THE KIDS AREN'T ALRIGHT carl grimes

ˣⁱ. ᴇʟᴇᴠᴇɴ

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴇʟᴇᴠᴇɴ
[〝 ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ sᴜʀᴠɪᴠᴏʀs 〞]
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THE GROUP SPLIT, Rick taking a few members and Gabriel to his secret overrun food stock while Daryl and Carol went off to find water and whatever other supplies they could find. I didn't ask where they were getting the water. It's easier to drink river water when you don't explicitly know it's river water.

Maggie, Tara and Glenn went downtown to scavenge. Gabriel mentioned there was an old, rundown gun shop.

I stayed with Carl, Tyreese and Judith. I didn't wait long after they left to start snooping around. I pushed at the benches, trying to see if any weren't stuck to the ground. If I had something to hide, underground and covered would be my go to. Either Gabriel was an open book, or he wasn't that smart.

"What are you doing?" Carl asked.

I looked away from the pew I'd been kicked at and met his eyes. I noticed he wasn't holding Judith anymore. I moved on to the next row before answering, "I'm kicking these benches."

He snorted, probably rolling his eyes. "Yeah I can see that. Any specific reason why?"

"Yes. I'm checking to see if he ever pulled any of these up to hide something underneath it." As I looked up I saw his badly hidden shocked expression.

"Yeah, that's smart." He stuttered out.

I nodded my head and didn't say anything, moving past him and to the next bench. I pushed at all of them until I was sure none of them were moving, then moved on to yanking the bible's out from behind the seats and flipping through them.

Carl still stood where he had several minutes ago, watching me do all the work. After I finished searching through the book I was holding I looked back up at him expectingly. "Well? Help me look."

Moving on, we checked every book, stepped on every floorboard, pushed at the walls. We even ransacked his office. There was nothing here that would raise any suspicions.

After we finished putting his things back in place, Carl spoke up for the first time in a while. "I'm going to check out back and around outside." I nodded, staying here as I moved on to pushing paintings and other wall decor over to check behind them. Tyreese watched us silently as he rocked a sleeping Judith.

I could only remember ever seeing one other baby in my life. A few months before this whole thing started Aunt Jane had asked me to babysit her friends baby boy for just a few hours while they caught up with each other after months apart. It wasn't really hard, he slept for most of it and I only had to feed him once. I pushed down the memories and refused to think about what had happened to him and his mother.

I sighed deeply, suppressing a yawn badly and instead making a weird strangled noise. Laying down on one of the pews, I rested my eyes for a few moments. I didn't notice my conciseness fading as I turned onto my stomach, hiding my face in my arms and allowing myself to slip into a short nap.

Surprisingly, Rick and his little group returned first. Sasha and Bob walked in first and I sat up from my makeshift bed, pretending I hadn't just gone through every single one of Gabriel's belongings while they were away. I didn't think he would bring it up anyways, too scared of everyone to say a word out of turn. They pulled in boxes full of food and my stomach growled in hunger.

I assumed Carl was still outside, since I hadn't heard any yelling or gunshots. Surely he hadn't been out there all this time. The tinted light that leaked through the stained glass windows on both sides of the church had darkened significantly, and I wondered how long i'd sleep for. My entire body felt weird, they way it does when you take a nap for way longer than you should have. My thoughts were confirmed a few minutes later when he and Rick walked through the door, Rick going towards his daughter and picking her up.