"I've done things," Charlie said, looking up into his eyes full of disappointment. "Things that I am not proud of. But everything I've done, I've done to survive...And I did. I survived."
"And are you happy?" Daryl asked, using all his power to stop...
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The road was quiet because it seemed that everyone was trying to process things that happened on their own. They were also grieving over another loss that took place just hours before. The group had to give up two cars, so now the Grimes family was in a car with Carol and Sophia, while Daryl was on his bike. Glenn was navigating Dale where to go, T-Dog was at the back of the RV and Charlie was with Shane and Andrea.
He was cleaning his gun and static clicking as he was doing so was filling the small room.
"Looks complicated," said Andrea, snapping Charlie out of her thoughts.
"The trick is getting all these pieces back together the same way," Shane said and chuckled under his nose. "I could clean yours, show you how."
Charlie was looking out the window at the changing landscape, her knee was bouncing up and down, while everything was shaking inside. Even though she was aware of the conversation near her, she couldn't care less. Cleaning guns was something that her father taught her when she was six, so she didn't have any reason to listen to what they were saying.
"I bet Charlie knows how," he said and Charlie just sent him a polite smile, that looked more like a grimace than a smile."It's a sweet piece."
"It was a gift from my father," Andrea answered. "He gave it to me just before Amy and I took off on our road trip. He said: Two girls on their own should be able to defend themselves."
"Smart man, your father." Shane said and his eyes drifted to the other girl again."Hey, Charlie you okay?"
She wasn't okay. She wasn't fine. She just was. She was thinking about Jacqui, how she just stopped existing. Every single worry she had on her own, or they had as a group just disappeared. She didn't have to think about finding water or food, whether they had enough fuel, would whether the horde appear suddenly and kill them all, those worries just disappeared the moment the clock hit zero. Charlie wondered if that was better? If she was in a better place? Maybe she should have stayed there with her. What if that was the answer they were all looking for?
"Yeah." she nodded.
"We made it," Shane nodded with a suspicious stare, but he came back to his lesson with Andrea.
"Look, it's a...It's a limited capacity. See? Only holds seven rounds..."
"Oh, jeez," Dale said as he stopped the RV.
The group left their cars, so they could examine the damage in the RV. But before that, Charlie just sat in her place and looked at the surroundings through the window, and her heart started pounding in her chest. Owners of those cars were probably running with their whole families, so they could live. All the cars were left alone, all those people who wanted to run away...
"I said it. Didn't I say it?" Dale said. "A thousand times. Dead in the water."
"Problem Dale?" Shane asked.
"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of...Okay, that was dumb."
"If you can't find a radiator hose here..."
Charlie finally left the RV, standing at the entrance, not really sure if she should leave. A light breeze cooled her down. Her eyes landed on Daryl, who was looking for something in the nearby car. "There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find."
"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." proposed T-Dog.
"Maybe some water," Carol said.
"Food?" asked hopefully Glenn.
"This is a graveyard." Lori furrowed her eyebrows but then saw everyone looking at her. "I don't know how to feel about this."
"I bet they won't need it anymore," said Charlie and placed her feet on the asphalt.
"Alright. Gather all you can," instructed Shane as everyone spread in their own directions.
She sighed and entered the RV to grab her belt with a knife attached to it, the only knife that was left of all the weapons she had taken from her kitchen. Charlie touched the leather and remembered the feeling under her fingers when she touched it for the first time. She said she would never use it and placed the weapon in her living room and now...Now, she was ready to use it. Charlie knew that sooner or later she would have to kill another Walker, that her killing didn't end that time in Atlanta.
Rick grabbed her arm out of nowhere and pushed her towards the RV. She looked at him he had his finger on his mouth. She nodded and in a second she found herself flat on top of the RV, right next to Dale. She shut her eyes, placing her hand to her mouth, scared of breathing. Her other arm was tightly clenched around the handle of her knife.
Dale signalized that he wanted to help Andrea who was stuck inside. She nodded but wasn't sure she understood anything, because all she was focused on was growling and snarling that was coming from down. She was grateful that she couldn't see the rotten bodies covered in blood and visible organs. The RV was moving as the horde was passing by, every move made her heart beat faster. It was the scariest moment in her life. One part of her wanted to cry, the other part wanted to be brave and just survive, but there was one more part that was getting bigger and bigger...What if she just jumped down and ended this right this moment?
It could have been minutes or hours since she got up there, everything seemed to happen so slowly. Even though the horde probably passed by already, nobody dared to move. Most people crawled under the cars and they waited there, just like her. Charlie was glad that she could be up in the air, hard to be reached. All that was in her head was if her group had as much luck and if they all hid in the time. Almost immediately after that thought, she heard a scream- a girl's scream.
Charlie sat up slowly and saw that a Walker was trying to get under one of the cars. Then there was the blonde hair of Sophia, who was running into the woods with two Walkers just right behind her.
And Rick chased after them to the rescue.
Carol sobbed as she got out from under a car and walked up to the barriers, stopping there as Lori came up to her and hugged her.
"Lori! There are two Walkers after my baby!"
She wanted to run right after them, but her legs seemed to stick to the asphalt as she placed them after getting down from the RV. Charlie knew that they should have never stopped here in the first place. That was the rule now.
