I need you here with me // Carl Grimes [EDITING]

Seventy Two - Thanks For The Memories.

So since the beginning of writing this story I've wanted to do this and I've received a lot of comments and personal messages asking me to do more flashbacks so I'm doing it, here it is.

-Flashback, before the apocalypse-

"I think I love him."

"Lydia..." Sophie let out a sigh, she scratched her head, "You're thirteen, you barley know what love is and Carl... he's our best friend, if he doesn't feel the same it could destroy everything."

"I know! But I do know what love is Soph! And i love him!" I shook my head, anxiously picking at the material of my skirt, "it means doing anything for that person, it means bringing them homemade chicken soup when they're sick and thinking about them first thing in the morning and last thing at night, it means when they're cold lending them your coat and sticking with them through their lowest and highest times."

"Wow..."

"I know..."

I ran a hand through my hair, glancing up at myself in the mirror. Was it normal for a girl, myself, of thirteen years old to hate the person she was and wish to see the woman she would become?

"Sometimes I dream of leaving here..."

"Really? But where'd you go?"

"Somewhere where nobody knew who I was, I'd buy some land and become a farmer." I chuckled, "obviously i'd bring you and Carl with me."

"I never saw you as a farmer."

It was Carl, with his short cut hair and his arms crossed over his chest and his small-ish figure leaning against the doorframe. It was him.

"Oh really? Well what do you see me as in the future?"

"Well it isn't particularly a job but I see you fighting for what you believe in and the people you love."

"Hey! what about me?" Sophie questioned, throwing her arms up in the air.

"I see you working some swanky job as a CEO in a huge office building somewhere, you'll be running the tables on guys like me."

"I would've preferred a dragon... But i guess that's fine."

"And yourself?"

"Me? Well I don't really know, but whatever it is I hope it's beside my two favourite people." Carl sat in between us on the carpet and wrapped his arms around our shoulders.

*

*

*

*

*

*

-Time skip to hours after Carl, Lori and Rick left Lydia-

"They left me."

The words tumbled from my lips before I could stop them, I'd been repeating them over and over for hours, from the second I climbed onto Carl's bike and rode away, right down to the second I ran over a rock and flew over the handle bars.

A large chunk of glass protruded from my arm and blood pooled from around it, I could hear footsteps behind me so I quickly reached out for my rifle, well my step dad's rifle, but the figure grabbed it before I could.

It had become apparent to me that the person was obviously no longer a zombie as they would've eaten me by that point but only a few seconds later after they'd already pressed the gun against the back of my skull, did it become apparent that the person holding the gun was in fact Mark.

"What are you doing in the road?" His gruff voice spoke

"I'm not any danger to you." I raised my hands in surrender, "We know each other."

Cautiously I turned to face him so the gun was pressed agaisnt my forehead, but only a mere seconds later did he drop the gun and surprisingly pull me into a bone crushing hug.

"I'm so glad to see you."

"Me?"

"Yeah... I haven't seen a person, let alone someone I know in hours. Only the dead. It's out of control already."

"Are you on foot?" I asked

"No, I hotwired a car, you should come with me."

"With you? I thought you hated me."

"Hate is a strong word." He scoffed, "The only thing I would hate is to see you die by riding that bike through a group of undead... So please, ditch your bike and come with me."

"Where would we go?"

"Oh Lyds, It's not about the destination, it's about the journey."

*

*

*

*

*

*

"Are you feeling hungry?"

"I'm starved."

Night had fallen and we were yet to come across another living person, it was almost as if the two of us were the only living people on earth, but I knew that wasn't the case, it couldn't be.

"Here."

He handed me canned peaches and I was immediately glad he'd given me a food that I actually liked, I quickly peeled back the lid of the can and began to eat it's contents and after a few short minutes, it was empty.

"Damn... You really were hungry."

"I guess killing zombies works up a appetite." I shrugged, "So uh... Why are you all alone out here?"

"My parents were gone when I got home, they packed a bag and they left me without even a goodbye, they'd always said they wanted to get away from me, how they wanted to pack me off to military school, I just never thought they were serious." He sighed, "They left me a couple cans of food and a box of matches but that was it, not even a note."

"I'm so sorry Mark..."

"It's not you who needs to be sorry. They're the ones who should be sorry." He gritted his teeth, "What happened to your parents?"

"Dead."

"I'm sorry about that... And your friends?"

"Carl and his family abandoned me and as for Sophie? I haven't seen her since yesterday... She's probably one of them by now, I just didn't want to believe it."

"You love him don't you?"

"I don't want to."

"But you do?"

"I do."

"That must hurt."

"I hate him..." I breathed, "I hate that I wasn't what he wanted and I hate that he didn't want what I was."

"He cared about you a lot, I was a huge dick to you both and I even I saw that," Mark half smiled, shrugging, "I mean how could he not care about you Lydia? It's been six hours of the two of us alone together and you're already my best friend."

"Well I guess you're mine too."

"We're the only things each other have left in the world, let's keep it that way. Let's make a pact."

"A pact?"

"It will always be just me and you, to hell with anyone else!"

"Yeah! To hell with the others, just me and you!"

"Just me and you!"

And that night I made a pact with Mark, forged in blood, sweat, tears, pain and my new found freedom from Carl Grimes.