Dead Life

Chapter One: Home

Chapter One

Lizzie

I hear a leaf crack under the pressure of a foot. I bend down behind a bush and stare into the trees. A gust of wind blows over me and I hear the footsteps come closer and closer to me. I feel hands grasp my shoulders and I grip my knife. I turn my head to see Carl smiling behind me.

"What are you doing?" I harshly whisper.

"Coming to checkup on you." He says laughing. I let my knife go and stand up with a smile. I turn my body to him.

"It's not funny." I say, smiling. He holds my cheeks and meets my lips. I continue to smile as the kiss deepens. His hands slide down to my waist and I grab his neck. I take a deep breath and continue to kiss my love.

"Mama." I hear Kyla's soft voice say. I let go of Carl and see her standing next to us. Her light brown hair is down on her shoulders, her light blue dress has brand new muddy spots.

"Kyla, I told you not to play in the mud." I say with a smile as I kneel down and try to wipe off the mud.

"I told you, too." Carl says from behind.

"I was bored." She tells me in a usual three year old voice. I pick her up and hold her close.

"We should get back." I tell Carl. He nods and we start to walk towards the gates.

Life has been different in DC, even better than it was at Terminus. Every day is almost the same. I wake up and tend to Kyla. I take a shower, with hot water, and get dressed in fresh clothes each day. Some days I meet with Dr. Davis, a head leader of the CDC.

We have been recently discussing a problem that has hit the entire world. We need to get vaccines across the sea to Europe, Africa and Australia. DC has boats that they can use but not enough fuel. Glenn, Garry - a good friend of Maggie's that she met up with at DC- and Penny - a 23 year old who is as armed and ready as a 35 year old colonel- are going on runs every other day to look for fuel. Once they get enough, they are taking the boats to sea. The one thing is that the team to go on the mission is Glenn, Penny, Gareth, Maggie, Sasha, Michonne, Daryl and Carl. I begged for them to let him stay but they did not do anything. They have it written in stone.

I can only think of the worst possibilities; the ship crashing, them running out of fuel, getting out numbered by walkers, ect...

I pull out the ID card they make us wear and swipe it at the gate. It pops up a finger print scanner and I press my middle finger on the screen. It beeps and a door opens. We pass through two sets of security and then walk into DC itself. There are thirteen buildings in all; the White House and tweleve other buildings scattered around DC. All of the group gets one building to ourselves; building C. Carl, Kyla, Judith and I all share a room on the second floor of the two story building. On the first floor is the living room, the kitchen and Eugene, Rosita, Gareth, Mary, and Daryl's rooms. The second floors houses my family, Carol, Glenn, Maggie, Michonne, and Beth with two bathrooms and one bathroom downstairs. After all this time I have started to be able to call it a home.

All three of us walk to C and see Daryl and Carol on the way there, chatting with two security guards. We walk up to the front door and Kyla runs up to it and opens the door. I walk in to see Judith sitting on the floor with her two dolls that Maggie gave her and Kyla as a birthday present last year when Judith turned four and Kyla three. Kyla sits down next to Judith and they start playing together. I get a wiff of what smells like pasta and turn to the kitchen to see Beth hovering over the stove.

"Hey, I was just preparin' dinner for all of us. How did your visit to the outside go?" Beth asks Carl and I.

"Good," I say as I take off my jacket and hang it on a dinning room chair, "Beth, there were no walkers today. At all." Every week, I like to take a trip with Carl outside the walls to see if anthing has changed.

"That's good, It is the same as last week." Beth smiles.

"And the week before that." Carl adds as he takes a pinch of cheese out of the bowl and eats it.

"I saw that, Carl." Beth says with a small laugh. I smile while they chat and walk down the hallway to see if Gareth is home. I knock on his door, a plaque is nailed onto it that reads "GARETH". The door opens a second later and I see him, shaving cream all over his face.

"Oh, um, I just wanted to check up on you, you can get back to that..." I say with a laugh and walk back down to the kitchen. I hear his door shut to just hear the front door open. Daryl and Carol walk in. Daryl jogs to the couch and flops himself on the couch. Carol smiles and takes a seat at the dinning table.

"How was it today?" She asks me.

"The same as last week, walker free." I tell her.

"Did you take Kyla with you?"

"Yeah, she needs a bath...I will be right back." I say and walk over to the two playing. I pick Kyla up from where she was seated. "Well, you played in the mud again so bath time!" She says bye to Judith and I walk her to the Bathroom down the hall. I start the water in the tub and undress her. She gets in and i start to wash her hair and body.

I love this new life. I can't help to think that if Rick hadn't died, we would still be at Terminus, waiting for this all to pass. It wouldn't have been us to try and stop it. More people might've even died.

After we returned from DC to Terminus to get everyone over there, we found out that they had saved Rick, Tyreese, Abraham, and Tara's bodies. We brought them here and buried them in the backyard of our building. We also found out that Sasha had killed herself three days after we left. They saved her body too.

I still have never figured out who Jered was that killed Rick. No one knows. It was Rick's own personal business.

Carl and I have mended our relationship since we left Terminus. We have even been talking about having another child. It is safe to now. After Glenn and Maggie were officially married, Maggie became pregnant. She is eight months now and I can't wait for her to give birth to her baby boy. The sad part is is that she will have to leave him to go on the mission to Europe, that's the first stop. Then, they will be returning back and gather more supplies and go to Africa, return back for supplies and finally go to Australia and return. The ship is huge. Bigger than needed, actually.  I worry about Carl going every day. But I can't do anything about it. I shouldn't be worrying about him though. He will make it back. He always does.