stars , c.grimes

006. monsters

    Carl is sat on the bed with the book in his hands and she swallows before wandering over and sitting beside him, staring down at the floor where multiple legos and action figures lie. She figures that this room belonged to a boy maybe slightly younger than them, no younger than eleven.

    "I had a sister." Sofia says, smiling slightly at the memory of her older sister and Carl looks at her with a small frown. "Her name was Rosita; I called her Rose. I wanted to be just like her, every day I would see her and I'd think to myself that she is the most perfect person in this world and I would do anything to be exactly like her. I don't know where she is now, I don't know if she's alive or if she's one of those things or if she's just dead." Sofia blinks away the tears burning at the back of her eyes. "But I'm glad that I got to be her sister."

    "She's proud." Carl mutters, closing his book and leaning his head back against the wall.

"You think?"

    "Yeah." He whispers, shrugging his shoulders with a small smile. "I hope Judith is with my Mom. She'd really love her."

   Sofia smiles, "yeah, I do too." Carl rubs his hand over his face before letting it fall into the mattress and on top of hers making her glance at him.

   How is it that shared trauma can bring even the most distant souls close together?

    "Carl! Sofia! Let's go out." Michonne shouts up to them and they share a look before sighing and trudging down the stairs, seeing her and Rick waiting.

    Sofia grabs her machete and stuff her gun and knife in the waist of her jeans, her and Carl each have two empty bags over their shoulders and Michonne has a duffel bag they need to fill up.

    "How long you think you'll be?" Rick asks them as the four walk into the porch of the house. Rick is staying at the house to rest for one more day before they're able to formulate some kind of plan for the next few weeks.

    "Fill a couple bags, shouldn't be too long." Michonne says, smiling at the two teenagers who nod.

"It's 8:15 now."

    "We'll be back by noon." Michonne promises and Rick nods, looking to the teenagers.

    "All right, you follow her lead. You understand?" He says to them and Sofia nods whilst Carl simply sighs slightly. "Hey. Everything okay?"

    Carl turns to Rick just as he was about to walk down the steps of the porch and he sighs again, nodding. "Yeah, I'm just. . .hungry." Sofia eyes him, knowing that is a lie. Sure, he's probably hungry but that's not why he's so down.

   Rick simply nods after sharing a glance with Michonne and the trio trudge down the steps and away from the house. Carl and Sofia walk slightly behind Michonne as they approach their first house and when the exit about half an hour later they've half filled a few bags.

    "Find anything good? Candy bars? Comic books?" Michonne pauses for a second with a grin. "Crazy Cheese?"

"Huh?"

    Michonne reaches into her duffel bag and whips out a can of 'crazy cheese', "Bam! Crazy Cheese." She grins and Carl eyes her strangely as she looks extremely proud and happy with her findings. Sofia is walking slightly ahead but looks back with a raised eyebrow at Michonne's statement. "Found it still sealed and everything. Now I'll be nice and let you have the first pull."

    "No, thanks." Carl tend down her offer making Michonne furrow her eyebrows.

"Are you sure?"

Carl nods, "I'm fine."