"We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided." - J.K. Rowling
Chapter 2: Circles
Carl was a lot quieter than Riley was expecting. Maybe he was just thinking of a way to get them out of this situation. Or maybe he was just too surprised that he would have to deal with her bossing him around until they found Rick and Michonne again. Taking a quick glance around, she bent down and began to rummage through her backpack when she saw that there weren't any eaters in the immediate vicinity. At the very bottom of her backpack, she was able to feel the cold metal bullets and she scooped them up.
"They might not be too far," Carl muttered, scanning the woods almost nervously.
Riley pulled the clip out of her gun and began to slide her four remaining bullets inside. "Yeah, because running around the woods in random directions will help us find exactly where they are."
"Do you have a better idea? Because sitting around here waiting for them to find us is a worse idea than that." His voice was stiff and harsh.
"The logical thing to do is stay put. If they come looking for us, which I'm sure they will, it'll be easier if we stay here. We might end up going in the opposite direction."
"But if we're both looking for each other, then there is a greater possibility of us finding them. If you want to stay here, fine. But I'm going to go look for them."
Riley scowled and crossed her arms, waiting for him to leave. It looked like she was just going to go back to being alone again. Carl began to walk off into the darkness and he disappeared inside the brush. Finally, she was alone and she didn't have to deal with his snotty attitude. Now she just had to focus on getting out of these woods herself and finding somewhere to stay. She didn't know how late in the night it was, but she figured that she had at least slept for a few hours. It was probably around one in the morning. It would be difficult to navigate the woods at this hour, but she would do it anyway. She didn't have too much of a choice in the matter anyway.
If she ran into Rick and Michonne, maybe she would try and help them find Carl. He had been too stubborn to listen to her, but she knew that Rick wouldn't be able to handle it if anything happened to Carl. She had seen it when they had been fighting the eaters back at the office buildings. And Rick had given her water and let her come along when he didn't have to. She at least owed them that much. However, if she didn't see them, she wasn't going to go out of her way to try and find them.
Just as Riley was about to take off deeper into the wilderness, a figure slowly appeared out of the shadows. She instinctively raised her gun, but lowered it as soon as she realized that it was Carl. What was he doing back? Did he finally decide that it would be better to cooperate with her now?
"Thought you went lookin' for your dad. Find anything?" She raised an eyebrow.
Carl didn't say anything for a moment and simply glared at her. There was a little bit of something else underneath his initial first layer, though. If she was correct, it was hesitation.
"Did an eater render your voice box useless? If you're going to say something, spit it out and stop trying to be dramatic. I have to get out of here and find somewhere safe to say."
Carl looked away and muttered moodily, "I don't know which direction we came."
Riley smirked at his confession. "Even if I did remember which direction we came from, what makes you think that I'd help you? You aren't the nicest monkey in the zoo."
"How can you just do that? How can you just be such a..."
"Such a what? Not allowed to cuss?"
"How can you be such a bitch? You should be grateful that we weren't the type of people who would shoot you without a thought! My dad wanted to help you and you're just blowing us off!" his voice rose to a shout.
"I barely know you! What makes you think that I would follow you guys around like a puppy and do everything you say?!"
"You just don't follow anyone, do you? You make your own rules!"
"The government isn't exactly intact! Rules don't exist anymore! Apocalypse, remember?!"
Carl's fists clenched and he gave her a piercing stare. She stared right back, nostrils flaring like a horse. This argument was getting them nowhere. They might as well just be going in circles now, calling each other names and insulting one another. He opened his mouth to speak once more, but the cracking of a twig caught their attention and both of their heads snapped to where it had come from. Next, they heard a moan, then two more. A rotting hand appeared in the moonlight, reaching out to grab Carl.
"Run!" she bellowed, shoving Carl forward.
Not only had Riley just saved his life again, she had also gotten out some pent up anger. If only she could give him a good shove again...
The two of them began their sprint for the second time that night. Their shouting must have attracted the herd. Now they really were going to be lost. The only hope they had would be if Rick and Michonne had heard their shouting too. As they continued running, she made sure to keep her distance from Carl in case they had to switch directions rapidly. They were lucky to have escaped the eaters for a second time. Their day had just been full of luck. Luck doesn't last forever and she needed to remember that. She had been too careless.
They didn't get too far before she was needing air again. Shouting at him had left her a lot more breathless than she thought. Carl was thinking the same thing, because he reached over and pulled her sleeve roughly to stop her.
"Can't stop now!" she wheezed, looking back. She could still hear them moaning and shuffling their way.
"I-I can't breathe," he gasped, leaning against a nearby tree.
Riley tried to spot the eaters in the dark, but it was near impossible. She couldn't get a clear shot. It would be likely that she would miss if she tried. Best not to waste the bullets.
"Riley!" he suddenly called out and she looked over to see him halfway up a tree. "Get up here!"
Was he for real? Sure, climbing a tree was a good idea, but why was he helping her? He could have easily climbed up the tree without telling her and leave her to be devoured. He had every right to want to have that be the case. She had shouted at him, pushed him, and insulted him. There was no reason for him to help her. She had saved his life, but he had also saved hers. They were even and he was still helping her again.
"Riley!" he shouted again. "Give me your hand, now!"
She wasn't just going to stand there like an idiot gaping at him. With all haste, she jumped up, grabbing onto the lowest limb with one hand and reaching out for Carl's arm with the other. He gripped her arm just below her elbow and began to pull her up with all of his strength. Riley's boot skimmed the top of an eater's head as she was pulled up, but she was safely on the limb of the tree before it could reach up and grab her. She didn't stop at the first limb and began to climb higher until she felt that she was at a safe distance from the eaters below.
The only problem they had now was getting down in the morning. The eaters would probably still be around, or at least a majority of them would be. She glanced sideways at Carl, who was still trying to catch his breath.
"Why did you help me?" she pressed, keeping her hand firmly wrapped around the branch above her.
He remained still for a moment and then turned his head to face her. His piercing blue eyes narrowed slightly, but he didn't snap at her like she was expecting. "Because I'm still human."
Both of them were silent after that for a long time. In fact, it was starting to get light out before either of them said anything. He was the first to speak.
"Most of them are still around, but they've given up trying to get at us. Our best bet is to get down now and run again."
Riley let out an exasperated sigh. "Run again? Are you kidding? Can't we try to get over to the tree next to us?"
"Let's not argue again," Carl said coldly. "Look where that got us."
She hated to admit it, but he had a point. If they started to argue again, they might resort to shouting, and that would just get the eaters attention again.
"Fine. Let's just hurry up and get out of here."
"I'll go down first. You cover me and then when I get to the ground I'll cover you," he explained.
Riley nodded stiffly at him and then he began to descend. She followed after him, stopping halfway down and raising her gun in case any of the eaters noticed them getting down. He was being pretty quiet, so he wasn't noticed until his feet landed on the crunchy leaves below. A nearby eater made a grab at him, but he was quick and took it down with a knife that she didn't know he was carrying. He then motioned for her to get down and she shoved her gun in her jean, freeing up her hands so she could climb more quickly. A few times on her way down, she heard the oozing of brains as Carl killed off more eaters that began to notice them, but she was able to make it to the ground without being too worried that they would get overwhelmed.
Once she made it to the ground, they started to slip away, staying as quiet as possible but also going as fast as possible. A small group of five eaters were tailing them, but they would be easy to kill between the two of them. She raised her gun, ready to shoot, but he quickly shoved her hand down.
"If we shoot them, the others will come running! Don't you know anything?"
Without another word, he moved toward the closest one and grabbed its shirt, pulling its head down enough so he could stab it in the skull. A surge of hot anger crackled through her system and she quickly exchanged her gun for her knife and followed his example. Soon enough, the five eaters were laying dead in a pile at their feet. Now they could actually get moving again.
"So do you remember which way we came?" she asked, her tone slightly mocking.
Carl rolled his eyes before looking around. "Well...no."
Riley sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Let's just start walking, then..."
And so their morning began. There were no signs of Michonne or Rick for a little while, but Carl pointed out some tracks in the ground after they had been walking for a good thirty minutes.
"Could be them."
Riley rolled her eyes. "Do you know how many people have probably been doing exactly what we are doing? Could be anyone."
"And anyone includes my dad."
"Well yeah I guess... Could also just be eater tracks, too."
"We don't have anything else to go off of. This is our best chance."
"Alright, alright, you got me there," she muttered.
The two didn't have to go very far before the trees were thinning out. Gravel was the first thing visible and then the old, rusted train tracks. The footprints must have been from earlier or someone else. It was more likely that they were from earlier. Since they hadn't seen anyone else yet, she assumed that only she, Rick, Carl, and Michonne were the ones wandering out in the woods.
"These were from before we found you," he groaned softly. "The creek we found shouldn't be too far from here. We should head there to get some water. I left the jug in the middle of the woods."
"Sounds good to me," she replied. Any sort of running water sounded good.
"Whoa did I just hear that correctly?"
"What?" she snapped, her eyebrows furrowing. What had she said?
"You actually agreed with me." A small smirk tugged at his lips. It was barely noticeable, but just the fact that she noticed made it seem a lot bigger than it really was. Heat rushed up to her cheeks.
"Ha-ha." Her reply was incredibly lame, but she was so flustered that she couldn't think of a witty remark. So she had agreed with him. Big deal. Water was important, why was he making it such a catastrophic event?
"No sarcastic remark?"
Riley blew her ebony bangs out of her eyes in exasperation. "Let's just keep moving, okay?"
She picked up her pace to a speedy walk and he soon caught up with her. He was the one who knew where the creek was, so she'd have to let him be the one to lead the way. As they walked, she could still make out some of the footprints on the ground, but the further they walked, the more they disappeared. There appeared to be a good amount of staggering tracks crossing through and heading toward the woods they had just escaped. The eaters that they had run into... She wondered exactly what had attracted them to the woods in the first place, but it was possible it could have just been a herd passing through. The thought of the herds made her shudder. It was nothing she wanted to think about. Not after...
Riley shook her head quickly and looked away from the tracks. It was better to focus her mind on what they were doing now. It would be dangerous to get lost in her thoughts, especially if there were more eaters around, or worse, other living people.
"Hey, this way!" Carl exclaimed suddenly, veering off the endless train tracks and onto a dirt pathway.
Riley picked up a jog to catch up and once they were in the woods again, she could see the small creek just up ahead. Sweet running water! She didn't care that it was probably a dirty mud hole. All she cared was that it was something to drink and wash her filthy hair in. When she reached the bank, she fell down onto her knees and cupped her hands to scoop up the water to her mouth. It took a few good handfuls to keep her thirst at bay. Then, she splashed some water onto her face. It was like swimming in a pool.
The creek wasn't actually deep enough to swim in, but she could dip her hair in easily enough.
"How are we going to collect any of it? You got anything in your bag?" he questioned, rubbing some of the water droplets on his face.
She slid the backpack off her shoulders and pulled out an empty water bottle, handing it to him. "Only one I got, but it'll have to work."
After unofficially giving him the task of filling up the water bottle, she untied her boots and then began to walk into the water. The deepest area of the creek only went up to the bottom of her knees. She then dipped her head down into the water and tried to work the dirt out with her hands. It turned out to be only partially successful. However, she still felt refreshed and a little bit cleaner.
"Guess now we should try and head back to the buildings. How long d'you think it'll take to get from here to there?"
Carl shrugged. "Dunno. Took us a while to get there. Maybe half a day?"
"Well by the time we get there it should be a little after noon, maybe twoish. Let's hurry and just get this over with."
Putting her boots back on and her backpack over her shoulder, they headed back toward the train tracks.
"So what's the story of the hat, Sheriff's Deputy?"
Carl was silent for a moment before saying, " it's my dad's. He was a sheriff before all of this."
"Cute." She rolled her eyes.
"Where are your parents?"
"I didn't say you could ask me questions."
His eyes glanced down to the ground when he realized what she really meant. "Oh."
"Yeah..."
Riley never really liked to talk about her parents. Not after everything that happened. He was still lucky to have at least one of his parents. Or maybe he had both. She didn't really know since his mom hadn't been with his dad, but it was possible that she was with the rest of the group they were trying to find. She could be completely untactful and ask, but she didn't. It was something she understood, so she wasn't going to go bugging him. Not like she cared, anyway...
"Why are you so closed off?" he asked suddenly.
Her eyebrows furrowed. Why was she so closed off? That was a stupid question. Did he even look around at the world they lived in? Or maybe he had just been in a fairytale world until his group had gotten separated. He didn't seem like he had been, though. He knew exactly how to kill the eaters and he definitely wasn't acting like everything was okay. Maybe he just hadn't been in as dark of a place as she had been.
"Why are you so open?" she countered.
"I'm not. Just not as closed off as you are."
"Well aren't you just a balance beam."
"You're avoiding my question."
Riley stopped suddenly, her eyes narrowing as he caught his gaze. "You won't know. And you never will. You don't know me and what I've done."
"Everyone has had to do something they never thought they would. You're not anything special."
"Maybe not. But even though everything I've done might not be the worst, it has still affected me."
Riley watched as his eyes darted all over her face as if he was trying to think of something to say, but after a few moments, she realized that he wasn't going to say anything. Turning away, she started to walk again, her gaze intense on the empty train tracks ahead. Something shining on the side of the trees caught her attention and she swerved in front of Carl to go and see what it was. Maybe it was Michonne and her katana?
Upon closer look, she realized that it was a sign attached to a tree. All it had was an arrow that was pointing toward the woods. What was that supposed to mean?
"Did you see this on the way before?" she asked.
He shook his head. "No. But we should probably keep moving."
"It won't take long to look," she muttered and took off down the ghost of a path without waiting for him.
She heard him let out an irritated noise, but she ignored him. A few more signs were scattered along the way, and the woods opened up into a large field where a house was poking out of the tall grass. It was possible this house could have been untouched by others. Any supplies would be good.
"Now are you glad we came this way?" Riley shot him a smirk before practically leaping into the tall grass. It only went up to her shoulders, so she would still be able to see where she was going. Someone really needed to come in here with a lawnmower...
It was a fight to get to the house. Even though she could still see clearly where she was going, the grass was still tall enough to entangle itself in her belt and around her arms. She was constantly having to stop to yank the strands from her belt and push aside clumps of the grass to make it easier for her to continue on. The closer they got, the more clearly they could see the house. There didn't appear to be any eaters around, which had to have been luck. This house might not be a bad place to hole up for awhile. It seemed untouched and the creek wasn't too far from here.
"No walkers," he murmured, stopping in front of the house.
"No walkers," she agreed.
Still, just as a precautionary, she took out her knife as she approached the door. First, she pressed her ear against the wood. There were no moans or growls. Cautiously, she reached out and opened the door. It was surprisingly dark inside, but overall it was...clean. It hadn't been looted, unless the looters decided to put everything back in a neat order, which was unlikely.
Carl stepped ahead of her and slipped into another room. Rolling her eyes, she went the opposite direction and found herself in a living room. It was small and cozy with a pink couch and chair. There wasn't a television anywhere, but there was a nice little fireplace. Nothing really seemed to be of use in the room, so she headed to the hallway to find a small bedroom in the back with just a queen sized bed and a few dressers. She began to rummage through the dressers to find some clothes she might be able to use. A jacket maybe?
The clothes were much to big for her, but some of the light sweaters she found would be useful for when it started to get cold again. She tucked two away in her backpack and then headed back into the main hallway. Carl was in the small kitchen, but it seemed he had found food because of the cans on the counter. She picked one up an read the label.
"Canned potatoes? Guess that's better than peas..."
He rolled his eyes. "Any food is better than none. See if you can find any knives in the drawer."
Riley ducked over the open mahogany cabinet to the drawers and began searching. There was a drawer full of knives, but there was only one that was really useful because it was larger and stronger. It was so sharp that whoever lived here had slipped a cover over it to prevent anyone from cutting themselves. She shrugged, unhooking her folded knife from her belt and slipping it into her boot. She then hooked the new knife around her belt loop.
"Anything else useful?" she questioned.
"Not really. The two cans was all I could find. Everything else was spoiled."
"Alright. Guess we'd better head back to the tracks."
She plopped the two cans of potatoes into her backpack and then zipped it up. He was already ahead of her and heading toward the door. She made sure to close it tightly in case they needed to come back. The way back through the grass wasn't any easier than it had been before, but she had a technique down so that she wouldn't have to constantly stop to pull the strings of grass off her body.
The rest of the trip was made in silence, but she could tell that Carl was itching to get to the buildings to see if his dad was there. Hadn't he ever been on his own before? He must have been really lucky to have gotten through everything with his father by his side. She had only met someone her age one other time but she never really got along with that person...well she didn't really get along much with Carl either, but at least he knew how to take care of himself. The other girl she had met had been a complete novice and was always hiding behind her parents whenever something happened.
In this new world, everyone had to know how to defend themselves. Everyone had to know how to use a gun. Everyone needed to know when to stay away from strangers and when it was okay to approach them. In a sense, there were more rules now than there had ever been before all of this.
It was about mid-afternoon by the time they reached the three office buildings they had met at yesterday. On this side of the trees, it was hard to see them, but she could hear the moans and snarls. Riley crept up through the trees and peered around one of them to get a better look. Carl crouched down beside her.
There was about a dozen eaters. She and Carl wouldn't be able to take them all on her own. She only had four bullets left and she wasn't sure if he had any left. Trying to take them out with just knives would be suicide. There were no signs that Michonne and Rick had been up this way and she didn't see them hanging around the outskirts. It was a good idea that they would have been here, they just weren't here now. Maybe they would come along later? The best thing to do would be to head back to that house and then check back in over here tomorrow. If they still weren't here by tomorrow, then they must have been going somewhere in the opposite direction.
"They're not here," she whispered, glancing over at him.
He stared at the lot for a moment more before nodding slowly and sighing. "We should wait here, see if they turn up."
Riley shook her head. "Are you crazy? Look, I know that you want to get back to your dad, but if we stay here, we're sitting bait! Besides, it's going to get dark soon and we can head back to that farmhouse where it's safe."
"If they come back while we're gone, they won't know we've been here," he argued, his eyebrows furrowing.
"And you'd rather potentially get devoured by eaters waiting?"
Carl gritted his teeth and looked down at the ground for a moment. He then stood up slowly. "Let's go."
And then they began their journey back to the farmhouse. The whole day they had just been going in circles.
A/N: I apologize if this isn't the most interesting chapter, but it needed to happen. I needed to get Riley and Carl a little more comfortable with each other before diving into the nitty gritty. I promise the next chapter will pick up. This chapter is a lot of back and forth, which is kind of implied by the title, but I hope I didn't bore you too much. I tried to add some banter between them to make it more interesting. Anyway, I'm extremely surprised by the response to this! Thank you guys so much for all of the reviews, follows, and favorites! I'm really glad that you like the first chapter and I hope this one didn't disappoint too much! Hopefully I've kept Carl somewhat in character. But if you have any critiques, please don't hesitate to let me know! Again, thanks so much for the support and hope you enjoyed this chapter!
