Solace (Walking Dead/Rick Grimes)

The Way Things Were

"Keep going." Rick said gently when Noah stopped, putting his head in between his knees and breathing heavily. He'd had to stop every five minutes to catch his breath. There was a particularly nasty cut underneath his right eye that made my stomach churn sympathetically each time I saw it. He was in terrible condition.

This time when he stopped, I walked over to Rick, letting my voice drop. "Rick, let me take a look at his cuts. I don't have as much experience, but I do know a thing or two about them. And he just looks bad."

"You know we haven't gathered much supplies for first aid. Are you sure we should use them all up on this kid?"

"Do you want him to take us to Maggie's sister or not?"Rick relented, and I dropped my backpack from my shoulders. There were a couple of supplies there. I rummaged through the bag and picked out a couple of band-aids and a travel size bottle of alcohol to disinfect the wounds. "Noah." His head shot up once I spoke. I stood in front of him, waving the band-aids and alcohol as an explanation. He shut his eyes, falling on his knees. I guess that was my cue.

"Why are you doing this?" He whispered, his eyes half open.

"Those cuts look bad. This is probably gonna hurt." I waited a second then poured some alcohol onto the cut. He winced, breathing in sharply. I closed in on the cut under his eye, pouring a couple of drops onto it. I bandaged his cuts slowly, looking over at Rick as I smoothed on the last band-aid.

"He doesn't agree huh?" Noah whispered raggedly.

"He just wants you to be ok to lead us to Beth." I mumbled, screwing the cap back on the bottle. There wasn't much left.

"Thank you." He straightened up, delicately touching the band-aid under his eye.

"Let's get moving." Rick said somberly, looking at Noah to come forward.

We walked again. Jesse walked next to me, his eyes cast to the ground and occasionally touching his loose tooth.

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"I thought you said we were close."

"I don't know." Noah mumbled. His hand was twitching near his side. "Maybe they moved."

"If it's a community they can't just decide to get up and move." Rick strode next to him. "Hey, look at me! Where is"-

His voice was drowned out by a sudden shower of bullets. I instinctively dropped to the ground, pulling Jesse close to me. What I had thought to be a deserted shop was housing masked individuals that came running out. I felt the barrel of a gun press against the back of my head. My breathing stopped.

"Mama!" Jesse yelled suddenly. A tall figure was standing over him, wearing a skeleton mask.

"Don't touch him!" I screamed, not being able to look up all the way.

"Shut up!" One yelled. He stooped down next to Carol. We were all on the ground. "Put your hands on your head. All of you. You too kid." He looked over at Jesse. I looked around frantically, locking eyes with Rick. He looked beyond pissed off. But when he looked up to see the figures, his expression faltered. Now he looked terrified.

"Good job man. Maybe you are ready to join us." One of the masked men thumped Noah on the back. His eyes were averted to the ground.

"You set us up! Did you even know who Beth was?" Rick spat out, digging his elbows into the ground as he tried to look at Noah.

"I did know her."

"Save it Noah. Just get the rope and start tying them up. Marco, Dominguez search them and take every single weapon they have." The one with the skeleton mask adjusted it through the mouth, sighing happily. "My there are some pretty ladies in this group. Haven't been around a woman since this whole thing started."