Born to Die

2

Alli
When I woke up in the morning, I felt surprisingly relaxed, even after the night I had. This was the first time since I found this house that I strayed from my routine.
It was an odd sensation, talking to someone after years of only seeing walkers. I unlock my door, walking slowly down the stairs, I figured that Carl had gone already, but as I got to the bottom of the stairs, I saw him sitting on the couch. I don't know why his presence gave me a feeling of relief, I couldn't explain it, it was probably just being around people again.

"Um- good morning" I say slowly, he stood up from the couch and flashed me a grin "morning." He acted as if we were friends. "I thought you'd be gone by now" I state, even though it sounded like a question. He shrugged then walked a few steps closer to me "I was about to go, then I saw all the stuff by the door. You got all of that from one day of scavenging?" He asks and I nod, I guess he had good reason to be surprised, I've gotten really good at finding supplies and whatnot.

"Yeah, I figured since it wasn't by the door yesterday. Anyway, my group- we're always looking for useful people, if you'd want to consider joining." He offers and I begin to let the thought run through my head.

Carl
I kept my eyes on Alli as she thought about the offer, I hope she agrees to join. Sure, she's a good scavenger, but it'd be cool to have a few more people my age around, not to mention that she's beautiful. I could hardly look somewhere else in her presence, she was just an effortlessly gorgeous girl. Even putting that aside though, it seems like she's survived alone for this long, so she must have a good set of skills.

"This group, what's it like?" She asks, so I begin to explain "we've got a good amount of people right now, we just brought in a town about 2 or 3 months ago. We've got a lot of good people, we're never really low on supplies either. It's a good group." I tell her, I saw a grin creeping onto her face. "And it's safe?" "We live at a prison, there's fences and guard towers where we keep watch, and we've got people killing walkers at the fences everyday." I told her more, waiting for another question,

"Alright, it sounds like a pretty good place. Anything else I should know?" She asks and I nod "We ask people three questions, if you get them right, you can just join us." I explain and she considers this, then nods "okay, try me".

"How many walkers have you killed?"

"Too many to count."

"How many people have you killed?"

"One."

"Why?"

She hesitated to answer this one, then began to talk again "My sister and I escaped the herd that killed my parents, the next morning when we were walking, a walker grabbed her ankle and bit it, before she could even figure out what was going on. I sat with her for a few hours, but the fever set in. She begged me to kill her, so she wouldn't suffer anymore, and she wouldn't turn either. So I did." She didn't have much emotion in her speech, I could tell that it was to avoid thinking about it too much, I just know how she feels, that's how it is with my mom.

She took a deep breath, then resumed to her original mood, edgy and somewhat enthusiastic. "Those the right answers?" She asks and I have a slight smirk "Yeah, they are".

Alli
Carl agreed to help me pack my stuff, then we'd start heading the to the prison, apparently he'd already told his dad that I'm coming. It didn't take long to pack up everything, but it did take 4 duffel bags, which were a pain in the ass to carry, but luckily, it wasn't a far walk. Within an hour or so the prison had come into view, the guard towers were visible from a distance.

He gave a wave to the guard towers as we approached the gates, I guess that was the signal to open them. We were greeted by two people as we walked in, a scruffy looking man who wore an angel wing vest, and a dark-skinned woman who held a katana. "Thank God you're alright, your dad would've killed me" the woman laughed, embracing Carl in a hug. "I told you, everything is fine, I can last a night alone." He told her, speaking very lightheartedly.

"Plus, thanks to your amazing plan to split up, we have a new addition to the group." He motioned to me and the woman smiled "Hi, I'm Michonne" she introduced herself and I grinned "Alli". The man cut into the conversation "Alright, not to be rude or anything, but we've gotta pat you down, make sure you aren't trying to kill us." He had a redneck tone in his voice.

"Oh yeah, no problem." I tell him, putting down the duffels and handing over the weapons that I had on hand, then letting him pat me down quickly. It's awkward and all, but I get it, he wants to play it safe. Nothing wrong with that. "Sorry 'bout that. I'm Daryl." He said and I flashed a smile "Alli".

Carl spoke to Daryl and Michonne for a few more minutes before we went towards the cell block. "So" he began to say "most of us live in C-block, that's probably where you'll end up since we have a few extra cells there." He explains "You'll need to talk to my dad in a few minutes too, he's kinda the leader around here I guess, he'll just wanna make sure we can trust you." Carl told me as we entered the cell block.

"So your dad, probably some big scary guy I assume?" I ask, somewhat jokingly, getting a laugh out of him. "Hardly, he's kind of intimidating, but definitely not big and scary." He says, stopping at a cell "This is my cell" he motioned to one with a navy blue curtain "you can leave the duffels here for now, you can pull the stuff you want when you finish with my dad, then we can put the rest with our supplies." He explains and I nod "sounds good".

We walked into his cell, putting the bags onto the floor "honestly, you can put everything into your supplies, except for my crossbow. The rest, I don't care about." I shrug and he smirks a bit "what's so special about the crossbow?" He asks and I give him a weak smile "it was my dad's he wasn't around much, but he did leave me the crossbow. And I'm really good with it." I laughed slightly at the end of my words.

There was a moment of silence, then I heard footsteps from outside of the cell "that's probably my dad." He spoke quietly now, leading me out of the cell to see a man, he was fairly taller than Carl and I, he had the same blue eyes as Carl, and looked as if he was in the beginning stages of growing a beard. "Dad, this is Alli." Carl smiled as he introduced me and the man returned one "Hi Alli, you can just come into my cell and we can talk for a few minutes." He said, he seemed friendly enough.

I followed him inside, the curtain in front of the door was pushed aside. "I'm Rick Grimes" he spoke firmly and I smiled "Alli Dixon" I reintroduced myself and he gave a slight look of amusement as I said my name. "There's really not much to know about this place, just don't pull any dumb moves, don't try and kill us or something, because these people are my family, and if I ever hear that you hurt my family, I will kill you." I'm really starting to see what Carl meant when he said intimidating.