Daddy's Little Girl

Chapter 12: Frogs

Carl's P.O.V.

A little while after my dad and the others left, my mom and I talked and worked on some math with Sophia. After we finished Shane asked me if I want to go hunting for frogs. Cool!

"I'm not getting anything." I told him as I look at my line.

"Yeah." He answers. "Being all wily, staying submerged. Little suckers, they know something's up. That's what's going on. Just going to have to do this the old-fashioned way." He says as he gets up from where he was sitting and brings the bucket he was carrying with him. "All right, little man, look." He says as he goes into the water. "You are the... you are the key in all this, okay? All I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go after one of them, all right, scare the rest of them off. They're all gonna scatter. I'm gonna drive 'em your way." He says as he gets into a stance.

"All right." I smile.

"What you need to do is you need to round up every bad boy you see, all right? Are you with me?" He asks.

"Yeah."

"Hells yeah!"

"Yeah!"

"Give me your mean face." He says growling. I join him, it's just a little thing we do.

"Yes sir. Are you ready?"

"Yeah!" I shout.

"Are you ready? Here we go, boy." He says looking at me. I look back rising my brows and smile. "Here we go." He says as he drops in the water. "All right, little man, they're coming your way. They're coming your way." He says splashing the water. "Go on, get 'em, get 'em! They're coming your way, come on! Catch them frogs." He repeats splashing the water at me as I laugh, swinging the net around in the water as I try catching the frogs. "Catch them frogs. They're coming, little man! Get 'em! Get that net in there and get 'em! They're coming, little man! Get 'em! Get that net in there and get 'em! What have you got, bad boy?! What do you got?! What do you got?!" He asks as I lift up my net.

"Dirt." I say dropping the net back into the water.

"Oh boy. All right, we've got to start over." He jokes. "Come on, let's find this bucket." He says dropping down in the water making both of us laugh. On the other side of the lake the women sit doing laundry, talking and laughing, Ed sitting in his truck smoking.

My mom comes down the path and calls me, "Hey, Carl, what did I tell you about not leaving Dale's sight?" She asks.

"But Shane said we could catch frogs, remember?"

"It doesn't matter what Shane says. It matters what I say. Go on, back to camp." She always seems to come around the time I'm having the most fun, and ruins it. I let out an overly dramatic sigh as I walk back up the trail, kicking rocks. I bet Daryl lets Kathrine do whatever she wants.

"I'll be right behind you." She says. Shane calls out for my mom, but she ain't having it. What's goin' on with them? I think as I continue to walk up the hill.

***

Kat's P.O.V

We've been running through the city all morning and my feet are starting to kill. We finally stop at a fence with a hole in it, big enough for us to get through. As we go through it Rick speaks up.

"Merle first or guns?" He asks.

"Merle!" Me and my daddy say at the same time.

"We ain't even having this conversation." He adds.

"We are." Rick raises his voice. I can tell it's gonna take them awhile to get use to each other. Rick looks back at Glenn. "You know the geography. It's your call."

"Merle's closest." He says as we begin to jog, again. "The guns would mean doubling back. Merle first."

***

We enter a random store, and damn... It's totally wrecked. What the hell did those Walkers do? Pick out a new summer wardrobe? I think as I kick one of the manikin's heads around.

Rick holds his hand up, signalling us to stop. He points to me and my daddy to take out the two Walkers in front of us. Me and my daddy walk around the others and position ourselves in front of the two female Walkers.

"Damn." My daddy says quietly. "You are one ugly skank." He says as our arrows sink into their soft heads and they fall to the floor. I think what I like best about using a crossbow is that you have unlimited ammo. I think, walking over and taking my hot pink arrow out of the Walkers head, wiping the blood on its shirt.

***

We finally reach the same store where we were the day before. We all rush up to the staircase and find the door still chained shut. We let T-Dog go first since he has the bolt cutters. Once he cuts it off my daddy kicks the door open and we both run onto the roof.

"Merle! Merle! Merle! MERLE!" We both yell running to the spot where he was cuffed. To our surprise and horror we don't find Merle, only a hand, a handsaw and blood, a lot of blood. The cuffs still attached to the pipe. I feel the anger and sadness built up inside of me as I try to process what happened.

"No! No! No! No! No!" My daddy yells as he falls to his knees and I stand behind him as we both cry.