Playing For Brains

A lot of questions followed that fateful night. Those surrounding whether Pete deserved to die, and the more important ones, weather we were safe to keep around within the community. They weren't the only ones that I faced though. It wasn't long until the group asked why Pete had called me a monster, leading me to explain what had happened the night of the meeting when I went to drop off his casserole. The group weren't very happy, but they realised that it wasn't entirely my fault, but since then I have always worn something under baggy tops so that in such incidents the wound would still be covered. However, the questions soon died down when a new issue arose.

On a run to take Pete's body outside the walls to be buried, Rick and Morgan discovered an abandoned quarry full of walkers. Aaron had explained how in the beginning there was an abandoned camp that must have gotten overrun in the middle, with a few walkers down there, but the sounds they were making must have attracted more and more. The large mass of the dead was held in the quarry by 4 lorries, two at the bottom and two at the top.

Everyone's focus was now on the issue at the quarry, due to the thousands of walkers that were trapped there. If the lorry at the top was to slide of the hill, which it was very close to, it would allow the herd to leave the confinement of the quarry and stumble onto the closest road. That road being the one which ran directly towards Alexandria. The walls of the community were strong, and with the additional help of some of the residents to reinforce the wall, it was being made stronger, but such a herd could easily take the fences down if they pushed at one section. Even if the walls did stay up, the sheer amount of the dead surrounding us would cut us off from the outside and limit our supplies. Supplies we really didn't have.

Rick persuaded Dianna that something needed to be done, to avoid putting Alexandria in danger. He suggested a team to go out there and lead the herd a good distance away from Alexandria so that they wouldn't be a threat anymore. The plan was made for two teams. Daryl, Abraham and Sasha were to use vehicles at the front of the herd to create an object for them to follow, while the others out there would rid the route of all the possible distractions which could lead any or all of the dead away from the vehicles. Once the herd was around 10 miles way from Alexandria, the vehicle group were to circle back around the herd and come back to Alexandria. It seemed like a fool proof plan as Rick described it to the group, but the preparations were immense. One of the roads in which the plan used, lead straight towards the community and so we had to create a sort of barrier to try and redirect the herd to follow the vehicles and not continue straight as they were likely to do. It took us around two weeks to create the wall, out of old vehicles and as many campervans as we could scavenge. But it was finally the day we did a physical run through of the plan.

I watched as everyone left through the gates, ready for their practice run. I wished that I was able to go out there and help with all the preparation, as it was driving me crazy having nothing to do in this place. I didn't like it when my mind wasn't busy, it seemed to wander and think about darker times. Times that I didn't want to remember very much.

"How are you feeling today?" Beth appeared at the door, making me jump a little.

"Still feel a little bit exhausted, if I am to be honest. I wish I knew what was up with me" I sigh, reaching for the glass of coffee that Beth had brought up for me.

"It feels like when I was surviving out in the woods before Terminus, living of very little food and water. But I shouldn't be hungry or dehydrated, so I am kinda stuck on what it could be, and its not like I can just go over to Denise and ask her for help else she will find out that I don't have a pulse" it was really beginning to frustrate me these past two days. I constantly felt exhausted and nothing I tried seemed to help. Beth took a seat next to be on my bed, resting a hand on my leg out of sympathy. She had been really supportive since the whole Pete situation, helping me overcome the guilt that it was my fault that Reg died.

"I think you just need to relax a bit, and when they have sorted the walkers at the quarry out maybe someone can go on a run for you to get some multivitamins or something. It's probably just that" she gave me a reassuring smile. But the smile seemed to falter when the sound of a horn began to blast out from somewhere outside. We both looked at each other in confusion, the noise would attract walkers, why would someone use it and for such a long time.

We descended the stairs to find the front door open, which was weird, I had closed it earlier and the look on Beth's face indicated that she had too. A crash from behind us made me spin around to the source, finding a rugged looking man, caked in mud and blood stood in the kitchen to our left with a machete in his hand. Pushing Beth behind me I grabbed the knife I always had safely secured in my belt loop.

The intruder rushed at me and Beth machete raised ready to kill. He swung it down just missing me as I dodged out of the way. Raising his machete again, I saw an opening and took it stabbing him in the chest, right under his heart. His machete fell at my feet and he doubled over in pain. Raising my knife again, I ended the man's life causing him to fall to the floor with a thud, his warm blood dripping down my hand from the tip of the knife.

The sound of the door shutting, and locking brought me out of my trance and back to the situation in the present. I turn to face Beth as she returned from the door, her eyes falling to my upper leg. As I looked down, I see the mass of blood that was dripping down my trouser leg. There was too much of it to be the guy I just killed. Pulling the material back where there was a visible tear, I saw the source of the bleeding. There was a gash across my leg, it looked quite deep and the blood just kept coming.

"Are you okay? That's ... That's you femoral artery!" Beth's face filled with horror, as she inspected my leg.

"Sit down, I need to stop the bleeding and sew it up as quick as I can" she ran off into the bathroom, grabbing the medical kit that she kept there. I sat down on the sofa, pulling my trousers off so that she could clean and tend to the wound better.

"Just tell me if it hurts and you feel like you are going to pass out okay, I need to stop the bleeding before you've lost any blood" she said pulling all the wiped and needles out of the bad. I placed a hand on her shaking ones. "Beth. It doesn't even hurt, I didn't even know it had happened until I saw your face. I think I will be fine, just calm down okay"

She turned to look at me, seeing if I was being serious and then steadied her breathing. The fear in her eyes began to reduce. I guess neither of us were fully aware of what this cure would do to me. I know it stopped me from becoming a mindless monster but I wouldn't say that it was the sort of cure I would want to spread around and immunise everyone with. Sometimes dying was a better solution, especially compared to this. Another thought was crossing my mind more right now. What would people think if they found out no only that I had pulse, but that I couldn't feel the pain from something like this. I was basically a walker other than attacking people and eating their flesh. That is the only thing that was stopping me from being one of them. Our taste in food. But then why was the blood running down my hand earlier so mesmerising for me? I didn't like the direction any of this was going in. This was the scariest stage of my life I had ever experienced. Even including the incident back in Washington, but that wasn't something I wanted to dwell on for too long.