A/N: Ch 4 is up!
Jazica, thank you! I'm glad u like her ^^. Green angel01, thank you! ^^, yup, & I kinda feel bad for making Jim the person she had to let her frustration out on xD. Guest, thank you! I'll try to update as soon as I can, but we all know that there is this horrible monster called school that takes away seven hours of our daily lives xD. xRainyDaysxx, Omg thank you so much! I'm a big fan of your River stories, and you are one of my favorite twd fanfiction authors, so when I clicked on the review message, I literally had a little fangirl moment when I saw you read my story xD.
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE WALKING DEAD
Critiques are greatly appreciated
Enjoy~
Eden: Season One
Ch. 4: Fish, and Reality
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Jim is tied to a tree. I don't ask why, but I know that he and Shane got in a scuffle—at least from what Carl told me.
Lori and Carol are watching me, Sophia, and Carl work in math books that the others brought from a run. Sitting on crates and buckets, I watch as Carl and Sophia do their homework. This wasn't particularly hard for me. Before the world ended, mom hired tutors for me after school so I would be ahead of the other kids.
You have to be better.
I push her demanding voice to the back of my head and start doodling in my math book, ignoring Jim's stares directed towards us.
A bit after, I hear footsteps coming towards Jim. Shane and Morales him some water, and pours it onto his head, telling him that he can join the fish fry.
I turn my head away.
Shane stays as Jim talks to Lori and Carol. Lori's telling him that he got sunstroke, and he asks Carl and Sophia if they got scared, and then talks about a dream he had about Carl's dad.
And I realize that he doesn't ask me, but I don't let that linger for too long.
Because I don't care.
"I built up the rocks all around." I turn to look at the fire, the rocks are stacked neatly on top of each other. I snap my head back to Morales. "—So that the flames can be a little higher, and have them be hidden." Lori smiles at him, and I let a small smile pass by me too.
I'm sitting on my usual stump, my boring book on my boring lap, watching as the people are preparing for the fish fry. I see the others unfolding chairs and I look back to the fish from before, and I remember the happy faces of our camp.
This is a small moment that we can enjoy tonight, and even though the world is dead, even though my aunt is gone, even though I'm still an orphan, tonight's fish fry will melt it away, and all of us will be just nothing but people—good people, pretending to be at a get together, just eating fish.
A good memory.
I like this small moment.
The fish that enters my mouth makes me chew it slowly, so I can savor the real flavor. Rick, Glenn, T-Dog, and Daryl aren't back yet, and I turn towards Carl. He looks happy, and I look away and lose myself in this happy moment, taking large bites out of the greasy fish and trying to listen to the conversations being passed around. By the time I was about to finish my fish, Morales asks something about Dale's watch, and everyone is sharing laughs.
"I've wondered this myself." Jaqui lets out a smile.
I see through the fire that Dale is smiling, probably less confused than I am. "I'm missing the point."
Jaqui and Morales voice their opinions, that the world came to an end, and yet every day, Dale's always 'winding that stupid watch.'
"Time," Dale says, "Is important to keep track—isn't it? The days at least." He smiles again, asking for Andrea to back him up.
I start to wonder why he keeps a watch now. Sure, important days need to be kept track of, but the world had already hit a speed bump for the longest time.
Sometimes, and this is one of the times—I don't understand what the heck is going on.
I push it to the back of my mind and continue to listen to Dale talking.
"I like—uh, Father said to Son when he gave him a watch. That it'd been handed down through generations. Said, 'I give you a mausoleum…of all hope and desire, which will fit your individual needs no better than it did mine— or my father's before me. I give it to you, not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it for a moment. Now and then, and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it.'" He finishes, and I wonder again, because I am utterly confused about the Father and Son thing. But I hope the Son was happy that he got the watch.
It's quiet, and there's a moment of silence shared between all of us.
"You are so weird." Amy says.
We all burst into laughter, and I laugh a bit too. Dale tries to back his quote up by saying it was by some guy named Faulkner, but we all keep laughing anyway. Carl and I share a small smile together, and I think that this is a good night.
I think that this is one of those unforgettable nights, and I decide to like it.
Amy puts down her cup after a bit and then gets up. Andrea asks where she's going.
"I have to pee. Geez, you try to be discreet around here." She walks off, and we all laugh again, and I enjoy this moment even more. I let another smile take over again.
Since the world ended, since my parents died, since my aunt got bitten, this is one of those times where I feel really happy. Not just a bit, but really happy. Like those times when someone gets you what you want for Christmas. I turn and observe the people around the campfire, and I like this atmosphere. For a moment, I forget that the world ended, and I notice I've been doing that more than I should, but I don't care.
Tonight was an exception.
I hear the door of the RV swing open, and it's Amy.
"We're out of toilet paper?" It sounded like more of a question, and I'm just about to put my last piece of fish into my mouth when a man comes up to Amy. Only, the man isn't alive, and he bites her arm, and in this very moment, I can only think of one thing, and it's blaring in my head like a siren.
Walkers.
Her voice alarms everyone, and suddenly, we all forget out fish and we stand.
The whole camp is in chaos, and I just stand there, watching as the walkers are killing people—eating people.
Lori seems to have forgotten about me, and she's with Shane and Carol, grasping Carl in her arms. Carol is carrying Sophia.
"Mom! Mom!" I hear him scream for her in her arms, and I'm dazed. He needs to stop screaming, so I tune him out, like I did in the woods.
I don't have anyone to hold onto, so I don't scream for anyone.
But I'm scared, and the warning in my head is still blaring. Telling—screaming at me to run away. I turn my head to the right, and then I turn it to the left, but everywhere I look, all I can see are walkers, walkers, walkers.
Everyone is screaming through the chaos, and I see people from our camp getting eaten. Our camp. And I hear the tearing of skin and the swing of bats and the ring of shots, and I take out the knife that my aunt gave me, from my boot.
It only makes me feel a little bit better. I grasp the handle of my knife tightly, and I run.
I run in circles. The camp is in total disarray, and I run around, trying to ignore the gunshots, the blood, the stench of death. Go away, go away, go away, go away.
The walkers.
My knife is still in my hand, and I avoid our dying people, and then I come across Amy. Oh, sweet, kind, funny Amy, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This has to be a dream. Please let this be a dream.
But I already know that this is reality.
The gunshots are still ringing in my ears, and I see another person being eaten. Ed. I push down the feeling to gag, and I keep running, dodging. I close my eyes for a second.
Calm down. Go to the RV. Now.
By the time my mind carves that action into my body, it's too late.
I feel something knock me off of my feet, knocking the breath out of my lungs at the same time. My eyes fly open, and I suppress the urge to let out a yelp.
Because a walker is on top of me.
It's trying to claw at my face, and I'm pushing it back with my one hand, my other one clutched tightly onto my knife. Get away, get away, get away, get away.
The stench of rotting breath is just in front of me as I struggle desperately below him—her, pushing its shoulders so it can't bite into me. This walker is—used to be a teenage girl, with brown hair and sunglasses that my aunt would've called "gorgeous." But right now, it's a pile of bones and it growls. The flesh off of its face was eaten off and I see its teeth. Its rotting and cracked teeth. And it's trying to take a bit out of my neck.
I'm trying to get my knife into its head, but it got pushed away, and I'm scared. My knife is out of my reach, and if I let go, it's going to tear me open. I've never been this close to a walker before, and it's about to eat me. Millions of thoughts pass through my head as I see its teeth, chomping as it nears my neck.
No, no, no, no, no.
No way. Not yet. I don't want to die yet. I don't want to die like this.
I hate this. I hate this so much, and I feel the yelling, the screaming, the gunshots, and the crunching noises close in on me. I close my eyes.
The walker is this close to my face until I feel it being forcefully lifted from me. I'm still trembling as my eyes blink, and I see a figure in front of me.
Daryl.
He takes out a knife and drives it into the walker's head, and for a fraction of a second, I feel embarrassed for not being able to put it down.
But my thoughts are ended when he pulls me up roughly, and I sort of stumble a bit.
I share a look with him, and I quickly nod to tell him I'm alright, because he has to take care of the other walkers, and he nods back. My eyes then dart to his right, and I point.
"Behind you!" I scream it, and he whirls around and grabs its shoulder, stabbing it with the bloodied knife. He breathes and nods, giving my head a small pat when he runs past me. I touch my head.
After a moment, I hear the gunshots stop, and I was going to let out a small breath until I look at what's in front of me. I try not to gag, I try not to cry. So instead, I curse this world. I curse this world for changing, I curse this world for taking away my happy moment, I curse this world for taking Amy, the other people from this camp.
And then I realize something, and no matter how sad it is, this is the real world.
This was a horrible reminder. A horrible reminder to all of us. That this world is dead, that people are going to die.
There are no more fantasies or happy moments to enjoy anymore.
Now, this world is just about us, and the dead.
This is reality.
A cruel, cruel, reality.
A/N: Hope you guys liked this chap ^w^
Ummm….i don't really have anything to say xD
Til next time~
