Crestfallen ↬ Carl Grimes (old version)

P E R S P E C T I V E

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE; PERSPECTIVE

"But what a difference between what you know intellectually, and what you feel. "

"Just tell the truth," I insisted, my voice a quiet murmur as I kneel next to the man, making eye contact with Michonne and then Maggie as they both give me silent nods of approval instead of the heated stares that the rest of the group seemed to be giving me. "That is the only thing you can possibly do right now to keep yourself alive and get us to trust you. All of us want this to be real, more than you could possibly imagine, but we've been through hell and back, and we are prepared to keep fighting if you give us enough reason to."

➳

"SO WE'RE CLEAR, THAT WASN'T A LET'S ATTACK THIS MAN LOOK," Michonne looked as livid as I had truly ever seen her as she raised her hand level with her chest, creating a barrier between her and the leader as an eyebrow precariously perches in a high arch above her eyes in a way that either had me snickering a bit or shivering in my own shoes for Rick's sake. "It was a he seems like an okay guy to me look."

If it were anyone else, they would have dropped dead at the look that the dark-skinned survivor had sent him, but Rick, it seemed, was completely immune to whatever she threw at him as he kept his eyes leveled with hers and continued to direct the people around him, completely blank and emotionless like the time I had first met him just after he had recovered from his injuries. "We got to secure him. Dump his pack."

Being careful to gently maneuver my way around the child in my arms, I watch as Carl gives my shoulder a tight squeeze before he through our small group of survivors and kneels down beside the unconscious Aaron, running his hands over the pockets of his coat and pants thoroughly before firmly grasping the old and weathered bag that had landed beside him.

"Rick!-" Michonne protested, obviously not only aggravated about the fact that she was ignoring him but as well as how he was making Carl take part in the action that may or may not be necessary for the situation at hand. But, yet again, the man ignored it all as if it went right through one ear and out the other.

"Everybody else, we need eyes in every direction," Rick's blue eyes were electric as he pushed his way past Michonne, definitely not helping the flame of temper that had sparked in her chest at his stubbornness to listen to anything or anyone else apart from his gut. Looking over his shoulder, the leader gives me a look as if to say that 'everyone else' excluded myself, as if it weren't obvious enough now that I was on Judith duty. "They're coming for us. We might not know how, or when, but they are. "

It was hard to tell whether or not I truly agreed with Rick's method of actions, especially since the fact that we had yet another person telling us that we had a chance of freedom against the restraints of surviving and living, unconscious on the floor as a deadweight wasn't exactly a nuisance I could take a liking to. But almost anyone could understand where he was coming from since the last incident that we've had at Terminus, and there were still many stories of their road to survival that I have yet to hear about since it had come before Rick or Carl had even met me that took part in Rick's mindset as he processed all of the information that was being given to him. I was, of course, in no place to make an opinion, so I just stuck to distracting the little girl in my arms and carefully eyeing Carl as he glanced warily between me and Aaron as if the man were a snake ready to bite my leg at any second.

"Me and Sasha, we didn't see him," Maggie stated, taking Carl's previous spot and kneeling beside the knocked out man in order to make sure that he was still, indeed, out cold. "If he had wanted to hurt us, he could've."