She's a Dixon (Daryl Dixon story)

Chapter 32

I was sitting on the ground in the tent while my mother was tending to my wounds, while the other ladies were standing back in the corner of the tent watching us. It was completely quiet, none of us spoke, mainly because we were all trying to process what just happened. The only noise that could be heard was my mom dipping the cloth into a fluid in a small bowl laying next to her. By now, the cloth and fluid were both stained bright red. I cringed a bit at the sight, completely disturbed by the thought of how much blood I have lost.

My mother brought the cloth back up to my nose and continued to lightly press it around my wound. I flinched as she did this, the pain was unbearable. My mom sighed as she dropped her arm and set the cloth down before looking back up at me.

"Julie, please, I need you to hold still. I'm only trying to help you, and I can't do that if you keep moving away," My mom said, starting to sniffle, with tears forming in her eyes.

"I know, it just hurts too much," I whispered.

My mother began to sob loudly. Some of the other women in the tent with us rushed to her side and tried to comfort her. My mother muttered something, but I could not comprehend what she said. At the same time, one other lady approached me and used her hand to tilt my chin up.

"Hey! What are you...."

"Calm down, I'm just looking," She said.

She examined my face before she used her hands to apply some pressure to the skin around the wound. Sometimes I flinched or tried to turn my head away from her, but she was able to prevent me from doing so.

"Well it's probably going to bruise, but I don't think that it is broken. You're very lucky," The lady said as she dropped her hands and then walked away from me and out the tent.

"Do you want something to cover that up with?" Another person asked me.

"No, I'm fine," I replied.

"Is there anything else we can do for you?"

"No, I just want to be alone right now."

She nodded her hand, completely understanding why. She and the other ladies stood up and began to walk towards the front of the tent. My mother stayed on the ground, not wanting to go anywhere.

"I want to stay here with her," My mom said.

I shook my head, irritated that she would even try to do something like this right now.

"I want to be alone right now," I said again, a little more sternly.

Two of the ladies walked back over to my mother and each grabbed one arm before guiding her to stand up and walk away from me. As she reached the entrance to the tent, she looked back at me with pleading eyes, wanting so desperately to stay here with me. I waved her off, and she appeared to look hurt before she was pushed out of the tent. I heard their footsteps crunching on the ground, each one getting more faint. I was all alone, but relieved and happy to be. My mind immediately went off to other things: how Daryl was doing, how pissed I am at Alex, how much I hate living here.

I lost my train of thought when I looked down at my wrist. It was starting to bruise badly, thanks to Alex. The skin had dark purple and blue coloring to it, and from the distance I was at, I could clearly see the outline of Alex's hand where he grabbed me. I ran my index finger along the wound before pulling back and whining in pain.

At the same time, I heard footsteps coming towards the tent and then I saw a shadow of someone outside. Whoever it was, they were trying to use the zipper to open the tent as fast as they could. I figured it was my mother, who was paranoid about my situation and was just lurking around, waiting to see if there would be a moment where I would need someone else's assistance.