digging graves// rick grimes x OC//

Save the Last One Part 2

   Sneaking below a wall, Shane surveys a course of action. He hobbles towards a fence, a walker standing on his side notices him, he shoots it with his shotgun, gaining the attention of the others. Luckily, they were on the opposite side of the fence, hearing the growls of walkers behind him, he spins around and sees a group beginning to chase him.
   Rushing back towards the fence, he leans against it- not realizing there was an opening. Walkers on the other side begin to push against him, while he tries to load his shotgun. He goes to take aim, but before he can shoot, the walker goes down with a bullet to the head. Shane looks in surprise to see an unscathed Otis coming to his aid. Shane takes off one of the backpacks and hands it to the man, "Man, I thought I'd lost you."
   "That was my last rifle round," Otis reveals, out of breath.
   "Mine too."
   "Come on." The pair begin to limp, trying to leave as fast as they can.
——
   Winona sits next to the bed, sighing at the sight of the boy in front of her. She reaches to brush his hair off his forehead and whispers to him, "I'm sorry, Carl. I'm sorry you have to go through all the pain and suffering while you're still a kid. I promise to you, when you wake up, I will try to give you the closest thing to a childhood you can get in the apocalypse. I love you Bud... so stay strong and we'll get through this," she wipes the tears that had formed while she spoke and chuckles, "I also don't know what I would do with all these comics I found for you, so make it through this, okay?" She knew the boy was unconscious and couldn't respond but deep down she felt he could hear her.
   Hershel comes in the room to check up on Carl, the younger woman smiles and mouths a thank you. Winona gets up to leave, when Carl starts to wake. He begins to cough, drawing the attention of the woman and his parents. Rick and Lori rush in, Winona steps out of the room to give them space with their son.
   "Where are we? Where'd Nona go? I heard her," Carl asks while looking around the room.
   "Hey, little man," Rick says smiling, "That's Hershel. We're in his house. You had an accident. Winona is just outside the door. Alright?"
   Carl nods and grimaces, "It hurts, a lot."
   Lori grabs her son's hand, "Oh baby, I know. I know."
   Winona walks in after hearing Carl ask where she went, his eyes met hers as she waved to him, and he smiled back, "You should have seen it, Nona," the boy says.
   "What?" the woman asks, while moving to the foot of the bed.
   "The deer," he turns to look at Lori, "It was so pretty, mom. It was so close. I've never been..." He trailed off, not finishing his sentence.
   "Carl?" Rick asks in concern.
   "What's happening?" Lori questions.
   The boy's body begins convulsing, Rick and Lori begin to try to hold him down. Winona rushes over, helping Hershel put Carl on his side, "Don't do that. It's a seizure. If you hold him down, you could hurt him."
   Lori looks at Hershel, "Can't you stop it?"
   "He has to just go through it, Lor," Winona responds. Lori sobs into Rick as they look in horror at the young boy uncontrollably thrashing.
   After a minute, Carl stops seizing. Hershel looks the boy over, "His brain isn't getting enough blood. His pressures bottoming. He needs another transfusion."
   "Okay, I'm ready," Rick says, beginning to sit down.
   "No way, Cowboy, you've given too much," Winona adamantly speaks.
    "She's right. If I take any more out of you you're body could shut down."
   "You could go into another coma, Rick. Or cardiac arrest."
   "You're wasting time," Rick says towards the older man, he holds out his arm.
  Winona steps in front of Rick and crouches down,"Rick, I can give blood, remember? I have the universal blood type. Go rest and drink some orange juice, okay?"
   Rick looks in shock, hesitating to leave, "...Yeah... Okay." He gets up and pulls her in for a hug, "Thank you, Winona."
   "Always, Grimes," she smiles and Lori hugs her too. She looks at Hershel, "Stick me, doc." Hershel chuckles and nods, quickly going over to draw blood.
——
   Moving as fast as their injured bodies could allow, Shane and Otis were searching for a path out of the overrun school. "Come on, man. We need a way out," Shane emphasizes.
   Otis gasps for air, leaning against a fence, "Just let me catch my breath."
   "Come on," Shane whispers impatiently. Suddenly a massive group of walkers run at the fence, startling the two men. Forcing them to press on.
——
   Crickets chirp as Dale takes watch, he reaches into his breast pocket of his Hawaiian shirt and pulls out the pack of cigarettes T-Dog had found. He sniffs it and raises his brows in approval. Hearing the sound of someone climbing to the roof, he turns to see Carol approaching, "Can't sleep?"
   "I'm gonna wait for them to come back," she says softly, "You can go down and sleep if you want to."
   "No, we can keep watch together."
   The two walk over to Dale's camp chair that was set out on the roof. "Which way did they go?" asks Carol.
   Dale points in front of them and shakes his head.
——
    As Andrea and Daryl walk through the woods, they hear the sounds of leaves rustling beside them. They point their lights towards the source, and begin to walk to it. Walking into a clearing, they find a small camp with just a single tent and some supplies. The leaves on the tree continue to rustle, causing them to look into the branches, "What the hell?" Daryl questions.
    Shining their lights, they see a walker hanging by a noose, thrashing to get them. Daryl squints at a note presumably written by the walker and begins to read it out loud, "'Got bit. Fever hit. World gone to shit. Might as well quit.' Dumbass didn't know enough to shoot himself in the head. Turned himself into a big swinging piece of bait. And a mess." Andrea groans, getting ready to throw up at the sight in front of her, "You alright?"
   "Trying not to puke," Andrea responds bent over.
   "Go ahead of you gotta," Daryl says back, still looking at the walker.
   "No, I'm fine. Let's just talk about something else for a minute. How'd you learn to shoot?" she asks trying to change the subject.
   "Gotta eat. That's one thing these walkers and us have in common. I guess it's the closest he's been to food since he turned. Look at him, hanging up there like a big piñata. The other geeks came and ate all the flesh off his legs." Even with Andrea efforts to change the subject, Daryl brought it back, causing her to vomit. He turned around to look at her in confusion.
   "I thought we were changing the subject," she's says wiping her mouth off.
   "Call that payback for laughing about my itchy ass."
   "There wasn't a lot that came up."
   "Huh. Let's head back," Daryl begins waking back the way they came.
   "Aren't you gonna..." Andrea trails off looking at the walker.
   Daryl stops and looks at the undead man, "No. He ain't hurting nobody. Ain't gonna waste an arrow either. He made his choice. Opted out. Let him hang." Andrea says nothing and walks closer to the corpse. "You want to live now or not?" Daryl asks, "It's just a question."
   She looks at the walker and then back at Daryl, "An answer for an arrow. Fair?"
   Daryl hums in agreement and nods.
   "I don't know if I want to live or if I have to or if it's just a habit."
   "Not much of an answer," Daryl mentions, but staying true to the agreement, he shoots the walker. Putting it out of its misery. "Waste of an arrow, you're lucky Wi found some for me." He starts walking away. Andrea following shortly after.
——
    Dale looks out towards the woods while Carol sits in the chair next to him. "You don't need to worry. She's with Daryl. If something happens he can protect her," Carol speaks up, "You hear what I'm saying?"
   "Sorry, all I heard was if something happens," Dale responds, Carol looks out. He begins to take the rifle off his shoulder, "You mind keeping watch?"
   "I don't know how to use that."
   "I won't be gone long. If you see anything, call out. I'm not going far. I'll hear you."
——
   "You got here right in time," Patricia says to T-Dog as she sutures his cut, "This couldn't go untreated much longer. Just be thankful that girl was able to make do with what she had."
   Glenn leans against the door frame with a cup of tea in his hand. Patricia looks at the pill bottle, "'Merle Dixon.' Is that your friend with the antibiotics?"
   "No, ma'am. Merle's no longer with us. Daryl gave us those— his brother," Glenn replies.
   "Not sure I'd call him a friend," T-Dog strains out.
   "He is today. This doxycycline might have just saved your life," Patricia states, "You know what Merle was taking it for?"
   "The Clap," he says Maggie looks up at him, "Uh... Venereal disease. That's what Daryl said."
   Maggie looks back at T-Dog and Patricia turns to talk to T-Dog, "I'd say Merle Dixon's clap was the best thing to ever happen to you."
   "I'm really trying not to think about that," he grunts out.
   Glenn walks out of the room to go out and take a breather on the porch. Winona saw him go out and decides to follow after.
   "Hey, Glenny," she greets seeing him in a chair.
   He jumps not expecting to have been followed, "Jesus, Wi, a little warning would help," he says rubbing his forehead, "You look like shit, how's Carl doing?"
   She gasps and put a hand over her heart, "You wound me," they chuckle and she goes to lean against the railing, "Not good Glenn. I'm nervous. Like really nervous. If Shane and the other guy don't get back soon..." she lowers her voice to a whisper, "... I don't know how much longer Carl can hold out."
    "Hey... you gotta stay optimistic, okay? Carl is a tough kid. And even though I hate that asshole, Shane is resourceful and knows what he's doing, they get back soon."
   "You're right," she puts her head in her hands, "God I'm being such a downer, let's change the subject. How's you and the farm girl? She's cute." Winona raises her eyebrows suggestively.
   "Oh my God, Wi," Glenn shakes his head, "I can't even talk to her without making a fool out of myself."
   Winona snorts, getting up to pt him on this shoulder, "You'll get there, I believe in you. In the meantime, I gotta give more blood soon. Talk later?"
   "Yeah. Of course. You know where to find me."
   Winona smiles at her best friend and heads back inside, grinning to herself when she sees Maggie getting ready to go outside.
   Glenn is still sitting in the chair when Maggie comes out, "Are you praying?" she asks.
   "Why do you sneak up on people so much? Are you sure you're not related to Winona?" he chuckles.
   "You're easy to sneak up on," she sits on the railing, "Is Winona your girlfriend?"
   Glenn looks up at her in surprise and then back in front of him, "Oh. No. No, we're best friends. Nothing like that."
   Maggie laughs, "Loosen up, I'm just teasing you."
   Glenn exhales a sigh of relief, "Oh... Um, anyways, yeah, I was just praying. I was trying to."
   "You religious? You pray a lot?" Maggie questions.
   "Actually this was my first try," Glenn admits looking toward the brunette.
   "Ever?" she asks in disbelief. Glenn nods in response. "Wow. Sorry. I didn't mean to wreck your first time."
   "God probably got the gist."
   "Praying for what?"
   "My friends. Looks like they could all use a little help right now," he says, Maggie looks down, "You think— you think God exists?"
   "I've always took it on faith. Lately I've wondered," she looks out, "everything that's happened, there must have been a lot of praying going on. It's seems quite a few went unanswered."
   Glenn frowns nodding his head, "Thanks. This is really helping."
   "Sorry. Go ahead. Really."
   Glenn takes a deep breath,  "You gonna watch?"
   Maggie gets up and walks over to him, picking up his mug, "I'll get you a refill, instead." As she's about to walk inside, she stops and turns back to face the man, "I know it's not my business, and feel free to believe in God, but the thing is you've got to make it okay somehow no matter what happens."
   Glenn faces the dark fields ahead of him and hears the door close, signaling Maggie had gone inside.
——
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