A Simple Coincidence // Daryl Dixon

23 | Run For Your Life

I'm so hungry

My head hurts

I'm tired

Shit! Carl

Reality hit me with a truck. The deer, the gunshot, Carl. Yet another child harmed because of me, if I had been faster, maybe if I had put it together a minute earlier, he wouldn't have been hurt.

Carl got shot. Some stupid hunter was shooting at the deer, and it went through it and hit carl. I was only in time to receive the impact of his body before it hit the ground. My back and head were throbbing in pain but as usual, I ignored it and focused on the bleeding kid in my lap.

***

I always hated running. I loved playing sports, but God I hated running.

But somehow, I always found myself running. I either Had to run or needed to escape; it was never voluntary yet extremely necessary.

As a kid I would run away from home when my stepdad would come home really drunk, then as a young adult I ran away from home after almost every beating, then finally I ran away, started a whole new life alone.

I've even had do run from relationships.

About two or three months before the world went to shit, I ran away from 'home'; the apartment I lived in with my boyfriend at the time. And for the couple of months I had been alone, I'd been running for my life.

All those times I was running for me, for my benefit. All until that point, where I was running for someone else, for a kid. For Carl.

My muscles were aching as I ran beside rick, I had no idea how my body was still going without food or water under the burning sun. Sweat was tickling down the sides of my face, I could hear my heart beat in my years, my lungs were burning, begging me to give them air, but my mind kept refusing to stop. The throbbing in my head was still present but it wasn't as bad; I assumed it was a concusion.

The hunter told us about some farm that he and his family lived at, and told us about a man named 'Hershel' who was supposedly gonna help us.

We could see the white farmhouse ahead as we ran as fast as we could, suddenly Rick tripped over something and fell to his knees.

"Rick! Give him to me, you're tired and I'm faster. Cmon!"

"Please" he breathed out and handed me is son.

I ran straight to the house with carl in my arms. His blood soaking through my shirt and covering my arms, but thankfully not as much.

In our panic right after he got shot, while Shane was talking to the man and Rick was trying to keep it together, I had tried to stop the bleeding; by ripping a part of my shirt and using it as dressing and tying my belt directly onto his wound to keep pressure on his wound.

What felt like hours was only minutes as I got closer and closer to the house, people were at the front of the house waiting for us to reach, by that time Rick had eventually caught up with me.

"Was he bit?" an older man asked, I had assumed that he was Hershel, and made my way towards him.

"No! Just help him! Please!" I didn't wait for a reply and made my way inside, a girl around my age rushed me to a room, I quickly laid him down on the bed, as Hershel and Rick ran into the room.

The man took control of the situation, and started directing orders to his family, and Rick. but Rick was still in shock and kept asking if his son was alive.

"Pillowcase" Hershel ordered once again, and with no answer from rick, I rushed forward and took one of the pillows, removing the case.

"Is he alive. Please tell me my boys alive" Rick asked Hershel, panic laced in his voice as tears streamed down his face.