You're Not Alone (TWD/Carl Grimes)

Chapter Seven

Grey smoke filled the small treehouse as Carl and Bryn slept. Carl, his hat over his face, slowly opened his eyes and immediately began to cough and sputter. He turned over and shook Bryn until she awoke, screaming at her to get out.

The two leaped out the treehouse, only to submerge themselves into more smoke.

"Where's it coming from?!" Bryn frantically yelled.

Carl grabbed her wrist and pulled her forward, the two running together, deeper into the smoke.

"I think I have an idea!" Carl replied sarcastically. They ran back toward Bryn's safe haven, the smoke becoming thicker.

"C-Carl!! Stop! Please!" Bryn slowed her pace and bent over, hacking like a woman who has been smoking all her life. "We can't run through this! It's impossible!"

"We gotta see where the smoke is coming from," Carl sighed.

As the two jogged, they began to hear the crackling of fire as the smoke got darker.

"Up ahead! It's...the place you were staying in," Carl explained as he watched the tall building being engulfed in flames.

"What?? No! Carl, we need to put it out!" Bryn yelled and ran closer to the burning building.

"Are you fucking insane?!" Carl yelled back, with laugher in his tone. He grabbed Bryn's arm and pulled her back toward him. "We need to leave!"

"Let go of me!" Bryn screeched. Carl's hands left Bryn's arm and wrapped around her waist, pulling her with all his strength away from the flames.

"Don't fucking touch me!!" she clawed at Carl's arms and thrashed all around.
"Carl!?"

He dragged her far away enough to let her go.

"Jesus Christ you put up one hell of a fight," Carl chuckled and dusted off his shirt.

"I need to go back," Bryn crossed her arms. "with or without you."

"What?! You can't go back there!" Carl yelled. "There's probably a whole bunch of walkers! Listen, I just fucking got out of a situation like this, my sanctuary was destroyed, and I don't wanna do it again. Now, we need to leave!!"

Bryn's head hung low and she began to walk at a slow pace behind Carl.

Very faintly, Carl heard footsteps behind him, and when he turned around, Bryn was sprinting the other direction.

"No, Bryn!!" he screamed as he ran after her, but stopped quickly when the smoke got thick again. He couldn't see anything.

"Bryn!! You're going to get hurt please come back!" Carl pleaded.

A scream from Bryn and snarls from walkers sent Carl running again. The fire illuminated his way as he got closer to the tall building, only to see Bryn on the ground with two walkers on top of her, as she was screeching as loud as she could.

"Goddammit!" Carl said under his breath before getting his knife out. "Hey fuckers!! Over here!"

The two walkers turned their heads to Carl and slowly rose to their feet before stumbling toward him.

"Follow me, ugly asses," he said in a low tone so he wouldn't attract more than he could handle. Carl kept an eye on Bryn, who was on her feet with a gun in her hand.

Carl's attention was completely on Bryn now, her hands fumbling to load her gun. It looked as if she was going to shoot the walkers following Carl, which was probably the dumbest idea knowing the situation they're in now.

She cocked the gun back and pointed it toward Carl's direction.

"Bryn, don't shoot it!"

It was already too late. Bryn had fired a shot that buried itself into the walker to Carl's left. She fired another that completely missed the other walker and had hit Carl in the arm.

"You fucking bitch!! Put the gun down!" Carl hissed as he grasped his arm, his hand filling up with his blood.

"Oh my god, Carl, I'm sorry!!"

Carl immediately killed the other walker and screamed, "get the fuck out of here now! Just run, follow me!!"

"We can't leave!!" Bryn repeated herself.

Again, Carl grabbed Bryn's arm and pulled her to him. "You wanna stay here and get eaten, or try to find other shelter?"

"B-But, what about —"

"Bryn, there's no time! We have to go, now!!" Carl said over the loud groans of the walkers near by.

As fast as their feet could carry them, they sprinted away into the other direction. Carl was ahead, Bryn close behind.

They ran for a while, countless minutes.

"This way!" Carl shouted, pointing to the left. They both made a sharp turn and suddenly, Carl almost immediately recognized the area there were in.

"Stop, Bryn stop," Carl said and put his hand around her waist to stop her from running.

"Get off me." Bryn firmly stated and flicked Carl's hand off of her.

"I know this area, come on."

They walked a little further before Carl discovered a stick-made cross, and another, and another.

"Fuck yeah!!" Carl smiled, and pushed through the moss and vines to reveal the clearing he was just a few weeks earlier.

"Carl...this is..." Bryn was dumbfounded. She was staring all around, smiling.

"How did you find this place?"

"I was wandering all around and I kinda just found it. It's amazing, isn't it?" Carl beamed.

"It's so pretty, Carl. It's like, untouched," Bryn was saying. She wandered over to the 'walls' and ran her fingertips down them.

"What're you doin'?" Carl asked.

Bryn pushed some of the vines out of the way to reveal an actual fence.

"What is that?"

"It's a fence, Carl. This isn't just a nature thing, this is someone's sanctuary, or a meeting place." Bryn told Carl, fear in her eyes.

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Author's Note:

hi y'all (: I'm updating again, hope you enjoy!"