A Family

Surgery

  Parker gets shot accidentally by someone on your group when you're fighting off a zombie herd. Ethan runs as fast as he can with Parker bleeding out in his arms, you hot on their tail. While you're running and slowly getting further and further away from the zombie herd following you at a slower speed, Ethan spots a house. Parker is screaming in pain and there's no use trying to tell him to be quiet. Getting to the house, the zombies will surround it.

  You catch up and get up the stairs first to open the door for Ethan, but it's locked. When Ethan reaches it, he kicks it in. The door had been barricaded so he's surprised by his own strength. You run in and see a man and a girl aiming shotguns at you. You raise your hands and glance to the side, seeing the others running in too. When they see the others, they aim at them too.

  The man realises the state of the crying child and hearing the zombies, he lowers his gun and shout for them to barricade the door. They do and Ethan head for the sofa to put Parker down, but the man tells him to go to the bedroom. As you follow you ask the girl for any supplies you will need to save Parker. She runs to get whatever they have.

  Ethan puts down Parker and you pull off your backpack and flip it. Everything inside spreads out on the bed beside him. You rip up his shirt and see the gunshots wound. Turning his body to check, you don't find an exit wound.

  Looking at Ethan, you tell him what has to happen and he gets ready, taking a hold of Parker. The girl comes running in and gives you what they have, looking at the child in concern.

  You get everything ready and tell Parker what you have to do while you start doing it. He immediately start screaming when you touch the wound. It only gets worse as you have to dig for the bullet.

  "Ah! No! Stop! Aah!" Parker keeps screaming for you to stop and tries to hit your hands, Ethan stops his attacks so you treat his wound.

  "You're gonna to be okay, baby." You tell him. He cries loudly. The sound breaks your heart. Ethan hold him tightly as he talks soothingly to him.

  Your vision blurs from the tears. Trying to wipe them is useless. You can't stop the tears from forming and shedding down your face the whole time. A tear shed down Ethan's cheek as he holds him. Parker squirms in pain under his hold. He tries to talk reassuringly to him and soothe him but he screams and cries too loud to hear any of it.

  He finally pass out from the pain. Ethan looks at you with wide eyes, but you check his pulse and tell him he's alive. Then he just holds him and soothe him through the rest of the surgery. Ethan has seen a lot of injuries, way worse than this, even on children, but now he's struggling to watch for some reason. He's been good at keeping an emotional distance from what he's seen when on the job.

  You pull out the bullet and ask him to give you the needle. He takes it and hold it out for you, watching as your shaky hands take it. You take a deep breath, pulling yourself together and start stitching. Then you bandage him up.

  When you're finally done, you take a step away and just look at him, going over everything and making sure you're not forgetting anything. Then you go to the bathroom connected to the bedroom.

  Ethan glances inside from his spot and see you staring at your hands. He carefully gets up from bed and makes sure Parker lays comfortably. Walking into the bathroom, he looks at you worriedly.

  "Yn?"

  You're in a trance, staring at your hands, tears just shedding down your face. He puts a hand on your shoulder and you jump at the sudden contact. Glancing at him,you clear your throat and start washing your hands. Your bottom lip trembles as you wash away Parker's blood. Ethan stops you to take a moment and hugs you in comfort.