A War On Her World | TWD: D. Dixon

Ch. 13

I was awoken one morning, back at the farm, by a harsh coolness on my face that caused shivers to course through my body. The blanket that covered me was doing its job in keeping me from being exposed to the morning temperatures, but did nothing to keep me warm.

When I opened my eyes, I stared at the roof, trying desperately to get them to focus, but with no such luck as my vision was swarmed with black squiggles on my periphery. Turning to look down at the space beside me, I was surprised to see that Benji wasn't there anymore. He had slept tucked into my side all night, and though I wasn't too worried as I was sure he just sought someone out to get something to eat, I still had to get up to check on him.

The issue was, it was painful to do so.

My body hadn't magically healed overnight and I was left, struggling, to push myself up in bed. I had to use my left arm to prop myself up while my legs worked to push me further up the bed, the whole time I had to keep my bandaged arm braced against my chest in fear of jostling it and causing me further harm.

When I was finally able to sit myself up at the edge of the bed, I flipped off and slowly shifted my weight onto my feet. I was unstable and unsure I'd be able to walk at all, but somehow, I made the distance from my bed to the door, cautious of my every movement.

It was even cooler in the hallway than it was in the bedroom.

Leaving the house, I saw how everyone was standing around chatting idly, a pleasant sight to behold with all of the events surrounding the previous days. There were always more pressing issues to tend to, but it was nice to see everyone taking a moment to themselves.

I took to the steps hesitantly, bracing myself against the hand railing to stay steady as I descended, eventually managing to join the group at a steady pace so as to not strain my body any more than I already had.

In reality, I should have still been in bed, it was a wonder how I was standing at all, but I didn't want to stay cooped up in them room feeling like anymore of a nuisance.

"Good morning," I greeted with a small smile, catching the attention of everyone gathered.

Before I could continue anywhere else, joining in on the conversations going around, Rick made his was towards me with a look on his face. It was one that told me he had something to say and I was not going to be able to get out of it, even if I tried.

"Ellie, why are you up? You need to rest your body," he said politely, full of concern for my well-being.

"I'm alright. I just want to sit out here with everyone. I'll feel less lonely that way," I replied with a small laugh. I had said the last bit as a joke to lighten the mood a little, but my laugh was unable to hide the small truth from slipping through -I didn't like being alone.

The man looked hesitant, but probably caught onto the clear meaning behind my poor attempt at a 'joke', and gave a small sigh, his hands rested on his hips, his head dipped low.

"You have to be careful, okay?"

Of course I nodded, promising to look after myself and stay relatively still. There was no way I was going to be forced back into bed, left to my own devices while everyone else actually did something for the good of the group.

Pulling up a seat beside our leader, I allowed my eyes to search the camp for my son. I hadn't seen him when I was walking over, and I wasn't able to see him when I was talking to Rick, either, but, after sitting down, I finally had the chance to look around properly. Regardless, I still couldn't see him at first, but when Carol shifted her weight a bit to one side, I was able to see his little legs barely hanging off of the blue fold-up chair behind her.