Chapter 31
•Joslyn•
I was woken by the blinding sun that hid behind leaves, popping out between spaces in the air that the leaves did not cover. I blinked a few times, getting my eyes to ficus again, as I realized I was still up in the tree. I stumbled a bit, almost falling off, but I caught myself.
As I got to the ground, I took my knife out for protection as I looked for a clearing out of the forest. It wasn't really hard to find. A forest was basically just a group of trees all huddled together, like a secret was held between them and they didn't want the outside to know anything about it.
Huh...
Outside of this world will be nothing.
My fingers kept coming across the paper. They slid in between the folds and the edges, softly rubbing over the paper. I still questioned it. I wasn't going to let it go. If Carl didn't believe, why would he write that.
You're not questioning the paper, you're questioning the boy.
I tried to shake my thoughts from my mind as I waked out to the damp, muddy grass that shined against the warm sun. There wasn't anything in the clearing but a pale blue house that blended with the sky. The tall grass rubbed against my knees, tingling with each touch as I moved foreword. The windows of the house were blanketed with dust and mold that grew on the outer edges of the frame. It wasn't as beat up as the other house, though.
God dammit, everything reminds me of him.
I breathed, sliding my knife back to its holster as I rung around to the side of the house where there was a screen door that was actually still bolted to the frame. I pulled it open, a bug zipping past my ear as the sudden movement startled it. As I walked in, I could heard footsteps past the wall that stood in front of me. Taking a subtle approach, I peered my heard around to be mistaken. They were not footsteps, yet they were limps, mixed with some normal movement.
A walker stared into deaths eyes behind the wall, ready to collapse at anytime. I drew my head back behind the wall, my back leaning against it as the wall vibrated. With every step the walker took, the house was closer and closer to being in ruins, and I might be apart of it. My hand shook as I prepared, cocking the gun as my finger rested, waiting to pull the trigger.
My fingers twitched and every breath I took was one more I didn't want to take. If Carl were here, he would know why. Up the tree, I basically told him my suicide plan. I didn't have one, yet how hard could it be?
It would be hard for the people around you.
Carl. He would have a hard time, yet he would probably understand. I lost my family, my life, everything. Everything I had is now lost, and this isn't no fucking game of hide and seek. I was lost. Carl probably was too...
I can't do this on my own.
I was so stupid to leave. I could feel the hot tears starting to form in my eyes. I held my gun in my right hand, keeping it close to my chest as my left hand covered my mouth, not wanting the walker to hear me.
I have never shot a walker, and if I have, I barely remember. The only time I really did was with Carl, and that didn't even count, really. It didn't count because I was with him. I was with Carl and I didn't want to be. Maybe I didn't want to because I loved him and I knew I couldn't have him...
No. I didn't love him. I do love him. I love him as of right now. Even if he might not love me anymore, I will love him. I will tell him I was wrong and he was right, that I did need him. I will not let this walker or anything take my life, wether it be a dead, a living, or a gun to my head forced by my instincts, with my own bone breaking the trigger. I will live because I know that's what he wants me to do.
I will find him.
"Get your shit together,"
I whispered to myself.
I peered around the corner, seeing the walker lying on the ground with fresh blood leaking from a wound in the back of its head.
I didn't kill it. It was just there when I turned. My heart raced with every thought I ever had and every situation I could be in right now wether it be good or bad. When I backed up, turning the other way, my back was forced to the wall as hands grasped my shoulders. A boy stood in front of me, and I instantly noticed the height difference we had. He was taller than me, his brown hair with subtle blonde on top was cut all jagged, and a simple scar that had blood running down was freshly cut underneath one of his gold-brown eyes.
"Who are you?!"
He yelled, expecting an answer.
"Tell me! Or do I have to force it on you?"
His right hand came off my shoulder, yet only for a second, as he brought a knife up to me, showing me he was serious.
"No-please! I mean no trouble! I-I-"
"Joslyn?..."
I turned my head, hearing a very familiar voice to the right of me. I smiled, half of relief, and the other half of joy. The boy holding me to the wall let me go, realizing I knew the person who must have come here with him.
"Aaron!"
I ran the couple steps he was away from me, the tears coming back, yet this time they were of joy. This was the person I was looking for. The whole reason I wanted to come to Illinois. I must have made it. I had no idea. Yet, it wasn't that far apart from Georgia in this world. This person is also the reason I left...
You found one person, you can find him, too.