Stale M&M's (recently plagiarized as "Sweet Tooth") The Walking Dead Fanfiction

9. Season 4 ~ Indifference and Internment

Summary: With the majority of adults sick or away on the medical run, the boys must step up to help protect the prison.

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When Oliver woke up in the morning, his back was sore from sleeping on the floor. He'd slept in his clothes for two nights in a row now, so got dressed into a clean set from Carl's duffel bag. When he noticed Carl was awake, he held up a denim jacket and asked, "Can I borrow this?"

"Like you 'borrowed' my Science Dog shirt?"

"Exactly like that," Oliver said.

Carl rolled his eyes. "Go ahead."

Oliver pulled the jacket on and left the office, stuffing his inhaler inside his pocket. He soon learned that the veterinary college run still hadn't returned. A few people had succumbed to their symptoms by then, too. Mr. Greene and whoever wasn't too weak from their sickness was helping him burn the bodies in the fence strip behind the cell blocks. Everyone's mood was dark and sour, especially the elders. They were keeping the kids busy with a long list of chores — the world may have ended and there was a plague killing their people, but they still had to do their laundry.

Oliver, Mika, Molly, and Luke set themselves up in the old staff bathroom with soapy buckets of water and washboards, scrubbing their way through a large pile of smelly clothes.

Mika was usually the kind of girl who was cheerful and talkative, but without her sister and in the wake of their father's death, she was solemn and quiet. Losing people always changed the ones left behind. Oliver knew that. When his parents died —or at least when he and Patrick finally accepted that they were dead and not just taking a several day lie-in— Oliver tidied the whole downstairs floor of his house to distract himself. Patrick, on the other hand, broke into their evacuated neighbour's houses and destroyed everything he could get his hands on. It was normal to hear smashing and yelling every so often in the distance. They were lucky there were barely any walkers after evac.

Eventually, Carl came along to help finish washing the laundry, and after, they hung up the wet clothes and emptied their buckets outside. Mika, Molly, and Luke left to play in the foyer. Oliver and Carl headed off to patrol the corridors. They waited until it was just the two of them, checking nobody was around to see, before they laced their fingers together, chuckling, and hurried off along the next hallway.

Patrolling had much less to do with defending the offices from outside threats than expected. Mostly it was staying out of the elders' way and breaking up bickering between the kids.

With the medical run still gone, Mr. Grimes and Ms. Peletier had decided to leave to loot a nearby neighbourhood for any medicine lying around. Carl was going nuts worrying. He and Oliver hoped Mr. Grimes and Ms. Peletier leaving didn't mean they thought Michonne, Mr. Dixon, Mr. Williams, and Mr. Stookey weren't going to return. Occasionally, they could hear Judith crying from her and Beth's secluded office.

"Did you hear something?" Carl asked.

"No," Oliver said.

"I thought I heard my dad."

Oliver stopped to listen while Carl took a few steps ahead, tilting his head — as if trying to funnel the noise better under the brim of his hat, Oliver thought, which made him smirk.

"Think about something hard enough you start hearing from it," he warned. "Trust me."

"I don't talk to myself."

"Want a cookie?"

Carl twisted to smack him, tutting, then he took Oliver by the hand with an abrupt tug, causing Oliver to jolt and gasp. His tummy fluttered. He almost murmured Carl's name.