IVORY | Carl Grimes

thirty-three - vexatious ;

"jessie," carl begged lowly, "come—come with us."

rick echoed his son but was drowned out by the walkers' lowly groans. the calling of the dead carried his voice away like a storm stealing a ship from the shore. even rick's clearest words could not contend with the guttural roar of the crowd behind him.

"c'mon. we have to go!"

it had not been her elder son that grabbed the blonde's shoulder to pull her towards him and away from the carnage, it had been a harbinger of death that had already moved on from her younger son's corpse. the crestfallen look in rick's eyes haunted saskia as she watched the undeads' performance with her toes curled tightly in her boots.

reality was shattering around her into pieces that resembled broken glass. the only reflection able to be produced was distorted and chipped. the surroundings were preparing to damage them beyond a point of pitiful return.

detectable even if only by moonlight, rick began to cry, "no, no." his repetition drew the attention of ron, whose wet eyes captured his burdening grief.

"dad," carl grunted, pulling on jessie's arm that had latched around his own like dead weight, "come on."

saskia turned her head quickly towards the sound of his desperate voice and tugged along with him without a budge. her muscles were tense and she could not quite swallow the thick residue in her mouth. everything was physically stuck in that very moment of time falling away into the ugly abyss of death increasing their fear tenfold.

carl glanced back at her for a second with wide eyes, uncertain of what was coming before rick gained control over his senses again and began to move. with sudden motions unlike his earlier stance rooted into the ground, the patriarch lifted his axe above his shoulders and brought it down into what was left of the flesh of the fallen blonde's wrist. blood squirted from her limb messily and without clear direction.

saskia tripped as she stepped back, finding it difficult to hear anything but the pounding of her heart reverberating in her ears as she struggled to keep herself upright. the pressure continued to build in her head even when the final swing broke the hold between jessie's hand in carl's. he fell backwards immediately after, stumbling to regain his lost footing. the gun enclosed in jessie's pocket dropped with her body and hid among the gray fighting to conquer either the black or white—no longer mingling between—as saskia reached for the lost weapon.

her fingers were merely inches away from curling around the handle before it was grabbed from beneath her. she dug her nails into the palm of her hand as she looked up and met ron's steely gray eyes. saskia's jaw clenched and her bottom lip grew numb as it curled into her teeth.

time was deviously against their side. the construct taunted the group as it unconsciously began its infamous, agonizing act.

mist shuddered against blades of grass carelessly destroyed under greedy hands. tick. fragments of gravel recoiled at the cacophony of boots leaving a flattening imprint upon leveling out. tock.