England's POV:
I sit on the stairs of the porch next to my parents. Waiting. Waiting for any type of news about Carl, or for Hershel to just walk out the door to tell us that he's going to be okay. But that hasn't happened.
It's been about two hours since Shane came back with the supplies. Without the other man, Otis. I look up, seeing Shane sitting down, his back against his truck. As he looks at the ground. He seems to be distracted. Maybe he's hoping Carl is all right? Maybe he's thinking of a way to improve his lie? Who knows. As if feeling eyes on him, he looks up. Making eye contact with me. This time, his eyes look normal. Not the same weird look he had just a couple of hours ago.
No. He seems more in the present now. More like himself, but is he even himself anymore? Is any one of us lately? I look away, behind me as I hear the creak of the door open. I stand as I notice Hershel coming next to us and I see my parents get up as well. Waiting for what he has to say.
"He seems to have stabilized." He says. Making the three of us let out a breath of relief.
"Oh thank god," I whisper. Dad goes up and hugs the poor man as mum chuckles with happiness.
"I don't have words." Mum chokes out with a smile on her face.
"I don't either. Wish I did." Hershel sighs. "How do I tell Patricia about Otis?" He looks towards my father. I look at Shane and I see him keep his eyes on the ground. Not daring to look up. Dad looks at me and mum.
"You guys go to Carl. I'll go with Hershel." He states. I nod and head inside towards my brother's room. As I walk in. I see him lying in bed, a huge bandage across his body. I hear crying from across the house and shut my eyes. They told her... I didn't bother listening anymore and just focused on my brother.
From the corner of my eye, I see mum walk in and sit next to me. Holding Carl's hand. She starts crying. I grab her hand, trying to comfort her in a way and she sends me a soft smile.
"He's all right now, mum," I told her. "He's all right now."
She chuckles lightly and puts her head on my shoulder.
"Are you all right?" She asks me. I furrow my eyebrows in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean earlier, you ran out of here in a hurry. I wanted to be with you, but I didn't want to leave Carl. And I saw Glenn run after you so I figured that'd be enough." She looks up at me. "So I repeat. Are you all right?"
I smile lightly at my mother's worriness. I nod.
"I am now."
~ *
The next morning I woke to the sound of banging. I stand up from the chair and stretch my body.
"Morning," Mum says handing me a cup of tea. I smile at her.
"Morning." I walk over to the window and see Glenn and the others putting rocks into a rolley thingy. I don't know that name. "What's going on?" I ask my mother. She looks out the window and back at me.
"They are gathering rocks to do a memorial for Otis." She explains. I nod my head in acknowledgment. Dad walks in next to Hershel. They both say good morning and we say it back.
Hershel goes over to Carl and puts his hand on his forehead.
"Fevers gone down." He says and removes his hand as Carl starts squirming. Mum and Dad race to his side as I stand next to Hershel.
"Baby?" Mum says.
"Carl?"
He opens his eyes slowly and looks around the room.
"S-Sophia?" he asks. Mum, Dad, and I look at each other confused before looking back at him. "Is she okay?"
"Fine." Dad lies. "She's fine."
"Get some rest," Mum says. "We'll be right here, okay?" He nods his head and closes his eyes once more. I let out a sigh and looked out the window once more as I heard revving.
"Daryl" I breathe out as I see his motorcycle come into view. I put my cup of tea down and raced outside. He parks in front of the house and I just go down from the porch and hug him. He stiffens at first from the sudden impact and as I go to move, he pulls me tightly to his chest.
"Carl?" he whispers in my ear. I let go looking at him.
"He's okay." I smile and he nods. Dad walks out of the house with mum behind. He stands alone and starts to give a speech as if he's the main character on a show.
"How is he?" Dale asks, worry plastered all over his face.
"He'll pull through." Mum smiles proudly, making me do the same. "Thanks to Hershel and his people."
"And Shane," Dad says, making my smile drop. Daryl looks at me curiously before looking back at my father. "We'd have lost Carl if not for him." Everyone starts hugging each other while I just stand on the sidelines. Andrea walks up to me with a kind smile and puts a hand on my shoulder.
"It's good to know." I nod my head.
"How'd it happen?" -Dale.
"Hunting accident. That's all- just a stupid accident." Dad chuckles.
Beth outs rock down on the pile we created for the man who risked his life. Otis.
"Blessed be God. Father our Lord Jesus Crist." Hershel reads out the bible. Beth's boyfriend, Tommy? Tim? I don't really remember. Goes up and does the same. "Praise be to him. For the gift of our brother Otis. For his span of years. For his abundance of character; Otis, Who gave his life to save a child's. Now more than ever, our most precious asset. We thank you, God, for the peace he knows in your embrace. He died as he lived, in Grace." He finishes and backs up.
"Shane, will you speak for Otis?" Hershel asks. Shane's head snaps in his direction.
"Not good at it." He stated, looking away. "I'm sorry."
"You were the last one with him. You shared his final moments, please. I need to hear. I need to know his death had meaning.'' Patricia sobs. He nods and walks forward.
"We were about done. Almost out of ammo. We were down to pistols by then." Shane starts. He fidgets with his fingers. I narrow my eyes on him. "I was limping. It was bad. Ankle all swollen. 'We gotta save the boy' See, that's what he said. He gave me his backpack and he shoved me ahead. Run, he said. He said ''I'll take the rear, I'll cover you." He stops for a second. His eyes seem distant like he's not here. "And when I looked back" He looked at Patricia, walking up to the pile of rocks, and picked one up himself. "If not for Otis, I'd never made it out of there alive. And that goes for Carl too." My eyes snap over to him. He stares eyes hard at me.
"It was Otis. he saved us both." He looks over at Patricia once more. "If any death ever had meaning, it was his." He puts down the rock. Leaving everyone quiet. We all stand in silence for a while until we decide to leave. All of us leave at our own pace.
"How long has this girl been lost?" Hershel asks as a few of us stand by a truck waiting for Maggie to come back with a map.
"This would be day three," I responded. Maggie stands beside me and lays out the map on top of the hood.
"County survey map. Shows terrain and elevations." She says.
"This is perfect. We can finally do this thing organized." dad says looking down at it. "We'll grid the whole area, start searching in teams."
"Not you. Not today." Hershel protests. "You gave three units of blood. You wouldn't be hiking five minutes in this heat before passing out," he explains, then turns towards Shane. "And your ankle- push it, no, you'll be laid up a month. No good to anybody."
"So it's just me then?" I ask, looking down at the map, thinking where I should start looking first.
"And me," Daryl says. I look at him and smile. Dad looks between us before speaking.
"Are you sure England?"
I shrug and point to a spot on the map.
"I'll head back to the creek, work my way from there." Dad shakes his head.
"You can't go alone." He protested, I scoffed.
"She won't be. Imma go with 'er." Daryl speaks up.
"I can still be useful," Shane says. "I'll drive up to the interstate, see if Sophia wandered back."
"All right, tomorrow then. We'll start doing this right."
"That means we can't have our people out there with just knives. They need the gun training, we've been promising them.: Shane explains. I nod my head in agreement.
"I'd prefer you not carrying guns on my property," Hershel says. "We've managed without turning this into an armed camp."
"With all due respect, you get a crowd of those things wandering in here..." Shane argues.
"We're guests here," I speak up. "This is your property, and we will respect that." I look at Shane and put my gun down. I look towards my father. "Right, dad?" He nods his head and does the same. Putting his gun down. Shane scoffs but does the same.
"First things first: Set camp, find Sophia." -dad
"I hate to be the one to ask, but somebody's got to. What happens if we find her and she's bit?" -Shane
I sigh looking at the map. As much as I hate to think of it, it's always a possibility. Dad looks at me for a second before looking back at Shane.
"I think we should all be clear on how we handle that."
"You do what has to be done." Dad declares.
"And her mother? What do you tell her?" Maggie asks.
"The truth."- Andrea.
"I'll gather and secure all the weapons. Make sure no one's carrying till we're at a practice range off site. I do request one rifleman on lookout. Dale's got experience." Shane explains. He and my father looked at Hershel for permission.
"Our people would feel safer and less inclined to carry a gun." I push and he finally nods. "Thank you."
Shane and Daryl walk off as Maggie speaks to me.
"That stuff you brought, got more antibiotics, bandages, anything like that?" I shake my head.
"Just what you've seen." I say.
"We're running short already. I should make a run into town." Maggie says to her father.
"Not the place Shane went?" My father is concerned. She shakes her head.
"No, there's a pharmacy just a mile down the road. I've done it before." -Maggie.
Dad turns and points to Glenn.
"You see our man there in the baseball cap?" He asks and she nods. I look at him curiously.
"That's Glenn. Our go-to-town expert along with England here." He pats my back. I smile. "I'd ask him along just to be cautious." My father explains. I smirk looking between Hershel and Maggie who seem to be having a private conversation.
"You know he's kept me safe many times before," I say as they both turn to me and I look at Hershel. "He'd take good care of your daughter." My smirk grows wider as I look at Maggie, I wink at her and she looks at me with a questionable smile. Hershel nods and she makes her way towards him.
Hershel walks off not too long after and my father looks at me.
"What was that?" I look at him innocently.
"What was what?" He laughs.
"That smirk and wink you sent to Maggie. Now Hershel may not have noticed, but I sure as hell did."
I chuckled and shrugged.
"I got a bet to win."
"What bet?" I was about to answer when T called me over.
"Hey yo, E! I need your help!" I sigh.
"I'll be there in a sec." He nods and goes back to Dale. I see Daryl walk by and my father calls him.
"Hey, Daryl!" He stops and looks over at us. I walk up to him and give him an apologetic smile.
"What's up?" he asks.
"Are you leaving already?" I ask and he nods. "T-dog needs my help with something and I-" he interrupts.
"It's cool, I can go alone. You go help your friend."
"A-Are you sure? I mean-" He cuts me off once more, seeming annoyed by me.
"I'm better on my own!" he shouts from over his shoulder as he walks away. Dad looks at me and says.
"I'll talk to him." And he runs after Daryl. Did I do something?
I shake my head to not think about it and go off in the direction where T-dog and Dale went. When I catch up to them, I see them filling up buckets with water.
"Hey, sorry I took a while." They look at me and smile.
"It's cool. Mind if you help us right now to drag this wagon?" He asks, banging on the wagon. I nod my head and smile. T goes back to pushing down the stick and says,
"I'm not weak and I'm not a coward." I look at him confused, but only to find him looking at Dale. oh, something must have happened between them. And I go back to putting the buckets full of water in the wagon.
"I never said you were."
"No, what I said on the highway-- I don't know what that was. Where it came from, that wasn't me." He says. What'd he say? Is he going to tell me? What? I'm nosy sometimes...
When Dale doesn't say anything, he continues pushing on the stick.
"If it's okay, I'd rather you never told anybody about that stuff I said."
"What stuff?" Dale asked, confused, smiling at him. T does the same.
"If you two are going to be talking about something you did not say, can you at least tell me what it was?" I ask to lighten up the mood a bit more. They both look at me and chuckle a little.
"Say guys, you think there's a snowball's chance. We'll actually find that little girl?" He asks, changing the subject.
"Well the first time in my life, I'm betting on the snowball," Dale says and starts walking towards something.
"I am too,"-t.
"We are going to find her, T. I know we will." I put a hand on his arm with a smile on my face.
"Yeah, we'll do whatever we have to. I don't care if I have to comb the woods like Rambo or fetch a pail of water. Everyone kicks in and does their part." he says out of breath, I chuckle a little. "Am I right?" he asks, sitting down and getting a spoon with water. "Do your part and don't complain. That's what I always do-" Dale pushes the spoon filled with water out of T-dogs face. We looked at him confused.
"I wouldn't drink that if I were you," he says. He points over to the well and I rush over it. I look down and see a fat walker inside growling trying to get out.
The boys had gone to the group to see this while I stayed put and waited. Mum stands next to me looking down.
"Looks like we've got ourselves a swimmer," Dale says.
"How long do you think it's been down there?" Glenn asks and I shrug.
"Long enough to grow gills," I responded. He cracks a smile.
"We can't leave it in there, God knows what it's doing to the water," Mum speaks.
"Yeah, we gotta get it out." Shane agrees.
"Easy. We put a bullet in its head." T-dog says and I chuckle. "I'll get a rope."
"Woah Woah Woah. Guys. No." Maggie protests.
"Why not? It's a good plan." I look at him. Is he an idiot?
"It's a terrible plan, you bloody git." He looks at me confused. "If that thing hasn't contaminated the water yet, shooting it will finish the job." He makes an o shape with his lips as realization crosses.
"Ooh."
"OoH," I mimic. He glares at me and I stick my tongue out at him. Mum shakes her head at us.
"She's right. We can't risk it." Shane speaks up.
"So it has to come out alive?" T asks. I nod.
"So to speak."
"How do we do that?" Glenn asks. We all look at each other before Shane walks off. A few minutes later he comes back with a huge piece of meat.
They tie a rope around it and lower it into the well. The walker doesn't pay any mind to it. We try for another 10 minutes but it still doesn't work.
"He's not going for it," Dale states the obvious.
"Maybe 'cause canned ham doesn't kick and scream when you try to eat it," T says.
"He's right. There's a reason the dead didn't come back to life and start raiding our cupboards." Mum speaks.
"We need live bait," Andrea states, turning to me. Making everyone do the same. Mum, Glenn, and I looked at them confused before realization came over our faces. I chuckle slowly.
"Guys no-" Mum starts but I cut her off.
"It's all right mum. I can handle it." I say. Glenn shakes his head.
"Shortie, i-I don't think this is a good idea. Let me go down instead." he stutters. I laugh at his state. Hell, I'm nervous too but one of us got to be the calm one and it sure doesn't look like Glenn will be.
"When have I ever had a good idea, Glenn?" I joke. He looks at me with an 'are you serious' face. I clear my throat. "Besides, I'm the smallest." He sighs. Still not convinced. Shane comes over to me and ties a rope around my waist while I sit on the edge of the well.
"Have I mentioned you look like a weird alien with your shaved head?" I joked.
"Don't worry about it, English. You'll be fine." He says as he holds onto my waist. I stiffen and remove his arms from me chuckling nervously. Mum looks at him curiously before looking at me with worry.
"You don't have to do this, love. We can have Glenn do it instead." I shake my head.
"I'd rather it be me."
"All right," Shane says and mum steps back. "We'll get you out of there in one piece all right?"
"Living piece. The living part is important." I say and grab the second rope, I'll use it to tie around the walker. I let out a breath. "Nice and slow you gits."
"We gotcha," Andrea says and gives me a nod.
"Oh, you people are crazy," Maggie exclaims.
"You want to get it out of your well or not?" Shane asks, irritated. She stays. I gave her an apologetic smile as I went down.
"Give us an eye there, Maggie," I hear Dale say.
I breathe in and out heavily as I keep going lower and lower. Closer to the disgusting creature.
"You doing okay down there?" She asks. I chuckle.
"Yup, doing amazing. Living the dream." I say looking down.
As I think i' m close enough, I try to put the rope around his neck, but it doesn't work. They lower me more and I try again. I feel the rope pull down fast and I start screaming as I'm falling. I hear everyone freaking out too, but I don't care as I try not to get bit.
"AH! MUM! GLENN!" I yell from the top of my lungs as I feel the walker grab my foot. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!!" I took this as an opportunity and grabbed the rope successfully putting it around its neck. "OH MY GOD! GET ME OUT OF HERE!" I feel the rope pulling me up as I mumble oh my god under my breath over and over again until I am able to pull myself up.
Glenn grabs my hand helping me out of the well. I fall to the ground with Mum and Glenn holding on tightly to me. I try to settle my breathing down a little. Trying to keep the flashbacks away.
"Hey, Hey. Are you okay?" Glenn asked worriedly as mum checked me for any bites. I managed to nod and stood up. Mum let out a breath of relief and hugged me tightly to her chest. She grabs my face.
"Oh thank god! We are never doing that again." She exclaims. I chuckle at her reaction.
"Back to the drawing board" I hear Dale say and smile at him, giving him the rope.
"Says you," I tell him walking away.
I need a break.