𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝟐. carl grimes

6 - HOPE

"I spy... something gray." Sophia tells me before she pursed her lips into a thin line.

I smiled, knowing immediately what she was talking about. "Mom's hair."

She nods before looking down at her sketchpad. She opened it before showing me her latest drawing. It was the two of us.

"That's so cool!" I praised my twin for her amazing work. "You're so talented, Soph."

"No, Fare, you are." She tells me. "You can sing and dance and play sports. All I do is draw and paint."

"We're both talented then." I declared, making my sister smile.

Loud beeps and honks are coming from the car outside. We've been stuck in this traffic for at least an hour and a half now. We still haven't moved an inch.

"Mom, what's taking so long?" Sophia asked our mom, who looked back at us.

"Just some traffic, sweetheart." She tells the two of us and we nod.

"Alright, everyone out of the car." Our dad announced before turning the emgine off and getting out.

I was confused but I still followed my dad's orders. My mom opened the trunk of our car and tells my twin and I to sit there and be cozy. I noticed that a lot of people aren't in their cars as well, confused why the traffic is taking so long.

"I wanna go home." Sophia tells me with a frown.

"We are going home." I reassured her. "It's just some traffic. It'll pass, like dad always told us."

— months later

I followed my dad and he leads me to our tent. He gets his duffel bag out, which contains a few guns and knives. I became anxious when I saw the weapons. My eyebrows furrowed as I looked at my dad.

He hands me a silver colored gun and doesn't say a word. I just looked at it. "What's this for, dad?"

"You need to learn how to protect yourself." My dad tells me firmly, before showing me the gun properly. "You see this? You turn it up, the safety's off, you turn it down, the safety's on. You can't fire if the safety's on."

Still unsure of what to do, I just let my dad tell me the parts of the gun, what the use is for, how to hold the gun properly, and aiming.

"You aim for the head." He said. "Always the head."

He hands me the gun again and I reluctantly take it. My dad wraps another belt around my hip and there was this thing where you can put your gun in. My dad told me to put it there so I do.

He then grabs a knife from the ground. "This is a switchblade. You can't use your gun all the time, sounds attract those monsters. Now, you're still little so you can't just stab walkers in the head."

He placed the knife in my hands and told me how to hold it properly. "You kick the knee first and once it's down, you stab it in the head. Got it?"

I nod but still confused. "Does mom know about this?"

He shook his head. "No, but she ain't gonna do no shit about it. You're not a child anymore, Farren. You need to grow up, you can't always rely on anyone. You only rely on yourself."

I nod my head again before putting the knife in the other holster.

My dad places his hands on my shoulders, not in the comforting type. "Now, there will be one day that you're gonna have to put someone down. I need to know if you can do it."