Carl POV
Me and Dad rushed to the main gate and opened it as fast as we could. When we had opened it enough Jake can running through as multiple walkers were just outside. He stopped running and looked at me and smiled,
"How you doing." He said.
Oh my god. Did he really just do a friends reference now? It didn't matter, I ran over to Jake and hugged him like there was no tomorrow, and he hugged me back. It had been so long, over three months probably, maybe more. I had no idea he would still be alive, much less find us, it must've been an act of god. Jake let me go and ruffled my hair,
"It's good to see you brother." He smiled.
"As it is you brother." I replied smiling also. Ever since I was a baby, Jake had been there. He literally was like my brother from another mother.
"Good to see you Jake." Dad said as he came over to hug Jake,
"Good to see you to Sir." He answered.
"I swear I've told you before to call me Rick." Dad joked.
"Don't worry you have." Jake grinned.
I had to introduce him to everyone,
"Daryl this is Jake." I said leading Jake over to our own badass.
"Hey man." Daryl said.
"Nice to meet you." Jake replied.
"Mum you obviously remember Jake." I spoke.
"No I don't think I do." She answered sounding confused.
What? She knew him for basically his whole life.
"Nice to make your acquaintance Mrs Grimes." Jake said extending his hand.
Okay they're both being jackasses.
Mum laughed,
"It's great to see you Jake." She laughed as she hugged him.
Jake then proceeded to go over to meet Dale and Hershel, and then meeting Shane not for the first time. The first time they met was when Jake got arrested, and by the look on Shane's face he hadn't forgot about it.
He then went over to Carol and Sophia, making jokes to make Sophia lighten up to him and kissing Carol on the cheek to get her to light up to him. Coincidentally, when Jake kissed Carol on the cheek Daryl tightened his grip on his crossbow, and he says nothings going on. Jake then walks over to Maggie and Glenn,
"Maggie!" Jake greeted.
"Hello Mr Cross." Maggie jokes and she pulls him into a hug. Wait Maggie knew Jake? I knew Beth kinda knew Jake but didn't know Maggie did as well.
"Long time no see." He exclaimed.
"And this is." Jake asked looking at Glenn.
"My boyfriend Glenn." Maggie replied.
"Damn, you actually got a boy to stick with you." Jake joked. "I'm feel so sorry for you." He whispered to Glenn.
"But wait, Mags if your here, what about-" Jake started. He cut himself off midway as he saw her, Beth.
"Beth." He whispered as he went up to her and hugged her. He's hugging her? They were that close? Beth never told me that.
Beth seemed to take a minute to register but eventually hugged Jake back.
"You okay?" Jake asked her.
Beth nodded her head,
"You sure, you look like you've seen a ghost." He joked.
"I'm pretty sure I have." She joked back, but also being kind of serious.
"Anyways. I can't stay long." Jake stretched as he walked towards to main gate.
"What!" I exclaimed before running over to block his exit.
Jake started to grin, then to laugh,
"I'm only kidding you melt, you think I'd leave after I just found you?" He asked picking Me up and putting Me on his shoulder.
"Don't you dare drop me." I stated.
"Wouldn't dream of it." He replied sarcastically before pretending to lose control and drop Me. Beth was the only one who looked a little concerned when he tried that.
"So, what's happening with you guys then?" Jake asked.
"We live here." Shane responded.
"You got room for one more?" Jake asked.
"Well that depends. We don't allow thieves in." Shane accused.
"It was a one time thing okay, and the guy had literally stolen it off me a week ago." Jake argued.
"Shane just playing around, of course you can stay with us." Dad said glaring at Shane.
We all went back inside the prison courtyard and Jake couldn't believe it,
"Fuck me! You have this much room. This is amazing." He exclaimed running around like he's never ran before.
"Yep, and tomorrow we're going to clean out part of the prison." I explained.
We arrived back at the fire and Me and Beth sat next to each other and placed our arms around each other. Jake looked at me and raised his eyebrows, then winked at me and smirked. Well at least he knows, I presume.
"What happened to you?" Beth asked.
"When?" Jake asked.
"Before the apocalypse. You never came back." She said sadly.
Jake looked down at the ground, as if he was ashamed.
"I chose not to." He answered bluntly.
"Was it because of that night." She asked softly. That night? What night would that be?
"Partly." Jake said.
"But why?" Beth inquired.
Jake took a deep breath and said,
"I wanted to. Trust me I did. But I couldn't trust myself not to make it awkward. And I needed to stay back to look after Mike."
"Mike? What happened to Mike?" Beth asked worryingly.
She knew Mike to?
"You didn't know?" Jake asked surprisingly. "I'm sorry I'm the one that has to tell you, but he was stabbed by some arsehole and was in hospital for a few months." Jake explained.
"Oh god, I'm so sorry Jake." Beth compassionately replied.
"It's fine. I'm just lucky myself that the guy didn't stab me as well." Jake noted.
"You were there as well?" Beth asked.
"Yeah, Me and Mike were walking back from a soccer game and we walked down an alley to get to the train station quicker." Jake explained.
"He was okay though, he made a decent recovery." Jake informed. "So the last time you saw Mike was the last time you saw Me?" Jake asked.
"Yeah. I lost two friends that day." Beth gulped.
"Look, I'm sorry Beth. I shouldn't have stayed away. It was a dumbass reason, and if I could go back I would've done." Jake clarified.
Beth nodded her head acknowledging him. I decided to change the subject,
"How did you get here?" I asked.
Jake seemed to come out of the trance he was in with the floor,
"Well I was staying at my house until a few weeks ago, when the furnace went up and burned the house down. I was on the road for a few weeks until I found this cabin. There were already people dead and it was nearly all looted, and two men came around, probably apart of a bigger community." Jake started to explain.
Wait? Did he mean the cabin Me, Dad, Shane and Dale went to? We did kill people and loot what we thought was the entire place. As soon as Jake mentioned the cabin Dad looked at Shane and Shane looked at Dad.
"So I left that place the morning after and went to a nearby town about ten miles away. And it was completely looted so I stayed the night in a house with a massive fucking garage." Jake continued. Wait, the same massive garage we stayed in? Again once Jake mentioned that practically everyone was looking around. I can't believe that he was basically following our trails.
"And then the next morning I went to another village about-" he once again continued.
"Fifteen miles away." Glenn finished.
Jake stared blankly at Glenn,
"How did you know that?" Jake asked confused.
"Because thats how we got here. The cabin, the house with the massive garage, and next you went to a village that was partly scavenged, but not fully, and you found a map there and came here." Dad definded.
Jake looked like his brain was going into malfunction,
"Well yeah, I also went to my old high school, but yeah that's basically it." He said astounded.
"Wait. Shookvalley High School?" Dad asked.
"Yeah. Why?" Jake asked.
"Well Me and Dale went there, but there was a whole number of walkers outside it." Dad explained. "How did you get in?"
"Well when I arrived there, there was barley any walkers around. So I went inside and once inside I got cornered by a whole herd of them, so I had to barricade a door and climb out of a window back to the main road I was following." Jake explained.
"And you did all this, surviving this long, one your own kid." Daryl asked.
"Yeah, yeah I did." Jake responded.
"Well hats off to you kid, that's quite impressive." Daryl said as he threw Jake a beer.
"Thank you, but I don't drink. Not anymore." Jake explained as he chucked the drink back to Daryl, as he shrugged his shoulders and drank the beer himself.
"You used to drink?" I asked.
"After all this started and I was alone. I almost went crazy, at least I wasn't far from it. It got harder and harder as each day passed, so I decided to give it a try, and it worked for a little while, but after that, it just made things ten times worse." Jake illustrated.
Damn. If it was hard for all of us, I couldn't imagine how hard it must've been for Jake, being all alone out there. Thinking that everyone you knew and loved was dead. He must've been emotional dead.
"Anyway." Dad announced. "We've got a big day tomorrow, so everyone get some sleep." He finished
I watched as Jake as he stood up,
"I'll take watch if you need someone to." He proclaimed.
"Yeah that'll be good kid, thanks." Daryl replied lying down, next to Carol. And he says nothings going on.
Jake looked over to me and smiled, and walked off over to the upturned prison bus.
"You think he's the same person we knew before." Beth asked Me.
"I hope so." I replied.
And with that we payed down, with Beth on my shoulder, and fell asleep.
The Next Morning
"Okay, so we need to clear out the rest of the courtyard and inside the prison, Myself, Daryl, Shane, Maggie, and Glenn will go inside. Any objections?" Dad announced.
"Um yeah, Rick I can't go in." Glenn said quite nervously.
"Why?" Shane asked.
"Well. I twisted my ankle yesterday, and I don't want to be a burden." Glenn explained.
"Okay, fine. Does anyone want to go in with us?" Dad asked
"I'll go." Jake proclaimed.
Practically everyone looked over at Jake at that point, myself included.
"You sure? It'll be dangerous." Dad illustrated.
"When's it not." Jake retorted
Dad just smiled,
"Okay then, we've got our team. Now, Carl, Beth, Lori, Dale and Hershel, you draw the walkers attention away from us so we can find where they're coming from and block that way off." Dad ordered. "Carol, you stay here with Glenn and Sophia. Keep them safe." He added.
"Will do." Carol responded whilst hugging Sophia. "You want a hug to Glenn?" She sarcastically asked.
"Haha, very funny." Glenn replied sarcastically.
"Okay everyone, let's go." Dad said.
Jake came over to me,
"You stay safe alright." He spoke whilst putting his hand on my shoulder.
"You to." I nodded.
"Stay safe." He said looking at Beth. Beth nodded back acknowledging him.
Jake drew his sword and went over to join Daryl and Dad who were waiting at the gate leading to the remaining section of the courtyard and the rest of the prison.
"I hope they all make it out okay." Beth whispered.
I put my arm around her,
"They'll be fine. They've all handled tougher situations before." I comforted.
"I know." She said. "What if we can't stay here Carl? What if the walls or something are down?"
"Don't think like that babe, everything will be alright." I said before kissing her. She immediately kissed me back but before we could do anything else, someone cleared their throat,
"We need to go up to the fence." Hershel said looking at both Me and Beth.
We both started to really blush,
"Okay Daddy." Beth replied in her angelic innocent voice, and she grabbed my hand and pulled me up to the fence.
We both went in between Mum and Dale, and watched as Dad and the rest of the party opened the gate and went inside. We all started to smash on the gate and drew most of the walkers attention.
"Hey hey over here." Beth screamed.
"Come here. Come for me." I screamed.
Various things were shouted in the next minute, and we killed at least Ten walkers between us. Dad and Daryl were at the front of the group, whilst Shane was at the back, leaving Jake and Maggie in the middle. Whilst Jake and Maggie both tag-teamed an armed Walker with prison riot gear on, Shane took one on his own and managed to get his knife in under the walkers helmet and killed it. Jake then cut the walkers head off and sprayed blood all over himself and Maggie. I think I heard him say 'sorry', but I might've misheard.
"I can't see them! Can you see them?" Mum asked Dale in a panicked voice.
"Back there." Dale answered, In not such a confident voice.
Both Me and Beth tried to spot them, and we occasionally could, but we couldn't ever get a clear look at what was happening. Jake then started to run back when they had killed all the walkers, but stopped as it looked like Dad had said something to him. They spoke about something, and then opened a metal gate leading to one of the main buildings, and went inside.
"What are they doing?" Dale asked.
"They're pushing inside." Hershel responded. "Look there, that Walker looks like a civilian. They must be checking if the prison is secure on the inside." Hershel hypothesised.
"So what do we do now?" I asked.
"Well for one, both you two could help Me move the dead Walker bodies to outside the prisons boundaries. It'll be a real help in the long run." Dale offered.
I looked at Beth and she looked at Me, and we smiled at the same time.
"We'll do it." Beth answered.
Half An Hour Later
Me, Beth and Dale finished clearing out the courtyard just before Maggie and Jake came out and told us all to collect everything up and to follow her.
"Where are we going?" Beth asked.
"To your new home." Maggie replied as she picked up her bag.
"Oh you're gonna love it." Jake exclaimed as he picked up his own bag and helped Glenn up.
"Let's go then." I said optimistically as I picked up my bag and Beths bag.
"Really." Beth said dead-panned.
"What." I replied smiling.
She then kissed Me,
"Thank you." She whispered.
We walked behind Maggie and Jake as they led us into the prison building and to Cell Block C. We walked in right as Shane was taking out a dead Walker corpse.
"What do you think?" Dad asked as we walked in.
"Home sweet home." Glenn sarcastically remarked as he carried his stuff into his and Maggies cell.
"For the time being." Dad retorted.
"It's secure?" Mum asked.
"This cell block is." Dad responded.
"What about the rest of the prison?" Hershel asked.
"In the morning, we'll find a cafeteria and infirmary." Dad said.
"We sleep in the cells?" Beth asked.
"Found keys on some guards, Daryl has a set too." Dad answered, kinda.
"I ain't sleeping in no cage." Daryl mumbled as he walked past us. "I'll take the perch." He announced.
"Come on." Carol said to Mum as they went to a cell.
Beth had started to walk towards a cell, and turned back to me,
"You coming." She said smiling.
I couldn't help but smile back and caught up to her.
"Pretty gross huh." Beth said as we walked into a cell.
"Yeah, suppose so." I responded.
"It's actually, it's actually pretty comfortable." Beth concluded. "Check it out."
I felt on the mattress material and placed down my bag next to the bed,
"You find your cell yet?" Hershel asked Me as he walked in behind me.
"Um, y-yeah. I was just, you know, making sure Beth was safe." I answered as I immediately picked up my bag and started to walk out. Before I could Hershel grabbed my shirt to keep me in here.
"I'm only playing Carl. But if i get woken up in the middle of the night, or get a grandson in nine months, I won't be best pleased." He laughed as he ruffled my hair and walked out. I looked straight at Beth who was quite obviously suppressing a laugh.
"Go on, laugh it up." I said defeated.
She let it out,
"You looked like you were terrified." Beth laughed
"Well for your information I was." I said as I launched myself at her and started to tickle her.
"Carl stop." She squealed.
I eventually stop and see that Jake is standing at the door, with his eyes covered,
"Jake! What the hell." I shouted.
"I was just waiting for you two to finish. Rick wants everyone outside." Jake said. "Hey it could've been worse, I could've interrupted." He smirked as he walked off.
"Dick." I muttered. Beth once again laughed and kissed my cheek,
"You coming?" She asked as she stood up and held out her hand.
I took her hand,
"Wouldn't miss it for the world." I answered.
As we walked out, I saw that literally everyone was outside just waiting for us. As soon as Dad saw us he started,
"Okay, so Me, Shane, Daryl, Maggie and Jake are going to find the infirmary and cafeteria." Dad started.
"I'm coming to Rick, I'll need to be in the infirmary to see what's worth taking and what's not." Hershel added.
"Okay, looks like there's six of us going." Dad approved.
"I'd like to come to." I said.
"No Carl you'll stay here and look after our cell block, I need you to make sure everyone is safe, and to protect Mom, okay." Dad said as he placed his sherif hat on my head.
"Okay." I replied sounding unenthusiastic.
"Good. Okay everyone, let's go." Dad called as he and the rest of the party went out of the cell block.
As they left, I went back to mine and Beths cell, where she followed Me to.
"Carl, what's wrong?" Beth asked.
"Nothing." I mumbled.
"Carl, come on. Tell me, please." Beth begged.
"Alright, it's just. Jake's been here for less than a day, and my Dad trusts him out on a mission more than he trusts Me." I grumbled.
"You don't really believe that do you?" Beth asked. "The reason he takes Jake instead of you is because you're in charge when Rick leaves, and people will definitely listen to you more than they'd listen to Jake. And it's because Jake is older and can use a sword like a damn pro. And most importantly, it's because he wants to keep you safe." Beth portrayed.
She was of course right. It was stupid to be jealous of Jake, or be pissed with my Dad. It was just so childish.
"Yeah you're right." I agreed.
"Of course I am." She smugly said.
"Carl?" Sophia asked as she came into the room.
"Have you seen my doll?" She asked Me
"No I haven't. Do you want me to look with you?" I asked.
"Yes please." She answered.
"We'll just give me a minute and I'll come and help you find her okay." I said
"Okay." She answered as she walked out of the cell.
"Duty calls sheriff." Beth smiled.
"Indeed it does ma'am." I replied also smiling.
"I'm going to take a short nap, can you wake me in a little while?" Beth asked Me.
"Of course." I replied. "Have a good sleep." I said before kissing her and walking out to go and help Sophia.
I recon this could be our home for a long time to come, maybe even forever. I certainly hope so anyways. I'd hate for us all to be back on the road, constantly looking for supplies, constantly moving around, having to sleep with one eye open. We deserved better than that. Beth deserved better than that. And I'd fight for this place to keep her safe, I'd fight for this place to keep any one of us safe.
As I turned around to our cell, Beth was there, smiling at Me with her angelic smile.
God I love this girl.
The End Of Chapter One
So here we are, the first of many chapter for the third Carl and Beth story, Carl and Beth: Prison. It's been fun to write and I'm not planning on slowing down any time soon. If you have any one off chapter suggestions, that would be nice and might get featured, or even any longer term story lines, all would be appreciated.
So how was it? Good? Bad? Mediocre? Let me know in the review section.
Anyways, until next time, Goodbye
