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𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 this guy so bad! Yes, it may not have been on purpose, but we were looking at that adorable deer, then this massive guy shoots it and it shoots through to Carl. Rick was carrying him across a field, while me, Shane and the other guy were behind them. "Hey, you move, shithead!" Shane starts dragging the unknown guy.
"How far?! How far?!" Rick shouts. "Another half mile that way!" he pants. "Hershel! Talk to Hershel! He'll help your boy!" Shane stays back with the man, while Rick and I go off to this guy called Hershel. I was running with tears strolling down my cheeks.
As we got closer and closer to the house ahead, about nine people emerged. "Was he bit?" the eldest guy asks. I answer for Rick as he was to out of breath to speak. "Shot! By your man!" "Otis?" a dark toned girl said, she had a necklace that said "Letty" on it, she was gorgeous, then again all of the young girls looked beautiful.
"He said find Hershel, is that you?" Rick pants. The old guy nods. "Get him inside!" We all run back inside. "Patricia, I need my full kit. Maggie, painkillers, coagulates, grab everything. Clean towels, sheets, alcohol." He flips over a quilt and gets Rick to put him down onto the bed. "Pillowcase, quick! Fold it, make a pad."
Rick folds the pillowcase and applies pressure onto the wound. This Hershel guy puts on his stethoscope and holds it to Carl's chest. "I've got a heartbeat. It's faint." he says. Everything was going by so fast, all these medical things that they needed for Carl was freaking me out a little bit.
"Your names?" Hershel asks. "R- Ri- Rick." he murmurs. "J- Jade." I get out. "Rick, Jade, we're gonna do everything we can, okay? You need to give us some room. Now." Hershel assures. Rick could barely move, so I drag him as softly as I could.
We get out of the room and lean against a wall, I look down at my hands that were stained with his blood from when I collapsed next to him. "Carl!" I scream tears welling in my eyes. Carl was shot! I fall to my knees and cover Carl's wound, or at least try. I just couldn't believe he was shot. I was so deep in thought that I hadn't realised that Rick had gone outside to see Shane and Otis.
I slowly slide down the wall and huddle my legs to my chest, Lori doesn't even know yet, no one at camp knows yet. Rick comes in with Shane and Otis. "You heard anything yet?" Rick asks. I shake my head. "Nothing." I stand and follow them into the room where they were.
"You know his blood type?" Hershel asks. "A-Positive. Same as mine." Rick answers. "That's fortunate. Don't wander far. I'm gonna need you." Hershel nods. "What happened?" "I was tracking a buck. Bullet went through it." Otis informs. "The deer slowed the bullet down, which certainly saved his life. But it did not go through clean." Hershel sighs. "It broke up into pieces. If I get the bullet fragments out, and I'm counting six."
Hearing that broke my heart into tiny little pieces. "Lori doesn't know." Rick sobs. "My wife doesn't know. My wife doesn't know." Shane hugs Rick to calm him down, while I just stand there, not even knowing what to do.
***
𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐥 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐮𝐬 to sit in the living room outside, Rick and Shane did that, I however went to sit outside near a tree. I know this is a cliche thing to say in these situations, but it should have been me that was shot. And now, all I could about was the beauty of the young girls with the necklaces.
One had pink hair, still in this apocalypse, another had chocolate brown eyes, another with the most gorgeous auburn hair ever and the last one had radish earrings, maybe crafted herself. I see the one with the earrings charging out of the house and to me. "You'd better come." she urges, I get up and follow her back into the house.
As soon as I enter, all I could hear was screaming and groaning, Carl! I rush in, guns almost blazing, and see Shane trying to hold him down. "Stop! You're killing him!" Rick screams. "Jade! You're singing calms him down, sing something!" Shane demands. I nod coming to Carl's side.
"Come to me." I begin over his screaming. "In the night hours, I will wait for you. And I can't sleep, 'cause thoughts devour. Thoughts of you consume. I can't help but love you, even though I try not to. I can't help but want you, I know that I'd die without you-" I can't tell if he fell asleep from the singing or from passing out.
"He just passed out." Hershel assures. He takes out one shell. "One down... five to go." He carries on picking out pieces of the broken bullets out of Carl's side, until he got every bit he could out, in other words, just that one. "Pressure's stable." he says after taking his blood pressure. "Lori needs to be here." Rick says.
"She doesn't even know what's going on. I've got to go find her. Bring her back." "You can't do that." Hershel warns. "She's his mother. She needs to know what's happened. Her son's lying here shot." Rick argues back. "And he's going to need more blood." Hershel tells him and turns to Shane and I. Rick stands trying to steady himself with the help of the older lady and Shane.
"I'm all right." Rick dismisses. He and Shane leave the room, me tailing behind. "He's stable for now." Shane breathes leaning against the wall. "Lori has to be here, she has to know." Rick insists. "Rick, Shane and I will go back to the highway and bring her here." I promise. "Yeah, but Rick you need to deal with your end." Shane nods.
"My end?" Rick questions. "Shane's right. You need to be here for Carl, he needs your blood. Even if he didn't, there is no way Shane and I would let you fifteen metres away from this house, because you need to be here for your son in general." I explain. "If something happened to him, and you weren't here, you would never, ever forgive yourself... my family and I know how it feels."
Rick nods at me after raising his head. "I never knew I'd agree with a twelve year old." He, Shane and I chuckle. "I think you'll find I can get away with words." I grin. "Rick, you know when in that hospital, the one you were never supposed to leave, man, you should have seen Lori. She was like...the strength of that woman..." Shane tells Rick.
"You can't imagine it. See, that's what you've got to have now. I mean, Carl, he needs that from you. So you wire yourself tight, my friend." The two lean their forehead on each others. "You hear? You've got the hard part. Just leave the rest to me, okay?" Shane turns to me.
"And you... if Sophia doesn't come back, you're gonna be the only friend Carl has left, he's gonna need you, you're gonna be his only friend." He rests his hand on my shoulder. "You're singing really did calm him." I had little tears in my eyes. Soon enough, Hershel emerges from the bedroom.
"He's out of danger for the moment. But I need to remove those remaining fragments." he says. "How? You saw how he was." Rick questions. "I know, and that was the shallowest one. I need to go deeper to get the others." he explains. "There's more." "Tell me." Rick orders. "His belly's distended, his pressure is dropping, which means there's internal bleeding." he sighs.
I broke down immediately. "A fragment must have nicked one of the blood vessels. I have to open him up, find the bleeder and stitch it. And he can't move while I'm in there, I mean, at all. If he reacts the same as before, I'll sever an artery and he'll be dead in minutes. To even try this, I have to put him under. But if I do, he won't be able to breathe on his own. Same bad results."
"What'll it take?" Rick asks. "You need a respirator. What else?" Otis says. "The tube that goes with it, extra surgical supplies, drapes, sutures." "If you had all that you could save him?" Rick asks. "If I had all that, I could try." Hershel nods. "Nearest hospital went up in flames a month ago." Otis sighs.
"The High School!" the auburn haired girl says, around her neck she had the necklace "Alex". "I was thinking that too." Letty nods. "Me too." Hershel agrees. "They set up a fema shelter there. They would have everything we need." "Place was overrun last time I saw it. You couldn't get near it. Maybe it's better now." Otis shrugs.
"I said, leave the rest to me." Shane says. "Is It too late to take that back?" "I hate you going alone." Rick sighs. I step up and start opening my mouth. "No, Jade!" Shane denies, shoving his hand up. "I know you by now. Doc, why don't you do me a list and draw me a map?"
"You won't need a map. I'll take you there. Ain't but five miles." Otis steps up. "Otis, no." the lady shakes her head. "Honey, we don't have time for guesswork and I'm responsible. I ain't gonna sit here while this fella takes this on alone. I'll be all right." he assures. "Are you sure about this?" Shane asks.
"Do you even know what any of the stuff he's talking about looks like?" Otis asks. "Come to think, no." Shane grins. "I've been a volunteer EMT. I do. We can talk about this till next Sunday or we could just go do it real quick." Otis says. "I'll take right quick." Shane nods.
"I should thank you." Rick says. "Wait till that boy of yours is up and around. Then we'll talk. I'll gather some things." Otis sighs. "Where is she, your wife?" the short haired girl asks. "They should be on the trail to the highway." Rick answers. "I'll bring her here, we have horses." She rushes off outside, before I stop her.
"I'll go with you, she'll wanna see a familiar face." "Can you ride a horse?" she asks opening the door. "I've had some riding lessons when I lived in Britain." I nod walking to the stable with her. We climb onto our horses and leave the farm to find Lori and everyone else.
After a while, we both see a blonde woman being attacked by a walker, it was Andrea! That was easy! Maggie, the short-haired, charges straight for it and take it down with her bat. The walker, somehow, wasn't quite dead yet, so I get the horse to speed up and I throw my knife down straight onto the walkers head, my aim is top notch.
"Lori? Lori Grimes?" Maggie asks. "I'm Lori." Lori steps us. "Lori, listen." I begin. "Carl's been shot, he needs you, Rick needs you!" "Come now!" Maggie urges. "Woah, woah, woah, we don't know this girl! She could've kidnapped Jade and forced her to tell her about us." Daryl frowns as Lori climbs onto Maggie's horse.
"Bit rude." I roll my eyes, getting off the horse to grab my knife, then getting back on. "Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl?" Maggie questions. "Backtrack to Fairburn road. Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailbox. The name is Greene. Hyah!" "Ma!" I hold my hand out to her and she climbs onto the horse with me. "Hyah!" And we were off back to the Greene household.
"Carl's been shot?!" Ma asks. "Yeah..." I trail tears forming in my eyes. "He'll be all right, Baby." she hugs me from behind. "I hope so." I sniffle. We got to the house and Lori and Rick collapse into a hug, Ma hugging him after. "Thanks for coming, Julia." he smiles, sadness behind it. "He's my daughter's friend, of course, I would." she nods, her eyes glossy.
The three rush into the house while Maggie and I take the horses back to the stable. "Thanks for letting me come, Maggie. You're a good person." I smile. "We need more of them right now, don't we?" she smiles back. "Absolutely. We can't thank your Dad anymore than we can for helping us, I mean, we're complete strangers to you."
"There's two kids from what I saw, you all look completely harmless." she nods. "Well... you look terrifying." I giggle at her comment. We exit the stable and go back into the house. I go back into the room and see Lori lied next to Carl and Ma on the other side, stroking his head. She holds out her hand to me and I walk over to her, and fall down onto the bed next to her.
I lean into her open arms and watch over Carl and his mother.
***
𝐀𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 made between Rick and Carl. "How many transfusions?" Lori asks. "Two. Only two." Rick answers. "He wanted to do the same for you when you were in the hospital. I had to talk him out of it." she murmurs. "Better get you some juice." Patricia, the old lady says. The couple look a little reluctant. "We'll stay with him." Ma assures. They silently thank us and leave, Lori steadying Rick.
"Ma, I've been thinking... maybe I should do a transfusion, I have the right blood type." I say. "How do you know it?" she asks. "Long story short, I was injured at a show and my blood type was mentioned." I rush. "Baby, I know how much you want to help, but Rick's got this, and plus you're too young." she dismisses.
"Carl matters more right now." I sigh. "I don't know if I agree with it, but... I can ask Rick, see what he says." she reluctantly smiles. "Thank you." I slur, all of a sudden, I was sleepy as fuck. "Have a nap, Jadeyboo. I'll wake you if there's a change." I nod and close my eyes as I lay onto Ma's legs.
I hear footsteps coming back into the room, I guessed Ma put her fingers to her lips to tell them to be as quiet as possible. I don't remember much after that.
***
𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐮𝐩 𝐚 little while later and see it was dark out, Shane and Otis still weren't back yet, Hershel was taking Carl's pressure again. "Pressure's dropping again. We can't wait much longer." he sighs. Rick holds out his arm. "Take some more. Whatever he needs. Then I'm gonna go." "Go? Go where?" Lori questions. "He said five miles. They should be long back by now. Something's gone wrong."
"He also said it was overrun, and maybe it's better now." I remind him. "In other words, Rick, you're insane, you're not going after them!" Lori objects. "Rick, listen to your wife." Hershel persuades. "If they got into trouble-" he begins. "You're in no condition to do anything about it. You've given too much blood. You're barely on your feet. You wouldn't make it across the yard." Hershel interrupts.
"If Rick is losing too much blood, I can step in and give some, I'm A-Positive too." I say, not even consulting my Ma about it. "You'd do that for us?" Lori asks me. "Of course, after Rick got us all out of that store, I knew that I owed him a lot on behalf of everyone else." I smile.
"Jade, you don't have to, I can do it." Rick eases. "Rick, you're barely on this earth right now." I raise an eyebrow. "I don't mind anyway. Like Maggie said earlier to me "We need more good people right now", I'm just doing my bit for the day." Lori comes to hug me. "Thank you, Gem." she whispers. "Is it okay if she does this, Julia?" Rick asks.
Ma falters a little, but in the end smiles. "Of course."
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