To Be With You | Carl Grimes [DISCONTINUED]

Chapter 23: Look at the Flowers

Once Carol was done, we continued walking along the trail.

"Did Tom Sawyer have a happy ending?" Mika asked Carol. "We never got to finish it."

"Well, Tom and Huck, they stop Injun Joe and his partner and wind up getting all his gold." Carol explained.

"So they wind up rich?"

"Mm-hmm." Carol nodded. "And the Widow Douglas adopts Huck."

"Like you adopted us?" Mika asked.

"Yeah, just like the Widow Douglas."

"And I'm Huck Finn." Mika smiled to herself.

"I think you're more like Tom Sawyer." Lizzie piped up.

"Yeah, you're right." Mika changed her mind. "You're way more like Huck Finn. You're not even grossed out by dead rabbits."

Lizzie gave her sister a look and I chuckled silently to myself.

"Forgot you used to read to them." Said Tyreese.

"I did."

I couldn't help but be reminded by Patrick. He used to go to story time every afternoon, leaving our and Carl's soccer game. I remember when Carl and I used to make fun of him because it was for kids. Patrick took it as a joke, but I felt guilty whenever I was reminded about it ever since he died. I wish I could take it all back...I wish he was still here.

***

I smelled smoke.

The others must've smelled it too because they looked around for the source.

"Must be a fire somewhere." I said.

"Has to be a big one. It isn't anywhere around here." said Carol. "We should stop here. We need to look for water."

"I can do it." Tyreese volunteered.

"No, you need to rest." She replied. "Rest your arm. Mika will help me."

We went off the track into the woods. While Carol and Mika went to find water, the rest of us stayed behind. Tyreese, who was holding Judith, and Lizzie was sitting on a log. I stood up, looking around just in case.

"I spy trees and weeds." Lizzie said and Tyreese chuckled. She looked at me. "Your turn."

I sighed. I didn't feel like playing this game. There was nothing my little eye could spy but-

"A walker," I muttered.

"What?" Both Tyreese and Lizzie said, looking in my direction.

There was a walker far away from us, but it would eventually get here before Carol and Mika get back.

"Don't worry, it's just one." I said, and started forward. "I'll get it."

I was almost there when the walker suddenly fell. When I was finally close enough, I saw that the walker had only one leg. The other one must've come off somehow. It snarled at me as I raised my hand to kill it but then Lizzie came up behind me.

"Brenda." I looked behind me.

"Sometimes we have to kill them." She said. "I know that. But sometimes we don't."

I looked back at the walker and back at Lizzie. My hand gripped my brass knuckles so hard I thought they were going to break. But I let go. I hated to admit it, but she was right.

"Hey guys!"

We spun around to see Mika and Carol. Mika had a big smile on her face as she said, "Come, we have to show you something."