A/N: If this story seem like it's been done before, apologies. I am not trying to 'steal' anyone work. It was just a thought that came to me, nagging at me and I HAD to write it out to release the pressure (avid writers know what I am talking about). Anyways, please leave your thoughts. I would love to hear what you all think. Thank you in advance! - Fithola
Found L4yers (2Years Ago)
"Stay here."
"But Dad –"
"Stay. Here."
"Dad."
"Carl! We're going to check out the camp and be back in thirty minutes, please stay here."
The young boy pouted looking down at his feet but nodded.
"Do you remember where we parked the car?"
"Pass the split tree… towards the sun," Carl said pointing to the direction that they came from.
"Good, if you see any walkers, you run towards the car otherwise stay here."
Carl said nothing, still pouting over his father's order.
"Carl?" Rick said forceful, commanding the young boy's attention. Carl looked up into his father's blue eyes.
"Yea?"
His father held out a gun to him, "You remember what Shane and I taught you?"
Carl nodded eagerly, he just started to learn how to use a gun a few weeks ago. His mother would spaz if she found out his father gave him a gun, he can't help but smile.
"This is not a toy! Don't use it unless you have no other options."
"I can come with you, I can help."
"Help by staying here. Thirty minutes, I'll be back. Stay here."
Carl nodded again. Rick removed his watch hand it to Carl before placing a kiss on the boy's forehead. He and Glenn turned towards the direction of the camp and start their way there.
On the hilltop, Carl watched his father and Glenn descend towards the camp, the place is destroyed. Heaps of fire burn throughout the camp with the dead stumbling around.
Carl doubt that his father and Glenn would find any survivors but they wanted to take a closer look at the camp. They wanted to see if there were any supplies that could be salvage.
Impatiently waiting Carl glanced at his father's watch, ten minutes had passed. Carl paced back and forth impatient and annoyed, grumbling to himself that his father still treating him like a child.
"I'm not a baby! I'm not a little kid! I can help," The pre-teen shouted to himself waving the heavy gun in his hand.
Another ten minutes passed with no sign of his father or Glenn.
"Ten more minutes… then I'll go and find them," he said to himself, nodding at his decision.
Another five minutes pass before Carl decide to go towards the camp when something in the distance caught his eyes. A walker ambled deeper into the woods instead of towards the heat and noise coming from the camp ground.
"Weird."
Curious, Carl followed the dead. Keeping his distance and as quiet as possible, he followed the walker for five minutes treading deeper into the woods. He's surprised when he see the walker join two others surrounding and pawing at a tree. Carl watched the dead who seemed agitated trying to get something in the tree.
"Probably a squirrel or a bird," he mumbled to himself. He shook his head, deciding to return to the spot where his father left him before his father return.
Carl start away from the tree when he heard a whimper, he froze and turn toward the tree waiting to hear the sound again. Only the groans of the dead can be heard, as he start to turn away, he catch the sight of a small shoe falling from the tree. The walkers reached up the tree pawing wildly and growling louder. Another whimper, this one louder can be heard, a whimper that doesn't sound like it's from the dead.
Groaning louder and becoming more frantic the walkers try to reach whatever is hidden in the branches, rustling from the tree causes leaves to fall and the walkers to become desperate. Curiosity pulled him forward, he chance it and walk closer to the tree. He stared up and startled backward as blue eyes filled with fear and tears stare back at him.
Carl stagger backwards and almost tripping over as he do he curses, "Shit."
A walker turned in his direction, it start to amble towards him. Without thought Carl raise the heavy gun and start to fire; the kickback from the gun caused him to stumble back, he tripped and land on his back stunned for a brief moment. Several bullets hit the dead in the chest but it doesn't go down.
Carl remember the lesson his father and Shane gave him, the head.
Carl adjust his aim and fire at the head. The walker fall immediately to the ground, at the first sound of gun fire the other two walker turn their attention to the noise. He scrambled to his feet as the second walker nears him.
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Rick heard the gun shot. He glanced at Glenn, then toward the burning camp they emerged from.
"Carl."
Rick break out in a sprint toward the direction where he left Carl. When he arrive at the stump where his son should be, it is empty. More gun shots ring out in the distance. Rick turn and race towards the sound with Glenn a step behind him.
Rick arrived to find several walkers dead with Carl standing amongst them covered in blood.
"Carl!"
Carl look up to his father, he raise his hands knowing his father's angry at him.
"Dad… don't be mad."
"I told you to stay put."
"Dad… I had to help."
"We were fine!'
"No… Not you."
"Who, Carl?"
Carl stepped aside, behind him stood a caramel skin boy with a thick stock of curly black hair covered in blood and dirt. The boy looked to be about three… maybe four years old and held his injured arm close to him. The young boy shyly looked up at him; Rick stumble forward as he's startled to look into the boy's familiar cerulean blue eyes.
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Before the car pulled to a stop, she leapt out the moving vehicle sprinting towards the burning camp.
"Michonne!"
She heard her name being called out but it doesn't pierce the sound of her heartbeat in her ears. She unsheathe her sword as she dive into the destruction of her camp.
"ANDRE! MIKE… ANDRE! TERRY… ANDRE!" She yelled, searching the camp. She give a final death to any walker that crossed her path. When she reach her tent she rushed in and immediately freeze.
Her heart stop. Mike hold a trembling Terry in his arms. He look up at her and a sob escape his lips.
"Michonne," he croaked out.
She glance around the disarray tent, hoping to find the only person in that moment that truly mattered.
"Where is my son?" She asked with a calm that doesn't reflect the inner turmoil boiling instead of her.
Mike sobbed louder. She noticed the bite gash in his arm. She noticed remnants of the weed on the makeshift table. Her anger start to churn into rage. Finally she noticed one of Andre's shoes at the entrance of the door.
"WHERE IS MY SON!" She screamed. Her rage overpowering at her fake calm.
"Chonny… baby… I…"
She doesn't allow him to finish. She tear out her tent, leaving a sobbing Mike and a dying Terry. Her only thoughts are on her son. She rushed out and began her search of the camp.
Maybe…maybe he's safe. Maybe he got away. She hope.
The others three, who she went on a run with, help her search. Michonne searched the entire camp, screaming out Andre's name, fighting back tears and killing any walkers that dare cross her path. Near the back of the camp, her eyes catch the light of a familiar color, there's a hole in the fence with several gather walkers feasting on a body.
She slowly approached the walkers, the cracks in her heart slowly feathering out with each step. A dead noticed her approach, it ambled to its feet starting in her direction. A pale ashen honey colored arm in its grasp. As it stood, the arm fell to the ground. Another walker has Andre's red hoodie hanging with pieces of flesh from its mouth, it turned in her direction and start toward her as well. The third walker uncover the small body torn in shreds with entrails pouring from the belly, the walker also stumbled to its feet.
A blood curdling scream tear out of her throat. A swing of her blade took the first walker down, another swing took the other two with one blow.
Michonne dropped to her knees and pull the remnants of Andre's hoodie holding it close to her heart. Her tears violently shook her as she trembled with guilt for leaving him and grief of her lost. The cracks in her heart feathered and start to shatter apart, crumbling into dust and being blown away with the cool breeze of the Atlanta's air. A dark rage swell within her and bath everything in a red cast. When she stand, she see the world as it now has become, death, doom, destruction, and hate all shaded with a sinister red hue.