The water shimmered in the midday sunlight as Carl, Daryl and Noah sat along the waterfront. Sasha and Glenn had decided to head back towards the rest of the group, while the other three stayed to see if anyone came by the river. Carl sat with his knees up against his chest while Noah had rolled up his pants up to his knees and was walking sitting on a large rock with his feet in the river. Daryl was off in the distance cleaning his crossbow and eyeing the water, his guard up at every moment of the day.

Carl stared up and down the river,keeping an eye out for any walkers who could have been following the noise of the moving stream. Carl was thinking back to the last time he was on the near the water, back on Hershel's farm, before Carl knew to be….

"Want to swim?" Noah asked, pulling Carl from his train of thought.

"No" Carl replied simply.

"And why not?"

"Because I said no"

The conversation came to a halt, just the sound of wilderness around them. Carl went to start standing up; thinking it would be good to go ahead and secure the perimeter of just sitting there, when he felt the cold refreshing touch of water on his face. Carl recoiled and wiped the water from his face and glared at Noah who had an amused look on his face.

"What the hell Noah?" Carl asked

Noah chuckled "You really need a bath"

Carl rolled his eyes and made the motions to stand again when Noah splashed him again.

"Dude stop" Carl said, wiping his face again.

"Stop what?" Noah asked, splashing water towards Carl again.

"Dude!" Carl yelled.

"Yea?" Noah said between a laugh and tossing more water at Carl.

"Stop!" Carl yelled out, picking up a rock from beside him and chucking it at Noah. There was a thud and a loud splash, and when Carl cleared the water from his face Noah wasn't there anymore. Carl stood and walked to where Noah was sitting, "Noah?" he called out. He didn't reply.

Carl looked from the shoreline and into the water and saw Noah's body floating in the water, and the tint of red leaking from the side of his head. Panic set in and Carl started breathing quickly, "Noah" he said under his breath and leaped into the river. Carl swam sloppily towards Noah's body and when he reached it pulled it closer to himself.

"Noah come on" Carl muttered, trying to shake him awake. Noah's eyes were closed and blood was running from his nose and into the river and it was getting hard to keep both of them floating. Carl felt his eyes start to burn end he reached up to wipe his eyes when he felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist, lift him up and then pull him into the water.

And all he could do was scream.

xxx

Rick, Sasha, Glenn, Carol and Abraham walked through the dense forestry towards where Glenn and Sasha said the river was. Rick didn't know if the river could be trusted so he left the rest of the group back at camp to start clearing the campsite. With running and clean water, they can't be the first people to find it and definitely won't be the last.

Everyone was silent outside of the directions Glenn whispered to the rest of the group. Everyone understood how it was to be heading towards such an open and desirable resource and that no one knew the area, so being as cautious as possible was the best move. Glenn could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up from the tension of the situation.

/Shliick/

Everyone stopped and spun around, weapons drawn and eyes alert for any possible danger. However, everyone lowered their weapons when they saw that all it was was the sound of Carol burying a knife in the side of a walker's head, and as she slid the creatures now truly lifeless body down to the ground, she flashed an apologetic smile at the rest of the gang.

"Sorry about that" She said warmly, wiping her blade against her thigh.

Rick nodded and turned back towards Glenn to signal for him to continue leading the group towards the river. Rick felt the presence of someone standing close to him and turned to see it was just Abraham.

"So if it's clear, we gonna make camp there?" Abraham asked, keeping his eyes forward.

"We'll decide when if it's clear." Rick said bluntly. "But if it is, we stay one more night. We don't make camp directly near the river because it's too open, find a nearby refill ur water supply, then we leave."

"And where are we leaving to exactly?" Sasha said, chiming in on the conversation.

Rick remained silent and the conversation ended there and it back to the silence of the forest; that was until a shrill scream broke through the otherwise cool ambiance of the forest.

Everyone knew who the scream came from, everyone turned to Rick.

"Carl!" Rick yelled out, whipping his gun from its holster and taking off ahead of the group with everyone following behind him.

xxx

Water bubbles flew from Carl's mouth and into the silence of the underwater world. Carl had his eyes open and could see the muddy bottom of the river, the sacred fish fleeing from the motion of this scene, the numerous other items floating in the water from the world that used to be.

Carl almost forgot he had been drug underwater until his lungs and nostrils began to burn and he began fighting towards the surface of the water. He looked around for another pair of legs outside his own and Noah's but saw none, so what drug him under?

Carl broke the surface and immediately sucked in a large gulp of air, that further seared his lungs and made his chest tighten, that sent him into a coughing fit. There was another sound outside of Carl's coughing, and it was laughter. Carl turned around, pain tears in his eyes to see who was laughing and his eyes fell upon the completely conscious Noah. Noah's eyes were also filled with tears but from joy not pain, even though his nose was still bleeding.

"What the fuck Noah?!" Carl asked angrily, his coughing finally dying down and getting water out of his face.

"What?" Noah said between laughs, "I got you in the water didn't I?"

"That wasn't funny, I thought you were dead and I was attacked."

"Okay come on, it was a little funny." Noah said behind his laughter that had not stopped.

"Akey key key" Carl said mocking his laughter and splashing water at him.

"Oh really?" Noah said, splashing Carl back.

"Yes really" Carl said, laughing and reaching over, grabbing the top of Noah's head and pushing him under. Carl started laughing and then felt something between his legs, and then being raised as Noah's head rose out of the water. Noah grabbed onto Carl's legs that were wrapped around his shoulders, and Carl wrapped his arms around Noah's head.

"No no no!" Carl yelled out joyously, a broad smile on his face and his eyes closed right before both he and Noah hit the water.

Noah and Carl both sat under the water laughing in front of each other, just floating there. Carl reached out and pushed and kick'd Noah jokingly, trying to push im deeper into the water, and Noah grabbed onto Carl's hand, then reached over and grabbed onto the boy's waist, pulling Carl closer to him until they were chest to chest.

Noah continued to laugh under the water, but whatever little amount of air that was in Carl's lungs left as soon as he registered Noah's hand on his waist, and their chests touching. He felt a burning fire inside of his stomach and the water felt boiling hot all of a sudden; he was uncomfortable and he didn't know why. He took a second looking at Noah's goofy smiling face, how his innocently honest smile was so large it forced his eyes closed. How his otherside gravity defying hair floated around in the water.

The water was boiling and Carl couldn't breath.

Carl pushed away from Noah and began swimming towards the surface, and when he broke it he flipped his drenched hair out of his face and saw his father and a couple others standing along the shoreline, weapons drawn and all looking at him. He heard the sound of Noah breaking the surface behind him.

"Carl!" Rick yelled, rage clear on his face.

Carl's gut dropped.

xxx

Carl and Noah both stood drenched in front of Rick, neither one of them looking at him. Everyone else had went to search the perimeter of the river, leaving the trio to just there.

"So let me get this straight," Rick began, trying to keep his anger under control. "You threw a rock at Noah, caused him to bleed and then you both went into the water; fully clothed, and then plashed around giggling like a bunch of schoolgirls?"

"Well…" Noah began.

"No, you don't speak" Rick said towards Noah, cutting him off. Noah closed his mouth, and decided to just sit there silently. There was a moment or two when no one was speaking.

"Well Carl?" Rick proaded.

Carl took a moment before replying, swallowing hard, "Yes"

"Yes what?" Rick asked.

"Yes that's what happened."

"Carl.." Rick began,, "You know how stupid it is for you to be making so much noise in an unfamiliar location that so open. You're lucky we got here first and not a gang of walkers or wore, some other gang looking to take this area. And you shouldn't have gotten in in your clothes, we don't have an infinite supply and we don't have time for you to get pneumonia Either of you."

Carl and Noah both sat there with their heads hung, either looking down or looking anywhere but directly at Rick.

Rick just stared at the duo. "What's gotten into you?" Rick asked rhetorically. "I'm disappointed in you son. You both go get changed."

Noah and Carl both got up and started walking into the forest back towards camp in silence. Once they were a good distance away from Rick, Noah looked back, then forward and sped up a little to catch up with Carl.

"Hey Carl," Noah said, reaching out for Carl's shoulder but the younger boy recoiled from Noah's touch.

"Don't…...Just don't talk"

((This took me all day to type haha, I'm such a procrastinator. Review if you'd like))