Hello everyone! Guess what?! There are only 3 chapters left in season 3 after this one! I can't believe it's already almost done, it's crazy.

Once again, I'm sorry it took so long for me to update this. School has been crazy, plus I have finals coming up so I have to study as well as a bunch of band stuff that had been going on and will continue to go on for a little while longer. Just bear with me for a couple weeks and I should be able to update my stories not regularly because I'll be on summer break (finally) and should have a lot more time to write, at least I hope so.

Anyway, I hope you're all ready for shit to hit the fan because it's coming.

Now an update for votes for the character contest!

BentleyMahaxay 31/32
-neony 20/32
Tonyparra95QSquad 1/32
AdriannaMarie1100 3/32

As always, if you want to know what chapters you haven't voted for just pm me or comment right here.

Now on with the chapter!

Carl's POV

"Ethan?! You're awake!" I said happily.

I dropped the pump on the ground and pressed my lips against his for the first time in weeks. I felt him smile as he kissed me back.

He's really awake! Oh my god, I missed him so much!

After a few seconds I moved my lips from his and leaned my forehead on his.

"H-hey." He said weakly, his voice cracking from underuse.

Before I said anything I shook Abel awake.

"Why are you wak-" he started to say before he saw that Ethan was awake. "Ethan!" He joyfully shouted.

"Hey, buddy." Ethan responded as he ruffled the boy's hair.

"Abel, go get Jen and wake your brother up." I said.

The boy nodded instantly and jumped out of his chair and made his way to the door, practically running across the short distance.

"Do you know what happened?" I asked as I squeezed my boyfriend's hand.

"Um... the last thing I remember is getting ambushed out by Cleburne... I was leading a group of scouts." He said as he squeezed my hand back. "My group... are they ok?"

I looked down at the floor and shook my head.

"You were the only survivor, and you barely made it. We had to rush you back here for Talia to perform surgery." I answered.

"O-oh." He said sadly. "How many times was I shot?" He asked quietly.

"Five." I answered. "You took one in the shoulder, two in the stomach, one in the chest, and one in the thigh. The one that hit your chest hit one of your ribs and broke it."

"So that's why everything hurts." He muttered quietly as he glanced down at his bare upper body and looked at the bandages.

"Yeah." I said. "You've been in a coma for a little over three weeks."

"Three weeks?!" He said as his eyes widened.

"Three weeks, two days, nineteen hours and..." I said as I looked down at my watch. "Twenty-two minutes, give or take." I finished.

After I said that I leaned my forehead back on his.

"I didn't know if you'd ever wake up... I missed you so much." I said.

"Hey, you can't get rid of me that easily." He responded.

"Oh shut up." I said as I playfully hit his uninjured shoulder.

"Can you help me sit up?" He asked.

I nodded and helped him get into a sitting position. After I had helped him sit up the door opened and Jen, Cain, and Abel entered. Jordyn followed closely behind to check on Ethan since he had just woken up.

"I told you not to give up on him." Jen whispered into my ear as she sat down next to me.

Cain and Abel sat down on the bed and Jordyn sat in the other chair and started checking on everything she needed to check on.

Talia's POV

"Kill them all, it's our people getting shot at." Reagan's voice came through the walkie.

I nodded and we all moved up behind the building with the shooters in it. We busted in through the back door and as soon as we were inside we started shooting. Several of the shooters fell instantly, others hid behind furniture or around walls.

"Shit!" One of them shouted as he jumped behind a couch. "How'd they fucking get behind us?!"

"I don't know!" Another shouted as he got behind the same couch, a thick Russian accent making it hard to understand what he said.

Soon the two men behind the couch ran for a side door, I shot one in the leg but he kept moving, slamming the door behind them. I opened the door and stepped outside just in time to see them driving away in a beat-up SUV.

"Damn." I said as I lowered my weapon and walked back inside. Akio was holding one of the people at gunpoint, the woman was against the wall and staring at the gun that was aimed at her chest.

"Who are you?" I asked as I joined Akio and his prisoner.

"My name doesn't matter. What matters is that you people attacked us, and my group isn't gonna like hearing that when Matt and Vladimir get back home." She said as she laughed a cold, humorless laugh. "You assholes are screwed."

I glared at her and she glared right back, completely unfazed by what all was happening.

"We attacked you because you were attacking our people, and have been for a month." Akio said as he stepped closer to the woman, his gun almost touching her forehead now. "Can I shoot her?"

"May as well just finish the job, you're all gonna die anyway." The woman said as she stepped forward just enough to have the gun against her forehead. "Go ahead. Shoot me. Kill me."

Akio glanced at me and I nodded, tired of the woman's attitude.

We wouldn't have been able to get anything more from her anyway.

Akio pulled the trigger, the woman's head snapped back and part of it flew back and hit the wall. Her body collapsed to the ground and blood began to pool around her corpse.

"Come on, let's go check on the others." I said as I holstered my gun and walked to the door we had entered through and headed to the house where our people were gathered.

I entered and saw three bodies that were covered in blankets, blood soaking through at their temples, where I assumed they had been stabbed to keep from reanimating. Reagan was engulfed in a hug with her boyfriend. Landon and Ezekiel were crouched by an injured Damian, who was holding his side, blood covering his hands. Cindy stood in one of the windows with her rifle scanning the streets and buildings in her view.

"Talia, we need help over here." Landon said after turning to see me looking around at everyone.

I walked over and joined Landon, Ezekiel, and Damian.

"Hey... T-Talia." Damian said as he squeezed his eyes shut and leaned his head back against the wall.

I moved his hands away from his side and saw that his shirt was covered in blood, stained around a bullet hole.

"Is the bullet still inside?" I asked instantly as I moved his shirt away from the wound.

"Yeah, it's still in there, and it's not a whole bullet anymore." Ezekiel answered.

"I w-was shot through t-the wall... it's broken into a c-couple pieces at least, I-I can feel t-them." Damian continued.

I looked at the wound and pulled some rubbing alcohol out of my bag. I opened the bottle and removed a sterile cloth from my bag as well, tearing the package open and pouring some alcohol on it.

"This is gonna hurt like hell." I said as I got ready to clean the wound so I could get a better look at it. "Try not to move."

I cleaned the blood off his side, and cleaned around the bullet hole so that nothing could get in and cause an infection.

"I can't operate on him here, we need to get back to the farm." I said as I pulled another sterile cloth and some medical tape out of my bag to create a makeshift bandage for his side.

"How are we gonna get him to the truck?" Landon asked. "It's at least a forty-five-minute walk back and he sure as hell can't walk."

"We need to make a stretcher and carry him back." I answered.

At that moment Cindy turned around and walked over to us.

"We won't need to make one." She said as she joined us, hanging her rifle over her shoulders as she did. "There's a crashed ambulance down the street a way. I'll go get the stretcher from that."

I nodded and the woman walked out, drawing two pistols as she did so. A few minutes later she came back in pulling the wheeled stretcher behind her. Ezekiel and Landon picked up the injured man and set him on the stretcher.

"This won't be easy to get through the forest, could we not just go get the truck and bring it here to pick everyone up?" Reagan asked as she and Alejandro walked over.

"Unfortunately, no. We don't have much gas left." I answered.

The girl sighed and nodded in acknowledgment before leading the way out the door, we all followed her, Ezekiel pushing the stretcher while the rest of us scanned the streets and buildings around us as we walked to make sure nobody could surprise us. We reached the forest and Ezekiel and Landon folded the legs of the stretcher down and carried it as we continued, soon reaching the truck. We all got in and I drove back to the farm.

"We cut it way to close." I said. "We can't be staying out that long, it's almost completely dark."

"Yeah, we can't let that happen again." Akio agreed as I parked the truck near my house so I could begin operating on Damian.

We all exited the vehicle and rolled Damian into my house. As soon as we moved him from the stretcher to the bed I started getting things together so I could remove the bullet fragments from his side.

"Damian, we need to do surgery now, otherwise you won't make it." I said as I set all my equipment on the nightstand.

"Do what you've gotta do." He responded.

I was about to start the surgery when Jaylen ran in the door.

"Ethan woke up!" He said instantly before noticing what was going on. "What happened to him?"

"He got shot." I answered. "How is Ethan?"

"Oh." He responded to the first thing I had said. "He's awake, Jordyn's checking on him now and Carl, Cain, Abel, and Jen are in there with him."

"Ok that's good, I'll go check on him after I'm done here." I said.

He nodded and started to walk out.

"Do you want to stay?" I asked.

He turned back to me and glanced at his father.

"No, I'm fine." He answered before turning and leaving.

I sighed in defeat before continuing the procedure.

They still haven't talked to each other since Jaylen found out what happened with Damian and Frank's group.

"Give it up, Talia." Damian said quietly. "My relationship with my son is over, he's still pissed off, and he's gonna stay that way."

I shook my head and sighed again as I kept working. As I began removing the fragments piece by piece the door opened and Jordyn walked in.

"Ethan is looking way better than he has been. He's awake and seems fine." She said as she sat down beside me. "Need any help here?"

"No, I got it." I said as I removed another fragment. "You should get some sleep, you look exhausted."

She nodded and walked over to the couch and laid down, falling asleep almost instantly. I kept removing bullet fragments until I had finally removed them all, there were seven in total.

"Damian, you're lucky. None of the fragments hit any organs or arteries." I said as I grabbed a needle and thread to stitch the wound.

He didn't respond and I realized he had either fallen asleep or passed out from pain during the procedure. I began to stitch the wound closed and soon finished. Once I was done I dipped my hands in a bucket of water and cleaned them off.

"Time to go check up on Ethan." I said to myself as I finished cleaning my hands.

I picked the bucket up and walked out the door, dumping the bloody water out and setting the now empty bucket by my door before heading to the farmhouse.

Carl's POV

"Ok, so when do I get this stupid tube out of my stomach?" Ethan asked as he looked down at his stomach.

"Talia will take it out when she gets here, she'll need to stitch you up but after that you'll be good as new." Jen said as she stood up. "Now, I'm really tired so I'm gonna go to bed. I'll see all of you in the morning."

"Night, Mom." Ethan said as she walked to the door.

"Night, Jen." I said.

"Goodnight." She responded as she left the room, closing the door behind her.

"You comin' up?" Ethan asked as he looked at me and scooted over some.

I got up on the bed next to him and he leaned his head over on my shoulder. I threw my hat on the nightstand and leaned my head over on top of his. Cain and Abel slid off the bed and laid down on the mattress on the floor so that Ethan and I could share the bed.

"I missed being able to do this more than anything." I whispered.

"Once I'm able to get out of this damn bed, I promise I'll make it us to you." He whispered in response.

"Just get better, and that's enough for me." I said as I wrapped my arms around him.

"Are you sure that's enough?" He asked as he moved away slightly and smirked at me.

"Ok... Maybe it's not quite enough, but it's enough for now." I said before giving him a quick kiss and laying down.

He soon followed my example and laid down, grasping my hand as he did. We laid there like that for a few minutes before there was a knock on the door.

"Who is it" I asked quietly so I wouldn't wake the boys up.

"It's me, I'm here to check on Ethan." Talia's voice answered.

"Come in." I responded. "But be quiet because Cain and Abel are asleep."

The door opened quietly and Talia walked in. She had a first aid kit with her which she set down on the nightstand.

"How're you feeling Ethan?" She asked.

"Like I was shot five times." He answered sarcastically. "But I'm happy that I'm awake."

She rolled her eyes at his first statement but smiled at his second.

"We're all happy that you're awake as well." she said as she opened the first aid kit up. "You ready to have that tube removed, or do you want to wait till morning?"

"Please get it out, I want to be able to cuddle with my boyfriend and having a tube sticking out of my stomach makes that extremely difficult." He answered instantly.

Talia chuckled as she pulled a needle and thread out of her first aid kit and set them down before pulling a small bottle of alcohol and several other medical tools I couldn't name out of the kit as well. After she has removed all of the items from the first aid kit she began operating on him. He squeezed my hand tighter and held his eyes shut, but other than that didn't show any sign that he was in pain. After a little bit, the tube was removed and Talia was stitching where it had been shut.

"You didn't say it would hurt this bad." Ethan grunted as she continued to stitch.

"Sorry." She responded. "It won't be much longer, I promise."

My boyfriend clenched his jaw and squeezed my hand even tighter. Soon Talia was finished and she was putting all the items back in the first aid kit after cleaning and sterilizing them.

"Here, take these." She said as she gave him two pills. "They're painkillers, we don't have a lot but you definitely need some." She continued as she gave him a small bottle of water.

Ethan took the pills and finished drinking the water, then he laid back down and scooted as close to me as he could. I wrapped my arms around him, careful not to touch any of the bandages as I did so.

"Goodnight you two." Talia said as she walked to the door. "I know that you will want to be all over each other now that Ethan is awake and all, but be careful, you don't want to open any of those wounds again."

After that she left the room, leaving Ethan and I cuddled together on the bed. As impossible as it seemed, Ethan got even closer to me and laid his head down on my chest.

"Have I said how much I missed you?" I asked as I looked down at him.

"Just a couple times." He answered as he chuckled.

I leaned down and kissed his forehead before laying my head back and closing my eyes.

"I love you, Carl." Ethan mumbled sleepily.

"I love you to." I responded, equally as sleepily.

Hey guys, so that's that. The chapter is over. There are only three chapters left of this season and I think that's crazy to be completely honest. Hopefully I'm able to finish this season off and start the next one within the next couple weeks because I'm quite excited for my future plans for the story.

Anyway, some important stuff happened this chapter so let's get to the questions!

Question Time!

1. Angela's group and The Farm Survivors have been in conflict for a month, what do you think will happen as they continue to fight?

2. Are you upset that Damian has yet again managed to survive?

3. Do you think Jaylen and Damian will ever make up?

4. Who do you think is the most valuable member of the group? Why? (I know this isn't really related to the chapter, but I'm curious to get your thoughts)

Ok, that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

THANKS FOR READING!