Collision

Chapter Six

~ Chapter Six ~

Carls's P.O.V.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked her.

"Don't worry about me, Carl. Worry about yourself. I'll be fine; it's just a few hundred walkers right?" Michonne chuckled, making me smile. This was why I liked her, because she was one of those people who could take care of themself, not expect someone to do it for them. She was strong, brave, and independent. Someone I definitely looked up to.

I nodded with an unsure smile on my face as she went on her way. The reason we were doing this for people we didn't even know? That was a question I had to ask myself and my dad, but for the time being, we had to get ourselves out of this trap.

"Carl? You ready?" Dad asked, an axe already in his hands. I held a steady grip on the machete they lent me, and nodded.

He raised his axe, signalling that we were ready. All we had to do was wait. Boom. That's one. Boom. That's two. Boom. That's three, and we were out of the doors. Our job was to kill as many walkers as we could from the left wing. Some guys took care of the right wing, and Michonne was behind the school, shooting and drawing the walkers to her as a distraction.

After pulling through almost fifty walkers, we made it to the front of the building. Everyone was there except for Michonne. Of course I would never be worried about her, because she'd killed more walkers in a day than I'd ever had in my entire life, but having that many walkers hurdling themselves at you? That wasn't fun.

"How many shots has she fired?" Dad questioned, trying not to portray his concern. 

"For now, twelve," Ellie answered, her hands on her knees, catching her breath. I caught a glimpse of her wound and cringed, forcing myself to look away.

"Damnit, she's got two more bullets to go and she's out of ammo. I'm going in there to help her."

"No need."

We all turned around. Michonne was standing right there looking as healthy as ever. After Joel counted the people, we were on our way. To where? We still didn't know, but anywhere other than here would be better.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Here, how about this?" Aaron asked, "She's a long legged model, her last name's an animal, and she played a role in one of those robotic movies."

"I got it! Megan Fox?" Ellie answered.

"Ding ding ding! You, girl, are correct!" He commented, moving his hands as if he were ringing a bell. I laughed at his ridiculousness.

"Would you keep it down? We don't want Kenzie to wake up again," Harvey hushed.

We were currently in an abandoned gasoline station that we found two hours away from the school. It turned out Joel didn't know about this place, not until now anyway. Dad found some matches and candles, and we set ourselves up to stay for the night. To get through the night, I got to know some people: the old couple, the two little kids, their parents, and a couple of people around my age. It felt nice to talk to people again, it felt like it'd been a long time since the campfire we had when we first stayed at the prison.

"Candles out, all of you, don't want to attract any more of them infected. Me and Rick will stay first watch for the first few hours, then Michonne and Harvey, then Finn, Aaron, and Carl. We leave first thing at sun rise, got it?" Joel instructed.

We nodded our heads and found a spot on the floor to sleep on. It felt uncomfortable here. The floor was cold, hard, and every time I closed my eyes, I could envision a walker trying to attack me. When I was finally successful at sleeping, I got a nightmare about walkers taking my dad. It was then that I decided not to sleep for the night.

Instead, I walked to the window, and watched the moon for a couple minutes.

"Couldn't sleep either?" Ellie mumbled. I nodded. She pointed to the empty spot on the floor next to me, "mind if I sit there?"

"Not at all," I replied. She hugged her knees to her chest.

"You know, I never really got the chance to get to know you. With all the infected and all."

"You call it the infected?" I asked, changing the topic. The more I knew about a person, the more I'd feel forced to care for them. I didn't need any more emotional attachments to hold me down in the future.

"Well, yeah, that's what they are. Why? What do you call it?"

"We call them walkers. Don't really know why, but I just went along with it," I told her, still gazing at the moon.

"Walkers, huh? That's an odd way of calling them, considering the fact that they do run sometimes. Anyways, who's the lady that tags along with you guys? She's a total badass," Ellie stated. The corner of my lip lifted. I smirked instinctively, indicating that I agreed with her.

"That's Michonne, she saved a friend of ours and we've been close ever since."

"Where is your friend now?" Ellie asked, I stayed silent. "Oh... Sorry..."

"It's fine. What's the deal with you and Joel? Since he's not your dad and all," I asked, somehow breaking the barrier of 'don't get to know anyone' because of my curiousity.

"He was asked by a friend of mine to take me to the fireflies. They were going to do some... investigating on me. We travelled through a lot of bad roads, but the plan failed. Here we are now, lost and trying to survive," she chuckled, shaking her head. The way she said that paragraph felt as if there were more to it than that.

"Fireflies?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, they're just a group that Joel's brother was once in, no big deal. They thought I was special, but they probably thought wrong," she muttered, shaking her head.

"Oh, because of your bite mark?" I interrogated, turning my full attention to her.

Her eyes focused on mine, "How'd you know about that?"

"Michonne told me. She said she saw it on your arm while she was stitching you up. She's been observing you, but she told us you're nowhere near a fever. She said it didn't look anywhere near an animal's bite mark either. I wasn't even supposed to tell you that we know, but I have to ask - why aren't you dead yet? Why haven't you turned?" I raised an eyebrow, awaiting her answer.

It took her a while to speak. She was deciding whether to tell me or not. "I'm immune. Well, it's the only logical explanation." My eyes went wide, I had never heard of this before. "The time I got bit was with a friend. She died before me, but I kept waiting. Waiting until the time I would turn, but it never happened. Hours passed by, days, weeks, months, and eventually years. Marlene, the head of the fireflies, asked Joel to take me to this place, and we ended up in Salt Lake City. They tried doing surgery on me, and little did we know that in order to make a vaccine out of my immunity, they had to take it out of my system, which meant after the surgery, my immunity would be gone and I would be forced to turn.

"Joel couldn't handle that, so I guess he got me out of there somehow. To this day, he's still lying to me about it. He says that they found another person to do the surgery on, but I know that's not the case. The odds of finding immunity like me are probably close to impossible! That told me how much Joel cares for me, and I would probably die for him if there came a time, and he would do the same for me. Joel isn't only like my dad, he's more. He's my best friend, my teacher, and technically all of my family."

"I asked you one question about turning, and you concluded it by stating who Joel is to you," I stated. The two of us chuckled, sharing a laugh. It felt nice. For a second it felt like I was back to normal again. That was only for a mere second.

I slept soundly after that. Ellie's story made me think of my dad and how much he meant to me. That thought got me through the night. Now, my only worries were the next few nights to come.