The New World | The Walking Dead x Male Reader, OC

Bloodletting

"Let me take him. Dad, come on. Let me take him." I said as my Dad's arms started getting tired.

Dad nodded and handed Carl to me. I held him in my arms as we ran through a field, my arms and shirt starting to get covered by his blood. The man who shot Carl was hunting for food and my brother got caught in the crossfire. 

"Hey, you move, shithead!" Shane barked at the man who ran with us. He was leading us to his home which unluckily for us, was on a farm.
"How far?! How much fucking further?!" I shouted at the man.
"Another half mile! That way! Talk to Hershel! He'll help your boy!" The man said as he struggled to breathe.

I kept running with Carl in my arms. Dad was right beside me. The both of us exhausted but neither of us planned on stopping until we got Carl some help.

A big white house came into view. I took a second to adjust my hold on Carl before we kept gunning it to the front door.

"It's gonna be alright, baby brother. We're gonna fix you right up, yeah?" I said in between panicked and tired breaths, hoping for a response but getting none.

As we got close, a family walked out of the house with an older man standing at the front.

"Was he bit?" The older man asked.
"Shot." I said, barely being able to speak.
"By your man." Dad said.
"Otis?" The older woman standing beside him asked as they stepped off the patio and walked over to us.
"He said find Hershel. Is that you?" Dad asked. The older man nodded and for a split second I felt relief.
"Help me, help my baby brother. Please." I pleaded as the family walked back inside with Dad and I right behind.
"Patricia, I need my full kit. Maggie, painkillers, coagulates -- grab everything. Clean towels, sheets, alcohol." Hershel demanded as he led us to a small bedroom. I placed Carl on the bed and took a step back, the complete gravity of the situation hitting me like a train.
"Is he alive?" Dad asked.
"Pillowcase, quick! Fold it. Make a pad. Put pressure on the wound." Hershel demanded him and Dad did what he asked.

The rest of Hershel's family placed everything that he had asked for onto the other side of the bed.

"I've got a heartbeat. It's faint." Hershel said as he looked for a heartbeat.
"I got it, step back." Patricia said to Dad as she took his place.
"Maggie, I.V." Hershel said to the younger woman.
"We need some space." Maggie said.
"Your names?" Hershel asked Dad and I.
"Mason." I said, barely getting the word out.
"Rick. I-I'm Rick." Dad said.
"Rick, Mason, we're gonna do everything we can, okay? You need to give us some room." Hershel said.

Dad and I did as he asked and walked out of the room. Neither of us said a thing. The only thing I could think about was the memories I share with Carl, hoping that I'd have the chance to keep making them.

"Move!" We heard from outside. We saw Shane running with Otis as they closed in on the house. Dad walked outside to meet Shane but I stayed inside. I looked from the doorframe at my baby brother laying on the bed with a bullet in his abdomen. Not even a minute later the three of them walked inside and beside me.

"You know his blood type?" Hershel asked.
"A-Positive. Same as mine." Dad said.
"That's fortunate. Don't wander far. I'm gonna need both of you." Hershel said before turning to Otis.
"What happened?" Hershel asked him.
"I was tracking a buck. Bullet went through it. Went clean through..." Otis said.
"The deer slowed the bullet down, which certainly saved his life. But it did not go clean through. It broke up into pieces. If I can get the bullet fragments out, and I'm counting six." Hershel said.

"Mom.. mom doesn't know." I said, realizing that fact. Dad looked at me and his face looked like it was about to burst into tears.
"My wife doesn't know. My wife doesn't know." Dad said and Shane put his arm around him for comfort.

——————————————————————————

Shane, Dad and I were sitting on some chairs right outside the room.

"Why'd I let him come with us? I should have sent him with Lori." Dad said.
"You know, you start that, you'll never get that monkey off your back." Shane said.
"Little girl goes missing, you look for her. Simple." Dad said.
"I should've been faster. My shirt got snagged under that stupid car. If I had been faster then Carl wouldn't have gotten shot, it should be me on that bed. Not him." I said, feeling tears in my eyes but I quickly wipe them away. Dad puts a hand on my back.

"Is this why I got out of that hospital? Found my family for it to end here like this? As some kind of sick joke?" Dad said, starting to get a little frustrated.
"Both of you stop it. Just stop." Shane said.
"A little girl goes missing... You look for her. It's simple as that." I said.

"Rick." Maggie called for Dad. He quickly got up and so did I.
"He needs blood." Maggie said.

We walked back into the room and Carl was awake, crying, screaming, and squirming.

"Mason. Hold him down." Hershel said and I did just that. I put my arms on him gently but with enough pressure to keep him down. I looked at where Carl got shot... Hershel was pulling the bullet fragments out. The more he pulled the more Carl screamed.
"Stop, you're killing him!" Dad shouted.
"Do you want him to live?" Hershel shouted back.
"He needs blood." Patricia said.
"Then what are you waiting for?!" I shouted. Patricia started getting blood from Dad.

"You're gonna be okay, baby brother. I promise. I promise." I said as Carl looked at me with pain in his eyes before passing out.

"Wait. Wait. What's going on? Hey. Hey, hey." I said, fearing the worst.
"He just passed out." Hershel said as he pulled out the first fragment.

"One down. Five to go." Hershel said.

——————————————————————————

It's been about an hour. The only people in the room was Hershel, Patricia, Dad, Carl, Shane and I.

"Pressure's stable." Hershel said.
"Lori needs to be here. She doesn't even know what's going on? I've got to go find her. Bring her back." Dad said.
"You can't do that." Hershel said.
"She's our mom! She needs to know what's going on. My baby brother's lying here with a bullet in him." I said.
"And he's going to need more blood. He can't go more than fifty feet from this bed. " Hershel said to Shane and I.

Dad stood up but almost fell over.

"Hey. Come on." Shane said as he walked over to help me walk.
"I'm all right." Dad said as he started to walk out of the room. We followed behind him.

Otis and Maggie were outside of the room, both of them looking worried sick.

"He's stable." I said as Dad and I sat down. Shane leaned against a wall beside us. They're looked relieved to hear that Carl's stable.

"Lori has to be here, Shane. She has to know." Dad said.
"I know, and I'm gonna handle it. But you need to handle your end. Both of you." Shane said.
"Our end?" Dad said.
"Your end is being here, for your son. And Mason, you for your brother. Even if he didn't need your blood to survive. There's no way I'd let you walk out that door. Man, I'd break your legs if you tried. Both of you. I mean you know that, right? If something happened to him and neither of you were here. If he slipped away, while either of you were gone, you would never forgive yourself for that. And neither would Lori." Shane said.

"I'm gonna step outside for a sec. I need some air." I said and Shane was about to stop me.
"Mason, you-" Shane said.
"I'm not leaving. I'd never leave Carl. Or my dad for that matter." I said as I walked around him and walked onto the patio. I sat on the front steps and looked out at the field. 

Time stopped but sped up at the same time. I looked down at my hands and at my wrist. Carl made me a bracelet in school before the world went to shit. 

"Hey. Mason? You doing okay?" I heard a voice behind me paired with some footsteps. I turned and saw Maggie.
"I don't know. Depends on what happens." I said.
"I'm gonna go look for your mother, Lori. I'll bring her to you. I promise." Maggie said.
"Yeah. Thanks, Maggie." I said and she walked off.