Charlotte woke to a soft knocking on her door and pried her eyes open to see the blazing sunlight streaming through the slats on her windows. She slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes with the palms of her hands and letting out a huff of breath.
"Come in." she muttered, half turning her head toward the door. The door creaked open and a tall man walked in with shining blue eyes. He smiled gently at her, his angular face softening as he strode over to Charlotte's bed and sat down, engulfing her in a warm hug.
"Hey Rick, nice to see you back safe." She winked at a younger boy leaning on the doorjamb. "You too, Carl. Have a successful trip?" Carl smiled at her and nodded.
"Yeah definitely, we lucked out and found a lot of food and medicine. We're planning on going back to pick up some more in a little bit here if you're interested in accompanying us." Rick offered.
Charlotte perked up at the prospect of leaving the walls of Alexandria, even if only for a short while. It was not often that Rick invited her out to scavenge with them, but she always jumped at the chance to explore the outside world as much as she could.
"Of course I am! Let me just get dressed really quickly here and I'll be ready to head out. Meet me out front?" Charlotte asked, hopping out of bed and moving to get dressed. Rick nodded and moved from the bed, ushering Carl out and softly closing the door behind them. Charlotte slipped on a pair of jeans and a flannel and sat down to lace up her brown leather boots. She stomped down the wooden stairs of the home she shared with Rick, Carl, and Michonne, grabbing an apple on her way out the front door. Rick and Carl were waiting on the front porch along with Rosita and Eugene. Rick was giving instructions to Eugene and Rosita, meaning that Charlotte would be alone with Rick and Carl: just the way she liked it. The two were like family to her, and had welcomed her from the moment they first met in the woods just outside of Alexandria. Eugene and Rosita headed out, the former offering a quick but genuine smile, and Charlotte slung an arm around Rick's shoulders, the three of them making their way down the porch steps and toward the front gate.
They walked in silence, Rick slouched to the side slightly so Charlotte's arm rested around his shoulders and Carl on her other side kicking leaves around the forest floor. Birds chirped overhead and the leaves rustled in the gusty wind, and for a moment everything seemed normal, as if the world hadn't gone to complete shit. Then the ghost town came into sight; rundown buildings, broken windows and overgrown plants, and the illusion was broken. Rick led them to a large wooden door on a building whose sign barely read "Wilson's General Store" and pushed with all his strength on it. It slid slowly open and they entered, leaving Charlotte to stare in awe at the bounty of goods that lay before her. She slipped her backpack off one shoulder at a time, letting it fall with a soft thump to the floor. Carl's voice broke her trance.
"How long until he gets here?" his low voice muttered.
"He comes tomorrow." Rick's gruff voice answered, and he rested his hands on his belt, surveying the goods in the store.
"Well then," Charlotte added, grabbing the nearest items to her, "Let's get to work. Might as well just grab everything, who knows what we'll need or what they'll want to take."
The others nodded and they began grabbing anything and everything they could carry, medicine and medical supplies, food, and everything else they had in the store. With their three bags and a few small shopping baskets they found in a back corner, they managed to clear out the store, coming back a little more slowly due to the weight of the supplies they carried, but luckily enough there were no walkers in sight and they made it back to Alexandria with no problems. Once they had dropped the supplies off in storage, the three of them went back to the house and crashed in the living room, with Rick lounging on a chair with his legs dangling over one of the arms, and Carl and Charlotte taking the couch; him leaning against the armrest with a leg thrown onto the cushions and her head resting in his lap.
Charlotte and Carl had been practically inseparable ever since she had joined the group in Alexandria. She was only a few years older than him (22 as opposed to his 18), but they were best friends from the start. He had taught her how to use a gun to defend herself and in return she had taught him how to cook, he taught her games to play and she had been his first kiss. Their friendship was never anything more than that, however. From time to time one of them would get a little lonely and come to the other for comfort, mostly in the form of either cuddling or kissing, but they both knew that was as far as anything would go. Charlotte contentedly sighed; although this was not the perfect life, it wasn't an especially bad one either. She closed her eyes, comforted by the soft stroking of Carl's hand through her hair, and smoothly drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
