» Time Is Dancing « | » Carl Grimes «

» STILL GOTTA MEAN SOMETHING «

Bury Your Dead And Leave Me The Hell Alone

"It's been over a day. Still not sick." Tara shrugged, her hand cradling the injury. I peered at it suspiciously, seeing it actually healing instead of infecting. "That means Dwight shot me with a clean arrow."

I bit my fingernails with hesitation. "Daryl's gonna have a lot to say about that. You gonna tell him?"

It had been a long night in Tara's room, routinely analysing her arm, checking for a fever, brushing off her insistent words that she was okay. It filled me with a particular warmth when I realised we hadn't lost her.

"I'll go now, he's outside, right?" I followed her down the stairs and the door of Barrington house, separating when I noticed a huddle of Kingdomers with Carol in the centre, her eyebrows drawn in focus.

"What's going on?" I asked when I reached her, my hand shielding my eyes from the sun. She met my gaze with worry, her tone matching.

"Henry's gone. He disappeared last night after opening the pen." She told me hurriedly, my glance flitting over to the prisoners. There were a few still remaining, piling bodies into wheelbarrows and fixing the jail.

"Good luck out there." I offered, knowing she would go looking for him. Maybe Henry was a stupid, vengeful kid who didn't understand when to give up, but I still felt my heartbeat quicken with panic. He wasn't a bad kid.

The community had a lot of clearing up to do- burying our dead, treating patients in the infirmary, clearing out the mansion. We took a big hit the other night, exactly what the Saviors wanted.

I watched Maggie order them back and forth, her hands on her hips and an authority radiating from her. It was something to admire. I stood by her side, scanning my eyes over the area. There were dead prisoners lying in the grass, suffering the same fate as many of our own.

"These ones decided to stay." Maggie assured me. "So I'm letting them outside the walls to bury their people. One at a time, with an armed guard."

"Sounds good." I frowned with consideration. There was no way they could try anything and win, plus it gave us far less prisoners to worry about. "Anything I can do?"

Alden pricked his ears up at my voice, his hand wrapping around a shovel as he wandered over. "I'm going out there now." There was a question in his tone, one that asked me go with him.

I rolled my eyes, gripping the rifle that Maggie held towards me and gesturing for him to follow. I had nothing better to do.

I kept my jaw clenched as we walked and walked, away from the pen and outside the walls and eventually into a clearing in the woods. There were already a few fresh graves from where others had been recently. He parked the wheelbarrow and stabbed the soft dirt with his tool, forcing it back until he had a small pile to the side.

"So, how'd you know Maggie?" His curious voice rang out as he dug.

"Why do you keep acting like we're friends?" I countered, my eyes firmly on the tree line.

"You seem nice enough." I sensed him shrug with a thought, pausing his actions. He had a frown on his lips when he noticed I was ignoring him. "Look, I know you think I'm one of them. But it was the Saviors or the woods and I had to make a choice. I figured it was safer behind walls."

My eyes narrowed harshly but I couldn't help considering his words. He wanted to survive, but didn't we all?

"Why'd you stay?" I glanced back at the distant walls of Hilltop, seeing tiny figures monitoring the area.