вeaυтιғυl ➵ | CARL GRIMES

Three; Despair

Althea loved Carl, Glenn, Shane, Dale, Lori, heck, even Daryl at times, but she could never image them all just disappearing, but that's exactly what that  little girl was thinking about, all day. She was thinking about what it would be like if she didn't have Glenn to comfort her when things got rough, or what it would be like if she never got to hold Carl's hand again, not receiving any more hugs or small pecks on the forehead from Dale. She was afraid, more then ever right now. Her dark thoughts filling her usually innocent mind, all because of seeing a man dig graves for them all, Althea wasn't stupid, she knew what those holes were for and hated that she was the only one that noticed. Jim was now tied to a tree, Althea giving him some water. “Are you alright, Jim?” she asked him, smiling softly. He returned her cute smile with his own half smile, nodding his head. She soon looked back at Carl, who had been doing his homework with his mother while Althea took care of a sick Jim.

***

It was now night time and everyone was sitting around the fire, eating their fish in peace. Except Althea was nervous, afraid, and a feeling in her gut told her to run and find Glenn. She was worried that he would get hurt, he would get bitten and turn into one of those awful creatures. She shivered at the thought, letting out a small whimper while chewing at her fish in a violent and paranoid way. Carl placed a hand on her shoulder, making her look up at everybody. “Sorry.” She muttered, looking away in a shy manner. “Hey, Dale.” She heard Morales say, catching the little girl's attention. “You're always messing with that watch of yours.” he pointed out, causing everyone to look at the watch on Dale's wrist, “Just wanted to ask why it's so important.” He explained himself, waiting for an answer.

Dale gave everyone a cheesy grin then started to speak, “Shouldn't there be someone keeping track of time when the clocks no longer work on their own?” he soon answered after a pause for dramatic effect that he obviously did on purpose, everyone let out giggles and chuckles.

Soon the calm aura faded away and it was replaced with a high pitched scream, Althea jumped up, looking at the RV to see Andrea's little sister, Amy, being torn apart by walkers. All of time froze for Althea, she was in utter fear. She opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out was a loud scream, quiet sobs following right after. Soon the camp was filled with walkers, people were being eaten alive, tears threatened to spill from Althea's eyes as she watched her friends, listening to their screams of pain and terror. She soon felt something warm grab her hand, pulling her away. Gunshots rang in her ears, she couldn't do anything, she jerked away from the person gripping her hand, backing away from them, it was Carl.

She started to let out loud sobs, a walker grabbing her shoulder from behind. She let out a scream from the sudden contact, spinning around then backing away from the walking corpse. “Stop! Go away!” she shouted, backing away and soon tripping on a rock. The walker fell over as well, pinning her to the ground. She let out another scream of terror as she attempted to kick it away. She then was overpowered, this was it, she was going to die here, eaten by a walker or turned into one at least. She closed her eyes, letting her arms fall as the walker attempted to bite her. “Althea!” a voice shouted at her, a gunshot following and soon the weight on top of her disappeared. She didn't want to open her eyes, she just wanted the horrible sounds and the view of her friends dying to go away. She felt two shaky arms wrap around her fragile form, scooping her up then running away from the group of walkers, firing their gun every so often.

She didn't want to move.