What we could've been | TWD Carnid

PROLOGUE

CARL

The sky is bright blue with only small clouds. The trees are green and the flowers are blooming. All like if it's a painting. It seems peaceful yet as I am running towards the bridge I am all but calm. My lungs are on fire and my legs tired, but I keep running, as fast as I can. I keep screaming, again and again, hoping to be heard.

Dad !

My voice breaks. But no one alive answers. I can only hear growing from where I am, hundreds, no thousands of walkers on the road. I take a lonely one out of my way, probably lured by my screams. I pull back my machete from his skull without losing the pace.

I can see the road, walkers all over it, but I am not afraid. Not of them. Machete in hand, the hat on my head, I am ready to throw myself at them if it means getting my dad out of here. We've been through so much, it can't stop now. I won't let it. I don't care if he nodded not to come to him, I don't care if his eyes showed there was nothing I could do, I don't care if his shirt and hands were covered in red, I am going to get to him.

At least that's what I thought, but the moment I put my feet on the road, a blast makes me lose balance and I fall on the grass, my head hitting the ground as the heat warms my face. My ears are ringing a bit. When I open my eyes I can see smoke from here, but I mostly hear the screams. Heartbreaking screams from Michonne. She caught up to me I assume as I hear her fall on the ground besides me. I can hear Maggie and Carol next to her but I don't turn. I can't. I just look at the road where walkers are lured by the fire or maybe the sound of the explosion. It sounded big. Big enough to take on the entire bridge with my dad still on it.

I look in disbelief, staring until my vision gets blurred by tears. I can't hear them anymore, not even when Maggie pulls me in her arms, not when Carol shakes me. I don't know how long I stay there, maybe seconds, maybe minutes. But at one point, I just get up, take my machete that I dropped in my fall, and, ignoring people calling me, I get on that road and start hitting. I know some join me to take out the rest of the walkers but I don't care, I hit and hit even when I can barely see with all the blood. I smash skulls, shoot at others. Everything is cloudy, I just act mechanically until nothing is left on this side. And that's only then that I walk towards the bridge. Some flames are still burning creating a black smoke that disappears in the sky. It's now greyI note to myself. I look all over the fragments, hoping desperately to find a sign of my dad. But there is none. That's only then I see Daryl, on the other side, doing the same. He's holding dad's gun in his hand. When we meet eyes, we don't have to talk to understand each other. My dad is gone. Rick Grimes... is gone.