Anything - Carl Grimes

xi. The farm

.

Back at the house, everyone sat silently, waiting for the men to return. Daryl and Glenn did come back but alone. "Rick and T-Dog still ain't back?" Everyone stayed quiet and Lori shook her head. "We heard a shot."

"Maybe they found Randall," Lori suggested.

"What about Rick and T-Dog then?"

"We don't know. We didn't see them." Glenn explained. Everyone fell in silence and Lori sighed deeply, running her fingers through her hair.

"Can you please go back and try and find them and figure out what the hell is going on?" Lori asked as she stood up, walking over to them. Whatever was happening, didn't make sense to anyone.

"You got it." Daryl nodded.

"Thank you," Lori whispered, squeezing his arms in appreciance. As Daryl started to get out of the house, Rick and T-Dog were coming back, figuring they probably found Randall or Shane because of the gunshot.

"What the hell?" T-Dog asked once he turned his head and saw a crowd of Walkers behind them. Rick pulled T-Dog with them as they started running somewhere safe. However, when the group left the house to search for Rick and T-Dog, they stopped when they saw the whole field was covered. "I'll get the guns," Andrea said as she walked back into the house.

"Remember we passed the herd on the highway? Should we maybe just go back inside?" Glenn suggested.

"No, unless there's a tunnel downstairs I don't know about," Daryl said sarcastically. "A herd that size would rip the house down." Once Dottie and Lori noticed their kids went missing, they ran outside.

"Carl and Carmen are gone," Lori explained and Dottie just held tightly to Matt.

"What?" Daryl asked.

"They- they were upstairs. We can't find them anymore." Dottie explained, rubbing her face. She hoped they weren't stupid enough to go and look for Shane but she knew that when two of them were together, they brought nothing but trouble.

...

"Does it hurt a lot?" Carl asked, running his finger over Carmen's forehead. She had a long cut that went from her hairline, over and past her eyebrow. It stopped somewhere near her eye. They were both pretty beat up their knees, hands, and elbows being scratched and scraped -and their clothes were dirty and ripped but Carmen's forehead was the worst.

"I'm alright. Let's just go home." Carmen sighed and started walking and felt Carl's hand slip into hers. They walked back home and if Carl was alone, he'd probably get lost but this wasn't the first time Carmen walked this path. It was dark and they heard loud noises coming from afar but they figured it might be animals or maybe they found Shane and they were fighting.

Once they got to the field, their eyes widened when they saw a herd of Walkers. Carmen was about to scream but Carl just put his hand over her mouth. "Carl! Carmen!" They turned to their side when they heard whisper-yells. It was Rick and T-Dog behind a tree. They ran straight to them, sitting next to them. Both kids were about to talk but Rick put his finger over his lips. "We have to leave the farm, others are doing the same," Rick explained.

The last thing that would be expected from Carmen to think about is exactly the first thing she thought about. Her last picture with Josh. She can't forget that. She can't leave that behind. She looked over at the herd before getting up and sprinting back home. She heard footsteps behind her but didn't look back and kept on running.

When she finally got to her home, she ran in, almost slamming into the wall. Carol, Lori, and Dottie snapped their head when they heard the door. Dottie was about to sob when she found her daughter but Carmen just ran past her and into her room. She grabbed her picture but stopped running and stared at her drawer. Bullshit, Carmen thought before taking the letter out of her drawer. She ran downstairs and picked up Matt. "Carl's with Rick. We gotta go."