South Tree * TWD

9. Sharks!

Lillian shot it, panic setting in as she looked around. She noticed she was in a room, it was dimly lit with only light shining through the windows. She was laying in a bed, in a real bedroom with a couple of dressers. She had a needle going through her arm with a bag connected to it, hanging off of the back board of the bed.She looked down at her self, noticing she was no longer wearing drenched clothes but clean, spotless ones. To say she was scared, was an understatement. Many things ran through her head as she looked around the room. 'Where am i? How did I get here? Who was that lady? And the boy that she was with? Why am I in a room? Where is my family?' FAMILY? She meant her group. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes as she contemplated what options she had and what she could do.

The door slowly opened causing Lillian to whip around her head to see who it was. "Hershel, she's awake!" The little boy from earlier screamed. He walked up to the bed with a wide smile on his face.

"Hi there!" The boy said, putting his elbows on the bed and looking at her. "You've been sleeping alllll night! Hershel said he had no idea when you were gonna wake up." The boy told her. She looked at him with furrowed eyebrows as he begun to walk around the room, continuing to speak. "So, I came in here and checked on you every so often. To make sure you hadn't woke up, of course. But now you have!" At the end of the kids sentence, he stopped moving and looked at the girl.

"Alright, Colton. Calm down, you're gonna stress the poor girl out." An older man walked into the room and sat down in the chair that was in front of the bed. "I'm Hershel. My girl, Maggie and Colton brought you back to my farm. You were very dehydrated and had a concussion. How are you feeling now?" The older man explained softly to the girl.

"Better." She answered shortly, wrapping her arms around herself securely. She looked nervously back and forth between the two people that stood in the room.

"Very good. Could you tell me your name?" He asked gently.

"Lillian."

"How about your age?"

"I'm 10." After Lillian had spoken, she heard Colton do a little celebratory 'yes!' and giggle. She quickly looked over at him with furrowed eyebrows.

"I'm not the youngest here anymore! I'm 11, you're 10! Hershel, now i am all grown up." Colton was basically jumping off the walls as he explain his point excitedly. It suddenly his hit Lillian that she hadn't found found Sophia yet.

"Mister Hershel, I have to go back!" Lillian urged confidently, throwing the covers off of her lap but she was quickly stopped by Hershel standing up.

"Why's that?" He asked, a confused look on his face.

"I lost someone. Sophia. We were running from walkers, they chased up far away from our group." Lillian looked down at the needle in her arm.

"I need to go find her so we can go back! To the highway!" She waited a few seconds before continuing. "Can you take this thing out of me?" She added.

"Tell you what, you rest here for another day, take it easy and I'll have my daughter and a few others go out looking for her. We will get you back to your group as soon as we can." Hershel assured her as she reached down to her arm, carefully taking out the needle and grabbing a bandaid that had been set on the nightstand to go over where the needle had just been. "I'll have Maggie bring you something up to drink and eat soon." With that, Hershel had left the room.

Lillian sat still in the bed, thinking. At least it was something. She missed her group though. She missed Carol, Sophia, and Carl. She missed Rick and Lori. She missed Dale and his silly bags. She missed Daryl... and her mama.

"So Lillian, what was your group like?" She was startled by the sudden voice. She had forgotten that Colton was still in the room.

"It was fine." She answered short, leaning back into the pillows.