(Anne Marshall belongs to AquaDestinysEmbrace. Kudos to Aqua for letting me use Anne!)
(I DO NOT own The Walking Dead, or any names or brands that appear in this story. But I do own all of my OC's)
It was now about eight or nine hours after the Center for Disease Control exploded and took the lives of both Dr. Jenner and Jacqui, along with separating the Lyoko Warriors from the Rick's group and the rest of their own people. The Lyoko Warriors were cautiously making their way through the trees and most of them kept their weapons at the ready.
Patrick, wounded from debris that was sent flying at him from the explosion, was looking worse and worse by the minute. The unharmed part of his face was pale and his knees were wobbly as Verity and Anne helped him walk. There was also bits of blood dripping from his wounds down to his legs and down onto the ground under him...
Everyone knew that if they couldn't give medical attention to Patrick then he would die. Verity had some medical knowledge but this was far above her experience...
Ulrich's wound on his left arm was given a tourniquet by Aelita, and Dylan was thankfully not unconscious anymore and was walking without assistance.
Odd was even back on his feet as well but he was walking with a noticeable expression of pain and there was a limp in his step due to the injury on his kneecap.
The group was in bad shape, and they needed to find shelter somewhere soon...
"You guys think that the others made it out of there? There was a lot of walkers..." Alexandr stated as he helped Verity keep Patrick upright.
"I saw them drive away, so at the very least they made it away from the CDC." Aelita replied as she carefully walked over a large exposed root, trying not to trip over it. "I saw Charles, Yumi, Kyra and Robert all made it out with them in the chaos..."
"All four of them are tough as nails and they're smart." Rebecca assured the group as she walked by Dylan's side.
Jeremie sighed and nodded. "They'll definitely be fine, but how on earth are we going to find them?"
Ulrich remained silent as he listened to the others speaking about the situation. For the last four hours his girlfriend Yumi has been on the forefront of his mind. He had no idea where she could be by now, or even if she was still alive or not...
It was disturbing and absolutely heartbreaking to even think of Yumi dying.
... or worse... becoming a walker.
The group continued to make their way through the trees for what seemed like hours. Who even knew how many miles they were getting from the CDC, but it was far enough that they couldn't even see the smoke anymore over the treeline behind them. They were all hungry, they were all thirsty, they were all tired and above all else they needed rest, especially Patrick.
The group was finally forced to stop when Patrick suddenly fell down onto his hands and knees while using what little willpower he lad left to try and stay conscious.
"Patrick?!" Verity gasped as she immediately crouched down next to him to check up on him.
To the group's horror, Patrick suddenly coughed up a large amount of bright frothy blood down onto the forest floor. His body was slowly beginning to fall apart on him... The group watched with worry as Verity and Anne gently leaned Patrick against a tree so he could at least be somewhat comfortable. Unfortunately, Verity had absolutely no clue how to help him and that fact was mentally killing her. The love of her life was in so much agony and it truly broke her heart to see him like this...
Patrick continued to cough for a little longer before he finally gasped for breath. He knew he wasn't going to last much longer, so he had one last request to his girlfriend and his closest friends:
"...L- Leave me..."
The Lyoko Warriors were stunned when they heard this request, and Verity's face even turned pale from horror when she realized what he had just asked of them. Patrick wanted them to just leave him behind in this forest? He wanted to be left to die alone?
"What?! Patrick, we can't just leave you here! That's insane!" Odd protested his friend's request.
Patrick was about to say something but another round of bloody coughs stopped him. He coughed up blood for what seemed like an eternity, but after he was done he gasped for air and kept pushing through the pain he was feeling basically everywhere by this point.
"Y- Yes you can!" Patrick cringed, his face and his stomach feeling like they were individually on fire. "I- I'm slowing all of you down, and the walkers are going to catch up sooner or later. If you leave me now, t- then you'll be able to get away..." he said with a raspy voice.
The group glanced at each other with visible confusion and shock. No, Patrick had to have been delirious... He couldn't seriously want to just be left to die in the forest, could he? What on earth was he thinking?!
"Baby, if you think we're just gonna leave you out here like Jim, then you're out of your mind!" Verity stated as she gently took her boyfriend's hands into her own.
"Damn right!" Miranda added with a nod. "We're the Lyoko Warriors! We don't leave our friends to die when we know they still have a chance to live!" she added.
Before Patrick had a chance to say anything both he and the others heard a series of growls a short distance away. The group finally noticed that walkers were beginning to arrive on the scene. A lot of walkers... No matter the situation with Patrick, they'd definitely need to leave now before they could get overrun.
Patrick bit his lip hard to avoid screaming and alerting more walkers as Verity and Anne helped him back up on his feet, both putting his arms around their necks again so they could help him move.
The rest of the group readied their weapons and they cautiously resumed their trek through the trees. They all stayed close to Verity, Patrick and Anne and they all shot or stabbed any walker that dared to approach them.
They kept this defense up for another few miles into the forest, but they were forced to stop moving when they got to the ledge of a tall cliff. The walkers kept coming though, and there was certainly a lot more on their way. Anne looked over the cliff and paled when she saw that it was at least a ninety foot drop. It was inclined so thankfully it wasn't straight down, but it was still very high and it was a very rocky steep.
"Shit!" Anne exclaimed as she looked away, her fear of heights taking over.
"It'll be okay, Anne!" Rebecca assured after she shot a walker in the face.
Ulrich slashed a walker's head and kicked it's corpse to the ground before he stabbed another walker through the eye. Odd and Miranda ran over to help cover him while the others formed a defensive line in front of Patrick. Within a few minutes there was at least a few dozen walker corpses on the ground, but there was definitely dozens more that were coming in. They had to find a way out of this!
"What the hell are we going to do?! They won't stop coming!" Dylan shouted to the others as he shot a walker twice in the side of the head.
"Look for an opening?! Keep killing them until we find a way through this?!" Jennifer suggested as she started reloading her revolver with the last six bullets she had.
"Do you even see how many of these fuckers there are, Jennifer?! We're gonna die in a few minutes!" Miranda snapped at her friend as she ran out of bullets, quickly switching to her knife so she can keep killing walkers.
Jennifer growled with anger at her friend due to what she said, but she didn't dare reply to Miranda In any event, more and more walkers kept arriving and despite the best efforts of the group there was simply far too many to kill. There was no way out of this and within moments they were going to be overrun. Anne and Rebecca were even forced to grab Patrick by his arms and painfully drag him away from the tree and over to the edge of the cliff.
The others backed up and kept shooting and stabbing every walker they could, but it was a doomed effort.
There was another way off though...
Odd looked over his shoulder and down the side of the cliff. If it was a drop straight down then it'd simply be nothing more than suicide, but the incline that the cliff side had may be enough to keep them alive until they got away from the walkers. It would definitely hurt really bad, but it was better than getting eaten alive.
"Guys, we've gotta jump! It's the only way!" Odd shouted to the group.
"Are you insane, Odd?!" Jeremie demanded to know as he kicked away a walker so Ulrich could kill it.
"Do you see any other way out of this, Einstein?!" Odd retorted as he glanced down the side of the cliff once more.
Jeremie appeared as if he was about to protest Odd's idea once more, but he stopped himself. They certainly couldn't go forward due to the sheer amount of walkers, so what other option was there other than to tuck and roll and hope for the best? The others were nervous about the idea but they all thought the same way: jump or die.
One by one the group got ready to jump off the side of the cliff, and the first to go off was Jennifer.
The Texan teen gave Chase a kiss on the cheek for luck before she cautiously looked over the side and took a second to study where to jump from. She then backed up a step or two and began taking deep breaths in and out to build up a bit of her composure.
Breath in...
Relax...
Breath out...
Concentrate...
Breath in...
You'll be fine...
Breath out...
"Can you just jump please, Jennifer?! All of us are about to get eaten like a three dollar rotisserie chicken!"
Jennifer glared at Anne out of the corner of her eye after she heard her say this, but even so she knew that her new friend was completely right. Any more hesitation would mean certain death for her and all of her friends. It was now or never.
...this was fucking crazy.
"REMEMBER THE ALAMO!" Jennifer screamed mostly to herself as she suddenly ran to the edge and jumped straight off the side, wanting these to be her final words in the event that this kills her.
The others heard Jennifer scream and cringed as they heard all of the tumbling she noises she made as she rolled down the side of the cliff. After a moment or two of this the noises stopped, signalling that her tumbling and rolling had finally ceased. Chase ran over to look over the side to check on her and to see if she was okay.
"Jenny?! You alright down there?!" Chase called out with worry.
Jennifer shakily got back up on her feet and loudly coughed as she limped over to lean against a nearby tree. After a moment or two she gave a thumbs-up to her boyfriend to signal that she was mostly okay aside from being a bit shaken up that is. Chase was relieved to see this and he told the others that Jennifer made it down without too much trouble. Now all that was left was for everyone else to get down there...
Verity and Anne grabbed Patrick by his arms and they both went down with him first. They had to carefully maneuver their way down with their legs and they had to go very slow due to Patrick's current condition, but they also had to get to the ground as quickly as possible due to the situation above them.
If they took too long then all of their friends may die. The three were about halfway down when a rock under Verity's foot suddenly came loose and caused all three teens to completely loose their footing and simply fall the rest of the way down.
The two girls got some bumps and bruises on the way down but otherwise they were fine. Unfortunately, Patrick was a whole different story as they immediately began to hear him scream in agony once more.
"AGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!! RAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!"
Verity immediately pulled herself up off the ground and ran to check on her boyfriend. She gasped in horror when she saw that now he was bleeding very heavily again. Verity pulled Anne back up on her feet and then the two teens hurried over to help Patrick.
In pure desperation, Verity took off her grey denim jacket and wrapped it around the wounds on Patrick's body in an effort to prevent her boyfriend from bleeding out. Her jacket was soon soaked and much of the grey turned into a disturbing dark red color...
"Stay with me, baby! Stay with me!" Verity pleaded with tears going down the sides of her face.
Anne took off her own jacket and also wrapped it around Patrick's body to help Verity keep him from bleeding out. The teens could hear more shooting from the top of the cliff as Jeremie and Aelita came down next. The two geniuses ended up tumbling and they got a few cuts and bruises just like how Jennifer did, but thankfully they were otherwise unharmed.
"Patrick!" Aelita exclaimed with horror once she saw her friend's worsening condition.
Jennifer looked up at the cliff in time to see Miranda and Rebecca coming down next. The two girls held each other's hands for support as they worked their way down. Unlike the other teens, both Miranda and Rebecca managed to make it down without even getting so much as a scratch.
"Oh bollocks! How's Patrick?!" Rebecca asked with concern as she ran over to the scene with Miranda.
"He's fucking bleeding to death, 'Becca! That's how he's doing!" Verity snapped as she struggled to contain her boyfriend's blood with her jacket.
Patrick sobbed with agony as more and more gunfire continued to be heard up above, signalling that the situation up there was growing ever more severe. The next teen to come down from the top of the cliff was Odd, who tumbled the entire way down. He landed on his butt and his hair was a mess, but with a lack of any cuts or bruises he surprisingly seemed to be okay.
Odd couldn't help but stand up and give a cheer after he realized that tumbling down a cliffside didn't kill him.
"I made it! I didn't even get a scratch, guys!" Odd cheered.
Unfortunately Odd's words proved to be his downfall as Chase suddenly tumbled down the cliffside. The angle and speed of Chase's tumbling unintentionally caused him to speed directly towards Odd almost as if he was a literal bowling ball of doom.
Chase impacted Odd at a high speed after a couple of seconds and he caused both Odd and himself to fall straight to the ground, both groaning in pain.
"Owwwww..." Odd groaned to himself as he held his now-bloody nose.
Patrick managed to fight through the pain and find enough strength to laugh at what had just happened to Odd and Chase, but the laughter soon ceased when the pain hit him once more in full force.
The teens finally noticed that the gunfire up on the top of the cliff had ceased and to their horror they realized that Alexandr and Ulrich were both still up there! The teens were deeply worried about this...
Were they alive up there? Were they being eaten alive...?
After a few more nerve-wracking moments the Lyoko Warriors got their answer. To their collective relief they finally saw Ulrich and Alexandr jump right off the side of the cliff like how Jennifer did earlier. The two teens tumbled down the side of the cliff in a very painful manner and Ulrich's sword even flew straight out of its sheath due to the way he was falling.
Both Ulrich and Alexandr landed hard on the ground as the sword flew like a missile directly towards the group and caused everyone else to dive for cover wherever they could find it.
The sword itself found its target less than a moment later.
*THWACK!*
Everyone cautiously got up and looked to see where exactly the sword had hit.
The tip of the samurai sword was embedded in a nearby tree, and to the group's horror they saw that it had actually almost hit Jeremie smack-dab in the face since he was standing right under the spot where the sword hit.
Ulrich's sword was twanging a bit to the left and right after the impact, and the group noticed that the sword had even sheared off a few strands of Jeremie's hair! It literally came within millimeters of killing him!
".........good lord." Jeremie meekly muttered as his face paled to become as white as paper. The poor boy was noticeably trembling with the realization that he had almost died right then and there. Aelita's own face paled when she saw her boyfriend was almost killed by a runaway sword.
Thankfully it seemed that Jeremie was completely fine aside from being very shaken up about the experience, so she ran over and engulfed him in a hug to try and comfort him and to express how relieved she was that he was still alive. Ulrich got up from the ground and he awkwardly walked over and pulled his sword out of the tree bark as the couple hugged.
Needless to say, he made sure to express his apologies about almost killing the blonde genius as well...
The group continued their perilous trek through the forest after getting away from the walkers on the cliff. Patrick's condition was becoming so poor that Odd and Dylan actually had to carry him in a makeshift stretcher that was made from branches and a flap from an old camping tent they found about an hour into their trek away from the cliff.
Verity walked with them and she held Patrick's hand the entire time. He was unconscious again but he was still breathing, and she was so worried that she didn't dare let him out of her sight even for a moment.
She couldn't lose him. She couldn't lose him...
"Just hold on, baby... you're gonna get help somehow. I promise you will..." Verity assured her boyfriend, very worriedly.
Patrick stirred a little after she said this, but he showed no signs of consciousness at all. The rest of the group was deeply concerned and a few such as Alexandr, Ulrich and Miranda were beginning to think that their friend may not even survive the rest of the day.
The Lyoko Warriors and Anne continued to make their way through the forest very carefully. They even continued to walk as it was beginning to get a bit dark outside. Eventually the group found themselves along the edge of a river with a few old boats up on the shoreline and on the other side of the river was a few walkers drifting about, but the group couldn't see anything close to them that was a threat. Some shelter had to be around here somewhere...
Unfortunately, the group heard another growl. A lone walker emerged from the treeline and began to hungrily limp towards them, and then another followed it out... and then another. And then another, and another, and another...
Odd and Dylan gently set Patrick's stretcher down and everyone readied their weapons as several walkers approached. If they had run into another herd then they would all surely die. They didn't have the strength to hold out for long...
The first to begin shooting was Aelita, and Anne followed suit before all of the others aside from Patrick began to shoot and stab whatever dared to approach them. But no matter how much they killed, more and more kept coming from the treeline.
The group formed a defensive line around Patrick, but they used up what little ammunition they had left pretty fast. All that they had was their blades...
The group kept up their defense. Jeremie was resorting to using rocks as weapons, and and he was bashing a walker's brains in while Ulrich continued to slash at walkers with his sword, taking the tops off of heads or stabbing through rotting eyeballs over and over again.
Chase growled as he accidentally got his knife stuck in a walker's skull, but since there was no time to pull it back out he simply kicked away the corpse and began using the butt end of his handgun to kill walkers. Jennifer also had used up the last bullet in her Colt Single Action Army revolver, so she holstered it and she began to use the only asset she had left to fight: her bare hands. Miranda was impressed.
Little by little the group was beginning to lose ground and it was apparent that they were going to be forced into the water. This was a death sentence for both Rebecca and Miranda since they couldn't swim, and it was certain death for Patrick as well due to how serious his condition was. It was beginning to look like this was the end for the Lyoko Warriors...
*BANG!*
The group was shocked to hear a sudden gunshot come from the treeline, and they were even more shocked to see a single walker suddenly drop dead onto the ground. Someone was out there? Someone seemed to be helping them?!
Another gunshot followed the first and another walker dropped dead. The group then heard someone shout for the teens to all drop to the ground, and they quickly did that just before a volley of gunfire came from the trees and fired upon the walkers.
The walkers all turned their attention to the three muzzle flashes and the gunfire, but they were dropping dead long before they could become threats to whatever people were shooting at them. It was only after the last walker fell dead that the group began to hesitantly get back up on their feet.
What the fuck just happened...?
The Lyoko Warriors glanced at each other with confusion before they turned their attention back to where the muzzle flashes were in the treeline.
"Um... hello? Who's out there...?" Alexandr hesitantly called out to the trees.
Another moment or two of silence fell before the group finally heard some noises: leaves rustling. The group then saw a man with a hunting rifle walk out of the treeline and raise his rifle up above his head to signal that he was not trying to be a threat. The group was a little more at ease by this as the man approached, stopping about ten or eleven paces away from them.
The man looked young, maybe in his early-to-mid 30s, and he also wore a pair of glasses. He had a brown shirt on with a grimy nametag which read "Mark." Whether or not that was his name or whether he simply found the shirt somewhere was anyone's guess.
The strange man set his rifle down upon the ground and then raised his hands back up as he smiled at the group.
"We were out hunting and we heard the gunshots you folks were making. We ran over to help ya out as quick as we could... Y'all okay?" the man asked the teens.
"We're a little shaken up but aside from that we're okay. Some of us have wounds from something that happened hours ago, but none of us have any walker bites." Ulrich replied with a thankful nod.
The man nodded and he cautiously lowered his arms after he saw the group wasn't going to hold him at knifepoint. He was very impressed that a bunch of teenagers were alive out here in the woods. However, he also looked down at Patrick and studied him very carefully while a frown burrowed on his face. The teen was in bad shape...
The teens then noticed another man walk out of the treeline. This was a black man wearing a blue shirt with rolled up sleeves on top of a white undershirt, along with a pretty nice watch. This guy had short black hair and a goatee, and although the group had no way to know this, the guy had a very kindly look to him. Whatever the hell that meant.
Like the first man he also had a hunting rifle on his person, but he lowered it and held onto it with one hand as he walked over to check on the teens, smiling warmly at them.
"Well, my name's Mark. This guy with me is named Lee." the man now known as 'Mark' introduced himself and the other man, 'Lee.'
"It's nice to meet you guys." Aelita smiled with gratitude. "My name is Aelita. The others here are my boyfriend Jeremie, along with my brothers Chase and Dylan." the pinkette began to introduce the others in the group.
Aelita gestured to some of the others one by one. "Ulrich is over there with the sword, Anne is the one with the guitar on her back, Jennifer is the cowgirl with the revolver, and Miranda is the one covered in walker blood." he listed off as introductions.
The group was surprised to hear about Miranda and every single one of them glanced over to check her out. Indeed she was completely drenched head to toe in walker blood due to how much she had gotten carried away during the fighting. Her knife certainly wasn't enough for her, and neither was her gun, her fists, several blunt rocks she had found on the ground or even a head headbutt or two...
Miranda noticed how everyone was staring and she simply gave a sheepish grin towards the group before she awkwardly walked over to the riverbank and silently began splashing water on herself to clean up a little bit. Jeremie and the others simply blinked as she did this, but then he looked back at Lee and Mark.
"...anyway," Jeremie began to go back to the subject, taking over for his girlfriend. "Rebecca's the blonde girl over there, and Alexandr's the one in the dark clothes over by the riverbank with Miranda. The boy with the unique hairdo is Odd, and before you ask: yes, that's his real name."
Odd deadpanned at what Jeremie said and both Lee and Mark were surprised to hear the name spoken aloud. There was truly a person on earth who's name was literally odd? Literally 'Odd'? Remarkable. Although it certainly wasn't as strange as seeing a girl with pink hair, that's for sure. Or multiple teenagers who each had eyes that were two different colors.
... This was a strange group of kids ...
"Verity's that girl with the purple eyes and black hair, and Patrick's the one that's laying on the stretcher." Anne finished the introductions of the group to the two men. "Patrick hasn't been bitten or scratched but he's hurt really badly..."
Lee and Mark both nodded after they heard this. For the moment the two men decided to take the teenager's word about this. But if they really were going to help them, then it'll be a bit difficult to explain to the others in their group about Patrick's situation.
In any event the Lyoko Warriors realized something. There was three muzzle flashes in the treeline, but only two men were here. Where was the other person?
As if to answer their question, Lee and Mark both turned and they both gave loud whistles towards the trees to alert whoever was dwelling within them.
"KENNY! The kids are all okay, mostly! You can c'mon out now!" Mark called out to the treeline.
The Lyoko Warriors were surprised to hear this. There was a third person over there in the trees?
The teens witnessed the leaves rustling a little before another figure came out of the trees. This figure was another white guy who had what could only be described as the "genuine redneck" appearance. He wore a white t-shirt with a little logo reading "Lake Toho", short for Lake Tohopekaliga down south in Florida, along with some grey jeans and an orange and white hat. His long black hair and... well, an epic moustache.
The man, 'Kenny', approached the group with a curious look in his eye and a smile on his face. These were the first living kids he's seen outside of their home since they first settled there.
"They're a little roughed up but they all seem to be okay." Mark politely informed the redneck as he approached.
"That's good to hear... real good." Kenny smiled before he turned his attention back over to the saved teenagers. "My name's Kenny. Nice to meet all of you..." he greeted with cheerfulness, but soon his smile fell. "What were you all doin' out here anyway?"
Rebecca gestured over to the stretcher with the hurt boy on it. "It's a long story, but Patrick here needs some serious help."
"So it seems..." Lee agreed, morbidly wondering how Patrick was even still alive... and how long he probably had left.
"Kenny, help me with him." Mark said as he went to one end of Patrick's stretcher and readied to lift. The kids needed a break after all.
Kenny nodded and handed his rifle over to Lee before he hurried to the other end of the stretcher. With Mark and Kenny being at their full strength compared to the teens, it was effortless for them to lift Patrick. They'll be able to carry him all the way back to where they and their own group was staying before they'll figure out what to do next.
After the shitty day that the Lyoko Warriors have had, it was a huge relief to find some friendly faces out there in the woods...
"Thanks for saving us with Lee and Mark." Chase said with gratitude as he hurried back to the group. He had went to collect his knife from the skull of the walker he had killed. Likewise, Alexandr and a now-clean Miranda both hurried to catch up to the others as well.
"Happy to help." Kenny nodded with a smile as they began to head back. However, his smile lasted for only a moment. "But what're you kids doing out here? The woods has been crawling with a lot of walkers lately. It's not safe out here..." he stated.
"It is a long story, but suffice it to say our friend really needs some medical attention." Aelita stated as he gestured towards the poor boy on the makeshift stretcher.
Lee, Kenny, and Mark all glanced down at Patrick and the three men studied his wounds. It was greatly alarming... Patrick's paleness likewise wasn't a good sign, and they were all just praying that he didn't actually get bit by a walker.
They weren't sure what they can do for the poor boy, but they'll try their best for him.
"We don't have a doctor back in our group..." Lee informed the teens. "But Mark here and a lady back at our place both served in the Air Force..."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Verity impatiently asked as she and the others followed the three men.
"Well, both of us went through battlefield first aid training." Mark explained as he focused on not tripping on anything. "I can't make any promises but she and I can definitely try to help your friend here if we can."
Verity looked a little bit more at ease by Mark's assurances, but she was still clearly worried and anxious. If they couldn't help Patrick...
"Of course Lilly might refuse..." Kenny warned, likewise focusing on keeping his footing. "She's not gonna like any of this..."
"Refuse?!" Verity gasped. "What the fuck do you mean 'refuse'?!"
Kenny hesitated for a moment, but then he nodded. "We don't really have a lot in the way of meds to begin with..."
Refuse?! Refuse?! REFUSE?! WHAT THE FUCK?!
Verity couldn't believe this! Her boyfriend was hanging on by a thread! He could be dead by the end of the hour let alone the end of the day, but now some bitch who might be able to help save him might not even be willing to help him to begin with?!
Ulrich immediately sensed Verity was about to go off on Kenny, so he decided to speak up before she could do so.
"If medical supplies are an issue then maybe we can go and find some?" Ulrich offered, as he was feeling a little desperate to save his friend's life.
"Maybe." Kenny said with a shrug. "We'll take you back to where we're stayin' and we can all talk it over with him when we get there."
The Lyoko Warriors were relieved to hear that they would have some shelter soon, even if it may be temporary. If they can get Patrick fixed up then they can look for Rick's group and their four friends who went with them.
With that, the Lyoko Warriors began to closely follow Kenny, Mark, and Lee along the shoreline back towards whatever place that they were currently living in.
With luck, Patrick was going to get all of the help that he so desperately needed...