Safe and Sound | TWD

Chapter 7

Hershel happened to get one fragment of the bullet out. According to him, the deer slowed the impact, but split into six pieces.

Holding him down while he dug into his wound and pulled out the first fragment was the worst experience of my life.

I've never heard Carl scream like that. My dad was screaming, crying.

It was absolutely horrifying.

Thankfully, Carl and dad have the same blood type, so he's been giving Carl his blood to keep him stable. Well, as stable as he can possibly be.

Maggie, the women I first met, is out finding mom. I'm terrified to see her. When dad was in the hospital, she was strong. I knew she was breaking inside, but she kept a strong front for us. For Carl.

I'm not sure how she's going to continue that with him on the line this time.

After that boy, Silas, helped me clean up, I came in here and haven't left. Holding his clammy hand, hoping he would wake up by some miracle of God.

I haven't eaten, or drank anything, and I can sure tell. But I can't bring myself to leave him.

If this is pay back, or karma for what I did when it was dad, then I'm not taking any chances.

I can't, and I won't.

They'd have to pry my dead body off this chair to get me to leave.

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"You need to eat something."
I don't look up from my view of Carls hand in mine, but I can tell who occupies the doorway.

Silas.

He's been coming in here pretty frequently, offering food and water. I haven't said a word.

"Bella," He sighs, taking a step further into the room, "look, I know this is hard. But you need your strength when he wakes up. He'll need you."

"If."

"If?" He sounds incredulous. If I looked at his face, his brows would be pulled together, his nostrils flared and his mouth slightly ajar. I think, anyway.

Dad used to look at me like that all the time whenever I said the word 'if'. I'm only assuming he's doing the same.

"If, he wakes up." I clarify.

I hear him take a deep breath, and his footsteps reach the chair Im planted in. "When, Carl wakes up, he'll need his big sister healthy, and well fed."

I finally look up, all my emotions turning into irritation for this insistent boy.

"Look, I don't need you coming in here and telling me what to do after your man is the reason he's in this situation in the first place!"

He's quiet for a moment. My chest is heaving up and down, and he takes note; of the way my free hand is clenching the arm of the chair, my flared nostrils, and clenched jaw. The corners of his mouth twitch.

That, infuriates me more.

"What the hell is so amusing to you?"

He takes a moment to answer, sliding his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and shrugging.

"Being angry is better than feeling nothing at all." Before I could say something else in retort, he turns on his heel and leaves the room. I'm left staring at the place he once was.

Who the hell does he think he is?

To blinded by my fury and irritation to feel guilty about leaving Carl, I quickly rise from the chair, finally letting go of his hand, even if it pains me to do so. I stalk after the boy. The insufferable, infuriating, handsome moron.