"How many walkers have you killed?" Sheriff boy over here asked. I started at him shrugging. "Too many to count."

He nodded in understanding. Figures.

"How many people have you killed?" His tone was sharp but gentle, like trying to sound firm and real but not harsh. It was a harder question too, faces and names blobbed into my head, counting to get a number.

"7."

I said. He cocked his head, his lips pressed into a tight line, his eyes shining. Surprise, that's what they read. I must admit I was rather pleased by this unexpected gesture. "Why?" His tone remained formal but his eyes oozed out of curiosity. I pondered for a moment before replying, I didn't have anything to lose anyways. "Two because they asked me to," I paused straining my neck to remember, "Three because they threatened me, and two the last two because," i inhaled deeply before concentrating on a firm spot and not looking into his eyes. " they were going to die anyways." My voice was calm and neutral, not expressing anything, and somewhere in the back of my mind I was somewhat proud of myself for pulling the act together. And also thankful for taking Drama classes before this. I lifted my gaze and I knew my eyes gave away nothing, due to the fact that he seemed to search for any sign of living in me. I guess he found nothing. It's not like he's wrong anyways. He turned and discussed with the man who was with him, and I looked down, even though he tried to be subtle I could still feel the man's gaze on me, judging. Which type of person I was. Mother used to tell me we could be anyone we wanted when we grew up, she never happened to mention growing up meant not always being the person you wanted to be. Looking around the bloody place I realized, I was way far gone from who I wanted to be and now it seemed I was maybe a little too late. "You're coming with us." The man's gruff voice brought me out of my thoughts. I simply shrugged and started to move when I realized, I had no clue where we were going. "Umm," I said, " where are we going?" " Not so fast lil' girl," I scrunched my nose at his nickname and he chuckled seeing my expression. "We still gotta get the food remember?" I suddenly felt stupid and I don't even know why, my face flushed and these were somehow the most natural things I'd felt since this all went down. Except bonding with Matt. My face darkened and I could tell he saw it, he silently went off and left me to my sorrow.

Carl's POV

We were just getting out of the Factory, four bags full of food and water bottles. Big bags too. I looked over to the edge of the forest where the girl was leaning on a tree looking frankly miserable. "What's up with her?" I asked Daryl as we loaded the bags into the car. "Don't know man. We were talking and for a moment there she seemed like an actual girl your age, then her face darkened and.." He shrugged.

I thought about how we'd seen her fight. How I'd seen how she cried for a guy who's head was bitten off and thrown to the ground, his body left a mess. She probably loved him, the thought at the back of my mind nagged me. Yeah, I sighed, she probably did. To be fair no one reacts the way she did, not unless he was really important to her. I was impressed though, she fought like life didn't matter anymore, she used everything she could and all the weapons she could have possibly used. I heard her scream too, saw the rage aura she had from miles away from where Daryl and I were watching her. She seemed so defeated, I'd thought she would die of exhaustion out there. I was corrected once again when she picked herself off and stood up.

She's stronger than she knows. And I was intrigued by this girl, though I first shrugged it off as just teen hormones, I can see she was way more than what meets the eyes. Meanwhile I was having my internal battle, we'd gotten into the car and drove off into her direction. "Hey," I said which startled her and made me smile, " let's go." She nodded and got into the back of the car. " I'm pretty sure we haven't introduced yet." I said trying to keep conversation up, well I did say trying because I could see she was herself drifting off but at the last moment she said, " My names Kate. I'm 14." She was looking directly at me now and her green eyes took me aback. Again. " I'm Carl Grimes." I tried to say smoothly. We just kept staring at each other for another few seconds until I just had to blurt out something stupid. "Really pretty."

Real smooth big guy, real smooth.

Her eyes flickered, curiosity burning like flames in them. Daryl glanced at me with amuse and a knowing smile. Great, now both of them find me amusing. I am officially now the centre of attention here. At least it got her attention. Speaking of that, " Hey so umm this is Daryl Dixon." I nudged Daryl and he mumbled a hello to which I rolled my eyes at. Leave it to him for social awkwardness. I turned back around to try and get Kate's attention again when I found she was already staring at me.

"How old are you?" She asked.

"Same as you, 14."

She nodded then asked the most random question I've heard in some days.(Apocalypse and thangs remember?) "Want to play?" I looked at her skeptically. Play? I know for a fact she almost passed out and got up but, is she sure she's alright? "Sorry." She mumbled taking my silence as no. I sighed and gave in. " Alright we could play something." Then, distantly I heard myself talking to Patrick and telling him I'd never play with a girl. Most of them kept to kids their age and the only one close to my age was Lizzie, but honestly I didn't exactly like what her games consisted of. Walkers were not friends, no matter how hard she tried to view it that way. "We can play." I said snapping myself out of my thoughts. Kate's face lit up slightly but she restrained herself from it.

"Okay let's play something called 21 questions."

I raised an eyebrow and Kate just rolled her eyes. "We ask each other 21 questions about anything we like and the other person has to answer honestly, oh and uh no personal questions please."

I nodded and my eyes drifted to an image I had been having a hard time getting rid of. Lori was leaning on a tree, jeans and a faded red t-shirt. Her hair down and her face smiling. She would look at me and smile, she'd tell me she loved me. Every Night she would always say something different, always compliments though. And then the same thing went down, someone would shoot her through the heart, blood would be rushing out, her lips forming a silent scream of pain, and her eyes, oh her eyes were the worst. She'd see me and a wave of disappointment would go through me. It had been my job to protect her, I failed. The thing that topped it all off was after, I'd be broken, crying on the ground. I would turn to look at her but she was never there anymore, taking her place was a walker, with neon green eyes instead of her honey ones. I'd look at her and see a monster, and I was the cause behind it.

" Hey, Hey! Carl are you there?" Her voice snapped me out of the nightmare I was thinking about. The dream that somehow always found its way back to me.

" Uh yeah," I answered my voice hoarse, " what was the question again?" She sniggered. "I asked you what your favorite color was dummy." My face contorted into a small smile. "Hmmm, how about ?" She thought for a moment before saying, "Red."

She looked back at me. "How about favorite fruit?" "Well it's not like I've had any is it?" She laughed, "Just answer the question." "Alright alright, uh let's see, I used to like sour fruit. You know, stuff that usually went with lemon and salt." She nodded in understanding. " I used to love strawberries." I turned to find Daryl with a bemused smile while staring from one to another. "You guys keep going' don't stop cuz' of me" He had a glint of mischief in his eyes and I knew whatever he was thinking, it wasn't good. I decided to just try and ignore the feeling at my back about Daryl.

"So, favorite uh animal?" I have to think of better questions. "Dog." She replied smoothly not even stopping to think about it. "Cat." I replied equally fast. "Favorite number?" I almost laughed at the absurdity of the question. Well I said almost. "7." I answered. "Me too." The game continued on until we were nearing the prison. I saw my dad opening the gates and ran to hug him.

"Hey big guy." He used to use this nickname before all this, the only thing there seems to be left of our old life. He looked over me and saw Kate. "Who's that you got there?" "Kate, a girl we found while on the run." Dad looked at me quizzically. "What use would she be of?" I wanted to roll my eyes but restrained myself from doing so, knew this was coming anyway.

"She's a soldier," I said, "she can track and she can use a variety of weapons most of them which don't include gunfire." When he just stared at me I said, "Just ask Daryl."

Kate's POV

I could see Carl talking to a man who averted his gaze twice in my direction. A hand rested on my shoulder and my eyes slightly widened but then relaxed as I saw it was Daryl. "Are you sure I can stay?" My voice sounded calm and nonchalant and I honestly wanted to snort at how easy it came to fooling a human being. "Yeah," he answered, "don't think Carl would let you go anyway." My eyebrows shot but I didn't utter a word. What did that even mean? "Hey," Carls figure loomed over me as he signaled for me to follow him, which I rather reluctantly agreed to. I forgot briefly about my pain during the ride here. I'd forgotten Matt, again. Guilt is a hunter. "I'll show you to your cell." I heard him say distantly, and somehow I found myself nodding and following him, and all I could think was that if guilt was a hunter, then I was it's prey.