🍊tangerine oranges🍊|THE WALKING DEAD|

¤ [07] ¤《Leave The World Behind》



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Carl had driven all night, not bothering with his map. Maud kept him company, not by choice. She was too physically uncomfortable to go to bed.

Massaging her stomach didn't help with the acute pain that shot up her spine, but Maud didn't say anything to Carl about it. It wasn't like he could help much anyway, no hospitals to drive to or adults to come take responsibility and make it all better.

Despite Maud's effort, Carl could tell something was up and was closer to tossing whatever pills he had left at Maud in order to calm her.

They both hadn't gotten any rest and it was clear how Carl's shoulders would relax behind the wheel and his eyes would lull for a second before he would jerk awake again to Maud tapping his side while the car almost fell into a ditch.

Carl figured he had driven far enough away from those men that they could stop.

Maud didn't complain as Carl parked the car under a bridge, providing cover and temporary shelter for them both, finally allowing herself to close her eyes even if she couldn't sleep.

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Carl didn't bother Maud getting into the back seat and hauling out his cat? Rat? Fox? Roadkill, the meat wouldn't stay good for long, even with the cold.

He skinned it with his legs swinging out of the door of the car.

He'd seen Daryl do it hundreds of times and knew to go slow and pull the skin taut, letting the knife guide the way.

Managing to do it without losing any of his fingers Carl gathered logs and lit a match close to the car, hoping it was large enough to keep Maud warm from inside the car while he sat outside roasting squared bits of mystery meat on the fire.

Carl thought about leaving another note for Daryl letting him know that Maud was alive and that they were travelling south but fought against the idea even as his hands were already at his pen and paper in his lap.

Scrunching up the paper into a ball, Carl tossed the note into the fire.

Daryl was with others now who couldn't be trusted, so Carl would hold off, leaving any notes to Daryl not knowing if they would get to the intended recipient.

It clearly hadn't been before.

To be so close to a semblance of what he had before had left Carl running on autopilot just diving, moving, cooking, and scouting perimeters. Life was monotonous with responsibility.

The spontaneity of Carl's childhood was gone.

The days of frolicking on trampolines were lost to the mutters of pain that Maud couldn't help but vocalise now that Carl's back was turned to her.

He heard them anyway.

He just wanted a break even for a moment.

Carl's breath came hard and fast in and out of his mouth as he leaned forwards to blow off the strip of meat that looked a little too burnt to be good but still edible enough.

The charcoal flavour masked whatever animal it was.

Carl could hear the crunching of wood behind him, assuming it was Maud finally up and moving again. Carl turned with a stick in his hands, meat hanging off the end of it.

It was a walker with only a stick to his defence, his gun in the car, and his knife in the backseat. Carl crawled backwards.
  
The walker threw itself at him through the fire, Carl scrambled, hopping up as the walker lunged at him unfazed.