Daryl's Angel: Saviour (Book Two)

Chapter 24: Watching and Waiting

Later that night, things are solemn. Deanna brought Nicholas and Glenn in for questioning. Pete came in and did his job, fixing Tara to the best of his ability and leaving her to rest. He wasn't happy when I came and got him, but at the very least, he didn't argue once he heard it was an actual medical emergency. I was prepared to threaten him with handling it myself if he had fought me on it.

"Does she need blood?" I ask Elliot as we watch Tara from the other side of the room. Eugene sits by her bed, hands folding over his mouth. "Do you guys even have a transfusion kit?"

"We do, and blood bags," Elliot murmurs, "but it's for only the biggest emergencies, the big surgeries. I know it looks like a lot of blood, but it's not as bad as you think. Heads bleed a lot."

I trust his words. I wouldn't be able to donate right now anyway. Maybe, if they don't have it already, I can make a new and improved blood list, see if we have the capabilities to do blood typing here, and set up a list of possible donors.

The construction crew returns. Abraham drops off a woman named Francine, telling us that her ankle was injured on the job. Once she's taken care of, Elliot urges me to go home, promising to keep an eye on Tara. I oblige.

I walk down the dark streets, ruminating. Glenn is good at what he does, the best of us when it comes to supply runs. Things can go wrong at the drop of a hat, but questions still cling to me like burrs—hard to get rid of and incredibly annoying.

Poor Noah.

Rick and Glenn sit on the front porch of the second house. Glenn hasn't changed his clothes yet or cleaned up at all, his gaze far away and his eyes still red-rimmed.

"—couldn't get Aiden out of there without help, but he still tried to run," he's saying as I get within earshot. "We followed him into the lobby and got trapped in these...revolving doors. I had a plan." His voice chokes. "All he had to do was hold the door, but he panicked. Noah, I had him. I had his hand. I tried." His mouth trembles, shoulders hunching as he searches for words. "I watched him die."

Rick bows his head, lips pursed. Glenn looks up when he hears my footsteps, starting to get up, but I hold my hand up, urging him to stay put.

"Tara?" he asks.

"She's stable for now. We're hoping for the best, but until she wakes up, it's hard to say. Elliot and Eugene are with her." I say. He exhales, sagging back against the porch pillar, and I stop at the foot of the steps. "I'm sorry, Glenn. I'm..." Words fail me as my shoulders sag. "You did everything you could."

Glenn's jaw clenches for a second. "I...I almost left Nicholas out there," he admits. "Could've told some story." Rick's brow raises for a second. Glenn's expression pinches. "What, you think I should've?"

Rick tilts his head a little in a half-shrug. "They don't know what they're doing," he says. "Any of them."

"We'll show them," Glenn says.

"I don't know if they can see it. How things really are. I don't know if they can yet."

"They can," I say. "Elliot does. If he can see it, then there could be others."

Rick purses his lips. "They haven't caught up yet."

Glenn cuts in, voice tinged with something akin to desperation, "We have to be here. We have to."

I purse my lips as I wrap my arms around my middle, and Rick looks at me again. He nods. "We do," he agrees. "But their rules? We don't answer to them."

"We are them, Rick. We are now," Glenn says. "Noah, he...he believed in this place. I'm telling you, we've gotta make this work."

Again, Rick looks at me, and I find that I don't have any words worthy of being spoken. I do believe we can teach these people how to survive, but how can I express that when we just lost one of our own because of their cowardice? It's hard to see the "us" when there's such a strong feeling of the other.