Ricks POV:
English was right. It was a very bad idea to bring my son out here in the woods. Knowing the danger that occurs. The danger my children are in every second that they are out there. Whether it's the woods, the cities, or hell even inside of a building. We will always be in danger, no matter what I say or do. Nothing will ever change that.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet. Back at the church.
"Happy?" My daughter England asks as she smiles. From the fact that I want my wife and daughter safe or as safe they can be with the gun Daryl gave to Lori. Even with the gun England carries herself.
"Very," I reply, smiling at myself as I watch them and the rest of the group walking into the woods until they are out of sight.
I sighed walking over to Shane.
"Give me a minute," I say walking towards the church.
"Yeah..."
I walk up to the man on the cross as it hangs in the church.
"I don't know if you're looking at me with what?" I start. "Sadness? Scorn? Pity? Love?" I sigh. "Maybe just indifference. I guess you already know I'm not much of a believer. I guess I chose to put my faith elsewhere. My family, mostly. My friends. My job. The thing is, we- my daughter could use something to keep her going. She's- She's been through a lot and this is-is making it worse..." I sigh once again, rubbing my eyes.
"I could use something to keep us going. Some kind of... acknowledgment. Some indication I'm doing the right thing. You don't know what that is to know... Well, maybe you do." When nothing happens, I turn and start walking before I change my mind. Going back in front of the cross.
"Hey, Look. I don't need all the answers. Just-just a little nudge. A sign. Any sign will do." I scoff softly before walking out officially.
"Get what you needed?" Shane asks.
"Guess I'll find out."
We all walk in silence for half an hour. We hear branch snapping, I put my hand up making Carl stop walking. Shane grabs his arm pulling him behind us as we walk slowly towards the noise. I stopped walking, realising there was no sign of danger, just deer coming across our path. From the corner of my eye, I see Shane pulling his gun up. I was gonna let him shoot the deer until I saw Carl walking towards.
I put my hand up to lower his gun. He looks towards me, but I just nod towards Carl. He smiles when he sees the view in front of us.
For just a moment it was quiet. Just a moment it was peaceful, full of happiness, like there were no worries in the world. As if walkers didn't exist and the world had never gone to sh*t. It was just a moment where I felt like nothing could be wrong. But boy... was I wrong.
A gunshot could be heard. Next thing I know, Carl is laying on the ground with blood pouring out of his stomach. My eyes widen in shock, I'm frozen for a second before coming back to reality.
"NO!" I yell at the top of my lungs. I ran to my son, putting pressure on his wound.
"I didn't see him!" I hear a man yell from behind me.
"Back the hell up!" Shane yells back.
"Shane! He's losing too much blood! We gotta get him back to the rv!" I yell picking up his fragile body.
"I have a doctor with me! He can help your boy!" The man who shot my sons says.
"Where!"
"This way!" He says running in a direction.
~ * ~ *
I don't know how long I've been. 10 minutes? 20? Maybe more?
"Hey! You move, Sh*thead! Get us there!" I hear Shane yell.
I stop running for a split second just to turn at the man.
"How far?! How far?!"
"A-Another half mile!" He points in the direction we're running to. "That way. H-Hershel. Talk to Hershel. He'll help your boy!" He yells out breath.
I didn't bother turning back as I kept running. Running to save my son's life.
I grunt as I keep running. I feel out of breath, but I don't stop. No, I keep going.
I see a house up in front, making me run faster. I run and run until I'm right in front of about 5 people?
"Was he bit?" An old man asks.
"Shot. By your man."
"Otis?" I hear a female say, but I ignore her.
"He said,'' Find Hershel. Is that you?" I say to the old man. He nods his head. "Help. Help my boy!" I cry out.
"Get him inside," he says. We walked into his house.
He gives out orders, but I block them, focusing my attention on Carl. They lead me into this room.
"In here." he takes off a blanket from a bed. I lay Carl down, keeping my eyes on him. "Pillowcase."
"Is he alive?"
"Pillowcase, Quick!" He orders.
I grab the pillow, taking off the case.
"Fold it, make a pad. Put pressure on the wound." I do as he says. He grabs some type of tool and checks Carl. "I've got a heartbeat. It's faint." he says, making a breath of relief.
"I got it, step back." A woman says to me. Taking my position. I step back at the end of the bed watching them.
"Your name?" The old man, Herschel asks.
"R-Rick"
"Rick?"
"I-I'm Rick."
"Rick, we're gonna do everything we can, Okay? You need to give us some room. Now." He demands. I nod, stepping out of the room. Onto the front porch, where I see Shane and that man Otis, coming up.
"He's alive? He's still alive?" Otis asks. I don't bother answering.
I wipe my face with my hand. I don't feel ok.
"hey... okay." Shane steps up to me quietly. He grabs out a rag from his bag and starts wiping my face. "You've got blood, man." He puts the rag in my hands and I shakely start wiping them. "I'll take it from you. Where is he? Where is he? Is he okay?" He asks. I just open the door, walk into the room Carl's in.
We see Hershel pressing down on Carl's wound with a clean rag.
"You know his blood type?" He asks as soon as we walk in the room. I nod.
"A-positive. Same as mine." I responded. He nods his head.
"That's fortunate. Don't wander far. I'm gonna need you. What happened?" He looks over at Otis.
"I was teaching a buck. Bullet went through it. Went clean through." The man responds shakely.
"The deer slowed the bullet down, which certainly saved his life. But it did not go clean through. It broke up into pieces. If I can get the bullet fragments out and I'm counting 6."
Otis walks past me and starts talking to what I would assume to be his wife.
"I never saw him. Not until he was on the ground" He whispers. Reality comes to me. England and Lori.
"Lori and England don't know. My wife and daughter don't know. They don't know." I cry out. Shane starts whispering stuff, but I can't hear him over my sobs.
Faint ticking can be heard from the clock as Shane and I sit on the couch. I calmed down after a while, but one thought kept swarming my head.
"Why'd I let him come with us?" Shane sighs. "I should've sent him with the girls. England was right..."
"You know, you start that, You'll never get that monkey off your back." Shane says to me.
"Little girl goes missing, you look for her. Simple. You said call it. Head back."
"Doesn't matter what I said, man."
"Carl got shot because I wouldn't cut bait. It should be me in there."
Shane chuckles slowly as he shakes his head at me.
"You've been there, partner. Right? And you pulled through. So will he."
"Is that why I got out of the hospital? Found my family, for it to end here, like this? Is this some kind of sick joke?" I say, angry at myself for letting this happen.
Shane shushes me. "You stop it. Just stop."
"Little girl goes missing... You look for her. I-It's plain and simple." I argue back. A door opens and a girl comes out. Maggie I believe.
"Rick. He needs blood." She says, leading me into the room. Carl coughs out crying.
"You hold him down." He orders Shane.
"DAD!" He screams out, breaking my heart in half. This is my fault. Hershel starts pulling something out of his stomach, making Carl scream out louder.
"Almost there." Herschel says calmly. Carl keeps screaming.
"Stop! You're killing him!" I yell out. While Otis's wife puts a needle in my arm.
"Rick, Do you want him to live?"
"He needs blood."
"Do it now!" Shane yells at me.
Carl stops crying after a few minutes, leaving us all quiet.
"Wait, wait. Hey." Shane says all worried.
"He just passed out." Hershel pulls out a bullet fragment. "One down. Five to go."
As they patch him up for now, they take his pressure.
"Pressure's stable."
"Lori needs to be here." I say. "She doesn't even know what's going on. O-or my daughter. I-I've gotta go find them. Bring them back."
"You can't do that." Hershel argues.
"They're his family! They need to know what happened. Her son's lying here shot."
"And he's going to need more blood." He reasons. "He can't go more than 50 feet from this bed." He turns towards Shane. He nods. I stood up wanting to leave this room already.
I start to fall over feeling all dizzy, but I keep my head up.
"Hey. Hey. Come on" Shane walks up to me.
"I'm all right." I walk out of the room. I sit down on the free couch by the door.
"He's stable for now." Shane tells the two people in the room.
"Lori has to be here, Shane. They both have to know."
"Okay, I get that. I'm gonna handle it. But you gotta handle your end." He says. I look at him confused.
"My-My end?"
"Your end is being here. For your son. Even if he didn't need your blood to survive, there is no way I'd ever let you walk out that door. Man, I'd break your legs if you tried. You know that, right?" I sigh looking down. "If something happened to him and you weren't here... if-if he slipped away while you were gone. You would never forgive yourself for that. And neither would Lori or even England, man."
I rub my eyes, sighing once more. Knowing he is right. I nod looking at him.
"You're right."
"When was I ever wrong?" He asks, lighting up the mood just a bit. "You know... when you were 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." he laughs. "You can't even imagine it. See- 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. Hmm? You hear? You've got the hard part. Just leave the rest to me. Okay?" he asks. I nod. Not wanting to argue any longer.
The door opens and Hershel walks out.
"He's out of danger for the moment. But I need to remove those remaining fragments."
"How?" I ask. "You saw how he was."
"I know and that was the shallowest one. I need to go deeper to get the others." I sigh. "There's more."
"Tell me."
"His belly is distended, his pressure is dropping. Which means there's internal bleeding. A fragment must've 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 am there. I mean, at all. If he reacts the same as before, I'll sever an artery and he'll be dead in minutes." Hershel explains. I look down at the ground. "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." He finishes.
I inhale a deep breath. "What'll it take?"
"You need a respirator." Otis comes up. "What else?"
"The tube that goes with it. Extra surgical supplies, drapes, sutures."
"If you had all that you could save him?"
He looks at me.
"If I had all that, I could try."
"Nearest hospital went up in flames a month ago." Hershel looks at him. "The high school."
"That's what I was thinking. 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 says.
"I said, leave the rest to me." Shane starts. "Is it too late to take that back?" He chuckles.
"I hate you going alone." I responded.
"Come on. Doc, why don't you make a list and draw me a map?" Shane asks.
"You won't need a map. I'll take you there. Ain't but five miles." Otis steps up.
"Are you sure about this?" Shane asks.
"Do you even know what any of the stuff he's talking about looks like?"
"Come to think, no."
"I've been a volunteer E.M.T. I do. We can talk about this till next Sunday, or we could just do it right quick."-Otis
"I'll take it right quick." Shane responds, nodding. I look at Otis.
"I should thank you."
"Wait til that boy of yours is up and around. Then we'll talk. I'll gather some things." He responds walking away.
"Where are they?" Maggie asks me as she walks up to us. "Your wife and daughter?"
~ * ~ *
"Just get what you need and get out of there." I tell SHane as he puts his bag down.
"Stay strong, all right?" He tells me. I walk up to Otis and hand him my gun.
"That's a fine weapon, Rick. I'll bring it back in good shape." He tells me and walks away to the driver side of the truck. They both get in and drive off.
I don't how long it was until I saw Maggie come back with Lori. I walk out of the house as they arrive. She jumps down and looks at me in disbelief. We hug for a brief second before I bring her into the room Carl is in. She breaks down looking at him.
"I'm sorry," I say. She starts whispering stuff to his ear and I lay my head on her. After a while, they take another transfusion.
I try to get up, but fall back down on my seat. "Slow and steady," Lori says. "How many have you had?"
"Two. Only two."
"You know he wanted to do the same thing for you when you were in the hospital. England and I had to talk him out of it." She smiles softly.
She helps me stand on my feet and we walk over to the dining room. Hershel hands me over a glass of orange juice and I thank him for it.
"Okay, so I understand, when Shane gets back with this other man-"
"Otis" Hershel says.
"Otis. The idiot who shot my son." Lori scoffs.
"Ma'am, it was an accident."
"I'll take that under consideration later. Right now he's the idiot who shot our son." She responds.
"Lori, they're doing everything they can to make it right." I scolded her.
"Okay as soon as they get back, you can perform this surgery?"
"I'll certainly do my best."
"Okay. I mean you've done this procedure before?"-Lori
"Well, yes. In a sense."
"In a sense?"
"Honey, we don't have the luxury of shopping for a surgeon." I say trying to lighten up the mood.
"No, I understand that, but I mean you're a doctor, right?"
"Yes, ma'am/ Of course. A vet."
"A veteran? A combat medic?"-Lori
"A Veterinarian."
Great.