Walk of Love » Carl Grimes

Prolouge

Hailey.

"Stay behind me. Don't wonder off somewhere else." I said looking back at my little brother who was kicking dirt around with his now dirty shoe.

His face showed exhaustion. He had driplets of sweat rolling down the side of his face and on his small forehead. His cheeks had a slight hint of red upon them but besides that, his face was pale.

"I'm tired, Hailey. Can't we rest?" He groaned lightly and stopped walking.

I shook my head and motioned my hand forward, signalling to follow. Deeper into the woods trying to find the road.

"But we've been walking for two hours!" He stomped his feet on the ground and crossed his arms across his chest. His arms were covered in blood but not as much as mine. I would do most of the work in killing those things. Today was his lucky day in killing one, a crawling one, that is.

I immediately gave in and nodded as he threw his backpack off his tiny shoulders to the ground, making the fallen branches on the ground break beneath it.

I realized how tired I was throught out all that walking as a unexpected, relieved sigh escaped my lips as I sat down. I can't imagine how he must be feeling.

I closed my eyes and let my body lean backwards against the tree behind me. Instantly relaxing as my back came in contact with the tree.

I heard my little brother giggle. My eyes peeled open and stared at the little kid with a smile on his face. "What's so funny?" I smiled.

"You looked funny when you closed your eyes like that. You looked weird." He laughed. I nodded and grinned at him.
Gosh, people can make this kid laugh without doing anything. I can't believe he even smiles in this damn cruel world.

"Are you thirsty?" I asked him, looking at his chapped lips. He licked both his lips and opened and closed them, making a pop sound.

"A little."

I chuckled and rolled my eyes playfully. "We'll go search for a house and check it out, for some water."

He nodded and looked down at the ground, letting his heavy eyelids fall as his head leaned against a tree across from me.

I scanned the empty woods, looking for those things, but there weren't any. Not one. Just crunchy old leaves laying on the ground, waiting to be stepped on, rough dirt to be played with in this now hideous world, and trees, tall trees to be climbed on or lean on just to catch a breath and continue your way to find safety.

I grabbed one of the old leaves from a pile beside me, each leaf on top of another. I hold it in my fingertips and and tore it apart slowly.

Just how those things tore my family apart from us. From me. From my little brother. So rapidly, just one bite, and they're gone. They're one of them.

I grabbed another after another and kept doing the previous process until they weren't anymore. I let the last few pieces of the old leaves fall from my hand into a new pile of discolored shred of leaves.

Crunch.

My head snapped up, looking around the woods, trying to track down where the sound came from. I glanced at my little brother to see he was sound asleep. I kept looking around the woods, holding onto my knife tightly.

Crunch. Crunch.

The sound came behind me. I reacted quickly as possible and stood up, reaching for one of my arrows and sliding it out, the bow facing the ground with the arrow notched. I drew my bow as I brought it up to my face. Aiming it to anyone who tried to harm us.