Shattered

Chapter Nine: Talk

      We pulled up to the farm and saw everyone gearing up most likely to find us. I was leaning on the door for support. I lost a lot of blood already. Rick opened my door and Hershel hurried into the house. I tried to stand up but fell instead. I was embarrassed and in pain. He picked me up and rushed me inside. The moment I was on the bed he was gone. I was alone with Hershel and it hit me. I was alone. These weren't my people no matter how much I wish they were. Andrews and Greene weren't even with me. He was always with me. "I'm going to have to take out the bullet. It broke up when it hit you, I'm counting six." I nodded and grabbed the sheets. A scream escaped my lips when he pulled the first one out.

       I slowly walked down the hall listening to the fighting between my parents. My small hand ran along the wall and Mary crept up next to me. I popped my head out to look in the kitchen and saw my mother hit the ground. I stopped Mary from running to her. I wanted to cover my ears when I heard her screams. Mary tried looking in again knocking me out of our hiding place. I tried taking off after her but he already grabbed my hair. My small body could barely take the pain going through me. I cried out for my mother but she didn't move. I fell on the ground next to her and crawled next to her thinking she was just asleep. I fell asleep there and didn't move. The police kicked in the door and pulled me away from her. I screamed and was carried out to an ambulance. I watched in terror as she was zipped up in a black bag. Blood seemed to cover me but I didn't know where it was from and it scared me. They tried to explain everything but it seemed like I was deaf to their words of death and better places.

      I laid on the bed curled up like I was a child again. It felt like I had been set on fire. Andrews sat next to my bed later on but I couldn't hear him trying to tell me why he wasn't here to begin with. I didn't want to hear it. For the first time in the longest time I was scared. When the door closed I crawled over to the bathroom, locked the door and let myself break. I was hyperventilating from sobbing unable to really breathe.

      I pulled myself off the floor and looked at myself in the mirror. My eyes were cold and had dark circles under them. My hair was falling out of my bun and I looked terrible. I washed my face and still looked like I had died. I could see Mary looking back at me. Her laugh echoed through my head making me grip the sides of the sink. She was gone leaving me with a painful reminder of her. Every damn mirror I would every look in for the rest of my life, she was staring back at me. I opened the door and hopped back to the bed. I laid down and hit my injured shoulder. I cussed under my breath and pulled the blanket up higher.

      "Grace?" I looked over and saw Maggie. "Come on in. Not like you won't anyway."  She sat on the chair in front of me and smiled slightly. "You do too much." "What does that mean?" "Nothing bad but are you willing to die for them?" I sighed and looked out the door. "Your father was there Maggie. That's why I went. I'm willing to die for every man and woman out there. Can you say the same?" She shook her head and brushed her hair behind her ear. "I couldn't do that. I'm not that brave. I was a runner." 

      "But that's just it. You were a runner now you're a fighter. Don't worry about me takes a lot to kill me ask Andrews." She looked at me sadly and got nervous. "Where is he?" "He left with Josh. They said they couldn't be around this anymore. They were headed for the coast." I jumped out of bed and rushed outside to see the jeep gone. On the ground next to it were three bags and a box. "Shit!"  I opened the bags to see mostly guns, cigarettes and a few energy drinks. I opened the box and saw my bow with the set of arrows. "Why would he leave guns?" "Maybe they're going where they don't need them." I ran my hand through my hair and put it up. I didn't know whether to freak out, go after them or just stay here and act like it didn't phase me.

       I chose the last option. I stood up grabbing all the bags. No one said a word to me as I walked away. I ignored the pain coming from my shoulder and tossed the bags down. I looked over and saw Daryl. We both gave each other a slight nod and went back to what we were doing. I pulled a log over and sat down on it. I looked up at the camp and watched Lori and Carol talking. Sophia was off talking with Carl and here was Daryl. He sat sharpening sticks into more arrows and added another to the pile. I wanted to go over and sit next to him and laugh when he got angry about missing the stick or breaking it but I didn't. I stayed right where I was. I heard yelling from the house and ran up. Andrea sat in the kitchen hanging out. I went past her and found Maggie at the bathroom door. "Beth is trying to kill herself. She locked the door." "Move." She moved out of the way and I kicked the door open. Beth stood at the sink holding her wrist flowing with blood. "Get me his medical kit from downstairs. Now!" Maggie hurried out of the room and I leaned Beth against the tub. "I'm sorry." "Its ok Beth. We're going to get ya fixed up." Maggie came back in and had to step outside. I stitched her wrist and cleaned up the blood. Her cries turned to whimpers as I wrapped it up. I picked her up and laid her on her bed pulling the blanket up.

       "Thank you Grace." I nodded at Lori and went downstairs. Andrea came running up to the house just as Maggie burst out the front door. "I appreciate you helping Beth." "Anytime Hershel. Just glad I paid attention all these years." I stepped out of the house and glared at Andrea. "Next time you decide to ruin someone's life make sure it's your own." "Or what? I'll be alone like you? How does it feel to have everyone leave you by choice?" "Fantastic.." I punched her and she fell to the ground holding her jaw. 

      I laid back against the log cleaning out my nails with my knife. Daryl walked in front of me and sat down. "Why did you punch Andrea?" "She was going to let Beth kill herself." He gave me a look telling me he knew that wasn't it. I looked into his blue eyes and sighed. "She asked me how it felt to have everyone leave me by choice." He nodded and fell silent. I wanted to yell at him for ignoring me. For not caring that I care. We sat in silence looking down at the ground not knowing what to say. I wondered if he wanted to say something but was too shy to ask.

      "I'm sorry about Merle." "Don't be. He was an ass. Sorry about your sister." "Thanks." My voice came out so broken it made me wonder about my stability at the moment. He didn't say anything about it though. He got up and left. I watched him walk away thinking about how many girls he's ever left as breathless as he left me. He looked back and I tried to hide behind the log laughing. I saw him shake his head. Was it from being annoyed or was it amused?

      I watched him walk back down and I joined him. "What happened?" "Randall and I had a little chat." I hesitated to follow him but did. We got to his camp and I put my hand on his shoulder. He flinched away from me and started putting his arrows on the bow. Dale walked down next to me and watched him as well. "The point of being up here is to get away from you people!" "Gonna take a lot more than that. Carol's not the only one concerned about your new role in the group." Dale looked over at me and I tried to not look worried but I was. Daryl didn't seem like the kind of man to beat answers out of someone. "This group is broken. I'm better off fending on my own." "You act like you don't care. Live or die you don't care about Randall?" "Nope." I watched him walk away and Dale looked over at me.

      "What do you think?" "I think that son of a bitch shot me. One bullet for another." I kept my eyes on where Daryl disappeared. "I know you care about him." "That obvious?" "No. Not at all but I see the way you take down your defense wall when you look at him." I walked back to my stuff and lit a cigarette. Daryl Dixon... pain in my ass and my only reason to keep on going. Hope that maybe he feels the same way. That maybe he sees we aren't that different.

     I was hanging out at my camp when I heard yelling. I jumped up and started running as fast as I could. The pain in my missing leg was back but I kept pushing myself to run faster. Daryl tackled the walker and I walked up to Dale. His stomach was ripped open. My hands covered my face and Daryl took Rick's gun. "Sorry brother." I covered Sophia's eyes and Daryl shot him. The shot made me jump and everyone started to cry. Another person is dead showing us no one can survive forever.