Almost Broken: Carl Grimes fanfic

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Ry." She shakes me.

"Ry! Wake up we need to go."

"Noo. Hallie go back to bed." I tell my older sister.

"RYLEN DANIELLE PARKER!" She yells and I jolt up out of my bed.

"What?!" I yell back.

"Sshhhhh!!" She covers my mouth. I look at her.

"We. Have. To Go."

"Why?"

"The news, they said there's a disease that broke out, people are going cannibal, eating people. I don't know where mom and dad are. They must've got stuck in traffic and chaos." She whispers.

I look at her and she has a bag. I get up off my bed and pack my things.

I turn around and the walkers are on top of her, ripping off my sisters perfect skin, and I can't move. I keep trying but my feet are glued to the carpet, forcing me to watch my sister- my idol- be ripped to shreds before my eyes. The walkers turn to me. One grabs my shoulders and looks me right in the eye.

"Rylie?" It asks.

What?

"Rylie are you awake?" It shakes me.

All of a sudden I'm pulled from the dream I was in. I fly up, and look around, side to side, and I eye my bag. I feel warm, soft hands cup my cheeks, holding my head still.

"It's okay. You're okay. What's wrong?" Carl's blue eyes peer into my green eyes. I nod.

"Bad dream." I chuckle.

"I guess even when you're safe from the walkers your not safe from the fear." I say confidently.

But my eyes betray my words when I feel an unwelcomed tear form and go down my cheek.

"Rylie." He says in sympathy.

He pulls me into a hug, and I hesitate for a moment, then I don't fight it. His arms go around my waste and mine around his neck. I let a few more tears go and then stop, all the while, still in a comforting, well-needed hug.

"Thanks," I say and wipe the wetness of tear that's left behind.

"Thanks for everything you've done in the last..." I stop to think...

"How long was I asleep?" I ask him.

"Maybe 4 hours? I'm sorry, I didn't want to wake you, but you were moving... violently, and then..... Well I came up to ask you if you wanted anything to eat? Carols making some dinner." He cuts to the chase.

Carol... I think he said she's the one that lost her little girl a while back.

Sad.

No, it's torturous.

"Yes. I'm starving." I try to lighten the mood by laughing at the end, not wanting him to ask me what my completely wrong nightmare was about.

Thankfully, he doesn't, he just holds his hand out to help me up out of the bed, and down the stairs.

We get downstairs and Carl takes the time to introduce me to some people, because I didn't before. When I got here, I went straight to sleep, and to be honest, I could sleep for another day.

"This is Maggie, you guys met in the car, and this is her husband Glenn." Carl says pointing to the woman from the car and an Asian man.

"Nice to meet you, again," I say to Maggie, but also nodding toward Glenn,

"I'm Rylie." I smile at them and shake their hand, trying to pull out that southern hospitality I once had.

Carl leads me over to an older man, gray beard and his gray hair in a small ponytail in the back of his head.

"Hershel - Maggie and Beth's father." The old man introduces himself as he limps a bit towards me.

"Rylie. It's nice to meet you." I smile a real smile at him, he's one of those adorable old people.

"I mostly take care of the injured and sick people. The doctor kind of." He jokes.

"I'm just going to be here for a few days and then I'll be off, no important job here." I joke with him too, but I feel Carl tense beside me when I said I'd only be here for a few days.

Does he really care about me as much to where he wouldn't want me to leave?
Do I care that he might possibly care?
No, no Ry you don't care. You can't care. If you start to care again, you'll get... feelings. I can't keep getting attached to people, so stop caring. You're going to leave no matter what.

"So when are we going to eat?" I turn to ask Carl, pushing my thoughts aside.

"Now? If... If you want to.." He hesitates before saying, as if he was thinking about something too.

Maybe Carl has been through a lot more than I thought.

I answer him by nodding and he offers me a smile, which I return to him.