"Open the door! It's Hershal!" I jumped off of the bed making sure not to hit Lori. I sprinted down to stairs jumping down the last five. My hands grabbed the keys in my pockets and opened the door.
They had Hershal on a cart and he was missing half of one of his legs. There was yelling and people were shouting orders at each other. I stayed by the door and just stayed there, I didn't move. I couldn't even think.
"Jessamine!" I heard Lori scream and I ran into the room. Hershal was laying there, he was passed out, and the blood was everywhere. Lori stood up and I sat in the chair by Hershal's leg. I looked at the wound and examined it for a minute.
"Okay, everybody, we're gonna need space, but please stay close. We need something to hold this bleeding." I told them.
"Carl's getting more." Lori told me.
"Good. Now we need to elevate this leg." Lori handed Carol the pillows. Carol slid the pillows under Hershal's leg.
"We can't burn in, the shock would kill him. But we gotta stop the arteries from bleeding. If we keep it dressed it could heal on it's own, it's just that the bleeding is a problem. Lori, check his pulse." I told her and it took a second but she looked back at me.
"It's faint, but it's there." I nodded my head and she stood back by Beth.
"Okay, I have a quick question. Why are we listening to the child?" I looked at Carol and I think my eyes had flames. Lori was looking at the ground. The rest of them were looking at Carol in shock.
"Are you serious? Right now! Okay, you want to know so bad that you want me to cost this mans life? Fine! I know a thing or two because I've dealt with a thing or two! I don't need to prove myself to anybody! 'Specially not you. You had a controlling and abusive husband but I've been on my own since day one! So, Carol, would you like to proceed or would you like to be escorted out?" I asked her and she shook her head. Carol looked down and put more pressure on the wound.
"Good." I whispered. Lori put a hand on my shoulder.
"Do you need anything?" She asked and I shook my head.
"No, I just need this bleeding to stop and hope for the best. Rick, if you guys cut it off before he passed out, there's a high chance that it didn't spread. But we won't know for a while." I told him and he nodded his head.
I stood up from the chair and walked out of the room. Putting a hand on Maggie and Beth's shoulders while I did it.
I walked out to the tables and Daryl had his leg up while pointing his bow at the door. I heard footsteps in the distance and grabbed my gun out.
"Who the-" A Mexican man with a gun walked through the door. More guys were coming with him.
"That's far enough." Daryl told him.
"Cell block C. Cell 4--that's mine, gringo. Let me in." There were three other men with him. All looking around like they knew they didn't belong there.
"Today's your lucky days, fellas. You've been pardoned by the state of Georgia. You're free to go." Daryl told him. Neither of us were lowering our weapons any time soon.
"What you got going on in there?" The man asked. I'm going to assume it was there "leader" because of the way he acted and how they all bowed down to him.
"It ain't none of your concern." Daryl told him and the man grabbed his gun from his belt.
"Don't be tellin me what's my concern." That didn't stop me or Daryl from stepping closer to him with our weapons.
"Chill, man. Dude's leg is messed up. Besides, we're free now. Why are we still in here?" The big one with a shovel asked his leader.
"Man's got a point." Daryl pointed out.
"Yeah, and I gotta check on my old lady." The other one said.
"A group of civilians breaking in to a prison you got no business being in--got me thinking there ain't no place for us to go." The leader said.
"Why don't you go find out?" Daryl asked.
"Maybe we'll just be going now." The only white one pointed out. Maybe he had a very valid point.
"Hey, we ain't leaving." The leader said again.
"You ain't comin in either." That was T-dog's entrance from around the tower. He had his gun pointed right at them.
"Hey, this is my house, my rules. I go where I damn well please." The man had his gun pointed at T-dog. This was such a waste of time when one of our people was in there bleeding to death and I was one of the only people that could save him.
I walked out as I saw Rick talking to Glenn. I got closer to them and Glenn reached out to me. I grabbed his hand while Rick walked into the arguing mess.
"Let's go back in there." Glenn told me and we walked back into the room with Hershal. He was still bleeding but it had slowed down.
Even from the room I could hear them talking. The men had no idea what the outside world was, they had been in the cafeteria for 10 months, while they entire outside world died. The boys had to tell them about the new world and what it looked like. I heard Rick say something about taking them outside. Then there was silence.
I stepped away from Hershal and drug my back against the wall until I was sitting on the ground. It was just me, Carol, and Lori in the room. We were still trying, even though we would be running out of towels soon.
Glenn walked into the room and sat next to me by the wall.
"There was nothing, scarily nothing in those hallways. Then they were down every hall way. Even from the way we had come from. We were all together until we weren't. Me and Maggie were separated from the others. When we left the room we were whispering there names down the halls. That was when we heard the screams. That's how we found the others. It's something that I will never be able to un-see." I wrapped my arm around Glenn and gave him the best hug I could, but not that one that he deserved.
"I know you wanted to go but I can gladly say that I'm happy Daryl fought for you to stay here. We really didn't know what was down there." I hugged Glenn tighter.
"I should have left the argument where it was and not brought that up. He has the right to hate me for it, he should hate me for it." I whispered. Glenn took a sharp breath in.
"He thinks you hate him." I was confused on how Glenn knew.
"He talks about you--we talk about you a lot." He told me.
"Are you the ones who came up with the conspiracy of me being depressed?" I asked and Glenn took a shaky breath.
"He was talking about how he wanted to talk about it with you when we got back, but then this happened. He'll find a way to talk to you, but he thinks you'll push him away and not want him to." Now I was the one that was taking a shaky breath.
"If I don't get to him first, you tell him to find me as soon as it makes sense." Glenn nodded his head and I let go of him just to see that he looked like a mess.
"You look gross." He pushed my shoulder and laughed.
"I wouldn't be talking, if I was you." I laughed with him and nodded my head.
"I can only assume how gross I look." I told him.
The boys walked in and claimed that they had food. Glenn and I jumped up to that and stood by the door. Canned beef, canned corn, canned cans. That's what T-dog told us, at least. Apparently there was more.
I walked out and tried to look for Daryl but I couldn't find him anywhere near here. And he would have an aneurysm if I went down the halls to go find him. I walked back into the cell and Carol and Glenn were the only ones in there.
"Hey." I said as I walked in. Glenn had to put the handcuffs on Hershal. I put a hand on his shoulder while he walked out.
"Carol, let me watch him for a minute. Get something to eat or stretch your legs or something." Carol nodded her head and got out of the chair.
"Thank you." She told me while she walked out of the room and I sat in the chair. The leg was still bleeding. It was slow but I still held the towel to his leg. I sat there for a while before I heard noise outside the door.
"She's in there." I was gonna turn around but all I did was put the rag that was covered in blood in one hand and pass it to the human coming up behind me. They took it out of my hand and grabbed another one. It wasn't until they were handing the towel to me that I realized who it was.
"Oh, hey." I said and Daryl knelt down next to Hershal.
"Hey. I wanted to talk to you but right now isn't a good time. We've gotta get the rest of the food and we're going to help them clear out there own cell block.-"
"Okay, you do what you gotta do." I told him and he nodded.
"I will talk to you though, I will make sure of it. Before the night ends but just not right now." I nodded my head.
"Yeah, I understand." Daryl stood up and put a hand on my shoulder. I could hear his footsteps depart and I knew that somebody was still standing in the doorway.
"I told him that you wanted to talk to him, and that you weren't mad. I may have called you a hot head, but he did say that it was reasonable and that he deserved it, but he also said that he wanted to clear something up with you." I nodded as he said it. I gave a small laugh at the hot head part but so did Glenn.
"Thank you, Glenn." I told him and put more pressure on the wound. Maggie walked in and looked at the cuffs on the bed. Carol was standing next to her, and Glenn had come over to the side of the bed with Hershal's head.
"What's goin' on?" She asked.
"We had to." Glenn told her.
"It's just a precaution." Carol told her. There was a few seconds of silence and Maggie didn't look to good. She had been crying this whole time.
"You think maybe I could have a minute alone?" She asked and I immediately got out of the chair.
"Of course, Maggie." I told her and she sat in the chair.
"Yeah, you want me to--?" Maggie shook her head.
"No, just by myself." She told him. The three of us walked out of the room and let Maggie have her moment.
Whoever was still here sat or stood in Hershal's room. I was standing in the doorway with Glenn when we heard a door shut.
"Carl? Carl!" I called to him while he walked over with a duffel bag.
"I thought you were organizing the food." Glenn said and I looked at him.
"Even better. Check it out." He walked into the room and laid the bag out in front of everyone. It was everything that we needed. Carol and I both gasped. I walked into the room and helped Carol wrap his leg.
"Where did you get this?" Lori asked.
"Found the infirmary. Wasn't much left, but I cleared it out." He told us and we kept using the bag.
"You went by yourself?" Lori asked and it was at this moment that I knew this was going to end very badly.
"Yeah." Carl told her like it was nothing. Even Maggie looked up at him worried.
"Are you crazy?" Lori asked him.
"No big deal. I killed two walkers." Carl told us and he had all of our attention. I was only thinking about why he was talking about this like it was nothing.
"You-all right, do you see this? This was with the whole group." Lori was waving her hands over Hershal as he was laying there dying.
"We needed supplies, so I got them." Carl told her and he was about to make me tear my hair out.
"I appreciate that, but--"
"Then get off my back." That was when we all froze and looked at Carl in complete disbelief. That wasn't what was supposed to happen today, none of this was supposed to happen today. But right now Carl was-Carl was-can't even explain it, even with trying.
"Carl! She's your mother. You can't talk to her like that." Beth told him. That made him go quiet. Because his crush that was way out of his league said something and all of a sudden it wasn't cool anymore.
"Listen, I think it's great that you wanna help--" Carl booked it out of the room and we could all hear him running.
Carol and I were still wrapping the wound. We were nearly done yet nowhere near at the same time.
"These bandages will help prevent infection." I told them and that's when we finally finished wrapping it.
"It's good. It's good that Jess knows all this and it's good that Hershal taught Carol all this stuff." Glenn told us and we all kinda sat there for a moment.
"He didn't teach me everything...I need your help with something." Carol told Glenn and we were all confused on what that could even mean.
"Now?" Glenn asked her.
"Yeah, now." She said.
"What is it?" Glenn asked.
"Not here." Carol told him. I looked at Glenn and he was looking at me confused. I shrugged my shoulders.
"Go, I'll tell Rick if he comes back." I told him and he shook his head.
"I can't leave Hershal." Glenn told Carol.
"Go on. We got it." Lori told him. Glenn still wasn't gonna budge.
"No way." He said.
"We'll be fine." Beth told him.
"We're not gone long." Carol told him.
"Rick said for me--"
"We're fine." Maggie told him and he finally budged and just left. When Glenn left I went looking around to see if I could find anything that would become useful for this situation.
I heard Beth screaming so I ran down the stairs and jumped down the last five. I got into the room and Beth walked into my arms crying. Lori back the girls away and she was hovering over Hershal. Beth was still crying in my shoulder and I had my other arm around Maggie.
Lori started to do C.P.R on Hershal and I saw no point in it. If we lost him, to blood loss. Then I failed Hershal and I failed his girls. But this was putting Lori in danger. Lori was doing mouth to mouth with Hershal when his arms flung into the air and he had them around Lori. But was it still the man we knew?
We ran over and got Lori away from Hershal after many different tries. We looked back and he was just peacefully laying there sleeping again. Was he unconscious? Was he still in a coma from blood loss? But he just stopped breathing and then moved. It didn't make any sense.
"Hershal stopped breathing. Mom saved him." Carl told Rick when he finally walked back into our cell after being gone all day.
"It's true." Glenn backed him up. I was by Lori, we were standing in between the wall and the bed. I think she was standing there because she was scared.
"Still no fever." She told Rick. Rick put a hand on each of the girl's backs. Hershal started to move his mouth and Maggie leaned over right away. She sat down on the bed next to him and waited for something great to happen. We all did.
Hershal's eyes opened and we all leaned forward again. Please be human, please be human.
"Daddy?" Maggie asked. Oh, my god, it was human. Hershal made it through all that. He made it. Beth went around her sister.
"Daddy." She said with a big smile. Beth let out a laugh and Rick was shaking from joy while he was taking the handcuffs off. Hershal reached his hand out and Rick took it. Rick knelt down with Hershal's hand and we all had a smile on our face.
"We did our part, let's go for a walk." Lori whispered to me and the both of us snuck out of the room.
We were standing over the walkway above the ground. The one where we could see the entire prison. But most importantly we could see the outside world. The place we conquered.
"Jess--" Lori started but I heard a door open to our right.
I looked over and Rick was walking towards us I smiled and nodded at him. He did the same back and I walked away so he could be by his wife.
Since Carl never rearranged the food I figured that left me to do it. There was a lot of food but it wasn't the longest job I've had to do. I was halfway done when I heard somebody walk into the cell.
"Hey, can we talk about it now?" I turned and Daryl was standing in the doorway. I turned around and set down the can.
"Yeah, that would be good." I said and he nodded.
"What do you think happened that day?" He asked me and I looked down at the floor.
"What I think? What happened. You shot the one person that could handle our father. You found out I was alive and two weeks later you killed the only thing keeping me from death." Daryl scoffed at me and for a second I thought he thought I was lying.
"Is that what dad told you?" He asked and I looked at him. I nodded my head.
"Jess." He whispered.
"What? Spit it out, dude. Don't keep all the suspense." I told him and he took a deep breath.
"He was the only one that could control dad because he was the only one who gave dad what he wanted. He had something that dad wanted so Seth used it as a way to get what he wanted." Daryl told me and my heart skipped a few beats. I felt like I knew what he meant but I wanted to be wrong.
"What are you trying to tell me?" I asked Daryl and he looked down at the ground.
"Jessamine, Seth was the one that would get the guys. He was the one that hired them." He told me and I felt like I was going to pass out.
"How do you know?" It was all I knew how to ask. There were a hundred other things I could have asked but that's what came to my mind.
"Because when I came to mom's funeral and he found out that I was one of the son's he came right up to me and asked if I knew any men. When I asked him why he made sure that nobody was around and leaned in. Jess, he told me that he was looking for guys that wanted a good time with a girl. I asked him what girl and he pointed right at you." I put my hand out and reached for something to hold me up.
I kept trying to take a step but I couldn't find my balance. I kept trying to say any word but I couldn't find any that would fall out of my mouth.
"Jess, I locked you in the room that day because it was the safest and easiest to do it. Not one part of me regrets shooting Seth right then and there." Daryl held his arms out and I easily stumbled into them.
"But-" I couldn't find any words to complete my sentence.
"I know." Daryl whispered and pulled the pieces of hair out of my face.