The Strongest Survivor

The Camera

When everyone was having dinner, they discovered that Lori was missing and apparently when Artemis was by the fence, Hershel had left and Rick and Glenn had gone after him but apparently now Lori had gone after them and now Shane was going after her and the only thing on Artemis's mind was 'how was this group so dramatic?' she just finished her dinner before going outside to sit on the porch, she was sitting for around five minutes when the boy with the cowboy hat came outside to sit down on the porch just beside her without saying anything and they sit in silence for a while before Artemis hears sniffling and she looks over to see the boy crying and she is confused because nothing has been said to make him upset "Are you okay?" Artemis asks him and he nods his head and wipes his face "I'm just worried about my mom and my dad, I don't know if either of them are okay or what's going on." He says and Artemis nods her head "I understan'... before I found ma daddy and 'Thena I was scared that I would never see them again, I didn't even know if my family was alive." She says and the boy looks at her before he turns back to look out towards the farm road " 'm Carl." He says quietly still not looking at her " 'm Artemis, nice ta meet ya cowboy." She says gesturing to his hat and he smiles "It's my dads old hat from when he was Sheriff." He smiles and Artemis nods her head "ya daddy seems nice, saw 'im with 'Thena earlier... seems like a good guy." Artemis shrugs and Carl nods "he is... he's the best, I missed him a lot." Carl says and Artemis looks at him confused "Missed 'im?" She says and he nods his head "my dad had been shot before all this happened and he ended up in a coma... I hadn't seen him for ages and then one day, a group of people from our camp went to Atlanta for supplies and then when they came back my dad was there with your sister." He said and Artemis nodded her head taking note that Rick had taken care of Athena longer than she had originally thought, it made her trust towards the man grow, knowing that she could trust the man with her sister made her believe that she could genuinely trust him. "Was another man ever with ma daddy? my uncle? Goes by the name Merle, roughly the same height as ma daddy, bald, don' like others..." She trailed off seeing Carl finally look at her but he looked at her with sympathy on his face "About that..." Carl trailed off fidling with his fingers "What?" Artemis asks him and he looks really guilty "When my dad first met the group in Atlanta there was a... problem with your uncle... he uh... he hd taken something and started fighting with everyone and so my dad stopped it after he beat up T-Dog." Artemis remembered the man T-Dog from when he had helped her in moving Bruno earlier, she could imagine exactly why her uncle had beaten up T-Dog, she wasn't Naive she knew her uncle was a racist man, he used to make a few jokes about Artemis's and Athena's slightly tanned skin "So then what happened... because he ain' here." Artemis says and Carl kicks dirt around with his foot "My dad... handcuffed him to the roof..." Carl mumbled and whilst Artemis heard him she was shocked "Come again cowboy!" She says shocked and Carl looks back over at her "He handcuffed your uncle to the roof and gave T-Dog the key but then he dropped the key down a drain as they were rushing to leave and then they all had to run and so he was left there..." Carl says and Artemis looks at him with tears building in her eyes, as much as he was an asshole to practically everyone he did love her and Athena and he did make the effort, he had gone to rehab before the world had ended because Daryl told him sternly that if he didn't sober up he wasn't allowed near his girls. "And they didn' even go back? Not even daddy?" Artemis asks with her voice breaking and Carl shakes his head "No no they did go back! The next day they all went back but Merle was gone according to my dad, so he's still alive out there somewhere." Carl says and Artemis nods "So how old are ya cowboy?" Artemis asks him and he smiles "I'm eleven although I should be twelve soon." He says to her "What about you?" He asks her and she smirks "I'm eleven as well cowboy." She says and he huffs out a laugh "Are you going to keep calling me cowboy?" He asks her and her smirk widens "Are ya gonna keep wearin' tha hat?" She says and he nods his head "Then yes imma keep callin' ya cowboy." Artemis says to him and he laughs, she sees her father wave to get her attention and so she stands up "I gotta go cowboy, catch ya later." She says and he nods his head "Bye..." he trails off as she's walking away towards her fathers camp.