Infection in the air (walking dead fanfic)

(10) The Run

I was woken up by Daryl rattling the door on the cell I shared with Carl. He yelled that we were leaving soon. I got up and put on a fresh shirt and shook Carl awake.

"We're leaving soon." I told him. We went out to the car we were taking. Beth was helping Rick load bags into two of the vehicles. Carl and I were in the back and Daryl was driving. Maggie and Glenn were taking a truck. We started driving and Daryl explained the plan.

"We have a few blankets and pillows in the back. The idea is to go to one of the bigger towns nearby and spend a day or two there gathering all the supplies we can. When we get there it will be close to sunset so grab a bag and fill what you can and meet back where we park before nightfall. Deal?" he said. We agreed. I fell asleep on Carl for a while and was woken up when Daryl parked the car and told us to get out and gather stuff. Carl and I got out and grabbed our bags. We started walking through the town and I found an old gas station we went into. I dropped the bag when I walked in.

"What's wrong?" Carl asked.

"You don't remember? Carl, this is where you guys found me!" I yelled happily. No walkers were inside and the place was almost exactly how we left it. We gathered the food from the shelves until our bags were almost full and went back to our makeshift camp. We all got ready for bed and went to sleep.

In the middle of the night I woke up. Carl had rolled over and didn't notice when I got out of bed. I was back in my old house. I could hear my parents arguing downstairs about how to get rid of me. Things had just gone bad.

"Lets just shoot the bitch." my mom said.

"No, we can leave her here with food and let her take care of herself." my dad said, trying to spare my life. I got out of bed and walked downstairs and looked at them. My mom yelled at me to get back to my room. I stood there staring at my dad and didn't hear her. She yelled again and started running toward me. I screamed and ran as fast as I could the other direction. Being only 13 at the time, my mother quickly caught me. She grabbed me and I tried fighting back.

"No! No, please don't! I didn't mean to do it!" I screamed. My hands were pinned above my head and I couldn't move.

"Jinxx, shush, shhh, you're okay now." Someone said to me. I kept crying and trying to get away. The person kissed me and I opened my eyes and realized it was Carl. I was pinned against a tree.

"You got up and started sleepwalking. I tried calling for you but you started running. Come here." he said as I crumbled to the floor. I was still crying about my dream. I hadn't had an episode in about 2 months. I just messed up my streak.

"Was your dad there?" Carl asked. I was leaning on his shoulder and was starting to calm down. I nodded. "Was it about when things went bad?" he asked. I nodded again. Carl knew all about the days leading up to them leaving. "Ready to go back to sleep?" he asked and I nodded. We got up and walked back to camp. Daryl was up waiting for us.

"Where have you been?" he asked angrily.

"I had a bad dream. I was sleepwalking." I said. Daryl's look softened and he told us to go to sleep. We listened gratefully.

The next morning, we all grabbed bags and started searching for supplies. I was going through a walmart in the town with Carl. I had found the liquor, completely untouched by walkers or anyone. I picked up a bottle of Jack Daniel's and put it in my bag.

"Don't you think that's a bad idea?" Carl said, looking at me curiously.

"No. We're 17. No ones gonna care." I said as I grabbed some wine and continued to fill a bag with alcohol. We kept moving and we came across the baby clothes.

"Do you think we should take these?" Carl asked, holding up a few different baby onesies. I assumed they would be for Judith.

"She's almost 5, Carl. We need to go to a different section for things for her." I said. He put them in his bag.

"I'm not talking about Judith. Don't you ever want to have kids?" he asked me. I had never thought of it.

"I don't know." I said. "But the clothes are cute, we can keep them in case someone does have a kid." I said. We were walking around some more and grabbing random things we might need. Clothing, food, sharpies. I was looking in the paint, thinking the prison could use some color, and Carl was off getting something else. I heard him walk up behind me and he pulled me against him. I turned around in his arms and gave him a kiss.

"I can't wait to get back to the prison and drink some of that Jack." I said. "Its amazing."

"Really? Never tried it." Carl said.

"You've never had a drink?" I said, shocked. Carl shook his head and asked when I had.

"I used to steal it from my parents when I was 12. They never noticed, and it was an easy painkiller." I explained. Carl looked kind of sad and just hugged me.

"I'm fine, Carl. They're long gone by now." I said against his chest.

"I know." he said. We grabbed a few cans of paint and got ready to leave. We rode back with Glenn and Maggie.

Back at the prison, Carl and I waited until everyone went to sleep and snuck out to our private cell. We sat on the bed and I opened the first bottle of liquor and drank some.

"Drink up, country boy." I smiled as I passed it to him. He drank a little bit and made a weird face.

"Its bitter." he complained.

"Well, yeah, its wine. You aren't supposed to chug it." I laughed. We kept drinking and eventually one thing led to another. We spent the night in our cell block.

Carl and I were woken up the next day by Rick and Daryl. We hadn't heard them come in the block, so they just grabbed us and rolled us onto the floor. Daryl had rolled me off, and he quickly threw a blanket over me when he realized I was half naked.

"You guys were in here drinking?" Rick asked as Carl and I got off the floor. "I'm really disappointed in you two." he said. Rick was letting Carl date me now but he still got mad when he thought we did something adults do. He was about to kill me when he found out about our hideout.

"I'm mad too." Daryl said. "You guys didn't share?"

"Where is it? I'm taking it." Rick said. Carl did what he said and handed him the bag. They told us to get our clothes on and get ready to work. I had guard duty with Maggie today.

"I told you that alcohol was a bad idea." Carl said.

"How was I supposed to know they'd find it? And it wouldn't be a problem if you just told your dad that you're old enough to have a fucking drink."

"You have to be 21 to drink." Carl argued.

"Those are the old rules, Carl! Jesus Christ, you're 17!! You can handle a little bit of wine." I yelled at him. Rick had been doing things like that for years now, I'm tired of it. Carl walked over to me and tried grabbing my arm. I pulled away from him.

"Don't fucking touch me!" I yelled again.

"Jinxx, calm down. You're getting mad about nothing."

"Like hell I am! You let him take the beer, Carl. He's going to throw it away. What am I supposed to do now?"

"You don't need that anymore. They're gone. You aren't living with them anymore. I'll get some of it back, come here." he said and he pulled me close to him. I felt him rest his head on top of mine and I started to calm down.

"I really hate that you can't just let me be mad at you." I said to him.

"I can't stand having you mad at me." he said back. I put my clothes on and fixed my hair. Then I went out to get Maggie for guard duty.