IVORY | Carl Grimes

three - ambiguity ;

"momma, we need to get back to the house."

at eleven years old, saskia brown kept to timidly trailing behind her mother. her attempts to grab hold of her mother's free arm proved unsuccessful. one arm held a particularly sharp hunting knife that had belonged to sawyer in his younger years in boy scouts and the other just out of even saskia's straining reach. eileen brown had all but bellowed at her youngest child once hearing her request to carry the knife as her own. she believed that is was unfit for a child of her age to handle any weapon, no matter the circumstances.

saskia might not have yet understood the meaning of the word ignorance but knew of her mother's likeness to it. eileen had faith in the world. any bliss connected to this was largely undermined by her inability to do anything if she lost this hope for a better future.

saskia, however, adapted, surprisingly better than her own mother had. her inquisitive nature drew her to the news stories covering the breakout even in her earlier youth. that was until, her mother forcefully grabbed the remote controller from her hand and briskly shut the station off, muttering choice words under her breath as she stormed away. 

eileen thought she was maintaining what little childhood could be left for saskia in this new world with not making her aware of the events of the epidemic, but her decision endangered her child instead. saskia was not equipped with the means of survival if something were to happen to her mother, who still knew so little, and she feared what would come the day that she found herself alone without a suitable guardian.

saskia wished sawyer was here, oh how she wished that he was right there, by her side. though he could be distant at times, fleeting at best, he still knew the right things to say when he deemed it necessary for saskia to hear them. he knew how to survive, and he would let saskia wield and handle a weapon, that she knew for sure. sawyer could easily train her and saskia was undoubtedly eager to learn from him.

"just a moment longer, saskia," eileen told her daughter without breaking eye contact of the road ahead of her, "we need to gather more food from the gas station up here, okay?"

saskia hummed, or more so grumbled in response to her mother, before picking up her pace to catch up and flitting her eyes around the beaten down road for possible predators that could be hiding anywhere, in sight or not. any corner they turned around could be unsafe if even one rotting creature was lurking behind it, and saskia was attempting to get her mother to turn back to the safe house they had found the day prior to avoid that very situation.

the mother and daughter's footsteps seemed to sync up as they trekked farther and farther down the worn road, with asphalt chipping here and there. both travelers made sure to watch their steps in order to avoid their foot getting caught on a extremely chipped piece, resulting in them tripping which could alert walkers by the abrupt noise.

an unsettling air enveloped saskia as her breaths quickened. she was worried, to say the very least. they had been out in the open for too long. she knew what people's minds could fall to if they were left on the brink of insanity. no, saskia was not worried about the walkers at this moment in time. she was more worried that her mother and her were being watched by foes, but in an attempt to comfort herself, she banished the troubling thought from her mind. they had been lucky enough to avoid any raiders for the time being, so why should they suddenly face them now?