Innocence ( The Walking Dead )

2- Welcome Mat

I slowly removed the gun from my face and looked down at the road.  "Just walk away, you don't to get involved in this." I sniffled and traced the barrel of the gun with my index finger. "Are you bit?" the voice asked me again, closer this time. "No I'm not bit, but I wish I was." I mumbled the second part quietly and slipped the gun into my back pocket. At this point the deep voice was inches behind me.

"What's your name?" He asked me as I stood up and wiped the gravel off my jeans. "Why does it matter?" I ask and turn around to face the person. He was a boy with long fluffy brown hair, deep piercing blue eyes, and a sheriffs hat covering his forehead. He looked my age, he was an inch taller then me. "Because no one should have to die that way, and I wanna help you." He told me, smiling softly. I shuffled and crossed my arms over my chest. "How?" I ask quietly looking down. "Well are you alone?" He asked me, cautiously stepping closer to me.

It took me a minute to answer. "Yea I'm alone." I said finally. The boy looked at me questioningly for a few seconds before reaching his hands out to me. "I'm Carl Grimes." He said looking up at me. I hesitated before taking ahold of his hand and shaking it. "Dylan." I said finally and Carl smiles. "Well Dylan, we have a community called Alexandria. It's run by my dad Rick Grimes. It's a kinda long walk from here, do you wanna come back with me?" He asked and I bit my lip. Do I leave Jesse? Would he do this to me? He probably would. He's beaten, raped, and almost killed me. I need to go.

"Yea, let's go, now."

***

Two hours so far. Not one word said to each other since we met. But as we pulled up to the metal gates, he rubbed the small of my back. "Your gonna be fine, but I need your gun before you walk in here, it's mandatory." He told me. I sighed and reached into my back pocket and set the gun in his hand. He smiled at me and put his fingers in his mouth and let out a loud whistle. Suddenly a teenage girl appeared behind the gate and looked at me and then looked back at Carl.

"Found her on the highway. She's clean, and I took her weapons." Carl told the girl and she let out a huff. "You really think your dad is going to let anybody else in here after what just happened?" She asked me and I rose an eyebrow and looked over at Carl. "What happened?" I asked and he glanced at me and went back to the girl. "Enid just open the fucking gates." He said demandingly and the girl, guessing her name is Enid, rolled her eyes and unlocked the gate and pulled it open.

"Come on. I'll show you around before you meet my dad." He said and placed his hand on my back and led us through the gates. It was a large community with big white houses. The place was clean and there were children at play. A rare sight to see. There was an elderly couple sitting together on there porch drinking what I am assuming is coffee in black mugs. There smiling, there happy to be with each other. There was also a girl walking her dog around a small pond in the middle of the community.

Haven't seen an actual pet in months. "There was an attack a few days ago, lost a few people." He told me, referring to what Enid was saying back at the gates. "How many people? Who where they? Did you know them?" I asked in shock. I didn't think people actually would come here and hurt these people. Maybe coming here was a bad idea. Carl shook his head. "They wanted to rob us. Unlike a lot of places, we have doctors and medicine, and solar power electricity. A lot of people want stuff from us. We only lost bout 8 people. But we killed the rest of there group, there not coming back."

I looked down at my feet. "Oh." Was all I said. Carl looked over at me. "How many Walkers have you killed?" He asked me as we turned a left corner at the end of the street. "Walkers?" I asked and looked over at him. He had a blank expression on his face. "The dead people." He stated and we turned another corner. "Oh uhm...none I guess." I said finally. Jesse was the killer, not me. He got our food, killed the Crawlers, even people sometimes.

"How many people have you killed?' He asked me and I shrugged my shoulders. "None," I said and Carl stopped in front of me. "You haven't killed anything?" He asked me and I shook my head. "How the hell did you survive?" He asked me in awe. "My-my boyfriend....uhm...he took care of everything." I said and he sighed. "Is he dead now?" He asked me and I shook my head slowly. "He's just gone." I said and Carl slowly nodded.

"Well we are obviously going to have to teach you how the shoot." He said smiling and I smiled back. "My dad is probably at my house, we should get going." He said. "Yea okay." I said simply and began following him down the road.