The Truth Is

Chapter 10 - What happened?

It was an early morning. Some people were still asleep. Glenn, Maggie, Noah, Sasha, Michonne, Tyreese.

I was talking to Beth until I saw Carl. I ran up to him. "Hey." I said. "Hey." He smiles. We walk up the stairs and into a bedroom. I sit on the bed and Carl sits in an office chair.

I stare out the window for a minute or two. "Carl?" I ask. "Yea?" "What happened while I was gone?" He looks down. I know he doesn't want to talk about it but I need to know.

"Well we found a prison. It was safe. We took people in. This guy, a leader of a different group, he calls himself the governor. Well called. He attacked us. Twice. The second time he attacked us the whole prison went down. That's when Hershel died." I'm so confused. "How? .. How did he die?" I don't want to sound all nosy but I'm curious. I mean it's not like I didn't know Hershel. I loved Hershel. "The governor decapitated his head with michonne's katana."

"Oh" Is all I can say. Then I speak again. "How about Andrea?" "She was bit." I pause and shake my head a little bit hesitating whether or not to ask this next question. "And Lori?" He pauses and looks down. He stands up and is about to walk out of the room. I grab his wrist. "Never mind. You don't have to tell me. I'm sorry."

He doesn't speak for a good five minutes or so. Just stands there looking at the floor.

"Childbirth." He says. "What?" I'm even more confused right now. "You asked how she died. Childbirth. I had to kill her from letting her turn." He's still looking at the ground. "Carl, I'm so sorry." I pull him into a hug and squeeze a little bit to let him know I'm here for him.

"I'll always be here for you." I say. "Same for you." He smiles a little. "What happened to you?" He asked.

I tell him the story of the two boys in the woods stabbing my foot and leaving me there for the walkers. "How did you get out of that?" He asks.

"I walked. It hurt like hell with every step, but I did it." I say.

"You are the strongest person I've seen yet." He tells me. "What? I'm not that strong."

"You are. You survived by yourself for four years. Well, by yourself for most of it. You kept your emotions together. I mean, you got separated from your mom and you didn't go crazy."

"How do you know that?" I smirk at him. "Okay so you did go crazy. You saw ghosts. You killed everything in your path. You lost it." He says sarcastically and laughs. "Who knows? Maybe I did." I assure him. "I doubt that. You didn't hallucinate like my dad did. You didn't go into a blank trance like I did. You kept it together. Now that right there, is the key to living in this world."

I don't know what to say so I just smile. There's a few moments where we just sit in awkward silence. It's really awkward with Carl sometimes. Sometimes, you're scared your going to say the wrong thing and you don't know how he'll take it. He finally breaks the silence but it's not the question I wanted to hear.

"So, you like that Noah guy?" He smirks at me. "What?! No! We're just friends." What is he getting at? "That's what they all say." He smirks again. "I don't like him!" "okay, okay." He puts his hands up like he surrenders.

"You like that Lizzie girl?" I smirk. "No! We don't even talk!" He laughs. "Then why are you smiling?" I start to laugh. "What I'm not?" We both giggle. "I still think you like Noah." He smirks. "Well you think wrong! He's like 3 years older than me!" I say sort of laughing. "Age is just a number." He smirks. "Stop doing that!" I say.

"Stop doing what?" He asks, confused. "Stop smirking and giving me that look!" I laugh. "Yea, yea whatever." He says.

I like that we are friends. I always will.