Leo noticed a small gash across his abdomen from when he fell, he didn't know what to do with it but didn't want anyone else to worry about him. He used an old shirt and water to try his best to disinfect it- there was no alcohol and the bleeding didn't look terrible (he should probably check up on it in a bit) but Leo left it at that for now, doing his best to block out the pain.
It was the next morning now and everyone, other than the younger kids, were helping with cleaning up all the dead bodies and putting them into separate piles; one for burial and one for cremation, the people at camp who died got buried and walkers got burned.
Andrea had sat all night outside crouching over Amy's body, she got bit by a walker during the attack. And people were starting to get worried but when Rick went to tell Andrea they have to take care of Amy, the woman pulled a gun out on him.
Everyone got back to their chores, being careful around Andrea but giving her space.
It was quiet, a few small conversations goin on between people but everyone was too tired to talk or thinking of the people they'd lost.
"A walker got him. A walker bit Jim!"
Leo looked over his shoulder to Jacqui and Jim, everyone started circling the man so Leo went over too.
"Show it to us" Daryl demanded, "Show it to us"
Jim turned around to pick up a shovel for self defense but T-dog came up from behind to restrain him, "I'm okay, I'm okay" Jim kept repeating. Daryl made quick movements and lifted up his shirt to reveal the large bite mark, Leo's face scrunched with disgust and he turned away for a second.
They all looked sadly to the injured man as he pleaded for his life, that he was okay.
Jim was told to sit on a box, far away from everyone as the rest all discussed on what to do. Daryl was very adamant that they should follow his instructions, "I say we put a pickaxe in his head, and the dead girls, and be done with it"
"Is that what you'd want? if it were you?" Shane asked the man- obviously not everyone was on the same page.
"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it"
"I hate to say it" Dale said, "I never thought I would, but maybe Daryl is right"
Rick spoke up, sounding quite angry that people were willing to kill an innocent man "Jim's not some monster, Dale, or some rabid dog"
"I'm not suggesting-"
Rick cut Dale's explanation short "He's sick. A sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line?"
"The line is pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be" Daryl said
"What if we can get him help? I heard the CDC was working on a cure" Rick told them, Shane shook his head.
"I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell"
Rick persisted on them heading over to the CDC because it would provide them with help but Shane went against that by suggesting an army base at Fort Benning.
Leo caught Daryl glancing back to Jim. The man hidden then ran over to kill him with the pickaxe but Shane and Rick ran over first, Shane standing in front of Jim and Rick pointing a gun to Daryl, "We don't kill the living"
"That's funny" Daryl remarked, "Coming from a man who just put a gun to my head"
"We may disagree on some things, not on this. Put it down, go on" Shane said to Daryl who, very reluctantly, set the pick back down with a glare set on Shane.
Rick and the others took Jim somewhere and Leo felt himself getting tired so he found a chair to sit down and relax in. He had his eyes closed, relishing in the quiet around him, "Working hard, huh?"
He opened his eyes slightly to smile a Jacqui then closed them again, "You bet. Life's hard as a working man" he joked and put his hands behind his head.
Jacqui threw something off to the side then looked back to the kid. She noticed a wet red patch leaking through the white of his shirt and her eyes widened, "Jesus... Hey Rick, I think we got another one!"
Leo opened his eyes, confused then he looked around as everyone slowly made their way over to him. Rick got there first and glanced down at his shirt. Leo followed their gaze and touched the red mark, it came off slightly, staining his hand, "Shit..."
"Stay back everybody" Rick warned, eyeing him carefully.
The teen looked up to everyone, some still holding their tools. Scared, he stood up quickly, "Hey, hey. It's not a bite. It's not a bite, guys"
Shane stepped closer with his hand outstretched, "Calm down. We're not gonna hurt you, Leo. Just lift up your shirt" the dangerous squint in his eye's definitely contradicted his promise but Leo went along with it anyway.
"Okay, okay" Leo nodded rapidly and lifted up the bottom of the shirt to reveal the gash, "See, it's fine. No bite, I'm good"
"It's fine?" Rick mirror sarcastically
Leo tiled his head a little, "Yeah, no bite. What else?"
Dale stepped forward with a cautioning hand, "We need to get this sorted, it could have an infection— When did this happen?"
"Oh, that? That's fine, it doesn't hurt... much" the boy denied and dropped the shirt back down to rub a hand at the nape of his neck awkwardly, "I think I got it last night, fell on something. I don't know"
The adults looked between each other and the teen and Rick decided to step up and pull Leo to the side, "Come on, let's get you patched up"
Rick and Leo sat down on a log and the adult brought over a first aid kit, "Okay, you'll need to take that off" he motioned to his shirt.
The boy looked around them, everyone was still milling about and he noticed a few eyes on them. He curled in on himself slightly, "Uh, can't I just keep it on" he didn't want people seeing him— it felt weak and vulnerable.
Rick looked over the boys shoulder to check out what he was looking at then met Leo's eyes again. His brow was slightly furrowed but he nodded his head, "Just uh, hold it up so I can't wrap the bandage 'round it"
Leo did as asked but couldn't sit silently as Rick started cleaning the wound, "Is it really that bad. I've had stuff worse than that and it's been fine..." Leo felt the concerned gaze concentrated on his face but couldn't bring himself down to meet it, "I just didn't want to tell anyone. They all have their own problems, and I just didn't want to intrude"
"Yeah... it doesn't look the worst I've seen, but, it's pretty bad" he started to clean it up, "But you should've just said to someone, sometimes you have to speak up for help"
The two sat in silence, only Leo hissing when extra pain kicked in, until Rick patted his leg, "Well, alright. You're all patched up and ready to go"
☆彡💫----🪐ミ☆
Carl and Leo were sitting inside the rv, Leo needed a water break and Carl was happy to talk with him. Lori came over and told them they were going up to the graves, ready to bury the bodies.
When they got there Rick, Shane and Daryl were arguing, "There are no rules" is what Leo had first heard Rick declare.
Lori stepped in, "Well, that's a problem. We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do"
All of the graves had been dug and everyone was standing by to watch Andrea drag Amy into one, she wanted to do it herself.
Leo stayed behind to gather up a flower for each grave and set them into the dirt. As he was walking back the Grimes were having a talk so he tried to go past them quietly.
"Hey, Leo?" the boy perked up and turned to Rick, "Can you take him back down, me and Lori are gonna talk" he gestured to Carl who looked really happy.
"Yeah, sure" he smiled and nodded is head down the hill, "I'll race ya"
The boy smirked and sprinted off immediately, "Woah, hey! That's not fair!" Leo complained and ran after him.
☆彡💫----🪐ミ☆
Rick and Shane had come back from their sweep of the woods, everyone else were sitting together, "I've, uh... I've been thinking about Rick's plan. Now, look there are no... there are no guarantees either way, I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time, I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together. So... those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning, okay?"
And all was settled with no room for arguments or swaying their decision.
It was the next day and everyone was ready to go, "Alright everyone, listen up" Shane called out, "Those of you with CB's we're gonna be on channel 40. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now you got a problem, don't have a CB, can't get a signal or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?"
Morales stepped forward, "We're uh... we're not going" with a gesture to his small family, Leo had gotten to know them quite well, sometimes the kids would join in on his and Carl's games.
"We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people" his wife said
Rick handed him a revolver and a half full box of bullets with some motivating words, Daryl wasn't too happy about that. Carl and Sophia were given time to go and see their friends off. And, as midday hung overhead, Everyone set off. The space was a little cramped and Leo had to either go alone with Shane or Daryl - Daryl seemed like the better option, he was easy to annoy but didn't get angry like Shane.
Shortly into the journey the caravan stopped. Daryl went out to check it out and Leo went over to Rick's car where Carl and Sofia were, "Hey guys, feeling good?"
"Yeah" Carl nodded, "Just tired"
With a smile Leo ruffled up Carl's hair, "Yeah, I bet. I'm almost falling asleep in there" he looked around then lowered his voice to a whisper, "Daryl's very boring"
Carl laughed, "I'm so gonna tell him you said that"
"No you ain't"
"Yeah, watch me" the boy slid past Leo and ran over to the other giggling, "Daryl guess what?"
"Woah" Leo said and pulled Carl back by his arm, he kept a hold on Carl's arm as the boy giggled and tried to squirm out of the grip. Leo looked everyone and noticed they all looked sad, "What's wrong?" they looked back at him silently.
Jim wouldn't make it. The drive to too long and just made his condition even worse. So, on his decision, the ground would just leave him here on the side of the road.
He was walked over to a tree, despite Rick not being to fond of this idea- Jim wanted this and his choice would be respected. Everyone had a moment with the man before they walked back over to the vehicles.
There was a lot of silence in Daryl's car and Leo was watching the trees go by, "What was the kid saying?"
"Hmm? Who?" The teen looked over to him.
Daryl kept his eyes forward and he was tapping on the steering wheel along to some song in his head, "Carl, he was gonna tell me something. You know?"
Leo smiled and chuckled, "Oh, yeah. I told him you were boring, he was gonna tell on me" he said with a small head shake.
Daryl glanced to Leo with a barely noticeable smile, "You said I'm boring?"
"Sure did, and you're definitely living up to it right now. The trees are more interesting"
"Why don't you get out and walk with the trees then?"
Leo glanced out to the tree then shook his head decisively, "Nah. You're good for now"
The man squinted at Leo and a small silence brushed over the car before Daryl let out a chuckled and looked back to the road. The two had small conversations the rest of the journey, just talking about random stuff. Well it was mostly Leo talking and Daryl listening- wether he wanted to or not.
Eventually they made it to the CDC, Leo recoiled at the stench and brought his arm up to cover his nose, "Jesus Christ"
"Come on" Daryl said and put a hand on Leo's back to guide him towards the rest of the group.
"Okay, dad" the boy joked but walked along to join the others.
The group moved through the car park, weaving through the mass amount of dead bodies, "Alright everybody, keep moving. Go on. Stay quiet, let's go" Shane whispered
As they walked further up to the building the smell got worse, everyone started coughing and gagging- it wasn't pretty. These people must have been dead for a while and their final deaths weren't very friendly- Leo noticed a guys leg a few metres away from the rest of his body.
Rick and Shane tried to open the door but it would budge, "There's nobody here" t-dog told them
"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick challenged.
Leo took a look back to all of the bodies when he seen some movement, very undead type of movement, "Walkers!"
Everyone who had one cocked their gun and the younger kids started crying and seeking their mothers for comfort. Daryl swiftly moved to shoot the walker down with his crossbow then turned to Rick, "You led us into a graveyard!"
"He made a call!" Dale deflected willing to stick up for this guy he'd just met not three days ago.
Daryl wasn't having any of it and stalked closer to the man, "It was the wrong damn call!" his efforts got cut off by Shane. The police officer sliding in between the redneck and his friend.
"Just shut up. You hear me? Shut up" he turned around to his partner, "Rick, this is a dead end"
"Where are we gonna go?" Carol asked desperately, scared for herself and her daughter.
Lori nodded and spoke up, "She's right. We can't be here, this close to the city after dark"
"Fort Benning, Rick, still an option" Shane offered
"Ok what? No food, no fuel. That's 100 miles"
"125, I checked the map"
"Forget Fort Benning. We need answers tonight, now!"
Rick tried to calm down his group, "We'll think of something"
As everyone panicked about the situation, Leo took a different approach and jumped into action. He looked around the building for any way they could get in, maybe a lose shutter they could pry open, or a window- no, there wouldn't be any windows, but surely there was something. It proved to be quite useless until he noticed a security camera.
The teen looked at it curiously and his eyes widened when it moved to face him, "The camera, it moved" he pointed up and didn't move his eyes from it.
Dale looked back to the blond then to the, now still, camera, "You imagined it"
"It moved" he said and walked up closer to it, Rick and Shane close behind him, "It moved"
"Leo, even if it did man, it's an automated device. It's gears, okay? They're just winding down. Now, come on" Shane tried to pull him back but he stood his ground.
"Man, just listen to me" he insisted, entire focus still on the small camera.
Shane pulled him closer, "Hey, look around this place. It's dead, okay? It's dead" Leo pushed the man away and walked back over to the camera, "You need to let it go, Leo"
The teen ran up to the shutters and and banged his fist on them. Rick walked to his side, "Leo, there's nobody here" he said sternly
He ignored him, "I know you're in there. I know you can hear me. Please we're desperate. Please help us! We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left" he pleaded to the mystery person behind the camera- determined to get them all to safety.
Rick tried to turn him away, back to the car, "Leo, there is nobody here"
"We have nowhere to go" he said, not giving the other man any notice. Leo moved to pound on the shutter again, "If you don't let us in, you're killing us! Please!"
Shane came over and hooked his arm across Leo's chest to pull him away, the boy still didn't comply and kept facing the camera, as he was dragged away, "You're killing us! You're killing us! You're killing us!"
Just as he was pushed towards the group, the doors opened. Everyone spun around to look at the light coming from the doorway. Leo let a wide grin paint his face as Shane let him go. Rick was right about the CDC. They were all going to be safe.
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