Changing To Adapt ➵ TWD

➵ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜰɪꜰᴛʏ ꜱᴇᴠᴇɴ

With destruction and chaos now at their backs, trapped in the field and behind gates, the four of them stumble haphazardly into the courtyard in varying degrees of breathlessness.

Carl wheels the gate shut quickly behind them and Beth stabs a few collected walkers through the wire in order to keep the noise to a minimum.

Too many of the dead against one fence might cause it to go down under their weight. Best not to tempt it.

"Lucas!" Carol ducks into view, all wide eyes and parted lips. "Oh my god." She's painted in droplets of red, but it doesn't seem to bother her as much as Lucas' current state does.

"Is he-?"

"What happened?"

"Shit."

"Why are you covered in blood?" Lucas cuts off several overlapping reactions.

Carol doesn't answer. She cups his face in her hands, lips trembling, and looks at Rick for something that Lucas isn't getting.

Maggie and Glenn stare wide-eyed at his injured shoulder.

Taking a ragged breath, Lucas squints at them. Understanding slams past the adrenaline making his mind as scrambled as the eggs he used to have, and his jaw finally unlocks, "I didn't get bit, fuck."

An echo of relieved responses are shared among them.

"You should've started with that." Beth laughs, quietly, wiping the sweat from her head. She singlehandedly breaks the tension.

"He got shot." Rick relays to Hershel, ducked under Lucas' good arm despite his repeated protests. He finally understands Daryl's frustration the time he fell off the horse.

"Get him inside."

Glenn races ahead to stay by his side, eyes narrowed in search and hands moving on principle. The prompt "Ow-! Hands off!" Tells him exactly where the wound is amidst the blood.

"He's okay, though, right? You're okay?" Carol asks from somewhere behind them.

Lucas laughs, a touch manic. "I'm alive." He looks at her when they're through the door to the cell block. "Are you okay?"

He has to ask because she's not just covered in blood. She looks like she bathed in it.

"It's Axel's," Carol says quietly, glancing away. "They got Big Tiny too." Lucas inhales shakily in surprise, and frowns. Big Tiny had been one of the good ones. After the last time the walkers came through he'd made it his mission to help them out at the prison. He'd even given them his real name. Theo.

Things are moving too fast for him to say anything in response.

Rick lowers Lucas to a bed in the closest cell and makes room for Hershel, standing just outside the room with the rest of the group in tow.

Waiting for the vet to drag his chair in closer, Lucas levers himself onto his good elbow and tries to peek through the door to catch the conversation.

But with an exasperated sigh, Hershel drops one hand over his chest and presses him back down. He starts by prying away the shirt stuck to his skin and Lucas sucks in a sharp breath, tossing his head back against the pillow. "Fuck."

"Language."

"We're not leaving," Rick says from the doorway. Carol moves past him and sits herself in the corner of the cell.

Hershel's face tightens in reply to Rick's choice, hard lines and strained creases. He presses a wet towel against Lucas's shoulder and makes a decision to go against it, "We can't stay here."