Weak//c.g ✔️

Chapter Four

MEADOW FLETCHER AND CARL GRIMES
April 23, 2017
4:12 AM

CARL watched as Meadow looked around her camp or what was once her camp, everything was gone and she meant everything. Their car that was supposedly broke down was gone, all of it.

"Meadow?" Carl asked, she looked at him, confusion danced in her eyes, "They said our station wagon was broke down." Tears brimmed her eyes, "They wouldn't just leave Ryan and I with no explanation, they m-must have gotten overrun." Meadow and Carl looked around the camp, that was out of the question, nothing was left behind.

"Meadow, I am sorry. Truly I am, but the only tracks are from the tires of the car." Meadow shook her head, she felt her legs get weak, "They wouldn't just have left." Her voice cracked. Meadow's bow dropped out of her hand. She felt dizzy. Carl stopped her from falling, "Meadow, I need you to be strong right now, alright?"

She heard the distant growls, Carl felt panicked, he felt as if he was gonna have to leave her there to fend for herself. "Meadow, please, snap out of it!" He yelled, shaking her. Meadow shook her head, the growls becoming louder, she looked at Carl, "I'm weak without them, Carl. I need my mom and dad."

"We will find them, I promise, but right now, I need you to fight with me, okay? I need you to be sane." Meadow nodded, Carl let go of her. She bent over, picking her bow up. Carl grabbed his knife out of the holster, the walkers got closer, their horrible smell more pungent in the air. "We got this, okay?" Carl reassured her, their backs pressed together, the sound getting closer, coming from all different directions.

Meadow aimed her bow, arrow drawn back already. She took a deep breath, waiting. Soon a walker emerged from the shrubbery. She released the arrow, the arrow plunged into the walker's skull, it fell. Meadow realized she wouldn't have enough time to keep using arrows, she unholstered her knife. The walkers came fast, Meadow and Carl stayed back to back, killing anything that came close.

Carl saw an opening, "On three we run, okay Meadow?" "Okay."

"One. Two." Carl paused, stabbing a walker in the head. "Three. Go! Go!"

Meadow followed Carl, as he sprinted through the herd.

Her heart raced, she was sweating, her legs about to give any minute. Over a dozen walkers and they managed to escape. Carl stopped running, they stopped near a tall tree, "We need to push them this way, away from the house." Meadow nodded, "We bring them here and then we hide in this tree." Carl hit against the tree. "I'll bring them this way, you just gotta hide." "Let me help." Meadow said, "Let me help you." "Are you sure you're up to it?" Meadow nodded. "Okay, alright. Let's go."

They raced back towards the walkers, "Over here!" Meadow yelled. Carl whistled. The growls got louder. They caught their attention as they followed them. "We go up the road for a few more minutes, cut off and go back to that tree, they should go by." Meadow nodded, listening. "If we get split up just make it back to the house, okay?" Meadow nodded, again. They ran up the road again, the walkers still following them far behind. Carl grabbed her arm and jerked her away from the road and back into the woods, running through the woods.

The stopped by the tree, entering the hollow part, their back pressed together. They breathed heavily, listening to the walkers go by. Their hearts racing as they listened.

"We did it, Carl." She whispered. Carl smiled, "We did, didn't we?"

The sun began to rise, they got out of the tree trunk once the growls died down. Meadow looked at the sunrise, all of the colors painted across the sky. Carl watched it with her, "Every morning, I'd be the first awake, it's like an alarm in my body. I have always watched the sunrise, since the beginning and I think that's what has been keeping me sane since the beginning." Meadow said, her voice calmed.

"That's what's been keeping me sane."