Daryl Dixon

The Boy

~Dakota's POV.~

There was nothing worse than a hot and humid day in the state of Georgia. Maybe there was, a hot and humid day in the state of Georgia in an apocalypse. My daddy thinks things will go back to how they were, holding onto his faith in God, but it's been a month now and things have only gotten worse in our small town. Being a nurse, I saw the worst of things, was the grace of God that I had made it out of that hospital when I did.

I had come inside for a glass of water after feeding the horses on my daddy's farm. I was only 25 years old, four years in college and four working as a nurse. I was not quite ready to go off on my own yet and still lived on the farm with my Daddy and Step-mama, as well as my younger sisters, Maggie and Beth, and my brother Shaun. We lost a lot of people, Shaun and my Step-mama were the first to go in the Greene family.

I took a sip of the ice cold water and took a seat at the kitchen table across from my daddy. He looked up from his Bible and smiled at me. "I don't want you to over work yourself out there. Make sure you are staying hydrated. Don't need you having a heatstroke on me now." I chuckled at him, I loved how my daddy still managed to care for me, he's the sweetest man. "You don't need to worry about me daddy." He gave a small smile and shook his head. "I'm your father. I'm always going to worry, it's my job." He went back to reading his Bible and I closed my eyes and finished off the rest of my water. The farm was always silent and peaceful, it was almost as if the world had not ended. Almost.

"Dad!!!" The sound of Maggie's voice had my daddy and I hop up from the table and run to the porch. Beth, Jimmy, and Patricia, our foreman's wife, not far behind us. We came out and were met with a man running across our yard with a young child hanging lifeless in his arms. My eyes stay locked onto the deep red that had stained both of their clothes. My dad steps in front of the rest of us, "Was he bit?" The man slows down and struggles to hold the boy. "Shot. By your man." Patricia steps down and hurries over."Otis?" "He said find Hershal and Dakota. Is that you?" His voice starts to break and tears come to his eyes. "Help me. Help my boy." He sobs and I take action of the situation. "Inside. Come on!"

My daddy starts giving out commands and we run into the guest room and get the bed prepped. "Patricia, I need my full Kit. Maggie, painkillers, coagulants, grab everything. Clean towels, sheets, alcohol, in here." The man comes around and sets the boy down on the bed, not leaving his side. "Is he alive?" I rush to the other side of the bed and grab the pillows and rip the pillowcases off. I start folding them to act as a pad to press onto the wound. "Is he alive?" He ask again, not getting a response the first time. I look at my daddy as he is checking for the heartbeat. "I've got a heartbeat. It's faint." I call out for Maggie, seeing she had the IV. "Maggie, IV." She squeeses behind the man and passes off the IV. Without turning to the man, too focused on the dying boy in front of me, I quickly speak. "We need space." I can see he only takes a single step back. My daddy stops and stands to look at him. "Your name?" I hear the man studder out to father. "Rick. I-I-I'm Rick." My daddy puts his hand onto Rick's shoulder. "Rick, we're gonna do everything we can. Okay? You need to give us some room." Rick finally leaves the room, allowing us free space to work.

After a few minutes, everything calms down and Rick walks back in with Otis and another man. I look up from where my father was holding down on the wound and to Rick. "You know his blood type?" He nods and answers, sounding more calm than before. "A-positive. Same as mine." I nod and look back down to my father. "How fortunate. Don't wander far, we're gonna need you." My dad now looks up and directs his next question towards Otis. "What happened?" Otis looks away from the boy, fear and guilt were all in his eyes. "Was trackin' a buck. The bullet, went through. It went clean through." His voice sounded shakey, so daddy spoke up to try and relax him and ease the situation. "Well it slowed it down. Which certainly saved his life."