I was staying close to Rick, and we were digging graves with Shane. The sun was glaring down at us with intense heat, and I was missing air conditioning so much in the moment.
"Say it," Rick said defeatedly glancing at Shane, setting down his shovel to look at his best friend.
"Okay," Shane started, putting his weight into the shovel that was sticking out of the ground, "I'm thinking if you'd have stayed here, if you'd have looked after your own..." Shane trailed off, leaving the implication hang in the air. I rolled my eyes. "Instead, you went off. You took half our manpower with you. I'm thinking maybe our losses wouldn't have been so bad," he finished, and slammed his shovel into the ground so he could walk away from it. 'if you'd have looked after your own," his words run in my head, bouncing off the walls of my head as I processed them.
"If we hadn't gone off and brought those guns back when we did, it think our losses would have been a lot worse. Maybe the whole camp," Rick argued, Shane sighs at him and looks at the ground. Daryl drove his truck up the hill with the dead bodies in the truck bed and gets out and starts walking over to the three of us.
"I still think it's a mistake not burning these bodies. It's what we said we'd do, right? Burn 'em all, wasn't that the idea?" Daryl asks coming to a stop next to me.
"At first," Shane says.
"The Chinaman gets all emotional, says it's not the thing to do, we just follow him along? These people need to know who the hell's in charge here, what the rules are," Daryl remarks, and I ignore the name, for now anyways.
"There are no rules," Rick says as the rest of the group walks over.
"And that's the problem Rick," I start, "Daryl is right, people need to know who is in charge and what the rules are, otherwise you end up with someone bit, and no one says anything. If Jacqui didn't say anything, there could have been more death than what there was," I stated. "Humans are animals, and all animals have a hierarchy system, because if we don't, we as a species will cease to exist." I finished as handed Rick my shovel.
"We need time to mourn, and we need to bury our dead. It's what we do," Lori interjected as she and Carl stood close to Rick and I.
"Exactly, it's what we do, it's human, it's a rule, a process that keeps us from falling apart." I say and walk over to the truck bed and try to grab the first body we were going to bury. Daryl walked over and helped me set them into the grave.
After a while, everyone but Amy is in their grave. Andrea and Dale were carrying her, Andrea crying out saying that she can do it herself. Eventually she did so it, and we started to cover them up with the dirt that used to be in their place.
We started to walk back, Rick and Lori behind Carl and I, everyone else front of us. "Burying people is bad enough, but the thought of one of us..." Rick said to Lori and I.
"Shh," Lori hushed, as she turned to Rick and stopped walking, I stopped too. Lori pulled Carl to her, caressing his head.
"Are we safe now, Dad?" Carl asked. Rick knelt down to Carl's level. "Now that we're together?" Carl continued.
"I won't leave again. I promise you that," he said glancing at both Lori and I. " Not for anything. Now give me a chance to discuss some things with your mom, okay? Go on with Auntie Abby," Rick finished looking over to me and making sure it was okay to send Carl with me, I nodded at him.
"Yeah," Carl mumbled, and took my hand and we started off towards camp. For it being the apocalypse, they sure do send their kid off a lot...
"Abigale, you were a nurse or something, right?" Jacqui asked me as we ended the camp.
"I was a first aid nurse for a homeless teen shelter, why?" I asked.
"Could you take a look at Jim? He's not doing well..." She responded.
"I normally would work with scrapes and gashes, but I can try. Carl, how about we hang out in the RV for a little bit? You can sit at the table, yeah?" Carl nods his head.
"Hey Jim, how are you doin'?" I asked him. He was looking everywhere but me, eyes shifting every few moments, not completely in the moment. I sat on the bed and grabbed a cloth that was in a pot of lake water, rung it out and put it on his forehead. He jerked away from the cloth. "Hey Jim, you with me honey?" I asked softly, he kept blinking and flinching.
"What do you think?" Jacqui asked.
"He's most likely hallucinating. Let's change those bandages." I said and sent Jacqui to get some bandages.
"No... my boys... no..." Jim cried. Definitely hallucinating. I carefully remove the medical tape and peel back the big gauze patch, using the cloth and water when it sticks to his skin. My stomach drops as I look at the pus and the redness. I take a deep breath and grab a new cloth and start to gently dab the bite with water.
"How do you know how to do this?" Daryl asks softly, coming to stand next to me.
"My job, teens would come in with self-harm, or burns from parents, or any kind of wound from anyone, themselves, their parents, other teenagers, and my job was to fix those kids up," I whispered, and Jacqui got back with the new bandages.
"I bet you were an angel to them kids," Jacqui said as I grabbed them from her hands.
"Angel..." Jim muttered. I sighed at him and reapplied the gauze patch and taped it all up.
"Nah, I just helped out where I could, wouldn't call myself an angel," I said as I sat back. "Some of those kids hated me, would barley sit still enough for me to suture them up, some didn't want me to..." I whispered.
"Angel help me, God help me," Jim said reaching out to me. I frowned and held out my hands to him.
"Okay Jim, okay," I whispered. "How is your arm doing Daryl?" I asked him, not looking away from Jim. I felt helpless, there was nothing I could do for him...
"Fine. Here, brought ya some food," He replied. I finally look over to him, and sure enough he has a small plate of fish. I smile at him and nod in thanks as he hands the plate to me. He nods back and leaves the RV. I ate quietly, listening to Jim's mumbling. When I was done, I put my hand to his forehead and sighed.
"How is he?" Lori asked me as she climbed into the RV.
"His fever is worse, the bite is infected, and he's hallucinating, so, not good." I tell her as Rick follows her in the RV.
"Water..." Jim mumbles.
"Okay Jim, I'll get you some," I say as I stand up, Lori follows me, leaving Rick behind. I step out of the RV, and step to the side, leaning my back against the side of the RV, looking up trying to keep the tears at bay.
"How are you doing?" Lori asked. I take a deep breath, steading myself before I answer her.
"I'm okay," I lie as I straighten up and get some water for Jim, pushing the tears and everything down and away. I take another deep breath and scan the camp, locking eyes with Daryl, who was watching me silently from across the camp. I quickly looked away and grabbed a water bottle for Jim.
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1333 Words
YOU ARE READING
His Everything
Terror"Stop lookin' at me like that," Daryl whispers, inches away from Abby's face. "Like what?" She asked running her hands through the hair at the nape of his neck. "Like- nevermind," Daryl whispered, and closed the distance between them. Meet Abb...
