𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐚'𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐱. carl grimes

THIRTY-THREE: a locked door

I stood by the door, sweat dripping down my forehead in small beads. I wipe the back of my hand across my forehead resulting in the salty liquid now resting on my hand so I quickly wipe my hand onto my dirty T-shirt. After hours of hard work and plan formulating, we finally finished. The church was boarded up with spare wooden planks, the metal organ pieces were placed outside sort of like spikes protecting us from the walkers, and they had a plan on how to rescue Carol and Beth. I rest my hand on Claire's shoulder out of exhaustion and smile down at her. She flashes me a quick smile before returning to patiently waiting her turn to say goodbye. Unlike my sister, I decide not to wait any longer. "Good luck Rick" I say as I approach the tall man. He turns away from Michonne and flashes me a bright smile.

"We will be right back, I promise" he tells me having known I wanted to be going with him. Suddenly and unexpectedly he steps forward, embracing me in a hug. As his arms latch around my back lightly, I bring my smaller arms behind his back. After a second, Rick pulls away before sending another smile, this time it's more smug. "Keep on Carl for me, will ya?"

I smile at Rick, color rushing to my cheeks, "Sure thing Boss". Rick chuckles at my response before a voice cuts in, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I turn my head to see my dad, a serious expression painted on his face.

"Carl doesn't know how to take care of himself. You know, just the normal" I say with a laugh as I embrace him in a tight hug. His strong arms wrap around my back, pushing my body into his chest. "Dad! You're gonna suffocate me!"

I hear his familiar, raspy laugh pass his lips as he loosens his grip on me, pushing me back out in front of him. He places his hand on my shoulder, his face softer than before causing the previous arguments to rush through my brain. "I want to go! You can't leave me! You just got back!" I screamed at him, the anger coursing through my veins.

"I'm not letting you! It's not safe!" he would yell back, pointing his finger in my face. But now all he said was, "I'm sorry, I have to do this" His voice was softer and so much more sincere. I nodded, understanding his need to help the people he loved. He would do the same for me and I would do the same for him, Claire, and hell, even Carl. "I love you Dad" I whisper, unable to raise my voice any higher.

He smiles before laughing, "Move out of the way so I can say bye to your sister. You're going to get tears on me". My dad pushes past me with a smile and I break out into laugher.

"What was that about?" a voice says from next to me.  I slowly stop laughing to notice Carl, holding Judith, next to me looking confused. "Only cool people would understand", I joke before walking over towards Michonne to say our final goodbyes.

After another couple minutes everyone files out and Michonne, Carl, and I close the door behind them, resting our backs on the heavy wooden doors. "Alright, so what now?" I ask.

——————

I sat crossed legged on the pew weaving my sisters hair into loose braids down her shoulders. I wasn't too good at the braids but it was therapeutic, the way the pieces flowed and worked together to make a whole. The only thing stopping me from totally relaxing was the constant scrubbing going on a couple pews in front of me. Ever since we boarded up the church Gabriel has been on a frenzy of trying to clean the blood out of the wooden floors without any luck. As if he were fed up with the noise too, I watched a Carl stomped over to the priest and threw down an assortment of weapons ranging from a pistol to a small dagger similar to Claire's. "Pick one" he commanded but Gabriel quickly shook his head, not even looking up at the boy. My eyes glare at priest, burning holes in the spot I was staring at. "You need to learn how to defend yourself" Carl urges.