Crestfallen ↬ Carl Grimes (old version)

H A Z E

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE; HAZE

"He set fire to the world around him but never let a flame touch her."

"Underneath the pouring rain, finally feeling alive and somewhat forgetting about the exhaustion left in our bones, I had never felt so...soft. At peace. At home."

➳

FROM A FRIEND.

Multiple large gray gallons of water sat in front of my feet like one large temptation, sending the beats of my heart into one maniac frenzy as I gaze at the forestry around us. With Carl pressed to my side, there wasn't much for me to do besides keeping a stray hand placed to the holster of my gun as I first assessed our surroundings, and then the reactions of the people inside of our group. All of us, not a single person left out, held the same look of pure exhaustion mixed with an extra layer of sweat as we gazed down at the surprise collection of the thing we needed most. Our bodies could not afford to go this long without stopping for a break, not counting the small one we had took to cook up a few dogs that had stumbled across us (something I would love to forget about after my childhood dreams of owning a pet dog of my own), and we hadn't seen a drop of water underneath this scorching sun since I had cleaned myself.

And now, apparently, we weren't the only ones who had the knowledge and sights to see that we were brutally unprepared for whatever lies ahead of us.

"What else are we gonna do?" Tara questioned from my right, practically voicing my own thoughts as she shifts her weight from foot to foot and props her gun a bit higher.

"Not this."

At this point, I knew for sure that all of us were asking the same exact question as we gazed at the leader: What in the hell was Rick playing at? Every single person in this group knew that he was smart enough to get us through to whatever was waiting for us at the end of our lives, but sometimes it seemed as if he had the pure intention of pushing us to our breaking points, nothing less but definitely so much more than we would ever be able to handle. He was smart, but sometimes a bit too vague and shady whenever it came to trusting whatever life throws at you. I was not my place to judge him for that, for it would be way too hypocritical of me to do so after the many days, weeks even, it had taken me to actually muster up the courage to feel relaxed around these people. But not letting us drink gallons of water that were still left unopened? Complete torture.

"We don't know who left it," The man insisted, his eyebrows drawing together as he continues the job of scanning the woods that I had given up on just a few seconds ago. "If that's a trap, we already happen to be in it."

"And if it isn't, and we let it pass, then we might as well be pushing ourselves over the limit here," I retort, feeling Carl tense in the slightest as his hand raises to rest on my shoulder. Looking directly into Rick's deadly blue eyes, I continue. "Who knows how long it'll be until we find another water source. Walking under this sun is like asking for us to collapse from heat exhaustion. We can't just-

"Milah, however much I would like to believe it's from a friend, we all have to think about the possibilities. What if it isn't? They put something in it?" He looks at me for a few more seconds before shifting to look at everyone at once, putting all his weight on his right foot as he casually rests his hand against the holster of his revolver.

"Those are only 'what if's'-"

My sentence is sharply cut off by the sudden groan that comes from Eugene, the only warning to whatever he had running around in his mind before he quickly decides to snatch one of the water bottles laying on the road, chubby fingers quickly working to unscrew the cap.