THE KIDS AREN'T ALRIGHT carl grimes

ˣ. ᴛᴇɴ

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴇɴ
[〝ᴡᴇ'ʀᴇ ɴᴏᴛ sᴘʟɪᴛᴛɪɴɢ ᴜᴘ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ〞]
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GABRIELS CHURCH WAS small, covered in white panels with a short staircase and a bell sitting on top of the roof. It didn't take long to get to, maybe ten minutes. There was no parking lot, and it was in the middle of the woods. I hadn't been to church since before my mother killed herself but this struck me as weird.

Gabriel hopped up the stairs and placed his hand on the door handle. "Hold up," Rick said before he could open it. Gabriel listened, keeping his hand on the handle but not moving an inch. "You mind if we take a look around? We wanna hold onto our squirrels." He held his hand out for the keys and Gabriel reluctantly dropped them.

When he opened the door Rick, Glenn, Carol, Daryl and Michonne filed in one by one, weapons at the ready. The rest of us stood outside, ready to take action should they find anything concerning. They took their time inside, carefully checking every nook and cranny for anything suspicious.

When they were satisfied, they headed out. Rick placed the key back in Gabriel's hand.

"I spent months here without stepping out the front door. If you found someone inside," Gabriel's nervous voice broke the silence. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. While it was perfectly possible our group in general just made him anxious, you could never be too careful these days. Even a priest could turn out to be your worst nightmare. "Well it would be surprising."

"Thanks for this," Carl smiled, rocking Judith back and forth in his arms. Gabriel nodded once again with that strange half smile of his.

"I found a short bus out back. It don't run but I bet we could fix it up in less than a day or two. Looks like we've found ourself some transport." Abraham said to Rick. Washington. Of course, that was the endgame. That was the reason I was even with these people. No point getting attached to strangers I would forget about in a few days. There was no guarantee they would even come with us. Although what was really more importantly an a cure? What did anywhere else have that was superior to what awaited in Washington? Of course they would come. They'd be stupid not to.

"You understand what's at stake here, right?" He asked. It sounded more like a reminder than a question.

"Yes, I do." Rick answered.

"Now that we can take a breath—" Michonne started.

"We take a breath we slow down. We slow down, shit inevitably goes down." He argued.

"We need supplies no matter what we do next." I almost felt bad for Carl, who stood awkwardly in the middle of the two. He looked over at me, standing on Michonne's left watching the whole argument go down. I raised my eyebrows at him and he looked between the two and back at me.

"Short bus ain't goin' no where," Daryl's deep southern accent drawled. He shifted his crossbow to the other shoulder, the same ones the dead squirrels rested on. "I'll bring ya back some baked beans." He turned and shuffled into the church.

Glenn was the next to make his way past the two men and towards the building. He stopped in front of Abraham. "One way or another, We're doing what Rick does. We're not splitting up again."

Tara followed him in, muttering, "What he said."

I lightly nodded my head, as to not draw any attention to myself, toward the church doors with raised eyebrows and he nodded.

"We're gonna go inside now." I whispered to myself and whoever was listening. With that was rushed into the church after the rest of the group. I hadn't felt this awkward since I broke my aunts favorite flower vase practicing kart wheels years ago.