Sweet and Salty ~ Carl Grimes

Lost - 057

The Governor raised Michonne's katana, and swung it down. In one fell swoop, Marliya's head was hanging off of her neck. Brooks' scream drowned out that of Michonne. Michonne fell to her side, screaming and crying as she watched her twin sister get murdered right in front of her. Brooks collapsed to her knees as she watched him swing down the katana again, completley ridding Marliya's body of her head. Her scream was loud, ear shattering, throat breaking, blood curdling. Hot tears streamed from her eyes and soaked her cheeks. Her body wracked with sobs as the mother she loved so dearly fell dead, right in front of her eyes.

Nobody could even comfort the girl, everybody simply picked up their guns and began shooting. Brooks' head fell downwards, she couldn't do anything other than sob and wrap her arms around herself. It was all far too much to handle. Brooks had never experienced grief in that sense, she'd lost people she cared for, sure... But never something like this. Up until then, she'd been rather lucky with the people around her not dying... Of course, that luck had to come to an end.

Hershel picked her up from under her arms, and began dragging her backwards, out of the firing line. Brooks forced herself to stand, and help them get to cover. "I'm so sorry." Sophia managed to say amongst the chaos, hot tears in her own eyes at the fear.

"That goddamn tank is comin'!" Merle yelled, trying to disguise his own grief. Him and Marliya were in love for a time, those twelve years ago. Sure, he loved her more than she did him, but that didn't matter to him. Though he didn't feel that way about her anymore, his nostalgia still forced tears to punch at his eyes.

Brooks was looking down, when suddenly two hands were grabbing the front of her shirt, and fisting in the fabric to get her attention. She looked up and saw Carl, staring desperately into her eyes. "I am sorry about your mother, but you cannot grieve right now. We have people coming in with tanks, and guns. I need you to pick up a gun and fight, Brooks! You need to fight!"

"I can't." She cried, shaking her head as another sob left her. Her knees went weak, so Carl simply pushed her up against the bricks they were hiding behind, squeezing her shirt almost to the point of ripping it.

Carl shook her slightly. "Please, I can't lose you!" Brooks looked up to him and noticed he was trying to say something, but couldn't get the words out. "Go inside, and round everybody up! We need to go, now! We can't beat them!" He settled on saying, pushing his emotions to the side lines. He bit down on his bottom lip, unable to ignore the thought: woah, this is how I'm spending my fourteenth birthday. Great.

Brooks didn't say anything, but she nodded. She managed to find strength in her legs as she ran back into the prison. Most people were making their way out of the prison to see what was going on. "Get to the bus!" Brooks yelled, remembering the emergency protocol she'd been taught. "Grab your necessities, and get to the bus! Go, go, go!" She screamed at everyone, running around to try and find out who had Judith. Brooks knew the toddler should be with Cam, so that's who she was looking for.

She knew Carl was right, she knew she had to push aside her grief. It didn't matter how badly she wanted to crawl into a ball and sob, because it would be selfish to do that when she could potentially save lives. So, Brooks ignored her broken heart, and ran around the whole prison... Well, until her leg betray her in the middle of D block. She screamed out at the white hot pain, collapsing to the ground. "What the hell's happening?" A man asked.

Brooks looked up from the ground, holding onto her leg in agony. "We all need to get to the bus, it's the Governor!" Brooks responded, recognising the man as Mark from Woodbury. "My leg's injured, I need-" Before she could continue, Mark was running away to safety. A deep sigh left Brooks as everyone from D block just ran around her, leaving her there on the ground. "Help, I need help!" Brooks yelled to the people who paid no mind to the injured pre-teen in agony on the ground.