A deep, throbbing pain echoed through his mind and hammered against the back of his sore eyelids. Carl winced and jerked his head back. Pained radiated through his skull and he whined. He didn't care that he sounded pathetic.
A cold sensation ran down his race, he felt something wet trickle down his forehead. The weird sensation trickled from his face, and spread onto his lap, almost as if it were soaking into his jeans. It made him feel wet and uncomfortable.
His eyes felt heavy and tired as if they were magnets clinging to his face. He dragged then open slowly, immediately liquid rushed into his eyes and caused a light sting. His hands darted up to his face and wiped the liquid out of his sore eyes.
"Finally," Someone moaned. "Thought you were a goner".
Carl looked up and registered his surroundings. The first thing he saw was a young-ish man crouching down in front of him. The man had short, brown hair and a light stubble. The man was smirking at Carl, almost too friendly for comfort. Warning bells rang immediately.
The second thing that he noticed was that he was in some sort of wooden room, it almost looked like a wooden train cart. It was grotty and stank of urine. Carl scrunched his face up in disgust. A light was coming through small holes of the train chart, adding some brightness to the miserable cabin.
He noticed the pain. It was low and throbbing through his skull. It felt like someone was continuously hammering at the back of his head, but there was a small prick of burning at the heart of the wound.
The heaviness of a chain on his ankle weighed deep. Carl tried to move his foot but the chain was on so tightly that he couldn't even flinch. It pinched at his skin and ached.
"Good morning kid,"The man said and smiled. He looked pretty well groomed, he had obviously shaved and showered.
Carl's eyed narrowed in on the gun that was strapped to his holster. If he could just distract him enough to grab the weapon, then he could shoot him and make a run for it.
Carl tried to blink away the fogginess. His head hurt pretty bad. He couldn't focus on anything and the feeling of disorientation filled his body.
He said nothing, he just stared daggers at the man.
"Sorry about the water, Danny hit you pretty hard and I was sick of waiting"The man suddenly said, bringing Carl's attention back to him.
Carl spotted the empty bottle of water in the man's hand. He narrowed his eyes. That son of a bitch just threw it over his head. He looks down at his wet clothes, hopefully, his body heat will dry them soon.
"It'd be a good morning if you hadn't soaked me in water"He spat at the man that was in front of him.
The man sighed. "Yeah well it'd be a dandy morning for me if I didn't have to deal with you, but here we are now"He flashed a shit-eating grin at Carl.
"Nah, I'm only joking. I just wanted to see what our new ray of sunshine looked like when he wasn't waving a gun about".
Carl coughed, clearing his dry throat. Every time he coughed it sent treadmills of throbbing pain through his head. He had been hit way too hard.
"Who the hell are you? And why do you want me ?!"He yelled, cutting through the bullshit.
Carl realized that he had been learning closer with every word that he had said. He had no memory of doing so. He had to control himself, make sure that he didn't do anything reckless that would get him killed.
The man smirked. "My names Gareth, and welcome to Terminus".
Carl only stared at Gareth. He had seen the signs that were put around by the tracks.
'Sanctuary for all, a community for all. Those who arrive. Survive'.
He had read those words in his head hundreds of times. Each time he had passed the sign, he would ignore it. He wasn't confident enough. He knew that if he went to a sanctuary then they would take away his weapons, smother him and ask him questions. He wasn't ready for that. He would much rather find a small group or something. But then again, he couldn't be picky.
Every time he would pass one of those he would think 'Maybe tomorrow?'. He would psych himself up to going, but he would always freak out at the last second.
Gareth scratched his head and clearly waited for Carl to ask some more burning questions. But Carl was weary. Why the hell would a 'sanctuary' kidnapped a kid ?. Then it dawned on him. He was an idiot for even thinking about it being a sanctuary for one second. Of course, there wouldn't be a sanctuary, there is nothing anyone.
"You're not a sanctuary are you ?"He asked and his brows crashed together. He shifted in his seat. He already knew the answer, he just wanted to hear it himself.
Gareth grinned, but it looked like he was sneering.
"Guessing you've seen the signs then ?"He asked and laughed.
"Answer the question" Carl cut in quickly. He didn't want to have to deal with this guy being all friendly. He couldn't find one cell in his body that gave a damn.
Gareth shifted and raised his eyebrows. "Kid, I'll be asking the questions, unless you'd fancy yourself sporting a nice, ugly bruise on that pretty little face of yours ?".
"I couldn't give a shit"He growled, already pissed off at the man. Maybe he was bluffing, maybe he wasn't. Either way, he was probably going to find out soon.
"I just want answers," he said, feeling bolder by the second.
Gareth laughed. His laugh was throaty and deep. With each chuckle, he slowly got closer to Carl's face. The veins in his neck bulged in thick coils. He got so close to Carl's face that he could smell the man's putrid breath that stank of meat and morning breath. It was a disgusting combination. Carl winced and scrunched his face up in disgust.
A blind rage like fire swept over him. He was sick of being confused, sick of not knowing what was happening.
Gareth calmed down and stood up, he smoothed out the wrinkles in his dark trousers and headed over to the wooden door. Carl watched him and narrowed his eyes, thoughts flooded through his ears and poked at his sore brain.
"I'll be back shortly, don't even try to escape"He threatened. "They're armed guards right outside" His captor pulled out a key from his pocket He then walked out and slammed the door behind him. Carl could hear him locking it from the outside.
Carl groaned and leaned his head against the wall behind him. His head throbbed and pain stabbed at his skull like thousands of tiny shards of glass, scratching at the surface. He placed his fingers gently against the wound on the back of his head. He screwed his face up in worry as he saw the bright blood painted on his fingertips.
Carl regretted ever dreaming of finding other people. If this is what people are like then he would just rather face walkers. At least with walkers, he actually knew what they want. Not all this mystery crap that Gareth was pulling.
The emptiness of his holsters hung heavily on his belt. They had taken his gun and his machete. They even took to knives that were strapped around his ankles. He was completely weaponless.
He cringed to think about how they he checked for his weapons, patted him down? Stripped him?
The thought of anyone's hands on him made him shiver with nausea. Especially Gareth. The guy really creeped him out.
The smell of rotting wood slowly started to drive Carl mad. The annoyance and anger slowly brewed hotter and hotter with each passing hour that Carl was locked up. He just wanted to wait for Gareth to come back and let out all of his anger that had been brewing in the slow hours that he had been trapped in the dark, rotting trailer.
He had tried countless times to get the chain off his ankle. His ankle bled and burned from all the scratches and cuts that were caused by his fingers digging at the rusty chain. A layer of blood and pink skin stretched up his foot. His fingernails were dirty and bleeding from tugging at the metal. He had given up after about an hour of trying to escape from the chain.
He scanned to room for any sort of weapon that he could use. But to his disappointment, he couldn't see anything apart from a loose piece of floorboard on the other side of the trailer, but there was no way that he could ever reach that.
His stomach growled as a deep, burning hunger built up inside him. He really needed some food. Just the thought of it made his stomach rumble and his mouth water. But there was nothing to eat, no way of escaping, and no weapons.
And so he sat, staring at the wooden door. Waiting for Gareth. With nothing but the stench of molding wood and an empty stomach. He was just left to think of different ways of escaping. None of them seemed possible.
He occasionally heard the sound of mumbling coming from outside and footsteps shuffling from outside of the door. Gareth clearly wasn't bluffing when he said that there were armed guards outside.
The hours dragged on like snails on a dry heard the padlock opening. He quickly sat up in anticipation.
Gareth appeared in the trailer. He was holding a plate of what looked like to be some sort of meat. The smell filled up the cabin and Carl's mouth started salivating at the sight of the meat and potato.
Gareth smirked and placed the food in front of Carl. He then sat down in front of him on the floor.
"Here," He said and pointed at the food. "We didn't want you to starve to death, thought that you looked a bit too skinny," He said and gestured to the food in front of him.
Carl stared at the food, not trusting Gareth. He could have put anything inside of it. It could be really dangerous to even think about eating it. He looked up at Gareth and raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah, I know what ya thinking," Gareth said and he raised his eyebrows. "We didn't put anything in it, it's just meat from a deer that we caught a couple of days ago".
"Prove it," Carl said quickly, not trusting the man. He nudged the plate over to Gareth and looked him in the eyes.
"I can assure you..."
"Shut up and prove it" Carl interrupted.
He stared at Gareth with a blank expression until he picked up the fork that he had provided Carl with. There was no knife as the meat was cut up into bite-sized pieces. Shame, he could have used a knife to his advantage. But there's still a lot that he can do with a fork.
Gareth sighed and reached down to pick up a piece of the meat.
"No," Carl cut in quickly. "That piece," He said and pointed to a random chunk of meat on the plate.
"Jesus kid, you're a real piece of work" Gareth muttered. He picked up the meat that Carl pointed to and plopped it in his mouth.
"See, It's just deer," He said while still chewing, spittle flew out of his mouth. "Now be a good boy and eat it".
Carl gave into the hunger. He reached down and grabbed a handful of the food. He completely ignored the fork provided. As soon as the meat hit his mouth he groaned as his mouth was bombarded with different flavors that he desperately needed. It tasted like bbq source, with a hint of something else that he couldn't pinpoint. The meat itself was really chewy and very different. It's probably because he hadn't had any sort of meat in months.
Within minutes, his plate was completely empty and his stomach was uncomfortably full. The feeling was unnatural and weird to him.
"Christ, you didn't even stop to breath" Gareth joked.
"Yeah, that's what happens when you nearly starve to death" Carl replied quickly.
Gareth ignored him and stood up. He brushed off his hands and suddenly reached behind his back.
Panic went off like an alarm when Gareth pulled a gun from behind his back. It was a simple pistol. Carl forced his breathing to slow and stay even.
"Enough chit chat, time for us to go on a little field trip" With that, he picked out a small ring of keys and bent down over Carl. He clicked the safety off his gun and placed it against Carls' head.
"I'm going to take that chain off your ankle. If you try anything, I won't hesitate to blast that little sheriff's hat off your head"The man hissed through his teeth and nudged the gun harder against his head for added effect.
Carl nodded, not wanting to risk anything.
"Don't forget that there are plenty of armed guards around" He added. "Most of them you won't be able to see"He continued. Gareth held the key next to the chain on his ankle. "Don't even flinch kid, one false move and I'll pull the trigger."
Carl held his breath as he watched Gareth take the chain off hs bruised ankle. The pressure was finally relieved and the blood rushed back to his foot. There was a nasty ring of purple and rubbed raw skin around his pale ankle along with lots of nasty little cuts.
"That's gotta hurt like a bitch" Gareth whistled. Carl shot him a dirty look.
With the gun still pointed at his head, Carl was forced to get up. He stood and put more pressure on his right ankle instead of his injured one. Every time he moved his left ankle, it sent daggers of pain up and through his foot. He blinked away the tears and hissed through his teeth. The throbbing in his head only amplified as he moved and didn't improve.
Gareth kicked the door open and lead Carl through. The bright light stabbed at his eyes and he quickly closed them again.
Voices and the sound of people shuffling around filled his ears. Gareth nudged him with his gun that was still pointed at the back of Carl's head and edged him to move forward.
They were in a pretty big courtyard. It almost looked as if there were lots of mini factories and warehouses surrounding them. They were about five train cars lined up and around the tall, guarded fences. People were walking around as if seeing Carl at gunpoint was completely normal. In the distance, he could even see women cooking something on a bbq.
Gareth wasn't bluffing when he said that there were armed guards everywhere. Carl spotted a few snipers on the roofs of the buildings as well. With everything that he saw, the slimmer his chances of escaping got.
Sounds of thumping and talking came from one of the train carts closest to Carl. He darted his eyes over to it. Through the tiny cracks in the wood, he could see shadows moving around.
Suddenly, a man walked over to Gareth and Carl. He was very tall and stocky. His thick beard covered his face and there was even an ugly tattoo crawling up his sweaty neck.
"This the kid ?," The man asked and pointed at Carl.
"Yep, need him in room 03" Gareth answered, acting as if Carl wasn't even there.
"Really? ya sure ?"The tall man questioned and raised his bushy eyebrows.
"Kids not old enough for 04, plus, we haven't even got the rest of 'em in 04. We should wait a couple days, weaken them until we're ready to put them in there. It was hard enough with 03, let alone 04" Gareth said.
Carl's already throbbing head hurt with thinking about what Gareth said. He didn't understand any of it.
He could run, they clearly wouldn't kill him if he tried something, if they were going to kill him, then they would have done it already.
Neck Tattoo nodded and rustled around in his pocket. He pulled his hand out to reveal plastic straps.
"Give me your hands"He grumbled at Carl.
Carl did nothing, instead, he glared at the man.
"Christ sake, give em out to grab them"
As soon as he was about to grab them, Carl unexpectedly swung out and slammed his elbow back, knocking Gareths hand away from Carl's head.
The shot of the gun going off was loud. It boomed through Carl's ears and shook his brain. The vibrations rattled his bones and made his blood shake.
Blood suddenly splattered on his face, nearly getting in his mouth. He stumbled, trying to focus on standing upright. His ears rang and everything was muffled.
Adrenaline pumped through his veins and helped him to clear his mind. He couldn't hear anything apart from the sound of muffled panic and ringing.
Carl's eyes focused on something shiny on the ground. It was Gareths gun. He had knocked it out of his hand. Before he could even think about, he jumped down and grabbed the gun off the floor. He ignored the pain of his knuckles scraping against the concrete ground.
David was screaming. A stream of blood flowed from his thigh. His lips were tinted with blood and he grabbed at his injury.
Gareth was mouthing something at the guards around him. But Carl didn't stay long enough to find out. Instead, he turned around and bolted as quickly as he could. His ears starting to get clearer by the second.
"Wait! Don't kill him !"
He didn't know where he was going, he just needed to get away. He could feel the vibrations and the spray of dust from the bullets barely missing him.
Panic and fear traveled through his body as he narrowly dodged the sea of bullets. They were aiming at his feet and legs, obviously not wanting to kill him.
Carl reached a nearby alleyway. He checked behind him to see if anyone was coming, thankfully, there was no one. He sprinted down the alleyway and towards a building. Before he could even touch the door on the massive building, he turned around and spotted five guys creeping towards him.
Without hesitating, Carl raised his weapon and shot two of them in the skull. Blood exploded like jets out of the men's' skulls along with pink gunk. Carl forced back his gag reflex and kept on running. He didn't feel anything thing he killed the men, he was just numb.
He learned a long time ago; Destroy what destroys you.
The other three men ran towards him and started shooting.
He quickly dived behind a nearby dumpster just as the sound of glass shattering and bullets filled the alley. Bullets thudded at the dumpster, shooting past him.
Carl crouched low, it was impossible to even aim from this position. He looked down at his gun. He almost screamed with frustration as he saw that he was out of ammo.
How could he be so stupid? running away with dozens of armed guards surrounding him. Carl leaned against the dumpster, thinking about his slim options.
"Lower your weapons !"Gareth shouted from the distance.
A man with a deep, husky voice answered him "Why? We were aiming for his feet !"
"I don't give a shit ! he wasn't gonna go anywhere".
"He killed David! And George and Fred, do you not give a damn about them ?"
"Don't act like you give a rats ass about them! "Gareth shouted. "Trust me, you'll get your own back".
Gareths men shuffled. Carl could hear him bark commands at them.
"Carl, come out, you know you're screwed either way !"Gareth shouted.
Carl made his move. He knew that he wasn't going to win. It was pointless.
He raised his hands above his head and stood. That was the best option. The only option.
"Get over here now" Gareth spat. His veins bulged in his neck and he knuckles were in fists at his sides. It almost looked as if he was vibrating with anger.
Carl did as he was told. When he got to Gareth, he whipped out his hand and grabbed Carl by his collar.
Suddenly he raised his hand and brought it to Carls' cheek. Everything was silent apart from the sound of the back of his hand connecting to his cheek. Carl's head jerked to the side, it took him a couple of seconds to register the stinging pain that followed.
"You deserved that you little shit," seepsGareth growled and grabbed Carls. He yanked a piece of plastic wrap around them and pushed him forward.
Carl stumbled and fell to his knees. He didn't even stay on the ground for a second as Gareth harshly yanked him back up by his hoodie. He tried to pull his arms free from the plastic wrap but it was completely pointless. He was screwed. He kicked out at Gareth and tried to scratch and bite him but it just resulted in another sharp slap.
Before he knew it, he was being dragged inside and down a long corridor. The walls were all gray and the floors were dirty tiles. There was one door at the very end of the corridor, it was big and metal. Two armed men stood outside.
"Get off me !"He screamed.
Carl lashed out and his fists caught Gareth in the chin with a painful 'thump'.
"Son of a bitch !"Gareth yells as his head jerks back due to the impact of the punch.
He pushed Carl forcefully to the hard ground. He connected to the ground face first. His nose cracked against the floor and hot pain seeped through his already hurt face. Warm blood flew from his nose and gushed onto the floor.
Carl could do nothing except struggle against Gareths weight. One of the men that was standing against the door ran over.
He grabbed Carl and wrapped his hands around his forearm and pulled him. Gareth grabbed the other. They yanked him up, dragging him across the ground; his feet slid against the floor as he tried to get away, but they were too strong.
Gareth suddenly shoved the gun in Carl's face. Carl squinted his eyes as he blindly stared into the barrel of the gun.
"Why the hell do you keep on forgetting that I have a gun! Are screwed up or something?"Gareth yelled in Carls' face.
"Let me go then!"Carl shouted back.
The other man that helped Gareth grab Carl grumbled. "Whatever Gareth, let's just lock him in the room and teach him a lesson".
Gareth sighed. "Guess we are going to have to do this the hard way then" He pointed to the metal door and a squat guy with black hair pulled out some keys and unlocked the door. It opened with a heavy squeal and Carl heard muffled talking suddenly come to a halt on the other side.
Gareth let go of Carl and walked into the room. He gestured at the man who was holding Carl to follow.
He let himself get dragged into the room. His energy was slowly getting sucked out of his body by the second.
"That's a good boy, no need to fight".
The room was lit with three hanging bulbs that occasionally flickered. The floor was made up with gray tiles, some of which were covered in small dots of blood. But that's not what Carls attention was focused one. He stared in shock at all the women that were sat on the floor by the wall. All of their wrists and ankles were wrapped up tightly with duct tape. He looked at the women and sees that there is exactly five of them. None of them seemed to be severely injured, apart from an ugly bruise on the brunette women's face.
Gareth claps his hands together and smiles. "Hello ladies, I hope you don't mind some company" One of the women raised her eyes and shared a dark look between her and her 'companions'.
The brunette with the ugly bruise spoke between heavy breaths "What are you going to do with us ?" She asked, her voice trembled and broke. Tears stained her rosy cheeks and her body shook with fear.
"I think you already know that,"Gareth replied.
"But why the wait, why not just get it over with ?"A fierce woman with dreadlocks added.
Gareth sighed. "Let me put this in a way that you'll understand, you ain't gonna slaughter the pigs if you don't need any bacon, so why kill them now when you can save them"
"Tastes better when it's fresher" The short, stocky man piped up.
He couldn't even process what he was hearing. He felt sick, he had to swallow down the bile that had risen in his dry throat. They couldn't be implying what he thought they were implying.
Gareth stood and stared at Carl and smiled. "Now, I think we should go through the consequences of your idiotic actions". He sighed. "I can't let you get away with killing three of our men. Plus, I made a promise to everyone that you'll get the punishment that you deserve".
Carl couldn't think of anything to say to the man. There was no snide remark, no nothing. His mind was completely and utterly blank.
Gareth quickly pulled his hands back and pushed Carl to the floor. His head connected to the ground for the second time and pain surged through his skull.
Before he could even try to move, Gareth had jumped on top of him. His legs were wrapped around the youths small torso.
Carl squirmed to get free but was interrupted as Gareth rained strong punches down at Carl's unprotected body.
Carl couldn't hold back the scream that had built inside his throat. Pain flooded him and that was the only thing that he could focus on. He bucked up his hips, trying in vain to the get the vile man of him, but it didn't work.
"Stop! leave the boy alone !"Someone screamed.
"Someone shut her up !"Gareth shouted, spittle flying into Carl's contorted face.
Carl yelled out in pain. He shook and trembled, trying to wriggle out of his hold.
Gareth focused his cold, dark gaze on Carl as he continued to beat him black and couldn't even distinguish where the man was punching him anymore. All the pain just merged into one, deep, fiery burn that stabbed at his body.
Suddenly, the weight was lifted off his body and Carl sucked in breaths of relief, soon followed by the pain settling into his bones. Gareth stood up, a female guard that Carl didn't even notice was in the room gave him a wet towel. Gareth wiped his blood and his split knuckles with it and threw it to the ground.
"We'll be back in the morning, don't do anything stupid," He said and turned away from Carl and proceeded towards the door, the 'guards' in tow.
Just as he was leaving he turned around and looked at the boy, "Oh, I nearly forgot,"He said as he threw Carl's hat at him.
"Can't forget that cowboy,"
With that being said he exits, leaving everyone in shock and horror.
"Destroy what destroys you..."He whispered to himself.
Thanks for reading chapter 2! I am really sorry about the long wait (1 month0) but my computer got a virus and my wifi has been playing up. Let's just talk about the new episodes of TWD, apparently, they are amazing but I gotta wait until my wifi's better. It's literally killing me!
Anyways, I try to keep the characters true to themselves and please tell me if you think any of them should act in a different way. I tried to portray Carl as cold and numb, I hope I delivered that.
Next chapter should be out soon ! (Definitely quicker than this one !).
Please review and comment, I wanna know what you think :)