WARNING  brief mention of self harm and blood.

    THE DOOR SWUNG OPEN and Luke was greeted with a blinding white light. The the first thing he heard was the disoriented sounds of a man's frantic voice, seeming to have been yelling the same thing over and over again. It wasn't until the ringing in Luke's ears passed for him to be able to understand that the man was ushering everyone to get out. Then he heard the gunshots, which were now the only thing he could hear. It was all too chaotic— especially for Luke.

    Rosalyn grabbed Luke's hand and yanked him out of the train car, pulling him into the madness. The boy wanted to stop her. He wanted to stay inside the train car. He wanted to stay away from the gunshots and the walking dead, for he was way too fragile for this. He wasn't brave enough for this. He'd never imagine thinking this before, but he'd take living in Woodbury over situations like these any day.

    He could see them now, the dead, and he found himself suppressing both the gags in his throat and the tears in his eyes. Luke forced himself into a run, because he decided that it was life or death right now, and Luke wasn't ready to die.

    Luke's eyes were fixed on the grungy feet of his mother, who had been leading the boy through the crowds of the dead. He felt as though keeping his eyes directed toward the ground would make the scene around him not real and he'd be led to safety in no time. But his fantasy was destroyed when he heard the others breaking off from the group every so often to kill, but Luke was only capable of running.

    Luke felt his heart stop when he noticed unfamiliar feet cross in front of him, and soon his head hit the concrete floor with his arms held out in front of him. A drooling, rotting walker had tackled the small boy to the ground, ready to feed off of his warm flesh. Luke's elbows were pressed against the thing's shoulders, doing his best to keep it from sinking its teeth into his face. But his arms were far too weak and he wasn't sure how long he'd be able to keep this up before other walkers caught onto the trapped meal on the ground. He tried yelling for help but the poor boy was in too much shock to do that, instead he could only gasp for air that his lungs were having a hard time giving him.

Finally Luke heard his mother scream for him, and the weight of the walker was relieved of him. Once again he felt himself being yanked up off the ground, only this time it was by the boy with the pale blue eyes and dark hair. He had yelled something, but Luke only saw his mouth moving. Then he was running again, pulled by his mother's strong arms.

When they reached a fence Luke was one of the first to climb over. One after the other they all ran into the woods where, thankfully, there were no walkers to be seen. Luke was now tired of being dragged around by other people, but decided it was best if he just let his mother do it anyways.

When they had finally stopped running Luke's pulse was dangerously high, and he found that he was having an extremely hard time breathing. He heard Rosalyn's soft voice as she told him to breath in through his nose, and out through his mouth. Gosh, if he had a dollar every time he heard that...

"Luke, listen to me. We're okay. You're okay. Just breathe." Rosalyn's face was inches from his own, as she did the only thing that could be done for her son's asthma attacks.

A sudden feeling of anger made Luke take a step back. "You know, that really doesn't help anymore. It just makes me feel pathetic." His voice was harsh and unsteady as he was still trying to catch his breath. He watched as Rosalyn stood up straight, her mouth gaping a little.

Before either of them could say anything else, the same boy with the damned pale blue eyes interrupted them. "Luke, are you okay?" He asked, just now seeing Luke trying to control his breathing.

Luke stared at the other boy for a moment. Maybe he stared for too long, but he couldn't help it. His legs went numb and he suddenly felt relaxed, his asthma attack diminishing. How is it that this one boy can clear Luke's mind of everything in an instant, when all he did was ask if his friend was alright. Luke wasn't sure if he liked it or not. "Yeah. Thank you for— you know, uh— making sure I— for pushing that thing off me."

Carl nodded a little, but responded with, "it's nothing." Luke frowned, it sure didn't seem like nothing to him, but he let it be. The group suddenly got quiet, and Luke looked up to see Rick walking towards Carol, who had not been seen in quite a while, and soon enough they were walking again.

    Luke's attention was brought to the nasty scrapes on his hands and legs, most likely from falling on the hard paved ground, and he thought about how much he wished they were all back at the prison. He imagined things would be very different from now, he knew he'd need to learn to be brave, because there would be a time when his mother wouldn't be there to comfort him, or his luck would finally run out and he'd need to fight his way out of something.

    He kept his eyes on his feet, kicking the many rocks he came across as he thought about these things. He knew his mother kept looking back at him but he was not in the greatest mood to converse, and she didn't blame him. Luke wasn't strong. He was weak minded and the littlest things could set him off, and there was nothing he could do about it. He tried so hard hiding little things from the people around him, like how ever since the world ended he never could sleep for more than an hour at a time. Or how his eyes lingered on the blades of knives a little too long, imagining how it would feel to glide the weapon across his skin and watch the deep red blood fall to the ground. He tried so hard to act normal even when the world had to gone to shit, because that's what it seemed everyone else was doing, but he couldn't bring himself to do. However, his mother was no idiot. She saw the dark circles around Luke's droopy eyes, and thought about his beautiful smile that she hadn't seen in so long. This world really took a toll on the people she loved, and she found herself constantly having to pick up pieces of her children that they would leave behind.

    Luke's walk slowed when someone beside him nudged his arm, and he looked up to see Tyrese walking out of a small cabin, holding Judith. While that made him happy, that wasn't necessarily what he cared about at the moment because beside them both was Leo, his sister. She stood with her long hair falling free, her face looking relieved as her eyes caught Luke's. Leo and them had been separated after the prison, leaving Luke to believe she was dead. Before he could think, Luke's legs were bringing him towards his sister, where he would wrap his sore arms tightly around her waist. They were shortly joined by their mother, who engulfed them both in a hug. They were safe, all three of them.

    Luke finally smiled for the first time in a long time, taking in this wonderful moment with his family. Maybe things would turn out okay, even if it's only for a little bit.