"𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘥."
It was a chant Madalyn Taylor told herself every day. Every day since the world ended. She didn't believe it most times, but if she said it enough times it had to come true at some point. Right?
"𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦."
...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Nothing lasted forever. That was how the world worked. Things could last a very long time, but forever? No. Trees could stand for hundreds of years, but they still rotted. The earth had survived for years and years, but one day it would also crumble away. Stars lasted the longest, but even they would cease to exist eventually. That was just how everything functioned. Nothing was made for eternity.
Grief seemed as if it lasted forever, but it would fade away with the person it was inside of. Oftentimes, it felt as if it never went away though.
People promised forever, but those promises would always be broken. It didn't matter if that thing lasted a long time, it would never be forever. People died. No one could cheat death. That's the way the world is.
Death was a constant thing. It always had been. Before society fell apart, people died all the time. People were murdered. Sicknesses passed through their bodies before claiming them. Tragic accidents happened. Babies were born without a pulse and with no chance of survival. People grew tired and took their own lives.
Overnight, half the population died. Death was a cruel bitch that left no survivors. Well, that wasn't quite right. It left people alive where they would then have to live with the soul-crushing reality that the people they loved were gone. They were dead, and they wouldn't come back. The survivors lived with their grief until they too were taken by the grim reaper.
Death had picked its next target.
The wrong target. It was cruel and brutal and not at all what was supposed to happen.
Some people were meant to die but not him. Not the fifteen-year-old boy who had his entire life ahead of him. Not the boy who had been shot in the eye and continued living, defying all the odds. Not the boy who had a little sister that needed him. Not the boy who would never see the fall of the man that terrorized them all. Not the boy who read comics. Not the boy who would be leaving behind a girl that was desperately in love with him.
Not Carl Grimes.
Madalyn had witnessed death before. She'd seen some of the most brutal things. It hurt every time, but she had never felt so... numb before.
As soon as those words had passed from Carl's lips, everything shut off inside Madalyn. She'd fallen to the ground and stared at the horrific bite on his abdomen. She didn't feel the sharp rocks digging into her knees. She didn't feel her heart beating. She couldn't hear her breath. The world faded away around her, and she felt nothing.
