I Saw The Lights Go Out - Carl Grimes

Chapter Sixty Nine - Flies Don't Only Cling to the Dead

I couldn't recall how long we had been walking for. However, time did seem to pass quicker when my body felt the way it had. It was almost as if I was only a visitor looking through the eyes of someone else's walking vessel. It was obvious that the body was aching though. Strained ankles and sore shoulders told me we'd been walking for hours.

The rolling clouds loomed in the distance, they moved fast across the sky. Dark and angry, the rain looked eager to pour down on the next city over. My mouth suddenly felt drier than usual as I bit down on the skin of my lips.

My once tight hold on Carl's arm had weakened and lowered to our middle fingers hanging onto each other's. It kept me grounded and here with him almost as if he was holding onto a balloon that I so desperately hoped he didn't let go of. I didn't want to float away again, the remnants of the last time still clung to my bones, it snaked up my spine cascading around it in a tight and cold hold.

Time passed but the scenery didn't change all too much. The fields of trees that were around us alternated between grass fields and more forest. We passed a few mailboxes at the ends of impossibly long driveways, all hidden behind jagged thick bushes swallowing them whole.

Another field came into view behind the rough forest edge. The burnt umber field went on for acres, as hard as my tired eyes could try, I couldn't see the other end of the rolling hills that seemed to continue on forever.

In the middle of the ghostly waves of dead grass, a tall worn down home sat next to a dark and just as broken down barn. The house's roof was pitched at a deadly slope as it tried its hardest to reach the grey sky. The tall grass swayed in the wind parting only for short moments for us to catch a glimpse of its rickety cattle fences. A tipped over tractor creaked as a large gust of wind blew by us at the end of the driveway. My stomach churned at the sight of it all.

"It's definitely a further walk than it looks on the map, that's for sure." Rosita remarked while glaring down the house before stepping off of the road to start our long expedition.

"That storm is coming in hot, I don't think it'll touch down here but let's get ourselves inside." Glenn suggested squinting his eyes up at the black clouds. He wrapped Eugene's arm over his shoulders again hoisting up his debilitated body. Eugene groaned in pain and Tara rushed to lift his other side.

We all followed suit behind Rosita up the winding gravel driveway. The house crept it's way closer to us, only getting impossibly taller the nearer we came. The land around it seemed frozen in time, not a single shutter on the house moved from the gusts of wind whipping by, nor did the porch swing sway. The house stood still before us radiating an eerie energy that flowed through my skin and tugged at my veins. I didn't want to take a step closer but I knew I couldn't stay in the open.

With Eugene seated on the porch as comfortably as his broken bones would let him sit, Glenn walked up to the door with one hand on his colt and the other on the knob. He nodded to us before turning the handle slowly.

"Door's unlocked." Glenn breathed out.

Carl let go of my hand to raise his gun through the air. My breathing picked up and I slipped my crowbar out for my belt loop only to stare up at the house looming over us. Sharp angles pointed down at us in such a threatening way that made my skin crawl.

"Doesn't look too bad." Tara pushed her way past me and through the door shaking me from my trance. I gulped and followed suit behind her comfortable presence.

Tara was right. The inside of the home was completely normal; cottage-like, boring almost. The floorboards creaked below our feet as we moved about the open main floor. A living room to the right stood frozen with knitted quilts and raggedy pillows riddled with dust. The kitchen to our left looked to have been decorated a few centuries ago, lace curtains covered up a crack in the window and the floral wallpaper was stained from cooking grease.