When The World Caves In |C.G.

forty eight

TW: Attempted SA. Read at your own discretion. It's marked with ++ at the beginning and + at the end. 

"How hungry are you, scale of one to 10?" Rick asks the group of us, tending to the fire in front of him. 

"15." Carl says without a moment of hesitation. 

"28." Michonne says with a raise of her eyebrow.

"55." Is my own answer. I'm staring blankly at it, I'm tired and I'm hungry and I've just got no energy for nothing else. 

"Yeah," Rick says pouring his version of "soup" into four cups for us all. It's mostly water and my stomach grumbles at the idea of another meal that isn't filling. "Well, it's been awhile. I'm gonna go check the snares." 

"Can I go with you?" Carl asks his dad, poking the fire with a stick. 

"Well how else you gonna learn?" Rick asks, smothering the fire. "You guys too." 

I don't mention how I already know. Daddy taught me when I was younger. Back when he didn't trust me to have my own weapon, he'd leave me 'in-charge' of the snares we'd set. Told me that, it might come in handy one day if I couldn't get food. Wonder if he accounted for the end of the world in that. 

"We'll stay another day or two, get some more rest." Rick says. We've been staying in a general area, never straying too far from where we started. 

"Finish healing up?" Michonne asks. 

"I'm almost there." Rick says. 

"We're close now, right?" Carl asks. 

"To Terminus? Yeah." Rick asks. 

"When we get there, are we gonna tell them?" Carl asks slowly. 

"Tell them what?" I ask, speaking up from where I walk alongside Michonne. 

"Everything that's happened to us. All the stuff we've done." Carl explains. "Are we gonna tell them the truth?" 

It's a good question. We've done a lot, we've seen a lot, we've lost a lot. A lot has happened to us since the beginning of all this. I'm no longer the afraid girl clinging to my Daddy at the CDC. Now I'm just-, I don't really know. I just know I ain't the same as I was before all this. 

Rick says that we're going to tell them who we are. I don't know if that's a good idea but I trust Rick's judgement. A walker cuts the conversation short but Michonne kills it with her sword. All talks about who we are, are cut off. 

"There we go." Rick says, approaching the snare. A small rabbit is caught inside. He shoves it into his bag. "It's small, but it'll do." 

I take a step back as Rick begins to explain the snare to Carl. It reminds me of all the things Daddy taught me when I was little. He taught me everything I know, he never wanted me to be left on my own or defenseless. Some weekends, when he needed a short get away from life he'd take me into the woods and we'd just spend time together. 

Some weekends were more insightful than others. At times, he'd teach me a lot and we'd bring home some protein for the week. Other times we'd just wander through the woods spending time with each other. I miss those weekends more than ever right now. 

"Help!" Somebody yells, snapping me from my thoughts and back into reality. "Somebody help!" 

Carl doesn't take the time to wait. Instead he gets up immediately and runs. I'm right behind him as Rick tells us to stop. Carl stops at the edge of a clearing, and I grip his waist to pull him back. 

"It's too late." I say, watching as a man gets a bite taken out of his eye. There's nothing we could've done.  

"We've gotta go." Michonne says as the walkers towards the back begin to notice us. We take off insto a steady jog and don't stop until we loose the walkers on our trail.