Carl walked through the forest, and his scavenged cloak was soaking wet after yet another heavy rain. On his left walked Andrea, carrying an old pistol and a rifle. On his right walked Michonne, his teacher in swordsmanship, carrying her katana, ready to defend herself. They had been following leads for more than four years, and today was the day it finally paid off, he could feel it. Carl Grimes was no longer a scared, twelve year old little boy who cowered in the face of danger. He was now a sixteen-year-old teenager, with an old saber strapped on each hip, and the temper of a dumped red headed woman from hell. He was on a mission, all the while remembering the day at Herschel's farm when he was separated from his family by an army of walkers.
FLASHBACK
Walkers, and hundreds of them.
Shane had just tried to kill Rick. Shane was dead, and Carl had killed the walker that he had become, and they were walking back to the house. Carl looked at his father.
"What happened?" He asked in his small voice. His father said nothing, the left side of his face covered in Shane's blood. "Were you guys attacked? I mean I- I heard a gunshot, but, I didn't see any walkers nearby."
Rick still offered no response, so Carl pressed on.
"How did Shane die?" He asked. Rick stopped walking and turned to Carl, and looked like he was about to say something, but they heard a lot of growling. Carl saw them first.
"Oh my god." He said in a quiet voice. They both turned and ran to the farm house. They heard Lori yelling for Carl in a desperate voice. They ran up to the porch.
"CARL! WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT HERE?"
"Mom," Carl began in a surprisingly calmly but out of breath. "Walkers, at least a hundred of them." He pointed to the horde that had just reached the fence. Her face went as white as a sheet of paper. Everybody else followed suit and ran inside. The emerged carrying their guns, even Herschel, who walked of the porch and aimed it at the walkers.
"What you gonna take them all on by yourself?" Daryl asked.
"This is my farm." Herschel growled. "And I'll die here." He opened fire on the walkers. Everybody followed suit, and Rick handed Carl some extra magazines of ammo for the pistol he carried.
Carl realized after taking down a walker per every bullet he had that there was no hope. Jimmy and Patricia were already dead. They were swarming around him. He couldn't do anything else. He ran into the forest and didn't look back.
It took him hours to lose them, and at least a week to find his way back to the farm. Everybody was gone, and they were nowhere to be seen. But that week changed him, made him tougher, and quicker. After returning to the farm, Carl set out in search of the rest of the group. He later found Andrea, who had taken refuge with a sword-carrying woman named Michonne. They helped him a lot. They comforted him, helped him look for the others. After he found a pair of sabers in an abandoned house, Michonne taught him how to wield them effectively. He turned out to be a natural swordsman, even better than Michonne, and mastered dual wielding the swords by the time he turned fifteen years old, and soon afterwards found his signature cloak in an abandoned Halloween costume store. Then, the search began.
End Flashback
That was four years ago, and they had been looking for them for every day since. Carl still looked the same, except his hair was about a foot longer, and he was wearing a mask at the moment. That and his voice was deeper. Michonne hadn't changed a bit. Andrea was more hardened than she had been at the start, which had saved their lives on multiple occasions. They stopped to take a rest and regain their bearings for a minute.
Then Carl heard it, and he growled in irritation.
"Stupid walkers." He bellowed.
He heard screaming, horrible petrified screaming. He ran towards the screaming, with Andrea and Michonne hot on his tail and looked through the trees. About a hundred yards away there was a walker on top of a woman, who was screaming bloody murder. Carl's heart jumped into his throat when he saw who it was.
It was Lori. Twenty yards further away there were four men and another woman trying to fighting about twenty walkers. One was Rick, who was yelling to his wife. Another they immediately recognized as Glenn who was standing back to back with Daryl and Herschel. They recognized the woman as Maggie, and boy could she fight.
Carl felt his blood boil. He had been searching for them for two long to find them and not get to speak to them because of twenty-one measly walkers.
"Finally, we've found them. Andrea, take care of the walker that's attacking my mom. I will handle the rest." Carl said, using the leadership qualities he inherited from his father. They nodded.
He and Michonne hurried down the slope toward the campsite. Carl heard a satisfying splatter as a bullet connected with the walkers head. Lori scrambled to her feet as Carl walked past her.
"Help her, I'll handle this." He barked at Michonne, and he hurried to help the others. He stepped into the very center of the camp, and let out a loud whistle. The walkers heard the whistle and hurried toward him.
He unsheathed his swords, marched forward, and started swinging. His blades fell repeatedly with deadly speed and precision, his blades deadly blurs of reflective metal as he started slaughtering the undead menaces.
The massacre lasted about a minute and a half. Once they were all dead, he began to wipe the blood off his weapons of choice, the adrenaline still flowing as he did it. After this was finished, he turned towards them. They looked at him wearily. Rick looked sadder, older, grayer, and exhausted. Lori looked terrified, with worry lines etched into her face. Maggie hadn't really changed much except for the fact that she looked tired. Herschel's once grey hair was now almost completely snow white. Glenn's once black hair was now very grey. Daryl hadn't changed a bit.
Rick's first impression was the he looked like a freaking Sith Lord from Star Wars, without a Lightsaber. Lori thought he was some creepy raider type. Herschel thought he looked like a member of some weird cult. Maggie and Glen thought he looked bad ass, while Daryl was very cautious. Carl smiled underneath his cloak, and returned his swords to its sheath. He removed the sheathed sword from his belt and placed it gently on the ground. He waited until Rick went to see if Lori was okay, then turned and looked right at Daryl, Herschel, Maggie, and Glenn.
"Well, well. Long time no see." He said to them. He raised his head and looked at them, and removed his mask, revealing his face. They obviously recognized him, because their eyes widened.
"Carl?" They all gasped in shock. Carl smirked and held his index finger to his lips.
"Shh. I want to see if I can make my mom faint." Carl whispered. They all smirked and nodded as Rick, Lori and Michonne walked up to them.
"Thank you." Rick replied, "We would have been dead if you hadn't shown up when you did."
They stood there for a minute in silence. The silence was almost deafening.
"You should have just let me die." Lori said. "I ain't got nothin left to live for anymore. I miscarried, and my son is dead."
"Lori, Carl is not dead!" Rick shouted at her, as the rest of the group struggled to control their snickers. "He is probably safe with another group, still trying to find us."
Lori started to interrupt, but Carl started to chuckle.
"You find something funny 'bout this discussion stranger?" Rick growled dangerously. This only made him laugh harder. He had seen too much in the last four years of hell to be afraid of his dad's angry voice.
"I already know this story." He said once he finished laughing. "Your son Carl has been missing for four years, after these things attacked the farm belonging to Herschel Greene and his family. I know for a fact that Mr. Carl Grimes has been searching for you ever since he arrived back at the farm after a week outrunning walkers to find the place deserted."
"Oh yeah?" Lori interjected, definitely not believing the stranger, that was actually her son, "And how the hell would you know this?"
"Because I've been looking for you guys for too long to find you and lie to you."
He dropped his hood and turned towards his parents. They both gasped, and Lori screamed and then fainted. Rick was too shocked to catch her in time, and Carl let out a bark of laughter.
For the first time in four hellish years, father and son stood looking at each other. Rick had tears streaking down his face.
"C-c-c-carl?" Rick whimpered in disbelief. "Is it really you?"
Carl smiled and rushed forward and flung his arms around his father.
"You guys don't stay still long enough." He whispered to him as Rick began to break down. "I have been following you for four years, and you are always gone when I show up."
Rick clung to Carl like he was going to evaporate into thin air at any moment.
"You've grown so much." He stuttered. "We've missed you so much."
"Me too dad, me too." Carl whispered and he broke down as well.
Later after Andrea arrived and Lori regained consciousness, they sat around the fire and discussed what had happened while they had been apart. Carl was nervous about this, because he had a secret. A secret that could change everything they knew about the walkers and the infection they spread.
Carl rose from his chair and started pacing around the fire.
"Carl what's wrong?" Andrea asked, "You look like something is bothering you."
Carl nodded and steeled himself towards what was to come.
"I have something to tell you guys." Carl said, in a quivering voice, which immediately got everybody's attention.
"Carl?" Rick asked. Carl turned to face him. He blinked back the tears that were threatening to spill.
"Don't freak out, okay? Don't interrupt, just listen." Carl pleaded. He came closer to them, and rolled up his sleeve, exposing his arm for the first time in years.
They all gasped when they saw the bite mark that resided there.
"It was after I left Herschel's farm the second time. I was walking through the woods, with a kitchen knife I found in the house. I remember sitting down to rest for a minute. I never even heard the walker coming. It came out of nowhere. I stabbed it in the face, but it was too late already. It bit me. I immediately got scared and ran for it. I came out in a cal de sac. I broke into a house, barricaded myself in an upstairs bedroom, and just curled up on the floor and waited to die. I could feel it coming. I could feel the fever setting in. I fell asleep, fully expecting never to see the light of day again. Imagine my surprise when I wake up the next day with no fever, feeling completely rested and stumbled into the bathroom to see the wound was starting to heal. I put my shirt back on and sat down, and started to think, to plan. I had been hiding there for a week when I heard banging coming from downstairs, so I squeeze through a small gap in the barricade and go to check. The first thing I hear is Andrea screaming my name and giving me a crushing hug. For the next few years, we survived, still searching for you. Over the years I discovered what the bite truly did to me."
"What DID it do to you?" Daryl asked.
"Walkers don't notice me. As long as I do not draw attention to myself, I could walk right in front of a walker and it would not even bat a dead eyelash at me. It also made me stronger and faster. That is why I can swing a sword so fast; it improved my reflexes. I am also immune to the bites now; I have been bitten on more than one occasion. At least a dozen times. They do not affect me at all. It is such a relief not having to worry about turning into one of them. Another thing is that I can go months without eating anything. I never get hungry anymore."
That was the end of my complicated explanation. My mom jumped up and hugged me tightly.
"Thank god you are safe."
"Thank god YOU guys are safe. Now that I've found you, I'm not going anywhere."
At that moment, all was perfect in their little part of the nightmare of apocalyptic reality.