Sweet and Salty ~ Carl Grimes

Sisters - 058

They didn't have shovels to bury her body, but they did pick flowers. They left her beside that stream, put a bouquet of red tulips in her hands, and surrounded her body with whatever other colour flowers they could find. Brooks wished she could stay to bury her friend, but she knew that they all needed to keep going to catch up to that bus.

The next thing slowing them down, was Mrs Kingston. She was ninety, too slow to escape any walkers, too old to understand what was happening in the world. She kept talking about her Berty, and how late he was. Mrs Kingston still didn't understand the apocalypse, because she was living in her own little world. Dementia never had a cure, not even before the fall, so the group were forced to watch her, unable to tell her anything. There was no point in stressing the woman out, only for her to forget and go back to her own little world.

Lizzie was still upset that Brooks had killed Nancy. Lizzie, despite being 15, didn't understand that Nancy would've died either way, and her death was nothing less than a mercy kill. So, while the group were walking in the forest - she tried to prove her point. Brooks allowed tired Hershel to wrap his arm around her shoulders, and assist him in walking. Sebastian had his arm wrapped around Mrs Kingston's back, while he tightly gripped her hand as she blabbered on about how she needed to get fish from the market. Mika simply strolled along beside Brooks, just talking about her father and how much she missed him.

The older Samuels girl was trailing behind. Her eyes kept flickering to Sebastian, she never really got over her school girl crush for the older boy. Although, mostly, she was looking for a walker. The group hadn't come across any since they abandoned Nancy's body three hours prior, they assumed all of the walkers just headed to the prison along a different path than the weak group.

There was no denying that the group was weak. They had two pensioners (one with dementia and one with a prosthetic leg), a boy with clinical depression, two twelve year olds who hadn't left the prison in ages, and a fifteen year old who also hadn't left the prison in two years and thought walkers deserved rights. They had one gun... With five bullets left. The gun could hold six bullets, but the first was used to go through Nancy's brain.

Finally, Lizzie smiled as she watched a walker hobble towards them, from behind. The rest of the group hadn't seen it, but Lizzie did. The walker looked young, perhaps fifteen or sixteen when it perished. Its pink dress was stained with blood and dirt, its feet bare. Although, you could tell it had been turned for a while, probably since the start. Its hair was mostly missing, and its skin was all wrinkled, rotting, drooping from its body. The walker had little to no teeth left as its jaw snapped, arms outstretched to the Samuels girl.

"Here, girly, come here." Lizzie whispered, walking towards her with a smile.

Sebastian turned, wondering if Lizzie had spotted an animal or something. "Lizzie, no!" Sebastian yelled, watching the fifteen year old walking towards the dead creature.

Brooks turned around at the shout, and didn't hesitate to drop Hershel's arm and run over. Brooks pulled Marliya's knife from her belt as she sprinted towards Lizzie and the walker. She watched as the walker grabbed Lizzie's arms, and as the alive of the two welcomed the embrace with open arms. Just as the walker was about to plunge its mouth onto Lizzie's face, Brooks kicked out the (alive) girl's legs so she was on her knees.

With that, Brooks shoved the walker backwards, away from Lizzie. Brooks moved forward, grabbing its shirt, and pulling it into the knife she had raised. With the sound of metal scraping against bone, Brooks pulled the bloodied knife from the walker and watched as it fell, dead. Again. "How could you?" Lizzie screamed, standing to her feet.

Brooks turned in shock, eyes narrowed. "What the hell are you talkin' 'bout?"

"She was my friend! You killed her! You killed her!" Lizzie sobbed, screaming as her breaths picked up, her chest heaving up and down rapidly. Mika ran to her sister, grabbing her arms, but Lizzie shoved her away. "Murderer! Murderer!"