NOVEL WEB S2E40 – Penny the Liver
I open my eyes, finding myself looking up at an old white ceiling. Looking to my left, I see an old wooden walk-in closet, an end table with a lamp on it, and an empty chair. Looking to my right, I find someone with their head layed on the bed beside me. Of course, I’d recognize that blonde hair. Good, Otis found them. I start to sit up, and feel a slight amount of pain coursing through my body from my stomach and back.
Then, I notice what I’m wearing. Or rather what I am not. My top has been removed, leaving just a sports bra covering me. Not that I mind. It’s pretty damn hot in Georgia anyway. On my stomach is a slightly bloodied up bandage, obviously freshly changed. I was probably out for a day or two. It’s strange… I don’t really feel like this wound is hurting as much as it should.
As I press my hand down on the side of the bandage, I feel a small amount of pain. Kind of like pressing down on a bruise. As I ponder about why I’m already recovering, a screen pops up in front of me, showing me exactly why,
[Skill obtained: Regeneration 1]
[Regeneration 1: Injuries that would cause other people weeks of recovery only take a few days for you.]
Huh. Interesting. That feels kinda like cheating, but it did feel like this was the case for a lot of characters in the show. I mean, Carl only spent about a week in bed after he was shot by Otis. Sure, he still had to recover after that, but he was still pretty much fine by the end of the week. Nice to know that being a bullet sponge is actually bringing me some benefits.
Looking outside, I notice that it’s either early morning or dusk. I reach over and run my fingers through Amy’s silky hair, trying to wake her in a gentle way. Obviously, she’s gonna be pissed at me for lying to them. May as well get it over with now. However, this petting doesn’t seem to wake the girl up. I start to poke her face, poking her cheek, then her forehead, then her eyelid. Finally, the eyelid starts to rouse her. I go back running my fingers through her hair and say,
“Amy?”
She groans before slowly sitting up. I notice the entire side of her face that she slept on is red, and strands of hair are stuck in both her mouth and under her eyelids. Her eyes are slightly inflamed, showing that she likely cried herself to sleep. I put a hand on her cheek and smile at her, feeling bad after seeing her eyes.
She looks up at me, obviously still half asleep. After blinking a couple more times, her mind starts to wake up, and she looks me straight in the eyes.
I prepare to be yelled at, only for that to never come. What does come, is tears. Tears start to fall from her eyes as she looks at me. She says a single word, which comes out slightly gravelly and shaky,
“Penny?”
I’m stunned for a second, but nod my head to her. Her expression suddenly shifts as the girl begins to cry uncontrollably, crawling up onto the bed and wrapping her arms around me in a big hug. She buries her face into my shoulder, and pushes me back down into the bed. Her wails fill the room, and likely the room adjacent as I hear slightly hurried footsteps coming from outside.
With a sudden jolt, the door swings open, revealing Shane, Rick, and Hershel. The look on Shane’s face tells me that he was prepared for the worst after hearing Amy’s cries. Rick shows a look of pure relief, and Hershel simply closes his eyes and breathes a sigh of relief. Hershels the first one to speak up,
“I’m glad you’re awake. We’ll give you two a few minutes. There’s something I need to tell you after.”
I nod my head and say,
“Thank you. If you hadn’t been here, I’d have probably died.”
After saying this, I feel Amy’s grip around me tighten slightly. I put my hand on the back of her head and rub it gently, letting her cry herself out. Hershel nods his head and leaves the room with Shane and Rick, closing the door behind them.
Amy looks up at me, her face wet with tears,
“You liar…”
I find myself at a loss for words when I see how hurt she is. I genuinely didn’t think she would react like this. I can only muster up a single word as I look at her,
“Sorry…”
She lets go of me and sits down on the bed beside me. She looks down at me and says,
“When we heard that gunshot over the radio, we didn’t know what to expect. Especially because you just went silent. It honestly didn’t even sound like a gun. More like an explosion. I wanted to yell into the radio asking what just happened, but Shane stopped me. He wanted to make sure you weren’t in any danger before speaking again… But I couldn’t wait…”
A few tears drip from her chin, down onto my hand below as she closes her eyes. She chokes back more sobs and continues on,
“And then hearing that you’d been shot… God it felt… Fuck! That’s what it felt like! It felt like fuck!”
Hearing her stumble over her words makes me chuckle slightly. She looks at me and hits my shoulder playfully,
“Hey! I’m being genuine! That’s seriously what I felt!”
I grab her and pull her down beside me. She lays there for a second as I feel the slight playful aura from before start to disappear. She looks out of the window and says,
“It was heart wrenching. I wanted it to not be real, and for you to come walking down the highway saying it was all some sort of sick joke. But when I saw that old pickup instead…”
I hear her stifle a sob before she continues on,
“Clem was inconsolable. She thought you were dead because all she heard was that you’d been shot. Apparently, her, Carl, and Sophia were all listening in on the conversation from inside the RV. Sophia was shaking the entire way there, blaming herself for what happened to you. Shane looked like he was ready to rip Otis apart when he heard that he was the one that shot you.”
I tense up slightly as I hear this, which doesn’t go unnoticed by Amy. She looks up at me and says,
“But, he didn’t. Andrea talked him down. And then… We saw you…”
She takes a second to pause and then looks up at me,
“You were so fucking pale. We thought you were dead, but Hershel assured us that you were just sleeping. When I saw your bloody clothes…”
She goes silent after this, and we just sit there. I wrap my arm around her as she lays her head on my shoulder. She suddenly looks up into my eyes, and I look into hers. I feel slightly flustered as she continues to look at me, but then there’s a knock at the door.
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