Chapter 4: Terminal Endeavor Part 3: Immunity, Bonding, and Declaration of War.
AN: I do not own the Fosters or the Walking Dead. I do own Bobby's character. As usual, read, review and enjoy, and send me prompts and ideas I can use to further this story.
We all left the house, and we headed to the house next door. I noticed briefly that Bobby was sticking close to Carl's side, so I pulled him aside before we went inside.
"He talk to you about anything while you were scavenging?" I asked quietly so Carl wouldn't overhear us.
"He's a good listener." Bobby said, equally quiet, "While we were looking in the first house, I told him about losing my little brother. He gave me a hug, and told me he knows what it's like to lose a younger sibling. Apparently his infant sister was killed by walkers during the attack on the prison."
"That's horrible." I said softly, looking at Carl, walking a few steps ahead.
"Apparently there were about fifty people living at the prison." Bobby continued, "Can you imagine what it would be like to lose that many people at once?"
"I don't think I could bear it." I admitted.
"He's stronger than most. Reminds me of somebody." Bobby said.
"Who?" I asked.
"He reminds me of my best friend." Bobby said, "Same demeanor. Same mask, but underneath it is the same vulnerability and need for companionship."
"Well, we're here now. And we're not going anywhere, so..." I said, giving a small shrug.
"I know... but there's something, different about him." Bobby said, trailing off.
"Like what?" I asked suspiciously.
"I'll let you know when I find that out." Bobby said, looking ahead at Carl.
I don't know if it's my overactive imagination or not, but it appeared as if there was a slight tinge of pink painting Bobby's cheeks.
We walked up onto the porch of the house and Jude tried the door. We were both pleased to find it unlocked, so we walked inside and Jude took the lead.
"Okay, this time we're sticking together. No splitting up again, that didn't work so well last time." He said.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Bobby move to stand by Carl again.
"Okay, something is going on." I thought to myself, "It's almost as if... oh that would explain a lot. The blushing when he was talking about him earlier, and always standing by him. Bobby has a crush on him. I'll have to talk to Jude about this later, but I'll just keep an eye on it for now."
We ventured into the kitchen, and immediately set about looking for food.
"Oh, yes!" Carl laughed moments later.
We turned to see him, smiling giddily, with a large container of pudding clutched in his hands.
I couldn't help but laugh at that.
"Nice." Bobby said with a smile.
Carl opened a drawer and withdrew four spoons.
"Want some?" He asked.
Bobby nodded eagerly and moved forward. He reached out to take the spoon, and in the process, his hand brushed against Carl's. He froze for a moment, and the two made eye contact. Bobby turned pink, and Carl looked away for a moment before handing Jude and me our spoons.
Jude looked at me, an eyebrow raised in inquisition. I leaned over to whisper into his ear.
"I think Bobby has a crush on him." I whispered to him.
"Wouldn't surprise me." He responded.
Carl searched the cabinets for a can opener and eventually found one. He opened the can, and we all helped ourselves to the chocolate confection within.
"Oh my god, I forgot how good this stuff was." Bobby moaned through a mouthful.
"Tell me about it." Carl said in the same tone.
"How big is this can?" Jude asked.
"112 oz." I responded.
"We're going to eat it all, aren't we?" Jude asked.
"Well, of course." Carl said, pointing out the obvious.
And so we did.
And none of us could bring ourselves to regret it, or even care in the slightest.
I couldn't help but feel a shiver of dread. Everything has an equal and opposite reaction in this world. Something good was always followed by something twenty times worse.
Today was no different, apparently.
We walked up the stairs to the second floor of the house, with Bobby leading the way. No sooner had Bobby set foot on the second floor did things go horribly wrong.
A walker lunged from the room, taking Bobby by surprise. He tried to dodge out of the way in time, but failed, and the walker grabbed a hold of him. The next thing Bobby knew he was screaming in agonizing pain as the walker sunk it's teeth into his arm.
"SHIT!" Carl exclaimed in horror, "BOBBY, NO!"
Bobby gritted his teeth through his pain, and brought his machete up and slammed the blade into the head of the walker. The jaw of the monster released his arm and he stumbled back into the wall and slid to the floor. Jude immediately started crying and turned and flung his arms around me.
"SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!" Carl panicked, dropping to his knees in front of Bobby.
"NO! This can't be happening!" Carl thought frantically to himself, "He can't die, I can't lose somebody else!"
"Carl, calm down." Bobby said calmly, "Get the gauze and disinfectant from my bag."
Carl was in tears as he did as he was told. He poured disinfectant into the wound, causing Bobby to bite his tongue to contain the resultant groan of pain. Carl shakily wrapped the wound with gauze. Bobby reached out and poked him to get his attention back to his face.
"Stop crying, dude." Bobby said, teeth clenched at the pain, "It's alright. I'll be fine."
"What do you mean it's alright?" I stammered incredulously, "YOU'VE BEEN BITTEN, BOBBY!"
"Well aware of that, Connor." Bobby ground out.
"Then how can you say it's alright?!" Carl exclaimed, slightly frantic.
If I had been in a state of mind at the time to notice, I would have questioned why Carl was so upset about a person he'd only just met two hours ago. I would have wondered how it was possible that Carl had become so attached to Bobby in such a short amount of time.
"Carl, pull my right pant leg up, and check my ankle." Bobby said sternly.
Carl looked confused, but did as he was told. As soon as he saw the bare skin of Bobby's ankle, he gasped. His gaze rose to stare incredulously into Bobby's eyes.
"What?" Carl muttered in awe, a small smile stretching over his face.
"That's what I said when it happened." Bobby said, wincing at the pain.
"What? What is it?" I asked, Jude and I scrambling over to see what Carl was smiling about at a time like this.
We soon saw.
What we saw defied everything that we knew about the walkers and the spread of the infection.
On Bobby's ankle was another walker bite, but it looked peculiar. It was definitely not fresh, or even remotely recent for that matter. In fact it looked to be months old. It was almost completely healed over, but the skin was still red, and in a short amount of time, we could all tell that nothing of the bite would remain except for a faint scar.
Somehow, Bobby had survived a walker bite. He had done the impossible.
We all looked up at his face, and staring into our new friend's face, for the first time in a long time I felt hope. I laughed.
"I'm immune." Bobby said, "I don't know how. I don't know why. But I am immune."
Carl started crying.
"S-so, you'll be o-okay then?" He asked, his voice breaking, "I've already lost most of my family. I just got you three, and I don't think I could take losing any of you already."
Bobby offered him a small smile.
"Yeah, Carl. I'll be fine." Bobby assured.
Carl lunged forward and wrapped him in a tight hug, crying into his shoulder.
"How did you get bit the first time?" Jude asked, drying his eyes.
"I was separated from my family at the time." Bobby explained patting Carl on the back in comfort, " I was walking through the woods, with my machete at the ready. I remember sitting down to rest for a minute. I dozed off, and as a result, I never even heard the walker coming. It came out of nowhere."
Bobby winced at the memory.
"I stabbed it in the face, but it was too late already. It bit me." Bobby said, "I could feel my heart drop into my stomach, and I immediately got scared and ran for it. I came out in a cal de sac. I broke into a house, barricaded myself in an upstairs bedroom, and just curled up on the floor and waited to die. I could feel it coming. I could feel the fever setting in, so I took my shirt off to try to feel a bit cooler. I cried myself to sleep, fully expecting never to see the light of day again."
Carl had stopped crying at this point and was listening.
"Well, imagine my surprise when I wake up the next day." Bobby said, "I woke up with no fever, feeling completely rested and stumbled into the bathroom to see the blood was clotting in the wound and it was starting to heal. I put my shirt back on and sat down, and started to think, to plan. I had been hiding there for a week when I heard banging coming from downstairs, so I squeeze through a small gap in the barricade and go to check. The first thing I hear is my mother and baby brother screaming my name and giving me a crushing hug. Over the years, I discovered that the bite had a useful side effect."
"What side effect?" Carl asked, sniffling slightly.
"I can go longer without food and water than others can." Bobby said, "I just wish it made me invisible to them. It kind of sucks."
"You can survive a walker bite without having the limb removed." I deadpanned, "I think that makes you just about the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet."
"Yeah, maybe." Bobby agreed.
"No, not maybe. Definitely." Carl said, "Can you stand?"
"Yeah, give me a hand?" Bobby asked.
Carl reached out a hand and grabbed a hold of Bobby's uninjured arm and pulled him to his feet.
"Let's get you back to the house." I suggested, "How are we gonna explain this to Michonne?"
"Just tell her the truth." Bobby said, "She might think we're crazy, but we do have proof."
"If you say so." Carl said.
We trudged from the house and headed back towards our sanctuary. Jude and I both noticed that Carl kept sneaking worried glances at Bobby, who would wince in pain every few seconds. As we approached the house, we noticed that Michonne was sitting in a chair on the porch. We approached her, and she took immediate notice of Bobby's bloody arm.
"What the hell happened?" She asked.
"Bobby was bitten in the second house." Jude said quietly.
Michonne's eyes went wide and she leapt to her feet and moved to draw her sword.
"Don't bother." Bobby said, waving her off.
"What?" She exclaimed, "If we remove the limb, you might still have a chance!"
"I'll be fine. It's not the first bite I've had. See?" Bobby said, and he raised the leg of his pants to display the healing bite mark on his ankle.
Michonne stared at the healing wound in abject shock. She stumbled backward into the wall of the house, using it to stay standing.
"That... that's not possible." She whispered in awe, "You're immune?"
"Yeah, came as a surprise to me too."
"So, Bobby is immune." Michonne said again, still hardly daring to believe it, "And I thought things couldn't get any weirder. Let's go inside."
We went inside and for the rest of the day, we rested. Bobby, Carl, Jude and I went upstairs and sat in the bedroom, which we guessed had once belonged to a teenager.
"I miss television." Bobby said, pointing at the television.
"I miss listening to music." Jude said, "I still carry around my old I-Pod. I keep it turned off. Only turn it on once every month. Last time I turned it on, it had 75% battery left. I still have the charger chord and plug in too."
"Why?" Bobby asked.
"You never know." Jude responded, "What if we find some place, a community, that has its own power grid. I could charge it."
Bobby nodded, accepting Jude's reasoning.
"Don't give that thing up." Carl said, "Things like music need to be preserved. There aren't enough good things left in the world."
"You can say that again." Bobby said quietly.
"What else do you guys miss?" Carl asked.
"I miss my dad." I said, "No matter how much of a pain in the ass he was."
"I miss my family." Jude said sadly, "My mom and momma, Stef and Lena. My brothers, Brandon and Jesus. My sisters, Callie and Mariana."
"They dead?" Carl asked softly.
"Stef is. She sacrificed herself to save us all." Jude said, a tear leaking from his eye.
I leaned over and gave him a soft kiss to the side of the head.
"She's in a better place, beloved." I said to him.
"I know, it still hurts though." He said sadly.
We noticed that Carl was looking at us with his eyes wide.
"What?" I asked him.
"You two are... together?" He asked, confused.
"I thought that was obvious?" Jude asked.
"No, I just assumed you were brothers or close friends or something."
"We've been boyfriends since we were thirteen." Jude said, "We had to fight like hell just to get together in the first place. His dad was dead set against it, and even after he caved and allowed it, he still wasn't okay with it. Connor was going to move to L.A to live with his mom just to get away from him. The only reason he was with me and my family in Florida when all this started was because he wanted to spend as much time with me as possible before he moved."
"Wow, that sucks." Carl said.
"You don't have a problem with it, do you?" I asked.
"No. I was raised better than that." Carl said, "My parents taught me that any form of love is sacred. Even if it's between two men or two woman. Besides... uh, I'm not the straightest tool in the shed either."
The final was admitted quietly, and with a hint of a blush.
"Really?" Bobby asked.
I had to resist laughing at his slightly hopeful tone.
"Yeah, my friend Patrick helped me figure it out back at... back at the prison." Carl explained, "He was a few years older than me. When I explained it to him, the way I felt, he called it pansexual. I guess it means that gender isn't a factor in terms of attraction? I see personality, and that's what interests me. The people beneath the surface."
"Good for you man?" I said, "Does anybody else know?"
"Michonne does, and C-Carol did." Carl admitted, "But other than her, nobody else does."
"Well, your secrets safe with us until you're ready for anybody else to know." Jude said with a small smile.
"Thanks guys." Carl said.
"Hey, think nothing of it. You're our friend now." I said, "Nowadays, that's as good as family."
Carl smiled at us and nodded.
We talked until just after night had fallen, when Carl stood from where he sat.
"I'm gonna go check on Dad." He said, and exited the room.
"You have a crush on him, don't you?" Jude asked Bobby bluntly, referring to Carl.
Bobby turned a deep shade of red.
"Is that a bad thing?" He asked.
"No, just making sure." Jude teased.
We carried on our playful teasing, and eventually Bobby started teasing us back. Our playful banter ceased when we heard a thump from downstairs. We all leapt from the bed and hurried down the stairs.
We entered the living room to see Carl, sitting on the floor sobbing, with his father's head in his lap. Lying next to Carl on the floor was a Colt Python revolver.
"S-stay I-inside." Rick mumbled hoarsely, "S-stay s-s-safe."
Carl continued to sob.
"I-I'm s-scared." He whimpered.
Bobby and Michonne moved forward slowly.
"Carl? You want me to get him back on the couch?" Michonne asked gently.
Carl nodded shakily, still crying. Michonne leaned down and dragged Rick back onto the couch as gently as she could. Bobby kneeled down in front of Carl. He hesitated for a second before reaching out and putting a comforting hand on Carl's shoulder. Carl looked into Bobby's eyes.
"It'll be okay, Carl." Bobby said softly, "He's gonna be alright."
Carl lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Bobby in a tight embrace, and he recommenced his sobbing into Bobby's shoulder. Bobby wrapped his arms around Carl, and patted his back comfortingly as the boy continued to sob. Carl rested his head on Bobby's shoulder. Bobby hesitated for a few more seconds, before he placed a soft kiss to the side of Carl's head. Carl didn't flinch away, he didn't look at him in shock. He just continued to cling to him, sobbing as hard as it was possible for a person to sob.
"C'mon, let's get you upstairs, you need to rest." Bobby urged softly, helping Carl to his feet.
He led Carl up the stairs slowly, and the whole time Carl never let go of him. As they disappeared upstairs, Jude and I turned to Michonne.
"He'll be okay right?" I asked, pointing at Rick's once again unconscious form.
"He should be." Michonne said, "He just needs rest, and to let his injuries heal."
We headed back upstairs, and when we entered the room we were met by the sight of Carl curled up on the bed, with Bobby sitting at his side rubbing his back comfortingly. He moved to stand to give him some space, but Carl reached out for him.
"D-don't go. P-please?" He whimpered.
Bobby only hesitated for an instant. He climbed back onto the bed and laid down. Carl curled up into him, still sobbing softly.
"It'll be okay, buddy." Bobby whispered soothingly.
Jude and I shared a look, and we both backed out of the room slowly and headed for the master bedroom.
Those two needed their privacy.
When we woke up from our surprisingly restful sleep five hours later, we headed down to the kitchen.
Michonne was standing at the window, and Carl and Bobby were sitting at the table. They were sitting very close together, and Bobby was looking at him worriedly.
"You okay, Carl?" I asked.
'Didn't get much good sleep." He answered, "Spent most of the night crying. Bobby helped a lot."
"How long you been up?" Jude asked.
"Couple hours, just been talking." Bobby said, "Getting to know each other better. We actually have a lot in common."
It was at this point that a new voice interrupted the conversation. A gruff voice, that sounded more like a growl, and had a thick southern accent.
"Who the hell are you people?"
We all whipped around to stare into the barrel of a Colt Python, held by beaten, bloody, scared, but fully conscious, scary, and incredibly suspicious Rick Grimes.
"Rick, don't." Michonne said, making her presence known, stepping forward into view.
Rick stumbled in shock at her voice and whipped around to face her, his revolver dropping to his side. His eyes opened wide in shock at the site of her, and he was shaking slightly.
"Michonne?" He asked hopefully.
She nodded.
"Oh thank god you're okay." He said, stumbling forward and wrapping her in a hug.
After a few moments, he released her and turned back to us. I noticed that Carl moved to stand slightly in front of Bobby, as if to protect him from his father. It wasn't necessary, however. Rick was no longer looking at us with suspicion, and he seemed more relaxed.
"Who are the kids?" Rick asked Michonne.
"The two standing hand in hand are Jude and Connor." She said, pointing to us as she listed our names, "The one standing next to Carl is Bobby. He's uh... probably the most important person we've ever met."
"And how's that?"
"Show him." Carl said to Bobby.
Bobby stepped forward, and with a sigh, he lifted his pant leg and exposed the bite on his ankle. Rick's eyes widened and he stumbled back a step from the shock.
"This bite is months old." Bobby said, "I'm immune."
"Dear god." Rick said, "But that's..."
"Impossible?" Jude interjected, "That's what we thought too."
"Besides that, why are they here?" Rick asked again.
"They saved my life dad." Carl said softly.
Rick looked at Carl, the look on his face alone demanding an explanation.
"I went out to scavenge for food and to lure a couple of walkers away from the house." Carl explained, "They caught me off guard, and these three jumped in and took care of it for me. Connor even gave me a couple of magazines full of ammo for my gun. Helped my find some food and medicine to help you when you woke up."
Rick stared at us calculatingly.
"I've already asked them the questions, Rick." Michonne added, "They passed. They've proved themselves."
Rick continued to stare at us for a moment before he nodded.
"Okay. Well, welcome to the group I guess... or what's left of it." Rick said, "Speaking of which, did anybody else make it out?"
"The bus made it away. Glenn and Maggie were on it." Michonne said, "I saw that much. Daryl probably got out on his bike."
"Well that's good then, isn't it?" Carl asked, "We might be able to find them."
"We'll need them." Jude said, "Make sure they don't reach Terminus."
"What's Terminus?" Rick asked.
"It used to be a train yard. All the tracks meet there." I explained, "Used to be a sanctuary. Something happened, and now it's a death trap."
"What happened?" Rick asked.
"They were raided, I think." Jude said, "It changed them. Warped them. Now... their monsters."
"What kind of monsters?" Rick asked.
"Cannibals." Bobby said, "If you don't join them, they kill you and eat you."
Rick looked horrified and extremely pissed off.
"What do you plan to do?" He asked.
"Invade the place and butcher the bastards." Bobby said, "I escaped, and while I did, they killed my baby brother when he tried to escape with me. He was six years old. As I went over the fence, they screamed at me that his body would be their dinner that night. I wandered around until I ran into Michonne."
"Connor and I barely made it out of there alive." Jude said, "I had to bluff the leader into believing we were joining them, and then we tried to sneak out in the middle of the night. We got caught and made a run for it. They sent hunting parties after us. None of them are still alive."
"How many of them are there?" Rick asked.
"Upwards of twenty." I answered.
"Weapons?" Rick asked.
"Rifles, AK-47's, pistols, shotguns." I answered, "Make no mistake, if we do invade the place, it'll be a war."
"They'll lose." Rick growled.
"So you'll help us?" Jude asked.
"After all they've done? They don't get to live." Rick said, "They eat people. They kill and eat children. Their days are numbered."
Jude and I shared a look and nodded.
Indeed, their days were numbered. I can't wait to see the look on Gareth's face when we storm the place guns blazing. There is still one thing I think needs to be settled though.
Who gets to kill him?
After all, us kids have the most grievance with them.
Bobby, however, probably has the most grievance though. They killed his little brother, and supposedly ate the body. They probably killed his entire family.
Should it be Jude, me or Bobby? Only time will tell.