Hey guys insomnia says no sleep tonight so instead of staring at my ceiling or wasting my time on my phone I wrote up this short chapter and dicided to post it. Please review and tell me what you guys think?
Darkness wraps around the camp like a blanket, the woods surrounding us was pitch back, and every snap of a twig or a rustle in the leaves scared me.
I settled in next to Glenn, holding Jed in my lap as he slept. People had offered to take him to bed for me, but I wouldn't let him sleep alone in that tent down there.
Its brings up a worrisome thought, being the simple fact is that I don't have anything to protect my brother with. I can't shoot a gun, I don't have a knife, and my survival skills extend to finding my mother in the mall. But there aren't any malls anymore, and my mothers dead.
I push those thoughts to the back, and listen to Rick tell his story. It was amazing really? Waking up to all of this from a two week coma, keeping your mind intact through all of it. I think it would have been worse if we'd all just been thrust into it, at least we had the build up.
The second fire in camp, a few feet away and surrounded my Carol and Sophia with her father who's name I think is Ed, it sparks to life. It grows taller, crackling louder as Ed throws another log on top. Then sits back down in his lawn chair to stare at it disdainfully.
Ed I think is not a very good person. From the whispers I've heard from Andrea and Lori, Jackie too, Ed is almost as bad as Merle Dixon, if not worse.
"Hey Ed, you wanna rethink that log?" Shane says to him from our fire.
Ed barley spares him a second glance, "Its cold man?"
I grit my teeth, annoyance bubbling to the surface. We're all cold, Jed shivers now under the thin blanket Glenn gave him.
"The cold don't change the rules, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance, right?" Shane reminds him.
"I said it's cold. You should mind your own business for once," The man snaps.
Shane sighs, getting up from our fire and walking over to the small family's camp. I let my eyes roam else where, staring at the fire, or the stars. I listen as Shane mumbles something too quiet to hear, before Ed snaps at Carol to pull the log off the fire.
I'm sure she complies. I feel bad for Carol, how scared she is of him. Nobody should have to be scared of another human being.
When Shane comes back, and resettles himself with the others, I finally look up and let my gaze drift over the family's camp.
I meet Sophia's eyes, as she stares at the rest of us longingly from the other camp, her hands twisting back and forth in her lap. I grit my teeth against that feeling twisting in my gut, that dark feeling. I just keep my eyes locked on Sophia's, deep green and would be very pretty if not for being so dull. But it wasn't that regular dull you saw, not the one that just comes from having a dull eye color, but the one my mother had when my father died. That deep kinda sadness that seeped through a persons entire being until it consumed them. Sophia has that look.
I manage to pull a smile onto my face for her, one I'm sure was meant to be encouraging. But all I got in return was the corner of her mouth pulling up in just the hint of a smirk. Then her dull eyes are off of me and staring into her own fire.
I settle back in and listen as the group decides how best to break the news of Merle Dixon's abandonment to his brother.
Soon we all begin to disperse, leaving the camp and making our way to where we were sleeping that night. Ed had fallen asleep by his fire, and Carol looked as if she was about to head in herself. Sophia sat up, but her head bobbed every few seconds, before it was jerked up, her eyes rapidly blinking trying to fight off sleep.
"Lori?" I asked, as she woke Carl up and was getting ready to walk him down to their tent.
She hummed in response.
"Could you take Jed down there, I'll be there in just a second I promise?"
She nodded, taking Jed who's sleep heavy weight felt good to finally get off my shoulders for just a little while. His head lolled to the side as he held onto Lori, and for a moment I thought he would wake up when he opened his eyes a slit, but they dropped closed again as Lori started off towards the tents.
Then I turned and headed off in Sophia's camps direction.
Logical thoughts ran through my head, why was I doing this? Because I was worried about Sophia, that's why.
I met Sophia's dull green eyes again as I approached them, and she looked over to her mother to grab her attention.
"Hey Sal, you need anything?" Carol asks, raising her eye brow at me, surprised I think.
I send a glance in Sophia's direction, before looking back up at her.
"I was wondering if Sophia would wanna sleep in my tent tonight, we could have a sleepover?" I shrug.
I watch Carol's mouth fall open, before its snaps closed and she starts to think.
"U-um?"
"Please mama?" Sophia adds quietly, wringing her hands together.
Carol looks at her, then back at Ed, then back at me, before repeating the circle. Finally she sighs deeply.
"For one night okay, and I want you to go right to sleep!" She orders, a smile tugging at her lips.
A grin breaks out across Sophia's face, and for a moment her eyes are bright again, just a spark though. But its like with my mother, her eyes were dull all the time, until Jed learned a new word, or I said something funny. For just a moment she was happy.
As we turn and walk away I spare one more look at Carol, who's gathering up their camp supplies with a small smile on her face.
We make our way down the dark trail, following closely behind on Lori and Rick's steps, so not to trip over anything in the dark. Lori keeps looking back at us with a surprised look on her face, making Sophia duck her head each time.
Then we both climb into my tent, to find Jed down on my cot, curled up in his blanket. I crawl in next to him, pulling the covers up over the both of us. Sophia takes his and does the same, then she reaches over and dims the lamp. We lay there in the almost complete dark in a comfortable silence, listening to the rusting of wind in the trees and the crickets making their music. I can hear quiet talking, and the sound of a gun clicking together, most likely from Shane's tent because he does that every night.
"Thanks for letting me stay here," Sophia says quietly, breaking the stillness.
"Its okay, I think its good to have a friend like you in camp," I tell her.
Since I started hanging out with Carl and Sophia, I've stopping thinking of them as the little kids I would baby sit on weekends. In the old world I never would have payed any attention, because if I was baby sitting them, then that's all the were was babies.
"Yeah, Carl's a good friend, but he's kinda clueless?" Sophia says, and I can hear the barley concealed laughter in her voice.
I nod, "Yeah, I was watching yesterday and Shane had him convinced a Snipe was a thing," I smirked.
She sat up in her cot, staring at me. The little lantern glowing between our cots lights her face up.
"Its not!?"
Sniping was one of my favorite jokes to pull on poor unsuspecting people, a fictional bird that some would believe exist. Then you'd have them makes fools of themselves as they tried to catch it.
"Oh Sophia, I have so much to teach you!" I laughed. She grinned, laying back down.
Again quiet consumed us, and for a moment I thought she'd fallen asleep, until her small voice again filled the space again.
"I'm glad your my friend Sal, I'm glad I'm not in this alone."
I want to ask, 'what about your parents?' but I don't. Because I think that, besides the geeks, is what's making her eyes so dull. Not Carol I don't think, because I've seen how much the women fawned over her daughter. But her father?
"Me too."
Because Lori has Rick and Shane and Carl, Andrea has her sister, Glenn and T-dog are pretty buddy buddy. All I have in this is Jed, and he's only five. Its nice to have at least someone close to my age.
"Goodnight, don't let the bed bugs bite."
