Rarl: Just Think Positive

1.7 ❉ Road Home

Carl made sure he had a good grip on Pestilence's whitish hair that faded grey at the ends, before he swung himself over and mounted on top of the blood-soaked back. The horse stepped a few steps backwards as the boy on it found the right spot to sit on.

Sophia gave it an uncertain look, arms folded over her chests "I will stay back here, maybe I can ask barkeeper Negan for help or wait till the morning breaks to head back"

Carl flashed his eye at her for a brief second but looked back on the horses neck quickly, figuring the right hold on the mane, or just searching for some hair that wasn't covered in blood "I'll come back for you with 'nother car that's not fucked. Need to get Blondie back" he gave Ron a warm smile which threw Ron off, making him look away and hope Sophia didn't notice anything "Uh... I don't even know yet if I want to mount that thing.."

Carl threw his head into his neck for a major eye-roll, then he groaned "Blondie, I'll keep ya safe, okay?"

Ron looked at Sophia as if asking for her opinion since she was the clever one of the trio, and she shrugged "I believe if you are careful it could go well, just please come back home safe, the both of you" she said, her forehead wrinkled in worry folds.

The brunette held his hand out for the blond and gave him an encouraging smile "Up with you, Blondie. I promise you safety"

Ron bit his lip but grabbed his hand nonetheless and shortly after he was pulled to the back off the horse with a struggle, Pestilence had quite its height so he had to beam himself up with two jumps on the ground before he managed to swing with one foot over it and land with a moan on the soft and warm back of the horse. And though it wasn't that high to be scared - Ron's vision whirred as he looked down.

"Good, Good, you ready?"

The horse took a step forward and the movement made Ron fling his arms around Carl's middle, staring at their surroundings with eyes ripped wide open. "I-I don't know-" he stuttered, his words nothing more than a gasp

Carl let go off the mane with one hand and touched the blonds hand which was over the brunettes stomach "We start slow, don't worry"

"Take care of yourself" Sophia said, stepping out of the horses way as it started going with slow steps, head down looking for grass.

"Will," was Carl's answer and before Ron could say his goodbyes to the girl, Carl had already kicked into the horses guts and it started trotting in quite its tempo,

His crotch landed harshly with each movement on the horses back, beating his skin wound and he could already feel the rashes forming, Carl on the other hand bucked up to it, riding the horse like he owned that beast. The smell was the second bad thing about the ride, Ron tried to hide his nose in the fuzzy material of Carl's flannel, and in an instant he was flooded with his smell of burnt wood from a warm campfire and closed his eyes from the soothingness of it.

But the cloud of warmth only last about the blink of an eye as he hit against the back of the hose again,

"You alright, Blondie?" Carl asked, looking over his shoulder to give him a side-look.

"Yeah.. I think," Ron croaked, his words standing contrary with his pale face and turning stomach but since Carl couldn't see his face he went on "Good, 'cus we going to speed up" Ron opened his mouth to disagree but his words died in his throat when Carl yelled something and hit the horse into its ribs and it went off like a racket. Transitioning harshly from it slow gait to a four-beat gait, galloping over the asphalt like a new super car, thought the speed was the only similarity between those two.

Ron let out a yelp, squinting his eyes closed as the wind cut into his lenses and the sound of the hoofs thundering over the black surface with sharp and swift sounds echoed into all directions. They were sure as hell going to attract walkers with that.

Carl grinned like a daredevil, his umber hair flew into the opposite direction of his face, loosing its natural sleek to his head.

Pestilence nostrils flared up, moving the air in and out of his lungs in quick sentences with his head bobbing up and down to take it in. Thought Ron didn't know much about horses, something about this horse speed was extraordinary, it could keep up with the best racehorse if called and could still push more lengths between them to win a race and even then, it seemed like this horse would be able to keep running till the world was going down.

Ron couldn't piece together how exactly the virus worked on animals, or if the horse was even a walker, but nothing else could explain his godlike powers to press out so much stamina and speed from a body so wrecked and meager.

Beside the road the trees grew more dense with every mile and the walls of Alexandria were already able to be spotted, they had arrived way quicker than with the old, blue car which they drove with before.

More pain and stomach-turns later, they slowed down to a canter till the horse came to a stop entirely. Carl swung himself off the horse and Ron panicked, without the brunettes waist to hold on he felt like he was about to roll off. He propped himself as best he could on the white back, flat hands unable to grab anything as the hair was too short at that spot.

Carl saw his struggle and came over quick, grabbed the blonds waist and helped him to the ground, Ron's feet greeted it happily, almost in a homesick kind of way.

"Was fun?" Carl asked, his blue eye would've looked so beautiful to Ron in this moment if it weren't for his exposed scar right next to it that wasn't hidden by his long hair.

"I think I'm going to-" Ron started but he managed to wobbly few feet away and created a puddle of his sickness on the earth, and it slowly soaked into the ground but pieces of his last meal kept stuck to the grass stalks.

Carl walked over to him, and stared with him at the mess "Beans?"

"And spaghetti... but uh, that's gross don't look at it" Ron stepped away a few steps, almost tripping backwards and looked at the horse who began grazing calmly in front of the wall.

Carl shrugged "I've seen worse,"

Ron wanted to take this as a joke, but the look on the boys face had hardened , he switched the topic "So, do we part ways now? I'm pretty tired already. If you want..." he bit his lip "...you could sleep over?"

Carl shook his head, stemming his hands on his hips and looked at Pestilence "No, have to get Sophia. Not letting Scumbag harm her"

"Oh, yeah, I forgot" Ron stared at his shoes a little embarrassed "Then, I'll see you, well, if my parents didn't notice anything"

Carl nodded and walked over to the horse, Ron stood at the spot for a moment before he kept going as well.

Ron opened the yam-orange door and stepped inside, instantly greeted by a male voice.
The blond pulled his eyebrows together slightly and closed the door behind his back silently.

"Ron...Ronald, Son"

Ron looked at his fathers red face and it looked like steam was coming out of his ears "You are grounded, two weeks"