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

F A M I L Y

THE NEXT MORNING, Rosita does something slightly unexpected. She's been training some Alexandrians on how to use weapons, as well as Eugene. She's says she's gonna be dealing with machetes and knives today, and she wants me to help her demonstrate the knives sections. She asks me as we're eating breakfast, and I stop, mid-chewing my cereal, to look at her, eyes wide. "So? Wanna help me?" She asks, a slight smile dancing on her lips.

I nod, swallowing my food before answering. "Sure." After we finish eating, she drags me outside, both of us stopping by the armory to grab a utility cart, filling it with a few machetes and a whole lot of knives. The people- students, I guess, already await us.

"Okay, today we're gonna be dealing with machetes, and knives. First up, knives. Casey, here, is gonna be teaching both you and I this section, because she's the expert here." She says, a big grin on my face as she winks at me.

"A kid's gonna teach us?" A man in a blue shirt asks, scoffing. I narrow my eyes as I look at him. He looks like he's in his mid thirties, probably had an office job before all of this. No wedding ring, and no tan line, so he wasn't married.

"What's your name?" I ask him, seeing Rosita pull Jessie Anderson slightly away from him, knowing what I have in mind. He has a tree right behind him, so if I throw slightly to the right, I won't hit anyone.

"Kent." He says, making me raise an eyebrow. Wordlessly, I smile, throwing the knife quickly so he doesn't have the time to move. He freezes as people gasp, the knife sweeping by a few inches away from his ear, lodging itself in the tree behind him. "I'm Casey, Kent. And you'll treat me with respect, because, trust me, next time I won't miss." I tell him, my glare cold. The thing I hate the most in this world is people disrespecting me. Underestimating me. Undermining me. Be it because of my height, age, or gender.

"Now, each of you are gonna get a knife from that cart, Kent, you can get that one from the tree." I say, a small smirk on my face as he snaps out of his daze, doing as he's told as the others grab the knives from the cart.

I end up teaching them how to position themselves and their hands in a hammer throw, making them take turns at throwing at trees. They miss a lot, but a couple of them, Michelle and Joseph, actually aren't bad. Eugene doesn't really want to do it, which makes Rosita roll her eyes. I make sure to be extremely nice and sweet to all of them, knowing my demonstration scared the hell out of them all.

I also teach them how to hold a knife when you're not gonna throw it, and how to make sure it doesn't get stuck. How to stab, and how to slash, where to hit to make sure they die.

We do this for half an hour, and Rosita ends up very content with her knife throwing skills. Afterwards, she continues on with her machete lesson and I watch, sitting crisscrossed on the grass. "Now, when the blade connects, don't jerk it right back. You'll get stuck." She explains.

"Stuck?" I hear Kent ask.

"Like an ax cutting into a tree. It's easier to get a blade into bone than out." Rosita explains.

"So what should we do?" He asks.

"You should slide the machete down through the wound. One fluid motion." She says, demonstrating. She's a good teacher, I think. "Okay, you ease it through the bone like this." They all start training what she told them, all except Eugene, who's staring at the horizon, not moving.

Ro scoffs. She grabs another machete, swinging them both against each other once, right next to Eugene, making him recoil at the sound. "Hey! I'm a weapons novice holding a significant blade here and there are people in my proximity with open-toed shoes." He says, making me roll my eyes.

"That's right. So, get a grip. What are you so scared of?" She asks him, glaring.

"That would be dying." He mutters, grimacing at the hard look on her face.

"Dying is simple. It all just stops. You're dead. The people around you dying, that's the hard part. Okay? 'Cause you keep living, knowing that they're gone and you're still here. What you should be scared of is living, knowing that you didn't do everything you could to keep them here... Too upset to keep going? Are the noises scaring you, or can I get back to my lesson?" She asks, making him look down before leaving. "Let's try this again."

✖✖✖✖

After that, I decide to find Carl. I haven't seen him since I left this morning, and I wanna make sure he knows I'm not angry at him. He was asleep when I went over, or at least I think he was. Maybe he wasn't, since from the moment I got inside, he froze slightly. It was only for a split second, and he wrapped his arm around just like he always does, even if he's asleep, but, for that split second, he froze.

I find him walking out of his house, and I walk over. "Hey." I say. He nods at me, his lips in a tight line, making me frown. "What's up?" I ask.

"I don't know, what's up with you?" He asks. His voice isn't harsh, but he's almost never talked to me like this. Maybe when we argued over Patrick at the prison, but even then he sounded more regretful than angry. "Are you gonna yell when I try to help and walk off, or are you okay?" He asks, not even looking at me as he talks, instead walking away from me, out of his house and into the street. I follow him.

"I'm sorry, okay, but you know that's not fair, Carl." I speak up, the frown still on my face.

"You were close with Glenn. And I know you're upset, we all are-" I cut him off.

"No. No, it's different." I shake my head. I don't know how it's different, him being upset, and me being upset, but it is. He asks me how it can be different. "I don't know. Okay, I don't know. All I know is that it is. He was there to calm me down when I thought I was dying, he kept me grounded when I lost you, he's like fam-" I cut myself off, his eyes softening. "Glenn's like family to me. I know this whole group is a big family, but it's still different. I- I feel-" I cut myself off, realizing something.

I don't feel like I'm about to cry, but Carl still holds me close to him, brushing my hair softly out of my face, every ounce of anger now gone from his face. "The last time I felt this bad about someone- someone dying," I say, the word's feeling like poison in my mouth. "Was when I lost my mom. And I have no idea what to make of that, okay?" I say.

He nods, hugging me close to him, before I shake my head, telling him I'm okay. "I'm sorry." I apologize. He wraps his arm around my shoulders as we walk. He changes the subject, which I'm thankful for, and tells me him and his dad were teaching Ron how to hold a gun and shoot properly. "That's funny. I taught people how to throw knives tod-" I, once again, cut myself off, my eyes shooting upward as I see some green balloons floating up in the sky.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Maggie running. "That's Glenn!" She tells Rick, who's a few feet to our left, with Deanna. But, my smile quickly dissipates as I hear something unhinge.

We look up in horror, running away as the church tower outside, the one they occasionally use to be on watch, falls, breaks down the wall, and lets the herd in.

✖✖✖✖

hi!

SHIT'S. ABOUT. TO. GO. DOWN. ((((((cAN YOU TELL I'M V EXCITED?????????????))))) seriously, we have the rarl fight, the herd, deanna, glenn and maggie, and after that, the greatness and amazingness that is 'no way out'. I'M SO EXCITED LIKE????¿¿¿¿¿????¿¿¿¿

okay, i'll make it short so i can go write more ngl, thank for reading, please vote if you enjoyed, and comment on how you feel about glenn rhee. i personally love him very much.

goodbye,
-angryfeminist