Walker: Surrender

Chapter 8

Well, I'm back!

Good news- Blood test results weren't nothing to worry about. *Rolls eyes* she shouldn't have even bothered asking me in and making me stress about them for two weeks. Could have just rung me to say that hey, according to these tests, you are a picture of health.

Bad news- Still absolutely no answers as to why I've been so sick these past few months. I've lost count of how many doctors I've been to over the past few years and absolutely none of them (apart from the one who diagnosed me) can tell me whats wrong or how I can get better.

Anyway..... Rant over. I apologize for the absence of updates and I am intending to upload weekly at this point in time, depending on how things go in real life.

Enjoy. 

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Two months later

Maddie sat in the rocking chair on the pouch of the farmhouse with Bubbles curled up on her lap, watching her father and brother workout on the lawn using their makeshift gym. In the background, her grandfather and uncle worked on replacing a couple boards in the fence nearby that had rotted out. A couple horses and a cow grazed in the pasture quietly while a few birds sang and danced in the clear blue sky above.

Two months.

Two months had passed by now since she had been kidnapped with her uncle and held captive with him and her father by that anarchist group. Two months might have passed by but for Maddie, it felt like it had only happened yesterday.

She hadn't had one single good night's sleep since that whole nightmare. Every time she closed her eyes, scenes from her time there just played over and over in her mind on repeat. She could still see her uncle being tortured by those men accompanied by the horrible sense of helplessness and hopelessness that she had felt. It was her fault they had gotten into that situation in the first place. She could have stayed the night in the hospital but no... She just had to choose to go home, didn't she? But what was done was done, she couldn't go back in time and change things. Now they had to deal with the repercussions of her choices.

Her uncle had definitely been visibly affected by what he had gone through but her father was trying too hard to carry on like nothing had happened. He was much too happy and repeating over and over again that he was just fine. That he was okay. That he was 'squared away' as he had said too many times to count. If she ever heard those two words again in her lifetime, it would be too soon.

While her father was doing his best to convince everyone that he was just fine, Maddie knew herself that she was far, far from doing okay. Not only was she still dealing with everything resulting from her time in captivity but she was also going through the remainder of her treatment and physical therapy to help walk again. Except for going in for her treatments, she couldn't bring herself to leave the property. It was safe here but how safe was it, really?

That was another reason she didn't sleep at night.

Worst of all, she couldn't speak to her father about any of this.

How could she when every time she tried to speak to him about what was troubling her, her father either shut her down or fled from the room? These days he hardly had anything to do with her. How could she feel anything other than that he was avoiding her? Once when he brought her comfort now she didn't even have that. She knew he was dealing with his own demons but she needed him and he wasn't here for her.

He hadn't even been there for her physical therapy like he had promised. He had promised he would help her to walk again but it was her grandparents instead that had been with her throughout her treatments and therapy. When she had taken her first steps since her surgery it had been Bonham there with her to encourage and help her that day. She was making progress to be able to walk again and that had been the only good thing that had happened during the remainder of the summer. It would take her time to be able to walk on her own again but it was a start. A good start.