Chapter 16

~Charlotte~

Everyone sits down in the dining room. There are two tables, one large rectangular one and a small circular one. I sit on the circular one, along with Glenn, Maggie, Beth and Jimmy. I sit inbetween Maggie and Jimmy. We all eat in silence.

Other people may find eating in silence awkward, but I think that it is best to eat in silence.

"Does anybody know how to play guitar?" Glenn asks, breaking the quietness.

I can, but I do not want to say. I can't do it well. I had lessons and then I stopped. I then taught myself, which was more enjoyable. I could play whatever I wanted to. Having the lessons was long and boring. I started having lessons when I was ten and stopped when I was twelve. "Dale found a cool one. Somebody's got to know how to play."

"Otis did." Patricia says.

"Yes, and he was very good, too." Hershel explains.

We are eating roast beef with mash potatotes, vegetables and roast potatoes. I have got mine drowned in gravy. I've got grated cheese sprinkled on my mash potatoes, melting because of the heat of the food. I stare at Lori who comes into the dining room, she was just with Carl. I can't believe that she is pregnant. How does Glenn even know?

I take a gulpful of water and see Maggie pass a note under the table to Glenn. I smirk slightly at what could be written on the note. Glenn reads the note and looks at Maggie, a grin on his face. He looks back down and I see his arm moving, clearly writing something back on the note to pass back to her.

I look back down at my dinner and eat some of the beef.

"I'll go bring up Daryl some dinner." Carol says before heading upstairs with a plate full of food.

I haven't had a meal like this in ages. It doesn't take me long to finish it all. When everyone finished, Beth and Maggie started to clear everyone's plates.

"Need any help?" I ask Beth who stands by the sink, washing the utensils.

"Yeah, thanks."

I grab a cloth on the side and start drying everything that she has washed.

"I am completely stuffed from that meal." I said.

"It was delicious."

"It was, thank you for making it." Maggie says.

"All I did was cut up some carrots before cutting my hand." I laugh.

We continue to do the washing and drying in silence. Maggie left not to long ago and I don't know where, but it seemed like she was in a hurry.

"Well, I'm tired. I'm going to go get some sleep." I say after all the washing is done.

"Goodnight." Beth calls out to me as I leave the room.

"Night." I say back to her before leaving the house. It's pitch black outside, but I can just about see our camp as the fire is partially lit. I slowly make my way to the camp, trying not to trip on anything as it's so dark. When I reach our camp, I head over to my small yellow tent.

"Hey." a voice whispers, making me jump. I turn to where the voice came from and see Glenn, leaning on a tree trunk. "Sorry. Didn't mean to make you jump."

"S'alright. What you doing?" I ask him.

"Just thinking."

"About what?"

"Is this place really safe?" he asks me.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we thought the CDC was going to be safe, we had home for a brief amount of time. And then that was taken away from us. I felt safe here. Now it feels like it is going to be the CDC all over again."

"Why are you suddenly thinking about this now? Why do you no longer feel safe?" I take a step closer to him.

He hesitates. "Gah, I shouldn't of said anything." he whispers.

"Glenn...?"

He walks towards me and grabs my arm. He starts pulling me away from the group. "Glenn? What're you?"

"Shh..." he hushes me.

We get away from our camp and I start to question him.

"Man, I suck at keeping secrets. Fuck. There are... damn... I dunno if I can say now. I promised that I wouldn't." he whispers.

"Glenn, if it has something to do with our safety, you gotta say."

He looks at the ground. "No, nevermind." he murmurs.

I bite the inside of my cheek and clench my hands. "Seriously, Glenn. You need to say, if it is that bad."

"I can't."

I take a couple steps back. "Fine. Goodnight, Glenn." I say harshly, before storming off.

What the fuck is wrong with him?

I get to my tent and unzip it. I immediately lay down and sigh. He knows something, something bad. He told me about Lori being pregnant, which is bad news and he has learnt something else, which he cannot tell me about, so that means that it is worse.

I get undressed into my tank top and pajama bottoms, rolling up the legs as it is hot. I don't fall asleep under my blanket as I don't want to become even hotter. It takes me ages before I can fall asleep and even when I finally do, I wake up a whole bunch of times in the night.

When I wake up from my short slumber, I stay in my tent, feeling too lazy to get up. My mind was wondering around a lot in the night, thinking about what the secret was. It made me sad that Glenn didn't tell me. I thought he would be the kind of person to tell me everything. After twenty minutes of lying completely still, staring at the zip of my tent, I get dressed.

I get changed into a lime green shirt and shorts, making sure my knife is in my pocket. I haven't used it yet and hopefully I won't have to and at that moment, I remember about giving Carl a knife exactly like this. It sets my mind on panic. What happened to it? Did his parents find the knife in his possession? I put on my ankle socks an my trainers before unzipping my tent and facing the world. When I step into the morning air, I stretch my back and zip the tent back up.

I have a lot on my mind. Glenn and the knife that I gave to Carl. Everyone is up at the camp, doing something productive. I look around the farm. By the large chicken coop, I spot Lori with Carl. He is finally up and awake? I smile at the sight of him, but I need to ask him to give me back the knife. I never thought about his parents finding it and getting him into trouble. I won't ask now. When I see him alone, I will ask.

"Morning, Dale." I say to him. He is currently at his RV with T-Dog. I dunno what they are doing.

"Morning, Charlie." They both say to me.

"Morning, T-Dog. Is your arm feeling a lot better?" I ask him.

"Yeah, it just feels weak, but it doesn't hurt anymore."

"That's good." I turn around and see Glenn walk up to us, holding a basket full of fruit. I roll my eyes when I see him. I turn around and say morning to Andrea as she walks past, heading to the tent that Daryl is in.

"Got some peaches if you want some." Glenn says as he reaches us.

"Thank you." Dale says as he picks one.

"You want one?" he asks me.

"No." I tell him, not making eye contact. Dale looks at me, with what seems like a mix of confusion and shock in his eyes.

Glenn then goes to T-Dog to offer him a peach.

"'Sup?" T-Dog asks, rubbing one of his eyes with one hand and retrieving a peach with the other.

"Nothing. Nothing's up. Why?"

All three of us look at him with confusion. I know that he is hiding a secret and that it is something that puts us at risk. Glenn shakes his head and walks away with the peaches. I watch him as he makes his way over to Lori.

"What's up with him?" Dale asks.

"Dunno." I mutter. "Dale, do you have any books that I can read?" I ask him.

"Yeah, but they aren't good ones. If I knew the world was ending, I would've brought better books. There are some in the RV. Go see if there's one that you want."

"Thanks." I say and step into the RV.

He was right. There weren't any good ones, but he did have Nineteen Eighty-Four, a book I haven't read, but heard that it was good.

When I get up from my seat, Carl walks into the RV.

"Hey, Carl. It's good to see you up,"

He smiles at me. "Doing target practice today. I wanna go, but I don't think my mom will let me."

"Well, I understand why she wouldn't. Guns are dangerous."

"I know. But I need to know how to protect myself."

"What about that knife I gave you?" I ask him.

He looks at me. "I dunno where it went." he says sadly.

"Huh... did you lose it in the woods?" I ask.

"I dunno."

"Okay, well... I'll see you soon." I say with a smile.

"Bye."

I step out of the RV with my new book and see Rick, Shane and Jimmy talking to each other by the car. I make my way towards them, wanting to know if I can go to the target practice.

"I'll hold down a fort here, but take backup." I hear Rick say as I get closer to the men. "After what went down with Daryl, I don't want anyone going out alone. we stay in pairs." When Rick finished what he was saying, he spots me making my way to them.

"Hey, I heard that there was going to be target practice today. Is it alright if I come along?" I ask quietly.

"Sure, you ever held a gun before?" Rick asks me.

"Not recently, but a couple years ago I went to a shooting range and I also played with airsoft guns with my friends. That's all. Not really any good experience." I tell them.

"All right, we will make sure that there is a gun, ready for you to use." Shane says.

"Thank you." I say and walk away from them, happy that I was able to go. When walking away, I passed Glenn who was making his way to the men with the peaches. We had a quick glance at each other, but I mainly had my focus on the campfire that I wanted to reach, so I could start reading.

I sat down on the ground, with my legs crossed and opened the book. A couple pages in and I was being called by Shane, asking if I was ready to go.

I got in the blue car with Patricia, Jimmy and Beth. On the way there I continued to read my book.

At target practice, it took me a while before I could actually shot the bottle I was aiming for.

"Don't lock your elbows." Shane told me.

"What do you mean?" I ask him.

"Here," he said. He directed my arms as to what they should do when shooting. "Now, when you shoot, take a deep breath in before pulling the trigger, only for a little bit."

I done what he told me. I aimed at the bottle, held my breath and pulled the trigger. The loud smash indicated that I hit the bottle. I smiled at my accomplishment.

"All right, now just keep doing it like that." he said, before leaving to check up how the other people were doing.

We had bottles, all lined up on a fence. It didn't take long for us to start shooting them down, one by one.

I looked at how everyone was doing and spotted Jimmy, trying to act like a 'thug' in front of T-Dog.

"Hey, come on, man. Don't give me that gangsta shit." I heard T-Dog say. I laughed and focused back on my shooting.

I very slowly managed to get a couple bottles down, doing what Shane told me to do.

Andrea was doing the best out of all of us. Shane gave her a better gun to use when she proved that she was the best shot. Everyone watched her shoot down a can in one shot. I am definately not good at all.

It takes me a couple shots before taking each bottle down. I watched Carl and he was a lot better than me, which I felt embarrassed about. To be honest, I think I was the worst person here. Well, Beth and I were on the same level, getting only a couple bottles down. When the mjority of the bottles were shot down, we all headed back to the Greene house.

"I was not good at all." I say to the guys in the car.

"Neither was I. I guess I don't suit a gun." Beth replies.

"I guess I gotta stick to my knife." I say. "Don't know how I'll be able to survive against a large group of walkers."

There was silence, Jimmy, Patricia and Beth looked a bit awkward in the car.

"Was it something I said?"

Back at the farm, we all talked about the practice whilst eating our lunch.

"It was so cool!" Carl exclaims. "I wanna go again!"

"Maybe tomorrow." Rick tells him. "You all done good, well done."

"Charlie." I hear someone say as I take a mouthful of meat. I look around and see Glenn, walking up to us. "I need to talk to you."

I get up from my chair and put my plate down on it. He starts walking off to one of the fields.

"What do you want, Glenn?" I ask impatiently. I'm still pissed about him, not telling me about what is going on. "I know that what you were going tell me was something to do about our safety. Have you told anyone about it? About the danger we could be in."

When we get far enough from the group, he turns to face me and he begins to speak.

"When you were going to the target practice, I told Dale. Told him about Lori and about..." he hesitates, "so, I thought I should tell you. I can't handle keeping this a secret, but do not tell anyone. Please." he begged.

I nodded my head, "Yeah, I promise."

"Okay," he gets closer to me and whispers, "There are walkers in the barn."

Okay, guys. I have a feeling that after this chapter you might not get another one for a bit. It's now November, so I gotta revise really hard for my MOCKs at the end of this month. I can't wait for this month to be over, because December 1st is when I finish doing the tests. Who knows, you might get another one this month, but it's unlikely.

Please, leave a review and follow this story. It's really encouraging. Saying anhthing makes me happy, even if it's criticism.

See you (hopefully soon)

XxX