Infection in the air (walking dead fanfic)

(2)Meeting the inmates

When the prison was in full view, someone was at the gate letting us in. Michonne drove partially in and Daryl followed. Before I could get out, Carl grabbed my wrists and put them on me. They were tight. There was another man standing waiting for us to get out with two women, one with short grey hair and one with long blonde hair that was holding a baby. I studied them carefully. Another man and woman ran up behind them, obviously they were late getting here. And soon everyone was staring at me. I raised my head higher, I wasn't about to let them believe I was weak.

"Carl, who is this? And I want the full story." the man said eyeing me. He seemed to be the leader of this group, and I already don't think he likes me enough to let me stay.

"Dad, we found her..." Dad? Oh God. That explains why Carl could take me down so easily. His dad was wearing a sherrif's badge. That explains way too much. "What's your name?" Carl's dad asked me. I missed the story Carl told him. And my hands were losing feeling. "My name is Jinxx. Before things got bad people called me Panda." I replied. "Panda?" the group murmured while looking at me, waiting for a response. "You know, the animal? It's because I got black eyes a lot. And I was usually pretty nice until someone pissed me off, and I'm not afraid to draw blood." I explained glaring at them.

"Carl, take those handcuffs off of her. You're making her wrists bleed." the woman with grey hair told him. Carl obeyed and took the hand cuffs off of me. I looked at my wrists and muttered something close to "huh, I guess they were bleeding". The women with the grey hair and the Blonde walked over to me.

"Come on, we need to make sure you're safe to stay with us. I'm Carol and the girl holding the baby is Beth." I didn't have the energy to argue, and I was still bleeding. So I went with them to a cell where Carol looked me over. Carol told me there that the baby (Daryl called her little ass kicker) was Carl's sister, and that his mother had died giving birth to her. I felt bad for Carl. He was only 14 and it seems that we both have had to grow up before we were ready. I thought that I had been the only one.

"Did I check everything?" Carol asked after stitching my wrists. Apparently Carl sharpened them so they could double as a blade or something. I nodded. Just then, Carl appeared at the doorway.

"She has a broken rib." Carl told her.

"How did you know?" I asked him. "I didn't tell you."

"The tears in your eyes when you hit the ground told me enough. How long has it been like that?" I was expecting a teasing tone from him, but he actually looked concerned about me.

"I don't know, I broke it when a walker pinned me down a few months ago. I got it off of me and three others pushed my bike onto me." I explained as Carol prodded at my rib cage. She made me lay down a few moments later to see my ribs easier.

"Well, you don't have a broken rib, you have three. Its amazing you were able to keep going this long. Any painkillers?"

"Every now and then. I maybe went through a bottle over 3 months."

Carl was just giving me a blank stare.

"Jinxx, I need you to to take off your shirt. Carl, out." Carol ordered.

"I don't mind an audience." I joked as I took off my white long sleeve and exposed my bra. Carol and Carl gasped when I had it fully off.

"What? I can't be that out of shape." I looked down at where my broken ribs were. There was a large dark purple bruise over them. Even Carol didn't know what to do.

"Carl, go get Hershal. He'll know what to do."

"Great, let's let the whole camp see me." I muttered.

"Hershal is good with medicine. He can help."

"Fine, can we not tell everyone else? I can care for myself. I was fine bef-"

"Before what? Before you were here you had three broken ribs you didn't know about, you're half-starved, and Daryl said he found you in a gas station with no food left and almost no ammo." Carol snapped at me. Before more could be said Carl came in with instructions for Carol. Hershal was helping with other things around camp and couldn't come right now. Carol worked on my ribs and I made simple conversation with Carl.

After my entire rib cage was wrapped as a make-shift brace, I put my shirt back on and went to meet the rest of the group. Hershal was an older man, and was missing one leg, the couple that I saw earlier was Glenn and Maggie, I got to formally meet Rick and Daryl, and Michonne was the one who let me into the group, though she didn't have much to say to me now. They didn't have much to ask me other than where my parents were and whether or not I had been in a group before.

"Well, its getting late. You can bunk with Carl." Rick told me at the end of our conversation. He tossed me my duffle bag and I took it to the cell. They had taken all of my guns. But my few pairs of clothes, model car, and my pillow were still in there. I tossed the bag up to the top bunk and climbed up after it. I sat up there looking at the car when I heard Carl walk in. He was shutting the cell door.

"Around here we lock ourselves in the cells in case the walkers get in." He said, answering the question I had in my head. We told each other good night and went to sleep.