|1| Young ( CARL GRIMES )

14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN; FORGIVEN
"Dale could get under your skin. He sure got under mine, because he wasn't afraid to say exactly what he thought, how he felt. That kind of honesty is rare. And brave. Whenever I'd make a decision, I'd look at Dale. He'd be looking back at me with that look he had. We've all seen it one time or another. I couldn't always read him, but he could read us. He saw people for what they are. He knew things about us, the truth, who we really are. In the end, he was talking about losing our humanity. He said this group was broken. The best way to honor him is to unbreak it. Set aside our differences and pull together, stop feeling sorry for ourselves and take control of our lives, our safety.... our future. We're not broken. We're gonna prove him wrong. From now on we're gonna do it his way. That is how we honor Dale."

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After Dale's funeral, Ember had ran straight to her room and has been there ever since. Sometimes she'd look out the window and spot Rick and his group moving in the house.

Ember thought that the group wouldn't notice her not being outside with them, but they did. Nobody has said it, but Ember was like the light of the group, the girl was always so happy and quirky, it was always the small things like the faces she made, or the way she could just light up a person's day.

It was the small things.Well, the normally happy Ember Greene was not happy today.

Ember had been imformed that she was to share a room with the boy she happened to be very angry at right now, Carl Grimes. Being the nice person that she is, Ember decided to just suck it up and deal with it.

Ember had just been staring at the ceiling when the young girl decided that she would get up and go see what everyone else was up to.

Ember had said a few hi's to people before she decided to talk to Carl, she couldn't stay mad at him for long.

The girl had finally found Carl, who had happened to be talking to Shane. The nosey eleven year old decided to just hide behind something and listen.

Ember was only hearing half of what they were saying before she heard Carl say something that made her just want to run up and give Carl a big hug. "If I had killed it, Dale would still be here and Ember wouldn't be mad at me.

"Carl, I want you to stop that, okay? This ain't your fault. But you need to hold onto this. You need to protect yourself and Ember." Ember rolls her eyes, she was perfectly capable of protecting herself, and her family.

"As long as I'm around you guys, nothing's gonna happen to you, Carl. But I can't keep my eyes on you 24/7. Only you can do that. Carl, take it.

"I'm never touching another gun again." Carl freaks out, "Just give it back to Daryl."

Ember watches as Carl walks right past the place she was hiding, she sighs thinking about whether she should go after him or just leave him be.

Ember follows Carl to wherever he was going.

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"Carl." Carl looks shocked when Ember sits next to him.

"I thought you hated me." Carl says blankly.

"Why would I hate you, Carl?"

"Because this morning when i tried to talk to you, you told me not to talk to you because you hated me." Ember immediately feels guilty for what she said to Carl earlier, she didn't mean it.