Carl Grimes's life was great. He had both parents, a ton of friends, and a great role model. His dad was a sheriff at the King's County Police Department, while his mom was a stay at home mother. His role model just so happened to be his dad's best...
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Emily's Pov
After I had told Carl to go check on his mom, my dad walked up to me from the direction of the Grimes tent. He had an angered look on his face. It made his nose look abnormally large. His dark eyes were staring into my soul as he stood in front of me with his hands on his hips. He ran a large hand through his dark fluff of hair and blew out a breath of air.
It was a good thing that I looked like my mother. I had her stunning bluebell eyes and matching light brown hair with blonde highlights that formed into spiral curls at the bottom. Though I was tan like my father, I wasn't dark. You could still see the freckles that dotted my cheeks. My lips were naturally plump and red like my mother's as well. I was almost a walking reflection of her.
"You listen to me, and you listen to me good, Emily Grace Walsh." he said. 'Oh, no! I'm in deep doo-doo. He used the full name and that's never good.' I thought. "You do not disobey me or question my decisions. Do you hear me?" he asked, demanding.
I nodded, too scared that if I smart mouthed him he'd punish me. Most of the time, the punishments were I wouldn't be allowed to speak to Carl or anyone else for two days. In those days, I'd die of pure boredom.
"Yes, sir." I said, softly. He nodded, satisfied, then walked away.
꧁꧂
A few hours later, Amy walked up to where Mrs. Grimes sat next to the fire pit, she had a bowl of wild mushrooms in her hand.
"Any luck?" Mrs. Grimes asked, looking up at the teenage girl before her. Amy handed her the bowl and Mrs. Grimes began to examine the contents.
"How do we tell if they're poison?" Amy asked, watching the woman. Mrs. Grimes continued to study the contents before looking up at Amy.
"Uh, there's only one sure way I know of." she said, I knew the answer to that.
"Ask Shane when he gets back?" Amy said. Mrs. Grimes pour the contents of the bowl into another.
"Yeah, you got it." she said, standing up and dusting herself off. "Dale, I'm heading out." she called to Dale, who stood atop the RV, then turned to Carl. "Sweetheart, I want you to stay where dale can see you, okay? You too, Emily." she said, beginning to walk away.
"Yes, mom." Carl said, at the same time I said, "Yes, ma'am."
"You, too. Don't wonder too far. Stay within shouting distance. And if you see anything, holler. I'll come running." Dale called out to her.
Before she got out of hearing distance, I heard her softly say, "Yes, mom."
I turned to see Carl playing in the dirt. Thinking he was fine on his own, I went to find Sophia. The two of us have become close the past few weeks. She knew most of my secrets and I knew hers.
I walked the gravel pathway towards the water at the bottom of the quarry. There as I had expected was Sophia sitting at the water's edge. I took a seat on the gravel next to her and crossed my ankles in front of me. Sophia didn't even look at me. I knew why. It's the same reason as always. She scared to look people in the eye because she's scared the obvious will show.
"Hey, Em." she said, still staring at the water in front of her. I glanced over at her. Her green eyes were close to tears. She knew I saw it. I pushed a strand of her dirty blonde, shoulder length hair behind her ear.
"Hey Soph. You can tell me what happened because I already know." I said, as she looked at me, shocked.
"How.. How do you know?" she asked. I looked at the water. I pulled the long sleeves of my shirt up, so she could see the scars. Scratches, cuts, nail marks, etc. "What are those? How did you? Does Carl.." she asked, before I interrupted her.
"No! And he doesn't need to know. My dad doesn't even know." I said, pulling the sleeves down, and bringing my knees to my chest.
"But how was it your mom before she died? Your nanny?" she asked, quietly.
"What?! No!", I paused to breath, "It was a bully at school. He didn't like that Carl chose me over him, I guess."
"I'm sorry that he treated you like that. You're younger than me and I thought you wouldn't understand, but apparently you do." she said, flashing me a sad smile. I smiled back.
"It's okay. At least now you know you can relate to someone to. Me." I said, standing up from my spot. I held my hand out to her. "Come on, let's go see what everyone is doing?" I said, with a mischievous grin. She grinned back.
"You just want to annoy Carl. Well, I'm in." she said, taking my hand and standing up. We began walking back up the path back to camp.
We were walking into camp, playfully pushing each other, when the radio went off. T-Dog's static filled voice came through.
"Hello, base camp! Can anybody out there hear me? Base camp, this is T-Dog. Anybody hear me? Hello? Hello? Reception's bad on this end." T-Dog said.
Dad answered, "Repeat, repeat."
"Shane, is that you?" T-Dog answered. I ran over to dad.
"Daddy, is that them?" I asked, my voice drowning in the air because of the static from the radio. A small portion of our group went into the city on a supply run.
"We're in some deep shit. We're trapped in the department store." his voice came over. I looked at dad, frantic.
"He say they're trapped?" Amy asked, from a distance.
"There are geeks all over the place. Hundreds of 'em. We're surrounded." T-Dog said, before being drowned out by static.
"T-Dog, repeat that last. Repeat." dad said. But there was no answer.
"He said the department store." Amy said.
"I heard it too." Dale said, now standing on the ground with his gun in hand.
"Shane?" Mrs. Grimes asked. He knew she was going to ask to send people to save the rest.
"No way. We do not go after them. We do not risk the rest of the group. Y'all know that." dad said. I turned to him, wanting to speak, but I remembered our conversation earlier and kept my mouth shut.
"So we're just gonna leave her there?" Amy said, angry. Andrea, her older sister, volunteered to go on the run.
"Look, Amy, I know that this is not easy." dad started to say.
"She volunteered to go to help the rest of us." Amy insisted.
"I know, and she knew the risks, right? See, if she's trapped, she's gone. So we just have to deal with that. There's nothing we can do." dad said, which infuriated me. I bit my tongue so hard that I could taste the little drops of blood from it.
"She's my sister, you son of a bitch." Amy said, while Mrs. Grimes grabbed her arm.
"Amy, come on." I said, walking over to her and Mrs. Grimes. I grabbed her hand and pulled her with me. Mrs. Grimes followed us, along with Sophia and Mrs. Carol. Carl stayed behind with my dad, who thought he'd done nothing wrong.
When we got far enough away, Mrs. Grimes stopped us. "Girls, why don't you two go play? We'll take care of Amy." she said.
Sophia grabbed my hand and said, "Yes, ma'am." She pulled me to the side of the RV out of sight of everyone else. "What did you do? You're bottom lip is bleeding." she said. I put my fingers to my lip, when I pulled them away there was a little blood on them.
"I guess when I was biting my tongue to keep my opinion to myself, I bit my lip also." I said. She laughed.
"At least you're not getting in trouble. I'm gonna go find the Morales kids. Go annoy Carl, and get a tissue or something for that lip." she said, laughing before walking away.
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