Freedom -Negan-

Chapter 26

We were both trying to catch our breath when the other two brothers came running down the other set of stairs.

'What the hell? I told you to wait, Matt." Shepherd held up his hands and yelled at us.

I looked up at them from my bent over position, heart pounding in my ears, unable to catch my breath. "You guys' suck ass at scouting out your areas, don't you?"

"What the hell did you just say?" He shined his light over at my face and I was blinded. I straightened up and placed my hands on my hips.

"You've been here before, right? How the fuck did you not know about the basement was full of walkers?" I pointed to the door and almost on cue the dead banged on it, causing Matt to jump up and move out of the way.

Shepherd stepped closer to me, allowing me to see his face fully. "We haven't been down there yet, dumbass. Which is why you should have waited for us. You should be grateful that Matt got your ass out of there."

"Grateful? Me? He was the one who said we should go down there all willy nilly and I was the one that saved his life. Even with my punky ass knife that you thought was adequate." I got in the man's face and stabbed my finger into his chest. His hand shot up and grabbed my injured hand, squeezing it and sending pain through my arm. I stifled my yell and raised my left knee into the man's crotch. He groaned and let go of my hand. I used my left elbow to bring him down further, driving it into his back and he dropped to his knees. Ryan ran over and raised his gun at me. I stepped back from Shepherd and raised my hands.

"Woah, what the fuck guys? Just calm down. She's right, Shep. It was my idea to go down without you guys and she saved my life." He stepped in between me and Ryan and the man slowly lowered his weapon. Shepherd slowly got up from the ground and I could see him glaring at me even in the faint lighting. Matt continued. "Let's just cut our losses and go back with what we have. We'll get the gas another day."

Shepherd and I stared at each other for another moment before he nodded and spit on the ground. Matt sighed and I lowered my hands. Ryan and Shepherd turned and headed towards the door we came in. Matt held his hand out to me and I stared at it for a second before realizing that he was gesturing for the knife.

"Really?" I asked shaking my head. "Don't fucking trust me?"

"Don't be a pain in the ass." I scoffed and handed over the hunting knife. He slid it into its sheath and adjusted his backpack before following his brothers. I grabbed my flashlight and slowly followed as well. We got to the end of the hall and turned our flashlights off, heading out the double doors without a word.

I stared at the three men in front of me as we made our way back to the car, the sun high in the sky. I noticed Matt's head had a trail of blood trickling down his neck. I watched as he began to stumble as he walked.

"Shit." I mumbled under my breath and speed-walked up to him. I grabbed his sleeve and forced him to stop. The other two brothers stopped and turned to us, annoyed I made them stop. I looked at Matt's face, he looked pale and his eyes moved back and forth. "He hit his head on the stairs. He's gotta get back to Carson ASAP." I said in a hushed tone.

"I'm fine." Matt protested and I scoffed. Shepherd grabbed his arm and forced Matt to face him. He glanced over him and angrily sighed. He put Matt's arm over his shoulder and Ryan followed suit on the other side. We went around the outskirts of the field, trying to avoid the ever-growing group of walkers. We hobbled him over to the car. I took off his backpack and set it next to the car and opened the back door, helping the brother's get Matt into the back seat. I grabbed a shirt that was stuffed into the back and climbed in next to Matt, holding the shirt to the back of his head. I pulled back and saw a large amount of blood soaking through the shirt. I put pressure back on and Matt protested, saying it hurt. I looked over my shoulder and saw the two brothers putting their backpacks into the trunk.