Epidemic

Chapter 42

Sorry for the delay, so I'll keep it to a minimum up here and let you guys read on.

Hope you enjoy!

-----------------------

There are two types of pain that Ive experienced in life. Pain that's a throbbing nuisance, or pain that you can subconsciously ignore. Well, I wasn't experiencing anything close to those two at the moment. This pain was extremely different, it was the type that left your body withering in agony. Begging you to give it some relief. But in an apocalypse there was nothing to ease this pain, all I had was the will power to keep my lips shut and teeth clamped down.

When I first woke up I had only felt a bit of discomfort. But once I had fallen asleep, I woke up to a new type of agony. It was clear that my adrenaline had staved off the full blunt of its force. Now, I had no type of hormone rush coursing through my veins, it was just me.

I knew I should be grateful for being alive, but at what cost? From the brief conversations I had heard in my blacked out state, Hershel had to get fancy with his doctoring. One of my kidneys were hit, and that's where all my blood loss was occurring. So he literally had to cauterize my wound with a piece of pipping they had found. I don't remember much of what happened, but I vaguely remember them heating it up till the metal smoldered a bright red color. After that, it was like my mind went blank. Maybe it was my bodies way of cooping with Hershel jamming a scolding hot piece of metal into my side and using the heat to close off the veins in my kidney so I wouldn't bleed out. Or my body had just finally shut off. Either way I was grateful for not having to be awake during any of that.

For if the pain I was currently feeling was any inclination of what that was like, I would have screamed bloody murder bringing every walker within a fifty mile radius in our direction.

With a strangled groan I shifted my body, a searing pain running up my side from the movement, only causing my closed eyes to tighten further. I had no idea how long I had been unconscious or where we were or if I was even out of the woods in my condition. But I knew that I was dead weight, in my current state which wasn't helpful to the group in the least.

So deciding to finally go against everything my body was currently yelling at me, I opened my eyes. But to my utter surprise I was not alone and I found myself staring up into an unfamiliar pair of eyes. A pair that held a off putting gaze.

"That's a interesting scar." Blinking away the sleep and blurriness of my vision I finally took in a man hovering over my body. His arms holding himself up as he stared at me from above.

In that instant my heart beat speed up considerably, an overwhelming sense of fear consuming my body. And out of reflex my body shot up, ignoring the radiating pains and reaching for the knife I usually stashed at my side.

"Get the fuck away from me." I shouted as my hands fumbled desperately, searching for the grooved handle of my blade. But when I didn't feel it, I knew it was gone.

So I did the only thing that came to mind, I used my legs to kick the mans chest. The heels of my boots dug into his shirt and I heard the air get knocked out of his lungs. I didn't care, if he came any closer he'd get it even harder.

Shuffling backwards on my butt, my back hit against a hard surface cutting off my escape plan immediately. I could feel my body trembling in fear as I helplessly sat watching the man grip hold of his chest. Breathing sporadically, as if he was desperately trying to intake enough air to finish what he had started. What ever that was.

Just as the mans head tilted up at me, an angry, betrayed look flashing in his eyes, the hard surface behind me gave way. Hands quickly gripped a hold of me and I saw that a door opened from behind the man. His form being dragged out harshly.