Crestfallen ↬ Carl Grimes (old version)

O B S E R V A N T

CHAPTER THIRTY; OBSERVANT

"The thing is my hands are shaking and my tears are falling
And oh lord I don't want to do this anymore."

"Who is willing to become the hunter, or who's willing to live their life knowing that they're being hunted."

➳

"Things like this can't be kept from a girl as observant as you, Milah," Gareth's eyes glowed like a predator's own feral ones in the night, the roaring fire crackling and popping behind his head as he uses his teeth to tear off a bit of the meat that he held tightly in his large hands. "It's not like me to give out as many compliments as I am now, but I think you deserve it after everything you've been through."

It took all of me, every single fiber inside of my very being, to not launch myself at him and wrap my hands around his throat. It wasn't frightening in the slightest how easily I could imagine the sheen of sweat that now layered his skin seeping between my fingers the tighter and tighter I squeezed and it only made me want to do to it more, simply for the satisfaction of being the one to shut him up. What he called compliments is what I have learned to call prodding. He was shoving a metaphorical stick into my side, trying to get some sort of reaction out of me the more he talked. But I would not, and could not let him earn that. It was my brutal mistake of giving into the towering man's words back on the side of the road that earned me the amazingly vivid and brutal images that always seemed to lurk in my brain in instances such as this.

"So as you can see, poor Bob here is out like a light," if it even was possible, Gareth's mouth split into an even wider grin, showing off the flecks of meat in his teeth. "He's had a long night, and it's only going to get worse for him starting from here.

Before we get any farther into this, let me just make one thing clear," he continues,"It's not like we picked Bob on a singular desire for wanting to kill him and him only," the man stood up, taking another bite of the mysterious meat as he did so, and began to circle the spot in which I sat, his arms making large gestures as he talks. 

"Hell, if I were going to do that, don't you at least think my first option would be Rick? He killed my brother for Christ's sake! Or maybe that Gray haired queen bitch who killed my mother? Wouldn't she just be a fine choice as well? Do you honestly think that any of them in that group of yours would hesitate before killing any of us as well?"

The air around us stirred for a moment, the moans and groans of the dead being the only sound for much longer than needed, almost as if the insanity fueled man had to collect the pieces of himself together before continuing.

"But hunters need to hunt," his voice came out as a whisper first, getting louder and louder with each word, yet careful enough not to edge on the growling figures of the dead. "Hunters need to hunt. And game becomes our prey. It doesn't matter what, or who, the only thing that matters is eating and surviving. But you already know that don't you?"

Gareth was behind me now, making it easy enough for him as he places both hands on either side of my face, his thumbs placed beneath my ears and his fingers stretched out to cover my cheeks, forcing me to look straight at the window that held back all of the dead, their hands stuck on the dirty glass as they clawed and pushed their way against it. Yet even with the mysterious meat covered in the man's saliva brushing against my temple, I tried my best to keep my face passive and unfazed. It was the best damn acting skills I had ever done in my life.