POV ~ Carl ~
Since the others left this morning, Gabriel has been trying to scrub the Termite blood stains out of the wood floor by the altar. Meanwhile, I've been organising our remaining, spare weapons out in front of him.
"Pick one," I tell him. "You need to learn how to defend yourself. We can teach you."
Gabriel stops scrubbing and looks up at me, disgusted.
"Defend myself?" he asks. "They said they'd go."
"They were liars, and murderers."
"Just like us."
"We protected ourselves. They wanted us dead," I tell him, and more gently, say, "You're lucky your church has lasted this long. You can't stay in one place anymore. Not for too long..."
I catch Michonne watching me from her seat on a pew, tending to Judith and looking unsettled by something. I push on...
"And once you're out there, you're gonna find trouble you can't hide from. You need to know how to fight."
Looking miserable, Gabriel looks over the weapons — two knives, two machetes, Bob's rifle, Dad's hatchet, and Carol's short-barrel revolver.
Gabriel picks a machete.
"Good choice," I tell him, "but, you — you're not holding it right. You gotta be able to drive it down. 'Cause, sometimes their skulls aren't as soft, and you need to be able to—"
"I'm sorry." Gabriel winces, then stands unsteadily, raising a palm in surrender. "I need to lie down."
I watch him go into the rectory. Michonne looks at me. We don't say anything, but a little while later Michonne goes to talk to him, but he shuts the door after long and Michonne comes back to me and Judith.
We leave Gabriel to rest through to the afternoon, but when we go and check on him, we find the room empty, and a small section of the floor-boards pulled up — about enough of the size for a full grown man to leave through.
I'm ordered to stay here with my sister while Michonne gathers her things to go and find him, but just as she's saying goodbye, we hear a familiar cry for help outside the church.
"Please! Let me in! They're close! Help! They're coming! Please don't leave me out here! Please!"
I rush out through the pews and towards the front doors.
"Wait!" Michonne hisses.
I try to pull the boards down, but they're nailed solid.
"Carl! Michonne!" Gabriel screams from the other side. "I had to see it! I know now! Let me live with it! Oh, God, please."
Michonne comes over, Judith in a carrier on her back. Wielding Dad's axe, she tells me to, "Get back!" before she begins hacking away at the board.
"Help!" Gabriel cries, the walkers' growling growing louder over him. "Let me in! Oh, God, please! Help me! Carl! Michonne!"
Michonne keeps hacking. I raise my gun when the board is almost split.
"Oh, God, please! Let me in! Help! Help me! Please, let me in!"
The board is broken and Michonne wrenches the door open.
"Come on!" I shout, pulling Gabriel inside — I only shoot two walkers before Michonne and I realise there's too many of them to shut the doors against them anymore.
They flow in, even at the mercy of Michonne's katana slicing through them as they back us up towards the altar.
"The rectory!" Gabriel yells. "Come on!"
YOU ARE READING
Sweet Tooth (Twd x Male Oc)
Fanfiction(NOT COMPLETE IDK WHY IT SAYS THAT!) After travelling during the first several months of the outbreak, Jasper de Luca is violently separated from his brother Patrick and found alone by a group of strangers. Unexpectedly, they are kind, and decide t...
