Spider Monkey

Chapter Fifty - One - New World

Carl and Hedley glanced at each other, both nodding reluctantly. They went with Enid until they got to the abandoned home, windows smashed to hell, overgrown vines in the cracks of the bricks. It resembled a haunted house.

Hedley took his crossbow off his back and loaded it. Carl and Enid took out their knives. Carl knocked on the door and waited. A lone growl echoed the structure and a walker came through the hall to answer. It limped as its foot was dangling from strips of leathery flesh.

Hedley fired his bow and the walker fell quickly, bolt to the head.

Enid went in first, Carl chasing after her. Hedley went in, taking back his arrow.

While Enid and Carl were in the kitchen, Hedley made his way upstairs. It was a small house. Two bedrooms, one of which was made from a closet space. The stairs were skinny and the wood creaked with every footfall.

The bedroom he entered was what looked to be a teenage boys room. Chequered bed sheets, grey walls, old rock band posters. There was a small bookcase which Hedley immediately gravitated to. He scanned the books and smiled when seeing mostly comic books. He took off his bag and emptied the shelves into it, packing it tight. When done, Hedley decided to check under the bed. He saw some trash and school books but soon came across a shoebox. Hedley pulled the box out and flipped the lid and gasped at what he found.

Dirty magazines.

A bunch of them.

Naked women staring up at him. The lustful eyes made him uncomfortable. He shut the lid. Then, curiosity got the better of him and opened the lid once more. He took out the first magazine and saw that the cover was falling from the entire book. He tore off the already unattached cover and saw the true contents underneath.

Dirty magazines once more... but instead of women, they were men. Men kissing, men naked, men doing other acts on each other. Hedley blushed as he suddenly felt hot all over.

A scream rang out of the house. It was Enid.

Hedley shot up, putting the magazine in his bag with the comics before running down the stairs and to where his friends were.

They were in the living room area and Enid looked disgusted as she pointed to something.

"Ew! That's so gross! Who the hell would have that willingly in their house?!"

"Calm down, Enid. It's just a bug." Carl tried.

Enid took out her knife, "I'll get it."

"No!" Hedley yelled, going over to get a better look at what Enid was looking at. It was a small glass tank and inside was a still alive giant millipede. It was beautiful as it crawled around its home. Carefully, he opened the enclosure and placed his hand in to let the millipede climb his arm. "She's beautiful."

"Beautiful?" Enid scoffed. "Shouldn't we just kill it?"

Hedley turned to the girl with a snarl, holding the arthropod to his chest.

Carl knew that Hedley wasn't going to leave the millipede there so he sighed, "You wanna keep her?"

Hedley nodded, rocking back and forth, happy humming.

Before Enid could complain, Carl helped Hedley take the tank from its place and empty it so they could transport it easier.

"Why didn't the walker eat it?" Enid asked on their way back to Alexandria.

"Maybe they only eat warm blooded things." Carl theorised.

"So... walkers have heat vision now?"

Hedley spoke, "Infrared."

Enid frowned, "What?"

"Infrared. N-Not heat vision." Hedley said, eyes on the millipede that was wrapped around his hand, "M-Many animals have i-it to f-find prey."

"Walkers were people though." Carl spoke, "Does that mean they evolved? Y'know, adapted to see in infrared?"

Hedley shrugged, not really knowing.

They snuck back into Alexandria, Enid cleared off and left Carl and Hedley to set up the millipede's new enclosure in Hedley's room.

Hedley's room was covered with books, bones and taxidermized bugs. Daryl went on a run a few weeks ago to an old medical clinic and found a bunch of mounted bugs in frames and gave them all to Hedley to display. Before that day, Hedley didn't decorate his room at all as he was afraid that once he did, he'd have to leave it all behind. But ever since Daryl's gift, he's been slowly decorating his room with cool things he found. Pretty rocks, animal bones and skulls, books of all different shapes, sizes and colours. He also had a nest-like bed. Instead of using a mattress and bedframe, he gathered blankets, pillows and quilts into the corner and slept on the floor. It was where he was most comfortable.

They put the tank down onto a clear spot on the bookcase and they quickly went outside to gather substrate and dry leaves from the garden. They displayed rocks and bark hides in the tank, making it all nice and pretty.

"Is that it?" Carl asked.

"W-We need to moisten the s-soil." Hedley informed.

"We could ask Carol to use her plant mister."

The boys went downstairs and saw Merle and Carol in the kitchen. Carol was cleaning Merle's bloodied lower lip.

"What happened to you?" Carl said, seeing the split lip.

"You should see the other guy." Merle smirked then hissed when Carol pressed hard into the wound, "Damn, woman. Easy. I thought ya would smother me with kisses for the hero I am."

"Hero? Please. You're an idiot." Carol sassed, wiping the blood off of Merle's chin. She turned to the boys, "Merle beat up some guy during gun training."

"He said shit about ma family." Merle argued, "He ain't gonna be talking nothin' now he's got no teeth."

Hedley giggled. Merle lifted his hand up for his nephew. They high fived.

Carol sighed, shaking her head, "You Dixons are gonna be the bane of my existence."

"Does that mean ya don't love me no more?" Merle stood up and gave Carol a sweet kiss.

Carol rolled her eyes, going back to the boys and spotting the millipede, "What is- where did you get that?"

"We found it." Carl said, "It's a pet. We've already set up the tank in Hedley's room. But we need to borrow your mister."

Carol was debating whether or not to ask more questions but instead gave them her plant mister and watched with a smile as Carl and Hedley ran upstairs in excitement.