Self Inflicted

18

All we've been doing is walking, fairly slowly so Rick can keep up. Rick and Carl haven't really spoken at all, Carl is beyond pissed at him. We're doing the best we can, which isn't great. I treated Rick's gunshot wound in his leg the best I could using one of his sleeves. We come across a diner and decide to go in and check for food, standing outside of it with guns raised. "Wait outside, keep watch," Rick's voice is hoarse and he leans against the wall.

"You keep watch, you can barely stand, we can do this without you," Carl snaps back to his father.

"Excuse me," Rick growls.

"We've done this before. I'm going to help you clear it," he snaps again.

"Carl," I shake my head and furrow my brows at the boy, he shoots me a look but stares back at the door. Rick looks at me and then gets ready, throwing the green door open. We file inside with guns raised and sweep the place, looking in each direction. There's a long counter in front of us and tables and chairs thrown everywhere. Rick walks back to the kitchen and I slowly follow. "Kitchen's clear," he speaks to both of us but we hear a door creak and Carl is already heading into the back. Rick quickly makes his way over to his stubborn son and follows him into the room.

Tons of tables and chairs are stacked up forming a wall, where a walker appears and lightly pushes against it, growling. It doesn't knock it over, just hovers behind it. "That might be all that's left," Rick gestures to a wall of some hot sauce and a few other things of food. Carl raises his gun.

"I can get it from here"

"No," his father interrupts dryly. "No, it's weak. I'll draw it out." Rick picks up an axe and throws down the wall, backing up so it can fall freely. The walker advances with snapping teeth and Rick swings the axe, getting it stuck in the walkers skull. It just keeps coming, outstretched arms reaching for Rick. He battles with it and I reach for my sword but before I can, Carl shoots the walkers, Rick almost falling to the ground with it.

"I said not to!" Rick scolds his son.

"You couldn't do it with the axe!"

"I had it. Every bullet counts, we can teach you that one later," Rick further scolds his son and Carl just rolls his eyes. "See what we can find and let's move on."

-

We collected what we could from the diner and kept moving, it's getting close to dark now so we're trying to find a place to stay for the night. Passing over some railroad tracks we see a few houses. "Give me that," I say, grabbing the bag of food from Rick and he gives me a thankful nod. Rick calls to Carl who is up ahead a good bit.

"Hey, that one is as good as any," he gestures to a house off to our left. It's a cute, white house with a nice porch. We bust the door open and walk in guns raised yet again. The couch is flipped on it's back and things are thrown everywhere. Carl heads down the hallway and Rick walks around the living room into the hall. "Carl!"

"I got it, all the doors down here are open," he scoffs. I stand in the doorway and watch Carl turn around to face his father. He slams his fist into the wall and shouts.

"Hey asshole!" Bam. "Hey shitface!" Bam.

"Watch your mouth!" Rick yells at his angry son and I just look at Carl with pity. He's angry about the prison, about losing everything and everyone. I get it, he's still young.

"Are you kidding me? If there was one of them down there they would've come out," he stares at his father and challenges him and Rick has no words. Carl storms off up the stairs and leaves Rick and I to look at each other.

"It's hard for him, he's still young, you gotta remember that," I tell the hopeless father.

"I know," he nods. I head up the stairs too in hopes of finding some women's clothes, I feel disgusting. I walk into the master bedroom with my gun up and all of the doors are open, so I put my gun away. I sift through the closet and find a deep maroon shirt in my size that's a three quarter sleeve, that'll have to do. I quickly slip it on and head back downstairs to get settled and eat some food. We pushed the couch into the door to prevent intruders and

-

Morning rolls around and I wake up on the mattress I put on the floor next to Carl. I roll over and look for the boy and he's nowhere to be found. He's kneeling next to his father, hands on either arm. "Wake up!" He yells. Then we hear the snarls and pounds on the door and I jump to my feet. Carl gives me a look before rushing out the back of the house.

"Damn it Carl," I spit and throw my sword over my back. I run outside to the front of the house where Carl is walking backward and leading two walkers away. I start jogging up behind them when I'm cut off by two more walkers that stop me in my path, and then Carl disappears behind a building. I chop directly down on the head of the first walker, grunting and pulling my sword from its skull. A gunshot fires and then more and I run to the next walker, slicing its head off and around the corner of the building I go. Carl is laying on the ground, three dead walkers on top of him.

"Jesus Christ!" I yell. "You idiot!" I watch the boy crawl out from underneath the bodies and he throws his gun on the ground, hands on his knees he throws up.

"I killed them. I win," he replies arrogantly.

"Carl, this isn't a game, this is your life. This is all of our lives," I shout and scold the young man in front of me. "Get back to the house, now. I'm going to go look for some more food." He storms off and I stand for a second, shaking my head and sighing.

-

I'm gone for a couple hours, stuffing as much food as possible into a duffel bag I found. I didn't run into any trouble, it was pretty quiet. When I return a conscious Rick is sitting on the ground beside Carl. I toss the bag at their feet and they grab it, rummaging through the food and dispersing it as they please.

"Glad to see you're awake," I give Rick a smile. "If you guys are hungry have at it." I gesture to the bag.

"I already ate one hundred and twelve ounces of pudding," Carl snickers with a smile. I can't help but chuckle the boy, he really cracks me up sometimes. We enjoy the lighthearted moment for a second before there is a knock at the door. I grab my gun and so do they, Rick climbs onto the couch and looks out the peephole. He starts busting out laughing and slides down the couch.

"What? Who is it?" Carl presses.

"It's for you two," he smiles and shakes his head. What the hell does that mean?