damnation → the walking dead ⁴

[ 030 ] the end of the line.

— CHAPTER THIRTY.
the end of the line.

"WAKE UP," A VOICE whispers.

She has nothing to wake up from.

Her eyes remain open.

She's not asleep.

Oh how desperately she's wants everything to be a nightmare. Not real. Not real. Not real.

"Wake up!"

odessa grimes, the sewers of alexandria.

Odessa remembers the day Carl was born. She sat in the waiting room with her Uncle Shane. Lori's mother and Rick were in the hospital room with Lori. Her other grandparents had yet to arrive. So it was just her and Shane.

She remembers when she first saw her brother. It was love at first sight. She crawled onto the hospital bed with her mother and fragile baby brother. Lori had cradled her babies to her. This was long before her hatred for her daughter was born.

Little four year old Odessa promised to love Carl harder than anyone else in the world. And that's what she did. She did so until the very end.

She promised to protect him from the horrors of the world. And when the world fell, she swore she would protect him from all the bad people and all the monsters. But in the end, she failed. She failed at protecting her baby brother, her biggest responsibility.

When her knees hit the ground, pain shoots up her body. But it goes ignored. The stab wound in her side is suddenly gone. The fear of her own blood has vanished. She stares at a boy through her blurred vision. She can't take her eyes off of him. A boy who is four years younger than her. Who's always looked up to her, who's loved her more than anyone else in the world ever could and ever will. Her baby brother.

It slowly sets in. The truth. The truth of what's happening, of what has happened, of what's going to happen. Carl Grimes is dying.

He's just fourteen years old.

It's too late for the boy.

Odessa gets the sudden urge to hold him like she did when he was young and had a nightmare. She wants to tell him that it'll all be okay and that it just a dream. She wants to say the monsters can't get you because your big sister is here to protect you. No. She can't say those things. It's all a lie. Odessa failed. She failed. She failed. She failed.

Carl could be mean. Though he was never mean to his sister. He would lie and act out. He would do the rebellious things that teenagers do. He got into a fight, he cussed. He even smoked a cigarette once with Theo. But Carl was never a bad person. He chose to be good. He chose to be a better person than everyone else.

And ultimately, that's what brought his down fall.

Upon the horrible realization that Carl Grimes is dying, everyone looks in the direction. Tara's eyes water with tears. Beside her, Rosita eyes turn away to stare blankly at the sewer walls. Daryl cradles Judith to his chest, trying to protect her from the loss. Brielle lowers her head onto Daryl's arm. And Theo stands. Tears blur in his eyes as he approaches his family.

Carl finds Rick's eyes in the darkness of the sewers. Rick has pained tears in his eyes as he stares at his son. "I," he tries to get out. "I don't— how..."