The Walking Maze

one

~

Charlotte

I've been at the prison for almost three months, and I'm not too happy to report that I still have no friends and I still haven't forgiven myself for my sister's death.

Even after the end of the fucking world, there's still school to go to. It really is hell on earth. The few teenagers that are here have friends and seem happy, except for me. Bullying and exclusion in schools survived the apocalypse, and I'm a prime example of a victim.

There's only one person that's different than the rest of them, and that person is Carl Grimes. He has a few friends, but he doesn't seem as happy as them. He'd been part of the prison group this entire time, so he's gone through and seen some horrible things. Everyone's kind of afraid of him. He isn't too kind, but everyone respects him. I guess I do in a way too.

They have me going on runs as my job because my whole life during that hell had been one long run, and I survived. Many other people on my team protested me being on the team because of my age. They shut up after I saved their lives.

There's also something secret I've been part of that's the only thing that I love, the one thing that's keeping me going. Story time with Carol in the library.

I know what you're thinking, why would you go to a stupid story time for kids? Well, it's much different than that. We have a lookout that watches to see if anyone's coming and they notify us when we're clear. Then, Carol teaches the little kids around the prison that come to story time how to defend themselves. That make me feel the slightest bit of happiness because it reminds me of my sister teaching me back when this all started.

Carol let me start helping teach the class one day when I had been wandering around for hours in the library, just running my hands along the spines of the books on the shelves. I stayed extra long that day, and when I went to leave, the class was going on. Carol begged me not to tell, but I assured her this was a great idea, and that I'd love to help.

Love, a word I haven't said or even thought about in months. Let alone felt.

~

Shay

I've been here a while now, and things are looking a little better for me. Just a little.

Michonne apologized for knocking me out with a rock when she first found me and I have a few friends now. There's Glenn and Maggie and another teenager named Carl. Unlike the other kids there, he actually has a brain. He's been through shit, just like me.

Most of the time, I go on runs with Glenn and Maggie because we keep finding people and there isn't enough food for everyone. And besides, I'm not scared of dying. I'm not scared of anything except turning into one of those Walkers. They're the reason that Danny's dead. (A/N: He's played by Andrew Garfield).

Daniel was my best friend. It used to be me and him against the world until he got bit. We used to go to school together, but we never talked. I was a nobody and he was shy.

I was running from a herd when we ran into each other- and I mean literally ran into each other. I turned a corner into an alley and we collided. As he pulled me out of the alley he told me that his neighbor was one of those 'the-world-is-ending' nuts and that there was a cellar filled with all of his stuff near his house. That's where we got all our supplies, weapons, etcetera.

He got bit on a run to some general store, and not by me if you know what I mean. It got him from behind and sank it's teeth into his shoulder, which was too high up to cut his arm off. Long story short, he asked me to kill him, and I did. That was a long time ago.

Anyway, the prison isn't so bad. Everyone does their part to keep us all alive. The inside's a little depressing, so I mostly stay outside in the field, guarding the fence with a sword in hand. When I'm not doing that, I'm either eating, sleeping or praying.

Praying. Most people here, including Carl, don't believe in God anymore, and most people here don't expect me to. I don't know why, but even after everything that happened, I just need to keep believing that there was someplace better than the shithole earth became.