With You || Carl Grimes x Reader

N E W F A C E S

Your eyes slowly peeled open, wincing once they made contact with the bright sunlight that shone on you. You groggily stretched your aching body, hearing a few cracks from the movements. You let out a shaky sigh as you brought your hand up to rub your damp eyes, slouching your body in the corner you slept in.

You quietly crawled out of the counter you had hidden in, peeking at the front of it to check if any walkers were nearby. The area of the supermarket you were in was empty as far as you could see, but you heard the groaning of walkers not so far from the vicinity. You weren't sure you even wanted to try and get out of your hiding place after what had transpired the night before.

To be honest with yourself, your mother probably thought you were dead. That's why she had taken off, of course, she wouldn't have just left you. Your mother wouldn't do that. And, since you wanted to prove her wrong in thinking you were dead, you had to get out of here.

You let out another breath of air, crawling back to your hiding corner to gather your backpack. Your gun and holster were secure on your body, but you opted to take your chances with the pocket knife your mother gave you. You knew you couldn't walk back to the motel, you couldn't fend off any walkers that might come your way if you did.

You remembered that there were a few neighborhoods nearby, maybe you could take up one of the homes there, or maybe find someone. You took a deep breath, steadying yourself before rounding the counter and coming up into one of the aisles. You kept yourself in a crouched position as you moved, peeking out from corners to see if any walkers were in the way.

Your heartbeat didn't stop beating quickly as you continued through the store, and it only picked up its pace once you made it to the entrance of it. Four walkers trudged their way around the front doors of the building, and you knew you'd die trying if you took them on.

You searched around you for something to distract them, and you carefully grabbed a box of nails from a shelf next to you. You got up into a standing position and threw them as far as you could, away from the entrance. The rattle of the nails grabbed the attention of the walkers, and they dragged themselves toward the noise.

You quietly made your way out the front doors of the store once the walkers weren't near, jogging your way to the side of the building where none of the walkers could see you. You slid down onto the concrete, the warmth of it calming your nerves as you regulate your breathing.

You still had the food you had collected from the store in your backpack, so if you didn't find anyone in the neighborhoods, you could live on your own for a few days. With the thought in mind, you hoisted yourself up from the ground and made your way to the neighborhoods behind the grocery store.

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It had been about half an hour since you started your search. You were in the second neighborhood by now, going up and knocking on every few houses to see if anything was in there. Your search in finding people was turning fruitless since you only had one more neighborhood to go to before you were finished.

As you finished knocking on yet another house, you turned your gaze to the house across from it. The house was painted a light yellow and was two stories high. Its house number read 376, and the strange thing about it was that the windows were boarded up. Your hopes of finding other people rose a bit, and you quickly jogged toward the front door of the home

Once on the front porch, you raised your hand to knock at the door before halting at the sound of a gun cocking. You turned your head towards the noise to see a man and a boy standing on the front lawn of the house, the man aiming a revolver at your head.

"Who are you?" The man spoke in a threatening tone. Your grip on your knife tightened, and your breathing turned fast as the man glared at you. You noticed that the boy behind the man was holding a shovel like it was a bat, ready to swing even with the distance between the two of you.