Together ~ A Carl Grimes Fanfiction

Chapter One

It was just a holiday. That's all it was. How could one holiday change so much?

We were off to visit some long lost relatives in Atlanta or thereabouts. Me, my mother, and my sister. I don't know what happened to my father or the rest of my family. They were back in Scotland. And what about Seb? Was he ok? In a way I hoped that they had survived but maybe not. Who'd want to live in this world?

I am Kaitlyn and this is the Apocalypse.

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Of course that was before I met him. Before he turned my world upside down. In a good way, I suppose.

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I was 13 when I was brought here. I guess I'm a little older than 14 now. We've just left our camp as it was overrun by... by... corpses. We've called them a number of things but I suppose "corpses" is the only thing that stuck. It's the most fitting too. They don't feel, they don't talk, they don't think, they just eat.

It's just my mum, my sister Sammy and I now. We stumble through the woods, killing corpses as we go. We hear a crack and a snap. Mum and I brace ourselves and Sammy scales a tree, all squirrel-like 45 pounds of her. We've lost so much weight since this started. She used to be a cushy 90 pounds.

Then we hear another snap, followed by "Shit!". We still get ready to fight. We don't know where the corpses are. Of course, the corpses can't talk. We must be ready for anything. Obviously someone is coming. God help us, right now.

Two men, one in his late twenties and the other probably about fifty-five to sixty years old, come stumbling through the trees. They are followed by an African-American woman with long dreadlocks. Then, a boy, who is strangely beautiful, but not in a feminine way, with piercing blue, pained eyes, and about my age."How many, Daryl?" he asks, loading his gun.

"I count eight, kid, " says Daryl, I assume, as "kid" shoots a corpse in the brain. "You gonna help, or just stand there?" he says. He's talking to us. I grab both my knives and mum gets her gun out. "No, don't!" says the lady, wielding a samurai sword, "You'll just attract more. "

"Here," I say, giving mum a knife and we get to work. Between the six of us we kill twenty-three corpses. We pile them up.

When we're finished and the coast is clear, mum is the first to speak. "Just so you know, we're not here to bother you. This is my daughter Kaitlyn, and this is my other daughter, Sammy," she says, pointing towards the three. Sammy pops out and gives a timid wave. "And I'm Anne. I understand if you say no, but is there any chance that you have a camp around here with food? If you do, could we maybe come back with you? My girls haven't ate or drank in days."

What she has failed to mention is that she hasn't properly eaten in months. Everything she's had, she's given to us.

The old man is the first to speak. "We do but we have 3 questions to ask you. First, how many walkers have you killed? "

"We've lost count, our camp was overrun," Mum says.

"How many people have you killed," asks Daryl

Mum and Sammy look at me.

"I'm the only one that has. I've killed 3."

"And why?" Daryl persists. Sammy slinks down from the tree and huddles behind me.

"They attacked my mum and Sammy and they didn't see me. I took them out before they knew what happened. It was clear what they were going to do. I had to." I shudder, recoiling at the harsh memory. I catch the boy's eye. He is about 50 yards away, keeping watch. He looks at me with a look that I can only describe as pity.

"Okay, come with us," the older man says, and Daryl leads the way.

"So where are y'all from?" asks Daryl.

Mum and I share a look and a nod. "Don't laugh, but a really small town in... Scotland." I say.

We set the corpses on fire and move away as quickly and as smoothly as possible.