Love's dark side – training
"Alright, now just slowly lift it and then pull the trigger" said Carl as he stood next to his half-zombie friend. It had been a bristling 8 months since Hershel's farm and Sophia's 'half cure' and honestly, things were going quite well. A couple of days ago, the group had come across a prison and had claimed it for their own and had even come across another small group of survivors; five prisoners but only two were actually excepted into the group. At this point in time, Carl and Sophia were standing by the chain fence; the latter holding a revolver handgun within her grip. Yes, Carl was teaching Sophia how to use a firearm.
In fact, the entire group had been teaching Sophia A LOT of things lately. Carol had helped her daughter with walking normally again (well, she was still a bit slow but she had gotten better), the entire green family had started to help her recover her average skills (writing, talking more clearly, she would even have to read a bit if they could find a book) and Rick, Carl and Daryl were given the task of training the young Pelitier to protect herself.
This however, had not gone the way the trio had planned. Yes, they knew it would take a while because Sophia couldn't move her body as accurately anymore but they had been on the same task for FOUR DAYS, the task for Sophia to shoot a part of a tree with a target on it. From the start, the human-zombie hybrid had tried to talk her way out of and being who they were, the boys wouldn't allow it but by the second day of the first task, Rick and Daryl had gotten tired of waiting and told Carl to fetch them when she hit the target.
Sophia raised the revolver as steadily as she could (which wasn't that well) and closed her left eye to try and get a better aim down the iron sight. A wave of silence then overtook the pair as Carl awaited the 'boom' of the firearm and after a few seconds, it finally came as well as a frustrated moan from Sophia as the bullet skimmed the tree and was nowhere near the target.
"Carl" she began. "...Can we not just... stop t-th-this? It's getting... kinda old" she finished with a displeased look on her face. "No Sophia" Carl said sternly in response. "You have to know how to protect yourself from the enemy." Sophia used her milky eyes to look directly into Carl's own coloured ones as an unamused facial expression evidently appeared on her face. "Carl...I don't NEED to protect myself because 'the enemy' won't ever attack me" she said, referring to the other walkers. As Carl was about to counter, he closed his mouth in defeat when he realised she was right; the walkers wouldn't attack her whilst she was partly one of them. Sophia suddenly smirked uncharacteristically. "Besides... if they did... you would probably save me."
Carl 'accidentally' allowed a blush to appear on his cheeks. Even though he would NEVER admit it to anyone, Carl had a crush on Sophia Pelitier... still. He had had a crush on her since he first met her and even though she now had monstrous like features, under all that, she was the same sweet, caring girl. Carl turned away from his smirking friend to hide his blush. "You're right" he started. "I probably would so I guess there is no need to carry on training you." Sophia let what sounded like a happy cheer escape from her throat as she walked towards Carl and put her grey zombie hand on his flushed cheeks. This only intensified his blush and this didn't go unnoticed by Sophia.
"Aw, am I making you all embarrassed?" she asked teasingly. Carl glared at her even though she was right before using his human white hand to move her walker grey one from his cheek. "Don't do that again please" he asked to which Sophia smirked again and put a hand on her hip. "And take that smirk off your face, it's annoying." The girl stuck her tongue out at him for a reply to which Carl rolled his eyes and they began to walk back to their cell block.
When the pair returned to the cell block, they were immediately spotted by Rick and Daryl. As they were about to join them, they heard someone call "Sophia" from behind them; they turned to see Carol Pelitier. "You go talk to your mum" Carl said to the human-zombie hybrid. "I'll go see what Rick and Daryl want." Following her friend's 'orders', Sophia walked as fast as she could towards her loving mother. "Y-Yes... mama?" she asked. Carol simply smiled and brought her daughter into a hug. "Nothing in particular, dear, just wanted to ask how your 'skills recovery' is going" she said, emphasising the 'skills recovery' with air speech marks.
"It's going really w-well" she started, getting caught on the last word. "Thanks to y-you, I'm... I'm getting u-used to walk...walking normally a-agian, the Greenes are helping me recover my... average skills and the boys are helping me... learn to d-defend myself." Carol beamed in response and pecked her daughter's grey cheek in a motherly fashion. "Alright, you can get back to Carl now" she said, dismissing her daughter. Just as Sophia turned and was ready to walk away, Carol called her for one last thing. When the girl turned, she saw a smirk on her mum's face. "By the way Sophia, I saw what you and Carl were doing out there and I don't think that will protect you in the outside world." A white colour appeared on Sophia's cheeks, her equivalent of a blush. "Mum!" she hissed, clearly embarrassed to which her mum just laughed before the human-zombie hybrid left to find her friend.
As Sophia approached her cell, she heard the sounds of discomfort and annoyance coming from her friend Carl's cell. As her eyebrow rose in curiosity, she poked her head in to see said boy sitting on his bed; there was a mix of frustration and anger on his face. "W-What's wrong C...Carl?" she asked him. "Dad and Daryl asked me how well you did in training" he started. "They guessed you hit the target because we came back in from outside but when I told them what happened, they started..." Carl seemed to silence for a second as a flicker of fear appeared on his features. However, after Sophia rubbed his shoulder, he smiled lightly and continued. "They started teasing me about me and you; they even did childish things like make kissing noises."
Sophia couldn't help but laugh. "Well, if I really DID have to learn how to fight walkers" she began, a joking smile on her lips. "I could always...eat them." A fit of laughter erupted from Carl as Sophia simply chuckled; Carl was laughing so much he nearly couldn't breathe. With her friend now on the floor, Sophia offered her arm to him to take and when he stood up, his coloured eyes ended up meeting her milky white ones.
They both just stood there, eyes to eyes. "You know Carl" Sophia began. A small smile came across her lips as she leaned closer towards him whilst Carl began to brush greatly. "What Sophia?" he asked. By now, Sophia practically had him pinned against the wall.
"They can't really tease you if... if it's true."
And with that, the Pelitier girl's eyes closed as her lips locked themselves with his. For a second, she thought she felt him retaliate a little but that had just been him getting used to the feeling because after all, it was his first kiss... and it was with a human-zombie hybrid girl. Enjoying the taste of the boy (not in THAT way), Sophia put her arms around Carl's neck as he put his hands on her waist. The two felt like they could go on like this forever... if someone hadn't interrupted them.
Their kiss was broken when they abruptly pulled away from each other when a click was heard and a flash had occurred. Both teens looked at the entrance to the cell to see the one and only Damien Jenner, grinning evilly and holding a camera in his hand. "You two were REALLY enjoying that, weren't you?" he asked jokingly. Carl's cheeks went red whilst Sophia's went white and Damien laughed. Due to his fit of chuckles, he didn't notice the two lovebirds smirk evilly at each other.
When Damien recovered, he saw both teens glaring at him. "Damien" Carl started calmly. "Hand us the camera." Damien snorted before saying "And why should I?" The glares on their faces disappeared as smirks replaced them. "Because I'm not afraid to hurt you" said Carl. Damien was only a little affected by Carl's threat but would be ready to run for his life after hearing what the girl had to say.
"And I'm not afraid to eat you" Sophia said, bearing her teeth in a playful manner.
All the other members of the group were sitting around a circular table just chatting when they heard a scream. They all looked in the direction of where it came from to see Damien running towards them, a camera in his hands and looking terrified. "GET YOUR KIDS AWAY FROM ME!" he screamed, directing the plea towards Carol and Rick. As Damien turned a corner and disappeared from their eyes, Carl appeared shouting "Give me the camera!" with Sophia following close behind. When they too disappeared, the adults just looked at each other and laughed.
Rick and Daryl never teased Carl again when they found out he basically had a zombie for a girlfriend later that day.