like real people do | c.g [#wattys2019]

F R A G M E N T S

A MAN CALLED OTIS emerged from the bushes. He didn't see Carl and just wanted the deer. But, he was helpful. He was staying at a farm not too far from here and said there was a doctor there. He said that he could help. And that's why Carl's in his dad's arms as we run through a huge field, trying to get to a farm.

"How far? How far?!" Rick asks Otis.

"Half a mile, that way! Hershel! Talk to Hershel, he'll help your boy." Rick keeps running and Otis and Shane stop for a moment, but I keep going. I'm not losing another friend. But, I do silently thank my mom for making me active growing up.

Rick and I run keep running until we can see a house. A white house with a fence and what seems to be not a lot of people.

"Was he bit?" An old man asks at the door.

"Shot, by your man." He answers.

"Otis?" A blonde woman asks. I nod.

"He said to find Hershel, is that you?! Help my boy!" Rick nearly yells. We get inside their house and Hershel starts making orders while leading us to a room.

"Patricia, I'm going to need my full kit. Maggie, pain killers, coagulants, grab 'em all. Clean towels, sheets, alcohol. In here." He flips the comforter off of the bed, telling Rick to lay Carl there.

"Is he alive?" Rick asks. He doesn't get an answer because Hershel tells him to remove the pillowcases off the pillows. I take two off and hand them to Rick, who is instructed to use them to put pressure on the wound. Hershel takes his stethoscope, listening for a heartbeat.

"I've got a heartbeat. It's faint." I let go of a breath I had no idea I had been holding in.

They tell Rick to back away, that they need the space, but he seems to be in this sort of trance so I gently grab him by the arm and lead him a few feet away from the bed.

"Your name?" Hershel asks.

"Rick..." He mumbles.

"Rick, we're going to do everything we can to save your boy, okay?" Hershel reassures him.

Rick ends up going outside to talk to Shane and Otis as they find their way back to the farm, while I stay back in the doorway of the room he's in, biting my lucky necklace.

I've always had it, my mom gave it to me when I was about five. It's just a rose gold chain. No pendants, just a chain. She loved the color so she gave it to me to always remember her, and she got me to wear it by tricking me into believing it was lucky. I've gotten the habit of biting it when I'm nervous. So, I'm trying to pretend it's lucky again, and hoping that the luck helps Carl pull through.

Rick walks into the room with the two men, to check on him. "How's he doing?" Shane asks me, whispering.

"I have no clue. All they're doing is putting pressure on the wound. Nothing's really happened yet." I quietly tell him.