Between Two Trees: Kill 'Em with Kindness (A Carl Grimes Fan Fiction)

             Living in a world with nobody else like you is quite scary. You would think having the world all to yourself and your closest friends would be great, right? It would be, except there’s other people. Well, other creatures.. Dead creatures. I guess I shouldn’t say dead. More or less, not living. There aren’t many people who are completely alive. Its rare to find somebody like you. A human that is. As of now, we call them Walkers. But let’s start from the beginning.

“Brooklyn!” my mom called me from downstairs. I went down and looked at the table, freshly made pancakes steaming from both of the two plates. I was an only child and my parents divorced about three years ago. I was eight. “Hey, mom. Looks good. What time is dad gonna be here? I still need to shower and get packed.” You see, when my parents divorced, my dad moved out with his girlfriend, Patty, and my mom kept the house they’d lived in. I visit my dad, in the next town over, on the weekends now. “He’s not coming until eleven o’clock, hun. You have time,” she smiled. I finished the pancakes and was dismissed to pack. I grabbed my old duffle back and threw in the essentials; clothes, deodorant, brush, tooth brush, feminine products, books, and my headphones and iPod. I left out a pair of shorts and a crop top for after my shower and turned on the water. “If you need to go to the bathroom, now’s the time!” I yelled down. “I’m good!” my mom yelled back.

The shower was extra hot today. It felt good and I could feel the sweat and dirt rinse out as the steam opened my pours. I finished my twenty minute shower and got changed. By the time I grabbed my phone and found it’s charger, my dad pulled up outside. “Bye, mom!” I hollered and I ran out to the car with my bag and a sweatshirt. “Can I turn this song?” I motioned to the radio, knowing that if I didn’t that he would have full custody of the radio privileges. “Not even a hello? Yeah, you can change it, my dad said as we pulled away from the house. “Sorry. Hey, dad. How’s Patty?” I asked. Patty’s pretty cool. She owns a printing company; cards, business cards, fliers, posters. Whenever I go over to my dad’s, the three of us usually have a movie night. She brings ice cream and soda and cookies and… pretty much anything I ask for. You can tell that she is really trying to be a good step-mom. And she is. Her and my dad got engaged last month and I’m going to be the flower girl, mostly because I wasn’t old enough to be the maid of honor or a bridesmaid. I get to wear this gorgeous salmon colored dress. It was probably one of the most immaculate things I’d ever laid my eyes on. The wedding was in the summer, which was coming really soon. Patty was all stressed out; you could tell by the bags under her eyes. My dad was really sweet about it though. He catered to whatever she asked for. They’re very giving people. It makes my wonder why my parents ever got divorced. They never told me and when I brought it up, I’d just get hollered at. After a while I just stopped asking. “She’s great. How ‘bout you and me go and pick her up and we all go out for lunch?” I nodded and texted her to go out to the porch and to be ready to leave. We pulled up and she hopped in the back. “Where to?” she popped her head through the middle of the two front seats. “I was thinking Denny’s?” my dad looked between us for unapproving looks. We both nodded and when we arrived to the restaurant, we became aware of the line that was out the door. “Good thing I ordered in advance, right?” my dad smiled. We finished lunch and we headed back home to hang out. “Hey, Brook, read any good books lately? I’m looking to start a new one and I don’t know which I should start,” Patty smiled. She loved reading almost as much as I did. “I’m starting the Maze Runner series. I only got through the first couple chapters, though.”

That night I laid awake, unable to sleep. Probably because of all the sugar we just ate. I switched the T.V. on and flipped through the channels, stopping on the news. It showed everything normal. No panic. I watched it for a while, thinking it might bore me to sleep. That was until the next hour when a different report came on.