Bitter & Sweet (A Carl Grimes Fanfiction)

29

Days past, the group went on scavenging and they were on the road again. Tyreese was killed on a run when they went to Noah's old neighborhood in hope for shelter. All they found was a walker that sneaked up on Tyreese, bit him in the arm. They tried to save him but between the time Noah found him and went to go find the others, even after his arm was off, it was too late. "-see what I can find," Daryl finished, taking Rick's gun. "Hey, don't be too long."

"I'll go with you," Carol decided. "I got it," Daryl told her, walking off. "You gonna stop me?" He didn't say anything, so Carol followed. It's not like he was gong to try and stop her. Sam walked in the back, Noah beside her glancing over at her every now and then waiting for her to talk to him. Ha. Sam directs her attention to Carl, who was pulling out a yellow music box, Sam was the one who found it when they were able to go on a run, "Sam found this when we were looking for water." He hands it out to Maggie, "what is it?" She turns it over inspecting it. "I think it used to play music. It's broken," he frowned when Maggie didn't show any emotion to liking it. But then she smiled, "Thanks Carl." He grinned, "thought you might like it."

"He's a good kid," Noah pointed out quietly. Sam wasn't sure if he was directing it at her or just making a statement. She nodded nevertheless. "You don't talk much?" Not now. Not yet. I'm not ready. Noah wasn't Carl though, he didn't understand her thoughts, so she shakes her head. "You and Carl are close. Siblings?" Closer. "Girlfriend, boyfriend?" Haha. "No," Noah saw the look on her face, "just friends?" Sam shrugged. Too close to be just friends. "Like brother and sister?" Noah tried to read her expression. She nods. "Too old for him, or is he not your type?" She gave him a foul look, he's my little brother-that would be incest. She wanted that to be true, she would do anything for Carl to be her little brother. Since it wasn't true, she just had to act like he was. Protect him better then she had with Sebastian. There was no protecting him, She told herself, he was gone before he was actually gone. "Sorry for asking. How old are you?" Sam rolled her eyes, did he expect a answer to come flying out of her mouth. "I was 15 when this all started." She nodded, "we're you too?" She nods again. "Huh. That makes us the same age. I think we're 19 now, can't be 100% sure though."

After walking a little more Rick finds a way to get rid of the herd that has been following them for the past couple of hours. They come upon a bridge, too exhausted to actually kill them, they tripped the walkers one by one. Sasha starts to kill them, probably getting her anger out. She needed to, Sam wasn't so sure if Michonne was in the right to stop her either. But she also knew if Sasha kept going she was going to pass out from the tiredness. They keep going after that, Carl holding Judith and Sam walking so close to him, when her arms swinger they brushed against the side of his pants. They come across a note then, over bottles of water. The note was addressed to them, but it said they were friends. That didn't set right.

"So all we found was booze?" Tara asks, after they stopped to rest. "Yeah." Rosita confirms. "It's not going to help," Glenn says as Abraham brings the bottle to his nose. "He knows that." Rosita rests her head on her hands. "It's going to make it worse." Abraham ignores as he chugs it. "Yeah it is." "He's a grown man. And I truly do not know if things could get any worse." Eugene puts in. "They can," Rosita says plainly. As if on cue there's growling coming from the woods across from them. Out comes 3 dogs, looked like they were ready to eat them. But so were they. Rick slowly takes out his knife, before he can though Sasha shoots them. The dogs whine before going down, everyone jumps. Sam looks away, knowing this is what it came down to, and they had no choice. Rick starts to build a fire.

"Your brother, he tried to help me. I don't know if I'm gonna make it." Sasha looks down at him, "Then you won't. Don't think. Just eat." Harsh but true. They ate in silent, in a (some what) circle. When Sam finished her piece Carl offered her some of his, she waved her hand. You need to eat. He nodded, and continued.

Rick handed Daryl the note when he came out of the woods, as soon as he read it he had his crossbow off of his back. "What do we do now?" Tara asks. "Not this. We don't know who left it." Eugene looks down at the full bottles, "If that's a trap we already happen to be in it, but I for one, would like to think it is indeed from a friend."

"But what if it isn't? What if there's something in it?" Carol pointed out. Eugene jumped forward anyways. "Eugene!" "What are you doing?" Sam honestly didn't care if it was poisoned or not, she craved the 'water' inside it. "Quality assurance." He snatched up a bottle opening it and starting to tilt it back, only to get it smacked out of his hands, the liquid flying out onto the front of his shirt and onto the ground. "We can't," Rick says. Right then it begins to rain, everyone opens their mouth. "Everybody get the bags, anything you can find. Come on." Rosita and Tara lay on the road. People smile, but then like always something goes wrong, a thunderclaps. The rain pours harder and everybody know they can't risk it outside if there's lightening. "There's a barn!" Daryl yells over the thunder. "Where?"

They clear out the barn, finding their own sleeping places. Carl passes out first, watching him sleep reminds Sam just how much he is just a kid. She's not a kid anymore. She sat by Noah farthest away from Carl. Rick watches his son. "He's going to be okay," Carol reassured him, "he bounces back more than any of us do." Michonne, Glenn, and Daryl accompany them. Rick looks down, "I used to feel bad for kids who had to grow up in this. But I think I got it wrong. Growing up is getting used to the world. It's easier for them." Michonne sits up, "This isn't the world. This isn't it." I sure hope not. Glenn glances over at Maggie, "it might be. It might." Who laid at the opposite side of the barn asleep already. Michonne shakes her head, "that's giving up." "It's reality," Glenn says. "Until we see otherwise, this is what we have to live with," Rick's says.

"When I was a kid I asked my grandpa once if he ever killed any Germans in the war. He wouldn't answer. Said it was grown up stuff so...so I asked if the Germans ever tried to kill him. But he got really quiet, he said he was dead the minute he stepped into enemy territory. Everyday he told himself, 'rest in peace, now get up and go to war'. Then after a few years of pretending he was dead...he made it out alive. We do what we need to do and then we get to live. But no matter what we find in DC, we'll be okay. Because this is how we survive."

Daryl sits up, Noah scoots back towards the side of a barn wall. "We're not them," Rick tells him, "hey," Daryl looks at him, "we're not." Sam brings her knees to her chest. "We're not them," and instead of separating from the group he sits back down after throwing branches into the fire, he looks up at Sam. "How did you make it this far? How did you survive Terminus before us?" Sam shrugged, and looked down. "What do you mean you don't know? We all survive somehow." I wasn't the one doing the surviving. Sam looked up at him, she wanted to tell him she didn't survive, she just happened to wake up everyday. Until Carl, she just existed in a small kneel, 24/7 curled up in a ball. I have something to live for now, she looks over at Carl. Rick follows her glaze along with everyone else.

"Thank you," Rick says suddenly, "Carl told me you saved him." He saved me. "What I said back at the church, I didn't mean it. I was just looking for-" Sam held up her hand, and nodded in understanding looking Rick straight in the eyes. It's silent for a few minutes, "You and Carl are really close," Carol says softly, "You remind me of my daughter. They were close too." Sam gave her a sympathetic nod. "You guys sure do act like girlfriend and boyfriend," Glenn smirks at her, Michonne lightly chuckles along with Rick. Daryl glances at her, smirking a little, "you have a liking in him?" Sam shakes her head, drawing in the dirty ground of the barn 'not like that'. "Not like that," Carol reads, "but you 2 have some sort of connection." A strong one, one only me and him can have, Sam wanted to say. "So why won't you talk?" Rick asks.

Sam can only look over to Carl. It's not that I can't. I just can't talk to you guys first. It wouldn't be right. I have to talk to Carl first. Tell him everything, only when it's the right time. That time isn't now. Of course they couldn't hear her thoughts, or guess what she was thinking like Carl. So she just shrugged while watching Carl sleep. Before going to sleep Rick made a make-shift bed out of a crate for Judith. Sam went to lay down by Carl falling asleep almost instantly.