The Youngest Greene (Carl Grimes fan fiction)

Chapter 35

'Hold on. Hold on to something. You're slipping off the edge into the darkness. Hold on.'

I watch as they wrap her body up with a white sheet, covering her bitten neck and the bullet hole through her head. I watch as someone carries me over to the hole they dug in the ground and sets me on the ground.

They lower her body into the ground and cover her body with dirt.

I picture that my life is me walking on a balance beam. If I slip off the edge I will be gone forever. And I have slipped off and am hanging on by my finger tips.

'You've got to hold on, hold on, hold on.'

My song from so long ago plays.

'Congratulations, you've had a girl.'

'Maggie, watch your sister!'

'You looked so beautiful up there dancing, Anna.'

'Oh, all the comrades that e'er I had
They're sorry for my going away
And all the sweethearts that e'er I had
They'd wish me one more day to stay'

I stare blankly at the ground where she lays. I can tell people say a few words about her. I know people hug me and tell me they are sorry. I know people cry. Someone puts a cross into the ground above her grave. I sit with my legs crossed on the cool grass and watch.

''Well, God bless your crooked little heart, St. Louis got the best of me.'

The day turns into night. Someone tries to talk to me but I don't hear their words. And then they try to pick me up and bring me inside.

I pull my gun out of my belt and point it at Rick. He drops his hands and lets me stay.

Everyone is gone but Carl after that. Carl stands with his gun out, watching over me. He doesn't say a word.

'But, inside your head there's a record
That's playing, a song called hold on.'

'I wish you weren't my sister, Maggie! I wish you had never been born!'

'Maybe one day this will all make sense. But for now all I can do is try to protect you and your sister as best as I can.'

'Daddy, Mom, Maggie, Shawn.'

'You're the youngest Greene. The baby.'

'You haven't lost enough people yet.'

'Catch you on the flip side.'

It's been hours, yet I haven't shed a tear. There's something dangerous about shutting your emotions off. You start to fall. And you can feel yourself slip over the edge and into the
darkness. The darkness consumes you. Takes over every inch of your entire being. It's fills your heart.

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I'm not sure how much time has passed when Glenn sits down beside me on the ground.

"I'm so sorry, Anna. I tried. I tried to protect her and I couldn't do it." He whispers.

He grabs my limp hand and opens it, placing something cool and shiny into my hand.

"I want you to keep her ring." Glenn says.

I barely even tare my eyes away from her grave. I slip the cool metal onto my finger and don't look up at all. The ring is a little to big for me. I twist it around and around my finger. I don't listen to anything else that he says.

After a while I can't keep my eyes open anymore so I lie down on the cool damp ground and fall asleep

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I wake up with my head on Carls lap. I'm curled up in a little ball. My muscles feel cold and cramped.

I glance up at him just for a second and we make eye contact. I then go back to looking at the grave through the dark night. But my switch has been turned back on just from looking in his eyes and I can't hold it back anymore.

I start crying. The kind of crying that makes you lose your breath because you're sobbing so hard. The kind of crying that can be heard from the four corners of the earth.

Carl hugs me and rubs my arm and runs his hands through my hair until I've cried all my tears. My stomach hurts from crying and my eyes feel puffy.

"I love you." Carl whispers to me. "And when you're ready to talk, I'm listening."

His words pull me back up onto the balance beam and I can feel myself keep walking along it, off balance and shaky.

I want to answer him and tell him that I love him more. But I'm not ready to talk yet.

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In the world where the dead start walking, It can affect you in three ways. The first way is it can make you stronger, the second way is it can break you, and the third, it can corrupt you.

Some people were made stronger, like Daryl, Michonne, Rick, etc.

Some people the world corrupted. Philip Blake, the people of Terminus, you get the point.

And the majority of people are broken.

I realize now that there actually is a fourth way it can affect you; it can literally shut you down.

My father once told me after I was hurt badly that my body could not handle the pain, so I fainted. But this pain is not like an injury. It will never go away. And so my body has shut down, trying desperately to protect itself, but let's face it. There is no going back.

I am no longer the youngest Greene, I am the last surviving Greene.

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