Weak//c.g ✔️

Chapter Three

MEADOW FLETCHER AND CARL GRIMES
April 23, 2017
3:36 AM

"I would be a junior in high school right now, enjoying the prom and the early college classes." Meadow laughed at herself, Ryan half-grinning, Carl smirking, "The prom?" He asked, "You don't seem the type."

"Well, I mean, It is an apocalypse, it could change anyone." Meadow looked down, "Before, I was quiet, scared of everything." She swallowed, thickly, "But then one day it just changed." Meadow shrugged her shoulders, "After I hurt a man." Ryan looked at Meadow, his eyes sharp, looking at her as his stare dug into her like daggers, "Mi, don't." "Why not? It happened, it's not like I'm proud of what I did to him. If I could go back and change it, I would, in a heartbeat."

"I killed a kid, almost a year back." Carl spoke up, "He was a bit older than me, not by much." He looked over at his dad, back towards the teens, "He was with the same guy we just recently fought, again. The uh kid, he was giving up with weapon and I still shot him. Point blank in the head, like it was nothing." Carl cleared his throat. Ryan looked at him, nervous.

"The man was scavenging, looking around our camp, at the time. He didn't have any weapons, in fact, he had nothing." Meadow gazed at Carl, "I was fourteen, my dad just gave me a pistol for my birthday. I saw him, the guy, he had his arms raised in a surrender. Kept saying he was looking for something to eat, he was dirty, missing a part of his ear, He began to walk closer to me and I shot him. I was so proud of it at first but then after I felt like shit."

Carl looked at Meadow, their eye contact not breaking, "You felt threatened, that's not your fault." "So did you." Meadow said.

"Look at us, a couple of murderers." Carl chuckled, Meadow bite back the laughter, looking down. Ryan looked out of place, he just stared at them.

"Mom and Dad should've been back hours ago." Meadow said, looking at Ryan. "Give it another thirty, we can go looking for them then."

Meadow nodded. "Where were you guys going?" "Anywhere at this point." Ryan said, his voice sounding sad, "Just a place to really stick."

"We had a place, it was the prison, miles up the road, we cleared it, had running water, food, a place to sleep. But then this man came along, the Governor, he tried taking it all away, he did this time."

Meadow looked away, listening to the crickets in the corner. Chirping. She found tranquility with this.

It wasn't an awkward silence. It was comforting to Meadow. Carl on the other hand had thought he did something wrong.

"What school did you go to, Carl?" Ryan asked. "King County Middle School."

"No shit." Ryan huffed out a breath of air, "Our schools were rivals." He smirked. "Y'all played a mean game of basketball, I'll give you that."

"Heard your track team was okay." Carl smirked. Meadow rolled her eyes, listening to the boys bicker back and forth about sports.

At least forty minutes passed by, Meadow felt her body forcing her up, grabbing her bow and arrow, "Where you going?" Carl asked. "What does it look like? My parents still aren't back. I'll be back, you guys stay here, just in case they get back."

"Let Carl go with you, I'll stay here, watch his dad." Ryan said. Meadow nodded, Carl looked at his dad, standing up. "If anything happens, anything, please, let me do it." Ryan nodded, "I'll try my best."

Meadow and Carl went out of the house door. They started to go towards where the Fletcher's had their camp set up.

"I would've been a senior in highschool." Carl said, trying to spark up a conversation. "Is that so?" He nodded his head, "Would've went to the prom with a girl I thought was cute, played baseball, maybe wrestle. I definitely would've been a great student in science." Meadow listened, "But instead I'm hunting, killing things that used to be human, and sometimes killing people."

"Survival." Meadow said, "It's for survival."
Carl nodded.

"Cheers to surviving."