STARS
006. monsters
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TURNS OUT THAT it was Michonne at the door, much to the three of their relief. They'd been awake for around an hour now and Sofia is sat at the dining table with Carl eating some cereal when Michonne makes her way from upstairs with a shirt on that is simply not her style. Sofia never though she would see Michonne in a shirt, yet there she stands.
Carl seems to find it amusing also as he begins to chuckle and Michonne looks at the two teenagers with raised eyebrows, "Do you have something to say about my extremely comfortable and attractive shirt?" She asks, rolling the sleeves up.
Carl shakes his head, smiling, "No, no, no. It looks great. Oh, you missed a—" he points at the buttons on her stomach and Michonne fixes it and ties the shirt at the back, sighing as she sits down at the top of the table whilst Carl and Sofia share amused glances.
"I wish we had some soy milk." Michonne sighs as she pours some of the cereal into a bowl and Carl looks at her in disgust.
"Seriously?"
"Yes, seriously." Michonne nods and Sofia and Cark share a look before grimacing in disbelief. Michonne looks between them with raised eyebrows, "Have you ever tried it?"
"My best friend in third grade he was allergic to dairy." Carl explains and Michonne nods. "And every day he would bring this soy stuff to lunch. I tried it."
"And?"
"I threw up!" Carl laughs and Michonne looks at him in disbelief.
"Oh, yeah, right."
"All right, all right. I almost threw up. But I was like," he proceeds to imitate gagging and holding his stomach making Sofia smile as he laughs. "It was so gross. I mean, literally, I would rather have powdered milk than to have to drink that stuff again. I would rather have Judith's formula—"
The room goes silent and Carl's smiling face drops after her realised what he had said and Michonne stares into her bowl whilst Sofia looks at Carl in concern.
"I'm gonna go finish my book." Carl mutters, standing up from the seat. "I have a couple chapters left." He leaves the kitchen and the two girls alone together.
Michonne lets out a deep sigh, looking at Sofia who's now eating her food quietly with a distracted expression on her face. "You okay in there?" She whispers softly and Sofia glances up from where she's staring at the table blankly.
"Just thinking." Sofia breathes before getting up from her seat. "I'm gonna go and make sure he's okay." Michonne nods and Sofia slowly climbs the staircase and looks into the boys room.
Carl is sat on the bed with the book in his hands and she swallows before wandering over and sitting beside him, staring down at the floor where multiple legos and action figures lie. She figures that this room belonged to a boy maybe slightly younger than them, no younger than eleven.
"I had a sister." Sofia says, smiling slightly at the memory of her older sister and Carl looks at her with a small frown. "Her name was Rosita; I called her Rose. I wanted to be just like her, every day I would see her and I'd think to myself that she is the most perfect person in this world and I would do anything to be exactly like her. I don't know where she is now, I don't know if she's alive or if she's one of those things or if she's just dead." Sofia blinks away the tears burning at the back of her eyes. "But I'm glad that I got to be her sister."
"She's proud." Carl mutters, closing his book and leaning his head back against the wall.
"You think?"
"Yeah." He whispers, shrugging his shoulders with a small smile. "I hope Judith is with my Mom. She'd really love her."
Sofia smiles, "yeah, I do too." Carl rubs his hand over his face before letting it fall into the mattress and on top of hers making her glance at him.
How is it that shared trauma can bring even the most distant souls close together?
"Carl! Sofia! Let's go out." Michonne shouts up to them and they share a look before sighing and trudging down the stairs, seeing her and Rick waiting.
Sofia grabs her machete and stuff her gun and knife in the waist of her jeans, her and Carl each have two empty bags over their shoulders and Michonne has a duffel bag they need to fill up.
"How long you think you'll be?" Rick asks them as the four walk into the porch of the house. Rick is staying at the house to rest for one more day before they're able to formulate some kind of plan for the next few weeks.
"Fill a couple bags, shouldn't be too long." Michonne says, smiling at the two teenagers who nod.
"It's 8:15 now."
"We'll be back by noon." Michonne promises and Rick nods, looking to the teenagers.
"All right, you follow her lead. You understand?" He says to them and Sofia nods whilst Carl simply sighs slightly. "Hey. Everything okay?"
Carl turns to Rick just as he was about to walk down the steps of the porch and he sighs again, nodding. "Yeah, I'm just. . .hungry." Sofia eyes him, knowing that is a lie. Sure, he's probably hungry but that's not why he's so down.
Rick simply nods after sharing a glance with Michonne and the trio trudge down the steps and away from the house. Carl and Sofia walk slightly behind Michonne as they approach their first house and when the exit about half an hour later they've half filled a few bags.
"Find anything good? Candy bars? Comic books?" Michonne pauses for a second with a grin. "Crazy Cheese?"
"Huh?"
Michonne reaches into her duffel bag and whips out a can of 'crazy cheese', "Bam! Crazy Cheese." She grins and Carl eyes her strangely as she looks extremely proud and happy with her findings. Sofia is walking slightly ahead but looks back with a raised eyebrow at Michonne's statement. "Found it still sealed and everything. Now I'll be nice and let you have the first pull."
"No, thanks." Carl tend down her offer making Michonne furrow her eyebrows.
"Are you sure?"
Carl nods, "I'm fine."
"You don't seem fine." Michonne states firmly, as though scolding him for being so closed off towards her and his father and Carl purses his lips, his blue eyes flickering over to Sofia who's searching around the outside of the next house.
"I'm just tired. Okay?" He says before trudging forwards to go and join her as she crouches beside the porch steps, running her fingers over some engraved initials in the wood.
Michonne hurried up beside him and squirts a lot more than a mouthful of crazy cheese into her mouth and feigning a growl with it showing inside her lips. Carl raises an eyebrow before shaking his head and walking towards Sofia, gently kicking her in the backside whilst she's crouched and she almost stumbles over.
Sofia glares up at him and he grins slightly as she stands up and sighs, wandering up beside him on the porch.
"I'm sorry." Michonne says, hurrying up after them and approaching the door of the vacant home. "I'm not very good at making boys your age laugh." Michonne bangs harshly on the glass of the door to lure out any walkers from open rooms.
"I was laughing." Carl nods with a small smile and Michonne looks at him quizzically. "Inside."
"Toddlers find me funny." Michonne smiles, knocking on the door again. "Two, three-year-olds."
Carl furrows his eyebrows, "What do you mean toddlers?"
Michonne sighs, looking between the two teenagers as though considering whether to tell them something, "I had a three-year-old son and he happened to find me extremely funny." Michonne opens the door and they set their bags near the door that Sofia closes. " We need food, batteries, water, in that order."
"Why didn't you ever tell me you had a kid?" Carl asks, approaching Michonne once again. "What was his name? Did you have any others? Were you married?"
"Okay." Michonne sighs, looking back at them. "I'll answer one question at a time, one room at a time, and only after we've cleared it."
Carl and Sofia share a glance, Sofia pursing her lips and gesturing for Carl to begin searching the dresser whilst she searches the shelves for anything they could find useful on their travels.
After they'd cleared the first room, they join Michonne through wide open double doors and she's looking at a side table. Carl stands between the two girls, looking at Michonne. "What was your son's name?"
"I said after."
"Well, these are actually two separate rooms and we already cleared that one." Sofia states, gesturing to the front room through the doors and Michonne gives her a small smile and a side eye.
"Andre." Michonne smiles and Sofia can instantly tell that she's not spoken of him in a while. Possibly never, at least since something happened to him. "His name was Andre Anthony." Carl looks at her as she goes to exit the room again. "Make sure there isn't a box of cookies hiding in there."
Sofia asks another question as Michonne wanders into the hallway, "Did you have any other kids?"
"Rules of the game, my friend." Michonne calls back and Carl opens the drawer and finds some hard candy in there, handing a few to Sofia who smiles slightly at him. They quickly join Michonne in the hallway and Carl sighs.
"So? Did you?" Carl furthers Sofia's question and Michonne chuckles slightly, glancing between them.
"You know, you could be spies, or cops." Michonne smiles and Carl simply folds his arms, Sofia raising an eyebrow and making the dark skinned woman sigh. "No. One was enough for me. And Andre was a handful, like you." She eyes Carl pointedly.
Carl glances around with a small sigh, "Does this hallway count as a room?"
"If you can find something we can use."
Carl wanders down the hallway, searching some drawers before grabbing a painting that's covered by some sort of film making Sofia raise an eyebrow again whilst Michonne just smiles slightly. "This is the only thing I could find." He holds it out to Michonne. "Does it count?"
"Technically, yes." She smiles. "So?"
Carl stays silent for a few moments, "How long has it been?"
Michonne's smile drops and she looks at the floor for a few moments before smiling sadly, "It happened after—you know, after everything happened." She shrugs her shoulders and Carl nods.
"Does Rick know?" Sofia asks her and Michonne shakes her head.
"Never told him." Michonne says. Sofia can understand, how exactly would that be brought up in a conversation? "Never told anyone. . .till just now."
Carl nods, "Your secret is safe with us." Sofia smiles, nodding softly.
"It's not really a secret." Michonne mutters and Carl smiles warmly at her.
"It's still safe with us."
Carl tugs at Sofia's belt loop and Sofia frowns as he pulls her into the room closest, holding his gun up for any sudden surprises and they what's Michonne go into another room whilst they search the master bedroom.
"You think she's okay?" Sofia asks him as she searches through some cupboards and Carl looks over to her from where he's glancing over some bookshelves.
"Yeah." Carl nods and she turns to look at him. "Yeah, she's fine. She's strong."
Sofia hums, adjusting her grip on her machete as she swings open a closet door and sighs when she sees it's empty aside from the odd ugly sweater.
"Come on, there's nothing in here." Carl mutters, nodding towards the door and they see the room that Michonne must have entered and stroll inside, seeing a little boys bedroom and Michonne is closing a pink door quickly.
"Michonne? Everything okay?" Carl asks her and she nods quickly.
"Yeah, it's fine."
Carl's blue eyes flicker between her and the door, narrowed slightly, "There's a baby in there."
Michonne springs to disagree, "It's a dog." That makes it obvious to Sofia that there's much worse than a dog inside that door. She's come across plenty of family suicides herself in her days shifting form house to house. It's terrible, but it's something you become numb to after so long.
"My dad let me name her." Carl says, talking about Judith and Sofia looks at him with sad eyes and raised eyebrows. That was news to her and Michonne. "Maybe—maybe her and Andre are together somewhere."
Michonne smiles and nods, "Come on. It's almost noon." She places a hand on each of their shoulders. "Your dad will wonder where we are if we're late."
After trudging for a while, they see the house in the distance but as they get closer they see Rick rushing towards them.
"Go! Go!" He whisper shouts and Sofia can see that the house has been invaded by other survivors making her scoff and they hurry down the road.
After walking for a little while longer, they reach some train tracks and follow them aimlessly. Carl reaches into the duffel he's carrying and pulls out the bottle of crazy cheese, looking at Michonne, "Crazy Cheese?" She smiles with a small chuckle.
They're approaching a shopping container on the side of the tracks that has a large banner in it as well as a map wrapped in cling film.
'SANCTUARY FOR ALL COMMUNITY FOR ALL THOSE WHO ARRIVE, SURVIVE'
The map contains directions to a place called Terminus.
"What do you think?" Michonne asks, looking at Rick and Carl feels the comfort of Sofia's knuckles against his between them.
"Let's go." Rick nods, unwrapping his wrist and freeing it from the bandage, picking up his bag.
"Let's go."
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⚠️contains sexual violence!
Turns out that Terminus isn't that far from where they were residing, maybe a two or three day walk. Sofia had thought about taking off, leaving secretly because she thought that Terminus would actually be a good thing. And, she's usually disappointed. She also believes that she will ruin it for her companions, that she's better off alone. Everyone she's ever been with during the end of the world has died, horribly. It scares her, maybe she's just some curse, people around her die and she has to carry on.
However, Carl has noticed that she zones out often. Captured in the maze of her own thoughts as her body moves by default but her mind is distant and shut off from it. He's found that keeping her distracted is a good way to keep her from going away —— getting grasped by the torment of her memories. He doesn't know what has happened to her, not fully. All he knows is that that group of men had broken into a house and scared a girl so much with their actions on her that she can no longer function properly.
Carl knows that isn't the only reason, Sofia has been through a lot that he clearly doesn't know of, maybe even before the apocalypse. He knows she had to kill her friend; he knows how it feels to have to kill one you love just so they won't become one of those monsters.
They'd followed the tracks for a while but as it got late the previous evening, they settled in the woods, Michonne and Rick taking turns to be a look out.
Carl awakes to see Michonne and Rick sat beside one and other and talking making him blink and quickly looks beside him. His eyes soften in relief when he sees Sofia sleeping beside him. He then frowns slightly, carefully gripping her wrist and looking at her watch, seeing that it's 6:57am. The time makes him smile, because Sofia hasn't slept that late in the morning since he's known her.
As though jinxing it, Carl sighs when Sofia's eyes begin to flutter open and he quickly shuffled away from her, rubbing his eyes that are heavy with sleep.
A few hours later, it's nearly midday and they're crouched around the fire. Rick sighs, "How hungry are you, scale of one to ten?"
Sofia raises her eyebrows, "ten."
Carl nods, "fifteen."
Michonne smiles when Rick turns to her; "twenty eight." She exaggerates even further making Rick chuckle.
"Yeah." Rick sighs exasperatedly. "Well, it's been a while. I'm gonna go check the snares." Carl looks up at his father hopefully, asking him whether he's allowed to join him. "Well, how else are you gonna learn?" Rick chuckles and Carl grins at his rhetorical question. "Hey, you, too—both of you." He looks at Sofia pointedly and they set off towards the snares. "We'll stay another day or two. Get some more rest."
"Finish healing up?" Michonne adds and Rick sighs, looking at the two teenagers that walk slightly ahead of them, a silence settled over them comfortably.
"I'm almost there." He states, not looking away from the fourteen year olds ahead. He watches as Carl glances at Sofia who's staring at the ground before her making Carl sigh and look back down.
The younger Grimes then turns his head slightly towards the duo behind them, "We're close now, right? To Terminus?" Rick nods. "When we get there, are we gonna tell them?"
"Tell them what?" Rick furrows his eyebrows and Carl falls back a little to walk with the two adults whilst Sofia continues to lead towards the snares.
"Everything that's happened to us. All the stuff we've done." Carl elaborates and Rick sighs, silently hoping that Carl doesn't find any regret or guilt in anything from their past. "Are we gonna tell them the truth?"
"We're gonna tell them who we are."
"But how do you say that?" Carl questions with an exasperate sigh, glancing over at Sofia as he speaks. "I mean. . .who are we?"
A walker snarls as it trudges out of the tree line and Carl's eyes widen slightly, Sofia being the closest to it. Obviously, she takes her machete and jams it straight into the walker's skull before casually continuing.
Whilst Rick is explaining the trap that caught an extremely small rabbit, Sofia is wiping the walker blood from her blade on some large leaves. That's when they hear a gut churning shriek and a series of cries for help —— Carl being Carl, takes off running towards the sound.
"Carl!" Sofia calls after him, instantly sprinting after him as Michonne and Rick hurry after the two.
"Help! Somebody help! Help me!" The man's voice sounds nearer and nearer as she follows Carl's sprinting body. They reach the edge of the forest and come to a clearing, a field, where a lone man is surrounded by around a dozen walkers.
"Carl." Sofia grabs his arm, yanking him back into the tree line and he shrugs her off.
"Stay here." He mutters, pushing her back yet she's caught by Michonne whilst Rick lunges forwards to grab Carl, restraining and preventing him from getting any closer to the dozen or so walkers around the man.
"We can't help him." Rick whispers as Carl struggles in his father's strong grasp, but he can't. One of the walkers tears into the side of the man's face and he screams out in agony, begging for anyone to just help him. "We've got to go."
Carl looks to the man who's now being torn apart before willingly hurrying along, grabbing Sofia's arm and yanking her with them as she stares at the scene in shock.
After walking for a while, the quartet find an abandoned truck where they decide they can temporarily reside in; just until the sun comes up tomorrow morning.
Carl and Sofia are sat on the backseats of the truck, already finished with their portion of the small rabbit whilst Rick and Michonne are still eating theirs outside near a small fire they started. Carl is still annoyed about earlier with the man in despair, but Sofia is just sat with her legs brought to her chest and her chin resting on her knees.
"Do you think anyone else is an Terminus?" Carl suddenly asks her, averting his eyes from the gearstick where he was staring over to her as she shrugs her shoulders.
"I hope so." She mutters, looking back at him with a small frown resting on her features. "Do you think Terminus will be a good thing?"
"If you're thinking about ditching as soon as we get there, stop." Carl rolls his eyes and she does the same, shaking her head. "You're stuck with us now. Besides, I'm pretty sure Terminus will be great. I mean, what reason would they bring in random strangers unless they wanted to help?"
"Many reasons."
"Oh yeah?" Carl raises his eyebrows with a small snicker. "Like what? And please don't say cannibalism, I might puke—"
"Shhh." She whispers, holding a hand up and he continues to ramble. "Shut up." She seethes quietly and he looks at her. "Did you hear that?" Carl shakes his head, no, and she clambers through to the drivers seat whilst Carl quickly follows.
Gazing out of the window, they see a gruff looking man holding a gun at Rick's head whilst another holds one at Michonne's. There's a few other men around, all appearing like thugs and Sofia can already tell they're not just here to steal some supplies.
"Now who's gonna count down the ball dropper with me, huh?" The man says, chuckling when Carl and Sofia jump at the sound of hands slamming against the passenger window. "Mississippi. Nine Mississippi. Eight Mississippi—"
"Joe! Hold up." Sofia leans her palms on the dashboard in anticipation and her eyes widen when she sees Daryl approaching, glancing over at Carl who gulps.
"You're stopping me on eight, Daryl." Joe complains, looking at the redneck expectantly. "This is the guy that killed Lou, so we got nothing to talk about." He pauses for a second before grinning. "The thing about nowadays is we got nothing but time. Say your piece, Daryl."
Daryl glances over at the truck where Carl has now shuffled away from the window and is sat close to Sofia. "These people, you're gonna let 'em go." He says, looking back to Joe. "These are good people."
"Now, I think Lou would disagree with you on that." Joe stammers slightly, sounding incredulous that Daryl would dare challenge his actions. "I'll, of course, have to speak for him and all 'cause your friend here strangled him in a bathroom."
"You want blood, I get it." Daryl nods his head, holding both his hands up. "Take it from me, man. Come on."
"Don't do anything stupid." Carl whispers, feeling the two men outside the window's eyes on them and she glances at him as he discreetly reaches into his boot and moves his hand to hers. Her hand clasps around the handle of a small knife and he nods at her. "Just in case."
"Carl—"
"It's a lie!" Their heads whip around again to see the men punch and kick Daryl to the ground, beating him violently —— each swing collided with a harsh thudding noise.
The door beside Carl suddenly swings open and Sofia yells out as Carl is dragged from beside her and thrown to a taller man who restrains him as she clambers over the seats and clutching the knife, she stabs the plumper man in the shoulder. It doesn't seem to do much damage however, as he rips it out and roughly grabs her shoulders, throwing her to the ground that's decorated with dead leaves.
"You leave them be!" She hears Rick shout as Carl is thrown to the ground beside her on his stomach, his face scraping against the tarmac yet he can't seem to care in the moment.
"First, I'm gonna get you back for that." The plump man grins manically, holding up the small knife that's now coated in a layer of crimson liquid. "And I'm gonna make your boyfriend watch."
"No!" Sofia yelps as the man pins her to the ground and she feels tears gather in her eyes.
Not again.
Not again.
Please, not again.
"Let her go." Carl cries out, struggling in the other man's grip, his face being held against the ground. He can't watch that, he can't. "Let her go, you bastard!"
"Shut up!" The man on top of her snaps at him, taking the knife she'd stabbed him with and roughly tearing down the middle of her t-shirt. "Would you look at this?" He chuckles, whistling at the man pinning Carl down. "Don't squirm and I won't have to kill your boyfriend, honey."
"No! No!" Carl yells, hearing the first gunshot of the evening. "Take me! Please! Just leave her alone!"
Sofia tries to block out the memories, the muscle memory of their hands on her as he touches her waist and hips with his rough and unkind hands. He rips the rest of her t-shirt off, leaving her exposed in only her bra and cargo pants. She can feel the man's hot breath on her neck and she trembles and struggles as his unkind lips touch her neck.
"Leave her be!" She can hear Rick grunt as punches and blows are thrown, she can feel his hands venture lower on her body, grasping at her thighs and backside and she squeezes her eyes shut, desperate sobs leaving her lips.
Suddenly, there's a gasp and a scream. And more gunshots. And the man holding down Carl drops to the ground dead.
Sofia is yanked up and she is held with her back against the man's front, a knife held at her throat and Michonne and Carl look at him with deadly glares.
"I'll kill her!" He says, grasping her waist and she feels the blade press further against her skin. "I'll do it! I'll kill her."
"Let the girl go." Michonne says, pointing her gun at him when Daryl and Rick finish killing the other men and Rick has fresh blood covering his face and smeared against his lips and beard.grunts
"He's mine." He grunts, approaching the man who begins to tremble as Rick approaches him murderously.
"Stay back." The man says before weakly letting go of Sofia. "Stay—"
Sofia falls forwards when he completely lets go, Carl lunging forwards to catch her in his arms and she hugs him tightly, her arms around his neck and her hands grasping his shoulders. Carl's arms are around her waist, holding her exposed body against his, as though he's a makeshift shield to the rest of the world as his hand gently rubs up and down her bare back.
"It's okay." He whispers and he can hear her broken sniffles as she clutches onto him as though her life depends on it. "It's gonna be okay."
Carl sounds like he's also trying to convinced himself as he watches his Dad repeatedly stab the man over Sofia's shoulder, closing his eyes and burying his face into the crook of her neck.
"You're safe now."
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