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THE NIGHT WAS LONG AND ARDUOUS. Tara was on the brink of losing her life when Glenn, Eugene, and Nicholas brought her back. The infirmary was filled with panic and racing hearts as Murphy did her job. She stood over Tara's lifeless body, her brow beading with sweat but her breathing steady. The tools that she had access to were barely sufficient for the injury she saw before her, but she had to make do. When Tara was stable, Murphy practically collapsed from exhaustion. It had been a long while since she'd been in the operating room, but the relief afterwards was a feeling she'd never forget.
After rinsing her hands thoroughly and changing her bloodstained clothes, she sat beside Tara's bedridden self. She had been in a coma since her incident, and Murphy had seen that countless times before. Sometimes they never woke up. But, she had faith in Tara. She was strong and resilient. She would pull through. So after being by her side for a while, Murphy decided to get some fresh air outside. When she exited the infirmary, she found Glenn and Rick sitting on the front porch in silence.
"Hey," she greeted, exhaustion lacing her voice.
"Is she okay?" Glenn asked quickly, his eyes widening as he sat up in his spot.
Murphy nodded, taking a seat beside the two men on the porch floor, "Yeah. She's going to pull through. But the damage was bad. Since I didn't have an MRI, I couldn't be sure, but it looked like there was a small depression in her skull from the impact. With the equipment I have, there's no way to fix that. There didn't seem to be any internal bleeding or cerebral fluid, though, so no brain damage. She should heal up fine."
"Oh, thank god," Glenn sighed, closing his eyes and resting his head against the post behind him. Murphy noticed the pained expression upon his face, and shared a look with Rick. He shook his head, telling her that Glenn wasn't doing well.
She leaned closer, facing Glenn, "Noah?"
Glenn shook his head, tears beginning to pool in his eyes. He screwed them shut in hopes to hold himself together, but he placed his head in his hands as the tears began to fall. Murphy set a hand upon his knee, looking down at the ground in sorrow. Noah was gone. He was so young; he had so much ahead of him. He wanted to help Alexandria, but now he would never be able to. Murphy looked up with glassy eyes, tracing Glenn's huddled figure before her.
"Glenn, you need to tell us what happened," Rick stressed, but his voice wavered slightly.
Glenn looked up, sniffing. His arms were propped upon his knees and his jaw was clenched. He took a deep breath before beginning, "There were walkers all over the warehouse, wearing some sort of... armor. They were army. They just kept coming and Aiden- he... I saw the grenades. I tried to stop him. But he shot anyway, and the whole place blew. Tara, she- she hit her head and it was chaos. Nicholas was gonna run. But, we made him stay. Couldn't get Aiden out of there without help. He didn't make it. Noah, Nicholas, and I... we got trapped in a revolving door. All he had to do was hold the door. But he panicked. Noah, I had him. I had his hand..."
