Forever ~~ Carl Grimes Love Story (Sequel)

Chapter 68

By morning I was exhausted. My eyes ached, but the sun was up now. From the sounds of it, there were maybe one or two walkers left outside. Henry woke with a jolt, drawing my attention towards him. "Good morning."

"Morning, Rori," Henry said, rubbing his eyes before standing up.

"Here, have some peaches. We'll have to go find some more food later, but I want to take care of the remaining walkers before we leave," I explained, opening the peach can with a knife.

"Okay," Henry nodded, sitting at the bar stool.

"I'm thinking we could head back in the direction we came, maybe a little more diagonal, and see if we can find the hilltop," I told the younger boy as he chowed down on peaches. Henry acknowledged me with another nod, juice dripping down his chin. I smiled at him, reaching over to wipe the liquid away with my sleeve. "I'm going to go take care of the walkers. Stay here." 

"Be careful," Henry called out. I used all my strength to push the couch away, leaving enough room for me to slip through the front door. As predicted, there were two walkers out here. I pulled out my knife, advancing towards the first one. My knife dug into it's rotten head. When I pulled it out, the other walkers was stumbling towards me. I gripped its shoulder, stabbing it in the head. Blood splattered my face as I yanked out my knife. I sighed, heading back inside.

"We're all clear," I said, closing the door behind me. 

"Okay," Henry said, grabbing the water bottle. I grabbed the remaining can of beans and we headed out.

"Come on, I think we came from this direction," I said, heading westeast.

"What if we don't make it back to hill top?" Henry asked.

"I'm sure we will. And besides, they're probably already searching for us," I told him.

"Unless they think were dead," Henry pointed out.

"My mom wouldn't stop. I'm all she has left," I shook my head as we reached an opening. However, we had to cross a river. "Come on, let's go around."

"What? No, we can just go through it," Henry argued.

"No, we can't see through the water. Something could be under it and we'd have no idea until it pulled us under. Besides, then we'll be wet," I told him.

"So? It's quicker."

"Yeah, but not safer," I said, crossing my arms.

"It's quicker. We don't have time to go around," Henry snapped.

"We're not going that way, end of discussion," I said, turning to walk away.

"Well, I am," I heard Henry say before the splash of water could be heard.

"Henry!" I yelled, turning to see him standing in the middle of the river.

"See, I'm fine. Nothing in here," Henry teased.

"Henry, come on, get out of there," I said. 

"I'm fine-" Henry cut himself off with a loud ear piercing scream.

"Henry!" I yelled, pulling out my knife as I darted towards the water. I dropped the can of beans, not concerned about the fact that we needed them. I watched his fluffy blonde hair disappear underwater, the only thing left being bubbles. Instantly, the water splashed as I stumbling into it. I took a deep breath, holding it as I dove underwater. The dirty water stung against my open eyes, but I still searched for Henry. However, I didn't see him. The water was still. When I ran out of air, Imade my way to the surface. My eyes locked onto Henry as his head breifly popped out. His head was only above the surface for seconds before he was under again.

After catching my breathe, I went back under. My sore eyes scanned the area, and I finally saw him. There was a walker holding onto Henry's ankle, and I could see Henry trying to fight back but not being strong enough. I pushed myself to swim faster, reaching the two in seconds. I put a finger over my lips to silence Henry as he jerked around, and swam under him. I stabbed the walker in the head and it instantly let go of Henry. He floated up to the surface, coughing. I ripped my knife out of the walkers head, swimming back to the surface. As soon as my head was above water, I was breathing heavily.

"Are you okay?" I frantically asked him, grabbing his small body and dragging him onto the grass. He rolled onto his side, coughing up water as I rubbed his back.

"I'm-" He coughed again. "Okay."

"Jesus, you scared me," I sighed, pulling him into a hug, my wet hair falling over him as I hugged him tightly. He clung to my body, his own body shaking. We were both soaking wet, but neither seemed to care. Henry was scared and I was scared. In that moment, the only thing that mattered was the two of us. Not the lost water or lost food. Not the fact that we were miles from hill top. Just that Henry was safe. If he had died, I don't think I would've been able to forgive myself. 

"The food and water," Henry breathed out.

"Don't worry about it," I reassured him. "We can find more. It's not a big deal."

"We should go back and get it," Henry said, causing me to shake my head.

"It's only one can, it isn't worth it," I said. Henry nodded, standing  up. I followed his lead, and we continued in the direction we were heading.

"Maybe we can find a house and it will have drier clothes," Henry suggested.

"Maybe. Clothes in our sizes are hard to come by, more so your size since you're smaller but we can try and find some," I agreed. "I wouldn't worry to much about our clothes, though. They'll dry."

"Yeah, we need to focus on finding food," Henry said.

"Mhm and a place to sleep. It's not safe after dark. Too many walkers and too little light," I said. "Learned that one the  hard way."

"When did you learn that?"

"What?" I glanced over at Henry.

"When did you learn that there's too many walkers at night?" Henry repeated.

"A couple years ago. Shortly after I met Rick. My home got overrun, and everybody in the group was there. Well, most people. And we had to run. Before we found Alexandria, we were at a prison, and before we found the prison, we were on the run for a year. Constantly trying to avoid a herd. Only staying at one place for about three days, give or take. It was hard but it all worked out in the end," I said, stabbing another walker in the head.

"Is that where you learned how to survive?" Henry asked.

"Yeah," I nodded.