Sneaky

Chapter 21

"Carl, I'm taking this back. I want you to stay with Eve okay?"

"Okay, mom."

I leaned out of the car I was in and watched Carl make his way to me from the car Lori had been digging through behind me.

I guess she trusts me to look after him. Since when did I become the babysitter though?

I don't particularly mind having him around, but kids don't do well with silence in my experience. Now babies are a different story. Kids too young to understand are easy to please.

Carl talked and I paid attention but he kept forgetting I don't answer the same way the others do. That didn't seem to deter him though. He just kept on keeping on.

I'll tell you what though, this kid is one resilient little twerp. All this happening around him and he's still curious about the world. He is definitely his father's son.

I watched Carl out of the corner of my eye while I dug through a suitcase I'm pretty sure belonged to a very lonely dude, judging by the amount of adult dvd's.

Seriously, who would think their adult films collection is more important to take in an apocalyptic situation than I don't know, say, a water bottle? A lighter, kitchen knife, food, rope maybe. You know, just, the essentials for survival.

I stopped what I was doing for a minute and listened to the silence.

He's being unusually quiet...What is he up to?

Dropping the suitcase on the floor, I looked at Carl and watched him jump up on the side of the truck just across from me; Peering through the dusty window.

He started to turn back towards me and I quickly diverted my eyes to the first thing I could find. Unfortunately for me, that happened to be a magazine called "Busty Asian Beauties Freaky Friday edition"

I glanced at Carl, hoping to God he didn't see that, but he was walking around the truck to the other side.

A relieved sigh slipped as I shoved that magazine as far under the seat as I could, out of sight, hoping it would never see the light of day again. Maybe someone will use it as fire kindling one day.

I slipped out of the backseat of the car, and went around the back side of the truck, scanning the area to make sure it's safe, and to make sure Lori's not watching.

I probably shouldn't be letting him do this, but how else is he gonna learn?

Lord knows Lori's not gonna let him do this, and he'll find a way to eventually. I'd rather let him do it here, now, where I can protect him in case something happens, then have him go off and get himself into trouble or worse. Circumstances aren't favorable to us these days. Anything could happen, I don't want Carl to end up out there on his own and not be able to fend for himself...

Sophia flashed through my head. We'll find her, and as soon as we do I'm gonna teach both her and Carl how to hide, and if I can get away with it, how to fight.

With a healthy cautiousness, I watched Carl grab the driver's side handle and jerk it open, jumping back with the door.

The body in the driver's seat didn't move -aside from the arm dropping, seeing as the door no longer supported it- as I knew it wouldn't.

If that corpse had been a walker, it wouldn't have stayed quiet while I was in the car next to it making noise. In other words, if it were live, I'd have killed it by now.

Carl stared at it in slight disgust for a moment, before moving closer. I did another quick check around, to make sure we hadn't drawn any unnecessary attention from either walkers or the much more vicious alternative...mothers. We'll both be in trouble if the latter spot us.