Starting Over Again (The Walking Dead story)

"Sophia!" Carol woke with tears streaked down her face. She was taking short, strained gasps of breath with sweat dripping down the back of her neck. Carol could have sworn she could still smell the scent of burning flesh. It was just another nightmare. The same nightmare.

She was walking down the hallway towards the quarantine area that the council decided to hold Karen and David. She was bringing them some water and medicine that she received from Hershel. Carol stopped mid-step when she heard thumping coming from the quarantine area. On instinct, she reached for her knife, but realized that she must have left it in her cell. She cursed under her breath and continued cautiously. She turned the final corner to see Karen and David banging against the glass window. Their whole bodies, except for their faces, were charred black. The pain was evident on their faces, but there was also something else there. Betrayal. Carol quickly looked away, ashamed that she had caused this, but still felt the need to face what had happened. Carol looked back to see that their faces were now decayed, their eyes had been masked over with the milky white color that masked over all of the eyes of the dead, and just as Carol started to back away they busted through the glass window and came after her. They stumbled towards her as Carol backed away, she still felt the need to face what she caused and was backed into a wall. Both of the walkers stopped and the one that used to be Karen asked, "Why would you do this, Carol? We were in quarantine and were separated from the rest of the group! Did you really think this would stop the spread of this sickness?" She spat out at her. Carol choked back a sob and quickly said, "I didn't want Lizzie or Mika to suffer from this. I promised their father that I would protect them like they were my own. I have to protect them like I couldn't protect--!" Carol's sentence was cut short when David bit into the side of her neck. Karen, or what used to be, snarled at the smell of fresh blood and quickly bit into Carol's arm. "Sophia!" She screamed then cried out in pain, finally finishing her sentence.

Carol quietly rose from her bunk, lit a lantern, and quickly got dressed. She peeked out from behind the blanket she put over the cell bars. Many people had taken to doing that because privacy was very limited thanks to the people from Woodbury and a few people they had picked up along the way. It wasn't even dawn yet, but Carol decided to go ahead and start on her chores for the day. There was no going back to sleep for her, at least not after that nightmare again. As she walked past the cells she heard Judith fussing quite loudly. It pained Carol every time she saw little Judy because her thoughts would always run to Lori and Sophia. Lori and Carol had became good friends over the months on the run during her pregnancy. She was very happy for her friend, but she was also worried. She was worried that Lori might not survive childbirth, that the baby would end up being Shane's, that the baby wouldn't survive. She was worried that Lori might have to go what she went through. The loss of a child is something no mother or father should have to go through and she was worried that that was what Lori would go through. Every time she looked at Judith she couldn't help but feel a little twinge of pain. Carol could still have children, she wasn't that old, but she knew that nobody would want to have a child with her. Not after she had lost Sophia. Nobody would want to go near her body like that. Not after Ed had littered her body with scars.

Carol snapped out of her thoughts when she saw Rick emerge from his cell with a quietened Judith nestled into the crook of his arm. She took a good look at Rick and noticed that he didn't look as exhausted as he used to. In fact, Rick had been looking less exhausted every day since the people of the prison decided that the idea of a council was much better than having one person run the community. It gave Rick and Carl the time together that they both needed very much. Carl was acting more like a kid every day, which made his father extremely happy, but Carl still wanted to do more adult things, then got pissed when he wasn't allowed to. Rick walked over to Carol and smiled sleepily.