The Walking Dead: Left Behind (Carl Grimes)

Soilder

I found myself cold and hungry. I had to go back. I found the house he was staying at, and knocked. He opened the door.
"Did you find her?" He asked, with the door cracked. I just walked right inside and didn't say a word to him. I went up stairs and plopped on my bed. I couldn't sleep. But I had to. I was tired from walking, and fell into a deep sleep, but was awoken from a noise coming from the room I was in. I rubbed my eye to see clearly, and the shape of a person appeared. I got my gun and pointed it.
"Carl. Hey it's me." They said. It was her.
"Eliza?" I put my pistol down and stood up. "How did you-" I didn't finish." It doesn't matter." I embraced her. She was shocked I did that, considering how I act sometimes.
"Ya. I just scavenged around for a while and found myself here." She sat on the bed.
"Well, you probably haven't slept in a bed for a while, so you can take it. I'll sleep on the floor." I grabbed a pillow and blanket from the closet, and set it down.
"No it's okay." She said, standing up.
"No. You sleep on the bed." I said.
"Fine." She took her jacket of and laid down.
"Night Carl." She said.
"Night." I rolled over, and slept good knowing she was safe. I don't know what it was, I just felt comfortable around her. She was different. Something I never felt before. I liked the feeling though.

In the morning, I woke up with the sun shining in the bed room, and Liz laying on the bed, sound asleep. I didn't wake her, so I went down stairs quietly to my dad who was wide awake eating.
"Hey. We going to look for her today?" He asked.
"Sure." I grabbed two nutrition bars. I started for the stairs.
"Why two?" He asked.
"Uh. Just hungry." I rushed.
"Hey. Liz." I put my hand on her shoulder, and shook,
"Carl?" She rubbed her eye.
"Ya. Uh. My dad, well me and him were suppose to look for you today." I handed her a bar. "What should I do?" She sat up and opened it.
"Maybe just tell him the truth?" She started eating.
"He would literally kill me." I smiled.
"Well I guess you can just look for me. I'll go out somewhere and you meet me there with him?" She stood up.
"I guess you can go to the bush I found you at. See ya later." I started to walk down stairs.
"See ya." She went to the window and climbed down.

Later on I lead my dad around town quickly.
"Hey. Carl. We haven't looked in these houses." He said as, we passed by two houses.
"Oh. Um. Let's just keep going." I turned around the corner to see her standing by the bush, as I instructed.
"Eliza!" I ran towards her. He stood there for a minute, then headed back to the house.
"Did it work?" I whispered to her.
"I don't know. But if it didn't, he probably won't do anything." She swallowed heavily. "I hope."
We made our way back to the house, and he crashed on the couch, right after he told Liz something. I asked her what he said.
"He told me to keep an eye on you, or something. That you might run off..." She looked at me, concerned.
"Ya... Me and my dad haven't really been getting along." I started up the stairs.
"Why?" She followed.
"Well." I paused, then sat on the bed.
"When we were with our group, he was alright and everything, just worried about something really bad happening to me. I can take care of myself pretty good. He was just really over protected and would need to know everything I was doing. I guess he thought someone was gonna attack." I took my hat off.
"I mean.. In this world you kinda have to be a little protective. Especially with a baby sister." She said, then looked at me.
"I'm pretty sure she's not my sister anymore." I got upset thinking about Judith being dead. If Tyrese got there during the explosion, she is there dead like everyone else.
"Don't say that Carl. Have some hope." She said.
"Why? I don't have to be! I could go live out there on my own! I don't need him!" I stood up and paced back and forth, worked up. "Hell..." I paused. "I don't need anybody, or you." I looked out the window, thinking about what she will say about that.
"Well if you don't need anybody..." She stood up, and grabbed her bag. "I'll be on my way." She started to walk away, and me, being who I am, didn't stop her.
"And don't look for me." I heard her starting to tear up and sniffle.
"Liz.." I felt bad now, I just was over reacting.
"Eliza.." I went down after her and grabbed her arm, and she quickly turned to me, looking me straight in the eye.
"I'm.. I'm sorry for what you have been through, I couldn't handle that. I know you are strong, and I know you can handle yourself... But people like me, Rick, and maybe your group... We can't survive without someone else. I would..." She looked away, breaking our connection. "Dammit I would go insane." I wiped the tear about to fall from her cheek.
"I would to......" There was silence. A long train of thought passed both of our heads. I turned around, and sighed.
"Please stay." I walked over to the stairs, looked up, then at her. She nodded, then I went up stairs, thinking she would be right behind me. A few minutes passed, and then I heard foot steps up the stairs to me, standing in the room.
"Could we go outside for a bit." I turned to her, and nodded. I walked to the window and opened it, motioning her over to sit on the roof with me.
"It's been a while since I have, um... Since I have cared about someone." She looked out at the town, and it's destruction. I looked at her.
"What about your mom? Weren't you two just split up before we met?" I said.
"No. I didn't want to tell you I have been alone for months." She replied.
"Why? I wouldn't care. It wouldn't matter." I moved my hand closer to hers.
"See that night when me and her got split up, I had just actually found my friend that I had known for years before. We all were just walking around... Looking for food left behind. We heard the footsteps of them, and thought they were dead ones, so she walked around the corner, and two men came back around with her in there arms." She paused. " She wasn't dead... My friend. She was alive as ever, heart pounding out of her chest. They came closer towards me and my mom, and surviving means doing anything to survive, so instinct brought our guns up, but two more men can out and pointed at us. They told us to drop our weapons. So we did. They took us to a building, an empty building. My mom was first. She told us to be safe, and strong. We all knew what was happening. They were going to rape her, then kill her." A tear streamed down her face, then splashed on the tiles of the roof.
"I'm sorry." I held her hand, and we looked at each other.
"We heard the gun shot, after her screams of pain from what those dirty souls did to her. She was next, Sam was, we screamed and pleaded for our lives after they came back to the room we were locked in, with my mom dragging behind. They just threw her in there with me like a trash bag." Her hand squeezed mine, and more tears hit the tiles. "I managed to get out before she was killed. I didn't want to hear the gun shot, or her screams, but it took to long to find a way out. I heard the click of his gun, but got away before the bullet reached her head. I was to afraid to do anything, I just went. I went miles before I realized where I was. I searched for food and water, and managed to find a gun. I strived to stay alive, and made my way here. And found you and your dad." She looked at me, and I pulled her in to an embrace. She sniffled.
"I don't know why I survived. Why..Why wasn't it Sam, or my mom? Why did they take their lives and not mine?" I felt the tears hit my chest and they rolled out of her like a storm.
"Because your strong...you listened to your mom.. You stayed safe. You were like a solider." She lifted from me, and sat back up.
"They were strong to, stronger than me." She shivered.
"You need some sleep. Come on." I stood up and went back through the window, her behind me.
"Get some rest. We are going on a run tomorrow." I laid down on the floor beside the bed, and she crawled under the covers and just stared at the ceiling.
"I can still hear their screams ringing through my ears. Like it repeats it self every time I close my eyes." She rolled over to face me.
"You know... I actually had to watch my mom die." I said.
"What? You didn't tell me that..." She looked concerned.
"Ya..." I wiped my eye, reliving all the memories before the world was destroyed.
"How did she... Well.. Pass?" She asked.
"Uh.. She got shot." I replied with a jump in my voice.
"Who did it?" She asked, again.
"Well... When we were at the prison she had to have Judith in a filthy room. Maggie helped, but she bled out. She was going to turn after her last breath. Maggie told me to leave, take Judith out to my dad. But I couldn't. I said I would do it." I thought back to that moment when I made that decision. " Maggie took Judith out, and I did it... I killed her." Eliza looked at me, eyes widened.
"How could you even.... How?" She shook her head slightly.
"I closed my eyes. Thought of what would happen if I didn't, and pulled the trigger." I paused. " My dad went back later and she wasn't there. Just a bullet dent in the ground and a walker with a satisfied look on it's dead face. It ate her. And my dad ripped that thing open with an axe and couldn't live with himself if he didn't." I said. "He was a little bizarre after that. He went a little crazy. You think I would to. But I was just stronger, a new, whole different person. I don't think I would still be alive if I didn't." I looked around the room.
"Carl..." I looked back at her, immediately. "Do you want to sleep in the bed?"
"What? No. You." I said.
"No... With me." She stuttered. I was shocked.
"Uh, uhm... Sure." I took my pillow up and laid beside her, and she rolled over, so we were face to face.
"Are you afraid?" She asked.
"Of what?" I said.
"The world... Everything. People, walkers..." She bit her lip.
"Ya. I know I said I wasn't.... But I don't want to see everyone die." I replied.
"Ya. Me too." She said. There was silence once more...
"Goodnight, Carl." She smiled.
I kissed her on the forehead, and rolled over to face the wall, smiling. "Night."