Nothing but Dead (The Walking Dead Fanfic)

Bloodletting

The morning is an unstoppable thing. Garrett thought he needed a few more hours of blackness. But not to sleep, but to prepare. He needed to be focused today, like all days now. A day where he could be unfocused could led to his death.

His family was relatively small. He never went to family reunions or big family gatherings. Mostly because his family was small. Being in a small family, death rarely came around. Not like he was ever afraid of death. He knew that was the ultimate thing in the end. 

His mother, has a regular church going person. She would always try to have him tag along. He was never a fan of going. Garrett wasn't sure what he believed, he figured he would find out when he dies. 

Sitting up from the couch Garrett looks around the RV, he expected to see others laying around him but no one was there. The RV really started to smell he thought to himself. It was a mildew, mouldy kind of smell. Not forgetting the odor from the people that were sleeping in here.

The RV was packed with people, kind of like Sardines in a can. Garrett had never been claustrophobic before, but in this RV he was. But the smell of them, god the smell. The girls would find an unholy agglomeration of perfumes in different cars and try them all on. Most of the guys had body odor and over-applied cologne just to try to make them smell better. It only seemed to make it worse.

He gets up rather slowly and lifts up his shirt to reveal his wound. The bullet wound was so small. Somewhat ragged around the edges there was no bleeding anymore. The exit wound is on his back. He sighed as he pulls down his shirt and walks out the door.

"Everything alright champ?" Dale stood up from his seat and addressed Garrett. Garrett looks over and sees him and T-Dog, the only ones in eye sight.

"Where is everyone?" Garrett wondered scratching his head.

"They all went to look for Sophie." Dale remarked. "Carol was really upset the entire night."  Thankfully, he didn't hear her at all. "Oh, yeah." The old man uttered as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a little piece of paper which seemed to be folded. "That girl, Deanna, told me to give this to you when you woke up."

Dale hands over the small piece of paper and Garrett takes it and unfolds it and reads it to himself. All it said was 'Poke.' He knew what this mean't. As if Walkers weren't worse enough, Deanna as started a poke war with him. Garrett smirks in response to the piece of paper.

"She seems nice." Dale blurted out. Garrett hasn't know him long. Dale was an older man, his hair grey in some places. He seemed wise though, he had that father type of vibe in him. Like you could just tell him anything and everything. "If I don't know any better, and excuse me if I'm stepping outside the box, but I think she is a little sweet on you."

Garrett smiles at the thought of that. "We had a thing awhile ago. We are just friends now."

"That's not the way she puts it." Dale laughed. "She was probably the one that cried the most over you when you got shot. God-forbid Adam couldn't get her off the ground almost for an entire hour or so."

Smirking at what Dale is telling him, Garrett replies. "I'm not sure if I want something like that going on in this world right now anyways Dale. Besides, if I couldn't hold one together when the world was normal, how the hell I'm I supposed to hold one in this mess?"

"You're the one that has to decide. But if you think I'm lying ask T-Dog here." Dale looks back at T-Dog, who seemed to be in a daze. "Right T?"

Just then gunshots cracked into the air as loud as thunder but without the raw power of a storm. In comparison they were tiny and small, coming from one direction only. Even if they could have been mistaken for the cracks of an oncoming storm, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. 

Those shots, it had to be the others Garrett thought to himself. Walkers were going down, the only good Walker is a dead Walker anyways. 

T-Dog turns and looks at the both of them. His eyes are wary, his face had no emotion neither did his voice as he spoke. "Man, what the hell is wrong with us?" Both Dale and Garrett look at him with a question mark on their face. "We should just leave, right now. Us three, no one will ever have to know."

Maybe it was the shock of T-Dog saying that or maybe it was the horror in how it sounded. Dale quickly moved over to T-Dog and placed a hand on his forehead, checking for a temperature. Dale takes his hand away from T-Dog's head and gets down eye level with him. "You're burning up T, we gotta find a way to get that temperature of yours down."

"We got anymore antibiotics?" Garrett questioned.

Dale shakes his head no. "I'm pretty sure we already used them all up."

"What if we don't bring it down?" T-Dog mumbled sickly as he looked up at the two of them from where he was sitting. Both Garrett and Dale don't say anything. T-Dog lets out a weak little chuckle. "You mean to tell me....The dead has risen up and are eating the living, and....and I'm gonna die from a scratch?"

"It's more than just a scratch T." Dale replied placing a hand on his shoulder. "We gotta go through some cars, maybe there will be something in one of them."

-In the woods-

The choice wasn't his. It was Shane's idea to split the group up, god-damn that man Mitchel thought too himself in this moment. That would be the last time any order from him will be taken. But was it Shane's fault to begin with, or was it his own?

He felt faint, as numbness took control. He gathered the energy to look down, at the person he held in his arms. There was no helping her now, it was useless. He noticed that Torri's blood was a glossy dark red, perhaps even maroon. There was a gushing stream flowing from her neck. 

The Walker came out of nowhere, maybe it came out from behind a bush or a tree. Mitchel didn't know, it all just happened so fast. First, there was one Walker, then there were ten. The entire episode lasted maybe thirty seconds. Thirty seconds meant life or death now. 

William struck the first Walker in the head with his knife. The Walker that bit Torri. As soon as it happened, Mitchel froze. He wanted to act, he needed to act but he couldn't. 

Lucas, Kenny, Adam Connor, Deanna and Rebecca finished off the other Walkers that came after them. It was supposed to be easy, one of their own wasn't supposed to be lying on the ground fighting for her life. 

Mitchel didn't even realize he was crying until he saw the first tear fall on Torri's cheek. When he cried there was a rawness to it, like he was the one in pain, like he was the one with the open wound. Rarely, he would cry though but if he did he would clasp onto something for support, anything, a table or the back of a chair, and then his whole body would shake.

Looking down at her with her eyes still having that spark that they usually do, Mitchel's face turned into a crumbled up smile. "You're going to be okay....We are gonna get you fixed up...I promise you." Her breath started to become ragged and shallow gasps. "You can't leave you Torri, just stay...please..." 

Mitchel looked her in the eye one final time as the spark slowly vanished, her breathing stopped. She seemed to be lying there, staring up at Mitchel for some sort of answer, but there was no answer to be found. He could not keep his promise to her, at least not this time. 

William is the first one to walk towards him as he continued to hold her lifeless body in his arms. "Mitchel..." He started slowly. "I'm sorry, but we can't stay here. That gun fire will likely bring more Walkers this way. We have to go."

"Let them come." Mitchel snarled, grasping the pistol he had behind him and putting it on the ground. "I'll kill every last one of those fucks."

"I know you aren't thinking clearly right now." William quietly reassured him. "But you have to, for us, for the others...for Torri. Now, she is gonna turn. You have to do something about that."

Mitchel immediately grabs the gun next to him and points it at William's face. "Don't you dare touch her."

William puts both of his hands up to show that he means no harm and he steps away. 

"Kenny." Mitchel snapped wiping the tears from his eyes. "You still got that rope in your bag?"

"Yeah?"

"Give it here."