Episode Four - The Mountain
The stream washed down as they followed along the plains up to the dark hazy mountains on the horizon that stood against the backdrop. Carl stared up at them with their jagged outline and ominous presence that he was walking straight into hell.
Becky and Tom led the way as they had done ever since they left the warehouse. Becky's katana blade was strapped to her back and little Tom had his death stars in his hands waiting and ready.
Both looked so unassuming and innocent. But the way they handled themselves against the walkers, Carl and Enid knew they were special. Carl wanted to follow them but was also wary and cautious. He kept his distance, at least a few metres back at all times, and he was ready with his knife and gun in case those kids turned on them at any time.
After the governor, it was so hard for Carl to trust. Enid too found it hard to trust, but she too was fascinated and wanted to know more. She had seen her family slaughtered by the Wolves right in front of her. These kids didn't seem like that though. They were clean and well-groomed. Wherever their camp was, it had to be good and it had to be safe.
Enid had her arm looped over Carl's neck as he supported her as she hobbled along. Bolts of pain still shot out every time she took a step and she leaned her weight on Carl who snaked his left arm around her waist to give her more support.
Becky and Tom realised they were a long way in front of them and turned around looking annoyed.
"Come on," said Becky. "You're really slowing us up. We'd be there by now if it wasn't for you."
"Can't you see she's injured?" replied Carl, stopping in his tracks and pointing down to Enid's ankle.
"You're going to get us all killed." Tom cried. "There's no room for the weak anymore. I say we leave them."
Becky put her hands up in front of Tom to calm him down.
"Now, Tom there's no need for that. I'm sure they have useful skills. We've seen them in the forest, remember? They're good."
"What do you mean you've seen us?" Enid asked looking both angry and confused. "You were spying on us?"
"We weren't spying on you." Becky replied. "We always come down to this forest. It's great for hunting. Where are you from anyway? You have a camp?"
"Yeah we do." said Carl. "It's a few miles away. It has walls and fences, a good watch tower, solar panels and a strong leader. It's almost perfect. How about you?"
"We have a place, we'll show you. I think you'll like it and fit right in."
"We've had a lot of bad experiences." said Carl. "What makes you so sure?"
"I'm sure you have. But this place is special. There is no other place like this. It is a fortress beyond all fortresses. You could settle down there for the rest of your lives."
"Why are you helping us?" Enid asked squinting one eye, suspicious of these kids.
"You don't need a reason to help someone." Tom said. "Isn't that how we used to be."
Becky and Tom both smiled warmly and Enid and Carl both smiled back. Carl and Enid both looked at each other and gave themselves reassuring but also worried looks. Enid especially was distrustful of people after seeing her camp ripped apart by the Wolves. Everything was torched and set alight and walkers were left to roam freely devouring everything in their path.
"What's with the numbers?" asked Enid referring to numbers engraved into their cheek.
"It's not important right now." replied Becky. "Come on, we'll show you our camp. It's a long way to go. We want to get there before sunset."
Enid tried one more time to stand on her injured ankle but after only two steps it completely gave way and she collapsed and Carl had to react quickly to catch her before she hit the ground.
Carl bent down and put his right arm underneath Enid's knees and picked her up and started carrying her again. Becky and Tom gave a thumbs up knowing that this would probably be a faster way of moving than Enid limping and having to stop every ten yards.
But Carl was tired too and hungry. He hadn't eaten properly since leaving Alexandria and carrying Enid's light, slender body now felt like carrying a ten tonne truck. Carl grimaced but he didn't want to say anything. He just bit his lip and kept walking on. They walked closer and closer to the foot of the mountains. What was once just a hazy dark outline was now an imposing presence in front of them. The stream flowed down from the mountain and Carl suggested they stopped for a drink.
Carl was exhausted and he dropped Enid to the ground rather ungracefully as his arms gave out on him.
"Ok, let's stop for five minutes." said Becky. "But no longer. We're almost there."
Enid sat up and Carl offered her some water he had scooped up in a cup. They both sat down and drank while Becky and Tom stood watching over them. Tom was getting antsy. He wanted to make a move before the walkers came. "Let's just go, Becky." he said quietly.
"No, no, we've come too far to help them. And imagine if we had abandoned some of the others. We wouldn't have a camp at all."
Carl and Enid couldn't hear their conversation and weren't interested either. They continued to drink from the stream and then they sat side by side. Enid put her arm around Carl and pulled him close.
"We'll be ok, Carl." Enid said quietly. "We'll just have each other."
"It's not too late to go back to Alexandria."
"No, I don't want to go back there. Wherever this place is, it has to be better than there."
Carl and Enid held hands and Tom stuck his tongue out and turned away. Becky giggled.
Carl knew he couldn't really go back to Alexandria now too. They had followed Becky and Tom for nearly a whole day from the warehouse now to the mountains. But the strangest thing was, they hadn't encountered one walker along the way. Carl thought they were starting to get lucky but perhaps that was too soon.
A walker climbed out of the stream and Enid screamed. Carl sprung up and put his body in front of hers protecting her. Becky took out her katana as three more walkers climbed out of the stream groaning and lumbering up the bank and staggering towards them.
Enid shuffled backwards but when she turned around, she saw three walkers just behind her. Becky counted, there were ten walkers suddenly all around them, they were surrounded. Carl saw the walkers coming towards Enid and he ran up and stabbed on in the head with his knife. The walker fell down on top of him and they both crashed too the ground. Carl couldn't get up from under the weight and Becky and Tom both sighed before readying their weapons. In mere seconds, Becky and Tom slashed through the walkers cutting their flesh up and decapitating them all one by one, hacking them down with no trouble at all.
And then they stood, not even breaking a sweat, with Carl and Enid down on the ground panting and panicking. They had never seen anything like that, not from two kids. How could they learn to fight like that? Carl thought.
Carl looked back at Enid who was still staring at them wide-eyed in shock. Becky then used her katana blade to cut the walkers more. She began to slice their skin off. Enid thought she was going to be sick. The smell was horrifying.
Tom helped peel skin off, ripping with his bare hands and then passing it over to Becky who draped the walker skin over her shoulder.
"Good thing these walkers came." Becky said. "We needed some fresh skin."
Enid mind went blank. Watching those kids slice and peel the walker skin and then wear it on their shoulders was too much for Enid to handle. She lost focus, eyes rolled back and she could feel everything get darker and further away as she fell back and fainted.
Carl immediately rushed over to her side and shook her trying to wake her up. But Becky and Tom both laughed.
"We've got to help her!" Carl cried.
"Ok, our camp is not too far from here." said Becky. "Seems like she just fainted."
Becky and Tom didn't seem worried at all but Carl was worried and he got up and tried to lift Enid off the ground. He didn't have the strength left now though and when he picked her up, he lost his balance and they both fell back to the ground.
Becky and Tom both laughed again.
"How did you kids survive out here so long?" Becky asked. Carl didn't reply but accepted her hand when she extended it to help him to his feet. Becky then reached down and picked Enid up straight off the ground and tossed her over her shoulder with ease in one fluid motion.
Carl was surprised. Becky didn't look strong. She just seemed like a regular teenage girl, like Enid, not that tall and quite skinny. But the way she carried Enid amazed Carl. He could barely carry her ten metres without stopping to rest. And also the way she took out the walkers was incredible too. Carl wanted to stick around them. He felt safe and protected.
Tom tossed Carl some of the walker skins and told him to carry them. He did. They were heavier than he thought they were going to be and their smell was so putrid that Carl almost fainted too and he staggered back and had to regain his composure and focus hard to keep himself upright.
"You know, Carl, your girlfriend is pretty weak." said Tom. "In this world, the weak die soon."
Carl blushed as Becky caught him staring at Enid.
"She's not my girlfriend!"
"Yeah, right, whatever." said Becky as she winked.
Carl blushed again.
Tom led the way now and they all followed him. Carl was the slowest still well behind the pace of Tom and Becky with Enid on her shoulder. The ground now was steeper than before. The flat plains had been easy to traverse but now Carl was really starting to feel the burn in his thighs.
They followed a paved path as it zigzagged up to a forestry area. The paved path was soon replaced by a muddy one and Carl looked down at his shoes now caked in mud and leaves but they still smelt better than the walker skin he had over his shoulder.
"Are we going to climb this whole mountain?" asked Carl, out of breath.
"Not all the way up." Tom replied. "The gates are nearby."
Carl continued to follow the others up the mountain, up the winding path getting ever stepper and steeper.
"Are you not tired?" Carl asked Becky who was still carrying Enid over her shoulder like she was nothing.
"No, why would I be tired?"
"We've come all this way, carrying Enid and you're not even breaking a sweat. You're not any bigger than me or Enid."
Becky touched Carl on the cheek with the palm of his hand.
"Dear child, you have a lot to learn."
"We train." Tom interjected. "You are weak because you are just protected but you will see that our community is a bit different. There's no cookies and ice cream here which is obviously what you're used to."
Carl kept thinking about what this new community must be like. Was he walking straight into a trap? The thought crossed his mind more than once. He had experienced it at Terminus but these kids made him feel differently to the disingenuous cannibals at that place.
He also thought about Alexandria and his dad. He wanted to stay there as long as he could and make a home there and perhaps even get married there. That thought had crossed his mind more than once too. Enid's thirst for adventure made his chest feel fluttery and he couldn't escape the fact that he really liked her.
"We're almost there now." said Becky. "Your girlfriend is going to be just fine."
Carl's cheeks went bright pink again and Becky smiled back at him.
They passed through the forest area and eventually came to the the gates. They had climbed about 500 metres up from sea level and looking up, Carl could see the peak another 500 metres in the distance.
The gates were surprisingly small with just a small barbed wire fence cutting off the perimeter. Two sheets of corrugated steel made up the gates supported by two wooden beams. The gates were only about four food high, nothing like the twelve foot high walls Carl was used to at Alexandria.
"Pass me the skin, Carl?" Tom asked.
As soon as Carl touched it, he almost vomited. Hacking and coughing, he threw Tom the skin that he had over his shoulder. Tom then put it over the gates.
"What are you doing?" Carl asked.
"This is for protection. It stops the walkers coming in."
"Those gates seem pretty small. What about other people?"
"We have encountered any so far but this isn't the only gate, there are more. This is only the gate to first level."
""First level?"
"Come on, you will see."
Meanwhile as Carl was helping Tom place more walker skin over the gates, Enid slowly opened her eyes. She looked around and then down at the ground which was so far below her. With her mind still half groggy, she felt like she was flying.
"Where am I?" "Hey, welcome back, Enid." said Becky. "We made it back home. I think you're really going to like it here."
Becky placed Enid back on her feet as she stumbled backwards into Carl's arms.
"How's your ankle?" Carl asked.
"It's ok, I think I can put some weight on it now."
Enid tried walking and while she was still limping, it wasn't as painful as before. Carl was still worried about her though and circled his arm around her waist for support.
"I just said I'm fine." said Enid.
"Yeah I know." Carl said. "I just want to, that's all."
Enid was the one blushing now, her face turning a bright red. Becky giggled and smiled but little Tom rolled his eyes.
Becky and Tom opened the gates and let Carl and Enid through. As soon as they made it through the gates, they slammed shut and they were approached by two younger looking boys holding spears, both had numbers carved into their cheeks too. One, with black hair, had the number '50' and the other, with a shaved head, had '42'.
"Who are these two?" the boy with black hair asked.
"Hi, Zack. They're new." said Becky. "We found them in trouble near that old abandoned warehouse. They must have been looking for supplies."
"Don't they know that warehouse is just a trap?" scoffed Zack. "I don't think we should let them in. They sound stupid. Everyone knows that the Wolves control that area."
The name made Enid's heart skip a beat.
"You know about them?"
"Of course." replied Zack. "We've never seen them in person but we rescued a few people when that warehouse was attacked. Some kids who said they came from Atlanta. Was very surprised they made it this far."
"I'm from Atlanta too." said Carl. Zack laughed. "Well, perhaps you'd like to meet them."
They followed Zack up the mountain path while the other boy remained guarding the gate.
"You seem quite young." said Carl. "You all do."
Zack sneered down at Carl. He was a teenager about the same age as him but he hated being called a child.
"Are there any adults here?" Enid asked.
"Adults?" Zack and Becky burst out laughing but Carl and Enid couldn't understand it.
After ten minutes zigzagging up the mountain trail, they came to a flat area. There they saw more children, all of them looked under ten, playing tag and skipping rope and laughing and screaming.
"This is the rest area." Zack explained. "We will stop here for a moment."
Zack then moved next to Becky and whispered in her ear.
"Should I take them to see Mother?"
"No, it's too early." Becky whispered back.
Carl looked around. It looked like a schoolyard. Then he saw two young girls with blonde hair skipping rope together. He thought he recognised them and he squinted his eyes and walked slowly over to where they were playing.
He kept thinking to himself where he had seen the girls before. They looked so familiar.
"Hey, girls!" Carl called out. "Do I know you?"
The girls stopped playing for a moment and turned to him.
"Carl!" one of the girls cried.
And as they turned their heads to look at him, Carl saw them more clearly and he couldn't believe his eyes.
"Mika? Lizzie? What are you doing here? I thought you didn't make it."
"No, we made it." said Lizzie. "Thanks to the people here. There are so kind."
"Yeah, Carl, you should stay." said Mika. "It's better now."
Carl was so confused and scared. He was sure they were dead. They both had numbers carved into their cheeks as well. Mika had '24'. Lizzie had '23'. Carl touched them and hugged them to make sure they were real. And they were. Tears began to swell up in his eyes. He was so happy to see them.
"Carl!" Carl heard the voice come from behind him and he spun around and saw another blonde haired girl who looked around the same age as him. She had the number '6' carved into her cheek.
Carl was confused. He didn't seem to recognise her at all.
"Don't you know her?" asked Mika. "She said she knew you. This is Sophia."
"Sophia?" Carl said breathlessly, staggering backwards.
Carl stared deeply into Sophia's blue eyes. It was all to much for him to handle as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fainted.
TO BE CONTINUED...
A/N: thanks for reading this fourth part everyone! They finally made it to the Sanctuary but it seems like a strange place and there's no way this place could survive without a few secrets, right? What's next for Carl and Enid? I will upload the next chapter next Monday (September 28th). see you then x