What Really Happened: A Memoir from the Apocalypse

Chapter 9: Innocent Killer

7 months on the road:

I placed my weight against the abandoned house's railing. I held the kneecaps of my shaky legs and closed my eyes. Carl opened the door from the inside.

"Is it clear?" I asked.

He smiled and nodded.

The worn-down house looked like the inside of a damp cardboard box. Its cabinets and shelves were cluttered with mason jars, glasses, and cans. After searching for food, the group sat to catch our breath. Carl found dog food cans, and laid them in front of him, and used a can-opener to screw off the tops. He handed me a half-open one, and I frowned. Rick picked up one of the cans, examined its sides, and threw it into the fireplace.

Lori rubbed her belly and scraped through a jar of peanut butter. She tilted it towards me.

I shook my head. "You need it for the baby."

"Mallory, you need to eat. You've been passing out," my dad said from the chair behind me.

Daryl defeathered an owl. He pulled off a piece of it and walked over to me, holding the flap with his fingers. "Protein. Eat it, now."

"Psst," T-Dog said.

Walkers headed towards the window. They stalked us from the outside and chased us down as we tried to get settled. I picked up my sleeping bag and gun. We ran through the bushes that surrounded the side of the house and drove away.

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We were stopped in the middle of the road, so we could look over the map and come up with a plan. Carl and I stood between the sides of the woods and kept watch. My hollow stomach stung every few seconds, but I had gotten used to hunger. Carl turned his head quickly from one side to the next, with his gun by his side.

"Do you think we're ever gonna find a place again?" I asked.

He was silent for a moment, then sighed. "With all the looking we've done, we have to."

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The prison stood behind the trees ahead of us. Its tower hovered over the brownish buildings, and the clear sky hung behind. The group stood side-by-side on the road, admiring the building that gave us the chance to stop running, to stop looking, and to stop fighting for a while. I held Carl's sweaty hand. My parents turned their heads from the prison to me, with a smile. Walkers crowded the inside, but we knew that we could take them.

"It's perfect," Rick said.

After entering the first gate, he broke us into different groups, each with a different job to help clear it.

I grabbed the holes of the fence with my fingers, and stabbed the closest walkers' heads with one straight, forward motion. Gunshots from further back sounded one by one. Carl was assigned to clear them from the tower with Carol. I cleared my throat and made sure my voice could reach the ones that circled back near them. "Hey, motherfuckers! Hey!"

Mom poked her spear through the fence beside me. "Watch your mouth."

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After the outside of the prison was successfully cleared, the adults cleared the inside. Carl and I entered our cell, which would become our room. It smelled like old coins and burned plastic.

I placed my bag on the floor. "I take the top bunk and you take the bottom?"

"Yeah, when are parents are looking," he said.