Bonds {TWD}

Chapter 16 {ARIZONA}

"Ari?" Carl manages to spit out before toppling over.
"Carl!" I screech and drop to my knees by his side. His eye is a bloody, gaping absence in his face, it seeps blood everywhere and I choke on a lump in my throat.
"C-carl..." Rick stammers before rushing over and picking up Carl's limp body. I push myself up and feel Michonne push her way past me to clear the way of walkers.
I have no clue where we're going and I have no idea why Ron pointed the gun at Rick. But I know that now isn't the time to ask, so I sprint behind Rick and Michonne ignoring the pain in my leg and follow them wherever they're going.
• • •
Suddenly as we're running across the lawn Michonne takes a sharp right and Rick follows. The door to the building ahead swings open and a larger, blonde woman with glasses that I recognize as Denise, the 'doctor' rushes us in.
Three men are rushing around, gathering supplies. Spencer; a tall dark haired, dark eyed man in tattered and dirty clothes. Aaron; a tall blue eyed brunette in cleanish clothes, and Heath; a dark skinned, dark eyed man with glasses and dark dreadlocks tied back away from his face.
"This is a gunshot?" Denise asks.
"Handgun, close range." Michonne responds.
"Please save him." Rick begs, then I notice that since I stepped in the building that I haven't moved, and I really can't. My body is exhausted and I flop down on my butt and rest my back against the wall, the key bumps against my chest half-heartedly; as if it knows the circumstances.
"Is she okay?" Denise asks about me.
"She got sliced on her leg, probably exhausted too." Michonne informs her.
"Can't blame her." Aaron mutters while I feel his eyes on me, but I don't care. I care about nothing right now but Carl surviving.
The light flashes on above me.
"That's going to draw them here." Heath complains.
"We need light." Denise argues. "Michonne, towel over here. I'm going to need you to keep pressure on the wound." Denise orders.
Rick drags his feet over to the window and takes a peek outside through the blinds. He gazes out the window for a fraction of time before taking his hatchet out of his belt and opening the door.
"What are you doing??" Michonne asks Rick.
"Rick!" Denise gasps before he steps out and closes the door behind him. I lazily roll my head to the left to look at the door, did he really just-?
"He's out there." Michonne tells Denise the obvious.
"Hold on." Denise tells her.
"He needs my help." Michonne tells her once again.
"Just one more suture." Denise informs her.
"I need to help him." Michonne tells her.
"This is his son give me a second." Denise tells Michonne annoyedly.
"He's-he's taking them all on. We have to go get him." Aaron tells the guys.
"What?" Spencer gasps.
"We have to. This is it." Heath explains.
"Okay got it." Denise finishes up.
Michonne plants a kiss on Carl's forehead and runs out the door followed closely by the guys all with weapons drawn.
I push myself up and unsheathe my knife.
"What do you think you're doing?" Denise asks me.
"I'm going outside to help." I tell her firmly.
"No, you're not." She tells me.
"Well I'm not just going to sit in here helplessly and watch as everyone fights for our home!" I protest.
"You won't be sitting here helplessly. I need you to watch him as I check on my other patients." Denise tells me.
"But I want to be out there. I need to be out there." I beg.
"You don't need to be out there, you need to be in here. For Carl." She tells me calmly.
"Fine." I grunt and sheath my knife.
"Come here." She motions for me to walk over to where Carl lies, limp, on a stretcher.
I do my best to walk over to her normally but I end up limping very badly, the key bangs against my chest with the protestant attitude I didn't have.
"Sit." She orders me and I take a seat on the stool she's pulled up for me.
I do sit and she rolls up my filthy pant leg. The leg underneath is no cleaner, and on top of that it has a huge, bloody gash across it. It looks like my amateur bandaging fell off when I fell on Carl.
Denise takes a sharp breath in sympathy for me before grabbing a bottle and a cloth. She wets the cloth with the liquid from the bottle and cleans off my leg gently, she's extremely careful around the gash, but she makes sure to clean the wound out.
She puts that cloth and bottle back and picks up two more, this time when she wets the cloth, the sharp smell of hydrogen peroxide pains my nostrils.
Denise gently dabs and strokes my cut with the soaked cloth, I cringe with the pain that it brings me but I let her do it, because I know it'll do me good. When she puts them away this time she comes back with a small glass can with a tin top, a roll of athletes wrap and some gauze.
She pops the can open and rubs some of the milky goo from the inside over my cut before rolling the gauze over it, using a pair of scissors from next to her to cut it and securing it with athlete's wrap.
"Mind wrapping his eye for me?" She asks me.
"I'm here aren't I?" I sigh and she smiles before handing me the tin, gauze and scissors.
She's disappeared when I stand up. Nowhere to be seen, but I have a suspicion that she's checking on her other patients. So I do as she'd asked and begin to wrap around Carl's head. I try to advert my eyes from his blown out eye but it's impossible when that's what I'm wrapping.
When I'm done I'm relieved because I don't have to look at it anymore, I don't have to be tortured by my mind wondering how much he's suffering. I sit back down on the stool tuck the key back in my shirt and brush his hair away from the wound, then what I did next was a shock to even myself, I kiss him on his remaining eyelid.
He stirs and his eye flutters open. He looks at me and a smile spreads on his face. This causes a smile to broaden on my own.
"Hey." I whisper.
"Hey." He croaks back.
"Glad you're alive." I laugh a little.
"Me too." He chuckles. "What happened to your key?" He asks about the invisible key strung on the chain around my neck.
"Still there." I smile and pull it out of my shirt for a moment before tucking it back in.
"Good." He yawns.
"You need to rest." I tell him.
"So do you." He protests.
"Yeah but I can live." I tell him. "Get some rest." I tell him as I brush his persistent hair from his face.
"Okay." He gives in with a sigh and closes his beautiful blue... Eye.
• • •
"Arizona?" Denise walks into the room where I sit watching over Carl in his sleep.
"Yeah?" I twist around to see her, she looks like she's just seen a ghost.
"Look outside." She gulps.
I slide off the stool and hobble my way over to the window and peer through the blinds at the walker infested road outside. Several walkers are banging against the door and several more are banging against the windows.
"They're gonna get in." I mutter.
I head quickly to the door and unsheathe my knife.
"What are you doing?" Denise asks me fearfully.
"Saving your ass." I say vaguely before heading out the door.
Walkers are immediately drawn to me and I stab each that nears me with as much anger as the last, soon the original amount of walkers has doubled and I know that I'd made a horrible mistake, every walker within eye sight is coming towards me... I can't fight them all. But I can draw them away.
"Hey!" I shout. "Lame brains! Rotten faces! Assholes! Yeah I'm talking to you!!!" I scream, anger fueling my words and my insane decision.
The walkers surge forward, gnashing their teeth and moaning eerily. I back up slowly but I don't see what's behind me and my foot gets caught on something.
I fall backwards and suddenly the walkers are moving so much faster. I scramble up but they're now right on my tail. They're clawing at me and lunging to bite me.
I turn around to run but see more walkers blocking my way. I'm trapped and it's either try my way through an unknown amount of walkers or try my way through what I know is a full ocean of walkers.
So I take my chances and run straight ahead into the walkers that reach for me, claw for me and lunge to try and take a bite out of me but I can only hope that they don't as I do the riskiest thing I've ever done, and there's zero to no chance that I'll make it out alive, even less when I feel blood spray my arm and a sharp pain in my neck as something pierces mu skin; but I trudge on.
"Follow me dumbasses!!" I scream before running as fast as my leg will allow into the woods.

"Don't leave." I had pleaded.
"As long as you promise to never leave me." He had smiled at me and held my hand.
"I promise." I had smiles sleepily.
I remembered the promise.
"You promised me you'd never leave." He once reminded me.
"I know but- I-I'm bound to hurt you Carl, just like I always do. I'm so sorry. I might break it." I whispered to him.
"Don't leave me." He pleaded sadly.
"I'll stay, for now." I had promised.
I remember promising him but an hour ago.
"I'm sorry Carl." I whisper under my breath; "I'm sorry I told you I'd break it. But I'll come back- I promise you that Carl."