𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠 ↠ 𝘤.𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴

54: Tired

'Tired' can mean many things. It can mean you didn't sleep well, if at all. It can mean you've had a long day, or you've been active and need a break. Or, it can mean you're tired mentally.

"I'm tired." Elle spoke in almost a whisper. She sat up in her bed, her head in her hands.

"It's like one in the afternoon." Ryder argued. Elle groaned and threw the blanket off of her body, and turned to she was sitting off the edge of the bed, like her friend.

"That means Glenn should be back in a couple of hours." She yawned as she stood up, stretching. Glenn, Tara, and Noah had gone out on a supply run with Eugene, Aiden, and Nicholas. They needed something that had to do with the solar panels that powered the whole place. She wasn't paying much attention when they explained the purpose of the run to the group.

"Alright, well let me get dressed and I'll meet you downstairs." Ryder nodded, leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

It had a been a .. strange couple of days since Ryder's return. Carl was acting weird, secretive even. Elle hadn't brought it up with Ryder yet because she didn't want to seem like she was obsessed, or overthinking it, but something was definitely off with Carl. If only she could figure out what it was.

As Elle and Ryder sat at the kitchen island, talking about Ryder's trip up north, Carl walked in the house. The noise of the door opening caught their attention.

Elle gave a small wave, he waved back before running up to his room. Elle sighed, turning back to the boy sitting in front of her.

"What was that all about?" Ryder scoffed. Elle's eyes widened.

"You see it too?" She was surprised yet happy that she wasn't over thinking it. "He's been like this for days. He's hiding something. We've talked like three times since you've gotten back." She shrugged.

"Wait, do you think it's because I'm back?" Ryder asked, pointing at himself. Elle shook her head, turning down his suggestion.

"No because earlier that day, I asked where he was rushing off to and he said 'I don't know,' but then at the gate, he was standing next to Enid, he said something and she ran off." Elle explained briefly.

"Enid?"

"The pretty, brown haired girl." She said, rubbing her head. "Anyways, continue your story."

"See you later." Elle closed the door behind her and made her way down the street. She started drifting off of the street and towards the walls, looking for any way to get over them.

She didn't necessarily hate this place, but she would definitely get called insane if she said she missed being outside of the walls.

She doesn't mean that she'd rather be outside, fending for herself, though. But she felt sort of trapped inside the walls. Everytime their group thinks they found some sort of refuge, something goes horribly wrong. Whether the place blows up, gets overrun, or both.

As she walked along the perimeter, Elle noticed metal rods sticking out of one of the beams. Not just randomly though, they were like the rungs of a latter, someone else snuck out as well.

Looking around, she saw nobody in sight, so she went up to the make shift latter and started climbing. Once she reached the top, she realized she didn't have any way of protecting herself from the sharp edge of the metal. Doing some quick, yet not so thorough, thinking, she just went for it and threw herself over.

She landed in a pile of leaves and rolled to soften the landing. It still hurt, but she didn't slice her hand open. Digging through the leaves, Elle found her knife that she had dropped before heading into the woods.