THICK SKULL , twd [ 1 ]

24. don't be stupid

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          MOST OF ONE'S LIFE is spent wondering about the other ones they could've had. One little thing could change everything. Just like how the apocalypse started with one little thing, one little disease and the world fell apart.

                    As a kid, Koa romanticized the idea of going to college. Decorating her dorm with band posters, becoming best friends with her roommate and hitting bong rips after every good grade. Uncle Shane, Rick and Lori would help her move in. Carl and Sadie would help her decorate, giving their opinions on the amount of stuffed animals she brought.

                    She never knew what she'd major in, still doesn't.

                     But that dream would never come. All those days she stayed up late to get good grades to get into a good college—all futile.

                      Brown eyes shoot open, gluing onto the cement ceiling of the cell that's been her home for five months. An old blue quilt is wrapped around her frame. She groans, pushing herself up. Band posters that either she's found or Glenn did are taped to her side of the cell, the makeshift dorm room with her roommate being her best friend. She can feel her dark hair messed up in the ponytail she put it in the night before.

                       Her legs swing over the top bunk. Five months. Five months since The Governor lost so much of Woodbury. Five months since Sadie felt relief for the first time since this all started. Five months since Nellie and Michonne found a stable home. Their people, even after the death of Andrea.

                         Koa waits to hear the honey coated voice that belongs to Beth Greene but it never happens. She climbs down the bunk, socked feet hitting the cold pavement. The bottom bunk is empty but made just like every morning. Koa gets changed out of the old hoodie she found and into jeans, a tattered black tee and teal leather jacket.

                          "Koa!" Carl exclaims, rushing over to her cell, "Dad didn't wake you up either?" Koa shakes her head, running a tired hand over her face, "No, no, he did not," She ruffles his brown locs, "Were you up all night readin' comics again?" Carl looks away sheepishly, obviously caught by the older teen.

                   Koa clicks her teeth as they make their way towards the outside of the prison. "Maybe," Carl chuckles, pushing the door open to nature for the two of them. Morning sun smacks Koa's slightly tanned skin. The garden gets closer and closer along with Rick taking care of said garden. It's good seeing him be a farmer, a calm man dealing with his grief as healthily as he can.

                   It's a fenced area that grows everything they'd need to survive in this world. But the best part? Pigs.

                    Koa fucking loves the pigs. Even if Rick and Daryl tell her not to get attached because they'll be slaughtered at some point.