I was smashed against the window by Carl, who didn't realize he was squishing me seeing as he was asleep. I was in no better condition, keeping my eyes open becoming a terrible chose, and the warmth that Carl emitted, although a tad uncomfortable, was soothing. I closed my eyes to blink away the dryness, but I could no longer fight the sleep weighing my mind down.
The next time I opened my eyes, our line of cars had began to stop in front of an unknown building. The building was eerie, surrounded by decomposing walkers, all actually dead and no longer moving.
Carl was awake beside me , waiting quietly as his parents had climbed out of the car, meeting the confused eyes of the other adults.
Carl has been a lot quieter since The End began, and even more so since the camp had been overrun. I missed his random outbursts of loud fits, but being loud would attract the dead and we didn't know how to protect ourselves or each other.
In my distraction of thinking of the past, I hadn't realized Rick came and opened my door, Carl already having slipped by me and to his mom. I quickly fumbled out of the vehicle, freckled cheeks dusted pink, whether from the long days in the sun or the embarrassment I was feeling, I had no clue.
With the group moving forward at a quicker pace than me, I had somehow dragged behind enough to be beside Daryl. Despite his fierce eyes sweeping the area, I couldn't help but notice how they would flicker to me in between the looking out. He stepped over decomposing limbs with a hidden grace, while I had managed to do an embarrassing stumble.
Shane was at the front, patronizing Rick for his decision of coming to the CDC, and Rick, poor, good-hearted Rick, kept insisting that someone was in there. They had began to pick up volume. Deep in the pit of my stomach was stabbed with a fiery fear, my mind begging them to be quiet. I had been distracted and didn't see the arm on the ground. By the time I noticed, I had already began to fall forward because of the discarded detached limb. Daryl had been just as quick, grabbing my elbow and tugging me to where I was standing again. I managed a curt not, though it was cut short as the groans of the dead reached our ears.
The walkers, though at least a hundred feet away, were too close for comfort. Out of reflects, my hands shot out, my fingers curling tightly around handfuls of Daryl's shirt, the hunter hissing a string of curse words.
"Please!" Rick shouted at the steel doors, urging the dead to hasten their agonizingly slow limps.
My breath hitched in my throat, my body beginning to aggressively quiver. This would be a stupid way to die; trapped in between a herd of walkers and a building, but probably not the first occurrence since The End.
Daryl yanked me toward the others, though most likely not intentional as he had just spun around to shoot at advancing walkers. I clenched my jaw, forcing myself not to cry. The trembling, I wouldn't be able to stop, nor would I be able to stop the sharp rising and falling of my chest, my heart pumping spurts of adrenaline through my body.
"We gotta go!" Daryl snapped, retrieving one of his arrows from the softened skill of a walker, a nastily wet squelch being made.
With one last shout of "You're killing us!" from Rick, and one last rough bang against the door, it opened. Bright light filled my wavering vision against the darkening sky.
Even Daryl was caught by surprise, staring in raw awe at possibly our last beacon of hope.
Maybe we really could out live The End.