Fight, Love, Live.

XXXVI

"Shot? What do ya mean shot?" Dale questioned us as soon as we were over that damn metal bar. I had told him what that lady told us, but I didn't see Riley anywhere, and I just wanted to tell her what was going on. She was gonna be pissed. 

"I don't know Dale. I wasn't there. All I know is this chick rode out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori." He gave me the most exasperated look. 

"You let her?"

"Climb down out of my asshole man. Rick sent her. She knew Lori's name and Carl's." I walked away before he could say anything else, finally seeing Merle and Riley walking over to us from way down the highway, both carrying boxes of stuff. 

I hustled over there, ready to yank whatever it was she was holding out of her arms and yell at Merle when I saw it was a box full of fabric, looked maybe like sheets?

"Hey Dare, did y'all find her?" She asked me, big grin across her face as soon as she saw me, but it started to fall once she actually looked at me. 

"No. Ri... Carl's been shot." 

Carl... shot? How the... who... just... what the ever loving fuck? 

"What do you mean shot?" I hissed, dropping the box of sheets and stepping over it to get closer to him, almost falling on my face when my shoe caught the edge of the box, but he caught me. I didn't even realize, too focused on his face, his eyes that were burning into mine. 

"Rick, Carl, and Shane split off from us. We had stopped at a church and we were gonna head back, do the other side of the creek. They decided to keep going. We were on our way back and heard a shot but we couldn't do anything, so we just kept heading back. Some chick rode up on a horse, saved Andrea from a walker, and said that Rick had sent her to get Lori and that Carl was shot. Told us where her house was. Didn't say how he was doing." My head was spinning. 

I could hear the blood pumping in my head, overwhelming anything else Daryl tried to tell me. I was looking around, trying to see where the truck was, where Bailey was so I could get her and go to Carl. I started walking as soon as I saw it. I could hear mumbled words from behind me, that were probably normal volume, but I couldn't hear anything, just this staticky noise.

"Bailey!" I yelled when I was feet away from the truck, and she came bounding out from the R.V. where I had left her. I opened up the passengers side door and climbed in, left the door open for her. 

She hopped in pretty quick, and then Daryl got in the driver's seat, started it up, and started driving. 

"He can't die Dare." I whimpered later, when the blood had finally settled and I could hear my hitching breaths, and feel the pain in my lungs, and the hand that was on my thigh, rubbing it, trying to calm me, and I could see the frightened blue eyes flickering to me every few seconds. 

"He'll be alright. But babe, I need you to breathe for me. Just calm down, and breathe. I'll get us there." I nodded, and spent the rest of the ten minute drive breathing deeply. In through the nose, out through the mouth, but it wasn't until I could see the large white house that the pain in my chest actually left. 

Rick was sitting on the porch, and I couldn't see Lori, but she was probably wherever Rick was. He jumped up when he saw the truck, but seemed disappointed when I opened the passenger door and Bailey leaped out of it. 

"Rick!" I yelled, leaping out of the car, I stumbled, but I was upright before I had even realized I had stumbled, and Rick was running at me, and I could see the tears running down his face. 

"Where's Carl? Is he okay? Where's Lori? Shane? What the fuck happened!" I was screaming now, rage bubbling up and out, probably at the wrong person but my mind, my heart, didn't seem to give a damn. 

"It was an accident... a man... Otis... he was hunting. Bullet went straight through the deer and into Carl... buckshot... all in his stomach... Otis and Shane, they went to the high school up the road... had a FEMA trailer with medical supplies, Hershel, he's a vet, he's gonna have to do surgery to get the pieces out." 

"He inside?"  Rick nodded, and I was gone again, racing up the stairs, past a very bewildered blonde girl and who I think is her sister, and using the directions of a brunette woman I made my way into a room. It smelled like blood, disease... death. Lori was in there, sitting by the bed, staring down at Carl who was whiter than the sheet he was laying on. 

A man, with stark white hair, and wearing suspenders was bent over him, pressing on his abdomen and listening to his chest with a stethoscope. Lori saw me first. 

"Riley." She gasped out, stumbling from the chair and towards me, I caught her as she fell, and we both stumbled to the ground, crying. 

"What can I do? Does he need anything?" I asked the man standing next to the bed. Hershel, probably. 

"What's your blood type?" The man asked gently, looking between us. 

"A-positive. Same as Rick, same as Carl. Does he need some, I'll give it." I said, shaking Lori off and moving over to the bed, trying not to look down at him because I knew I would break down. 

"Riley you can't! You're pregnant!" Lori yelled, just as Rick and Daryl walked through the door. 

"What's goin' on?" Daryl asked harshly moving to my side, glancing at Lori, myself, then Hershel. 

"Carl needs blood. I'm his blood type. I have to give him blood. I'm assuming Rick already has, multiple times since he looks like shit. So I can now." 

"No, you can't. I can't... I won't take blood from a pregnant person." Hershel said gently, patting my shoulder. 

"Yes you will!" I yelled, advancing on him angrily, but Daryl grabbed my arm and yanked me back. 

"Nah, you won't. You'll take it from me doc." Daryl growled out, glancing over at Carl. I froze. 

"You don't even know what his blood type is..." I trailed off, looking at him, extremely confused. 

"Don't matter. O-neg." He said calmly, wrapping his arm around my waist, and I was glad. It was too much. Too much pain, worry, stress... I couldn't do this again. If Carl dies... I'm going to lose my mind. 

"Well son... sit down."