A Dream I Had

4

KATRINA'S POV:

"Alright now, Carl you remember where the Sanderson's house is, right?" Rick started.

"Yeah, dad. I used to go over there all the time to hang out with Andrew." Carl replied.

"Don't you go gettin' hurt out there. Ya hear?" Daryl chimed in.

"Of course not." I said with a slight annoyance in my voice.

"Okay, there and back." Rick said sternly.

"Yeah yeah, it's getting dark we gotta go." Carl snapped.

"I'll go with her if you wanna get an attitude." Rick threatened.

"Okay, I'm sorry. There and back." As we finished our conversation, I rolled up the windows and started backing out of the driveway. When Rick and Daryl made it safely inside, I started in the direction Carl told me.

"Okay, get that look off your face. Your dad ain't here." I said to Carl who was pouting in the passenger seat.

"Oh yeah? Why should I?" He cocked an eyebrow at me.

"Because I said so. No pouting in the apocalypse. We gotta make the best of life." I joked.

"Fine." He smiled a little. "Yes ma'am." That made me laugh. "What's so funny?" He asked.

"Ma'am. You're older than me." I giggled.

"Ain't got nothing to do with having respect." He shrugged.

"Okay, Grimes. Momma raised you right."

"Yes, ma'am, she did. Dad did, too. Used to get onto me any time I didn't say ma'am or sir."

"That's the way it goes in the south, huh?" I asked rhetorically.

"Of course. Take a right here." He pointed at a road ahead of me. I turned and he told me almost immediately to pull into a house on my left. I backed in. My grandfather always taught me to back in incase of an emergency where we had to leave quickly.

"All right, I'm sure they already cleared the house but we're gonna do it again. No tellin' what's happened since they been gone." I said, shutting off the car. Carl grabbed a duffle bag out of the back seat and nodded.

"Yes ma'am." He smirked. I rolled my eyes with a slight smile and got out of the car, gun in hand. Carl followed and we went to the front door. It was shut, so we banged on it a few times to attract anything that may have been inside. When nothing came, we opened the door and made our way in. Nothing, it's clear. We found the pile of clothing Rick was talking about and began stuffing the duffle bag with as much of them as we could. There was only about an arm-full of them that we couldn't get in the bag so Carl offered to carry them. There was one last thing I wanted to check, though.

"Hey, I'm gonna find the laundry room before we leave. Chances are nobody took the laundry detergent."

"Good thinking, Kay. I'm gonna go put this stuff in the car." I nodded and we walked downstairs. He went outside and I found the laundry room in the downstairs hall. Just as I thought, laundry detergent, dryer sheets, scent beads, everything was still here. I grabbed it all and started toward the front door. Just as I was about to walk outside, Carl came through the door and shut it behind him very quickly.

"Walkers, nine of em." He said out of breath. "But I got this." He presented me with an empty duffle bag. "Put the stuff in this so it's just one thing to carry. I got it." I did as he said and he threw the bag over his shoulder.

"Okay, you got a plan, Grimes?" I asked.

"We go out the back, and come at them from behind. There's just nine. Keep distance, use your gun until there's only a few we can handle with knives. Save bullets."

"Yes sir, Mr. Grimes." I smiled and he laughed at me, knowing I was mocking him for calling me ma'am. "Let's go." I started toward the back door.

"Oh, yeah. One more thing. Stay behind me, please." The look in his eye told me he was serious, so I didn't argue even though I wanted to.

"Fine, cmon, it's getting dark." We did exactly as we planned. Shot 3 of them, and each took out 3 with our knives. As we were getting in the car, my elbow hit the window switch and rolled it about half way down. I didn't think much of it and began rolling it up but that was until a walker grabbed the top of the window where it was still open. It began trying to shove its head through and I stabbed it, getting blood all over myself. I looked down at my lap in disappointment because this shirt was just cleaned.

"Don't worry, honey. We can get you another shirt when we get back." Carl put his hand on my arm. I just nodded and rolled the window the rest of the way up. I put my knife away and pulled out of the driveway. It was getting to be about dusk so I turned on the headlights to see properly. As I went to turn on the next street, I heard Carl.

"Kay, stop the car and turn off the lights."

"What?"

"Stop the car and turn off the lights, just trust me." He said again. I did what he told me and turned off the lights and put it in park. He reached over and yanked the keys out of the ignition and whispered, "Lock the doors and lean your seat as far back as it'll go." I did that, as well, and he did, too. We sat in silence for about 30 seconds before I looked over to him. He was already looking at me. "Shhh." He said before I could even open my mouth to speak. Almost immediately I felt the car start rocking. It was being pushed. I could then see silhouettes out the side windows of walkers. Not too many walked by before it was over. Maybe 15 of them, but still enough for us to want to avoid them. We gave them time to get away from us before sitting back up and continuing on the way to the house.