"Let me see the baby" Hershel ordered, Carl took the baby from Maggie and made his way to Hershel. Behind them, Rick was still on his knees, no one was able to break him from the trance he entered after he found out Lori had died.
"What're we gonna feed it?" Daryl asked Hershel. "We got anythin' a baby can eat?"
Hershel examined the baby. "The good news is she looks healthy. But she needs formula. And soon, or she won't survive"
"Nope, no way. Not her. We ain't losin' no body else, I'm goin' on a run"
"I'll back you up" Maggie was fast to tell Daryl.
"I'll go, too" Glenn was second.
"Okay, think about where we're goin'" he told them, and then he pulled Beth aside and spoke quietly to her.
"Rick!" Maggie called out and I looked to see Rick grabbing his axe off the floor and rushing inside the C block entrance.
"C'mon, we're gonna lose the light!" Daryl complained.
Maggie and Glenn followed Daryl, all of them running for the car.
Glenn couldn't go as Daryl and Maggie took Daryl's bike instead, so he stayed outside digging graves. I would have helped him but I knew I was more useful elsewhere.
Hershel, Carl, Beth and I were inside the cell block C trying to care for the new addition to our fucked up family. Carl was already a great big brother, he hadn't left his sister's side since was born.
I was sitting on the step watching Carl hold the baby as she slept and Beth was cooing over her. I was uneasy with the fact that Carol was still missing and Glenn was already out there declaring her dead. I finally got up and armed myself with my two knives, hunting rifle and hand gun. Beth came in, and I stopped what I was doing to look at her.
"What are you doin'?" She asked me.
I sighed. "I'm goin' to find Carol"
"You can't go alone" Her worry was obvious and unnecessary.
"She's still alive, Beth. I gotta find her" I stormed past her but she stopped me again at the gate.
"You'll get yourself killed out there, at least wait 'til Daryl's back" I didn't look at her because I knew her eyes would be begging me, and I always gave in whenever I saw them.
"Just let me do this" I said through partially gritted teeth.
She then moved between me and the gate and faced me, forcing me to look her in the eye. "No"
My emotions got the better of me, then. Tears formed and fell, I gripped onto the bars each side of Beth for support as I broke down and felt nothing but pain in my chest. Beth seemed a little taken aback by my sudden outburst, but she soon wrapped her arms around my waist. I began to give up on standing, but she led me to her cell before I could reach the floor. She sat me down on her bunk and I leaned up against the wall, holding my head. She quickly and gently removed the guns and knives from my torso and then sat next to me, pulling me towards her. I didn't protest, I buried my face in her neck as she wrapped her arms around mine and I quietly cried into her. The thought of Carol's probable demise was overwhelming me, Beth was right about waiting for Daryl but I couldn't handle it. I gripped onto her back and held her as tight as I could.
It felt like we were sitting there for hours, and when I had finally pulled away from her, her eyes were red. I awkwardly coughed, suddenly embarrassed at the situation. "Sorry about that"
She laughed a little and put her hand on top of mine. "Don't be"
Another overwhelming feeling was taking over me, but I wasn't thinking about Carol anymore. I was thinking about how nice Beth's lips were when she smiled. I wanted to kiss her so much right now and I didn't understand why I wasn't. My heart started racing just thinking about it. I let my mind go blank for a second and my confidence got the better of me, I began to lean into her slowly. My heart was going wild and I stopped breathing, waiting for a reaction from her. Her eyes widened a little and I saw a sudden intake of breath, but she didn't say anything. I carried on leaning in and our noses were touching, we were so close I could almost imagine how her lips felt. My hand reached the side of her face and I readied myself to kiss her, wanting it to be perfect. I closed my eyes just as Carl called out that Maggie and Daryl were back. Beth and I looked at each other but didn't say anything. She was quick to leave me sitting on her bunk. I couldn't explain the feeling that was in the pit of my stomach right now, but I had to push it aside so I could help the others, so I joined them outside Beth's cell.
Beth and Maggie were going through the contents of the bag that Maggie and Daryl filled while they were out and Daryl was holding the baby. Glenn, Axel and Oscar came back from outside and Beth hurriedly gave Daryl the bottle. Daryl was trying to calm her down, talking gently as he but the bottle in her mouth. She immediately stopped crying and started to suck on the bottle greedily. Daryl laughed, he was clearly enjoying this. "She got a name yet?" he asked Carl.
Carl shook his head. "Not yet. I was thinking maybe Sophia. There's Carol, too" he sighed. "and Andrea, Amy, Jacqui, Patricia, or-" stopped himself, but then carried on to say it. "Lori. I don't know"
Daryl looked a little sympathetic but quickly turned his attention back to the baby. "You like that, huh? Little ass kicker" he then turned to look at us all. "Right?" we all laughed with him. "That's a good name, right? Little ass kicker, you like that, sweetheart?"
"She'll be kickin' your ass, soon" I laughed.
"Yeah, only 'cause I'll be the one teachin' her" he smiled down at her.
Everyone began to wind down, retreating to their own cells. We decided to give Rick some space for the night, he needed it. Beth was going to look after ass kicker tonight so I decided to give her some space, too. I regretted not kissing her as fast as I possibly could, but it wouldn't have felt right. I knew we both needed to take our time with it, so I couldn't dwell on it. In bed I thought of Carol. I thought of her lost, trying to make her way back to us. I thought of her trapped in a room with walkers trying to get inside the door. I saw the walkers succeeding and I saw her dead. I started to lose myself again but the look on Beth's face just as she realised I was trying to kiss her popped into my head. I got butterflies at the thought and I would give anything to try again. Her lips were the last thing on my mind before I fell asleep.
Marley stood 5 feet away from the pool in my backyard and began ripping off her clothes, leaving her bra and panties. "What're you doin'?" I laughed.
"Swimmin'" She gave me a grin and jumped in. She immediately gasped "It's so cold!" she swam to the edge of the pool and held her hand out, waiting for me to pull her out. I grabbed it and pulled, but I realised she was pulling, too. I tried to resist, but gravity betrayed me and I fell face first into the water. I was super cold and my clothes clung to me. She was laughing hysterically. "I wish you saw your face!"
I swam over to hear, ready to be mad at her but I ended up laughing with her, splashing her with water. "You're an asshole, somethings" I smiled at her.
"And you're a nerd sometimes but you don't hear me complainin'"
"Yeah, I'm your nerd"
"Yeah, you are" Her eyes lit up the way they do when she gets a 'brilliant' idea. She swam over to me and clung onto me, so I had to support both of us as I tried to stay afloat. I looked up at her and her hands rested on my cheeks, and then she put her lips onto mine. The feeling was weird, I was kissing my best friend. But the butterflies in my stomach was telling me that I enjoyed it. I'd never kissed a girl before, and it's pretty hard to do when you're trying to stay above water. When her lips left mine, she didn't take her eyes off me, obviously waiting for a reaction.
"What was that for?" I asked her.
"I like you" She smiled.
This dream didn't make me panic or sit up really fast, panting. I half expected it, to be honest. I wiped the sweat from my brow and put on my shorts and plaid shirt. Glenn, Maggie, Beth, Hershel and Carl were sitting around a table eating breakfast when I walked out and Daryl, Oscar were either standing or sitting on the stairs. Glenn held out a bowl at my arrival and I took it from him. "Knew you'd be up soon"
I laughed. "Thanks, man" I joined Daryl on the stairs and stared at the back of Beth's head wondering what she was thinking. Did she resent me for trying to kiss her or did she want it as much as I did? I didn't know, I've been thinking about it too much. I don't know what I'd do if she resented me, though.
"Everybody okay?" Rick's voice echoed through the room and we all looked up to find him standing behind the gate as he opened it.
"Yeah, we are" Maggie was the one to answer.
Rick slowly walked towards the table, he had a kind of manic expression on his face that I'd never seen before and I worried about him a little. "What about you?" Hershel asked him.
"Cleared out the boiler block" Rick avoided the question.
"How many were there?" Daryl asked him.
"I don't know, a dozen, two dozen" His eyes were glazed over a little as he spoke. "I have to get back, just wanted to check on Carl" he patted his son's shoulder and started to leave.
"Rick, we can handle taking out the bodies, you don't have to" Glenn stopped him.
"No, I do" He frowned. He then fast walked over to Daryl "Everybody have a gun and a knife?"
"Yeah, we're running low on ammo, though" Daryl didn't show any sign of wariness towards Rick.
"Maggie and me were planning on making a run this afternoon. We found a phone book with some places we can hit, look for bullets and formula" Glenn was out of his seat, now.
"We cleared out the generator room. Axel's there tryin' to fix it in case of an emergency. We're gonna sweep the lower levels, as well" Daryl informed Rick.
"Good" Rick nodded and then he was out of the gate before I could blink. Hershel tried calling out to him but he slammed the gate shut and left.
Daryl, Oscar, Carl and I were walking through a corridor, stepping over bodies when a nearby door was lightly being pushed open over and over again, there was a body in the way preventing it from opening fully. "Check it out, must've missed it last night" Oscar spoke.
"Probably just one or two of 'em. Don't look like they got much fight" Daryl observed as he pushed the door back a little. "They ain't goin' no where, we'll take care of 'em on the way back"
"Yeah, like that can't bite us in the ass later" I scoffed. Daryl decided to ignore me.
"You know, my mom, she liked her wine" Daryl began to tell Carl as they walked a little in front of me. Oscar was behind, searching. "She liked to smoke in bed. Virginia Slim's. I was playin' out with the kids in the neighborhood, I could do that with Merle gone. They had bikes, I didn't. We heard sirens gettin' louder. They jumped on their bikes, ran after it, you know, hopin' to see somethin' worth seein'" He was checking doors as he spoke. "I ran after 'em, but I couldn't keep up. I ran around the corner and saw my friends lookin' at me. Hell, I saw everybody lookin' at me. Firetrucks everywhere. People from the neighborhood. It was my house they were there for. It was my mom in bed burnt down to nothin'. That was the hard part. You know, she was just gone. Erased. Nothin' left of her. People said it was better that way, I don't know. Just made it seem like it wasn't real, you know?" I looked behind me at Oscar who shrugged his shoulders.
After a moment, Carl sighed. "I shot my mom. She was out, hadn't turned yet. I ended it. It was real" He looked Daryl in the eye as he spoke. "Sorry about your mom" he looked at his feet.
"I'm sorry about your's" Daryl sounded sincere.
We made it to another cell block, only finding a handful of walkers on the way. As we were walking past the cells, Oscar got excited. "Oh that's what I'm talkin' about" he hurried into a cell. We followed him out of curiosity.
"What the hell do you need slippers for?" Daryl asked Oscar, who was crouched on the floor hugging a pair of brown slippers.
"You know, the end of the day. Relaxin'" Daryl laughed slightly.
"Dibs on the next pair" I said as I exited the cell, nearly shitting myself when the sound of a walker came from no where. Luckily, everyone was quicker than me when it came to reflexes, and they made the walker fall to the floor in seconds.
"Must've been in the cell at the end, we checked everywhere else" Oscar thought out loud.
Daryl inspected the walker as it lay lifeless on the floor. He pulled something out of its neck causing blood to squirt out. Upon examination, he recognised it. "Carol's knife" he seemed confused as he said it, and he wiped it clean on the walker's jumpsuit.
I wasn't sure if I felt hope that she was still alive or worried that she could still be alive and unarmed.
I took Carl back to the cell block, after losing his mom and his dad going a little awry, I guessed it wasn't good for him to go walker hunting for a long period of time.
Beth gave me a big smile as we entered the cell block, making my stomach do laps. She was stirring something in a pot. Hershel wasn't far behind her, holding the baby in his arms. Carl sat next to Beth and I stood on the other side of her, trying to get a look of what was in the pot. Deciding looking wasn't enough, I tried to stick a finger in there but she was quick to swat my hand away. I felt like I was doing well at pretending I hadn't tried to kiss her. But yet, all I wanted was another shot.
Hearing footsteps, we all looked up to see Rick entering the cell block, closing the gate behind him. He didn't look at Carl, just went straight for the baby in Hershel's arms, his eyes a little glazed over. He seemed nervous as he met his baby for the first time, breathing heavy. He took her out of Hershel's arms and cradled her, looking deep into her eyes. He finally began to look human again as he began to smile. He kissed the top of her head as he cuddled her.
He slowly began to walk towards the gate, and we all followed out of curiosity. He led us outside, where the clouds draped over the prison like a blanket. "She looks like you" I heard him tell Carl and I smiled to myself. Suddenly his face changed though, as he looked off into the distance. He rushed to give the baby to Carl and walked into the yard towards a crowd of walkers leaning on the fence. I followed him, trying to see what he saw. I quickly caught on when I saw a black woman holding a red basket, she looked injured. I didn't understand how she was standing among the walkers with no issue. But they were beginning to notice her.