Well shit, we're here. Time to get back on the writing. I hope you enjoyed the last chapter, and I hope you guys are enjoying this story. Also, thank you to elljayde and Miss Luny for favouriting this story, welcome to the little community. Let's get to it! Disclaimer I don't own The Walking Dead just my ocs and plotlines.
A girl walks inside the bustling diner, seeing the guy she was looking for in the back, drinking coffee. She sits down and raises her brow at the man.
"Money first." He states firmly.
The girl sighs before digging an envelope out of her pocket and slides it over.
He smirks as he opens it, a smug look on his face appears when he sees the right amount of cash. He looks in his bag and slides over a folder. "All I could find." He says before walking away.
A young Callie is looking at the file, the tiny ass file that she paid a lot for. 20 years was a long time without meeting her family.
She hesitantly opens it, reading the information. A family. Her family, Rick Grimes, he has a son, 9 years old, a wife who was the housewife type, no job. He is a Sheriff's Deputy. She paid this guy to have a lot of information, this was something, she could keep an eye on her family in the meantime. Yes, she had that file that told her about herself, but she needed more information on her family. She needed more.
"Hey there." An old voice greets her, and she looks up to see an old man, wearing overalls, a kind smile on his face.
"Hi." Callie smiles at him. She was wondering why this man was talking to her, did he want something?
"Can I sit?" He asks and she nods, gesturing to the seat opposite her. "Waiting for my daughter. She went on a date with a guy for the first time. She's 14."
"Dating at 14?" Callie narrows her eyes at the man.
The man chuckles."That's what I thought too." He stops chuckling, noticing the file. "I ran away from home at a young age. My father wasn't a good man."
"At least you knew your father." Callie snaps at him, angry at the sudden invasion of privacy.
The two fall silent. Callie notices how the man is, the way he was playing with a pocket watch. The dungarees, a farmer, could be a Christian."You religious?"
The man looks at her, surprise appearing on his face. "Yes. I believe in God. He gifted me my daughters. My step son. My wife."
"That's why I don't believe in God. Why would he punish innocence?" Callie asks him and he nods.
"There is that. I guess he likes to test the strongest in the strangest of ways." He says and he perks up as the diner door rings. "That's my daughter now. Just remember, to never give up. You'll find your way."
Callie looks at the door, to see a young blonde, she was playing with the end of her sleeves, looking around the diner, until her eyes set upon Callie and her father. Definitely a farmer. "What's your name?" Callie asks the man suddenly.
"Hershel Greene. And yours?"
"Callie."
Callie was clutching her side as she ran, Rick was carrying Carl a little further ahead, and Shane was with a big man, the one that shot Carl. Her adrenaline was gone now, she was practically running on fumes.
Rick slows, hoisting a limp Carl, grunting as he does. He turns to the guy, who was breathing heavily like he ran a marathon.
"Come on." Rick cries out in frustration.
Shane grabs a hold of his arm and hoists him up from the ground. "Hey, you move, dickhead! Come on, get us there! How far?"
The guy pants, catching his breath trying to speak.
"How far?" Rick roars, tears streaming down his face, gripping onto Carl like he was his only lifeline at the moment.
"Where?!" Callie screams at the man, and it jolts him back to action.
"Another half mile, that way!" He points and Rick turns and hurries away. "Hershel, talk to Hershel-- he'll help your boy!" He calls after him. "I'm sorry." The man apologises to Callie and she frowns at him.
"You don't need to apologise. I don't care about me." Callie tells him.
Shane grabs him again. "Let's go-- Come on!"
They run after them. She has no idea how she is running right now. Her vision was weird, at times it went fuzzy. She was focusing on one foot in front of the other.
After a mile or two, they end up coming towards a farmhouse. A nice one too.
"Move!" Shane yells, picking up one arm, and Callie picks up the other, heaving the man to the house.
They approach the house when Rick comes out, looking like he doesn't know where he is.
"He's alive-- he's still alive?" The man asks him.
Rick nods before wiping a hand down his face, blood smearing.
"Okay. It's okay." Shane cooed and helps him wipe his face. Rick holds the cloth in his hands, his bloody hands. "You got blood, man."
"Rick." Callie carefully says and approaches the Sheriff's Deputy.
"Here." Callie grabs the cloth from him and wipes his face, cleaning Carl's blood. Oh my god, there's so much of it.
"I'll take it from you." Shane says and takes the cloth from Callie.
Rick starts crying. "Where is he-" he starts before storming into the house, Callie follows and they enter a room.
Callie's eyes widen at seeing the man again, the man helping Carl.
"You know his blood type?" Hershel turns to Rick.
"A positive-- s-same as mine."
"Mine too." Callie confirms and Hershel's eyes fall to her.
"That's fortunate. The pair of you, don't wander far. I'm gonna need you." He orders and smiles warmly at her. "Nice to see you again."
"You too. Sorry about the circumstances." Callie smiles and she could feel everyone's eyes in the room. "Long story."
To her it doesn't matter how they met, that world is long gone.
Hershel looks at the man that shot Carl. "What happened?"
"I was tracking a buck. Bullet went through it. Went clean through."
"It hit Callie here too." Shane adds and Hershel looks at her, the blood patch on her shirt. She was tired now, tired and dizzy. She needed some water.
"The deer slowed the bullet down, which certainly saved his life, add in an adult as well, it gave him better chances. But the bullet, it did not go through clean. It broke up into pieces. If I can get the bullet fragments out... and I'm counting six." Hershel counts as he assesses Carl's body. Who's breathing steadily.
"I never saw him." Callie turns to the man, who was speaking to a woman. "Not until he was on the ground." The woman cups his face and nods reassuringly.
Rick looks at Callie. "Lori doesn't know?"
Callie frowns at that question, and her and Shane share a look. "No, she-
"My wife doesn't know. My wife doesn't know." Rick sobs, and Shane hugs him, practically supporting him up right.
Jeremy's PoV
"You still worrying about it?" Andrea asks Lori as she once again stopped, looking at the way that they came from, away from the church, away from Rick, Shane, Callie and Carl.
Truth was, Jeremy was worried too, just one gunshot, if they were overrun, Callie would use her machetes but there would be Rick and Shane shooting. There would be more.
"It was a gunshot." Lori states worried.
"We all heard it." Amy agrees, standing up for Lori.
Lori whips around to the ground. "Why one- why just one gunshot?"
Jeremy looks at Connor.
"Maybe they took down a walker." Daryl suggests weakly, clearing not believing his own words.
Lori snarls at him. "Please don't patronise me. You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker, or Shane or- or even Callie. They'd do it quietly."
"Shouldn't they have caught up to us by now?" Carol says, making Lori worry even more. Not the time to be saying that. Jeremy's patience was wearing thin with that woman.
Lori goes pale at the thought of something happening to her son or her husband.
"They're probably on their way." Connor says, calming Lori down. Smart kid, calming the fire.
"Yeah, maybe it was someone else out here." Amy suggests and Jeremy didn't think of that.
"There are probably more people out there. Hiding. Surviving. We can't assume there's only us." Summer tells them and Jeremy agrees with her. It is coming from a person that they found on the road.
"There's nothing we can do about it anyway. Can't run around these woods chasing echoes." Daryl puts in.
Lori sucks her teeth. "So, what do we do?"
"Same as we've been. Beat the bush for Sophia, work our way back to the highway." Daryl responds to her, not caring about the snarky attitude the stuck up woman has.
"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the RV." Andrea calms Lori down and she breathes heavily before nodding. Andrea approached Carol, who looks... lost. "I'm sorry for what you're going through. I know how you feel."
Jeremy sees Amy tighten her fist at the words. Clearly everything is still about Andrea and Amy is in the shadows.
"I suppose you do- thank you." Carol smiles at her. "The thought of her, out here by herself..." she trails off, a tear falling down her face. "It's the not knowing that's killin' me. I just keep hopin' and prayin' she doesn't wind up like Aubrey."
Everyone falls silent at that. Jeremy was holding it together to prevent his jaw from dropping open. He never thought Carol was capable of saying that. He quickly looks at Amy, who looks like a ghost, she looks sick, and a hint of anger in her eyes. She looks ready to kill Carol.
Carol gasps. "Oh god! That's the worst thing I ever said." She covers her mouth with her hands, tears in her eyes.
Andrea gathers herself together. "We're all hoping and praying with you, for what it's worth."
"I'll tell ya what it's worth- not a damn thing. It's a waste of time, all this hop in' and prayin'."
"Daryl." Jeremy snaps at him.
"We're gonna locate that little girl. She's gonna be just fine." Daryl continues and glares at Jeremy for interrupting him. "Am I the only one zen around here? Good lord."
Jeremy might be wrong about Daryl. He just might be.
Tabby's POV
She places down a bag full of clothes that she found.
"We are gonna have quite a collection of spare parts, I tell ya." Dale proudly says and Tabby grins at him.
"Shouldn't they be back by now?" T-Dog wonders and Tabby has that same thought. She just hasn't been saying it out loud because of Josie and Maya, both of whom are related to a boy who's out there right now.
"We shouldn't panic." Tabby says, her eyes flashing to Josie who is starting to look worried, she keeps looking out to the forest hoping to see the group.
He nods his head in understanding.
Dale smiles. "Tabby's right. It's still light. Let's not worry, just yet." His face sobers up and he looks at T-Dog. "How are you feelin'?" T-Dog himself stays quiet. "T-Dog? I asked you how you were just now. Please don't blow that question off."
T-Dog grimaces. "It really, really hurts. It's throbbing something awful." He admits.
Tabby's eyes widen. "Why didn't you say anything?"
T-Dog winces. "I don't want you to worry."
"Let me see." Dale says and T-Dog holds out his arm to Tabby. Dale carefully peels back the makeshift bandage and T-Dog exclaims in alarm. But Tabby saw the look of that arm. She knows that's very dangerous, he will die if he's not treated.
"Ah! Don't- don't touch it." T-Dog begs him.
"I'm sorry."
"T-Dog, your veins are very discoloured. You have a hell of an infection going on. You could die from blood poisoning." Tabby tells him, there were tears in her eyes. Her friend could die.
A beat passes before T-Dog bursts out laughing. Dale and Tabby look at each other concerned. That wasn't the reaction she was expecting. "Oh, man. Wouldn't that be the way? World gone to hell... The dead risen up to eat the living... And Theodore Douglas gets done in by a cut on his arm."
Dale looks at him concerned. "Yeah, that would be- that would be stupid. I-I've been saying since yesterday, we gotta- we gotta get you some antibiotics. We've been ransacking these cars the whole time. I can't believe that we have not found some ampicillin, or- or something in the- in the whole place. Can you?"
"Seems like there would be." T-Dog mutters. He's lucid, but barely to Tabby. He's laughing that he's gonna be done in by a cut.
Dale nods his head. "Well, that's what I think. Well... we, uh, we haven't been through enough. So, let's look some more."
T-Dog stumbles away slightly and Tabby and Dale look at each other worried. That arm isn't gonna last. And the only way to get rid of the infection is by cleaning it properly, which means taking out the fishing line, cleaning it, clean the wound, give him some meds, then redo the stitches. He could die.
"Josie, get out of the sun." Dale calls to the woman who then suddenly collapses.
"Josie!" Tabby screams and runs over to her.
"Is she bit? Hurt?" Dale asks her.
Tabby feels for a pulse. Got one. She feels her head. She's like a furnace. "I think she's got heat stroke."
"Shit." Dale curses and Tabby looks at him surprised.
T-Dog hurried over to them, stumbling slightly. "What happened?"
"She collapsed. Help us get her to the RV. We're gonna need a lot of water. And anything cool". Tabby orders and they carry her to the RV.
I was originally going to carry it on. But I decided to leave it there. Josie having heatstroke and Carl shot. I'm not letting my group have a break. That's the one thing that I was surprised about when watching the show, surprised that there wasn't anyone having heatstroke in that Georgian heat. Gotta say, Indiana was hot in the Summer and it was unbearable, and I got sick from it. No matter in an apocalypse where there is nothing to help them. So I wanted to include that in my story.