{filler????????}
Carl;
I glare at my reflection in the fogged up mirror.
I'm not much different than the last time I looked in a mirror, except for this time, the sound of the show fills my ears and the room is illuminated by artificial light.
I'd never thought I'd see this day again. Where I would be in an actual room with lights and water.
I thought I would be living out on the road for the rest of my days.
I take my hat off my head and remove my clothes from my body.
I stare at my naked body in the mirror for what seems like the first time in months.
I realize that I'm noticeably thinner than the last time I was in a room like this, back in Alexandria.
There's dried, cracking blood on my hands and face.
I put my hand up to my face and gently touch what is left of my eye. The feeling of the scar tissue beneath my fingers makes my blood boil with anger at the past.
It was an accident. An accident I can never let go of. Watching a whole family die before my eyes comes back to haunt me every time I look at myself. A permanent reminder of death marks my face, and the only escape from deaths mark is death himself.
I shake my head and turn towards the shower. I grab a pristine, white towel from the hook and I swing it across the top of the door before walking in.
The steam and the aroma of the water is nearly overwhelming as I walk in and drench my filthy body in the hot water.
The dirt and blood streams off of my body and into the drain below me. I look down at my feet and at the countless walker kills and nights spent in trees falling down into the drain.
{hi I would just like to point out that I forgot that Carl had one eye and I just started crying thank you.}
The sound of a door opening and voices being exchanged snaps me back to senses. I shampooing my impossible brown hair along with bathing every part of my body multiple times over until I'm positive it's clean.
I turn off the warm water and step outside of the shower to drip dry. I turn and look once again into the foggy mirror and instead of see a dirty mess with mangled hair covered in dry blood, is see a glowing body, with muscles being bolder by the water on my skin. The scar on my face no longer holds an angry red glow, but a softer pink shade. The surface is warm to the touch but I can tell that every part of me is happy to finally be somewhat clean.
I look up again and see that my now long, wet hair reaches my shoulders since its drenched. I remove the towel from my waist and begin to dry my hair off.
I put on the clothes that the community has provided for me. A long sleeve black t-shirt that's about a size to big and skinny jeans. Underneath the clothes, I find a bandage with a sticky note attached.
Thought you might
want it. Got it from
Janice's.
-Dallas:)
I take the bandage and wrap it around my head so it skillfully covers my right eye.
I look back up in the mirror and see a clean me. No dirt or blood, no disgusting scar covering half of my face, my hair is soft and damp and smells of shampoo and not death. I haven't felt like this since Alexandria, since I was living in a house with my family and living behind walls.
We were safe.
Could we be that safe again?
;
"We got pot pie for dinner tonight." Dallas says as he leads me and Juniper down the hall to the stairs. "You two cleaned up well."
I give a light smile and look over at Juniper, her long, blonde hair is no longer tangly and oily but soft and slightly wavy. Her delicate cheeks radiate a clean glow as a slight smile also spreads across her face, giving me butterflies and turning my smile into a ridiculous grin, making the glowing girl giggle.
{say that five times fast}
She nuzzles her head into my shoulder as we walk down the hall and giggle together.
"Alright, so here are some stairs that we are going to walk down now, or do you two want to go back and-"
"Nope, nope." Juniper quickly intervenes. "I'm starving."
"Same." I say.
As Dallas opens the door to the stairs, Juniper looks up at me and laces her fingers with mine.
We walk down the several flights of stairs, through several halls to a greenhouse-like dining room with fairy lights and small tables lining the walls.
"Okay, so you'll go through that door to the left, grab a tray and follow the line. It's kind of like a school cafeteria with you know, better food." Dallas instructs us as he leads us to the back of the room.
Once we make our way through the door, a woman in a hair net hands us black trays and we're ordered to go through a line.
What stands out to me is not the rich looking food, but the people.
I can tell whose been here the longest and who's relatively new. But what's most striking is the kids. There's tons. Everywhere you look there would be children bouncing off the walls, all under what seems like the age of twelve.
"There are no people our age..." I turn around and point out to Juniper. "Have you noticed that?"
She keeps a closed look and gives a gentle nod, the mysteries of this new change are getting more weird by the second.
.
{I have such a good plan for this dhshshdgsgdhdg}
-olive<3
