Don't Leave Me

Chapter Eighteen

A small grave for a small body.

Would the grave ever be filled?

Probably not.

An empty grave for a dead child.

Two empty graves, side by side.

One for an adult, one for a child.

Two lives lost.

Two bodies that won't be found.

Three days since the attack and no sign of pair.

"I'm sorry," Axel whispered to the tiny grave, laying a flower on top.

Seven years old.

Axel's acquaintance big Andrew killed the seven-year-old, little Andrew.

He cut the gate open and let the walkers in.

The decimated bodies were burned but there was no sign of the pair.

Carl clutched the tiny blue backpack to his chest in denial.

"He has to come back for his bag." He muttered. "He can't leave it."

Rick couldn't believe that while under his watch, another child died.

The Greene family stuck together. After losing Annette and Shawn and then Patricia and Jimmy, this was too much.

Daryl plucked two Cherokee roses, laying them on top of the freshly disturbed dirt.

Carl wanted to name the new baby Annie, the female version of Andrew.

But he couldn't.

"She's not Andrew and she won't ever be."

      

"I shot her," Carl tells Daryl. "I had too."

"I'm sorry." Daryl mumbles.

"Me too." Carl sighs.

A walker comes lumbering out of the hallway.

Daryl stands up when he notices Carol's knife stuck in its neck.

Another walker slips out behind it.

Andrew's knife stuck in its eye, but not deep enough.

Carl's lips twitched as he tried to contain his emotions.

Together, they kill the two walkers before they fall to the floor in despair.

Daryl clutches Carol's knife in his hands while Carl spins Andrew's in his.

Daryl throws her knife into a door and it creaks open.

Confused, Daryl stands up and enters the room.

"Shit!"

Carl stands up and rushes into the room after Daryl.

He understands why Daryl cussed now.