Survive ( twd carlgrimes)

Chapter 18

MADISON'S POV.

We jump out the downstairs bathroom window and it's only a small drop, so we land easily on our feet in the back garden.

The garden is big enough with a perimeter of tall, overgrown trees surrounding it for privacy. I look up at the sky which is turning dark now.
"What time is it?" I ask Carl.
He shrugs. "Late."

"This place stayed pretty serene considering all the time that passed."
"True. Do you reckon anybody stayed here for a while? Like if they were traveling and needed to sleep for the night?" I ask.
He shakes his head. "Nah, the place was barely touched. There's no way they'd leave behind the amount of stuff that was back there."

I flinch, almost forgetting that to the this wasn't a home, it was just another pit stop to tear apart and scavenge what they can.
"Sorry." He mumbles, looking at my face.
I shrug. "Don't worry about it. I'm surprised you guys even found anything in there worth keeping." I chuckle darkly.

We walk to the bottom of the garden and look up to the row of trees that tower over us. When I'm close enough I grab a branch from one tree and heave myself upwards. I glance down at Carl who looks at me with a perplexed expression.  His eyes almost look annoyed.

"If you're comin' we gotta climb the tree." I tell him.
"Why?"
"Because it's the only way into the field from here."
Carl sighs dramatically and I roll my eyes at what I think is a lighthearted situation but when he speaks his voice comes out hard and cold.
"Where are you taking me, Madison!"
"I already told you. To the field."
He looks between me and the trees, unsure.
"Ouch. You don't trust me?" I mock.
Carl just sighs again and with a quick roll of his eyes he starts to climb the tree with me. He pulls himself up at a different angle of the tree and gets ahead of me in no time. I love climbing trees. I always have and always will.

I place my hands on the familiar branches and pull myself upwards, using my feet to support and balance me.  We climb until we're nearly at the top. Carl sits on a thick branch and waits for me to catch up to him.

I'm nearly up as far as him, climbing this tree is as easy as breathing. This is a tree I used to climb everyday. I can feel the wet, winter moss clinging to the branches and I climb like extra caution. I've fallen once before because of it. I don't plan on falling today.

Because Carl is taking up my usual, cleared out route on the tree I stay closer to the right side of the tree than I'm used to. I focus carefully on the branches above me. The dark makes it harder to see. I squint at the branches and notice that the next branch is higher up than I can reach.

Carl looks down to see what the delay is. I'm only one branch away to sitting next to Carl on that thick branch. After Carl looks between me and the next branch he makes a quick assessment and extends his hand towards me. I smile gratefully at him and nervously place my hand in his. I take a leap towards the next branch and he pulls me up the rest of the way.

Within seconds I'm sitting beside him and I struggle to balance next to him as my legs dangle, with nothing under them to support me. He releases my hand and moves it to my waist instead, using his other hand to steady us on the tree.

My heart jumps at his touch and I feel my skin heat, then, too soon, he pulls his hand away.
"Ummm, okay so now the hard part... We have to jump down and into that field." I tell him and watch his expression, which is hilarious by the way.

"What? Jump? From here?" He asks horrified. It really isn't that high, a couple feet. I'll admit it does seem higher off the ground since when I was little but I feel fairly confident that I won't break anything when I jump.

"No, from the sky. Yes, from here, smart-ass." I laugh
He laughs with me but I can tell it's a nervous laugh. He doesn't mean it.
"Don't worry, i'll go first. It's easy, I done this a million times when I was younger." I reasure him.

"Ladies first then." He gestures.
I smile and look down. I breath in slowly and then out and without over-thinking, push myself away from the branch and fall towards the ground. I love this feeling.

My body feels free and my hair thrashes and flicks against the wind, whipping me in the face as I fall, but it only lasts for about five seconds before I hit the ground, landing on my hands and knees. I feel a sharp sting in my knees from the impact of the grass floor but I quickly stand up and brush the grass and dirt off me.
I'm in the field again.

I look up at Carl.
"Come on, it looks worse than it is." I tell him, ignoring the fading sting in my legs.

He purses his lips. I see his shoulders move as if he's chuckling to himself and then his lips move too but I can't hear what he's saying, and with that he jumps from the tree, landing just like I did.
"You good?" I ask as he stands up.
"Yeah, you?" He groans. He must be feeling the sting.
"Yup, let's get what we came here for." I say, cheerfully.
"What you came here for." He corrects.

We walk through the field and towards the woods.
"Is this the woods that you talk about, that you used to go to with your dad?"
I nod my head and he looks towards the woods.

When we get to the entrance of the woods, I think back to what my father told me, years ago.
How many trees was it?
I walk through the woods slowly, counting each tree I pass.
"One... Two... Three... four... five...one tree to the left... Six...seven....eight!"

Carl walks beside me, looking at me like i'm crazy. Maybe I am.
I look up at the tree i've stopped at and look up at the highest branch and I see a scarf wrapped around it.
Yup, this is the tree.

I drop to my knees and claw at the earth below me, digging at the ground.
Carl still doesn't know what I'm doing and he still has the same expression on his face, but he hands me a thick stick anyways and I use it as a shovel, shoveling deep into the ground. This works better than my hands. I dig and dig and dig and after ten minutes of Carl waiting he sighs and grabs a stick himself and he helps me shovel.

"So, what exactly are we looking for?" He asks, while taking huge chunks of dirt from the ground. Thank god he's here to help me or i'd be here all day.
"A bag.... A big black bag." I say between breaths as I force the stick hard into the ground and fling dirt behind me.

"A bag? You came all the way out here for a bag?" He says confused.
"No stupid, its whats in the bag....That's what I came for." I explain.
"Oh." Is all he says.
"Sorry, I just really want this bag." I tell him and he nods and digs faster.

After about five more minutes Carl stops digging. I am about to ask why, but then he says something.
"Look Madison, I think I see something." He points to something hidden in the ground. We both grab ahold of the bag and pull as hard as we can.

At first it doesn't budge, doesn't even move an inch, but then all of a sudden it comes flying out of the ground making us both fall backwards and when I look to see where I landed I see i'm practically lying on Carl's lap.
I scramble off of him but keep my mouth shut. If I apologize to him then that means I have to acknowledge it. At the corner of my eye I think I see him smile, but I'm not sure.

I see the black bag the same time as Carl and we jump towards it.
I slowly unzip the bag and reach inside, my hands grasping the familiar object as if we were never parted. I take out what i've been wanting to get my hands on for years.