Forever Unfinished // Carl Grimes

Chapter 30

Ethan's head fell slack as the life left his body. His blood stained into her clothes, a reminder of what she had done. She choked back a sob and brought her blood covered hand to her face and cried out. Tears ran freely down her face as she let the emotion run through her body, she felt helpless, completely and utterly helpless.

"Lauren— Oh god," Sam gasped as she entered the room. Lauren knelt in a pool of Ethan's blood, sobbing while the metallic substance stained into her clothes.

"He— Carl— Dead..," Lauren managed between sobs and Sam ran to her, pulling her onto her feet.

"It's over now," She whispered as Lauren held onto her body, "He's gone."

"They took Carl," Lauren sobbed, "He told me he's dead, I don't know where he is. I just got so angry, I just—"

"It's okay," Sam hushed her before she fell into hysterics, "I think I know where they could have taken him. We need to go, before it's too late."

Sam threw Lauren her blood-stained machete and pulled her down the hallways and stairs and into the open lobby. People tended to the wounded while bodies lay around the floor. They stared at Lauren as she walked, some widening their eyes at the sight of her. She knew she looked like something out of a horror movie, blood covering her clothes and likely her face too, and it wasn't even hers. She felt disgusted she was covered in what ran through Ethan's veins. Previously.

"Who took him?" Sam asked as she led Lauren out the doors of Greenview.

"Trevor and maybe more," Lauren replied, anticipation and grief eating through her, "I don't know."

"Ethan uses a boathouse by the lake just on the other side of the small forest as a personal zombie combat zone," Sam explained, "That's the only place I can think of him being."

Lauren took off into a sprint across the large green pasture. She ran as fast as her legs could take her, almost tripping over her own feet. She ignored the burning sensation of fatigue in her chest and continued to place one foot infront of the other, moving as fast as she could. She heard a shot, a high ringing sound that echoed through the dark evening. She pushed herself further, crying out to the boy she loved.

She spotted the enclosed area and pushed open the mesh wire gate. She sliced through Walkers that lingered around the area, not even stopping to take a breath. Sam called after her but she couldn't stop. She needed to know.

Blood trailed across the path and up to the door of a small building.

Lauren slowed, approaching the boathouse, it was a small cabin like place, made out of wood planks. She felt a hand on her back and she spun to see Sam pulling at her.

"Be careful," She warned.

Lauren pushed the half-opened door wide and she squinted through the dim evening light. She could hear the growling before she laid eyes on the mutilated body that spread across the floor, entrails pulled and blood smeared. The Walker snapped its head up, leaving the body to go for the heartbroken girl. Sam yanked Lauren back and shut the door tightly.

"I'm sorry," Sam said lowly, "We have to go or we're going to die."

Lauren couldn't hear her through her own grief, the desperate hope left her body and she felt herself falling into the black abyss of dispair. She cried out, a scream that the heavens could hear, the sound tore through her throat, body and mind.