sheriff's boy | carl grimes

ch. 2

Emma

It had been a week since Rick had gotten shot. Carl and Lori were still so devastated, as well as my dad. He was at the hospital now, taking over the flowers that Lori had picked out for him. I, however, was forced to stay at home, regardless of the number of times I begged my dad to let me go.

As I sat on the couch, earbuds in, listening to calming music, the door burst open. "Emma, pack your bags as quickly as you can."

I stood up, smoothing out my white tee shirt. "Dad, what's going on?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Just go, do it now!" he yelled. I flinched at the loudness of his voice. He never acted like this before. So without hesitation, I ran upstairs and rummaged through my closet, grabbing a few pairs of clothes and shoving as many as I could into a suitcase. I zipped up my suitcase and ran down the steps, seeing my dad waiting by the door.

He opened the door, and we both rushed out to the car. "Get in the back," he said. I nodded, putting my bag in the trunk. Before I closed the trunk, I looked again, seeing my dad's guns laid down towards the back. I let out a shaky breath and got in the back seat. I looked around, seeing our neighbours piling things into their cars as well.

Dad pulled out his phone, typing in a number and putting the phone up to his ear. "You and Carl pack your stuff and wait inside the house. Do not come out until I you see me pull up."

With that, my dad hung up the phone and we pulled out of the driveway. "Dad, what's happening?" I asked firmly, tears flooding my eyes but none shedding.

"I don't know, baby girl, I really don't."

We finally pulled up to Carl's house. My dad honked the horn, and Lori and Carl came rushing out with their bags. As they threw their bags in the back of the car, I looked out the window and saw something terrifying; something out of a nightmare. There was a man, he was limping. His skin was falling off of his face and was thinned down to the bone. Blood was covering its mouth, and its almost black teeth and brown gums were fully exposed.

I let out a scream, causing everyone to look over at the sight I was seeing. Carl whimpered and got in the seat next to me. Lori slammed the trunk closed and rushed to the front seat, "Go, go, go!" she yelled.

My dad slammed on the gas and raced out of the driveway. I started breathing heavily, causing Carl to grab my hand. I looked over at him, my eyes watery. He simply gave me a soft smile, I could tell he was scared too.

"Mom, what about dad?" Carl asked.

"He's dead, Carl. There's nothing we can do. We need to focus on getting ourselves safe."

What? Rick was dead? He was just fine the other day. Carl looked down and began to softly cry. I gripped his hand tighter and placed my other hand over top. "It'll be okay, Carl. I promise."

☾

The sun had fallen, and night fell upon us. We were stuck in a traffic jam attempting to get out of the city. Everyone had gotten out of their cars, talking to other people along the highway. We had met some other people on the highway that were parked a few cars ahead of us. Their names were Carol, Ed, and Sophia. Over the past few hours, Carl and I had grown fairly close with them.

We were currently sitting in the open trunk of Carol's Cherokee, all three of us playing a game of cards. We had no idea what we were doing, but it sure was fun. All of our heads perked up at the nighttime sky when we heard the sound of helicopters flying in the direction of the city.

Sophia looked back at her mother, who was still staring up at the helicopters, "Are we gonna go soon?"

Carol looked back down at her, "I don't know baby, I sure hope so."

"I'm hungry," Carl said, looking over at Lori, who was also sitting in the open trunk of my dad's car. '

"I know Carl, we all are."

"I'll get him something' to eat," Carol offered, starting to walk over to the other side of her car, "Ed's into all this survival stuff. We've got enough MRE's to feed us a small army."

"I sure appreciate it," Lori thanked, hopping off the trunk of the car.

"No trouble." As Carol started to open the car door, Ed slammed it close.

"What'd you tell them for?" He said in a low voice, towering over Carol. "We don't even know these damn people."

"That boy is hungry we can spare one box."

"It's called operational security, how long do you think this stuff gon' last if you keep running your damn mouth off to everybody we meet?"

"I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking," she replied, you could hear it in her voice that she was sad.

As she walked around to the front side of the car, Lori turned around and walked over to where my dad was in the front seat of his car. They were talking for a few moments before my dad got out of his car. "I'm gonna go up the road and see what I can see."

"I'll go with you," Lori offered, as she followed behind my dad.

"Where are you going?" I asked him.

"I'll be right back. Stay here with Carl."

I nodded as they began to walk off. We watched as more helicopters passed. "Your dad's really nice," Sophia said, looking at Carl.

"Shane's not my dad," Carl replied.

"He's mine," I added in.

Carl looked down before responding once more, "My dad's dead."

We all jumped when we heard a loud explosion. Carol pulled all of us towards her. There was so commotion; it was making my head pound. People were fighting, arguing. There was smoke coming from the skies ahead of us, and fire was fairly visible through the trees. That's when I knew things had gotten bad- when the helicopters came and blew up the city.