WHITE FLAG
chapter twenty : the treehouse
{ season two - episode six }
THE WHOLE WAY back from the pharmacy Kloe stayed quiet. When she opened up the list, she was expecting some vitamins or something good to help Lori with her pregnancy. Not pills that kill it. She almost died for pills that would kill her unborn baby. She was angry at her and herself.
"I think it's best if I give these to Lori," Glenn said, carrying all of the items they had brought back from the pharmacy. She wasn't as shaken up as before, so she nodded her head, handing the abortion pills over to Glenn. "What are you gonna do?"
"Uh, I'll just walk around," she lied through her teeth.
Glenn acknowledged, "Okay. Well, I guess I'll see you later? I'm guessing you want to be alone."
"Yeah, see you soon," she waved before turning away from him. Her eyes glued to the tent where her bow was set, so she hastily walked over to it.
All Kloe wanted to do was be away from everyone. After what happened at the pharmacy and the two secrets that were sitting on her was mentally exhausting. She pulled up the zip to the tent and stepped inside.
She peeked outside the tent window to see if anyone was nearby, and luckily, there wasn't. She seized onto her bow and quiver before exiting the tent. Her head darted left to right, making sure no one was nearby.
When she knew she was in the clear, she swiftly started sprinting to the edge of the field. The field on that farm was huge, so once she reached the beginning of the woods, her legs were already tired. But she didn't give up.
Once the youngest Schmidt entered the woods, several chills rose up in her spine. She shrugged it away and began jogging into the direction Daryl had gone.
She had been walking for thirty minutes, and she found nothing. By then, she was sure everyone in the group noticed she was gone. It felt like she had gone in circles, but she knew she hadn't.
She had around an hour before the sun would set, so she had more time. She spotted a walker in the distance and held up her bow, pulling back the string. She released it and the arrow went through its skull. She lowered her bow and trod over to the now dead walker.
She placed her foot on its head and pulled out the arrow. She grimaced at the blood and shook it off the arrow before placing it in her quiver. She exhaled heavily, tired from the amount of walking she had done.
She began thinking of everything while she rested for a short while. Kloe's mind settles on Glenn. She may not have thought it, but every time she was near him, a different feeling sat in her chest. A feeling that she had never ever felt before. The few days before then, she had the exact same thoughts traveling through her mind.
Even on the highway, shortly after she found her knife, she was extremely close to confessing to Glenn, but she held back. With everything that was going on, she figured it wasn't the right time. She still wasn't completely sure if she was just going through attachment issues with him, but after what had just happened at the pharmacy - where she was held in his arms - it had been confirmed.
Kloe glanced down at her rough hands. There was dirt in her fingernails from all the dirt and grime she had been rummaged with. There were also blood stains. Sometimes, she couldn't even tell if it was her own or the undead's.
Pain felt like a weakness, because there's nothing you can do if you're in pain except scream and cry, mentally and physically.
Her hand flew up to the side of her neck where the walker almost bit her. Never ever had she been that close to death in her entire life. She felt weak. Weak for crying into someone else's shoulders. Weak for screaming for help.
She shook the thoughts away and stared at the ground. Was she really this weak and selfish? She had no idea.
Her breath suddenly got caught in her throat as she felt something sharp and metallic slide into the right side of her abdomen. Her lips parted and her eyes widened as she slowly drifted her eyes down towards it.
There was a knife poking out of her skin, meaning it had gone through cleanly. Her head shot up over her right shoulder, and there was a girl. A girl that looked like she was in her late teens. She had raven brown hair tied up in a ponytail with endless amounts of baby hairs layering over the top of her head.
She was wearing a gray shirt, which was covered with dirt and stains. She was also wearing light blue jeans with her shirt tucked into it. Her body was trembling with fear and her light blue eyes wouldn't blink. She was crouched down next to Kloe, her hand connected to the handle of the knife.
The moment she realized that Kloe wasn't undead, she shot up and hastily stepped away. "Y- You're not one of them?" she whispered, loud enough so she could hear. Kloe stared at her, still in shock. The teen stared back before her hand flew up to her forehead and she breathed out heavily, "Oh my God, I just stabbed someone."
Kloe's eyes then winced as the pain suddenly activated. It felt like someone had just placed a hundred candles onto my skin, causing it to burn. She forced her eyes open and watched the girl stumble backwards. Kloe groaned loudly as her hand made its way to the handle, thinking that if she pulled the knife out, it would suddenly stop hurting.
She gripped tightly onto the handle and counted down and took deep breaths. Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip as she began to pull at it, making the pain get even worse. Muffled screams left her lips as she felt a tear fall out of her squeezed shut eye.
The second Kloe successfully pulled out the knife, she threw it and clutched onto her wound on both sides. She glanced over to where the teenaged girl that stabbed her previously was, but she was gone. Instead, she was in the distance, running.
Kloe's chest heaved as she leaned her head back against the tree. It felt like she was going to die in seconds from the amount of blood pouring out of her. She brought her hand into view, it now being completely covered in her own fresh blood.
She gritted her teeth, forcing herself to get up. She couldn't give up, not when she had people who cared about her back at the farm. A grunt escaped her lips as she carefully stood up. She looked off into the direction the girl ran off to, and her body followed her for an unknown reason.
This girl could have killed her, but if she was out here all by herself, Kloe couldn't bear the thought of a young girl out here all by herself, when she could be somewhere safe.
She quickened her pace, a wave of regret flowing through her as the pain got worse. She made sure her bow was tightly around her shoulder along with her quiver as she tightened her pressure on her open wound.
Even in a state like that, she was able to catch up with the mysterious girl. How did a girl that looked young survive out there? It confused Kloe, but she pushed it aside as her two main focuses were chasing the girl, and pushing pressure onto her wound.
Kloe had been running for approximately three minutes by the time she caught up with the girl. She had rushed up a tree house on the ladder that was made out of a rope. The second she got to the top, she pulled the rope up so Kloe wasn't able to get up herself.
Kloe stopped, breathing even heavier from the running. She felt her vision getting blurry and she stared at her hand that was thickly covered with blood. Her head shot up to the girl watching Kloe over the railing of her treehouse and looked at her sympathetically, "How long have you been out here?" Kloe asked, but she didn't answer, instead she stared and her bottom lip quivered hysterically. "Can you please let me up? I swear I'm not infected or someone who's gonna steal stuff. I just wanna know if you're okay out here."
Reluctantly, she left Kloe's sight and her attention was brought to the ladder slowly traveling closer and closer to the ground. In an instant, Kloe hurried over to it and began to climb up. Flashbacks of when Glenn and her saved Rick Grimes in Atlanta flooded my mind.
When she got up, the girl helped her up so she was up safely before rushing into her small wooden house to grab something. She set herself against the railing, still wincing at the unbearable pain in her abdomen.
The girl came back into view with a first aid kit in her hand. She knelt down beside Kloe and unclipped the box, rummaging through it to find something. Her eyes set on white bandages and she grabbed onto them. She extended out her arm, signaling Kloe to show her wound, so she did.
If anything, she'd do anything to get her clean wound healed. She knew that Hershel would be able to fix it, but she was a little too far away to make her way back by herself.
Kloe lifted up her shirt slightly, revealing her wound. The teen grimaced as she watched the blood ooze out, causing her to hurry with the healing. She wrapped the white bandage around the wound, earning a hiss of pain from Kloe. She finished it off by putting a piece of tape over it to stop the bandage from falling off.
Kloe wasn't even going to lie, the tightness hurt a little and it was hard to breathe, but she knew that this was the only way she was going to not die. From all the heavy breathing, her asthma decided to come into play. "Hey, uh, do you have an asthma reliever by any chance?" Kloe asked with hope.
The girl nodded in response, digging into the first aid kit once again and pulled out the all too familiar blue inhaler. "Salbutamol, right?" the teen muttered out, her voice shaking for underuse.
"Yeah," Kloe nodded, taking the inhaler from her hand and bringing it up to her mouth. She pushed down the canister, sucking in the medical air.
"I'm sorry, I thought you were one of them," she apologized, a look of sympathy in her crystal blue eyes.
"Don't be," Kloe assured, placing the inhaler on the wooden ground beside her, "Accidents happen."
The girl nodded, pursing her lips. "My name's Isabelle," she introduced.
Kloe smiled, "Klo, short for Kloe."
...
After around twenty minutes, Kloe realized that her wound wasn't getting better, in fact, it got worse. The pain grew stronger with every movement she made, so she decided it was better if she went back to the farm.
She knew she was selfish for leaving in the first place. Everyone was most likely worried from her random disappearance, especially Zayn. She had to admit, she was guilty for making such a stupid decision with leaving by herself.
Rick was right. It was best to leave in pairs in case something bad happened, just like it did with Daryl. And her selfish self thought differently, she was wrong.
Isabelle insisted she'd go with the young adult since she wouldn't have been able to make it back by herself. They were getting closer and closer to the farm and more fear settled into Kloe's heart from all the yelling she'd receive from Zayn and quite possibly everyone else.
Isabelle had her arm wrapped around Kloe's shoulder while she clutched her wound from the pain. Her bow and quiver was wrapped around her other shoulder while Isabelle had a backpack of her belongings on her other.
"I think I've passed this farm before," Isabelle noted as she managed to see the white farmhouse through the trees.
"Be careful," Kloe muttered out, making the teen turn to her confused, "She'll think we're walkers."
"Who will?" Isabelle's confusion only increased.
"Don't worry, let's just hope she won't."
Kloe knew they were out of the woods when the golden light from the sunset settled onto her cheeks. Isabelle grunted, lifting all Kloe's weight since she was too weak to lift herself.
Kloe's head shot over to the farmhouse and she spotted Andrea, looking through her binoculars. She lowered them and frantically called for the others, both Kloe and Isabelle could hear her from there, across the field.
Kloe was using all the strength within her to not just fall onto the ground right then and there. She felt her hand that was clutching onto her stab wound get wet, causing her to lift her hand into her view. There was more fresh blood there. She glanced down to her side and saw the blood soaking through.
That was it. Kloe's legs became like jelly and she fell to the ground. Isabelle instantly crouched down beside her, her hands set on Kloe's shoulders and she repeatedly shook them, saying something Kloe could no longer hear, "Hey. Hey! Kloe, stay with me!"
Everything was muffled. Even her sight became blurry. She watched a blurred Isabelle calling out for help and then she saw Zayn lean over his younger sister.
Then Glenn.
Then Rick.
And lastly Andrea.
They were all saying stuff that Kloe still couldn't hear. She couldn't see. She could only feel. "Hershel!" Rick yelled, although Kloe couldn't make out who it was.
Subsequently, Hershel came into Kloe's blurred view and examined her injured body before everything just went into darkness. She couldn't see anything, she couldn't hear anything, she couldn't smell anything, she couldn't taste anything, and she couldn't feel anything.
Her senses were gone, and it felt like she was in a deep sleep.
...
"I wasn't expecting Kloe to be the one that didn't follow my instructions by not going out there alone," Rick stated, disappointment in his voice. His voice woke the young adult up, but she couldn't move or open her eyes, she could only listen.
"Tell me again what she was doing before you found her and stabbed her," Zayn harshly told, gritting his teeth.
"How many times do I have to tell you?" Isabelle's innocent voice flowed through the air. "She was just sitting against a tree, completely out of it and I thought she was undead."
"She was just sitting there?" Glenn questioned.
"Yes!" Isabelle answered, frustrated.
Kloe forced her eyes open, although she could only get them half open. She was in the same spot Carl was in when he was shot. She attempted to move her eyes to look around, but they wouldn't. They only stared.
"She's awake," Hershel said, leaning over the girl, checking her temperature with the back of his hand. She watched as everyone else that was in the room circled around her, looking down at her. But all she did was stare at that one particular spot on the ceiling with her eyes half shut. "She won't move straight away. Just let her adjust."
She listened to the elderly Greene, trying to adjust. The pain in her side was still there, but very faintly. When she finally adjusted, she frantically blinked and her eyes darted all around the room.
Isabelle and Glenn had wide smiles on their faces, but the others only had small smiles. She knew why. It was because she had gone out without their knowing. She made them all worry about her.
Rick was slightly smiling, but still had the look of disappointment plastered across his expression and Zayn just glared at his younger sister. "Why did you go out there all by yourself?" Zayn instantly asked, not even giving her a second to be in peace. "You could've gotten yourself killed."
"I know," she replied, her voice croaky, "I don't know what I was thinking."
"We were so worried about you. We didn't know where you were. Why did you go?" he continued, trying to calm himself down with deep breaths.
"I- I don't know."
Zayn shook his head frustratingly, his jaw clenching before storming out of the room, slightly slamming the door behind him. Kloe stared widely at the door her brother had just slammed guiltily.
Suddenly, she felt a hand slip into her own. Her head shot up and Glenn was comfortingly smiling at her, "Don't worry about him. He was just scared and worried."
She nodded her head in acknowledgment, still slightly shocked at her older brother's outrage.
Her body jumped a little as Hershel placed the back of his hand against her forehead, which she presumed he was checking her temperature. "Temperature's died down. You'll be back on your feet by tomorrow, just don't overwork yourself."
"Got it," she gestured by sticking up my thumb. She reluctantly turned to Rick, who no longer had that scowl look in his eyes, and instead had gratefulness. "I'm sorry, Rick. I've learnt my lesson."
"It's all right, Klo. Don't do it again, though. Glenn told us what happened at the pharmacy, we know you were not in the right state of mind," Rick said supportively.
"Thank you. I appreciate it."
...
"You know, this is the second time I've almost died today," Kloe muttered out to Glenn, who was beside her the whole time after everyone else had left for dinner.
"Yeah, let's just hope that there won't be a third time," Glenn whispered, staring at their connected hands. He never let go of his best friend's hand, neither of them wasn't sure why. But it definitely made Kloe feel better, except that she was sure that my cheeks were the darkest shade of pink.
"Mhm," she hummed, not taking her eyes off of Glenn's bowed head.
Glenn stayed completely still, not even blinking. He was deep in his thoughts, she could tell. Glenn lifted his head and looked at his best friend deeply. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry? What're you sorry for? I should be the one sorry for making you worried," she instantly replied, her brows connecting with confusion.
"No, I'm sorry for not being there when you needed me," Glenn squeezed her hand gently.
"What do you mean? You've always been there for me."
"I- I know, but I wasn't there earlier. I shouldn't have let you go by yourself, especially after what happened at the pharmacy," Glenn stammered, glancing back down at her hand before flipping it over so he could see her palm and started rubbing circles. "I want to always be there for you, even when you don't."
Kloe swallowed thickly at Glenn's words, a small smile forming. She shook her head, "You won't ever lose me."
Glenn silently chuckled and nodded, "I know. You won't lose me, either."
"Hey," she caught Glenn's attention, "we don't ever leave each other. Got it?"
Glenn smiled, sending shivers up Kloe's spine, "Yeah."
They stupidly smiled at each other for a few seconds, before she cut the silence short once again. "Are you sure you don't wanna have dinner with the others? You don't have to sit here with me."
"Didn't we just promise that we'd never leave each other?" he laughed.
She jokingly rolled her eyes, "I didn't mean it like that."
"Yeah, right," he sarcastically replied, unable to hold back his small laughter. "You totally meant it."
"In your dreams, pizza-boy," Kloe raised the hand that was in Glenn's and lightly hit his forehead. "But seriously, go have some food, nothing will happen to me, I feel fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure sure?"
"Yes, Glenn, I'm sure."
"I don't want to leave you here by yourself. Every time I leave you, something bad happens," he reasoned. The more she thought about it, the more it was true. But she was in a warm house, nothing bad could happen.
"Yeah, and that happens when we are not in a safe place. Right now, we are. So you can go eat, Glenn."
He stood still for a moment, not moving. Giving in, he nodded, "I'll be back real soon, okay?" he rose up, dropping Kloe's hand before walking over to the door, looking back at her one last time before leaving.
"Yup, he was definitely hungry," she muttered to herself.
She looked down at the hand Glenn had dropped and brought it closer to her view. With her other hand, she traced over the same parts where Glenn had rubbed circles.
She really wanted to admit to him that she wanted to be more than friends, but she never got the confidence to. She set her hand over her chest and clutched it, squeezing her eyes shut.
She slowly opened her eyes, staring at the plain white ceiling above her as she began thinking about everything that happened that day. So much. She almost died twice.
She bit her bottom lip as she carefully turned onto her side. All she wanted to do was sleep to get her mind off of things, so that's what she did. She shut her eyes gently, drifting off into a peaceful sleep that she had needed for a few days.
For now, everything was going to be alright. Or, that's what she thought at least.
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Words: 3538
- 1st March 2022
i swear this was not intended to take several years to make, and i know it is very short. also how ar we three months into this year all ready?? anyways, i hope you all enjoyed reading!
(sending lots of love to ukraine!!) 🇺🇦❤️