One time we were taking the trash out in the middle of the night because I accidently forgot to during the day, and we had encountered a racoon... Long story short, he ditched a thirteen year old and even the racoon was shocked.
Patricia had no clue about his death, as per Uncle Hershel's request, but word got around to me, Maggie, Beth, and even Jimmy. I would've been outside with them, but I insisted on helping the two adults with Carl's surgery. Besides, Beth and Jimmy were consoling each other, and Glenn was consoling Maggie. Me on the other hand, I prefer to keep my hands busy than dwell on emotions.
It took a about an hour for the last five bullet fragments to come out, but we were thankfully able to get it done without a hitch. They were all fairly close to each other so there was very little digging around needed.
Uncle Hershel went out to tell Rick and Lori the news while Patricia and I stayed behind to clean up. "You did good, Vesper." Patricia told me with a small smile on her face. She was ecstatic that everything went well.
"Thanks. You did good, too." I avoided looking her in her eyes knowing what news will come next. I tried to think of ways to avoid the eventual onslaught of tears, but I don't think there's any way of justifying my potential absence. It was easy with my cousins because of the surgery, but now that the surgery was done...
She took my hands in hers when it became noticeable that my hands were shaking. Even though Otis and I had our disputes, especially over hunting, he was like a weird older brother to me - and Patricia, like a weird older sister. "Hey, it's alright. Carl's going to live. He just needs some time to recover."
"No, I- I know." I sighed. "It's just... It feels like everything's hitting me at once, ya know. Like, ever since my dad died, it feels like things just went downhill. First it was him, then Aunt Jose, Aunt Annette, Shawn... I already knew life was... fickle at best, but these past two days put everything into a new perspective."
Patricia pulled me into her arms. Usually I would try to avoid situations like this, but instead I tightly hugged her back. A few tears escaped from my eyes as I allowed myself to be comforted by her. I counted each tick that the clock on the wall made. After forty-five ticks, I pulled myself away from her embrace with a shaky sigh. I gave her a small smile before getting back to work.
We meticulously cleaned and dried the tools that were used. My mind wandered as I watched the bloody water go down the drain. It was weird seeing somebody else's blood stain the water; usually it was my blood turning water red in an extremely shady public bathroom.
I had just started to dry my hands off when Uncle Hershel, Rick, and Lori walked into the kitchen with sad looks on their faces. Lori stopped in the doorway while the other two kept walking towards the Patricia and I. Patricia's face lit up when she saw them, still riding on the wave of happiness of Carl's successful surgery. But the joy was quickly replaced with agony and despair when Uncle Hershel told her about Otis. Her grasp on the kitchen counter slipped as she fell to floor and I was quick to go down with her. I held her as she cried into my shoulder, consoling her like she did with me not too long ago.