Man with the Bat || a Negan novel

Chapter 27: Missing Puzzle Piece

Back to Mia's POV

I jolted upright in an absolute panic. My heart beating so hard one might compare it to the sound of a drum. The terror and fear instilled within me was like something I had never experienced before, but it was absolutely haunting. I didn't know where I was, I didn't know who I was with. Everything felt foggy and off. 

Then I heard it, a soft voice.

"Hey, hey," it soothed, "Don't panic, everything's alrigh'."

I would know that voice anywhere. It was the voice that I first heard the day I met the group, the voice I heard fighting against Shane, attempting to convince him not to kill me. The voice that called to me when I was stuck in an old dark tunnel with no way out, the voice that led me through that train tunnel back to safety. The voice that softly whispered in me ear that everything was going to be okay when I mourned over the death of my old friend Beth. The voice that had proved time and time again to be nothing but good to me, even on my darkest days.

I met his eyes as my chest heaved in fear, but one look into that icy blue stare and everything seemed to be okay again, just for a moment.

"Rick?" I dryly say, my voice not sounding like my own as it was full of fear and confusion.

"Shh" he hushes me, my eyes falling down to where he's grasping onto my hand, "Yeah, it's me."

He smiles, his eyes crinkling with the smile as he takes me in. Oh how I missed that crinkled-eyed smile. 

Then the confusion set in, how was I here? Staring up at Rick's crinkled-eyed smile..unless..oh no.

"How am I here? What happened?" the panic pulsed through my veins again, my mind instantly drifting to all the worst case scenarios.

Rick shook his head, "Doesn't matter. What does matter is you're here now and you're safe and you're where you're supposed to be."

Perhaps it was the panic from everything happening so quickly, but I couldn't help but shake my head in confusion and disgrace.

"I need to know what happened" my mind strained back to the last time I was conscious, but everything appeared blank. 

It was like someone had take the chunk of my brain that contained the last events I was a part of, out of my head and threw it away.

"Mia, baby, I need you to breathe for me okay?" Rick seemed worried, as if I was going to send myself into some form of convulsion as he rubbed his hand up and down my back. I obeyed, slowing my breaths and focusing on the intake of them. "Good" he praises, gently bringing his hand up to my shoulder and slightly pushing me backwards, back onto the pillows, "I promise you we'll talk about this, but you need to rest right now."

I wanted to oblige, but I was so on edge. What the hell had happened? Where was Negan? Why was I here?

I sit up again, but this time I recognize a shooting pain in my abdomen that causes me to yelp.

"Ow! What the hell!" I moan clutching my stomach, pushing the blankets off of me. Looking down at my stomach, I noticed a small amount of red staining the bottom of the tank top they had dressed me in.

"Dammit Mia" Rick sighs out, he reaches for a box next to the bed I'm sat in, pulling out a roll of gauze, "You tore your stitches."

Stitches? Since when did I have stitches? More importantly, why?

Then, it hit me.

I took a bullet for Carl, I remembered that.

Racing to dive in front of him as fast as I could, I remembered various faces peering down at me after the bullet knocked me to the ground, but that seemed to be all I could recall.