Cherry stood there… Blank minded… She couldn't think of a good excuse but in another sense, it was just as easy to think of an excuse. Confusing right? Imagine having to lie to save your life when you're under pressure. Cherry took in a deep breath and finally made up her mind on what she was going to say. She was going to tell them about the story of when everyone except the three youngest children were out on a large group run.
"Why can't we go too Cherry?" Jeremy asked Cherry as she zipped up his winter coat. Cherry just continued to zip and button up his coat. "Cherry?" Sophie came walking over to her as Cherry looked at her. After Cherry had sent both Kenny and Jeremy away to their tents, she sat down in a foldable chair that was seated just around the snowed over fire pit. It had been fairly quiet the entire day while the group was out, she remembers specifically where her group was going too. They were going into a town, believed to have been over-run with walkers. Someone had to stay back with the kids, so Cherry volunteered… Wasn't as much as 'volunteering' just more of as the group told her to stay here and watch over the kids. Cherry was just blankly staring at the new fallen snow that covered the grass around her, it also covered her in a shallow layer of snow as well. Just thinking back in Grade 2 where her teacher explained how no two snowflakes are alike. To her small simple brain back then, it was absolutely fascinating to hear this kinds of stuff. Cherry smiled at the memories as a lone tear streamed down her frozen cheek. Wiping away the tear; Cherry heard a crack of a branch almost right behind her. She quickly stood up and pulled her gun out of her pocket.
"What is it sweetie?" She asked as Sophie sniffled and took off her mitten. "I went into the forest, and I cut my hand on a thorn bush…" Sophie started to cry as Cherry looked at her hand and laughed.
"It's just a few little pricks in your hand sweetheart. Just go take a nap in your tent and it'll be healed over when you wake up, okay?" Cherry patted Sophie on the head as she put her mitten on and ran to her tent.
"Whoa! Don't shoot!" The man held up his hands. He had a knife in one hand…
"What do you think you were doing?!" She growled at the mysterious man. In all honesty, she thought that he was going to lie and say he was just stopping through but no… He was an honest man it seemed.
"I… I was coming to kill you so I could take the kids… Please! Forgive my sins! I don't mean to cause any harm! Well I did but of course not now!" He pleaded but Cherry just snarled at him.
"I think lying would have been better on your end partner." Moving her finger onto the trigger, the man took in notice and lunged for Cherry with the knife. As everything almost seemed to have been going in slow motion, Cherry pulled the trigger and watched as the man fell onto the snow covered ground. His blood splatter across the ground and even some on her clothes.
This was the first time she ever needed to kill someone…
Cherry crossed her arms and stared at the ground as the room filled with silence.
'Not like it mattered… They're dead now anyways…' Cherry thought to herself which brought tears to the brim of her eyelids. Just then, she felt a hand being placed onto her shoulder; startled she looked up at Rick as he gave her a small head nod, "Welcome to the group."
Cherry was shocked for a moment. 'Did he just say that I could join the group!?' She thought to herself then realized, 'Oh my gosh he did!' Cherry smiled and without warning, gave Rick a quick hug despite the pain in her arm from being shot.
"Thank you." She whispered and let go of Rick with an even bigger smile on her face.
He gave a quick nod of the head and walked out of the cafeteria. Then Carl came walking over to Cherry.
"Congratulations. Now, I'm pretty sure that no one has given you their names; so I guess I'll be the one to introduce everyone to you." Carl gave a quick chuckle as Cherry giggled.
"Over in the back corner is Hershel, he's a Veterinarian; he's our second doctor besides Doctor S."
Carl guided Cherry over to where some of the group members were standing close together in the back of the cafeteria.
"These four are; Maggie, Glenn, Daryl, and the baby is my little sister Judith."
Cherry smiled and slowly walked over to Maggie who was holding the small infant, "She's precious." Cherry whispered while looking at the baby girl.
"I'd ask if you'd want to hold her but I can see with your arm, that it wouldn't be a smart idea." Maggie smiled as Cherry laughed, "Yeah probably wouldn't be." Cherry agreed with Maggie then was pulled back over by Carl.
"Now there's a lot more members that are outside or that are in another cell block just for now, these are the main people you want to get to know." Carl guided Cherry into the cell block.
"We all sleep in our own separate cells unless you do actually want to bunk with someone."
Cherry smiled while looking around then came to realize; 'How did they manage to clear this whole place out? Wouldn't there have been walkers everywhere?'
Cherry stopped walking and looked at the blood stains that were near the wall next to her. Carl had taken in notice that Cherry had stopped following; he looked back and seen her staring at the blood on the wall.
"How did you manage to clean this place of walkers? Wouldn't you have had to kill like thousands?" Cherry questioned Carl as he walked over and stood beside her, "There was more of us…" Carl stared at the ground as Cherry looked over at him.
"Oh." She didn't quite get what he meant until it actually hit her, "Wait… Oh my god… I am so sorry." Cherry's voice was filled with sympathy as she placed her hand on Carl's shoulder, "It's better to not think about these kinds of things. It does nothing good to your mental state." Carl looked Cherry in the eyes then agreed quietly with just a simple head nod.
After Carl had shown Cherry around the cell block and had guided her to her own cell room; the two sat in complete silence. Carl was sitting on the floor across from Cherry who was sitting on her bed. Both facing each other. Cherry was the one the break this awkward silence.
"What happened? If you don't mind me asking?" She tilted her head in curiosity.
"Hm?" Carl raised an eyebrow then realized what she meant, "Oh uh… Well, we've at least five members of our own group die or get killed…" Carl turned his head to the right as he looked out of the cell room.
Cherry crossed her legs while sitting up on the bed, "Who?" She asked quietly just so it didn't seem like a forced upon questions for Carl. He sighed then looked at the ground, "T-Dog, Axel, Oscar, Merle… Lori…" With the name 'Lori', Carl got very quiet almost to the point where Cherry barely heard the name come out of his mouth.
"That's a very pretty name." She whispered as Carl looked over at her.
"Can we just move away from this please?" Carl gave Cherry a quick glare as she noticed the tears that were rolling down his cheeks. Cherry looked down at the floor and nodded her head, "Sorry." She lastly said as the room once again became engulfed in silence.
Seeming as though hours had passed when merely only ten minutes had passed on by; Carl this time broke the silence.
"Why are you alone anyways? You were talking about those three kids and that you had your group out on a run. What happened to that?" Carl looked over at Cherry who was still staring at the floor but she gave just a simple reply, "There dead now."
Carl was silent as Cherry continued to talk.
"Some people came, they wanted… No not wanted… It was our own fault. I had just come back from a run on my own and there was some other guys in our group that went out on a run as well. They came back with so much stuff while I stuck out. Then later it turns out that they had stolen or raided some other camp… Those people; they came after us for revenge. I woke up and heard gunshots… So I just stayed in my tent, not making a sound until I knew for sure that they were gone." Cherry took a small pause as she sniffled slightly, "When I came out of my tent… Everyone's bodies had been burned… Some even tortured it seems and then they were burned… The worst part was seeing the three kids. Their small little fragile bodies… Burnt to a crisp." Cherry stopped talking as a few tear drops fell and landed on her lap.
Carl was speechless. 'What the hell am I supposed to say now? I mean I can't just sit here like I wasn't listening or anything!' He thought to himself as he shuffled slowly over to Cherry.
Cherry's black hair had been covering over her face so she was unable to see Carl moving closer but then again, Carl couldn't see that she was crying necessarily.
Cherry was startled as she felt a hand being placed on her knee; so moving the hair away from her face, she looked down at Carl. His hand was on her knee…
"Everything's going to be alright." He whispered to her as Cherry gave a small smile and practically felt her heart skip a beat.
After an hour or so, Cherry was beginning to get tired. Carl had left her cell room probably 25 minutes ago after the two talked for a while longer. She yawned then gently got up off her bed and closed her cell room door, she didn't completely trust everyone in this prison; specially that damn hillbilly that shot her… As Cherry walked back over to her bed, she reached with her free hand up onto the top bunk. Pulling the single pillow that was on there; down to her bottom bunk. At least now she can have her arm elevated. Sitting down on her bed; she rolled the extra pillow into like how you would roll a sleeping bag; while holding the pillow in place, Cherry gently laid down and rested her injured arm upon the pillow. It was better than nothing and that way during the night, if she wanted she could take the pillow from under her arm and use it for her head if need be.
While staring up at the bottom of the top bunk above her head; Cherry's mind was racing with thoughts.
'Was Lori someone close to Carl? Like family? Maybe just his friend? Or his Girlfriend?' Cherry stopped herself from thinking for a moment as she shook her head, 'No… It's doubtful. I wonder who the others were then as well?' She thought to herself before falling into a well needed somewhat coma sleep. Nothing would have been able to wake her up…
That's the problem though.
Well here's part 2~ So I decided that I needed to stop procrastinating and so I wrote this chapter. I'm not sure if it's too short, too long or if it moved through parts too quickly? I don't know but it's kinda cute in some parts :3 Little Cherry fallin' in-love with the Sheriff's Son. lol. Anyways, working on the next part now~ (Sorry for the cliff hanger!)