"How does it feel?" Sophia asked me.
"Not good, at all." I said back.
"Oh. Can you walk on it?"
"No, Daryl told me not to."
"Really? When that happened to me I was still able to walk on it."
"It probably wasn't as bad as this."
"Yeah, you're probably right."
Carl joined up with us, but he was interrupted before he could say anything.
"Carl, Jake, Sophia, get down now!" Rick quietly shouted at us.
Me and Sophia went under a car, and Carl went under a different one. What the hell is going on? I want to know!
"What's going on?" Sophia asked in fear as she grabbed onto my arm.
"I don't know." I replied.
I looked over to Carl and he shrugged his shoulders. But something came in between our view. They were feet. Walkers' feet. I heard Sophia crying next to me.
"Are we gonna die?" Sophia asked.
"Shh, no Sophia. We're going to be okay." I assured as I wrapped my arm around her.
This was very frightening. The softest noise could cause one of them to come under the car and devour us. For the first time in a long time, I was terrified. I saw Carol and Lori under a car together, Lori was covering Carol's mouth. She was also terrified, but not over herself, over Sophia. I'm sure Lori's terrified over Carl as well. It's already been like five minutes, maybe, and they're still going. I saw Rick past Carl under one of the cars, he put his finger to his nose, telling me to shut up. I knew what to do, I'm not that clueless. I didn't see any other walkers, the coast was finally clear. I crawled out from under the car to make sure. Before I could get out, a walker spotted me. Oh shit! It was going under the car! I crawled the opposite way, forcing Sophia out too. We went off the highway and into the forest. Now there were two after us! We slid down a hill. Sophia was able to get right up, but I couldn't. She was already far ahead of me. I was able to get back up, but not without those two walkers being right behind me. I couldn't hop away from them, so I tried limping as fast as I could, but I tripped and then the two walkers were on top of me. I tried pushing them away, but I wasn't strong enough. This looked like end for me. I was ready to die. But I heard a gunshot, and one of the walkers' heads fell onto my chest. And another gunshot, and the other one's head fell onto my chest. Rick ran right past me, probably to go after Sophia. I desperately tried to get these walkers off of my before more were able to pile up. I finally got one off of me, and someone helped me get the other one off. It was Lori. God, Lori is really my mom. She'd do anything for me. I saw Carl next to her. Lori helped me stand up and Carl supported me getting back to the group. We somehow managed up the hill and a bunch of people were happy to see me. Carol wasn't as happy as the others. Carl helped me over to a car. As soon as he let go of me I fell to the ground, and I sat against a car. Lori sat down next to me and wrapped her arms around my neck.
"Jake, I know you don't like to cry, but sometimes you just have to let it out. I'm here for you." Lori told me.
I bursted into tears. I buried my face into Lori's arms. I said I'd never cry again, but I just couldn't hold it back.
"Lori… I killed Sophia." I told her.
"What do you mean baby?" She questioned.
I pulled my head out of her arms.
"It's my fault we had to run into the woods. I was so stupid to look out from under the car, I should've waited for Rick's signal. I tried to get out the other end of the car, but I ended up pushing Sophia out too. If I wasn't so dumb to just… look out there, I could've prevented her from dying and me from almost dying.
"Honey, you didn't kill her. She's still alive and she's gonna be back."
"When I think about it, if I wasn't dumb enough to stay behind at the CDC and jump that high from the window, I probably could've saved her too. Lori, why am I so stupid?"
"Jake, look at me. You are not stupid, by any means. At the CDC, you just wanted to get out of there as soon as you could, you weren't thinking. And under the car, you had no other way out. And that walker could've gotten Sophia if you didn't do what you did. You are a smart, brave little boy, and nothing else."
"…Thanks Lori."
Lori always had something good to say to me, no matter what mood I'm in. I wanted to agree with her, but I couldn't. She was wrong. I killed Sophia. She's not coming back. First I killed my parents, but I had to, it was the walkers' fault. But Sophia? It was nobody's but mine. She's dead, but the worst part about it was that the last time I saw her, she was running away… She was in fear, terror, and that destroyed me. I know I said I would never cry again after the last time, but I ended up crying again in Lori's arms.