Entombed

As I rode into town on one of Hershel's horses, I surveyed the place I used to call home. Each and every time I had to make a run, I felt the same emptiness in my heart.

Certain restaurants and places brought back memories of my parents, friends, past lovers...all of the things that were now long gone, left to be only memories. There weren't going to be any more late night dinners, drinks at the bar or movies at the cinema. The world was a much different place now, and no one knew if it would ever be the same again. But they prayed.

I cleaned out the last of the antibiotics and a few other valuables from the cabinet of an old pediatrics office in town. We rarely found the need to use such supplies at the farm, but I always took advantage to scavenge what would come in hand later.

I made my way back out to the horse, strapping my now full duffel bag onto the saddle and pulling out my map. I pulled out a marker, taking the cap off with my teeth and marked an X on the map where the doctor's office was. Maggie had found the map at the town hall, which showed a bird's eye view of every building and house in town. We used this to avoid buildings we had already rooted through to avoid searching through the same lonely and empty buildings.

I climbed onto the horse and made my way back to the farm. I had found a few more canned goods and a few boxes of pasta that were still good in one house. Everyone would be thankful for this.

Although making runs alone was quite lonely, the silence away from the farm was occasionally nice. Sometimes it felt good to just take my anger out on zombs. I know Hershel believed that there was a cure, that maybe there would soon be a cure and a way to save them. I felt in my heart that there was no cure, maybe there never would be. But people like Hershel needed the hope and who was I to rid him of that?

When I reached the outskirts of the farm, I decided to check the perimeter. It wouldn't hurt to at least be safe. We had a lot of cattle to protect, as good meat was extremely hard to come by. Besides a few zombs stuck in the barbed wire that Maggie and I had set up, our perimeter was holding up.

My head whipped up at the sound of shouting at the farm house. Adrenaline rushed me back to the horse and I climbed as quickly as possible, racing back to the house. I jumped off the horse, nearly falling in the process and quickly tied the reins to a tree. I ran up the steps and found drops of blood on the front steps and bloody hand prints on the door and frame. My heart was pounding so hard that my breath was caught in my throat. I threw open the door and looked at Maggie and Beth sitting on the couch together and my uncle sitting at the table, pale and with tears streaming down his face.

"What the hell happened?" I asked, looking at the blood trail to Hershel's bedroom.

When no one answered me, I stormed into the room. On the bed was a little boy, covered in blood. Hershel was leaning over his pale body, his own hands and shirt covered with the crimson liquid.

Two men I had never seen before stood along the bed behind the bloody scene. One of the men was covered in blood, both of them drenched in sweat with terrified expressions on their faces.

The man covered in blood looked at me as I came through the door, a desperate look in his piercing blue eyes. My heart ached for him, and I didn't even know who he was. But those eyes...they made me want to alleviate the pain. Especially since I knew losing a loved one was the hardest thing in the world.

"Hershel... what happened?" I asked, pulling my gaze away from the blue-eyed stranger.

"This boy was shot, by your uncle nonetheless. We're trying to save his life, stop the bleeding."

I noticed the other man look at me with an unbelievable intensity as Otis was revealed at my uncle. What had he done to this boy?

"I never saw him until he was on the ground." My uncle said to Patricia in the door way, still shaking.

"Lori doesn't know." The blue-eyed man mumbled to himself. "My wife doesn't know."

The other man wrapped an arms around him, trying to comfort and reassure him. But all the bloodied man could do is repeat "my wife doesn't know."

"Shannon, bring these two to another room, please." Hershel pleaded, trying to focus his attention on the boy.

I led them away from the crowded room and into my bedroom on the other side of the house. It wasn't really my room, it was given to me by Hershel when we arrive, but it had become my place of peace away from the chaos.

"He's going to be okay." I said quietly to who I assumed to be the father of the boy. "He's in good hands."

"Thank you." He managed.

I nodded and took my leave from the room, partially shutting the door to provide them with privacy.

---

After long, grueling minutes, Hershel emerged from the bedroom and retrieved the two men. He told them that he needed more medical supplies, for the boy could suffer a torn artery if Hershel didn't have the right equipment. The boy would also need a respirator, because he was having trouble breathing and the problem would not cease on its own. I glanced over to the boy's father and say that he was already pale from donating blood. He was weak too.

"I found some antibiotics in town." I spoke up. "But not all of those supplies."

"Bring me them." Hershel said.

When I returned to the living room with my duffel bag, Otis and the other man we're going to leave for the FEMA supplies at the high school. Patricia, Otis' girlfriend was now the one in tears, begging Otis not to leave. But he was responsible for this horror, and he is the one who must make it better.

"Where is she, your wife?" I asked the father, who identified himself to me as Rick.

---

It didn't take long to get my horse ready again and set back out. This time however, I was on the high way, searching for the wife of a very desperate man and a very sick child.

I heard screaming just off the side of the highway in the woods. If that was my girl, I couldn't take the risk. I led the horse into the brush, following the screams and saw a blond woman on the ground, screaming, and a walker about to bring her to her death. I grabbed the bat out of the bag on my back and smashed the zomb so hard in the head that his head broke off, gurgling and still trying to move.

"Lori?" I yelled and looked down at the blonde woman. "Lori Grimes?" The blonde lady stared at me, confused and panting.

"I'm Lori." A brunette yelled as she ran up to the horse.

"Rick sent me, you gotta come now." I said, seeing the approaching group.

"What?" She asked in panic.

"There's been an accident, Carl's been shot." I said and looked back as Maggie had followed me on her own horse.

"He's still alive, but you've gotta come now." I said again, seeing her stare at me in panic and disbelief. "Rick needs you, just come!"

Lori began pulling off her bag, throwing it to a short-haired woman behind her.

"Woah, woah, woah, we don't know this girl!" One of the men in her group yelled, following after her as she climbed onto the back of the horse. "You can't just get on that horse!"

"Rick said you had others on the high way?" Maggie said. "That big traffic snarl?"

"Uh huh." The Asian man in the group managed, staring at the two of us in confusion.

Maggie started listing off directions to the farm, but I didn't sit behind to smell the roses. I needed to get this woman to her child before something bad happened to him.

As my horse ran at my control, Lori gripped onto me tightly, asking question upon question. But I couldn't provide her with any answers. We raced back to the house as quickly as possible. When the house was in view and Lori was close enough for her husband to even so much as hear her, she started screaming her husband's name.

Rick approached the horse once we were close enough and Lori jumped off the horse, embracing her husband in a fit of tears.

Rick gave blood two more times since Lori was brought to the farm, and she was on him through every second of it. As if her child would take all of his blood and he would be the one on death's bed.

Within an hour, the rest of Rick and Lori's group had arrived at the farm. Since Hershel was busy tending to Carl with Patricia and Otis was gone with the man Shane, it was made my responsibility to do some damage control. I answered as many questions as possible, but it was hard to keep all of them calm, especially the one named Daryl.

Hershel eventually emerged long enough to answer questions and control the situation, telling them that they needed to remain calm and they were more than welcome to set up in the time being.

"Is he going to be okay?" The Asian boy asked me.

I nodded slightly. "If we can get the supplies that Hershel needs, he might be."

The boy stood with his hands on his hips, looking at the ground.

"Don't worry." I said and walked up to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Hershel knows what he's doing."

The boy nodded and looked up at me, I forced a smiled and held out my hand, "Shannon."

"Glenn."