New Beginnings.

Day 2

Eliza's p.o.v
I think it's just a one off. Just a bad dream. But whenever I close my eyes I see Woodbury. I see the governor. What he did. I'm losing my mind. I can't sleep. And if I do it's not for long. I just sit, knife in hand, and stare at the door. As though I'm waiting for him to walk in. To handcuff me to the table. To take what he could never return. To snatch my childhood from me. To break me. It was three years ago. He is dead. But somehow he has never been more alive. For years I blocked it out, pushed it aside, buried it with other happier memories. But it was never truly gone. It was always there lurking in the shadows of my mind. No one knew. No one needed to know. They'd just think I'm weak. But if I don't sleep soon I'll break down. I'll go crazy. Maybe I am crazy.
"Good morning." Carl walks past, still in pyjamas and greets me as he did yesterday.
"Morning." He walks in and sits beside me on my bed. I pull on my boots.
"Going somewhere?" He asks nudging my shoulder.
"Ron invited me round his house at eleven." I explain, pulling the other leather boot onto my foot.
"Oh okay."
"Why? Did you want to chill with me?" I tease him, nudging him back.
"No! Enid and I were going to hang out anyway." He says defensively.
"Okay!" I put my hands up, backing away.
"You should probably get dressed then." I say, leaving my room.
"I will!" He shouts down the stairs as I leave the house. I walk down the street to Ron's house. No walkers. It was nice. I remember where his house was from last night and knock on the door. A younger boy answered it.
"Hello." I greet him, smiling.
"Are you Eliza?" He asks.
"Yes..." I reply, uncertain of how he knew my name.
"You are pretty. Just like Ron said." He winked awkwardly. I blush, Ron thinks I'm pretty?
"Is your brother home?" I ask. He nods in return. Almost immediately Ron appears in the doorway.
"Sam! Go back to your room." He groans, pulling his brother from the door.
"Sorry about that." He says, letting me inside.
"No problem. He's sweet." He laughs, shutting the door. We go up to his room.
"So, you think I'm pretty." He looks up at me shocked, pink flooding his cheeks.
"What?" He stuttered.
"Your brother told me." He was lost for words.
"He was not supposed to tell you that." He laughs awkwardly, running his hands through his hair. I smile. I walk over to his desk, books are open on pages about medicines and stuff.
"What's all this?" I ask, picking up some flash cards.
"My dads a doctor. I want to, you know, learn what he knows so I won't be completely useless for the community when I get older. My dad tests me occasionally. I have one in like two weeks."
"So bites?" I hold up the card with the word drawn neatly on it.
"Uh, Wound infections due to bites tend to reflect the microorganisms present in the saliva and oral cavity of the human or animal that created the bite wound. They may involve one or more aerobic, microaerophilic, and/or anaerobic microorganisms.Human bites may become infected with a variety of bacteria that are part of the normal oral flora. The majority of animal bites are from dogs and cats, and the most common bacteria recovered from these cultures is Pasteurella multocida." He recites the whole card, word for word.
"Jesus. That was pretty impressive."
"Thanks. Anyway, I want to know about you. I invited you round to get to know each other not to babble on about medical stuff."
"Okay. Ask away." I reply.
"How long have you been out there?"
"Since it all started. We've been on the road this whole time. Moving from place to place. We found a prison, stayed there for a bit, then when that went to shit we got split up from the group. We all ended up going to a place called terminus, but it was full of cannibals so we blew it up. And we've just been on the road since then." I told him everything he wanted to know. He asked about my family, and I told him they died. He asked about the scars on my leg and I told him about the barbed wire fence. He asked about who else I'd lost... I told him about Shane, Tyreese, Hershel, Dale, Beth, T-dog, Mika and Lizzie. I told him things I didn't usually talk about. I felt as though I could trust him. Soon enough our questions got stupid.
"So are you and Carl dating?" He asks.
"No. We're just friends. Are you and Enid?"
"Not anymore. We broke up last night. She said she wasn't ready for the commitment."
"Oh I'm sorry, well she's missing out."
"I don't mind, I found somebody else."
"Who?"
"I'll never tell."
"A mystery!" I exclaimed. I look at him carefully, studying his face, searching for emotions. He returns the look and our eyes connect. He slowly moves his face closer to mine.
"I have to go." I whisper, still close to him. He frowns at my words. And with that I leave his house and return to my own. Its three o'clock. I want to explore. But I'm barely out the house when something catches my eye. Sam, Ron's brother runs across the street into an alleyway between some houses. He is soon followed by another boy, much older than him. He had a knife. I ran over and hid behind the wall.
"I'm gonna kill you, you little shit." I took this as an opportunity to intervene.
"Sam? Is everything okay?" I ask as I remove myself from the wall and enter the situation.
"Fuck off he's fine." The boy replied.
"Did I ask you a question?" I face the boy before turning back to Sam.
"Are you okay? You have to tell me right now or I'm just gonna leave you two to whatever it was you where doing." I say and Sam whimpers looking at the boy behind me.
"He can't hurt you now. You can say anything about him and I promise I won't let him touch you." Sam took a deep breath.
"He tried to kill me." He says.
"Okay, Sam, I'm going to need you to go home now." Sam nods and walks away as I turn back to the boy. He immediately points a gun at me.
"Go ahead and shoot." I say, walking towards him. He did. But I managed to hit his arm hard enough that the bullet hit my thigh. Sam screamed from behind me.
"Sam go home!" Sam surely enough sprinted away. I grabbed the other boy by the hair and slammed his face down hard onto the rough wall. I repeated this until he made a weak attempt to kick me and I fell backwards hard onto the ground. I couldn't get up properly because of the gunshot wound so I wait. He grabs my shirt collar and I grab him by the throat pinning him to the ground. I punch him hard in the face and I kept punching him until a pair of hands grab me and pulled me back. I shook them off and punch him once more before I lean in close and whisper.
"If you touch Sam or anyone else here ever again I will not stop next time. Do you hear me?" He didn't reply.
"Do you hear me?" I shout and he nods. The hands grab my waist and drag me from the bleeding boy.
"Eliza what the fuck was that?" I sat hard on the floor. It was Ron.
"He tried to kill Sam." I pant. Confusion washed over his face.
"Sam told me what happened but shit Eliza. Look at him." He pointed over to the battered boy.
"Rodney's a fucking asshole but you whooped him." A smile playing on his face. I try to stand but the pain overwhelms me.
"Shit." I groan. The smile disappears and is replaced with an anxious look.
"Are you okay?" I nod, trying again to pull myself from the floor. He helps me up and I grip his arms to keep me standing.
"You are not okay." He says, holding me so I don't collapse.
"Did he hurt you?"
"He shot me. My leg. It went right through, the bullets over there somewhere." I gesture widely in front of me. I slump forward, barely conscious. He helps me sit again.
"Sam! Go get dad." He shouts before turning back to me. He knelt down next to me.
"Don't close your eyes." His voice gets lost in my mind and everything blurs until I can only see him. And then he's gone too. And it's all dark.