𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑 𝐋𝐈𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 ➳ 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥 𝐆𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬

Chapter 13 ~ So That's His Name...

Carl had been acting suspicious lately - sneaking food and going out early in the morning before the sleepy little town had woken up as well as going out again later when no one would notice his absence. Obviously, I knew it was nothing serious. But still...it had my curiosity peaked. So when the next afternoon had rolled around, I dropped Winnie off at Michonne's before following after him. I was careful to hang back, tracking him at a distance so as not to draw his attention to me. After a few minutes of walking and leading the way into the woods, he'd stopped at a small clearing in the forest so I ducked behind a tree to keep from being seen.

Someone had set up stakes beside one of the trees and apparently, a walker had gotten stuck on one. I arched my eyebrows briefly just as a dark-complected Middle Eastern man walked up behind it and stabbed a knife into its skull, ending its struggle. Ingenious idea really, when you think of it. But I wasn't here for an invention fair, I reminded myself before my eyes flickered back to the sight of a lone Carl carefully making his way over to the walker.

I moved to get a better look when my shoe slipped on a root and I stumbled back onto twig, snapping it in half. Cursing under my breath, I peeked out from behind the tree to find both men staring at me. I sighed to myself. Why me? Carl was sending me a very harsh glare and I sent him a sheepish smile, walking over to him as he turned from me to address the Middle Eastern man before us.

"Hey," he called out to him, taking a cautious step forward towards him.

It was then that I noticed the bags of food he carried and it suddenly dawned on me. The man from the gas station - the one he had fed that day I'd went with him. This was that same guy. Huh. No wonder he was sneaking out here by himself.

"It was my dad. There - there were warning shots above your head. He wasn't shooting at you... I'm Carl," he continued, holding his hands out to show he carried no weapons of his own.

He glanced at me and I did the same as I walked alongside my fiancee. The man eyed us, holding a knife in his hand warily. But I couldn't blame him. In this world, it was hard to know who to trust. I'd made a lot of mistakes about trusting people along the way to figure out the difference.

"Siddiq," he said slowly, eyes flicking back and forth between us.

"Food and water," Carl said suddenly, holding it up for the man to see the sandwich bag filled with a random assortment of food along with a bottle of water.

"Why?" he questioned uncertainly.

"I guess you - you were talking about something your mom said about helping people. And my mom told me that you got to do what's right... It's hard to know what that is sometimes, but sometimes it's not,"

I smiled at his words, crossing my arms over my chest. I think Lori did the both of them wrong - cheating on Rick like that with Carl only a boy of 10. But still...she was his mom and even though it was complicated, he still loved her. Even now that she was gone. Carl heaved the sandwich bag towards the man we now knew as Siddiq and after a moment, he had fell to his knees on the ground, hungrily opening the bag before beginning to devour its contents. Poor man.

He had probably been starving for months, it seemed. Well...at least since the last time we had fed him, that is.

"Thanks," he replied and I knew that he meant it.

"Glad I found you," Carl replied, sending him a small smile in return.

"You were looking for me?" he asked in confusion, clearly caught off guard.

"Yeah, I - I scavenged the sardines, other stuff-" he began to say when I cut him off.

"Knew it," I coughed into my hand, only to receive a playful glare from my fiancee.

I shot him a cheeky grin back before he continued, "Me and my dad, we're in a community. I'm gonna ask you a few questions. I need you to answer honestly, okay?"

Siddiq mumbled an 'okay' before Carl began.

"How many walkers have you killed? I know it's hard to keep track-" Carl started but he cut him off.

"237," he replied immediately and my eyes widened.

"Wow," I interjected, earning a small but seemingly sad smile from the man.

Carl almost smiled himself at that, "Really?"

"Give or take a couple,"

"How many people have you killed?"

"One,"

"Why?"

"The dead tried to kill him, but...they didn't,"

"You're making walker traps," Carl observed, glancing over at the stakes in the ground, "Is that how you killed so many?"

"It's - it's only part of it. My mom thought or hoped that killing them would free their souls," he told us slowly.

Carl and I were both stunned by his response but I felt my heart warm up to this stranger at that answer.

"You know? Maybe - maybe she was right," he smiled at us.

"Doing that - doesn't that just make things harder for you while you're trying to survive?" Carl questioned him.

The man thought a moment, clearly not having thought of that before but just shrugged uncertainly in response.

" I - I don't know. I... But you gotta - you gotta honor your parents, right?" he asked him instead.

"If I was honoring my dad, we wouldn't be talking right now..." Carl half-chuckled in response and I couldn't help but laugh myself, thinking of how mad Rick would be if he knew this was what his son was doing today while he was away.

"And definitely wouldn't bring you back to my community." he finally finished, making me turn to him with wide eyes in surprise.

Wow...wasn't expecting that one.