26 Band-Aid Covers the Bullet Hole

I awoke in an unfamiliar room, white sheets draped over my body. I was unable to recall what had happened. Bright sunlight shone through the bars in the door frame, I was in the prison. I squinted my eyes as they adjusted to the light, bringing my hand up to the immense burning sensation on my neck. I had a bandana tightly wrapped around it. I winced in pain as it was sore to touch. Was I bit?

I didn't feel like I was running a fever, but as I brought my hand to the front of my face to look at it a smear of blood coated the tips of my fingers.

"Hey, you're awake," Maggie spoke softly, peeking her head through the door before coming to sit on the edge of my bed.

"What happened?" I asked, sitting up. My head spun as I moved and it felt like all the blood in my body rushed to my feet.

"I wouldn't move so fast if I were you," she said, placing her hand on my shoulder and getting me to lay back down, "you hit your head pretty bad, thought you split it right open with the amount of blood there was," she explained.

I touched the back of my head, immediately feeling the goose egg that formed on my scalp. She was right, my hair felt crusted with dried blood. "What happened to my neck? Am I bit?" I asked the question I was dreading.

"No," she smiled, relieving me, "the walker that got you was so rotted that when Daryl killed it his knife went right through its head, cutting the side of your neck open," she explained. She then paused, looking down at her hands contemplating if she wanted to say what she was thinking. "He thought he killed you trying to save your life."

I looked around the room, breaking eye contact with her while thinking about it, I felt stupid. Stupid for dropping my weapon. Stupid for trying to fight back against the walker and not just turning to run. "I'm okay though, right?"

"You're gonna be just fine. Ma dad took a look, your skull wasn't cracked and Daryl didn't hit any major arteries," she smiled, "we'll be going into the tunnels tomorrow morning to look for supplies so we can properly wrap your neck up though."

"I'm coming," I blurted out without thinking, I knew I wanted to go though. Maggie furrowed her brows at me, shaking her head.

"I think it might be best if you take another day to heal, no need to exert yourself."

"I want to help," I said, "listen I wasn't much use last time, but you said I'm fine, I need to help."

She chuckled lightly, "Scar, you've been plenty of help. All winter long, you've been right there with Rick," she looked at me, tucking her short brunette hair behind her ear. Maggie and I didn't talk a whole lot, we were similar in a lot of ways, which left us not needing to get to know one another that well. It was nice to just speak to her one on one, knowing how she felt. "You don't have to prove yourself to any of us," she continued to stare at me like she was waiting for me to agree with her. As nice as it was to hear that coming from her it didn't change the fact that I still wanted to go. "I'll let Rick know you're coming."

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We stood at the entrance to the tunnel, T-Dog clicking the key into the lock and opening the steel bars that separated us from the tunnels. We were in the C Block, a small section of the prison that held inmates in their cells with only one common room attached to it. The C Block was safe though, sanctioned off from the rest of the prison, no one was getting in or out without the set of keys for it.

"I want ya' to have these back," Daryl's voice caught me off guard. I looked over at him as he grabbed my hand, placing small, cold objects in it.

I opened up my palm to see my dad and brother's chains resting in it, "thank you," I smiled at him, I had completely forgotten that the walker had ripped them off of me. The chain was broken now though so all I could do was put them in my pocket.

"And I'm sorry," he now said, referring to my neck, unable to fully make eye contact with me. Daryl Dixon never was very good at saying sorry.

I chuckled, "I should be saying thank you for saving my dumbass," I nudged him. This finally gained a small grin from him.

I now focused my attention back on the task at hand. T-Dog slowly pushed open the door, trying to keep the creaking of the rusted bolts to a minimum. The tunnels, which were formerly hallways leading to other sections of the prison, were dark, we each needed a flashlight to even see a few feet in front of us. It looked like a scene out of a horror movie. With the inmates having no way of getting themselves out of the prison, the hallways had been littered with bodies. Some had been murdered as soon as the outbreak happened and others were mauled by existing walkers, their limbs barely recognizable with the number of bite marks on them.

I followed behind Rick as we walked, he looked back at us in shock at all the bodies across the floor. Other than the sound of water droplets leaking from the ceiling, the tunnels were silent. With the entire building being shut down, there were no added noises to fill the air, leaving the tunnels to be one big echo. This worked for and against us. We couldn't speak a word to ensure that we won't be heard, but this also made it easy for us to hear what was coming.

Glenn made sure to mark down any turn we made, coating the wall with a white, spray-painted arrow so we could find our way back to C Block. We entered into what looked to be another cell block, except this one had all the cell doors swung wide open. The smell was rancid. I walked through looking down at all the inmates that laid face down on the concrete in front of what I assumed to be their own cell. Each having a gunshot wound in the back of their skull. This didn't look to be just an attack, but an execution of those who remained.

I jumped in my boots when I heard Maggie shout, turning and raising my weapon, on edge from our surroundings. I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized she had only run into Glenn, scaring herself.

We ventured down a couple more hallways, staying silent as we followed Rick's lead. That's when I heard it, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me, my own fear causing me to hear something that wasn't actually there.

"Go back! Go back!" Rick shouted as our flashlights landed on five or six walkers rounding the corner down the hall from us. We all turned and ran, trying our best to stay together. Running forward while also keeping an eye on what was behind us. "This way!" Rick led us to an open door, shoving as many people inside before the walkers could spot where we went. He slammed the door shut, locking us in a closet before realizing Glenn and Maggie didn't make it in. He peeked through the little window on the door watching as the walkers stumbled by.

"Where's Glenn and Maggie?" I whispered.

"We have to go back," Herschel fought.

"Which way?" Daryl asked.

We all looked around at each other, unsure of when we even lost then. We were running as fast as we could down any hallway that didn't hold a group of walkers at the end of it, we didn't even know where we were ourselves.

Rick looked back out of the door window, "it's clear," he whispered, letting us out.

My adrenaline was pumping now, I could hear my heartbeat banging on my eardrums. We started off by going back down the right side of the hallway, where we came from.

"Maggie," Herschel called out down the first hallway that we passed, his voice barely above a whisper. There was no response so we continued straight. "Glenn," he then called out again as we continued in the direction we came from.

"Daddy?" A soft voice came from a hallway to our left.

On instinct Herschel turned down it, swiftly walking away from us and following his daughter's voice. "Mag? Maggie?" he said before the sound of his screams began to fill the air.

We quickly ran after him, watching the walker that sat still up against the wall bit down on the back of his calf, ripping his flesh and ligaments out in one bite. I instantly grabbed for my pocket knife, pulling it out and whipping it across the hall at the side of the walker's temple, killing it.

Maggie and Glenn then rounded the corner finding us, her crying out for her father. She was in shock, she didn't know what to do as she stared down at her father's leg, all she could manage to do was scream. Herschel continued to cry out from the pain. We had to get him out of here, he was making too much noise. Rick and T-Dog then ran up behind me, each of them placing one of Herschel's arms over their shoulder to carry him.

"Scar, Daryl!" Rick yelled out as a group of walkers already managed to locate us.

Daryl and I both stepped forward, him firing off arrows as I shot them down with my gun. There was no use in being quiet now.

"We're blocked!" Glenn yelled as another group of walkers crept up from the direction we came from. This only left us with one route to go down and I prayed that it was empty. Daryl loaded his crossbow back up as we ran, the two of us checking behind us every so often.

"Here, here!" Maggie said as we reached a dead end, it was a set of doors bound together with a pair of handcuffs.

"Come on!" Rick shouted over Herschel's groans, telling Glenn to move faster as he slammed down on the metal cuffs to break them off.

Finally, they split open, sending the doors swinging open. I turned and watched as the twenty walkers gained on us, turning down our hallway, their moans overpowering any noise we were making.

"Get him in, get him in!"

"Shut the door!" Rick yelled.

Daryl and Glenn both slammed the doors shut, throwing their weight against it to try and keep the walkers from getting through. They bounced back and forth trying to keep their footing against the weight of the walkers.

"Here," I said, running back over to the door, shoving my crowbar through the handles to keep them shut.

Herschel continued to scream out in pain, the calf of his leg torn to bits. I returned back to Herchel's side, kneeling beside T-Dog.

"What are we going to do?" Maggie cried out, freaking out.

Rick shook as he went to take off his belt, crouching down by Herschel's shin, "Hold him down," he stumbled on his words. He began to wrap the belt around Herschel's leg, just under the knee. "Alright, only one way to keep you alive," Rick said, grabbing for his ax.

Without another word spoken he swung the ax up in the air before slamming it down on Herschel's leg. One after another he hacked at it straight to the bone. I was in shock as Herchel's blood splattered onto my face. I fell back onto my butt, unable to hold myself as I watched Rick turn into a different person. He had completely shut himself off, trying to save Herschel's life. Everyone was quiet now.