The Governor's Daughter {Carl Grimes/The Walking Dead}

Chapter Twenty-Three (Last Chapter)

** Carl's POV **

"What...?" my dad is the first to question the noise.

My ears had recognized them as gunshots, a sound I'd been familiar with for a long time. However, something led me to believe that these gunshots were something...more. Something I couldn't put a finger on.

"Can you see anything?" Maggie asks urgently.

"No," Dad responds. "Nothing out of the ordinary."

"Well, clearly something's out of the ordinary," Michonne says, joining him at the cracked-open entry to the compartment we were in. "We've just got to figure out what that something is."

"No one's out there?" I try. "No one?"

Just as my father was about to say what was going to most likely be another "no," Michonne cuts him off, "Look! That there-- is that...is that a body?"

Dad leans forward and looks where she's pointing. "Yeah," he said after a moment's pause. "That's a body all right. It...looks like Ronan."

"What?" Daryl's eyebrows raise and he joined them at the door.

"Is it?" Glenn asks.

"Yeah," Michonne answers. "Yeah, that's him."

Ronan? How did he end up here? And...how did he end up, well, dead?

Glenn voices my thoughts. "What do you think he was up to? You know, that got him shot?"

"I don't know," Dad says. "Honestly, he could've done just about anything here and they would've fired at him. I... I don't know."

"More importantly," Michonne takes over. "Was he with someone? Someone from our group? Don't forget, we're missing Tyreese, Carol, Jai, Judith, Beth, and Kayleigh."

"Michonne's right," Maggie says. "They could still be out there -- could've been with Ronan, for all we know. Maybe, if one of them was with him, they could've seen us and will come back for us."

"Wouldn't get your hopes up," Daryl responds.

My mouth moves before my mind. "No, one of them could've been with him. I hope one of them was with him." Thankfully, though, I'm able to stop myself before I say anything else embarrassing.

In my head, I continue that maybe Kayleigh could've been with him. That's probably not true, but...she wouldn't have just run off. She had to have had a reason to leave us so suddenly. She wouldn't have just left Michonne or my dad, since I knew how much she looked up to them. She wouldn't...she wouldn't have left me. We were good friends. She wouldn't have abandoned all that for nothing.

Something in my gut's telling me that, still, I'm just hoping. Heck, she could've easily gotten tired of us and ran off. She could've found that... Oh, what's-her-name... Christina.

No, Carl, don't think that.

While I get into an argument with myself, I can't stop wondering what really happened to Ronan, and what really happened to Kayleigh, too.

*** Kayleigh's POV ***

It had been a few hours since our escape from Terminus and the death of my friend. The four of us camped out just outside the fences, and I sat on a rock, staring at nothing in particular, emotionally scarred by the events that took place in there. I wrap Daryl's poncho tightly around my shoulders and sigh as I feel another presence join me.

"Hey." I recognize Christina's voice.

"Hey."

It's silent for moment, then she says, "I'm sorry about Ronan. He... He seemed like a good kid, and, you know, if Carl's gone, he could've made a pretty decent replacement."