Alabama Heat

"I'm tired," Carl complained. Michonne, Daryl, Rick ignored Carl's complaints.

"Be quiet," Rick warned, "there's walkers everywhere."

Carl, going through his rebellious stage at the worst possible time, just huffed angrily. He looked at the woods in the distance and looked back on the cracking asphalt road ahead of them. It wasn't safe for them to be walking without cover and it'd be dark soon. The sky was becoming a beautiful shade of reddish orange. It was hard to appreciate the beauty when you know you're going to die soon.

"We can't just keep going this way," Daryl spoke up silently.

"We need to find a car. I'm sure there'll be one by the time it's dark out."

Michonne shook her head hoping Rick did not see.

"You got a problem with this? You can go ahead and leave." Rick pointed towards the ominous woods.

"You know damn well I could make it on my own. The question is, would y'all make it without me." Silence passed between them uneasily.

The horizon was becoming more beautiful and dangerous by the second. It had gone from bright orange to a dark rich red. Even Rick was beginning to get worried. "We need to stay together. As soon as we get that car, we can drive somewhere safe."

Carl muttered under his breath, "ain't nowhere safe" but Rick chose to ignore it. Somewhere out there, Rick was sure there'd be some sort of civilization. Rick thought back to his teen years and how much he wished he had some sort of normalcy for his son. It broke his heart to think this was all his son had to look forward to. The world they'd knew before couldn't have been over just yet.

"Walkers!" Daryl warned them as two shambling walkers came closer to them from the woods. They're still a long way's away but walkers never travel alone. Everyone had their weapons ready.

"Wait!" one of them called, "We're not dead." They put their hands up. Rick and Daryl put their weapons away but Carl and Michonne only lowered them. As they came closer to each other, it was apparent they were in bad condition.

"Don't come close!" Carl warned.

The sickly two kept their hands up in surrender. "We just, we just wanted some food. I'm sorry. I know we're bad but we barely made it out of there when those zombies snuck up on us. Don't worry, we got 'em. We just thought y'all could help us is all."

Carl tightened his lips, "Y'all're beyond help."He raised his gun when Rick put his hand on his arm.

Rick looked back at the two people, "What are your names?"

The woman spoke, "I'm Carrie and this is my friend James. We just wanted some food and...well, we wanted to die. We know we're not gonna live and we can't bear to shoot each other in the head. We're just looking for a quick way to go, real easy." Carrie seemed sincere.

The man, James, put down his knife and Carrie followed his lead and put it down too. "We don't want to end up like them."

"Y'all got a car by chance?" Michonne asked.

"We did, about 2 miles that way but it died on us." Carrie said while pointed in the direction they were going.

"Enough of this," Carl said. He picked his gun up and shot them both swiftly in the head. Their bodies landed with a soft thud. They fell straight backwards with their arms slightly splayed, as if they were holding hands.

Rick paced away and directly back at Carl. "Why would you do that?"

"Why you getting mad at me for? They wanted to die!"

Rick took Carl's shoulders, "You can't just shoot your gun when we're surrounded by woods and walkers. I thought you were better than this."

"I'm just trying to survive."

Michonne stepped between them, "We need to move."