Episode 17, Nightmare.

Moans of biters filled Carl's ears as he regained consciousness , his vision was blurry and his head was spinning. He held a warm hand to his throbbing head, he hissed in pain as fearing came into his arm, he was still bruised and beaten up. His body roared in pain. But he had to move, the moans only increased as senses regained.

He tried sitting up but instantly regretted his decision. His body was in so much pain, he slumped back onto the ground with a hand on his head, the throbbing got worse and worse, he couldn't think straight.

After about five minutes of laying on the hard wooden floor of the building he hid in, he didn't try to fight the pain now. He laid on the ground deep in thought. Images of the dead child's arm haunted his thoughts,ń the sight of seeing a small child dead instantly made him thought, what if that was Judith. He was being haunted by thoughts of Judith, his mom and dad. Especially the day he...put down his own mother.

That day will always haunt him, after that fateful shot, his body went numb. He can still remember that feeling of numbness, when he pulled that trigger, no more tears fell, not a single sound made. He pulled that trigger and felt the pain for a second, then back to numbness, that's when he went out the room with Maggie looking at him in a way that made him feel weak. Weak after he put down his own mother. No, he wasn't weak-

Carl was cut from his thoughts as a a biter stumbled into the room, Carls eyes widened in fear as he was still on the ground curled in a ball. The biter threw itself against Carl while trying to get up, Carl once again fell full force to the ground with a biter on top of him. Carl screamed in pain as his arm bent in a way that it isn't supposed to, hot tears swelled in his eyes as he fended off the biter with his good right arm.

The biter inched closer and closer to his face, Carl tried his best to fend off the biter but he was so skinny he couldn't handle the pressure, salty tears streaked down his face as the biters rotten breath filled his nostrils. The last thing Carl ever expected became a reality. The biters teeth sunk into his neck...

It all played in slow-motion to him, this wasn't real, he never thought about dying before. He knew he could die any second, but he never thought about him dying now, in a place like this, no family, all alone.

He screamed in pure horror and pain, how could this happen. The biter sunk its teeth deeper, and deeper in to his neck. The pain was intense, Carl right arm still fought with the biter, although it was pointless, he didn't want to die. His breathes became half sobs as the biter brought its head up, tearing away a piece of Carls neck.

Carl brought his right arm and grasped his bleeding neck, blood poured out of his wound. It's over, it echoed in his mind. Your dead, your weak, you abandoned Judith-who you swore to protect."-n-no", Carl yelled spitting and coughing up blood,"n-no-o", The biter swallowed the fresh flesh from Carl's neck. It's yellow dead eyes trailed back down to his form. Blood filled Carls mouth, he tried to scream but only gurgled. The biter swooped down one last time, this time Carl had no way to defend himself, his arms will not save him this time, he tried flicking his hidden blade out, but nothing happened. The biters head swooped down and the rotten teeth tore away at his face. He finally had the voice to let out one last scream of pain and horror...

Xxx

Carl eyes shot open and let out a scream. His body aching in pain, he looked around the room, no biter, no blood...no bite...it was all a nightmare.

Philip stared into the orange flames that emitted from the camp fire. After Jhon and Micheal dragged him off into the forest. the biters didn't take long to catch up to them, although by luck they found an old run down factory and hid inside. Once the biters passed Jhon and Micheal built a fire while Philip sat in the same position on a crate since they got there. He hadn't spoken nor moved from that crate.

All Philip did was listening to the voice in his head taunting him. You failed, you failed another child-and not even your own. Those words hit him like frozen water, it made chills run down his spine, once again he had to be some place else other than where he was supposed to be. Now he sat staring into the orang flow of flames. This was almost exactly like the day he shot at Woodbury, that night when he stared into the flames as the biter came after him, except this time there's no biter, only him. Shuffling came behind him as Jhon emerged from his sleeping spot. He made his way to sit across from Philip.

"Hey", he greeted but Philip remained quiet, he sat there looking at Philip who seemed to be in some sort of trance."you alright", this time Philip casts his eyes towards him, Jhon was shocked at Philips death glare toward him. Philip cast his gaze back to the fire,"I'm sorry about Carl"

"...Me too..."

"What now, I mean...where do we go"

Philip thought about it, he wasn't going to go with them after what happened, he considered just leaving them until..."there's a place", he thought of what Carl would've wanted for them,"south from here, it might take you a couple of weeks but you'll reach it"

"What is this place?"

"It's a prison, there's a group of good people living there, they'll let you in"

"Let me in? What about you"

"No, I-I can't"

"Why?"

"I just can't"

A moment of silence fell on the two,"I won't question what you want-bit this is stupid. If you go alone out there you will die, I'm sorry about Carl but-"

"-I'm still going", Philip said getting up from his spot, he moved over to where his coat sat against a nail on the wall.

"Your leaving now!"

"What do you care! I told you some place you could go, and I have my own place to go"

"If this place is good then why where you and Carl heading away from it?"

"Cause it wasn't right for us", he finished putting on his coat and started walking towards the exit.

"Your hiding something, in this world you go to safe places not away from them-", Philip spun 'round and grabbed Jhons shirt, pushing him against a wall.

"What else do you want to ask me!", Philip hissed through his teeth. Jhon rose his hands in sign of defeat, he didn't want to fight Philip, not after what he went through.

"Alright", Jhon said lowly,"alright", Philip released his grip and stormed out the building, he was hiding something. That's all Jhon knew, he seemed epescially angry towards Jhon pushing questions on him, guess he'll never know.

Michone trod through the clear road leading away from the prison, every now and then a walker would get too close but her sword easily made quick work of them. The horse occasionally revered at the sight of walkers but obeyed Michones commands. She rode the horse with no stop, she wasn't one to waste time in this world. She was on a mission, she always was ever since she saw the Governor for what he truly was.

Ever since that day her and Andrea arrived at Woodbury, she could see past the 'kind' ways of the Governor and find the true monster within him. Michone strode into a clearing on the side of the road, she recognized the clearing, this will take her to Carl's body.

The snow made it harder for the horse to trod on, but not impossible. She dispatched of the walkers that got in her way until she reached a familiar scene. She hopped of her horse and walked over to a chain-linked tree, there was the rotten corpse of Carl, the corpse had frozen itself, therefore still looked the same as the last time she saw him."dammn", she mumbled to herself. The famous hat she was sent to retrieve was no longer on his head.

She was about to leave when something caught her eye, something black-like a bracelet on his left wrist, she walked up to the corpse and examined it. Carl didn't have a bracelet?

There was something written on it, she wiped the frost from the bracelet and read aloud,"Sameul Micheals", Samuel Micheals? The sudden realization caused her stand up fast, is this really Carl, she examined the body one more time. She tried to remember much of the basics of Carl as possible.

She lifted the frozen hair from his face, Carl had freckles, and yet no visible freckles could be seen. Carl had his child-sized nose, this nose was bigger. Now that she saw it, this walkers body was taller than Carl.

For unknown reasons a hint of worry and the tiniest bit of fear began to make her heart pound. What if that sick bastard kept Carl alive, and is torturing him every day. As soon as that thought entered her head she ran full speed to her horse and set off to her mission of finding the Governor, now she had to find him.

Carl spun his head looking round the room, his heart beat filled his ears and panic clouded his thoughts. He tried talking in deep breaths,"I-I'm okay", he said to himself,"I'm o-okay", his breaths where quick and harsh. His mind still fresh from the nightmare.

The memory of pain and death clouding everything from his mind, he reached his hand and touched his neck, it's almost as if he could feel the blood right now. But he awoke in a cold sweat, it wasn't blood.

His body pulsed in pain, but the fear kept him from reacting. He reacted on instinct and flicked his wrists, the two blades popped out from their hiding spot. Carl sighed shakily in relief, this time he is prepared.

Now calming down he began to feel the pain returning to his body. He got up from the ground, he had to get out of here before the pain fully returns, and before his nightmare comes true. There wasn't much moans or banging on the doors as his dream, the biters must've moved on. Good, he thought. The room he was in differed greatly from his dream, for one, in his dream he was in a small room with a bed. But now that he can see clearly into the building, he was in an office. He moved carefully towards the door, he didn't want to rush his body into things, he wanted to heal from the pain not cause more.

He reached to grip his desert eagle, but he only felt an empty holster. Car suddenly remembered he dropped it back in the hotel, he brought his palm to his face and hissed,"idiot!"

He instead balled a fist ready to spring out his blades, he knocked on the door three times and waited for any biters to throw themselves against the door. As predicted the door jolted as what felt like a single walker banged on the door. Carl took in a deep breath and turned the door knob, the door flew open and Carl kicked at the biters leg, it knelt down and Carl stabbed it through its skull. Next he moved out the room toward the stairs.

He walked down to the bottom floor and heard the biters on the outside, he saw that he was alone downstairs, or at least alone in the lobby."this place must have a back exit", he mumbled quietly to himself. He walked around the lobby into what looked like the cafeteria, there was one visible biter munching on a dead rat on the other side, he didn't see the point in killing it so he let it be. He remembered when he was in school that the cafeteria had a back exit, so that's where he'll try first. He walked through into the kitchen avoiding the feasting biter, he entered the kitchen and at the end saw the door he was looking for. He walked over and turned the knob, it didn't budge. Carl sighed in frustration and turned to leave.

He stopped dead in his tracks as the feasting biter came into the kitchen, it looked upon Carl and snarled in hunger. Carl looked around the room hurriedly looking for an escape rout, his eyes landed on the trash vent next to him, he could fit in that. With his escape in mind he hoped in the trash vent and slid to the bottom.

He slid out the vent into a dumpster. the overpowering stench caused Carl to gag, he wrinkled his nose in disgust, this was about the only thing that's stench overpowered the biters. He quickly hopped out and dusted the remaining garbage off his clothing,"hopefully they won't stain", Carl mumbled. He stopped and frowned at what he said, he was actually worrying about stains, he chuckled at his thought, usually his mom would worry about that. The thought of his mom brought him back to his nightmare, where Maggie looked at him as if he was weak. Why is he thinking of this now, oh wait, he was cut from his thoughts 'cause he died.

Shaking his head from those thoughts, he looked around. He was in a fenced area, many trash cans and dumpsters littered the area. The gate was to his left and he could see the edge of the forest, he ran and opened the gate, luckily it was unlocked. He wasn't going to check for biters, there was no time for that, he took in a deep breath and sprinted out into the open across to the forest, he was going to be alone for awhile...