To Be With You | Carl Grimes [DISCONTINUED]

Chapter 23: Look at the Flowers

"Why are you so upset?" Tyreese asked me. "They found the sign, they decided to go to it. We're gonna find them."

My eyes were kept on the ground as I continued to walk forward. I didn't want to answer him, let alone talk to him. But I answered anyway, feeling the need to answer it for myself.

"It isn't safe there," I muttered, avoiding his eyes. "I can feel it."

"You don't know that," said Tyreese. I refrained myself from lashing out at him. "I know that you feel like this because of the prison-"

"You don't know what I feel," I snapped, making his fall short. "Quit trying to get into my head."

And then I stomped away from him, leaving him by himself in the back. I felt like this was the hundredth time I spoke to him that way. I didn't like to do it, but it wasn't just him I was doing it to. There were times I did it Carol, Lizzie, and even Mika. I knew they were just trying to help me.

It hasn't been long since we found Carl and the other two's footprints follow the Terminus sign. I can understand where Tyreese was getting from. We didn't know a damn thing about this place, except that there were signs everywhere, trying to lure people in. I didn't blame Tyreese. I want to believe that Terminus is a safe place. I want to believe that it is a sanctuary. I want to believe that there are safe havens out there...but it just wasn't possible. Not to me, anyway.

When the sky got dark, we decided to camp out for the night. Unfortunately, we weren't lucky tonight. We couldn't find anywhere to stay. So we took the risk of sleeping on the tracks. Carol and Lizzie took watch first, Judith sleeping in Carol's arms.

Mika was the first one out. She had her head laid on Tyreese's legs. Tyreese had his head on his backpack, his shotgun laying right beside him. I laid my head on my backpack, facing up at the sky. My hand was gripping my brass knuckles as I stared at the stars that were shining above.

I could vaguely hear the conversation between the teen and the adult. I didn't feel the need to eavesdrop, so I tried getting the sleep that I so desperately needed. But I couldn't. My head was spinning with questions that I did not know the answers to.

Did Carl and the others make it to Terminus? They are ahead of us... Are we going to make it to them? Are they still alive?

My heart raced just at the thought of something bad happening to them...to Carl. I thought back to what Carol told me at the house, missing someone is your heart's way of reminding you that you love them.

Of course I loved Carl, he is my best friend. But somehow I knew that Carol didn't mean it that way. Both of us knew what she meant. And I couldn't believe I didn't know it sooner. I could've told him...he could've known how I felt before the attack...before I lost him.

"No, no, no," My head snapped up at the murmur of the same word over and over again. I saw Tyreese move in his sleep, his mouth forming the same word until he woke up suddenly. He looked at Carol. She looked away.

***

In the morning, Carol had us look for something called Pine Resin, which could possibly help heal Tyreese's wound. There were pine trees all around us, but I couldn't find any. Lizzie was the one to find it.

While Carol applied the Pine Resin to Tyreese, I stayed with the girls. Mika had Judith in her arms. Lizzie was pacing around, with her hand on her knife.

I found it hard to believe that the two girls were sisters. They were completely different. Although she didn't show it much, I knew that Lizzie was tough. She just has to get used to it. On the other hand, Mika was scared, she didn't know how to fight, or what to do when walkers come. I made a promise to myself I would teach her someday.