The End of a New Beginning // Daryl Dixon

Part 86

Meredith

I stood outside of the infirmary tent, arms crossed over my chest, all up in my thoughts from trying to figure out what was wrong with Daryl. I get that the stress with the Saviors is getting to him, the anger, Justin, the Savior's themselves. I get it. But there's something going on with him. It's like he's going through something more. I need to figure it out so I know how to help him. Work through whatever is bothering him so much.

"Meredith! Get ready. We might have some coming towards you!" Rick shouts. Before I could ask anything, he rushes off, along with a whole group of people.

"Enid, Rick wants us getting ready for whatever we're about to get hit with." I inform.

"What's happening?" She asks.

"I don't know." I shake my head. We began grabbing IV bags and bandages and anything we thought we might need. If somebody was bitten, we're gonna need to be prepared for that as well.

"Mer!" I turn my head and see Daryl and Aaron quickly rushing in. Daryl lays Aaron down on the bed, who let out a cry of pain.

"What happened?" I ask as I began untying the shirt from his arm.

"A log fell on him." Daryl explains. I pull the shirt off Aaron's arm and see how extensive his wounds were. Right then, I knew he'd need an amputation. If this were the normal world, he'd had tons and tons of surgeries to go through, skin graphs is part of the process.

"I have to amputate." I say.

"What?" Aaron whimpers as I began gathering everything I needed.

"There ain't no other way?" Daryl questions.

"The only way to stop the bleeding is to amputate and cauterize the wound." I inform. "And...he would need tons and tons of surgeries, most of them being skin graphs."

"What?" Aaron whimpers again. I kneel down next to Aaron's side. I hand Daryl the tourniquet and he begins tying it around Aaron's upper arm.

"Got something for the pain?" Daryl asks.

"It wouldn't kick in fast enough." I shake my head. "We have to do this now."

"Oh, sorry, man." Daryl sighs out. I grab the blow torch and turn to Enid. "I need you to hold him down for me." I grab the knife and line it up with Aaron's arm. I huff out a breath, mentally preparing myself for what's about to happen. Now, I've done plenty of amputations in the past...but none of them were close friends. Aaron is family.

Aaron grabs my wrist and I turn my eyes to him.

"You can do it." He nods. I blow out a huff of air, nodding my head. I press down on the knife and began cutting away at his arm, moving down and down til I reached his bone. Aaron continued to scream and yell in pain as I worked on him. I hoped and prayed to God he'd pass out.

I force down and down on his bone til I hear a loud crack and pull the lower half of his arm away. I switch on the blow torch and began cauterizing the bleed. Aaron let's out a scream, arching his back.

"Meredith!" Daryl calls.

"Stop talking!" I shout over Aaron's screams. It wasn't til he'd finally passed out from the pain. I grab the endless bandage supplies and began wrapping his arm up.

"Is he okay?" Daryl asks. I gave him a nod and he immediately storms out.

"Enid, take over." I order. Enid replaces me and I rush out of the tent. I quickly catch up to Daryl, heading over to headquarters tent.

"Who the hell was supposed to turn that herd?" Daryl questions Carol. Daryl and I turn our heads and see Justin standing near the opening of the tent.

"Hey, the walkie wasn't charged." He claims.