You don't control me, Dixon

➋ 32: The shit shot of a hunter

♤

Carl nods and grabs my hand, me forcing me not to flinch away and hurt his feelings. I force a smile and lightly push the back of his head as I whisper what he needs.

He nods excitedly as he runs off to the R.V. to find his backpack and to rummage through my bags for supplies knowing the others will be stingy with theirs.

I have plenty and I'm fine with Carl being excited to help out, I know he's going to be serious.

Once I find the small group of Shane, Rick, Daryl, Lori, Carol, Andrea, Glen, and Carl who is practically hopping around when his dad passes him a decently sized pocket knife.

Once he sees me walking over he runs up to me and shows his knife off to me.

It looked like Ricks old knife, it was about the size of my smallest curved knife- about the size of my hand.

I hold it and toss it from side to side before closing it and clipping it to the front of his pants and as he was moving his shirt in front of it I take the fabric from his hands and tuck it behind his weapon.

He looks confused so I smile gently and crouch to his level and explain "When you are in a tight spot you need to get your weapon fast and those few seconds that you are fumbling, it can get you killed. We don't want that. So you keep it in front of your shirt."

He looks slightly scared at this though but I tilt his chin up and chirp "Now, let's take a look at what you packed"

He cheered up and took his backpack off his back and opened it up for me. Inside he had a half empty bottle, a single packet of peanuts and some random drawing stuff.

I smile sweetly and open my own pack humming "You got what you needed and you certainly don't need any more weapons with us there but it's hot so you need more water and food."

I place one of my extra full large water bottles that's metal so it stays cold. I then toss in a few granola bars that are full of nutrients.

He nods gleefully and zips up his pack and skips off to his parents.

I stand nearby until Daryl silently takes off over the siding of the highway. I follow wordlessly and thus allowing everyone to follow behind us with Rick walking beside Daryl.

I sink to the back next to Glenn and keep a look on the surrounding woods and a special eye on Carl.

I cant lose another one.

I watch with a slight frown as Carl talks happily to Shane "Shane, look. Dad said I could carry it and mom said as long as I was--"

Shane cuts him off with an angry glare and a sharp voice "Keep it down. We're looking for Sophia. You need to focus on the task."

I sigh and speed up grabbing his hand gently and tug him with me so we walk beside his mum.

He looks down so I force myself to pull him close and I gave him a tight hug.

He complies and snuggles into my arms. His mum looked at us both softly and murmured " Got to keep up."

Carl shrugged and walked next to me again as he muttered sadly "I am."

I look at him sadly and ask softly " You okay, buddy?"

He shrugs and looked between me and his mother before asking us "I think Shane's mad at me. Did I do something wrong?"

Lori and I exchange looks with me, and with me not knowing what to do, she looks back down to her son and corrects him carefully " No. No, honey, I promise you. He's just--he's worried about Sophia, that's all. Come on."