like real people do | c.g [#wattys2019]

H O P E

FORT BENNING. That's where we're going. Rick thinks we might actually have shot there. Apparently, that's where they were going until Rick suggested the CDC. The group's been kind of cautious around me, but still, they've been very nice. I mean, it makes sense. I'm new and I've just lost my father, not to mention I'm still a kid... But I think I'm handling it pretty well.

Also, Carl and Sophia have been very nice. Being the only kids we kinda have to stick together, but they are genuinely very nice and funny. Sophia especially. I forgot how it felt like have friends your own age, female friends especially.

I'm honestly bored, so I take out my butterfly knife and start playing around with it. "Is that a knife?" Carl asks me.

"Yeah... It's fun to play with. See?" I flip it around, smiling as he seems impressed. "Okay, don't get too close, don't wanna hurt you..." I advise, chuckling as he shuffles closer.

"Okay, Casey, could you put that away? We're in a moving vehicle and I don't want anyone to get hurt." Lori asks me, frowning as she looks back at me.

"You seem very good with those... How? I mean, you were in the CDC the whole time..." Rick asks, looking at me through the rear-view mirror.

"Uh, people sometimes went on runs to get weapons. They wanted to leave, but they also wanted to be prepared. I asked them to bring me some knives and I trained myself. Had to pass the time somehow, and I ran outta books to read." I explain.

"Ever held a gun?"

"No... Couldn't really practice with those inside. And my dad wouldn't let me have them. He overlooked the knife thing, but guns... That was too much, even for him. Besides if anyone got a gun they'd keep it and get out of the facility..." I trail off as we enter a car graveyard. Only this one seems to have real dead people in it. And when you think that it can't get worse, we come to a stop.

"I said it, didn't I say it? A thousand times: dead in the water." Dale goes around the RV, muttering as we get out of the car.

"Problem, Dale?"

"Oh, just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of..." He trails off as Daryl goes around the cars scavenging for things.

T-Dog says he can draw more fuel and the rest start suggesting taking food or water. The dead don't need these things. They tell us to start looking for supplies.

Carol and Lori tell us to follow them. We walk around the cars, are told not to look when we find a corpse, we look, and regret it. And we repeat the cycle for a while.

Eventually they let us go out on our own, telling us to always stay within their sight. I find an empty bottle of water, two shirts and I'm in the middle of searching another vehicle with Carl, when Rick tells us to get under the cars. We do as we're told, and are completely covered as the first walkers pass.