What Really Happened: A Memoir from the Apocalypse

Chapter 5: Save Them

I hesitated. "It's not safe. There's a walker right there."

"The walker's dead. It has a gun and we need it."

I grabbed the mirror on the driver's side. I noticed the fog on the lenses of my blue glasses and the sweat that covered my face. My frizzy hair stuck up from the top of my head.

"Step back. I'm gonna try to do this," Carl said.

"Why don't we just tell our moms? They can help us."

"No. I want to do this all on my own."

He opened the door, and I stayed a few feet behind him. He attempted to take the weapon out of the walker's grasp. It was stuck. He stood on the step of the truck, and hovered over the walker, and continued to pull the gun away.

"Carl, get off! It's not worth it," I said.

He pulled the weapon away from the walker; and fell to the ground.

"Carl!" I hurried to help him up.

The walker leaned over and stared straight at us. His eyes were closed and his sockets were almost empty. His hair was light orange and his skin turned grey and brown from decay and dirt.

I walked back to the car Mom stood beside.

She rolled her eyes before closing them. "Where were you?"

"Looking at the cars with Carl," I said.

"Jesus, Mallory! How many times do I have to tell you not to go anywhere out of my sight? It only takes one second for you to be gone. Think about what happened to Sophia. That happened because she didn't stay where she was supposed to."

"We found a weapon. We can use it."

"No, you can't. You don't even know how to handle weapons yet."

"Yes, I do."

"You know how to use one gun. That's it. And that's only for emergencies."

I squinted at her. "How many guns do you know how to use? Dale can use it, then. Somebody can. Carl and I did something to help people; to help the group."

She bit her teeth together. "You can't keep going off like that. You're lucky you came back."

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I sat on the steps of the RV, next to Dale. Carol stared into the woods and Mom placed her hands on her shoulder, and said something to her that I couldn't make out.

Andrea sped over to Dale. "Where's my gun? You have no right to take it."

Mom hurried to lead me away from the scene.

"Krista, you know I'm right. Right?" Andrea asked her.

Mom bowed her head. "I get where both of you are coming from."

"Both of us?"

"He did just talk you out of..."

"You're not serious, right? You were thinking the same way I was."

Lori walked me near a car in front of them. I watched my feet as I moved them back and forth, and kicked the gravel on the road.

"I chose to walk out of that building," Mom said.

"Because you had Mallory with you. That was the only reason, wasn't it?"

"I just think, maybe you're being a little selfish right now."

Andrea chuckled. "How can you say that? You know how things are. You've seen it."

"I didn't mean it like that. We've lost people too. I have. But you still have Mallory and I. Unless you don't care about us."