Tour Guide ➣ Carl Grimes

41. A Sea of Undead

"For anyone out there who loved the obese bastard as much as I did, I just wanna say a few words. Fat Joey was not the most badass sonuvabitch, but damn was he loyal. He had a great sense of humor. In fact, we were just joking about oral sex with Lucille the other day. Things will not be the same now that he's dead. Without Fat Joey, Skinny Joey is just... Joey. It's a goddamn tragedy. So, let's have a moment of silence."

Hannah could feel Carl tense up next to her at the sound of Negan's voice of Jesus' walkie. They were all sat in the van, with Hannah, Carl and Jesus crammed into the back seats. Carl had only told her bits and pieces of what went down at the Sanctuary. He told her all of the Saviors listened to Negan without hesitation, no matter what it was he was asking them to do. He told her about the wives and about the one who had helped Daryl. He'd even told Hannah about the comments Negan made on his patch.

When Negan brought Carl back, Hannah could only feel anger inside of her. It stung her ears with every snide joke and jab the man had pointed towards them. It scorched her body when she had defied Negan's demand to move away from Judith's door. It was the only thing that kept her standing during those two days.

However, when she listened to Carl's story, curled up on the small chair in his room, it was as if she had no anger left to give. It was just before they left for Hilltop that he told her. She had gone over to the house, initially to help take care of Judith while the father and son prepared their supplies, but, as they often did, Hannah and Carl ended up resting in his room. She hadn't even asked him to tell her. She had decided long before that she would wait for him to bring it up, if he ever did. But she knew he could see the worry on her face. The constant catastrophizing behind her eyes. So, Carl told her everything. And as she listened, staring blankly at the boy before her. With his words came no anger, no hatred. Hannah felt nothing but heartbreak.

Rick pulled the car to a stop, pulling the girl from her memories. All around them she could see blockades of rusted up cars, strategically placed to keep them from getting where they needed to be.

"We gotta keep going," Rick spoke decidedly, "We'll move 'em, then we'll move them back. No one needs to know we were here."

At that, car doors were swung open and everyone got out. The plan was to push the imobile cars out of the way with the van, but everyone knew that would take forever, and Rick wanted to move quickly. That meant some cars needed to be pushed.

Hannah jumped in the front of a dusted, red Sedan, while Carl, Jesus, and Sasha ran to the back. The girl wouldn't have minded pushing, but she saw the look on Carl's face as she neared the rear of the car. It would be best for everyone if she stayed behind the wheel.

"You ready back there?" Hannah called out from the driver's side window. Through the cracked rear-view mirror she saw her three friends throw quick thumbs ups at her. With that, the girl turned to the wheel, placing her hands where she had seen Rick put his own before, and tried to make herself as light as possible. She wasn't exactly sure how she was meant to do that sitting inside of the car, but never-the-less she tried.

Once her car and most of the others had been moved out of the way, Hannah heard Michonne call Rick over to the side of the road.

"Look at this," Michonne spoke, handing the man the binoculars she had been looking through.

"Shit."

---

The wire was stretched across the entire road, held together by two cars on opposite sides. Along the metal, placed every few feet, were bundles of dynamite.

"What's all this for?" Michonne said as she paced the length of the wire. They had all made their way to the trap after she'd seen it. Hannah walked slowly by one of the cars at the side of the road, inspecting the mechanism meant to set the explosives off. It was times like these where she'd wished for Eugene to be with them.