THE LOVELY BONES, daryl dixon

chapter 30 ; family

"How did this even happen?" Glenn asked, his eyes wandering down to Ellie's wound as he brought over medical supplies that he and Maggie had managed to grab.

Hershel graciously took the supplies in his hand, and smiled sadly down at the woman, "I have no anaesthetic, this is going to hurt."

Ellie clenched her jaw, and remained silent for several moments, before she finally uttered, "If it keeps my alive for my daughter, I'll do it." Ellie gently lifted up her soaked shirt, and revealed a small, yet deep wound.

"Wait!" Daryl exclaimed, and suddenly ran over to his motorcycle, and hurriedly began scurrying through the contents of the bike. He finally pulled out an almost empty bottle of alcohol, and held it up, "Will this help?"

"It certainly will," Hershel smiled, and happily accepted the alcohol from Daryl's trembling hands.

Ellie sunk back from where she had been sitting, and let out an elongated shaky breath as she prepared herself for the painful procedure ahead of her. She took one last glance down at her daughter, whose large eyes merely stared up her through emotionless orbs. She frowned at the sight, and whispered, "I love you, Coda."

Coda hesitated for a few moments, before finally whispering, "Please, don't die, Mommy."

"I'm not going to," Ellie smiled, before she clenched her eyes shut, and let out another puff of air, "I'm ready."

"While I do this, it might be beneficial for you to have some sort of distraction," Hershel stated, and gestured towards Glenn, "Just keep talkin'." Hershel slowly poured the alcohol onto the wound once he observed when Ellie was ready, and her loud screams immediately filled their ears.

Coda let out a sob as her mother screamed in pain, and Lori immediately scooped her up into her arms, and pulled her away from the touch scene, whispering soothing words to the child in reassurance. Daryl watched as Ellie screamed in pain, and bit at his lip in awareness, entirely unsure how to help the woman in her adversity.

"Shut her up, she's going to draw walkers!" T-Dog called out, his eyes wide as he spotted distant walkers stumbling in the distance that were alerted.

"Son of a bitch!" Ellie screamed, her entire body beginning to tremble as she felt the needle pierce her skin, where Hershel began to stitch her wound, "Shane, I'm sorry, but I have to tell them the damn truth!"

"It's fine, Ellie. They deserve to know."

"Goddamn it!" Ellie screeched loudly, her eyes pooling with hot tears, "Shane led Rick up the farmland to kill him!" she let out another scream, although tried with all of the strength she could muster to internalise the scream, "I dropped my knife on the ground, and Shane pushed me out of his way, I landed on it."

"You did what?" Daryl yelled, ignoring T-Dog and Glenn's calls of desperation for the group to remain quiet. "You son of a bitch, Shane!"

Daryl lunged for Shane once again, only to be shoved backwards in his chest by an angered Rick, whose eyes had never left Ellie once until Daryl's outburst. He stared Daryl down with his piercingly blue orbs, and shook his head, "Look at her! Stop making things worse, and calm down, brother!"

Daryl instantly dropped his gaze to Ellie as her sobs began to die down, and her once bright eyes slowly began to flutter as she battled to remain awake. Daryl immediately dropped next to her, and gripped onto her hand, "N–no!"