We'd never been so broken before...it was almost scary. I got up from the ground and walked over to Chloë, Mika and Hunter. Hunter was even paler than before, he was still hugging his knees to his chest and staring off into space. He would sob, but no tears came out.

"I-is he okay?" I asked Mika. She shook her head.

"I don't know, Carmmy. H-he's not responding." She said at the verge of tears. I looked at him, the only cut he had was on his arm, it was a little deep, but needless to say, it was definitely not what was bothering him. Lizzie must've said something that scarred him. I recognized the same expression on Indie had the same expression. It was hard to scare Indie, but now she wasn't looking too happy.

"P-please. Hunter, you have to talk to me...please. We don't know what to do unless you tell us what's wrong..." Mika was trying hard to swallow her tears. She sighed and gave him a long hug. Me and Chloë decided to leave them alone for a little while. Indie was still on the ground, but was held tightly by Kai, who was trying to get her to talk. But just like Hunter, she didn't say a word. It was terrible to see your strongest friend be...not so strong anymore.

"I can't get her talk." Kai said letting go of Indie and he stood up.

"Same with Hunter." Chloë mumbled.

"Where's Carl?" Kai asked. That kid sure had a way of disappearing. I left the three of him to look for him. I heard Mika's sobs clearly, and Chloë and Kai were whispering to each other.

"Carmen." A voice that was all too familiar said behind me. I spun around and faced Carl. He was clutching his stomach tightly, and his face had grown a bit...pale. I jogged over to him.

"Are you okay? What'd she do to you? If she comes back, I will-"

"Hey, Carm, calm down. I'm fine." He said giving me that signature lopsided grin of his. Gosh darn it.

"What's wrong with your stomach? And stop grinning like that! I can't focus when you do that..." I said, mock-glaring at him. His grin just got wider, but then he winced in pain.

"She didn't stab me or anything, just... punched really... hard." He said groaning a little and clutching his stomach again. Half of me wanted to laugh, because he was punched hard enough to be in pain, by a girl, but the other half of me knew it was wrong.

"Oh...um. So she punches hard, huh?" I asked, struggling to keep a smirk off my face.

"Yeah...um. This is way more embarrassing than I thought." He said meeting my eyes with a pained expression.

"Heh, for you." I said laughing, he narrowed his eyes at me.

"Whatever. Lucky it wasn't a knife that hurt me. Sort of like..."

"How I was?" I finished for him. I remembered when the three bulky men had barged through the observatory room and started open firing then-

"Yeah...lets not talk about that." He said cutting off my thoughts.

"So...do you need ice? Or..."

"No, I think I'm fine. We need to worry about Hunter and Indie. And the group. We should probably start looking for them soon." He said, starting to walk in the direction I came from. We walked silently together back to the clearing. I had a strong urge to tell him something, noticing that neither of us knew when we'd last see eachother. But I held my tongue for the time being.

"Where were you guys?" Chloë asked, eyebrows raised. I laughed at her.

"I was just going to see if he was okay, calm your butt." I said taking notice that everyone was finally off the floor and standing up. Making progress.

"Indie, can you please tell us what happened? Did they mention anything about our parents? The group, maybe?" Carl asked. She nodded and she stepped a little closer to Kai.

"Y-yes. She said that...that they were already dead...I shouldn't care...cause its your parents, mine are dead, but Rick...we need him." She said. I was shocked, actually I was angry that she would act like she didn't care. We all knew she cared, she could stop acting tough now. I was seething.

"How the hell can you-" I started, but Carl knew what was coming next and interrupted me.

"They can't be dead, Lizzie's lying. Where did she say they were?" He asked putting me behind him, to stop anything from happening. He wasn't going to stop me, though. I lunged at Indie, but of course, Carl had seen this coming as well. It sucks to have a best friend.

"West. They were going west. But if they're dead guys...We all know that Carmen could have a problem with that." She said looking at me with pity. I didn't want pity.

"What do you mean problem?" I asked her.

"Your...illness thingy, Carm, whats wrong with you right now? Remember what happened on the roof? You totally lost it, thinking that everyone was a walker." She explained to me. Oh, that. I cleared my throat.

"Yeah, okay. Whatever. But who said they'd be walkers anyways?" I asked.

"Never know. I still think we should go though." Hunter said matter-of-factly, and finally speaking. Carl nodded in agreement.

"Lets go." He announced. I tried keep from glaring at Indie, she may have been one of my closest friends, even like a sister to me, but she didn't have the right to just give up on them. Especially Rick.

I walked side-by-side with Carl, he kept glancing at me.

"What?" I asked realizing he had a smirk plastered on his face and a mischievous gleam in his eye. Not that look again. That meant he was up to something.

"Oh nothing...just..."

"What? Just what?" I was in a bad enough mood.

"Your..."

"Gosh darn it, Carl! Spit it out!" I said smacking his arm. His grin widened.

"You've got something on your face." He said. I glared at him before searching my face with my hands. I looked back at him confused. He laughed, then shook his head.

"Let me get it for you." He said wiping some sort of...purple liquid off my cheek. What the heck? I glared at him again, he was still smirking like the idiot of a best friend he was. The best friend that I loved. No! Snap out of it Carmen! you're not falling in love with your best friend who loves to torment you, in the middle of an apocalypse.

"Why are you still staring at me?" I asked again

"I don't know you're-"

"Oh great, found something else to torment me?" I cut him off. He shook his head, and suddenly he grew very serious, a look that absolutely terrified me.

"No you're eyes remind me of my mom." He said sadly looking down at the floor, but quickly realized that he was falling out of character, then smirked again, "Since I was, repeatedly punched by a girl. How about that kiss?" He asked. I felt heat rush to my face. You don't love him. You don't love him.

"Go eat your-" I was about to cuss him out again when we heard a terrifying noise, it was inhuman, and certainly not a walker, but something in between. I locked eyes with Carl before taking off with the others following closely behind. We almost ran right into Daryl who had his back faced towards us. We stopped abruptly. He looked weak, which was really saying something.

"PLease, Carol, don't do this. She's just using you." Daryl pleaded with Carol who was aiming some sort of weapon towards her heart. No one had noticed us...yet.

"C'mon, mom. You know its only for your own good." Lizzie said, "Besides you betrayed me." She said in an ice-cold voice.

"I-I didn't mean to let them get away...I-I..." Carol stammered out. Let who get away? The group?

"Mom, I can't trust you, you know this is the only way you can get back to your real daughter, what was her name? Sophia? You can meet back with her in hell." Lizzie said walking circles around Carol. I couldn't believe what Lizzie was doing. Carl, of course, knew I had a habit of getting in the middle of things so he had his arm held out protectively over me. I dodged his arm and lunged forward toward Lizzie and Carol. They bother jumped back in surprise.

"Don't listen to her Carol! She's wrong! You deserve so much better! You're a much stronger person than this! And Sophia, she would be proud of you if you just, put. Down. The weapon." I instructed her slowly. She looked at me with hope. A look I had truly missed. She set the weapon down.

"What are you doing?" Lizzie hissed at me.

"Doing you a favor." I said glaring back. A flash of confusion crossed her before her permanent scowl reached her face again.

"You know, Carmen, do you really think someone like Carl could love you?" She asked. Little did she know that was the last thing I was worried about, but I had a plan.

"Well, its obvious he doesn't." I said putting my hands on my hips. I glanced at Carl, he looked at us with shock.

"Oh, I know sweetie. I could just kill you now. And I'm really fighting the temptation to just end your misery over Carl. But, I like to see people...suffer." She said. What the hell? Something didn't look right about her eyes...they were a milky white and...omigod.

"Y-you're not...you're not..." stuttered and backed away from her slowly. My eyes filled with fear and my plan completely ruined. She cackled.

"That's right, you really think the old me would have the heart to do this? Of course not. I had to take on a new path." She said stepping closer to me.

"C-carl. R-run," I stuttered quietly, she took another step closer, "R-RUN! Carl, go! Don't look back! Just go! THe group isn't out here! T-there at the house! Now GO!" I screamed at him, begged him to let me suffer. I didn't want him to see this. I was unarmed. I watched intently as my small group of friends, no family, look at each other than back at me. Carl shook his head, I could see the tears forming, he started to walk towards us. I shook my head violently.

I knew I needed him, his warmth, his embrace, but I couldn't allow him any closer than where he was.

"Stay back! Lizzie, you don't know what you're doing! This is wrong. I know you're still in there! You can't let this happen, I don't know how it happened, but you have to trust me!" I screamed. Carl stopped in his tracked before tackling Lizzie to the ground, a knife flew out of Lizzie's hand as they wrestled each other. I screamed at them to stop, She was beating Carl to a pulp, on the verge of killing him. And the reason for this was because...

She was inhuman.