A World Like This [1]

[16]

Edited 12/30/16

Carl ended up being the one to break the kiss. We had a bunch of different foods, mostly fruits and vegetables from the garden. Carl admitted that he had been planning this for a while but then everyone began to get sick, including me. Carl handed me a plate full of strawberries, grapes, celery, deer meat, and corn. I'm actually surprised he did all this for me. Carl never really struck me as the kind of guy who would go all out like this for a girl.

"Thank you." I told him with a huge smile on my face.

"You're welcome." He said. It was so weird eating so many different foods at once. Usually I just eat granola bars or canned food we have in the kitchen. I looked over to the garden, the first thing I noticed was that the pigs pen was gone. I saw the wood planks all burned and laying on the ground. I rose my eyebrows in confusion.

"What happened?"

"Huh?" Carl asked not noticing what I was looking at.

"The pigs?"

"Oh..." Was all he said. I stared at him and just waited for him to continue, but he didn't.

"Well?" I asked getting frustrated that he wouldn't just come out and tell me what happened to them.

"The fences were about to come down, there were too many walkers, my dad had to create a distraction." I regretted asking about the pigs after he told me what happened. Those poor little piglets.

"And Violet?" I asked remembering the pig that Carl let me name. He was so against naming it but for some reason he gave up and allowed me to name the smallest pig of the bunch.

"She got sick before it happened, she died." Carl told me, a sad look now replaced the happy one that was there before. It's strange that we are getting upset about the pigs when people are dying in the cell block behind us. For a moment, I forgot, I forgot people were dying, I forgot about Aiden's death. It's funny that just the thought of the pigs dying reminded me.

"Carl?"

"Yeah?" He asked.

"I never got to visit Aiden's grave." I told him. He stood up and held his hand out for me. I took it and We walked over to the fences, to where everyone who was sick and died was buried, where Carl's mother was buried, and where my brother Aiden was buried.

I looked down at the grave and frowned. He's dead. This just makes it more real. With each visit I got when I was sick I still expected to see him there, to come stop by just to make sure I was okay. With each passing day, I realized he'd never show up at my door. He'd never be able tease me again. He'd never laugh with me again. I'm getting used to the idea that he's gone. As sad as that is I've come to terms with it. I felt Carl's hand on my shoulder and I turned around.

"I'm sorry I ruined our date." I told him.

"You didn't ruin anything." He told me. He quickly pulled me in for a hug. I smiled as he rubbed my back, comforting me.

"I miss him." I admitted to Carl.

"I know, I miss him too." He confessed. Part of me forgot that Aiden and Carl were friends. They weren't best friends, but they were friends. Carl had also lost Patrick the day after, two friends in a week. We shouldn't have to go through all this, but here we are surviving, learning to cope with the losses of our friends and family.

"Are you okay?" I asked Carl. He looked at me, a confused look plastered across his face.

"What do you mean?" He asked, unsure where the question came from.

"I know you and Aiden were friends, you and Patrick too." I told him. He frowned and looked down at his shoes.

"I'm trying to be okay." He admitted. "I guess I've just lost so many people that it doesn't really affect me anymore." He told me.

"These aren't the first friends you lost?" I asked.

"There was a girl, in the beginning." I felt a small pang of jealousy when he mentioned another girl, it felt stupid and petty to be jealous over someone who was dead, but I couldn't help it. "We were friends, she was my only friend." He spoke, looking down at the cross that was in front of Aiden's grave, the same cross was put in front of each one.

"What happened to her?" I hesitantly asked.

"She got lost in the woods." He spoke, nodding his head at the memory. "We found her in Hershel's barn as a walker." He revealed.

"I'm so sorry, Carl." I spoke, putting my hand around his waist and leaning my head on his shoulders. I didn't know what to say to him, and I felt bad for making him relive a part of his life that he probably wanted to forget, death is a hard topic one that wasn't brought up often in the old world, especially by children.

"You would have loved her." Carl spoke. I looked up at him to see a smile on his face, so small you'd hardly recognize it as a smile.

Carl and I stood over by the graves for a while. It was dark now but we didn't really mind. We talked about our lives before the apocalypse. I talked about Asher and Aiden as Carl talked about his mom. I can tell the way he talks about her, he misses her. But who wouldn't?

"There was this one day, my mom and dad pulled me from school. I was so scared, thought I was in trouble. They didn't talk the entire time in the car, which only freaked me out more. But when we stopped we were at this little ice cream shop, Frozen Delight. I don't think I've ever been so relived." Carl laughed at the memory and so did I.

"I can't believe they put you through all that!" I exclaimed. Carl laughed again and nodded his head. Before Carl could say another word, I heard yelling and a loud thud. "That sounded like the gates!" I told Carl.

"You go back in our cell, lock the door I'm gonna go check it out." Carl began to walk off towards the sound.

"Absolutely not you aren't going over there by yourself!" I said following him.

"My dad could be over there!"

"You aren't thinking clearly, I'll come with you. There could be walkers and-"

"No just go back to our cell Ava."

"But Carl." I whined. I didn't have a chance to say anything else before Carl placed his lips to mine.

"Go to our cell." Carl ran off into the darkness. I just stood there watching as he got further and further away. I heard gun shots. I didn't even think I just ran into the direction Carl was going in.

I saw Carl and Rick fighting off a large crowd of walkers. I quickly ran to the guard tower and grabbed the first gun I saw, along with as much ammo I could carry. I ran down the steps and began to shoot at them. Carl looked back at me and frowned.

"I told you to go wait in our cell!" He yelled over all the shots being fired.

"We aren't having this conversation right now!" I yelled back to him. This is probably a weird sight. A girl in a pink dress and converse shooting a bunch of brain dead geeks. After a lot of them were dead I ran out of bullets. Rick and Carl still shot at them as I stabbed each one that came close to me.

One fell on top of me before I could stab it. I felt all its weight just hit me. I saw Carl and Rick neither of them saw the walker on me. I was too scared to even scream. I held the walker off the best I could. Then another one climbed on top of the walker that was already on me. It became harder and harder to keep them off. No not now, I can't die now. Not like this. I closed my eyes and pushed with all I had but no matter how hard I tried the two walkers wouldn't get off. In fact, it only made me tired and I felt as if I couldn't even hold them off me any longer. For the millionth time, I let go of the walker a waited for It teeth to dig into me, only this time Carl didn't shoot it, no one did.

r ; 5