Born to Die

11

Alli
By the time my guard shift ended, there were dark clouds filling the sky, making the early afternoon look like it was almost night time. I found Carl in the cafeteria, he was reading comics there because I guess it had better lighting than his cell. The clouds made the cell block dark, not that the cafeteria was much of an upgrade.

"Is it bad that the storm is making me wanna go to the house?" I ask and he laughs "why?" "I don't know, I like storms and there's more to do there" I explain and Beth walks into the room "more to do where?" She asks and I give an answer on the spot "Colorado, my family used to vacation there to ski and stuff, we counted on storms to bring good skiing" I told her and she nodded.

"So I guess you were talking about all the places better than here" she laughs and I shake my head "no, we were just talking about vacations that we've been on, there weren't too many places to talk about" I shrugged and she gave a nod.

"I get that, any vacation that we had was to the beach since Maggie was at college and my daddy had a lot to do at the farm" she said and I gave a smile "the beach is always fun though" she nodded in agreement. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm taking a nap, it's dark anyway" she stated and I grinned "good idea, I might do that later" I told her, then she left the room.

"People are just gonna chill out the whole day anyway, we should go" I told Carl, returning to my original argument to go to the house. He shrugged, the stood up "well, it's too dark to read in here anyway, lets go" he gave in and we started walking to his cell. "We need an excuse to be gone" I mention and he thinks for a moment "say we're just exploring the prison, we'll let my dad then leave".

Carl and I both grabbed our knives and put on hoodies after I pointed out that it might start raining on our way there. We found Rick with Judith in his cell "hey dad, we're gonna explore around the prison, there's still a lot that we haven't gone much into" Carl said.

Rick nodded slowly "be careful, bring flashlights, and don't even think about going into the tombs" he ordered us and we nodded "okay, and if it starts raining we might just hang out wherever we are, we should be back by morning, worst case scenario" Carl said and Rick sighed "alright, be careful, if you run into more than two or three walkers, then you get your ass back here, whether it's raining or not" He spoke harshly, but I knew he just wanted us to me safe.

We grabbed a drawstring back, each putting a pair of comfy clothes in there along with a flashlight, never hurts to have supplies. Carl had his gun in his holster, mine was in the bag, I hardly ever keep it right on me, most kills I can make with a knife or I have my crossbow.

We got to the house within 10 minutes, just barely beating the rain, it started pouring about a minute after we got inside. "Damn, that's a storm if I've ever seen one" I commented, starting to hear hail falling, it was hitting the roof with a loud clanking noise. Thunder boomed, rattling small pieces of furniture and I jumped slightly, just out of surprise.

"You're not scared of the storm, are you?" Carl asked and I laughed "nope, storms are my favorite, it just surprised me" I said and he nodded "okay, whatever you say" he was being sarcastic, implying that I was scared.

I pushed him slightly "whatever, you're such a pain" I joked and he laughed, pushing me jokingly, as I had done to him. Another roar of thunder rattled the house, quieting our laughter. I walked to the piano, sitting on the bench, scooting over so that Carl could sit beside me. He always seemed fascinated as I played, as if he was watching a movie.

I played the chords of Drops of Jupiter by Train, stopping at the end of the introduction "want me to show you how to play this one?" I asked and he shook his head "I just wanna hear you play it" he spoke quietly now and I felt a slight smile creep onto my face, playing the introduction again, then the rest of the song (ok if you've never heard drops of Jupiter then go look it up it's such a beautiful song).

I smiled as I sang the words, I could see Carl looking at me from the corner of my vision. I finished the song and he leaned towards me, kissing me, making the room silent besides the thunderstorm outside. He pulled away from me slowly, he always did, as if he was trying to make the end of a moment last. "You should play another one" he suggests and I nod "alright" then began to play another song.

We had gone upstairs when the house became to dark to just walk around in, so we decided to sleep again. I laid on the bed comfortably with Carl's arm and a blanket wrapped around me as I drifted off to sleep.

~dream~

Alli
"Come on Alli we're almost there" I hear someone shout cheerfully, we were in the woods.. "I'm coming!" I shout and begin to run so I can catch up. When I'm behind the person they turn around "good you're all caught up" she laughs, it was my best friend Sarah. "We're gonna miss the movie if you don't hurry up" she laughs and pulls me ahead as we run, we sneak into the movies all the time. Neither of our families wanted us to waste money on a movie, so we just don't pay. We walked into the theater and I tap the ticket guy's shoulder about to pull our normal routine. "um sir?" I say in a slightly more childlike voice, I look a few years younger than I actually am so this is never hard to do. The collector glanced at us m "our mom went into our movie already and brought our tickets with her, can we go in?" I ask making puppy dog eyes. He nods and let's us into the theater hall, "Paranormal Activity, here we come" Sarah smirks and we run into the theater. The previews are still going so we start talking "oh yeah, I got you something for your birthday tomorrow" she says to me and I half smile "aw, you didn't have to" I said, I knew neither of our families had the money. I really just wanted to see my dad for my birthday. My mom always talked about him, but I even remember meeting him, my mom made him leave when I was 3. "I know I can't find your dad for you or anything, but I won at one of those claw machines with electronics inside so I got you a camera" she smiles and hands me a small box with a ribbon tied around it. "thanks Sarah" I smile "no problem Al" she says and then the movie starts.
~end of dream~

Another clap of thunder woke me up, then when I sat up, it woke up Carl. "You okay?" He asked, jumping up from being woke so suddenly. I put my hand on his chest, to calm him down quickly "sorry, didn't mean to wake you, thunder woke me up" I explained briefly and he gave a sigh of relief, laying back down. He glanced out the window "when do you think we should go back?" He asked and I shrugged "I mean, they think we're just chilling out in some part of the prison, so we can do whatever we want".

I laid back beside him and he put his arm over me again as I listened to the rain falling outside. "Let's wait a few hours more, the rain can be our excuse for not coming home, doesn't really matter how long we take." He leaned over, kissing my forehead, then sat up, getting out of bed.

"Do we have any food here?" I ask, yawning as I got up from the bed as well. "I think I brought a few cans of peaches and oranges the other day, they should still be downstairs" he answered, starting to walk out of the bedroom and down the stairs, as I followed close behind him.