All That Remains | Carl Grimes

Chapter 4 | Intruders

The man's weight on the bed shook me out of my thoughts. Rick looked at me and slowly removed his hand from my mouth and signaled me to be quiet. Slow movements would help us not get detected. Rick, with small moves began to slide out from underneath the bed, but more footsteps coming closer made him go back. Soon, another pair of feet appeared in the doorway.

"Yo!" Yelled the man at the door "Comfy?". "You're waking me up to see if I'm comfortable?" Asked the man on the bed. "I wanna lay down." The man in the doorway shifted his weight. "There's two other beds in this house!" Complained the sleeping man and rolled over. "Them's kids' beds, I want this one." He walked closer to the bed. "It's claimed." Said the first man slowly. "Well I didn't hear it!" Argued the second one, like a child. "You're going to have to say 'claimed' somewhere else.". One of the men got up from the bed and, from what I could hear, got punched against the wall. With a loud thud, the first man fell on the ground. 

The second man held him down and tried to strangle him with his hands. The man being strangled, turned his sight to Rick and me. He peered into my eyes, terror and confusion in his. Once he was unconscious, the other man laid on the bed he had so triumphantly won.

Rick, very slowly, dragged himself out of the bed and got up. He waved for me to get up as well. Following his movements, I got out and followed him quickly out the room. Footsteps approached us, so he pulled me in the room Carl and I were in before. I held my breath as someone walked in the same room. I clenched my fists. Anyone who saw us, would get decked. Or I'd get broken fingers and then I'd die. As the noise under the person's feet got farther away, Rick sighed with relief. He peeked at the man and then back at me. Rick looked out one of the windows to my left. Since I was closer, I tried to open all of them, but none would budge. They were all locked.

Rick looked at the people going up and down the stairs, waiting for an opening to run to the bathroom across from the room we were in. Once everyone was gone, with heads kept low, we ran to the bathroom, me first and him behind me. I looked at Rick, who was locking the door and awaited his instructions. Suddenly, two giant hands wrapped around my neck, the fingers digging deep in my throat. I tried to breathe through it all but no oxygen went to my lungs. I tried to hit his hands, but, of course, I had no strength. 

The man's hands released my neck, and I fell to the floor, coughing and wheezing for air. No matter how many gasps I breathed in, none was enough. Looking behind me, Rick was choking the man with a cable cord. I managed to pull down from the sink a small kit, looking for something sharp. Still on the floor, I grabbed a pair of scissors and, with all the strength I could muster, brought them down right on the side of the man's neck. Blood poured out as the sharp end ripped through his artery. He gargled, blood spurting from his mouth. He wailed grasping at his neck, spreading the blood everywhere. 

I stared in satisfaction for a moment, thinking to myself how I am still as strong as I was. How that one time I let a boy go, wasn't how I'd always be. One minute, the man was right in my face, more alive than he had ever been and trying to take my life, and the next he was meat on the floor. 

I reached out my blood-red stained hand to help Rick up. He non-hesitantly grabbed it and I pulled him up. His shirt was also covered in blood, but neither of us was bothered. He grabbed the dead man's gun, opened the window above the toilet and climbed out, and so did I. Rick hung at the very edge and dropped down to the ground. I slowly crawled to the very edge of the roof and let my feet go over, hanging on by my hands. Rick moved out the way and I dropped down, quickly crouching and keeping my head down.

Hearing someone walking on the porch, we stuck our backs to the wall. We were both keeping quiet, waiting for an opening to run. In the distance, I saw Carl and Michonne walking by. I nudged Rick's arm and pointed with my head in their direction. Rick seemed a little more panicked, though he remained in control of his emotions. A man's scream came from the open window and a gunshot followed. Whoever was on the porch ran back inside and in that opening, Rick grabbed me and pulled me along as he ran in Carl and Michonne's direction. Seeing us, they started running as well. 

I ran as quickly as my long legs could carry me, bolting down the forest, quickening my pace to an all out sprint. The pounding noise of my boots shoes resonating off the trees with a clanging echo that matched my heart throbbing inside my chest with the fear I felt as I ran.  

We came to a stop at a crossroads, where train tracks met. "What the hell was that back there?" Michonne asked, catching her breath. I breathed slowly and deeply, having run more in those past 10 minutes than I had in the past 10 years. "Some men broke into the house, Ellie saw them before they came in and we ran." Rick explained. "You're welcome for that, by the way." I exhaled sharply, my breath finally at a normal rate. "I just saved your bacon!" I smirked proudly, yet not seriously. Rick smiled a little, the skin next to his eyes wrinkling a bit. He seemed so sweet and harmless in that moment. "You did, thank you." He nodded. I realised that I had just earned his trust.

Thank you so much for reading! Next one will be up in the next week!

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