Chapter 60

**- Xenon -**

I watched as Rick came running frantically as fast as his legs could carry him and his motionless child. Hershel quickly understood the urgency of the situation, and started voicing commands at Maggie and Patricia. Rick, in his desperate state, failed to notice I was there, not that I could blame him. He was probably thinking the worst about his son's state already.

I watched as the Hershel did his best to treat Carl, and I could not help the rising anger I felt at this situation. I did my best to prevent this. I did every single step correctly, just so we could move on and focus on what truly matters: Securing a base of operation, so I could get the fuck away from everyone, and still have a place to come back to when I needed it.

I have been given the greatest gift anyone could ask for, and have barely gotten the opportunity to use it. I've been in this world for about a month, and having nothing to show for it, having barely made any real progress when it comes to my personal strength, too focused on babysitting the naive group I was with. And just when things were starting to look better, I have this to deal with...

This little incident is going to cost us a delay of two weeks at least, and a number of things could go wrong in the meantime, and I had no doubt they would.

Shane and a fat man I assumed was Otis came running shortly after Rick, even though the latter was holding the extra weight with him. Shane spoke with Rick for a while, doing his best to comfort his friend. The latter was whispering that his wife didn't know her son was shot, and could not stop the guilt eating at him.

"You're here." Shane eventually noticed that I was there, as he looked at me with a frown. "This is your doing? What happened?" He gestured to the dead bodies littering the place.

"Was about to lose them. Then I found out people were living here. It was either leave them to die, or kill the walkers. I had enough bullets." I explained a bit impatiently, the whole situation getting on my nerves. "Where are the others?" I assume they've moved, otherwise there is no reason for this to happen.

"We found a church nearby, thought we'd settle there for the night. Rick and I were scouting the area for walkers..." Shane said, and I could see something was bothering him. He explained to me the circumstances leading to him getting shot, but I had no input on the subject. And quite frankly, I couldn't care less. Carl is not my responsibility, and it is through the stupid decisions of those responsible for him that this happened. The only thing that bothers me in all of this is the time we'll waste until he gets better.

Hershel didn't have much good news to tell them. The surgery was proving more difficult than anticipated. It turns out he needed a 'respirator' to give him a fair shot at success. But the only way to get them was by going to a high school where a shelter was set up, but the place was apparently overrun last they checked.

Shane said he would go without hesitation, no matter how scary the prospects of survival were looking. Rick said he hated that he had to do this alone, and he looked my way not so subtly. Otis was too guilty to back out from 'taking responsibility' for his actions, so he ended up volunteering to go as well.

"I'll come with you." I eventually sighed in defeat. Going with them would make the task ten times more easy, and would earn me some goodwill with both of them for not much effort. It would also give me an idea of what that place looked like, so I could loot it afterwards. Neither Rick nor Shane protested, unsurprisingly. We didn't waste any time to get ready, Carl's life was hanging by a thread.

"Let's take two walkers with us on the car." We would be taking Otis' pickup, so we had more than enough space.

"Why?" I couldn't blame them for not understanding my reasons.

"You said the place was overrun." I pointed out, and looked at Shane. "We'll use that technique I told you about." His eyes widened in realization, and he nodded eagerly. He won't have to use Otis as bait to get out of there this time.

I spent the next few minutes, explaining to them what they should do once we get there, how to act, what are the limits... I had to reassure Otis, as he was rather doubtful of its credibility, but he eventually gave in, with a few glares from Shane.

**- Xenon -**

The place was definitely overrun. I counted sixty walkers just for those blocking our immediate passage to our destination. It's a good thing it won't be a problem then.

"We gotta draw them away still." I informed them, as we were hiding behind the cars with our walkers outfit. "In case one of us screws us, I'd prefer to have some space."

"I've got an idea." Shane nodded, and motioned to the police car next to us. We gave him puzzled looks, but followed him. He slowly tried to open the door, and thankfully, it wasn't locked. He took out a few flare sticks from the care and chuckled. We understood what he intended to do. It was pretty dark, so the light is bound to attract the walkers.

We lighted a few of them, and started throwing them to drag the walkers away from our destination.

"Remember, act like walkers. Walk slow, don't move excessively, and don't make a sound." I reminded them one last time, as we started walking towards our destination. From there on, it was a walk in the park. We got into the mobile medical trailer, and started grabbing everything we could, prioritizing what we needed at the moment. We took the respirators they required, tubes, bandages, painkillers, anything that could fit in our bags, really.

I noticed that by the end, the walkers stopped focusing on the flares, and were now surrounding us, which means we'll have to move in proximity of them. Meaning, we had to do so with confidence.

"Listen up." I whispered. "The walkers should now be around us. Meaning we'll be getting pretty close to them. Whatever you do, keep acting the way I've showed you. They won't mind you with the scent all over you. You get scared and start acting like little girls, you die. Understood?" Otis gulped visibly at my words and nodded repeatedly. "I'll lead the way. Stay close behind me."

I slowly opened the door, making as little sound as I could. I started walking slowly down the stairs, before taking a turn, staying close to the area with lesser walkers. While I was quite certain they won't mind my presence, I still wanted to be able to react in case something happened. We made a big detour to avoid them as much as possible, before we started walking to the pickup.

"Why are they following us!" Otis whispered, as he noticed a few of them coming our way.

"It's their normal behavior." I explained. "They tend to follow each other, and since they think we're walkers, that's what's happening. We'll kill them when there is enough distance." We deposited our baggage on the pickup, before Shane turned to me.

"You take the left, I'll take the right. Let's make this quick and quite." I nodded in agreement. I took my hatchet in my hand, and similarly, Shane had an axe with him. Disposing of the three walkers following us was child's play. "Let's go." We drove off towards the farm, though I told them to drop me midway. I needed to get my van, and get Dale and Theodore out of there, as it wasn't the safest place for them to be. Then I should bring the rest staying in the church. I'd prefer if we all stayed together, as it is safer that way.