𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊 ✔️- 𝑐. 𝑔𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠

42: Promise

Why would you make a promise that you're not even positive that you can keep? Because it makes you and the other person feel better about what's to come. Elle made a promise she doubted she could keep. She promised her best friend that she would find him even though she has no idea where to look. She was stuck with one person at the moment, and it's the last person she wanted to be stuck with. She has no idea where her brothers are, so that's a mystery as well. She sighed at the invading thoughts, and looked down at the ground to see something that caught her eye.

"Sarah," Elle said, getting the other girl's attention. "footprints." There were footprints in the mud. Using the skills that Daryl Dixon had taught her, she realized these footprints belonged to a living, breathing person. They were neat and evenly spaced. Not dragged out and all over the place like a walker's would be. There were two sets. A set about the size of the girls' feet, and what appeared to be adult sized shoes. Elle had an idea as to who it could be, but she didn't want to get her hopes up.

"Do we follow them?" Sarah asked. Elle only nodded instead of giving a verbal response and started walking.

❀❀❀

They had walked throughout the night, and they were tired. Their feet ached, their stomachs craved more food, their dry mouths needed water. The sun was starting to rise, giving off its morning glow to cast upon the two girls. Elle looked up from her feet and her eyes met with a small building. It was a diner. Diners have food. "Sarah." She said quietly, leading the girl off the road and towards the building. The gravel road crunched under their swollen feetas they walked closer and closer to the door.

"Stay out here." Elle warned before stepping inside.

The floor creaked with every small step she took. There was a wall made out of chairs and tables that took up half of the space in the room. On one of the tables was a peice of paper with writing on it.

Please do what I couldn't. -Joe

Elle recognized the writing, vaguely. She looked around the room she stood in. Joe's Diner. Her family ate here every once in a while. This diner made the best waffles and bacon that anyone could ask for. She recognized the writing because Joe was always the one to write the specials on the boards. She shifted her body, slightly, so see a dead walker. It had a bullet hole through the side of its head. She touched the blood and it was still wet. This walker was killed no more than a day or two ago. Elle walked around some more, into other rooms. They were all empty. No walkers. No food. It was all gone. She sighed before making her way back outside. Whoever killed that walker must've already cleared the place. All that was left on the shelves was hot sauce.

"Anything?" Sarah asked. Elle shook her head.

"Nothing we need." She mumbled. She and Sarah started walking towards the road again, their feet still aching and longing for rest. But they had to keep going. Once they got back to the road, they were trying to follow more footprints, but they were starting to get lighter and harder to see. The road only lead in one direction, so they continued to follow it anyways.

"How do we know these are our people?" Sarah asked from behind Elle.

"We don't. We'll find out soon enough, but it won't be easy to get away if we keep making noise." Elle explained, hoping Sarah would get the hint to just stop talking all together. And she did. The two walked silently, exchanging no words. Every once in a while they would swat away a mosquito, but other than that, they just followed wherever the road was taking them.

They eventually came across a neighborhood. The footprints have disappeared and the two girls were only left with the road they stood on. Houses lined the streets, leaving the teenagers with no idea where to start. Elle held her gun in a position that would easily let her raise it and shoot if needed. Sarah took that as a sign to hold the knife she was lent the previous day. Elle walked slowly, and silently as she approached an item in the road. It layed there, motionless. As she got closer, she was able to identify the mysterious item. Pudding. An empty 112 ounce can of chocolate pudding. This caused the girl to let out a small chuckle.

She studied the can more closely to realize the pudding at the bottom of the large can wasn't dried up. The lid was almost completely detached from the can and had a rigid edge. Like someone had used a knife to open it.

"Well?" Sarah asked from behind.

"We keep going." Elle shrugged. The two started walking once more, examining each house they passed. It wasn't too hard to tell which house had walkers inside, and which houses didn't. The ones that did had hand prints on the dust covered  windows. Or they had open front doors, just letting walkers in and out as they pleased.

There was a particular house that stood out, though. It was white, no walkers around it, boarded up windows. Elle creeped up the porch, trying to avoid being seen, and over to the front door in a crouching position, Sarah following her lead. She held a finger to her lips, telling the brunette to keep quiet so she could listen. There were voices. They were quiet, and muffled, but there were voices. They had no way of knowing who the voices belonged to, unless they saw their faces.

"The back door." Elle whispered. Sarah nodded and turned around, creeping off the porch. Elle copied her actions and started walking around to the back of the house. When the two approached the back, there was a white fence separating them from the door. "Here." Elle said, interlocking her fingers to boost Sarah over. Sarah gave her a quiet 'thank you', before stepping on her hands and pulling herself over the fence. Once Elle heard Sarah land on the other side, she made her way over the fence as well.

"Stay out here. I'll give you a signal to run, or to come in. Got it?" Elle said. Sarah nodded. The blonde placed her hand on the golden colored doorknob, slowly turning it. She tried to open the door as quietly as she could, and surprisingly, it didn't make a single sound. Elle held her gun close to her body, now stepping inside.

She very slowly, and cautiously, made her way down the wood floored hallway, having no idea who or what waited for her at the end. Her breathing hitched, worried that the people would hear the fear in her breath. With each step she took, she paused. She wanted to be absolutely sure that they wouldn't hear her. The time had come for her to turn the corner and see who she had been tracking all this time.

She pressed herself against the wall, and peered around the corner. Two people. Both had brown hair. One appeared to be shorter than the other. Those were the only traits she could point out, as she could only see the back of their heads. She tried to listen to their conversation, maybe trying to find out who they were. She looked down the hallway to see Sarah peering through the doorway. Elle shrugged, telling Sarah that she still doesn't know the identity of the people sitting only ten feet away from her. "A hundred and twelve ounces of pudding." A voice said, following with a laugh. The man beside him laughed as well.

Elle knew that voice, and both of those laughs. She revealed herself from the hallway to be one hundred percent positive, and she was. She dropped her knife, which she hadn't even realized she was holding, causing the two to pull their guns on her. She didn't even flinch. When the two saw who she was, they dropped their guns immediately. The younger boy got up from his spot on the floor and tackled Elle to the ground on a hug.

She laughed and cried happy tears as she hugged Carl back. They layed there, on the floor, Carl on top of Elle, still embraced in each other's arms. Elle buried her face into the crook of his neck.

"I promised." She chocked out, laughing.

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My writing lately is just- something else. This chapter sucks. The next few probably will too.

Anyways. I have some FUN stuff planned for this book so PLEASE, I BEG OF YOU to leave predictions and feedback <3