Self Inflicted

4

We climbed the trees as quickly as we could and prepared ourselves. There was one man, he was holding a gun and looking around in circles making it pretty evident that he heard or saw us which means there's no avoiding this. I grab an acorn off of the tree I'm sitting on and throw it, turning the man so his back is to us. Michonne jumps down quickly and slices his head off. I hope down after her and look at the beheaded man before us. "Take his legs off," she says bluntly.

"What?"

"Take his legs off and I'll get the arms." I nod slowly and do as I'm told. I chop at both of his legs and reluctantly take them clean off with blood back-splattering on me. She takes the arms and shapes them into a G, the legs into an O, and then turns his torso over and cuts off his shirt, revealing his bare back.

"Go back," I snicker.

"Merle's coming too. Come on, we have to hide before he gets here." We walk off the opposite direction the man came and hide crouched down behind a fallen tree stump.

-

It doesn't take long for Merle to find the body with a group of men. There's three other men with him and all of them are armed. I get up and heavy footed I walk away from the stump, the footsteps draw Merle's attention. All of the men draw their guns and look worriedly around the woods. What they don't know is Michonne is sitting in one of the trees above them, waiting for her shot.

"What's the deal you two? Gonna leap out of the woods, two against four, all of us armed to the teeth? And both of you with just your little pig stickers?" Michonne drops from a tree and slices a man's head clean off. I charge and stab one on the other side of Merle clean through the chest, folding his body quickly. Merle begins shooting and I run after Michonne. He shoots and skims her leg, causing her to hobble and hold the wound. I try to help her move and he fires another shot, going clean through my left shoulder and I scream in pain.

Michonne and I run the best we can and I try to keep pressure off of my left arm. We run until we can't run anymore and by this point Merle isn't shooting so we're not sure where he is. "Here, we'll rest here," Michonne gasps and sits down at the base of a tree, leaning against the stumpy for support. I bend over and out my hands on my knees the best I can, both of us are trying to catch our breath. "Are you okay?"

"I don't know," I answer honestly. "I need you to look at it for me. Look at the back of my shoulder and tell me if there is an exit wound." Michonne stands the best she can and hobbles to my side, pulling back my shirt and I grunt in pain.

"There isn't one, what does that mean?" I fight with myself on if I should be honest or give her a false sense of hope.

"Rip off a piece of my shirt and tie it as tight as you can around the wound," she listens and tears a piece off and I stifle my yells of pain as she ties it around my shoulder.

"What does that mean?" She asks sternly with a slight quiver, I shake my head and sigh.

"It means that I won't make it until tomorrow if I don't get the bullet out. And I can't exactly perform surgery on myself." Michonne furrows her eyebrows at me and shakes her head. "Let me see your leg." I bend over and examine her bloody leg, it's not very deep but it needs stitches.

"You're going to need stitches but it's not too serious as long as it doesn't get infected."

"So we need to find pills and something to stitch it with," she assumes and I nod my head. "Let's get moving before he picks up our trial again."

-

We walked for awhile and came across a strip mall, just a few buildings and some stray vehicles outside it. We here a car pull up and duck behind an abandoned one. It's a red truck and it comes to a stop in front of a building and out climbs a young woman with short dark brown hair from the passenger seat and an Asian man from the drivers seat. "Clear outside," the woman calls in a thick southern accent. They walk up to each other and they exchange a kiss.

"From Woodberry?" I whisper to Michonne.

"No." They open the doors to a building and the man goes inside.

"Glenn, get that duck," the woman calls cheerily. "Get that duck! A kid growing up in a prison could use some toys," she chuckles. Michonne and I just peer through a dusty car window at them and listen.

"We just hit the powder formula jackpot," the man, Glenn, exclaims earning a thank god from the woman. "Also got beans, batteries, mini mustards. It's a straight shot back to the prison from here, we'll probably make it in time for dinner."

"I like the quiet, back home, you can always hear them outside the fences no matter where you are." They are loading up supplies when an all too familiar voice interrupts. "And where is it y'all good people calling home?" They drop everything and raise their guns as Merle appears.

"Merle?" The man asks in shock and Merle chuckles dropping his gun. "What the hell?" I whisper to Michonne. They exchange some words when suddenly Merle fires a shot into the back of the truck and shatters the glass, grabbing the woman and threatening him to get in and drive. "Get in the car Glenn, you're driving!" They all climb in and drive away in a hurry, the opposite way as the prison they mentioned. Left behind is a red grocery basket full of baby formula and now we have a decision to make.

-

We grabbed the formula and made our way to the prison, following the road most of the way but once we got within a mile or so we took to the woods. We find an opening and there is it, a huge prison. Walkers line up on parts of the fence and snarl with snapping teeth. There are four tours and a couple cell blocks, accompanied by a court yard and huge grass yard. We slowly walk up to the fence, covered in walker blood and limping, holding the basket still. We just stand there and watch as a a man carrying a gun walks quickly down to us, tilting his head and squinting at us. Michonne grabs onto the fence and he recognition hits his features.

The walker to my left turns it snapping head toward me and goes directly for my shoulder and I stumble back quickly, dropping the basket in my right hand and grabbing my sword. I slice it's head off quickly but the impact makes me writhe in pain at my shoulder. Michonne tried to help me and stumbles too as the walkers surround us, dizzily we both swings and stab at the approaching threat. Michonne drops to the ground and I yell. "Michonne!" Guns fire and I turn to see a young boy firing at a walker that was getting too close for comfort.

The boy tosses the man keys and he throws the gate open quickly muttering shit under his breath. They both come out firing, the boy goes for the basket and the man goes for Michonne. An older man on crutches appears out of nowhere "are you bit?"

"No, we were shot. Please, please help her," I plead with the men. The man scoops up Michonne and I take that as my answer.