The next day things took a turn for the worst. For starters both Sophia and I seemed to have be shaking form the chill in the night. I hoped that neither of us were going to catch a cold. Unfortunately, my fears came true as Sophia had a stuffy nose a cough every now and then. I didn't want to force her to move while she was like this. She could get worse if I did. I decided to try to make the tree a bit more homely than before. I gathered more saplings and branches for makeshift walls and laced some leaves between them to fill in the gaps like I had seen on a TV show a few months back. It wasn't perfect, but it would do. I then tried to think of what to do for food. There weren't many options. The best I could come up with were a handful of berries I knew were edible thanks to my neighbour as she'd always plant them in her garden and make pies with them.

I brought them back to Sophia and let her have them. She offered me some, but I refused. "Don't worry about me. I'll find something for myself. You eat up." She hesitantly complied and eat all the berries. "Thanks. They were pretty good." I kissed her on the forehead and climbed back down the tree. As I looked around for something to eat I found a walker lying on the ground. I got scared for a second before realizing in had a chunk of its head smashed in. Someone must have been though here before at some point, and not long before as the blood around it was still fresh. Based on the amount of foot prints in the mud and two other bodies about twenty or thirty meters away, I could tell who ever killed it had a group of them following them. The body didn't seem too decayed. The person may have one been dead for a short time. His jacket was a big thick trench coat and looked like it could keep Sophia and I warmer than that sweater could.

I noticed there was something on his belt once I got his coat off. It was a gun and holster. I figured, even if I didn't really have the training to use one, it was better to have it than not. Once I unbuckled it from him, I pulled the latch I knew was used to eject the clip and counted the bullets. There were three left. He must have had to use some while he was still alive. I decided I'd try to search his pockets for anything useful. Found a few more lose rounds for the gun topping it up to seven. I fitted the holster around my belt and continued my search for food. I came up with nothing more than a few more berries and a couple of grubs. I decided it was best not to eat them around Sophia. I hoped the berries would mask the taste of the grubs, but it was still disgusting.

Getting back to the tree I noticed Sophia was sitting up wearing the sweater I got her. She still looked pretty cold. I climbed up and sat down beside her, handing the trench coat to her. "Found it on a walker. It was pretty fresh, but dead. It didn't smell that bad so I figured I didn't need to clean it right away. Figured it make a nice blanket." She laughed. "I'm having one of the crappiest days in my life and you're finding every way possible to make me feel better." She kissed me on the cheek. "I'm just glad I'm not alone out here. I doubt I could make it on my own." I dreaded the thought of what could have happened to her if I hadn't been with her.

I heard a twig snap not far from us and quickly turned to see a walker slowly shamble by. Thankfully it hadn't seen us. Sophia was terrified, but I kept her calm. The walker was passing us without any knowledge of our presence. It was starting to walk passed the next tree over, when the silence was broken. "Cough. Cough." Sophia covered her mouth quicker than a mouse trap could trigger. It was too late. The walker turned back around and looked for the source of the sound. If we could remain quiet, maybe it would lose interest. Sadly, our luck wasn't getting any better. Leaning back on our sapling wall caused a branch to snap at one end. The walker looked up and could see Sophia and I clear as day. It growled and clawed at the tree. Sophia started to cry and clung to me for comfort.

I hoped as time went on it would give up, but it stayed there and just kept clawing at the tree. Nearly an hour passed and it still clawed at the tree. I really hoped it would go away soon. If it stayed there, things would get serious. Sophia and I hadn't had anything to drink since yesterday. I had seen a stream I was going to try to get water from, but the walker prevented me from going to get any. Something I knew about colds was they tend to make you feel pretty dehydrated after a while. And that's when you're still getting something to drink every now and then. Plus it didn't help that Sophia had cried so much last night and in the last hour. I could tell she needed a drink. Her lips were dry and on the verge of cracking.

Another issue I had was that I had gotten the urge to pee not long after we got trapped up here. I hadn't wanted to just pee off the side of the tree because Sophia was right here next to me, but I couldn't hold it any longer. I got up and told her "I really have to piss. Think you could look away for a sec?" she looked in the other direction as I undid my jeans and pulled out my dick. It felt good to relieve myself and get rid of the pressure in my bladder. One thing I hadn't told Sophia about was the gun. She must have looked over and saw it, cause next thing I knew she was trying to pull it out of the holster. I finished just as she got it out. "Sophia wait!" I yelled, but it was too late. She fired a shot at the walker. She missed and shot it in the shoulder.

I took the gun from her before she could take another shot. "What the hell are you thinking? That could have been heard by who knows how many in the area. How could you be so stu…" I saw she was looking up at me with fear. She had tears welling in her eyes. I hadn't meant to yell at her. I was just worried that that had made thing worse for us. She was already so scared. Hell even I was. Now I had just made her feel like she just doomed us. I felt like shit. "Sophia, I didn't… I'm sorry I yelled at you. I'm just… it's just… I'm sorry." I pulled her into a hug. She wasn't quick to hug me back. "Ca… Carl…" she said. I pulled away. "What?" I asked looking at her. She was looking behind me. I looked back. To my horror, there were eight walkers headed for the tree.

I realized now I might have no other choice. I loaded the gun with the lose rounds I had in my pocket. I took aim and fired. The walker already at the tree went down with a splatter of blood. I took aim at the first one to make it to the tree. Dead. Then the next. Dead. I kept up this pattern till there were four left. After I shot the forth one, the gun jammed. "Shit." I said as I realized I our problem had now tripled. The three of them clawed at the tree and tried to get at us. It seemed like now we were surely done for. We'd be stuck up in this tree as the walkers would gather around the tree while we starved to death. I noticed what I thought was the next walker to join the growing huddle at the base of the tree. Suddenly it lifted a metal mallet and smashed one of the walker's heads in. the walkers noticed and went for the newcomer. They quickly took out the other two.

Me and Sophia watched in awe as we realized it was someone trying to help us. The purple hoodie they had on hid they're face, but based on the bulging chest area, I could tell it was a girl. "You two ok up there?" she asked. "Mostly." I said back. "We should really go before more show up. Those shots were pretty loud." I looked at Sophia. "I don't think it's a good idea to make her move yet." She looked up concerned. "What's wrong with her?" "She has a cold." "She wasn't bit was she?" "No. it was pretty could last night. All we had was the clothes we're wearing." She skeptically looked at us. "How long you been on your own?" she asked. "Since yesterday morning." I said. She sighed and looked up. "So you're not going to leave this area, even though the rotters will be drawn to this place by the noise just because she's sick?" "I'm afraid it will get worse if I make her walk for hours." "You won't have too." She said waving us to climb down. "Now's the best chance you'll get to come down. I'd take it well you still can."

I knew she was right. I climbed down and helped Sophia down after me. The girls looked at us and seemed shocked to see how young we were. "Man I thought you guys were teen from up there. Didn't realize you were just kids." I took slight offence to being called a kid, but I let it slide for now. I noticed, now that I could see here face, that she was pretty young herself. "Well your one to speak. You don't look a whole lot older than us. How old are you?" "Fourteen." She replied. "How old that make you? Ten? Eleven?" "Twelve, actually. Both of us." She looked at us for a second. "Yeah, I can believe that." She went to turn. "Oh, and I'm Nicola." She said looking at us. "I'm Carl and she's Sophia." "Please to meet you. Come on. We should get out of here." she started walking in the direction she came from.

Hey guys, sorry for the wait. Had a busy week. I almost didn't even upload this chapter today. I realized it was getting far too long, so I decided to split what I had into two. I was trying to squeeze in a moment for them, but it's at the end of the part I'm saving for next chapter. I'm almost done typing it, so I should have it up in an hour or two from when I'm uploading this. There's going to be a large difference from the regular show plot from here on as I have new characters not from the show. Carl and Sophia won't be separated from the group forever, but it will be for a bit. Probably till around when they would have found Sophia in the barn. Anyway I hope you liked that chapter and can wait just a little bit longer for a sexual chapter. See ya later.