The next day my dad is busting walker heads, making sure they're dead for good. I didn't get much sleep, and he spent most of the night comforting me when I would awake with nightmares. My crossbow hasn't left my side and at this point I don't think it ever will.
Andrea still lays over Amy, I know she stayed there all night. She's still in the same position with Amy's hand in hers.
When Rick goes to talk to her she pulls a gun on him.
"You can't be serious." My dad says, a pickaxe on resting over his shoulder. "That dead girls a time bomb."
"So what do ya suggest we do then?" Rick says looking at him.
"Take the shot. Shoot her in the brain from here." Dad says pointing to figures to his head. "Hell, I can shoot a turkey clean between the eyes from this distance."
"No." Lori interjects. "For God sakes let her be." Lori sits down on a log looking at the sisters who lay by the RV. Shane gives her a strange look.
My dad spits on the ground and walks off. I follow, maybe I can help make sure the walkers stay dead.
"Wake up Jimbo we got some work to do." My dad tells Jim who is just staring off into the distance. He taps Morales on the shoulder and they start to pick up one of our camp mates and drag him to the fire.
"Woah what are you guys doing?" Glenn asks. "This fire is for geeks! Our people go over there."
"What's the difference." Dad asks obviously pissed. Maybe I'll just go hang out with Carol and Sophia for the time being. After a few more words are exchanged my dad starts yelling. "Y'all left my brotha for dead! You had this comin!"
I start to follow him once more when Jaqui starts yelling.
"A walker bit him!" She yells. "A walker bit Jim!"
I stop in my tracks as my dad turns around and picks up his pickaxe.
"Show us!" He yells. Jim picks up a shovel and I'm pulled back by Carol. T-dog restrains Jim and my dad lifts up his shirt. A walker bite lays underneath.
"I'm okay, I'm okay." Jim says. "I'm okay."
~~~
"I say we put a pick axe in his brain, the girls too, be done with it." Dad says to the group while I lean against him.
"That what you'd want if it where you?" Shane asks.
"Hell yeah!" He says. I look up at him. I can't imagine my father dying, I'd have no one. "And I'd be thanking ya while you did it."
I grab his hand and squeeze it tightly, breathing heavily. He squeezes mine back. My dad walks away, yelling about something and about to put a pick axe in Jim's brain. Rick pulls his gun on him.
"Hey!" I scream, my body trembling.
"We don't kill the living." Rick says. The gun still trained on my fathers head.
"Please stop!" I whisper. Carol places her hand on my shoulder and I squeeze it, calming down a little bit.
"Funny." My dad snaps. "Coming from the man pointing a gun at my head. Willing to kill me in front of my own daughter."
Rick looks at me but doesn't put the gun down. He turns his attention back to my dad.
"We may disagree on somethings, but not this." Shane says. "Put it down."
My dad looks at the pickaxe and shoves it into the dirt, walking away with me trailing quickly behind him. Rick and Shane move Jim to somewhere 'safe'. Ha! Like that's gonna happen.
My dad sits on the hood of the red car that has its parts now taken. I join him and lean my head on his arm.
"I'm not goin anywhere." He says running his fingers through my ratty hair. "Not anytime soon."
"You can't promise me that Daddy." I whisper holding onto him for dear life. My hands are wrapped around his torso and I feel like crying. "What if you get bit? What if no ones around but me? Would I have to kill you?"
"Cheri," he whispers softly. "I ain't leaving you, not in this world. Now, how bout you help me bash in some walker brains?"
He gets off the hood of the car and hands me a pick axe. I take it and begin to hit the thing into the walkers skull. My dads about to put his pick axe into Ed's brain when Carol stops him. I bite my lip, wincing when the newly healed skin starts to bleed, and I glare at Ed's dead body.
"I'll do it, he's my husband." She says taking the pick axe from my father. For a second I think she won't be able to do it until she starts to bash his brains in. When she's done, she's softly crying. She hands the pick axe back to my dad and walks away wiping her eyes.
I hear a gun shot ring out through the air and I realize Amy must've come back to life as a walker. I look down feeling sorry for Andrea.
"Alright, that's the last of em'." My dad says. I nod walking away and see Carl sitting alone.
"Hey Coral." I smile softly and sit next to him.
"Hey Churro." He replies. I laugh and take out my knife drawing in the dirt. In the distance, the group is wrapping our dead friends in bed sheets and whatever they can find. "Guess we're having a funeral soon."
"I guess so." Looking up at my dad who is placing the dead bodies in the back of his truck. "Sorry I've been avoiding you lately."
"You where avoiding me?" He says his voice slightly hurt.
"It's just your dad and my dad don't seem to get along." I say shrugging. "And I don't think your dad likes me to much."
"Oh." He says quietly. "I think he likes you, your dads just a little intimidating."
"Apparently so was my uncle." I mutter. Merle lurks in the back of my mind. Was he even alive?
"Cheri!" My dad yells. "Ya ridin' up there with me?"
"Yeah!" I yell back. "Bye Coral!"
I run to my dads truck and jump in shutting the door behind me. He backs the truck up to the grave site and everyone else walks up behind us, we'll in front of us I guess. My dad is the first to jump out.
"I still think it's a mistake, not burnin these bodies." He says to Rick. "It's what we said we'd do right? Burn 'em all? Wasn't that the idea?"
"At first." Rick says as Shane continues to dig.
"Chinaman gets all emotional, says its not the thing to do? What so we jus' follow along?" He asks throwing his arms to his sides. Rick just starts to dig once more. "These people, need to know who the hell is in charge, what the rules are."
"There are no rules." Rick says to my father.
"That's a problem." Lori states. I nod agreeing with her. "We haven't had any time to hold onto our old selves, we need time to mourn, and we need to bury our dead. That's what people do."
Are we even people anymore? We've lost a lot, we've changed a lot. How have we held on this long without realizing the costs. She walks away and we start to bury the dead, I stand by Carl and Sophia as my dad has to help.
Andrea insists on putting Amy in her grave all by herself. She struggles a bit and Dale steps into help. She just gives him a glare and finally gets Amy into the grave. We all stand in a moment of silence, mourning the loss of everyone before walking back to camp. Carl is by my side and we talk softly, he's been crying but he tries to just play it off as allergies. I laugh softly going along with his 'allergies.' When we get back to camp, Carl and I sit on some of the chairs and just talk.
"Okay," I laugh. "Did your school have the little Hamburgers in a bag?"
"No! That sounds gross." He says laughing.
"They where, I had them once and puked all over my dads truck when I got home." I say. "There's still stains on the door."
"No way." He says shaking his head. "I want proof."
"Okay." I say standing up and grabbing his hand. "Come on."
Before we can walk over to the truck Shane calls a group meeting. Wonderful. I ignore most of it until he says something about leaving.
"At first light, we leave for the CDC." Shane finishes and I look at Carl.
"So." I say as everyone gets up and goes back to whatever they where doing. "You wanna see that stain?"
"I actually think I'm gonna go back to my tent." He says sadly. "Sorry Cheri."
Carl gets up and walks to his tent and I sigh.
"It's okay." I mumble stabbing my knife into the dirt multiple times.
"Your doin a mighty fine job of killing that dirt." My dads gruff voice says behind me. He takes a seat beside me. We sit in comfortable silence watching the sun finish setting. "We should probably head back to the tent."
I nod and stand up walking beside him. Our tent isn't terribly messy. Well Merle's side is. I lay down on my sleeping bag looking at the ceiling of the tent, trying to escape into the sweet bliss of sleep. It doesn't happen. Every Time I close my eyes, I'm met when the same images. The walkers invading the camp. Amy getting bit. I sit up looking at my dad who's still awake.
"I can't sleep." I say gaining his full attention.
"I noticed." He replies, twirling his knife in his fingers. "Come 'ere."
I gladly join him by his sleeping bag. Laying next to him with a blanket draped over my body. I curl up into his side like I used to when I was little. He softly runs his fingers through my ratty hair, brushing it out a little.
"Goodnight Daddy." I whisper as he lulls me to sleep.
"G'night Cherokee." He whispers.
~~~
"Those of you with CB's we're gonna be on Channel 40." Shane says. The group was gathered around the cars all packed up. My crossbow rested at my finger tips. "So keep the chatter down. Those of you without a CB if ya gotta problem, can't get a signal all ya gotta do is hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan, any questions?"
"We're uh," Morales says. "We're not going."
I frown, his kids where good to have around.
"We have family in Birmingham." His wife speaks up. "We want to be with our people."
"If your on your own you won't have any one to watch your back." Shane tells them.
"We'll take our chances." Morales says. "I gotta do what's best for my family."
"You sure?" Rick asks.
"We talked about it, we're sure." He says looking at his family.
"Alright." Rick says bending down and grabbing them a pistol and half a box of ammo.
We all say our goodbyes, watching them leave. Shane tells us it's time to go. I get in my dads blue pickup. Merle's motorcycle is in the back. The RV leads the way and I put my knife in the sun visor, a picture falls out. It's of my family. Well the family that cared about me, like Merle and my dad. My eyes water realizing Merle might not be dead but we're leaving him behind.
The RV stops, signaling the trail of vehicles to stop. The radiator hose has caused us to stop. Dale explains to Rick that it's more duck tape than anything. Jacqui comes running out of the vehicle.
"Y'all it's Jim," she says frantically. "I don't think he's gonna make it."
Shane and T-dog take off to find something to fix the RV while the rest of us stay behind. Rick goes in the RV to talk to Jim. When he comes back out, he's says Jim wants us to leave him.
The group talks about it for a second, before deciding to do what Jim wants. Rick and Shane take Jim to a tree setting him down gently. I look away, I've already seen enough in this world. I don't want to remember Jim like this, I want to remember him as the hard worker he was. Not the fragile being he's starting to turn into.
Eventually the group leaves him there, sitting under the tree. My dad and I stare at him for a moment until my dad puts his hand on my back leading me back to the cars.
~~~
After long boring hours in the truck, we arrive at the CDC. And let me tell you, the place looks like Hell.
Dead bodies are everywhere and flies are swarming them. The smell is awful and I almost want to vomit when I breathe in. The dead army personnel are scattered over the makeshift walls. As we make our way to the doors everyone starts to cough. My dad has his crossbow raised and his arm over his nose and mouth. My crossbow is pointed at anything dead that looks like an immediate threat.
When we reach the doors, some sort of metal door stops us from getting in. The smell starts to get to heavy for me and I'm sure if I had anything in my stomach it would come back up as vomit.
Shane tries to get the door open while Rick tells us to stay calm. Easier said than done Rick.
"There's nobody here." Someone says in disappointment.
"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick asks looking around.
"Walkers!" Shane calls out and I turn around, my crossbow ready to shoot.
Carl starts to freak out and I start to shake, unable to kill the potential threat. Thankfully my dad shoots the walker through the brain and it drops down dead for good.
"Ya led us into a graveyard!" My dad yells at Rick.
"He made a call!" Dale tells him defending Rick.
"Yeah?" Dad says. "Well it was the wrong damn call!"
"Shut up!" Shane tells my dad pushing him. I continue to shake and my breathing grows heavier much like Carl's. "Ya hear me? Shut up! Shut up!"
"Where are we gonna go?" Carol asks holding onto her daughter.
"Do you hear me?" Shane tells Rick. "This place is a dead end."
"He's right we can't be this close to the city after dark." Lori says.
"Fort Benning, still an option." Shane suggests.
My crossbow falls from my fingertips. It's like I'm unable to hold onto it any longer. I turn to my dad and grab ahold of his hand. I don't feel right. I feel like I'm going to die right here and now. I probably will. The chances of us getting out of here unscathed is slim.
"On what? We have no food, no fuel!" Andrea says. "It's a hundred miles!"
"Hundred twenty-five," Glenn corrects. "I checked the maps."
I panic even more than I originally was. Backing into my dad I stare blankly at the walkers making their way towards us.
"Forget Fort Benning!" Lori says. "We need answers tonight! Right now!"
"We'll think of something!" Rick tells her.
"Come on let's get out of here!" Someone says. I think it was Shane.
I don't move I can't.
"Cheri come on." My fathers voice sounds distant. But he's right next to me. My dad starts to pick me up, but he stops.
"The camera's they moved!" Rick says stopping everyone.
"Your imagining." Dale tells him.
"It moved." Rick says walking towards the camera. "It moved."
"Rick come on, they're automatic." Shane tells them.
"I know your in there! I know you can hear me!" Rick yells banging on the door.
"Please! We're desperate! Please we have woman and children, no food! Hardly any fuel! We have no where else to go." Lori tries to get him leave. Convincing him no one is there. "Your killing us! Please!"
The group turns around, starting to head towards the cars, I turn around slowly, not trusting myself. A blinding white light causes us to stop, my dad slowly lowers his gun. All of us stare at the light, not believing the sight in front of us.
~~~
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