"𝐜𝐨𝐰𝐛𝐨𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐞„

eleven, tracking

"You sure you want this, kid?" Daryl grunts.
"That's why I asked for it." Carl says, the hint of a smile lingering on his face.

Carl had asked Daryl if he could teach him what he knows about tracking and hunting. Carl wanted to impress his dad, but, he was also thinking of the future. He wanted to step up when Rick couldn't be the leader anymore, and he decided his training should start now.

And plus, he'd like to spend more time with Daryl. They had known each other for so long but, never really had one to ones. And coincidentally, Daryl was also close with Jane, and he needed to spend time with someone who might be going through the same things.

They ventured far into the forest, stopping at every small sound they heard. Carl stood as still as a statue, and his eyes were soon met with that of a rabbit's.
It's soft fur blew slightly in the wind, and he couldn't help but feel a little bad for trying to kill it.

Pushing his hair out of his face and raising his bow, he shot, and for the first time, he had actually hit.

He turned to Daryl, a look of triumph on his face. They high fived, Carl still beaming.
"Not bad, kid. Only took you 50 tries."

They eventually decide to make their way back to Alexandria, and it's maybe an hours walk.
They don't have much to talk about, so they trudge along the woods in silence.

"Jane would've liked it out here," Carl says, startling Daryl a little.

"Yeah. She would've hated hunting, though. Couldn't hurt a fly, that girl."

Carl nods. He thinks about what he should say next. Should he spill all his thoughts to Daryl? Or should he let it go the other way? Neither sounds very productive for their 'healing process' as Gabriel calls it.

"Do you miss her?" He asks Daryl, and he hesitates.

"Yea. Quite a lot. But there's other people I miss, too."
Carl nods, knowing exactly what he's on about.

"I don't know why I miss her more than the others. It's weird."

"It's not weird, kid. It's normal."
Carl says nothing, but feels so much relief. So he's not going crazy, like he thought. Thank god.

They don't talk the rest of the way, until Carl trips straight over a root and plummets to the floor.
Daryl laughed, and carl scowled at him before joining in. It felt so good to be able to laugh this hard again.

He was realising that as the days passed by, it was getting easier. He thought of when he first got here. How distant he was. All he thought about was her.
Now, he could actually get to sleep, and he could finally laugh again. On course to keep going down this route, it was getting better otherwise.

His mind had clearly gone into autopilot, because before he knew it he was standing in-front of the large metal gates guarding the place.

They were let in, and Carl gave Daryl the rabbit strapped to his belt: figuring he could do something with it. Skinning and cleaning out the carcass was in the next lesson.

He turned away, thanking Daryl, and his eyes met Enid's. He waved, and she smiled back at him.
He decided to make his way over, as he hadn't shared a conversation with her in around 2 days.

"Hey, where've you been?" She asks, a smile on her face.
"Out hunting with Daryl. He showed me how to shoot with a bow, and, get this, I actually caught a rabbit!"

"No way! How'd you manage that?"
"It took a few tries. Turns out it's harder than it looks."

They laughed, as they continued walking down the street - Engaging in simple conversation.
"Carl?" Someone behind them said. They both turned to face Ron, Enid's boyfriend.

"Yea?" Carl said, with a certain unsuspecting innocence in his tone. Carl was really trying to be friends with Ron, but they didn't seem to be mixing well.

"What are you doing talking to my girlfriend?"

"Am I not allowed to?" He's still confused by Ron's words. After all, he thought they were friends.
Carl watches as Ron slinks one of his arms around Enid, pulling her away. To both Ron and Carl's surprise, she shrugs him off - looking somewhat offended in the act.

"Why are you being like this?" She says to him, her hair blowing slightly in the wind.

"I'm just trying to teach him that just because his girlfriend is dead, doesn't mean he can go stealing mine."

Carls face changed swiftly from confusion to disbelief, and then, anger. This comment came so out of the blue that it was like Ron had just smacked him in the face. His brow furrowed, and his features sunk.
How dare he? How dare he say something like that, I mean, he didn't even know her. He hadn't even seen her face. Did he even know her name?

Carl's reaction was spur of the moment, but, looking back - he didn't regret it.
What came next was Carl's fist making contact with Ron's nose, and he stumbled back.

Blood trickled down Ron's nose, and red stained Carl's fist. He turned around to walk away, most of his damage done, but Ron got up - grabbing him roughly by the shoulders.

The funny thing was, Carl was way stronger than Ron. He retaliated, throwing Ron to the floor in seconds.
It ended up being Enid breaking them up, her holding Ron back. 

"Punching me in the face isn't going to bring her back!" 

Carl was past it now, and all he wanted to do was walk away. So that's what he did.
On his way back to the group's shared houses, he ran into Daryl again.

"You skinned that rabbit yet?"  He asked, though not really interested in the answer.
"No. I was watching you get in a fight."
He looked down at his feet as Daryl said this, and was surprised by the hand Daryl places on his shoulder.
Daryl doesn't look mad, in-fact, he looks almost proud.

"He said something about Jane." He whispers.
"Im just glad he came out of it looking worse than you did."
★

A/n
sorry that Carl's chapters are so short compared to Jane's, I guess hers have a lot of story to get through and We kind of already know the story with the main group so I didn't want to bore you with all that. 🫶