Walking Dead: To Be Loved
Next chapter of my Walking Dead story.
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Boris Yeltsin: Thanks and well, for Anna and Sophia they are.
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Now onto the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Walking Dead or its characters.
Chapter 23: Disappearance
Coming downstairs the following morning with a yawn, Carl was in a good mood. Things had been rocky at first but they were getting better, that was the main thing.
'Wonder how Sophia and Anna's date went last night?' He mused.
But before he could even think of anything else, it happened, an event which changed things entirely. As he was passing the phone rang and he turned to answer it.
"Hello?"
"Carl." It was Paula, Mikey's mother. "Have you seen Mikey?"
Carl paused, confused, wondering why she was asking him. "I've not seen him since after school yesterday when I had to go the store. I thought he was home?"
"Oh my God." Paula gasped in horror.
Her tone made Carl instantly on edge. "Mrs. Carr?"
"He's not home, he never showed up last night, we thought he was with you." Paula revealed.
Carl froze, it felt like an icy fist had grabbed his heart and left him almost paralysed with fear.
'No, it, it can't be...Mikey what…?' He thought in dismay, but remained outwardly calm. "Mrs. Carr, you...you're sure there's…?"
"Yes, he's not here, Nicholas tried to call him and got no answer." Paula explained.
At that moment, to Carl's relief, he saw his dad emerge from the kitchen, looking concerned.
Seeing his son's anxious expression, Rick immediately hurried over, worried.
"Carl?"
Biting his lip Carl spoke quickly into the phone. "Mrs. Carr, my dad's here, you should, tell him what you told me."
Carl nodded to Rick, handing him the phone.
"Paula?"
"Rick, I...it's Mikey." She explained, sounding desperate, fearful. "He never came home last night, he was supposed to come straight home from school; but we thought maybe he'd gone over to yours, to be with Carl. We thought he just forgot to check in and then decided to either spend the night, or he would be back late and try not to wake us up...but he's not in his room and Carl says he's not there."
"No, he's not. There's nowhere else he could be?" Rick clarified.
Paula was certain with her reply. "Not without letting us know, we've tried to contact him on his phone but got no reply."
Rick grimaced, understanding Paula's distress, her son was missing, she couldn't even get in touch with him, he knew Nicholas would be feeling the same way. This was something that had to be dealt with promptly.
"Paula, listen to me. This is serious now. You and Nicholas need to go down to the station and file a missing person's report. I'll meet you there." Rick explained.
"I...alright, thank you." Paula replied.
They hung up and Rick grimaced as he turned to face Carl and Lori who were watching, worried.
He sighed and picked up his coat.
"I need to go down to the station, Paula and Nicholas will be filing a missing person's report for Mikey." He explained.
Lori gasped. "My God, it's...is it really that bad?"
"I'm afraid so, he's just...vanished." Rick said.
Carl was tense, clearly trying to control himself. "I'm coming too dad."
Rick shook his head. "No Carl, you need to stay here."
"What, no!" Carl cried. "Mikey's my boyfriend, I-"
"I know Carl, but you're needed here. Your mom needs you. I promise, I'll keep you informed." Rick countered.
Carl grit his teeth but then sighed. "Alright, fine...I'll stay."
He was clearly not happy, but still agreed, so it was he waited behind while Rick hurried out to his car and quickly drove to the station, still shocked at this development and hoping they will be able to find Mikey quickly. He still couldn't fathom how a boy like Mikey could just disappear into thin air. It just made no sense to him at all.
He shook his head. 'I've known Mikey long enough to know he's not the kind of boy to just up and disappear. He's not a troubled kid, his family care for him. I can't shake the horrible feeling that something terrible has happened.'
He tensed at the thought of that, but he didn't want to say it, he didn't want to cause a panic yet. They needed to exhaust all other possible options first.
Reaching the station, Rick hurried inside and soon saw Paula and Nicholas, to his relief they were talking to Shane, Rick knew Shane would take their concerns seriously. He hurried over to join them.
"So, you've not seen your son since he left for school yesterday...you say Carl and his friends were the last ones to see him after school and he was heading straight home…" Shane confirmed, looking up and seeing Rick.
Rick nodded. "That's what Carl said."
"I tried to call him this morning when he wasn't in his room." Nicholas added. "But the phone just rang and rang and then, just cut out."
Shane shared a looked with Rick at that.
Finally he hummed, clearly thinking. "You checked everywhere he could possibly be?"
"Yes, if he wasn't at ours, he'd have been at Carl's. There's nowhere else he would have gone without first letting either Nicholas or myself know." Paula burst out.
Rick felt the need to interject here, just to be safe. "Shane, I know Mikey Carr, he's a good kid, he's not known for running away or causing trouble or anything like that."
"I get it Rick, I understand." Shane remarked. "And there certainly isn't any trouble at home, anything like that?"
"No." Nicholas confirmed.
"Alright." Shane nodded. "We'll get this filed and, in my personal opinion, we shouldn't wait around, we should a search going right away."
Rick agreed and quickly they got to work arranging a search, it was time to find Mikey.
End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.