The Wolf You Feed

Chapter 25

Taking the horses for a ride with Ron wasn't as bad as Enid thought it would be. Not at first. Enid rode Molly, she had always been a little harder to control, and she let Ron ride Comet. The two of them made it about halfway around the lake without an incident. Then a walker stumbled out into their path. If Carl had been with her, Enid knew they would have probably just ignored the mindless stumbling creature and rode around it. Either that or one of them would have gotten down and stabbed the thing in it's head. Seeing and killing walkers had long since ceased to be a novelty to Enid. In her mind they had simply become more of a nuisance than someone to be excited about or terrified of.

While they had been camping on the road, Enid had to admit that she had gotten used to having Daryl and Rowan around. Maybe she had even gotten a little lazy. Daryl had a bow and Rowan had her sling shot. Both were silent and longer range weapons that had reuseable ammunition. When a walker came, one of them would usually take care of it before it got this close to the horses. Enid froze a moment, trying to decide what to do. Then she saw Ron fumbling for the gun in the holster on his waist. It was obvious from the trouble he was having just getting it out of the holster that he had no idea what he was doing with the gun. He was scared. And Comet was the type of horse that picked up on the stress level of the person riding him. The horse started prancing nervously, backing away from the smell of death.

"Just leave it Ron," Enid called out, finally finding her voice, "Ride around it!"

"I can get it," he insisted. Ron had no idea how to use the gun in his hands. He wasn't even holding it right. Enid tried to remember a time when she had seen him fire a gun and realized she couldn't even remember seeing him with one before. Rick offered everyone in town shooting lessons, but not everyone took him up on his offer. Ron's mother said he was too young to learn.

Comet was backing away, tossing his head around and snorting. The horse had turned in a way that put the walker directly in front of it. It's head was blocking Ron from getting a clear shot of the walker he was aiming at.

"Stop Ron!" Enid wasn't suggesting anything this time. She was yelling at him now, afraid her horse was about to get shot.

Ron ignored her, trying to lean around the horse's large head. He was holding the gun all wrong. Even if he wasn't on the back of a nervous horse the gun was still going to kick back and hit him in the face. He had picked the wrong gun for a novice shooter, choosing the gun he thought looked the coolest instead of picking one he might be able to shoot straight with.

Enid felt like she was watching the scene in slow motion. Ron's hand was squeezing tighter and tighter. Gripping the gun harder. Comet was tossing his head around, hair flipping and blowing in the slight breeze. The loud popping snap of the gun being fired shattered the silence. Ron didn't come anywhere close to hitting the walker her was aiming for, but he did manage to clip the corner of Comet's ear. The gun kicked back. He got lucky there, instead of the gun slamming back and into his face, he hit himself in the face with his forearm with a dull smacking thud. Ron dropped the gun as the horse reared up, using both hands to grip the sadle and keep from being thrown. Comet reared again, trampling the walker that had lunged towards the loud sound of the gun and the panicked cries of the horse. Hard hooves squashed into the rotting flesh with a sickening crunch of the skull. Then Comet took off running.

Enid swore. Every dirty word she knew came flowing out of her mouth as she turned Molly towards the runaway horse and kicked her heels in. Comet was running on sheer fear and adrenaline but Molly was by far the faster of the two horses. It wasn't long before Enid could see the back flanks of the lighter colored horse ahead of her. Ron had managed to stay on the horse, which surprised her. He had lost his grip on the reigns and was leaning forward, gripping Comet by the mane to stop himself from falling off.

The horse was scared, but it had burned off some of it's energy running at full speed through the woods. And it knew Enid. Enid was one of the people the horse associated with food and loving care. When she whistled long and loud for the horse, Comet finally slowed to a stop. Ron's eyes were wide with fear. When he lifted his hands to scrub at his face they were shaking badly. At least he didn't pee his pants, Enid thought. She had no desire to spend the day scrubbing his piss out of her favorite leather saddle.

"Get the reigns," she told him. To his credit, Ron nodded and did as he was told. Comet was going to live but his ear was bleeding. Enid knew she needed to get the horse back to camp and clean the wound, make sure the bleeding stopped or suture it somehow. Maybe take Comet to medical. Rosita wasn't a vet but Enid figured all bleeding wounds were about the same no matter if they were on a human or a horse.

"Comet will follow Molly," Enid assured the boy, "just follow me back to town, alright?" Ron nodded again, his face still pale white. He was breathing harder than the horse between his legs.

It took longer to get back to town than Enid thought it would. She had understimated how far she had followed Comet into the woods. By the time she got back Carl was waiting inside the gate for her with a small crowd of people. Enid guessed they had heard the gunshot and were forming a search party to look for her and Ron. Enid prided herself on being able to take care of herself. She was ashamed that people were having to take time out of their day to come and look for her. Taking someone as inexperienced as Ron out with her had been a mistake, one that she didn't plan to make again.

Swinging a leg over, Enid let Carl catch her by the waist and help her down from the horse. He pulled her tight against his chest, his hands fisting into the back of her multicolored tank top. She turned her head, capturing his mouth with hers. Not for as long as she would have liked, but there were surrounded by the small crowd of people that had been getting ready to go looking for her.

"We heard a gunshot," Carl said once she tore her mouth away from his, "Are you okay?" Enid nodded. Then she turned and threw a dirty look in Ron's direction.

"Comet got hit, not me," she said, "Ron tried to shoot at a walker and missed."

Carl hugged her against his chest once more, his hand rubbing her back. Enid looked frazzled, the little strands of hair that had escaped from her ponytail were stuck to her face with sweat. The horses didn't look much better. Comet was still breathing hard. Once Ron climbed down from his back the horse reared up and yanked the reigns loose from his hand, shuffing over to stand behind Deanna. His ear was still bleeding and from the way the horse was tossing his head around, Carl knew the animal was in a fair amount of pain.

Carl hugged Enid tighter, crushing her to his chest. He could feel the anger as it came. Filling him up like a balloon. Comet was hurt. Enid had been put in danger. She could have been hurt or killed. And it had all happened for no good reason. Because Ron was trying to show off and shoot a gun that he had no business even handling in the first place. The anger was familiar, but with it came a new emotion. One that Carl had never felt before this day. Jealousy. Not only had Ron put Enid in danger, but as far as Carl was concerned, the other boy never should have been alone outside the walls with her in the first place. The more Carl thought about it, the more angry he became.

He didn't know how he got there. One second Carl was hugging Enid against his chest and the next he was in Ron's face. He slammed his hands against the other young man's chest, hitting him hard enough to force him back a few steps. Ron stumbled but managed to stay on his feet.

"You could've gotten her killed," Carl screamed at him. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Carl could hear Deanna's voice. She was telling him to stop. Then his view of Ron was blocked. Reg got in between the two boys and started gently trying to back Carl away. The man was speaking to him in a soothing tone, so much different from the way Carl's own dad spoke to him. Carl allowed the man to move him back a few steps. But then he caught another glimpse of Ron. The little shit was talking. Not to him, but to Enid. Telling her he was sorry. Ron took one step in her direction. That was his mistake.

Since Carl appeared to be cooperating, Reg didn't really have a hold on him. He only had a hand on the boy's shoulder as he tried to speak to him. Carl darted around the man, ducking under Reg's arm. It wasn't hard at all to get around him, especially since the man wasn't expecting such a sudden move. Before anyone could stop him, Carl closed the distance between himself and Ron. Ron was older and taller, since he got his height from his father. But he had no idea how to fight. He didn't know how to fight walkers and he didn't know how to fight another person. He was weak. Carl threw all his weight into the other boy, sending Ron hurling down onto the pavement with Carl on top of him. Fist already balled up, Carl got two good punches in before he was hauled up and away from the object of his aggression.

"That's enough!" Now it was his dad talking. Carl could feel the man's arms around him, under his armpits and then around the back of his neck, rendering him mostly immobile. Carl struggled against his father, kicking his legs and trying to wriggle away. Then Michonne was in his face. She had his little brother balanced on her hip and she was poking one finger of her other hand into his face.

"Stop it now," she ordered. Carl stopped. Not really because of Michonne's words, but because he saw the baby there, in the middle of what was going on. Carl still wanted to get at Ron, but he didn't want it badly enough to risk hurting his brother. Once Carl stopped struggling Rick let go of him. Unlike Reg, Rick kept close watch on his son to make sure he wasn't going to try anything else.

"Take Enid and go home," Michonne told him. She turned Carl around and gave him a little shove in the girl's direction to get him going. Enid's face was still as pale as it had been when she showed up at the gates and now she had tears in her eyes. Carl put and arm around her shoulders and did as he was told. He started walking her back to the house.

On their way they passed Ron's mother Jessie, who gave Carl a hateful glance as she hurried past them in the other direction. She was dragging her younger son along by the hand as she walked. Carl realized as they passed him that Sam was probably about the same age he had been at the beginning of the outbreak. He was old enough to start learning how to fight if his mother would only let him.