What if it's us~ Carl Grimes Gay

Chapter 8

Max Dixon's POV

I woke up to my dad banging on the window of the station wagon. I sit up with Carl now sitting on my lap. "Get up you two."Dad calls to us before walking away. "Morning kid."I yawn. "Good morning."Carl smiles. "Lets go see what the plan is."I say. Carl nods as he opens the door and crawls out with me right behind him. I grab his hand before we walk over to the others.

Rick had the arsenal that Carl found rolled out on the hood of a car as we approached. "What's the plan?"I ask. "Everyone takes a weapon."Rick starts. "These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?"Andrea interrupts.

"We've been over that. Daryl, Rick, Max and I are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles."Shane says. "Its not the trees I'm worried about. And how come Max gets a gun? He's just a kid."Andrea asks eyeing me.

"Because I actually know what I'm doing."I say. "Excuse me?"Andrea asks glaring at me. "Unlike you, I've been trained how to use a gun properly."I say. "I know how to use a gun."She growls. "Then how come they won't let you carry one?"I shot back. "Both of you need to stop."Rick says glaring at us.

"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it."Shane says to Andrea causing her to get even angrier.

"The idea is to take the creek up about 5 miles, turn around and come back down the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark."Dad explains. "Stay quiet and stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other."Rick states.

"Everyone assemble your packs." Shane orders. So I head over and grab some water and snacks for the journey while Rick talks to Dale. After I got my bag packed I headed over to Carl and stood next to him. "Keep an eye on Carl while we're gone."Rick tells Dale.

"I'm going with you. You need people, right? To cover as much ground as possible."Carl asks as Rick and Lori eye each other. "Your call. I can't always be the bad guy."Lori says as she looks at Rick. "I'll keep him safe, Rick."I say as I put my hand on Carl's shoulder.

"Okay. Okay. But always in our sight, no exceptions."Rick says as he and Lori walk away. Carl looks at me as I wink at him with a smirk on my face. "Thanks, Max."Carl laughs as we walk over to the rails. "Anytime kid. But you are not allowed to leave my side, got that?"I ask. Carl nods happily as he hugs me.

Then I remember something. Carl doesn't have a weapon. I take my bag off and take out my extra knife before handing it to Carl. "Kid, I want you to have this so you can protect yourself, okay? It is not a toy so don't play with it like it is one. You only use it if you abslutly need to, Okay?"I ask as he takes it. "Yes, Max. I won't play with it. Thank you."Carl says as I help him put it on his belt.

Soon everyone was ready and we took off. We walked in a line with my dad in front since he was the better tracker. Carl and I were in the back with Shane and Lori behind us. I held Carl's hand as we walked through the weeds.

Soon we all stopped and crouched down because there was a tent up ahead of us. "She could be in there." Shane whispers. "There could be a whole bunch of things in there."Dad whispers before standing up and walking towards the tent with Rick and Shane.

Dad carefully approaches the tent before looking at Rick and shrugging. "Carol."Rick whispers morning Carol forward. Carol quickly goes up to him while the rest of us walk up to Shane quietly. "Call out softly. If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear."Rick whispers.

"Sophia, sweetie, are you in there? Sophia, it's mommy. Sophia. We're all here, baby. It's mommy."Carol calls out. We were all silent waiting for a response, but there wasn't one.  Rick, Daryl and Shane than stand outside the tent before unzipping it and my dad went in and they all started coughing.

"Daryl? Daryl?"Carol calls out before my dad comes back out with a revolver. "It ain't here."Daryl assures. "What's in there?"Carol asks. "Some guy. Did what Jenner said, opted out."Dad explains throwing his crossbow over his shoulder.

Suddenly we hear church bell ringing in the distance. We all quickly run towards them soon coming to a church with a graveyard around it. The ringing had stopped by now so it was silent. We run up to the doors before Rick, Shane and my dad go inside.

We all follow and see 3 walkers sitting in there. Rick walks up to one and stabs it while Shane and my dad get the others. "Sophia!"Rick yells out as we look around to see the place empty. I bend down and hug Carl whispering that we'll find her to try and cheer him up as the others talk.

Then the bells start to ring again, right outside. We all sprint out holding to see Sophia, but only finding a megaphone playing it on the side of the church. Glenn quickly turns it off as Carol gets upset again. "I'm gonna go back in for a bit."Carol says as she head inside.

I grab Carl's hand and walk him over through the graves. "Hey, don't worry. We'll find her. She's probably in a tree or house somewhere."I say trying to reassure him. But to be honest, I was losing hope too. "But what if she's not? What if she's dead?"Carl asks. I stop as I turn to look at him.

"Why do you say that?"I ask.
"Well, Shane said that she probably was dead."Carl explains. "Hey, don't listen to Shane. Shane's not always right. He's just upset and doesn't know what he's talking about."I say as I crouch in front of him. "Than how do I know if you're right? You aren't always right either."Carl asks confused.

"Well, unlike Shane I have hope. I have hope that Sophia is alive and you should too. Don't always think negative like Shane, Okay? be my little positive man."I say as he smiles. "Okay, I'll try."Carl says. "Good, that's what I like to hear."I laugh as I ruffle up his hair causing him to laugh too.

"Max! Carl! Get over here!"Shane calls out. I stand up and grab Carl's hand as we walk towards the others. "Okay, here's the plan, y'all are gonna follow the cream bed back, okay? Daryl, your in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough."Shane explains.

"You're splitting us up. You sure?"Dad asks. "Yeah, we'll catch up to you." Shane says. "I want to stay too. I'm her friend."Carl says stepping forward. Ruvk and Shane look at each other to decide if he should. "I'll stay too."I state as I step forward too. "Just be careful, okay?"Lori asks Carl.

"I will."Carl assured. "When did you start growing up?"Lori asks as she hugs him. Rick than steps forward and hugs Lori saying we'd catch up soon. Dad comes up to me and hugs me before pulling away. "You be careful, alright?"Dad asks. "Alright."I say before they all walk away.

"Give me a minute."Rick says as he heads into the church. We nod before I take Carl over to the side of the church. "So why did you want to stay?"I ask as we sit down. "I wanted to stay a little longer in case Sophia came here."Carl explains making me smile.

"That's a good idea."I say. "Why did you want to stay back?"Carl asks. "Well, I didn't want to leave you. What would I do without you?"I ask playfully nudging him. Then Rick came back out so we stood up and went up to him and Shane.

"Get what you needed?"Shane asks. "Guess I'll find out."Rick says as he walks towards the woods. We all quickly follow him as we start to head  back. After a few minutes of walking we heard branches snapping causing us to stop.

I look around for any sign of a walker when I see a deer instead. I smile at the sight. The last deer I saw was being torn apart by a walker. Shane than aims his shotgun at it getting ready to shoot when Rick calls our his name. I look over as Carl slowly walks toward the deer with a big smile on his face.

Shane lowers his gun as we all watch Carl get closer to the deer. Carl turns back towards us as if asking if he can keep going making us quickly nod our heads before Carl continued forward. Carl was at least 10 feet away from it and it still hadn't noticed him. Not until he stepped on a small twig causing it to snap.

The deer quickly whipped it's head around and made eye contact with Carl. Carl kept on slowing walking forward as the deer just stood there staring at him. Carl was now less than 5 feet away from the deer and it still hadn't ran away yet. It was almost like the deer wanted Carl to pet him.

Then a gunshot went off and both the deer and Carl fell down.