Faith In The Wild •CARL GRIMES•

Fresh Start

My face had a look of disgust on it after remembering how selfish everyone in this place was, they were willing to kill every single person in the prison if they didn't leave, but if they did leave, they'd practically be dead by dawn with how many biters roamed outside their gates on a daily basis.

I turned my head, sliding down the brick wall, the moment my boots hit the ground, I felt free.

Finally, a fresh start.

The sun was just barely coming up and it gave everything a grey-ish blue hue. It was eerie and damp outside, but the cool breeze was refreshing after how cooped up I've been for the last few months.

"Okay.. that was easy." I whispered to myself. "Now you've just gotta get past the guards at the gate, I guess.." I sighed.

It was muddy and gloomy outside, just like the day I woke up extra early, all to pick my outfit and make sure I looked pretty for the last day of school. Although, I thought I'd see Carl over the summer, I was wrong.

I weaved my way around over grown weeds and muddy puddles, and after a few minutes, I found myself behind a pile of tires. Woodbury's people used them for reinforcement.

I peeked my head around the dirty pile of tires and the 24 hour guards were standing on top the gate, holding rifles.

Oh, wow. Guard's are still here.
I thought sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

"There has to be another way to get their attention, come on.." I mumbled under my breath.
I started to look around, seeing if there was any other way to get past the guards. Then, my eyes landed on a grey rock just barely smaller than a golf ball.

I smirked. "There we go."

I grabbed the rock and threw it over the gate, hitting one of the abandoned cars and catching the guards attention just long enough for me to slip under the gate through a small hole I dug a few days ago, and covered with a few tires. I did my best to pull the tire back to cover the hole once I was out, but they were old, very worn thin tires and they had multiple wires poking out.

I couldn't see that clearly so I pressed up against the fence and stuck my arms through the hole, reaching for the tire. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pinch and something warm running down my cold fingers. I winced in pain, pulling my hand back immediately. "Ow- mm.." I said, scrunching my face. I bit the inside of my cheek, as to not draw attention to myself.

I wrapped my hand in my hoodie sleeve but I had mud all over me from going under the gate. There was no going back now, so I ran off into the forest, trying to get as far from Woodbury as I could before they realized I was missing.

I ran for probably a solid 15 minutes before stopping by a fairly large tree to catch my breath. By now the sun was up and I could feel the heat shining on the right side of my face, but the cool air remained as puffy grey clouds took over what little sunlight was left, and my body temperature was fluctuating so much. Especially since I was sweating.

My hand felt colder than anywhere else, so I set my bag down and tried catching my breath. Once I caught my breath, I slid my right hand out of my sleeve to see how bad the cut was. My whole hand had blood smears from keeping it wrapped, it stung so badly because sweat was getting in it and I couldn't even see the cut at this point.

I got out my water bottle and poured some of it on my hand, my hand felt as if it was going numb from being exposed to the freezing water. Finally, I cleaned the blood off and was able to see the cut, it was about an inch long slit between my index and middle finger.

How can a tire even do that to someone?
I asked in my head.

The cut looked severely dirty, it had mud and grime from the tire in it. I took the edge of my hoodie sleeve and got water on it, then cleaned as well as I could around the cut before I began looking through my bag for anything to bandage it with.

I had a pair of socks stuffed in there, they were the longer pair that went almost to your knees, and I found one of them so I tore it and tied some of the cloth around my hand.

I heard a stick crack behind me, I snapped my head in the direction of the sudden noise, but saw nothing. This spiked my nerves and I became very alert.

What are you thinking Isabella? You're a child! Just go back home.

I thought argued to myself.

I thought about going back to Woodbury, I pursed my lips in a flat line as I shook my head.
"Nope," I said aloud, "Whatever is out here, has to be better than what they'd do to me if I went back."

That is not my home.

I swallowed my fear and decided to keep going deeper in the woods, I knew if they knew I was gone, they'd be looking for me; I couldn't stick to the road.

If I got lost, I was good for nothing, though. My best shot for not getting seen or lost, was to stay far enough from the road that I could barely see it, meaning anyone looking for me, most likely couldn't see me either.

I had been walking about an hour by now and I felt a drop of something hit my head, then a few seconds later another drop. It softly started sprinkling, though the clouds looked heavy.
I had to find shelter soon or I'd be stuck out in the pouring rain. Who knows what else those clouds hold, but you could already see the lightning from here.

I tried walking faster as I earnestly looked for shelter, I crossed the road to the right side of the woods and after a while the rain started beating down all around me, the wind was giving me the worst whip lash and I seriously regretted having put my hair in a pony.

I saw something that appeared like a barn, still, I wasn't sure. It was so hard to see through the rain and debris.
My instincts told me "Keep going, there must be something out there."

Keep going, keep going, keep going.