luna mortimer-smith had long learned not to trust anyone, staying in the middle of the woods as to avoid any contact with the dead or any other humans.
one evening, she'd gone out to check her hunting traps like usual. little did she realize, thoug...
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"It should be just up here." Carl whispered, his hand slightly flexing around his gun. "At least, I'm pretty sure I came through here. But we'll find it soon."
"I mean, it's a prison. Can't be that hard to miss." She snorted. A glint of something ahead of them caught their eyes, causing them to both quickly duck behind trees. Carl peaked out, a look of relief and joy spreading across his face.
"It's a chain link fence." He said. "A downed one, we must be here." She nodded, following him as he hurried up the small hill. They climbed over a few layers of broken chain link fence, ducking behind a car at the crest of the hill. They both looked over, and Luna couldn't help but gasp. Old, overgrown gardens and planter boxes lined the prison courtyard, with children's chalk drawings scattered around the ground and concrete walls. Sitting in just inside the gate, however, was a large, burnt out tank. There was also a massive hole in the closest building to them.
The large yard that sat beyond the gate was overgrown, with walkers milling about. There were a few in the courtyard, but not nearly enough to consider this place overrun.
"Carl?" Luna took her eyes off the sights in front of her, looking over at him.
"They're all gone." He said lightly, almost as if he'd expected to find his friends and dad just waiting for him.
"Maybe there's clues around here somewhere." She said. "Let's take care of these guys then go look, okay? There has to be something." He nodded, and they switched their guns for knives. Taking out walkers was second nature, making the few standing around no real task. The walkers in the yard hadn't noticed them, allowing them to start searching.
"We lived in here." Carl began moving towards the building with the hole, so Luna followed close behind. "Cell Block C. It was home for about a year." The door was wide open, so they cautiously walked inside. They couldn't hear or see any walkers, nor people, but there was stuff strewn about messily. Books, clothes, blankets. "Mine was down here." He led her into the actual cell block itself, and stopped in front of the 5th on. A dark blue curtain hung down in front of the doorway. "Carol picked this out for me, she thought I'd like the color." He mumbled, thumbing the fabric lightly before tucking it out of the way effortlessly. He stepped inside the small cell and chuckled. Leaning down, he pulled a clear tote box from under the bed and picked it up. Luna entered, now seeing Carl sifting through a box of comic books and candy.
"Michonne got them for me whenever she'd go out." He said, his fingers brushing over countless covers. He finally took his eyes off the box, and looked back at Luna. She wasn't looking at him, however, her eyes were fixed over on the desk. Carl turned around, his eyes widening as she stepped forward and picked up the picture frame.
"This is you and your parents, right?" She asked lightly, brushing the dust off the glass. "She was so pretty." She looked up at Carl, who was watching her hesitantly. "You'll wanna bring this, right?" He nodded, taking the now outstretched picture frame. "Bring all that, too. We could have a comic and candy night tonight when we set up camp, it'll be fun."
"Good thing my collection isn't too big." He chucked, putting the picture in the box before snapping the lid on and picking it up. "Come on, maybe we missed something in the courtyard." They walked back outside, seeing the walkers in the yard had still yet to notice their presence. They walked around, poking around places as Carl told old stories and memories from his life at the prison.
"What's this?" Luna kicked some cardboard out of the way, gasping lightly.
"What?" Carl rounded the corner quickly, trying not to get his hopes up. As soon as he saw what Luna was looking at he froze, dropping the box of comics. Judith's carrier was sitting alone in an alcove, covered in blood. Her favorite toy wasn't too far away, also covered in blood.
"Carl, I..." Luna turned back to look at him. His expression was unreadable, but Luna could feel how upset he was, how angry he was, from where she stood. She moved over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry." He didn't take his eyes off the carrier, but one of his hands raised to cover hers. A loud snarl drew Luna's attention, and she saw a small group of walkers shuffling through the gate and towards them. "We should go." She said lightly. "There's nothing here." He didn't say anything, just wordlessly nodded and began walking towards the exit. Luna quickly picked up the comic box and followed him. The walk through the woods to the car was a lot shorter feeling, and Luna was surprised to see Carl get into the passengers seat without a fight.
