Carl dragged his feet; tired from the heavy weight of Rick on his left shoulder.
"I need some help," he grunted. Hoping the jab to his father's rib would get him
to move his feet again.
"Carl. I'm sorry...I'm getting weaker," Rick croaked "Can we sit and rest for a
bit?"
Carl glanced around at the woods on both sides of the train track they were
stumbling on.
"Not safe enough. Once we sit, a minute will turn into five and the more time we
waste the faster the walkers appear."
Rick only made a weak grunt in response. He was in terrible shape from the fight
back at the prison. The Governor got a few good blows in targeted at his head;
which caused Carl to wince every time he glanced over at his father. His blood
was on the plaid of his shirt; staining it. That's okay, it's just his only
shirt for the next few days. Unknowing when they would come across a building
for shelter. The walk here was tiresome and to say Carl was exhausted was an
understatement. He promised himself they wouldn't stop walking until it seemed
safe; so far, no such luck.
Carl was now considering just climbing a tree for the night to camp out so the
walkers couldn't get to them, but Rick would probably fall out of the tree with
his luck. He was becoming hopeless until a few snapping branches startled him.
Carl pulled out his gun, still supporting his father, as he pointed it towards
the left side of the woods.
"You'll only attract more..." Rick murmured; keeping an eye on his son's gun
right in front of his face. Carl brushed off his dad's comment, staying silent
as he waited for further movement from the woods.
"Shit. Alive. I'm alive. Don't shoot." A manly voice, that sounded nothing like
groans of the dead, stated as he appeared out of the shadows. Carl kept his gun
pointed at the man and the stranger raised his hands in defense.
"Lower your weapon, Carl." Rick looked over at his Sheriff hat clad boy.
"Well this is such a warm welcoming..." The stranger hushed sarcastically "Look
I don't want to hurt you, I was just out checking our fence. I- we. My group, we
are staying in a Walmart just a few miles deep in these trees here. I can bring
you there if you spare my life. It looks like your old man needs some tending.
We have that kind of care. Please."
"Yes, thank you." Rick tried walking towards the man and fell into Carl;
tiredly.
"Let me help," the man hurried to Rick's right side; supporting him. "My name is
Doug."
"I'm Rick. This is my boy Carl."
"Carl, aye? That's your name?"
"Yeah," Carl mutters.
"Well then Carl, you mind lowering your weapon now?" Doug smiles softly at Carl.
Who in return rolls his eyes and shoves the gun away in its holder, "you can
never be too careful."
"Keep moving and trust nobody is Carl's motto," Rick added
Doug hummed and shrugged, "Nothing wrong with being cautious. There's all these
different types of people with different morals, crammed in that Walmart
together. It was hard in the beginning when the group was still being formed but
now we trust each other like family. Welcoming anyone in that may need help"
"We have a group like that. Only we got split up recently, we've been wandering
since."
"Did they do this to you?"
"Of course not, for the longest time we had a feud with a rival group and they
cracked. Attacking us all."
Doug processed this and opened the gate to the electric fence. Helping Carl
bring Rick through the slim opening. Carl could get a view of a large grey
building not that far in the distance. Doug kicked a tree as the passed it and
he let out an audible sigh,
"Shit is what this world has come to."