I spend the next two days sleeping, Daryl moved back outside after his one night in the house, I found out that Carl had been shot, but he'd been recovering too and so he went back out with the rest of the group to the tents. Hershel had insisted that I could stay in the house but I didn't really know him or his family and so I wanted to move back to the others.
The only main issue with that was I didn't have a tent of my own and everyone other than Daryl and Shane were paired up. I did not want to share with Shane but Daryl didn't seem like the type who'd be fine with me invading his personal space like that.
"Selene!" Carl has a huge grin on his face as he runs over to me and wraps his arms around me, "I told them all you'd be okay." I grin at him and ruffle his hair, "I knew I had to come back so I could kick your ass in more races." He laughs and shakes his head. "I'll beat you one day."
"Hey Carl be careful both you and Selene are healing." Rick calls out after seeing the two of us, "I'm being careful dad." He says before taking my hand and pulling me along with him. "How're you feeling?" I ask the young boy, "fine, I'm tough." I nod along, "the toughest little boy I've ever met."
"Me and mom were looking at the chickens wanna come?" I make a face making him turn to me confused, "I'm scared of chickens." Of course Daryl was walking by at that exact moment in time. "Chickens too?" He questions with a smirk. "It's not funny Daryl, I had a bad experience with a chicken once. I never recovered." He laughs making me push him, "my stitches." He complains making my eyes widen at the look of pain on his face. "Oh I'm so sorry."
"Nah I'm fine." He laughs before getting back in his tent, "when he heals up he better watch out." I tell Carl who laughs. "I'm gonna go ask Shane to teach me to shoot a gun, you should go to gun practice too." He says before dropping my hand and going off in search for Shane.
I don't feel like learning to shoot today and so I turn around and head back towards the house feeling a little out of it for some reason. "There you are, my dad says you shouldn't be out of bed yet." Maggie says as she's leaving the front door that I'm approaching. "Are you alright?" She asks me after looking at me.
"You're burning up." She notes removing her hand from my head, "I'm fine." I manage to mumble feeling a dizziness hit me all of a sudden. My head was pounding like there were little people inside trying to crack my skull open. Quickly hooking her arm around me she tries to help lead me inside but with one step my knees buckle and we awkwardly drop to the ground.
Rick appears out of nowhere and helps Maggie as he lifts me up, he cradles me in his arms with ease as he carries me through the house and back to my room. I don't have any energy in me to do anything but lean against him and close my eyes.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
When I wake back up, Shane Rick and Hershel were by the foot of my bed talking. "I knew she couldn't have survived out there for that long, she must've been bitten." Of course it's Shane. "I wasn't bitten asshole." I grumble sitting up, alerting them of my presence. "Hey take it easy." Rick is by my side at an instant helping me sit comfortably and handing me water. "She didn't get bitten." Hershel confirms making Shane ask what was wrong with me then.
"It's just an infection," Hershel says making me sigh, I did not want to just sit around in this bed for any longer. "An infection?" Shane asks, "yes, she'll be fine in a couple days with the antibiotics." Hershel says simply.
"Is it dangerous?" He shakes his head, "because Selene has been in a controlled environment, with hardly any other human interaction, for such a long time her immune system has weakened."
"Great."
"I know you don't like it dear but you need the rest, for another two days at least after that you can roam around as you please." I nod at Hershel who tells me to feel better before leaving and taking Shane with him.
"Are you ok? Are you in pain?" Rick asks me after it's just us in the room and he sees that I've started crying silently. "I'm fine." I tell him as I wipe my eyes. "You don't have to say anything but we're here for you Selene, if you need anything or even just a pair of ears to listen."
I nod as I wipe at the never ending supply of tears, "it's just that I'm free now but I don't feel any more free. I thought that once I escaped him everything would be ok but it feels like he's still ruining my life, that I'll never truly escape him." Rick puts his hand on mine making me look up at him. "You have escaped him," he starts, "but Selene you were with him for such a long time and the effects of that won't just go away, not right away. I promise you that you are free, you freed yourself and we're gonna do everything to give you, your best shot at this life. You may never get over this, not truly but you will survive it and in time he will become just a distant memory, with no hold on you."
I wrap my arms around Rick and he holds me back securely, allowing me to cry into his shoulder as he rubs my back. "He most definitely cannot hurt you anymore Selene." He tells me, "thank you."
