The Walking Maze

two

~

Charlotte

The rattling of prison bars brings me to reality. I sit up in bed and scream, looking around and scooting backwards to escape the oncoming walkers, only to realize it's just Glenn trying to wake me up.

"Oh, um. Sorry Charlotte." Glenn says, awkwardly running his fingers through his hair. "It's just, um, we're going on a run in an a little bit and I wanted to make sure you got up."

"Thanks." I groan. I push my covers aside and stand up.

"Were you having a nightmare?" Glenn asks.

I roll my eyes when I look away from him. "Have been for the past few months . . . " I trail off.

You can cut the tension in the air with a knife if you tried.

"Okay, well, Shay, Maggie & I will be waiting for you at the gate in about an hour." Glenn shoots me a weak smile and wanders down the hallway.

I tug at my necklace as he leaves, then get dressed in my usual everyday clothing.

(A/N: I DON'T WANT THIS TO SOUND LIKE A GIRLY FANFICTION BUT I JUST WANTED TO INTRODUCE TO YOU ONE TIME WHAT CHAR NORMALLY WEARS SO YOU CAN VISUALIZE BETTER. :))) . Lol okay carry on)

Skinny jeans, a jacket over a white tank top, and my sister's lucky converse. I leave my sister's letterman jacket in my cell because I have a weird feeling about this run. Nothing bad, just a different feeling. Like something isn't going to go as planned.

I touch my necklace as I walk down the hallway. The dark corridors always add an element to my anxiety that isn't already hanging over my head.

Someone turns the corner as I do, and we both smack into each other and stumble backwards. As I fall, I grab my knife from it's sheath and stand up about ready to stab the walker that ran into me.

"Whoa whoa whoa Charlotte it's me!" a dark figure says, hands up in front of his face. My knife is still raised, but I don't move. The quiet corridor is filled only with our frantic breathing.

He lowers his hands, and by the dim light, I can just make out Carl Grimes' distinct blue eyes staring down into mine.

I step back from being almost on top of him, return my knife to its sheath, and turn the corner. "Don't scare me like that," I mumble harshly under my breath.

"Charlotte, I'm sorry-" I can just hear Carl shout as he steps around the corner my way. I'm too embarrassed and scared to respond.

I make it to the gate and acknowledge my team. Glenn and Maggie say hi. Shay merely nods.

"Well," Maggie says, getting into the pickup truck we're going to use, "Let's get this show on the road."

~

Shay

We all get out of the car, wary of any nearby Walkers. Luckily, the street is pretty barren. The sides of the road are lined with trash and wind blows through the gaps between the houses. All of them look the same. White wooden planks, cracked driveways, and ivy. Lots of it.

"So which house is it?" Glenn asks cringing at the stench of death in the air. You don't quite get used to that smell. It's been a long time in this shithole and I still want to throw up when I go on runs.

"There's a few, but the one I saw the most stuff in was... that one." I point to an old house with a broken mailbox on its lawn. During the run before this one, I peeked through one of the broken windows and saw a lot of supplies in there, but I never went inside because I was alone and we hadn't cleared the street yet.

I walk farther down the road, raise my arm above my eyes to block out the sun, and squint at the doorway, frowning. A large group of Walkers look like they're about to take the door of the house down. "Well that's unfortunate..." I sigh with profound disappointment.

"What's wrong?" Maggie asks, catching up to me and taking a swig of water from her canteen.

"It's surrounded by Walkers," I shake my head and start walking back towards the pickup. "There's another house on the next street. Maybe it's safe enough to go through."

"What if there's someone in there?" Glenn says with concern, causing me to halt. I'm groaning internally. I mean, Glenn's a real nice guy, but he never knows when to quit. I don't want to risk my life for a bunch of rookies that we don't even know.

"Then that's also unfortunate," I say and turn around to face everybody with a stern look on my face. "Now let's go."

"We can't just leave," Charlotte says, crossing her arms. "Look, they need help and that door looks like it's about to give way."

I sigh and peer over her shoulder at the Walkers, dreading my decision. "Fine. But if we die for them, I'm gonna kill you." (A/N: HARRY POTTER REFERENCE HEYYYOOO)

Charlotte rolls her eyes and nods and we all start jogging towards the house. The snarls of the Walkers get louder and their stench gets even more overpowering. It's hard to believe that these used to be real people- people with jobs, people that stubbed their toes on furniture, people that... well... people that didn't eat other people.

As we get near the house, we draw the Walkers' attention. Slowly, they start limping towards us too, moaning and drooling and grabbing.

I stab one in the eye with my crowbar and pull it out, the Walker falling at my feet with a thump. I grimace and watch as Charlotte stabs another in the side of the head and it drops to the floor, getting trampled by the ones behind it.

This goes on for a while, and one by one, the group of Walkers fall lifelessly to the ground.

"See?" Glenn says, unaware of the Walker that is coming up from behind him. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"

I roll my eyes and chuck my crowbar over Glenn's shoulder, and it knocks the Walker to the ground. I raise an eyebrow at Glenn, who sighs and finishes the job. He tosses me my crowbar afterwards.

"Alright, keep your weapons out. They might not be friendlies," Maggie advises and picked the lock on the door. "You," she pointed at me. "Stay here. You're on look-out duty this time."

"Alright," I say and watch as they enter the house. Just as they leave my sight, I feel a hand being set on my shoulder.

I quickly grab my knife from my belt and spin around, ready to stab my potential attacker.

"Whoa!" a boy jumper away from me and held his arms up in defense. "Put the bloody knife down!"

"Who are you?!" I demand, taking a deep breath.

"The name's Newt."