SETTLE! » the walking dead

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Chapter 1

   You can never know how a person will react to something you say or do. Everyone is different and its all very... confusing. Emotions in general are confusing, and I honestly wish I didn't have to deal with them, I wish I could be freed from my heart.

   One of my most emotional memories was watching my parents get ripped apart by walkers right in front of me. One of the worst parts of being eidetic is that you can not get gruesome images like that out of your mind. It remains there so that everytime you close your eyes, you witness it again all over again.

   I remember the screams. Maybe they were my parent's, maybe Carson's, maybe even mine. They just wanted to save us. We were all that mattered to them.

   The crunch as a walker bit into the skin of my parents seemed to echo inside of my head as if I were in a cave, a cave that I could never escape.

   You never forget something such as that. The picture of your older sibling dragging you out of your childhood home to save your life is something that remains stuck in your mind for an eternity.

   The tears stay redding your eye and falling to your chin no matter how happy you become. Your feet still feel exhausted from the sprinting to your safety. The feeling never leaves your heart. The pain feeds on the remainder of your soul. Pain becomes you, and in my case, death befriends you.

    Feeling a hand placed on my shoulder, I jumped out of my thoughts. Quickly recognizing that water had welled up in my eyes and was beginning to stream down my face, I wiped at them.

    Show no weakness. Ever.

    Gazing up, I saw Carl was the one who broke me out of my thoughts. I tried to smile at him as best as I could while he took a seat on the bench in front of me and slightly smiled back.

    Carl stated, "Enid told me you were probably here. Is this your new secret hideout since my dad and Carson discovered the last one."

   I shrugged and replied, "I feel as though it is rare to not be bothered with problems while in this group, and this is one of the only spots in Alexandria that no adult has yet discovered  nor has any hope to discover."

   Adults had no hope of discovering the room because it was in the basement of a building outside of the walls that one wouldn't even be able to acknowledge without specific steps to get down in there.

   Even if an adult were to figure out the way in, they would need to crawl through a small hole to get in. Enid had apparently found this place in the first few months of her arrival in Alexandria and made sure that it was adult-proof.

   Carl glanced around at the minimalistic design of the basement before complimenting, "This is a great place. Enid has a knack for finding great hiding spots."

   I smirked and then questioned, "So... You and Enid? Is that a thing that is happening?"

   Basically turning into a tomato, Carl stared down at him feet before stumbling out a sentence.

   "Uh... I guess... I kinda -uh- like her? I-i don't know. D-do you think she...likes me back?"

   Laughing, I responded with, "Jeez C-c-c-carl get it out. I can tell you with almost 99% certainty Enid likes you back. She just doesn't show it because she doesn't want to love so that she doesn't have to lose. I think everyone can understand that mindset."

   Carl smiled brightly but then swiftly stood up before asking, "What time is it? We were supposed to be at that town meeting at five."

    Rushing to return all my stuff to its original placement I inquired, "What time did you head down here?"

    Carl quickly aided me in putting everything back where it came from as he answered, "four fifty, I think."

    "Fuck," I muttered before speaking up, "It takes approximately ten minutes just to get down here and then we were probably talking for a few minutes. And now it is going to take about another ten minutes back up. Basically, we are going to be late no matter how fast we manage to run."

   Carl sighed in frustration and then began climbing through the small break in the wall and attempting to get to the meeting as soon as he could. I followed swiftly and took a shortcut to catch up to him.

   We soon got to the meeting, but we were approximately twenty minutes late and the meeting had started without us. We quickly and silently took our seats and listened into the meeting.

   "Our farming efforts will pay off. We need more land though, so we will need to expand if we have any hope to survive the following years. This lifestyle may not be as easy as your previous one, but I can tell you that I have hope for our futures. For our kid's futures. Farming will not be our only struggle. After the recent attacks, we need more people who are trained to fight. We-"

   Carson tapped my shoulder and whispered, "Why were you so late? You know these things are important."

   In an argumentative tone, I whispered back, "I could care less about this place. No matter what happens, we will never be safe. The people here can say and do whatever they want, but it won't change the fact that we are going to be targeted and wiped out."

   I turned back around only to notice that everyone was staring at me inventively. I sighed as they all sent daggers at me through their eyes.

   Rick approached me and held out his hand to help me off of the stands. I stood up and waited for him to say something, anything.

   I was being stared down as Rick questioned, "Why do you think this?"

   After taking a breath, I quickly thought of a way to explain my reasoning as I faced all of the residents of Alexandria.

   I responded harshly, "The 'safer' we become, the more powerful we become. Those people out there are fucking monsters. Monsters who would love more than anything to come in here and take over. They don't care how it affects us. We have electricity, we have water, we have walls. That's what they want. This food idea? They'll take it and force us to do all of the labor. I know the type of people outside of the wall, I was those people for a long time. They will either control us or they will slaughter us, so I could care less about helping. I would rather not meet death tomorrow."

   Everyone looked shocked, they were speechless, it seemed. I only remained standing there for a second before stomping away to my house. On the way there, I heard the whispers echoing through the night from the meeting. Now they were afraid of me. Just like everyone else.

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A/N: okay, so, I restarted this because I did not like the direction it was heading in, but I like this a little more. I actually have a plan now. I hope you enjoyed!