The Girl That Named the Bat.

The Forest Where It Began.

The air felt thick as we made our way down the dusty road, we all knew that there would be a group of mangled, rotting walkers not too far up-ahead. It was inevitable. The whole city was riddled with them; there was no escape from the endless trail of death and disease. We were all exhausted, my dad especially, not too far back we had stopped for a rest when a pack of rabid mongrel dogs came bounding towards us. Dad was the only one who had the stomach to put them out of their misery.

At least it gave us something to eat.

We'd been on a scavenger hunt for the past four days to no avail, no food, no ammo, nothing useful, really. Just the odd small supply, gauze, some clothes, and baby toys for Judith and Maggies baby once it's born. The heat was beating down on us, and the road seemed to stretch further and further along, but it wouldn't be too long until we were comfortably resting back at Alexandria.

"Carl, have some water." Michonne demanded. She handed me her grubby water bottle with half a smile, I know she means well, but at times, she can be quite brazen. I offered her a gentle smile from beneath my hat and took a few sips from the bottle before wiping the sweat from my brow. A soft gurgle noise slowly travelled through the air. We all looked up, and sure enough, there were walkers.

"I've got this one," I said before removing my pistol from its holster before my dad stopped me, standing his foot in front of me and handing me his hunting knife.
"It's quieter, and there's no point wasting ammo." His rough voice whispered. Despite his exhaustion, I could tell he was trying to teach me to be more discrete when eliminating the walkers. I nodded, holstering my gun and taking the knife from him, I took a few silent steps towards the walkers.

There was a group of three to four walkers, one stumbling around in the middle looking up at the sky. Its jaw was hanging on by a thread. Two on the left, walking in the direction to Alexandria, their hungry moans echoing down the road. Then there was one towards the right, dragging its carcass around, its legs were mangled, broken, rotten. I decided to take the crawling one first. It might not be able to stand, but I wouldn't want it biting my ankles while I'm focusing on the other three.
I took a few cautious steps towards it before plunging the blade through its skull and into its brain, I've stopped thinking of these things as what they are and as just that, things. If I see them as once human, it'll be more difficult for me to take them out, thinking about what their life might've been like, if they had friends or a partner or-

"Carl, watch out!" I heard Michonnes voice call a warning to me as she jogged forward, her katana in hand. Swiftly slicing through the sky-staring walker with ease, I jumped to my feet and barely missed being scratched by one of the other walkers before turning and lodging the knife into its skull. There was one walker left, I tried to remove my knife, but it was stuck. The squishy meat and hard bone trapped the knife in its grasp.

Bang.

The final walker fell to its knees, I looked up and saw my dad. He had a disappointed scowl across his face as he lowered his smoking gun. His eyes blazed a hole into me,
"Dad i-" Before I could begin to stutter out an apology, I was hushed,

"Don't, just don't make the same mistake next time," I hated when he sounded angry at me. Since mom died, it feels like he's more angry at me than any other emotion, I knew he was tired, but I tried. it's not my fault the knife got stuck. He let out a deep sigh before I managed to yank the blade back from the walkers' grasp, and we continued on our way.

It was a few hours before we reached the metal gates of Alexandria, I was ready to kick my boots off and go to bed, but I knew there were still jobs to be done, the gates clicked and creaked as they were pulled back to reveal a shiney, smiley Maggie. She held out her arms before enveloping me in a hug,
"Carl, now ya' didn't give your daddy too much trouble, did ya?" She laughed as her accent rang out with her words, I smiled at her and gave her a soft 'Hey Maggie' before heading through the gates and towards the home that contained the gun locker. I handed in any ammo I had and my pistol before heading towards the farm to attend to the crops.