Stand By You (Carl Grimes)

Lost and Found

I awake from my sleep, a snorting sound escaping my mouth. I hear a muffled giggle coming from behind me. Like someone trying to block there laughter. Tipping my head back, I see Carl with a sly smile plastered on his face. "Your loud when you sleep."

"Why were you watching me, anyways?" I ask. He scoots over, so I no longer need to bend my neck. "I was sent to wake you, but you looked so peaceful." I try sitting up, pain thrusting through my abdomen. I rest my back against the hard poles of the cell behind me.

In the morning light, I can see Carl better than before. His eyes are bright blue, freckles are dotted along his cheeks. "Can you get up? I think there's something your gonna want to see." He says. I strain, trying to push my body up. Carl offers his hand, which I except, gripping to get up. I use his shoulder as a crutch, trying my best not to lean on him that much.

He keys open the gate, the screeching noise echoing through the whole prison. He guides me to one of the cells. Everyone is gathered at the door, they're all smiling. I approach the bed, seeing Peter's body nestled in a bundle of blankets. "We found him, hiding in some shrubs." Glenn says.

I walk over to Glenn, hugging him. "Thank you." I do the same for Maggie. Maggie strokes my hair, "Of course sweetheart." Beside the bed, I smile, happy tears welling up in my eyes. "He fell asleep on the way back." Glenn laughs. I sit by the bed, arms wrapped around my legs, letting him rest.

Maggie and Glenn leave to go for a run for baby formula. I try finding something to entertain myself, but fail miserably. "Hey." I look up to see Carl standing in the doorway. "Hey. So, you wouldn't happen to have like video game system here?" I ask, already knowing the answer. "I wish. But I have something else." He removes a deck of cards from his back pocket.

He plops on the ground beside me, opening the flap. He shuffles the cards together, spreading them in two separate piles. "Go fish?" I kinda have to chuckle at that. "Sure." We play for about half an hour, getting bored after a while. Peter is still snoring on the bed.

"Wanna go look for some supplies?" Carl asks. I nod my head. My black pistol is on the small wooden night stand and my knife is still wedged in my waistband. The squeak of the steel cell door echoes. Carl asks if I can walk, i tell him it's fine. We make it to a flight of stairs that leads to a basement area.

"That looks ominous." I say, clicking off the safety. "Just watch out there might still be walkers." He takes the lead down the musty basement. Decay and darkness fill the air. I get it's the apocalypse but do all places have to look like this. I shine the flashlight beam into cells. They're all empty as could be.

A few minutes later I hear the infamous moaning noise. Two walkers dressed in navy jump suits emerge from the hallway. "Damn it." I mutter. Carl starts to aim his pistol, but I grab his arm. I slip out my knife, grasping the handle tightly.  The walker approaches slightly, stumbling around. I jam the knife in the thigh, making it sink to its knees.

Then I sink the blade into the eye socket, blood gushing out like a broken water faucet. I feel a tug on the bottom of my hair, the other walker yanks at the strands. The sound of the bullet leaving the chamber and ripping through flesh sounds out. "Thanks." I smile. "Anything." He responds with a nod of his head.

For a while we just search, coming up empty handed. Carl jokes about the various carvings in the walls from earlier prisoners. A sound of struggling comes from down the hall. The sound of metal crashing skulls. Carl and I cautiously sneak to the door to the source. I peer behind the wall, jerking back my head. "What is it?" Carl asks. "Other people."