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

Sixteen - Safe Haven.

It was daylight when I finally woke up from my chloroform induced sleep. I didn't even have to open my eyes to know the sun had risen, I could tell from the burning of my cheeks and the heat radiating into my skin.

"W-Where am I?" I mumbled.

Dazedly I tried to lift my hand to shield my eyes from the sun only to find they'd been tied behind my back. All I wanted to do in that moment was cry out for help, but my own voice betrayed me.

"Martinez... Why are you doing this?"

"You should be thanking me. I just saved your life."

"Saved my life? You knocked me out and now I'm tied up."

"You're only tied up so you didn't freak out and try to kill me when you woke up." He shrugged simply before cutting my ties, but still he aimed his gun at me, "Get up now."

I didn't move. I couldn't, I felt frozen to the spot.

"I said get up!" he repeated but this time he pushed the gun closer.

"Don't shoot please... I-I just need water."

With an annoyed roll of his eyes, Martinez threw his backpack from his shoulder and pulled out a bottle of water. He tossed it to me and I quickly caught it before drinking whatever was left inside.

"Now get up."

I did as he said.

Silently we began to walk. Martinez didn't say a word to me, I only allowed him to lead me further and further into the woods towards the unknown
"What did you mean..." I spoke, "when you said you saved my life?"

"The Governor... He lead all of those biters right to you."

"What? Why would he-"

"He sent me and some of his other men after you when he saw you drive away from Woodbury." The older man explained, "He said he wanted you dead but you're just a kid man, I couldn't do that shit, but the others are different they lead those things to you all for him."

"He wants me dead?" I swallowed the lump in my throat, "Why me?"

"You're Rick's weak spot, you know? You're practically his third kid, if he got you then the entire group would fall apart. Like dominos."

"First Rick, then Daryl, then the Asian kid and his wife, Andrea, the grey haired lady... Rick's son. With you gone the prison would be his."

"So why are you stopping that from happening?"

"I had a daughter of my own. She died at the beginning of all of this, I know what it's like to lose someone. I couldn't let that happen to someone else's kid."

"You're a good man Martinez."

"I wish I believed that."

"Why can't you?"

"I've done too many bad things and made too many bad decisions to be a good man now, I chose this life for my self now I gotta live it."

"That doesn't change my opinion of you, I still think you're a good man no matter what you've done, you helped me and that must count for something right?"

"Maybe it does, who knows?"

Martinez barely had time to turn back and smile at me before a walker stumbled out of the foliage and pushed him to the ground. Instinctively I let out a yell and reached for my gun only to find that it wasn't there; Martinez must have taken it when I was tied up.

Thankfully he managed to reach his own gun and fired two bullets into the walkers skull, it fell limp beside him and he attempted to climb to his feet. I held a hand out for him to take and the second he was stood on solid ground what seemed to be hundreds upon hundreds of walkers poured out of the forest and into the clearing we were stood in; in that moment I knew, we were as good as dead.

"Shit we gotta get out of here!" The older man yelled before he grabbed my hand and broke off into a sprint.

"They're getting close!" I called out

"Come on you gotta keep up! Ain't no way I'm saving your ass just to watch ya get killed!"

Frantically the two of us ran, there was no sign of safety. The further we ran through the forest the more lost we became, there was no way out.

"Quickly! Up there!"

I turned to look at the brown eyed man only to be lifted onto a high tree branch, I hastily began to climb the tree and Martinez followed closely behind me. We were both so desperate not to become walker bait that we didn't care how loud we were being, and how many more walkers we were bringing right to us.

Soon enough we found a sturdy branch and the two of us sat on it in utter silence.  The only sound that could be heard for miles was the rustling of the wind in the trees and the groans of the dead.

"You helped me again." I mumbled, "Told you you're good a man."

"And I told you I just didn't want to have gone to the trouble of saving your ass just to watch you die."

"Thanks..." I smiled despite where we were

Suddenly the tree began to give way and wobble as the walkers began to unintentionally shake the tree trunk.

I let out a yelp and looked across at the next tree to see how big the gap was, if it was close enough that we could jump, but there was no point in trying... that was the end for us.

"Might as well cry a little..." I whispered to myself

As the tree finally gave way and began to tip towards the ground and the wave of walkers, tears met my eyes and I let out one final scream as I lost my grip of the branch and fell at high speed towards my own death.

It was only as I was falling, when I felt almost weightless and everything seemed so silent that I heard the gunshots, like firecrackers. But I knew it was too late for me to be saved, there was no way I would survive the fall. And even if I did I'd be torn apart.

The minute I hit the ground and I felt an unbearable pain radiate through my body, that was when I knew what it felt like to die but to still be alive. The pain was so terrible that it almost didn't hurt, I was so consumed by the pain that it became me. I was an image of death.

"Kill me..." I choked out, "Please..."

There was only gunshots and yells of pain. My own yells of pain.

"Lydia!" His voice called out, drawing me further and further into the darkness, "Get up! Come on! Stay with me!"

"Carl?"

And just as I caught sight of his crystal blue eyes I fell into the void of darkness.