Afraid of the Living - Carl Grimes

☆ fourteen

TW: Talk/mentions of sexual assault.

2150 words

Leah's POV:

I run towards my dad, who is eating at a picnic table next to my mom. I'm crying.

"Leebug, what's wrong?" He asks me, and I cry into his chest.

"Hey, what happened?" My dad asks me.

"He touched me." I say quietly

"Who touched you, Leah?" My mom asks me.

I whisper the man's name into my dad's ear. I look up at him, and I swear I see his eyes turn red. He kisses my forehead and stands up, walking towards the front gate. My mom holds me.

My dad climbs up the ladder to the men who are on guard. I see him yelling in the man's face. I blink, and when I open my eyes, I hear yelling, and my dad and the man are nowhere to be seen. The other man who was on guard jumps down. They must've fallen over the wall.

Lyssa runs over, asking what happened. Neither my mom nor I answered her. The gate opens, and I see one of the men who was on guard, not the bad man, holding my dad, who's bleeding on his neck, and his shoulder looks dislocated.

"Dad! Are you okay?" We run up to him, and the man keeps carrying him, not saying anything.

~~~

He was bitten. My dad had attacked the man, and when they fell over the wall, the bad man's leg broke, and my dad's shoulder dislocated. A walker bit him when he was punching the man to death. They left the man out there to be eaten.

My dad's dying wish was to sleep outside by a fire, surrounded by his family, for just one last night. He was laid on a blanket next to the campfire, Lyssa stroking his head. I sat next to my mom, who was holding LJ. I close my eyes and let myself bask in the glow of the fire and the moonlight. Just for a few minutes. I opened my eyes when I heard my sister scream.

My dad had turned in just a few minutes and bit her in the face. My mother, still holding LJ, ran inside to get the doctor. I grab a rock next to the campfire and hold it above my head.

"I'm so sorry, dad." Is all I say before I smash the rock into his skull over and over until he stops moving.

It's not him. It's that dead version of him. I have to know that. I back up, dropping the rock. I exhaled and looked over, forgetting my sister had been bitten.

"No, no, no, no. Lyssa, no." I crawl over to her and hold the side of her face that isn't bleeding. I grab one of the bandages and place it against the bite, hoping, somehow, that it'll save her.

"Leah, you can't save me." She says weakly.

"No. I have to try. Mom is gonna get the doctor, and he's gonna save you and dad. It's gonna be okay. We're all gonna be okay." I'm not in my right mind.

"Leah. I'm dying. You have to accept that right now. You know there's no cure. You get bit, you die. That's how it goes." I hear her voice break, and tears fall down her cheeks.

"No. You have to be okay. I can't do it without you. You're my best friend." I stroke her hair slowly.

"And you're my best friend. But you'll be able to move on. When the time is right, I'll send you another best friend. When you need them the most, they'll drop down like an angel from the sky. And they'll love you even if you torment them like you did me." We both laugh, tears pouring out of our eyes.