Love's Conquer

18 Miles Out

"We're almost there." I spoke as I kept my foot firmly on the accelerator, looking in the rear mirror to see Glenn and Lori following steadily behind us. I turned into the gravel track that led back to the farm, hitting a few pot holes along the way.

"He'll make it if we can get operating straight away." Hershel stated as he tended to Randall's leg as best he could, sitting with him in the back of the car. The poor boy was still out of it after I yanked his leg from the spike earlier this morning. The sun rose beyond the trees, reminding me how exhausted I felt having not slept, or even rested, for a single second since yesterday morning when we found Sophia. It's been one thing after another.

In the distance, I spotted Shane, Daryl, T-Dog and Andrea loading one of our cars with weapons. I looked to Rick, who was sat next to me in the passengers seat, and he gave me the same knowing look. I stepped on the breaks harshly, drawing us to a stop right outside of the main house as everyone came running towards us. As soon as we got out of the car, I watched Carl run up to Rick, embracing him in the warmest of hugs. Turning to my right, I watched Lori and Glenn pull up behind us as I opened the back passengers door to help Hershel with Randall.

"How'd you wanna do this?" I asked him, receiving a thoughtful look from Hershel.

"We'll work in the spare shed. I'll get Jimmy an one of your men to take him there." He explained to me as he got out of the truck.

"Okay." I responded plainly, searching amongst our group but my thoughts carried some doubt. We haven't got time to explain the situation to everyone and I know plenty of them will complain over the new addition here. I looked over to Glenn, watching Maggie release him from a hug. "Glenn, can you help Jimmy take Randall over to the shed back there?" I pointed beyond the car and towards the spare shed about a hundred yards away from the main house.

"Sure." Glenn replied, setting his guns down against the car he had been driving.

I watched Hershel as he began towards the house, walking up the porch steps. "Patricia, prepare the shed for surgery. Bella, you're with me to assist."

"Yes Sir." I responded, walking through the crowd that had soon formed.

"Hey, hey." Dale caught my attention as he jogged towards me. "You okay? What happened?"

"We're all okay. Jus' ran into a few complications." I explained briefly, offering a short smile to him. "Rick will explain it all."

I continued after Hershel, deciding to leave the heated discussions to Rick as we spent the next couple of hours performing surgery on Randall's leg. We did our best to save his leg and as far as we could tell for now, he should be able to walk again. A job well done and it was all thanks to Hershel.

"You did great in there." I praised as we started walking to the back of the house.

"As did you." Hershel replied.

I looked down at my hands, finding them completely stained by the dark red substance we had been working in over the last couple of hours. Lately, it seems like blood is the only thing we see. Too many times I've been left with the thickening substance etched through the creases of my fingers. Ironic, considering I killed three people last night, or early this morning, whatever time it was.

"We'll get that cleaned off first." Hershel spoke, noticing my trance over the decoration on my skin. I looked up to him as he pointed to one of the pumps in the near distance, so we changed our course. Once we got to it, Hershel knelt down by the leaver of the pump and motioned for me to sit in front of him. I complied and perched on the grass as he took one of my hands and began rubbing off the dried mess.