Torn (TWD Fan-fiction)

"I'm Ellie"

No. I promised Morgan I would protect his son.
I shoved my fist through the corpses chest, slimy rotten liquid dripped onto my body... But it worked. As soon as I felt I had more room, I grabbed my knife and stuck it into its forehead, causing its heavy body to fall onto mine.
Great now I'm stuck.
I tried getting up but my legs were pinned under its enormous body. I looked up to see Duane coming out of the house. "Duane stay inside! It's not safe!" I groaned as I tried pushing the corpse off me again. "Don't move!" Duane shouted at me. I froze as I saw him carrying a shovel... He was walking straight for me! "Duane... Wait. What're you doing???" I tried harder to push the corpse off me. Duane was getting closer. I shouted, "Duane please don't!" He was a few feet away from me now. I covered my face with my arm as he raised the shovel above his head, preparing myself for the worst.
SMACK
I opened my eyes as I saw a man laying in the grass. Blood dripping from his nose from being hit by Duane's shovel. Then out of the blue, I heard a gunshot. I looked up at Duane as his eyes opened wide with surprise. "Duane what-" I was interrupted as he took off running.
"Daddy! Daddy!" He shouted with excitement. I turned my head to see Morgan hugging his son before running over to me. "You okay?" He asked as he got the corpse off me. "Yeah I'm fine, just glad to see you're back." I stood up and groaned as the slime slid down my legs. "What happened?!" Asked Morgan as he motioned to my clothes and the dead corpses laying on the ground. I didn't have time to answer, we heard the man on the floor mumble something as Duane shouted out, "Daddy! He called me Carl."
Morgan ran over to the man and starts to point his gun at him. "Hey, Mister, what's that bandage for?" Suddenly the man on the ground groans out, "W-what?" Morgan motions to the mans bandages with his gun, "What kind of wound?" The man stares back in confusion. "You answer me damn you. What's your wound? You tell me... Or I WILL kill you." Morgan said as he cocked his gun. "Morgan, dont." I say as I walk up behind him and place my hand on his shoulder. I look down in time to see the strangers blue eyes roll back into his head as he faints.

****

"Do you think he's dead?" Duane asks as he stares at the floor. "No, I don't think so... Don't worry. Your dads in there with him. He'll be okay." I say as I walk over to the room. I walk in as Morgan is taking off his rubber gloves. I look down to see the stranger opening his eyes. "Morgan" I nod my head towards the man.
"Got that bandage changed now. It was pretty rank. What was the wound?" Morgan asks as he washes his hands in a bowl. The man responds with one word, "Gunshot." Morgan looks at me with a concerned look on his face. I look back and forth between Morgan and the stranger, "I'll leave you guys to it then." I start to walk back to the living room before turning around and saying, "I'm Ellie." I smile at the stranger before walking out.

I walk over to Duane as Morgan proceeds to speak to the stranger. As I walk out of the room I notice that Duane is sitting at the kitchen table with his head down. "Hey, everything alright?" I ask as I lean against the wall. As he looks up at me I notice the wet tears streaming down his face. "I'm sorry for the way I acted earlier... I was just upset. This is all so hard you know? I miss my mom... I understand if you have to tell my dad." He says as he wipes the tears off his face. I walk over and start to warm up a can of beans that we had left. "You hungry?"

Duane nods his head, "Yeah". I look over as he stands up and starts to set a couple of plates on the table. I look back down as I stir the beans and say, "Thank you... And don't worry about earlier. I get it. This isn't an easy world to live in. I understand why you did it."
"Did what?" We jump as Morgan walks up behind us. Duane looked like he was ready to cry again. "Daddy, I did something bad earlier when you were gone." Morgan sighs and looks at his son, "What did you do?" Duane starts to look at the floor before saying, "Earlier today I was playing a game with Ellie. I got really upset and I..." Duane starts to cry. Morgan continues to stare at his son, "Duane. Son, what is it? Wait a minute, did you have something to do with the walkers outside?"

As Duane starts to speak I interrupt and say, "No Morgan, that was my fault. You see we were playing a game and Duane here, well he was very worried about you. We both were. He got a little upset and gave me a bit of attitude but that's all. He was just very upset because we had no idea when you were coming back. So I opened the door because I told him that I would keep an eye out for you on the front porch. It was too late before I realized that I had forgotten to check outside before opening the front door." I looked over at Duane, he was staring at me with a super confused look on his face. Morgan took a deep breathe and clenched his fists. "Do you realize what could've happened? You put my son in danger! He could've been killed!!! I trusted you to care for him!" I held my breath as he continued to shout at me. Once he was done I quietly said, "Morgan, I'm sorry."

We all turned to look as the stranger coughed and walked into the kitchen with a blanket wrapped around him. "Y'all good?" He asks. Morgan nods his head. He turns to look at me and Duane, then he begins to serve beans into the bowls. I watch as the stranger walks into the living room, he says something about knowing the people that lived here. He walks over to the window, about to peek out. "Don't." I say. He looks back at me. "They'll see the light. You'll attract them." The man looks at me with a confused look on his face. Morgan sits down at the table with me and Duane as he says, "There's more out there than usual. Shouldn't have fired that gun... Noise draws them. I wasn't thinking. It all happened so quick. With Duane out there on the lawn," he stared at me, "with all them walkers around. I acted quick." I stared back at him, then looked over at the man as he said, "You shot that man today."

"Man?" Morgan replied. "It weren't no man." Morgan quickly looked looked at Duane with a stern look, "What the hell was that out of your mouth just now?" Duane cleared his throat, "It WASN'T a man." The man looked at Morgan like he was crazy, "You shot him in the street out front today... a MAN" Morgan shook his head. "Friend you need glasses, that was a walker." Poor guy looked so confused. Does he really not know what is going on? Or is he just acting the part? "Come, sit down. Here I'll serve you some food." I smiled at him as I motioned to the chair and started serving him hot beans in a bowl. I gave him the bowl and sat down, Duane reminded Morgan about their usual prayer before they eat. Everyone gathered hands. The stranger stared at me, I reached my hand out and placed it onto his. I felt a small shock as I felt his soft skin. Did he feel it too? I looked at him, he stared into my eyes. "Wow, they're beautiful." I accidentally said that out loud. I felt my face turn hot as everyone around the table looked up at me. The man cocked his head and asked, "Excuse me?" I looked around the table as I nervously said, "Uhh, I was talking about the beans...they're uhh..beautiful." Hope he buys that excuse. He smiles a bit before Morgan says, "Can I go on?" I nod my head. My heart starts to beat faster as I feel the man give my hand a small squeeze. Am I imagining this?