Louise, Eliza, Sophia, Carl, and I all slept in the RV. Sleep may not be the best term, more like tossing and turning and closing our eyes only to open them again moments later.
Sophia was crying most of the night, apparently, Ed got bit. I feel happy that he's gone but then Sophia's cries make me feel guilty for feeling that way. The bruise he left on my face hurt whenever I'd lay on that side.
The morning Lori, Carol, and Miranda come in to check on their kids. I sit on the bench leaning my head on one arm and looking out the window while they all talk. I watch as T-dog and Glenn lift one of the walker bodies and carry it to the burn pile.
The blinds turn shut, cutting off my view.
"Charlotte?"
I turn to look at Lori.
"Would you like some breakfast?" She asks.
Not feeling hungry at all I shake my head no in response and move to open the blinds.
Lori grabs my hand before I can open them. "You shouldn't be watching that." She sits a refilled water bottle down in front of me. "At least have some water."
Wanting her to just leave me alone already I take a sip of the water.
A few minutes later the three women leave us to go out and help the others. Immediately I open the blinds back up. Moments later Sophia joins me on the bench. Her eyes are still red and puffy but she seems to be in a better mood.
"Wanna play a game?" I hear her ask. I continue to stare out the window, hoping my silence is answer enough.
Carl quickly sits down across from us. "I wanna play!"
"Louise, Eliza, do you guys wanna play?" Sophia asks the two. I watch as they squish themselves next to Carl.
"What should we play?" Eliza questions.
Carl lifts his hand in the air. "What about eye spy?"
The other three nod their heads approvingly.
"Charlie! You first!" Carl exclaims.
I'm not in a very playful mood but seeing as there is nothing else to do, playing a game might help pass the time; and hopefully cheer me up a bit.. Thinking of what to say I let my eyes scan around the RV. It is pretty messy, with bottles and crumpled paper lying all over the place. In one corner I spot some cut-up red tissue paper.
"Eye spy something red," I say.
Immediately the other kids start turning their heads in search of the mystery object.
"Is it that book," Carl points to a shelf full of assorted books.
I shake my head.
"Those flip-flops?" Eliza asks.
I shake my head again.
Louise stands up on the bench to take a better look around. His eyes search every crevice. "Is that it?" He yells as he points to the red tissue paper.
"Yup."
"My turn!" He shouts.
We play the game for a while, everyone having multiple turns guessing and choosing. Carl and Sophia noticed I would never guess so they would give up their turns and tell me to choose.
Eventually, they get tired of the game. Eliza, Louise, and Sophia go to the back of the RV to play some card games while Carl and I stay at the table.
After they leave I go back to staring out the window, something Carl finds extremely boring.
"How can you do this for so long? We've been sitting here for five minutes and you still aren't bored?" He questions me.
Shrugging, I say, "It's better than nothing."
"This is nothing. Why don't we play another game, like rock, paper, scissors?" He holds his hand out in anticipation of playing. I give in and put my hand out too.
He starts shouting, "Rock! Paper! Scissors! Shoot!"
I choose paper and he chooses scissors.
He smiles. "I win."
"Rock! Paper! Scissors! Shoot!" He begins again.
This time I chose rock and he chose scissors. A triumphant smile crosses my face but quickly disappears when we hear a shout from outside.
"A walker got him! A walker bit Jim!"
Are there more? Please don't tell me they came back.
Carl and I look out the window to see Jacqui backing away from Jim as the others start to surround him. Jim picks up his weapon of choice, a shovel. T-dog comes around behind him and grabs him, he restrains his arms. Daryl moves forward and lifts his shirt to reveal a bloodied bite mark on his side. T-dog lets him go and backs up. Jim repeats something to himself but he's too far for us to hear.
"He's gonna become one of them," Carl says to which I nod. I haven't seen anyone I know turn into a walker but the others all have stories of their loved ones turning, so I know what a bite will do.
Back outside I see Rick talking to Jim, Rick points to the side and Jim leaves to sit in front of the RV. Everyone except Jim and Andrea-who is still sitting with Amy-gathers in a circle. I'm guessing they're discussing what to do with Jim.
Carl and I decide to go back to our game. We can't hear anything anyways.
Darly starts shouting a minute later and we pause our game again to look outside. We see him rushing toward Jim with his pickaxe raised. Rick aims a gun at his head and Daryl freezes. Shane gets between Daryl and Jim. Daryl throws his pickaxe down and stomps off.
Carl and I sit there shocked at what just happened. I can't believe Daryl was about to kill Jim and Rick was about to kill Daryl.
"Daryl's kinda scary," Carl states.
Daryl's scary but in a good way. He is a little unhinged sometimes, but he hasn't killed anyone yet so he can't be too bad. Though he did just attempt to, maybe I should reconsider my opinion of him.
Rick grabs Jim and drags him into the RV. Sophia, Eliza, and Louise come rushing out of the back after hearing someone else enter.
"You kids go outside, find your families," Rick says to us before dragging Jim to the back.
We all walk out and I watch as Eliza and Louise go to Miranda, Carl goes to Lori, and Sophia goes to Carol. I got no one to go to so I just sit down in the shade from the RV's awning. My back is set against the wheel and I rub my nose. The smoke from all the fire causing it to itch and the smell of rotting corpses doesn't help either.
Glenn notices and tosses me a slightly stained bandana. "That'll help with the smoke," He tells me.
I quietly thank him and tie it around my face.
A little ways away from me Andrea sits with Amy. A sting of pain hits me as I look at Amy. She was kind and funny, and always made me feel included in the group. Her death was so quick and unexpected that I haven't had the time to process it.
Andrea sits next to her, staring at a necklace strung around her neck. Blood stained her shirt, arms, and even her hair. If I didn't know the dead rose I'd think she killed Amy.
As I sit there watching, it almost looks like Amy's hand twitched. My eyes widen and I sit up straighter. Does this mean she was about to wake up as a walker? Andrea is going to get hurt if she doesn't move.
Amy's chest begins to move as she takes slow struggling breaths. Andrea leans her head down in an attempt to hear the breathing better.
My own breathing stops. I stand up, ready to move if Amy starts attacking.
Her eyes slowly open to reveal the glassy cream-colored eyes that all walkers have. Amy grabs Andrea and pulls herself up to bite her.
Rick and Shane are talking to each other near the red Mustang Glenn brought back the other day. They stop when they notice walker Amy and quickly head toward her. The two of them pull out their guns. Others in the camp notice her too and start watching, unsure of what to do.
Andrea pulls out her gun and shoots Amy in the brain causing me to flinch back and hit my head on the back of the RV. Amy's movements stop, she becomes as still as she had been all night.
Lifting my hand I rub at the back of my head. Now I'm gonna have a bruise on the front and back of my head. I miss when my mom would give me an ice pack to soothe the ache. "Try to be more careful next time," She'd always tell me, and I really would try to be more careful.
I hated it when my parents were disappointed in me, so I always tried hard to do my best. Now I don't know what to do, they aren't here to tell me, and I feel lost.
Are they still back home, stumbling around as walkers? Or did someone shoot them already? Part of me wants to run out of camp and find my way back home, that maybe they didn't turn and they're at home waiting for me there.
Why was I the only one left without anyone to take care of me? Carl, Sophia, Louise, and Eliza all have their parents. Why did mine have to go and get themselves killed the first day?
My eyes start watering and I can't hold back the few tears that fall. Taking off the bandana Glenn gave me, I use it to wipe at my eyes and set it to the side. No one noticed that I started crying so I sat back down and remained where I was.
After a while, all the bodies were either burned or piled up in the back of a pickup. Ready to be taken up to the top of the hill for burial.
Everyone begins making their way up the hill for a quick memorial service. Rick and Shane were already up there.
Glenn stands in front of me.
"Hey Charlie, you coming?" He asks.
"I don't want to go," I reply.
"You can't stay here alone. It's not safe." He sits down in front of me.
"I can run away if any walkers come," I tell him.
"You know what, I think I'll just stay here with you. Climbing up that hill after dragging bodies around sounds exhausting." He takes off his red baseball cap and runs a hand through his hair. "I could use a nap."
Earlier I overheard Glenn telling the others what happened in Atlanta, he got kidnapped and was almost thrown off a roof. He definitely deserves a nap.
Glenn leans his head back against the RV and closes his eyes. I don't know how he's supposed to help me if walkers show up when he's sleeping but he needs this nap so I don't question him.
Sitting here I realize I've been doing a lot of just sitting and watching the past few days.
We both stay there, leaning against the RV until the others finish the small memorial. Eliza runs toward me, hugging her stuffed doll tightly.
"Why didn't you come up with the rest of us?" She questions.
"I didn't want to go."
"Oh," Eliza says and then walks away toward Sophia.
Glenn, still sitting next to me, gets up muttering about more work to do. "Guess it's time I get going. Stay out of trouble, Charlie." He waves a quick goodbye to me and then heads toward Dale.
Getting bored of my sitting location I go sit by the makeshift fire pit. Lori and Carol sit down too. Carol tosses a few logs into the pit and Lori gets a fire going. My lack of sleep catches up with me and I find myself slowly drifting off.
My dream was filled with old memories, both happy and sad. Memories of my parents, my friends, school, and the park.
I must've been asleep for a few hours because by the time I wake up, everyone is gathered around the campfire, listening to Shane talk. Carl's sitting in the chair next to me, and when he sees me awake he gives me a smile. Shaking the sleep from my head I listen to what Shane is saying.
"-ost important thing here is we need to stay together. So those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning," He finishes.
"We're leaving?" Looking around at the others they all had looks of understanding. I have no clue where we're going but I have no other choice but to go. Even if I wanted to stay I know Shane isn't the type to abandon a child.
Everyone leaves and goes back to their tents to start packing.
Shane calls out to me, "Charlie, go pack up your stuff."
I get up and head to Shane's tent. He's been letting me sleep there since I don't have anywhere else to go. My sleeping bag is still in the RV from last night, I'm too scared to go in there now that Jim's sleeping in the back.
Deciding to pack up the small amount of stuff I have first, I take my backpack and begin to stuff everything back in there. The thin blanket, the stuffed dog, the markers, and my extra change of clothes.
Footsteps make their way to the tent and someone unzips the front flap. It's Shane, he makes his way inside the tent and zips it closed behind him. In his hands is my sleeping bag.
"Figured you'd need this," He says, putting the sleeping bag down and unrolling it.
"Thanks."
He begins packing up all his stuff into his duffel bag. When he finishes I watch as he takes out his gun and begins to clean it. He cleans it a lot.
"You should get some sleep. Gotta be up bright and early tomorrow."
Nodding, I climb into my sleeping bag, despite just having woken up from a long nap I still feel tired. The events from last night seem to have a lasting effect on my energy level. Closing my eyes I fall asleep to the sounds of Shane cleaning his gun and crickets chirping outside the tent.