Madison Grimes

16

I feel my eyes open and my hand automatically flies to my wound. I look down and see dried blood everywhere. I sit up, feeling the pain all too well. I stand up and steady myself, looking around. Where am I? What did I come here for? I take a few steps before remembering. Sophia.

"Sophia!" I yell, but it comes out as my normal voice. I work my way around the house, trying to find Sophia. I hear a door close loudly, making me reach for my knife. My eyes widen when I don't find it, only my throwing knives and my gun. I check my gun, then aim at the source of noise. Daryl steps into view, making me lower my gun. I look down and spot my hunting knife on the ground in front of me. I smile a bit as I put it back to my belt, I feel Daryl go to my side.

"Where've ye been?" He asks. I just point to the dried blood on my shirt.

"Pulled my stitches when I found Sophia." My eyes widen as I look at him. "Did you bring her back to camp?" He shakes his head roughly.

"No, I haven't saw 'er." My face grows angry as I turn around, looking for the young girl.

"Sophia!" I keep yelling from in the house, as I hear Daryl yelling outside. As I check the last room, I feel the blood starting to pool out of my wound again, making me grab it. I look down and see blood covering my hand. I pull the sleeves off my shirt and wrap it around my wound, like I've saw done many times. I meet Daryl at the door. "Did you find her?" He shakes his head, a pained look on his face.

"Let's go back, Hershel needs ta look at ye." I nod and follow him to a horse. As I get on, I stop. What about the one I brought?

"Did you see a horse when you got here?" He shakes his head.

"No, but one ran into the stables yesterday. Thought it'd be ye, so I came ta see if ye found 'er." I nod as he takes off. As we're going through the woods, I feel my eyes starting to get droopy again. I wrap my arms around Daryl's waist and lay my head on his back. I feel him tense a little before relaxing.

Just as I'm about to fall asleep, the horse lets out a 'neigh' and puts all of his weight on his back legs. This causes Daryl and I to lose  balance, sending us down a cliff. I hear the horse speed off as my head hits the ground pretty hard.

My eyes shoot open as I look around, finding Daryl a few feet from me with a dead walker next to him. Did Daryl kill that walker? I sit up and feel pain rush to my head, I let out a low groan as I check myself for bites. The only thing I find is my hunting knife lodged in my gunshot wound. I pull it out, yelling a bit as I do. I take my shirt off, leaving me in my tank top, and unwrap the sleeves that I wrapped earlier. I move it around and re-wrap it, letting out a scream from the pain. I put my shirt back on and my knife in it's spot as I turn to Daryl. I rush to his side and see an arrow sticking out of it.

"Daryl?" I shake him a bit, getting no response. "This is going to hurt." I warn as I pull the arrow. When it's half way out, he tries to shoot up. I gently lay him down. "Be still." I pull it out the rest of the way, earning a yell from Daryl.

"Let me pull an arrow outta ye and tell ye ta be still." He complains. I shake my head as I pull my shirt off my body and lean him up.

"Already pulled my knife out." I hear him scoff in response as I tighten my shirt around his wound, causing him to flinch. He hasn't flinched to my touch in a while, what's been going on recently? I turn and look him in the eyes, finding him not there completely. "You okay?" He just looks at me like I'm not there. He gets up, struggling a bit, and goes to the water. He grabs his bow from a shallow part and starts up the hill. I decide to wait at the bottom, knowing he's coming right back down. Once he does, I walk to him with my hand extended. He swats it away as he pulls himself up. Damn, I won't help you then.