Hearing Damage [ a carl grimes fanfiction ]

chapter 1

Silence...

That's all I ever seem to hear these days. Not the good kind of silence where you are in your warm home with your family after you go to sleep. This is a different kind of silence. Its the kind that you cant hear one thing at all: not the low rumbles of cars, or the sound or birds chirping. You hear no ones whispers or even your own thoughts. Its just nothing.

I lay in some unknown persons bed on top of the covers scared of heat stroke if I do, and just stare at the wall. I lost the group a few months  ago and have been on my own since then. Moving out of buildings, searching through cupboards, praying that I might find a can of food. I am alone and have nothing to do. I cry sometimes, but it only makes my loneliness worse. I have no idea where I am, and when I try to find my way back to the small apartment building that we were living in, hoping that everyone might of gone back there, I always seem to find nothing.

The only thing I do know is that I need to find water. It's the middle of summer and walking miles a day makes you extremely thirsty. I try to find streams but they are all dry. I force myself out of bed hoping that I might find a bottle of water that i missed in the kitchen. I put my boots back on and look in the mirror. My dark hair is much too long and way past due for a shower. My skin looks dry and sick. Overall I look too skinny. What happened to the strong Carl who could do anything? I shake my head. I was not going to pity myself.

I walk to the bedroom door and take off the makeshift lock that I made. Then carry down the narrow stairs. Peeling yellow wallpaper cover  the walls as well as many broken picture frames. Just like this world, I joked. As I walked in the kitchen the smell of rotten food filled my nose. I gagged and pulled my bandana over my nose. There was nothing else in the cupboards other than rotten bread or oil. Then something caught my eye. In the window over the sink I saw a movement. I leaned closer to the window to get a better look but there was nothing. My heart sunk, must of been my imagination. I ignored it and grabbed my gun off the table and headed to the door. If I wanted to find a new place before dark I had to leave now. I opened the door a crack looking for any walkers and was on my way.

I stopped in my tracks. I felt like I was being watched. I glance back and see something in the window again from the next door house. Should I go see what it is? Maybe its just some walkers or something. Or it could be humans...

I think of everything it could be and next thing I know I'm standing at the house's door. I question whether or not to knock or ring the doorbell or just walk in. In case its walkers I decide against the ringing the doorbell option and just walk in. The house is much like the one next door, old furnishings and mixed matched wallpaper. Again, there is pictures on tables and walls. I take a closer look. Some only include 3 people, a mother, a father, and a little girl who looks about 10. Another has just a little baby no more than a few days old. And then one with 4 people, this one now with a little boy. The mother and father and girl look older, more mature.

I snap out of my viewing when I hear a cry. I stay still and her some quiet hushing. Humans? Taking the gun out of its holster I walk up the stairs slowly, making sure I made no noise. The cries were coming from the end of the hallway, I crept towards the door. I put my ear to the door, definitely crying. And with a kick of the door I exposed what was hiding.

"Hello?"