virago|c.g.|

xviii

She looked towards Carl, confused as he raised an eyebrow. "How do you know so much about medication? I thought you were a soldier, not a doctor." Clary shook her head, looking through the bottles. "I was a soldier, but my sister was a medic." Stepping away from the shelves, she turned towards the boy. "She had given us the idea to look in vet clinics for medication. I don't know as much as her, those are just the only ones I could remember." Turning away, Clary began searching again. It was silent for a while, Carl wondering what he could say as he realized the tone she spoke of her sister with. "Well, believe me when I say that what you do remember probably saved a whole lot of people." With a quick glance once more at the boy, she gathered the medication with the familiar names. Once Carl finished doing the same, they looked through the supplies and found surgical utensils still in packaging. Thinking of it as a way to thank Pete for saving her life, and that he was probably in need of some more tools, she grabbed what she thought he would need with the knowledge that they could come back for more if they needed it.

Placing their findings into the trunk of the car, Clary and Carl made their way into the mom and pop shop. Clary felt more at ease inside, seeing the homey decorations and how it was almost like a tourist stop kind of store. As she looked through some of the racks of clothing, she found herself wondering if Carl was being serious about the girl interrogating him. Testing his boundaries, she asked the first question that came to mind. "So how long had you and your group been out here? Before making it to Alexandria, I mean." Seeing the boy busying his hands, she wondered if he wasn't going to answer. That thought was gone as quickly as it came as he looked up to her. "We were out there for a while. In the beginning, we had a small camp in a quarry in Atlanta. When it got overrun, we ended up at the CDC for a few days—" Clary let a soft chuckle sound. "Well that's lucky." Carl let out a laugh as he came closer to the girl, sifting through the racks with her before he continued. "Yeah, not so much. There was only one doctor left and he wanted to explode the whole center with us inside, saying it would be better that way. Luckily, he let us out. We had been on the road and got stuck stuck on a highway when a herd passed through. My friend and Carol's daughter, Sophia, she had ran off. I went with my dad and his best friend, Shane, to go find her in the forest." Clary was surprised as a smile appeared on his face. "There was a deer. I was going up to it to pet and," the boy laughed. "I got shot."

Raising an eyebrow, Clary looked at the boy. "You're such a liar." Carl's eyes widened. "I'm serious!" Clary raised an eyebrow before he playfully rolled his eyes. He then did the unthinkable, lifting the shirt he wore to reveal his abdomen and the scar from his bullet wound. Clary's eyes widened before they met his, letting out a surprised sigh. "Damn, that's a good one. I won't question you again." Carl nodded, pleased with her admittance. "Now please, continue." With her green light, Carl revealed more to his past. "Well the guy who shot me had been living on a farm, led my dad there to get me to some help. Hershel, Maggie's dad, patched me up. We stayed there on the farm until it got overrun." Carl clenched his jaw, remembering what he had to do that night to save his father. "It was a bad night. We lost a lot of people." Clary clenched her jaw, realizing how serious it must have been to not even elaborate. In an instant, the darkness in his tone and gaze faded. "We ran for a couple of months, and it was stressful with my mom being pregnant, but we eventually found the prison. But then that went to shit too and we were back on the road. Long story short, now we're in Alexandria."

Silence ensued for a moment until Clary looked towards the boy, Carl noticing that her eyes had softened. "I didn't even realize how much your people have been through. Now I know why some of you are tough as hell." Carl nodded his head in agreement as they began to look through other things, surprised at finding nothing other than tourist-trap shirts. "And you?" Carl questioned. "Well, I can't say I was on the road for forever. The first day, when shit hit the fan, me, my sister and my mom got in a car crash. People scared like that, just driving to get out, they're not thinking. One of them hit us from the side and veered us off the road." The girl let out a soft laugh, but Carl's gaze softened. "What happened to them?" Clary shrugged. "My sister made it out without a scratch, I got a nice long scar down my arm," Clary said, showing the scar on her arm just as he did with his bullet wound before shrugging her shirt back over. "My mom died on impact, so it was just me and my sister." Carl's frowned slightly. "I'm sorry you had to lose your mom." Clary only shrugged. "We never had the best relationship. After my dad died, she kinda just gave up. I think she was gone a long time ago."