My Damaged Protector

Chapter Six ~ Cheeroke Rose

I woke to unfamiliar surroundings. The room was lit from the sun coming in through the window on my left, illuminating the small bedroom decorated for a young girl. My shoulder throbbed painfully as I sat up in the bad and looked around. There were two doors on the far wall, one slightly open to reveal a bathroom while the other was closed tightly.

I stepped out of the bed and pulled my shoes on my feet, a few huffs of pain leaving my mouth as I pulled at my shoulder. My fingers trailed over the door handle and I pulled it open softly to see a hallway with multiple doors and Rick sitting outside of one of the rooms.

His head snapped up and out of his hands when he heard me leave the room. "Hey." His voice sounded like he had been crying. "Good to see you up and moving around."

My eyes trailed over his pale face and puffy red eyes. "What's going on? Are you ok?"

He looked down at his hands then back up to me. "Around the time you passed out, Carl was shot. The person that lives here is in now trying to fix him up a bit." I was shocked. Carl had gone off with Rick and Shane, two of the strongest members in our group. "Shane's on his way back from a run to get the equipment Hershel needs."

"I'm sorry." My voice was soft, very different from how I had been the last day and a half.

He shook his head sadly. "Hershel said he should be fine, as long as Shane gets back with what he needs." He said. "Are you ok? You were out for quite a while."

I nodded my head and shrugged my shoulders. "I'm fine. No idea what happened though."

Before Rick could answer, the bedroom door on Rick's left opened and an older man with white hair stepped out, wiping his hands on a towel. "He's resting now." He said to Rick before looking at me. "I see you are up. How do you feel?"

"I'm fine. What happened?" I wondered; I had never passed out like that before.

"Let's talk in you room." He waved back to the room I just left. He took a seat at the desk in the room while I stood awkwardly near the door. "You were severely dehydrated, and Rick said that you haven't eaten in a day and a half or so. Did you go through a traumatic experience recently?" His eyes held a kind light that you didn't see all that often in the world we live in now.

I felt the tears well in my eyes as I nodded my head slowly. "My, my sister. She, umm, she died two days ago on the highway up the road a while. A, a walker got her." The events of that day began to flash through my hear again as I quickly wiped my tears away

The man put a hand on my shoulder gently, causing me to jump, and asked more questions. "What did you do to release the sadness? Or did you hold it in? Doing that is bad for your health, mentally." He told me and sent me a soft smile when I looked up. "How old was she?"

"Eight." More tears fell on my cheeks.

"She obviously had a hold on you, more than a normal little sister." He sighed. "You two were close?"

I nodded and took a deep breath. "My mother died after she had my sister, and my dad blamed the baby for it and would get drunk, and things would happen. I protected her from the day she was born." I left out my little brother from the story since I didn't want to answer any questions about him.

The white-haired man looked at me with a sad expression. "I'm so sorry for what you went through." I gave him a sad smile, something I was used to doing when my past was brought up, but I shrugged off his eyes, only moving when there was a knock at the door.

Rick stood in the doorway, looking at the ground sheepishly. My mind instantly went to the worst thought as Hershel got up to go check on Carl. "Is, is he..." My hands shook at the thought of loosing yet another child.