PART THREE

Not long after Carl and Elide ran off, Ron, Michonne, Gabriel, and Rick followed, holding an injured Deanna in his arms.

It was beyond anyone's comprehension how everything could have gone so wrong; a week ago everything was great and now they were losing everything they had worked so hard to gain.

Carl and Elide shot most of the walkers out of the way as best they could, but there were more and more. No matter which way the girl turned, it was a nightmare.

It was the same as it had been then. Walkers everywhere she looked. Screaming, blood, sweat; there was no way out and that realisation made Elide shudder.

Carl next to her turned to Elide and noticed her breathing quicken to double. Her eyes had widened and her hand had tightened around her gun.

Carl said nothing to her, instead taking her hand and squeezing it tightly, causing her to wake from her stupor. Startled, she looked at her hands and then up at Carl, who gave her a look of at least equal panic.

But that was as far as the two of them could stay, because walkers surrounded the small group and forced them even closer together. Elide shot two walkers in the head with her last ammunition, but immediately new dead ones took the place of the walkers she had just killed.

But suddenly some of the walkers were shot in the head and a way opened up. "Come on, I have Judith!" It was Jessie.

Carl was the first to run and as he was still holding Elide's hand he automatically pulled her with him. Once everyone was safe Rick slammed the door shut and held it firmly shut with the other adults until they could put something against it.

While Rick took Deanna upstairs to a bed, Elide ran into the kitchen and, after sitting down on the floor, leaned against the kitchen island.

Her head fell automatically into her hands as she drew her knees up and took shaky breaths in and out. Slowly the adrenaline left her body and she felt all the pain and all the things they had done come back to her.

Her heart ached and there was an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She didn't know where Daryl was, or how Maggie or Carol were doing. No one knew who had survived or who still needed help out there. This was all a disaster and Elide wasn't ready to lose her family again.

When someone sat down next to her she already knew who, just by the smell.

Carl had seen Elide move away from the group and went to her. He had missed her the last few days and wanted to be near her, especially now that she was clearly not well.

Elide lifted her head and immediately met Carl's bright blue eyes.

"Don't worry, El, we'll all make it out alive. My dad will make sure of that," he said, placing his hand unsteadily on her knee. Barely noticeable, the girl flinched as a pleasant warmth immediately emanated from that spot and her heartbeat increased unhealthily.

Elide forced a smile onto her dry lips before, not knowing if it was right, she placed her hand on top of Carl's. He couldn't help smiling and the butterflies in his stomach couldn't be still either.

"Thank you, Carl. I think it's good that you always try to see the positive, I really do. But I think this time it won't be as easy as you think," she breathed sadly and looked at the teenager's hands, which still rested on her knee.

"Why not? My dad has found a way out of worse situations," he replied confidently. And he was right about that, of course; Rick was more experienced than all these people here put together. He had already saved this group from so many dangerous situations.

Elide sighed and reluctantly removed her hand from Carl's as she moved away slightly and leaned to the other side so that she was now sitting directly in front of Carl, looking him in the eye.

"Rick might be able to protect us. But what about Maggie, Daryl, Rosita, Carol and all the others out there?"

Carl bit his lip and avoided looking at Elide. He just didn't want to believe that this time nothing was going to be okay; That someone was going to die today.

"I hope as much as you do that everything will be okay, Carl. But when the time comes and we have to give up, I'll be ready for it. What about you?"

Carl shook his head and stood up, which Elide did the same. "No. I'm going to fight and so are you. We've come so far and there's still so much I want to tell you and show you. So much Judith needs to see."

He stepped a little closer to Elide and it seemed as if both teens held their breaths at the same time, blocking out everything around them.

"Promise me you'll fight. With me."

Elide knew what he was getting at and shook her head gingerly, looking away. "Carl..."

"No, please. I don't want to give up, but if I know you don't want to fight in the first place..." Carl lifted his hand and brushed a loose strand of Elide's dark hair behind her ear, making her gasp softly. Instantly her cheeks flushed and Carl's cheeks didn't stay colourless either.

"I promise," she finally breathed, closing her eyes to surrender to Carl's touch. He now placed his hand gently against her cheek and came a little closer. The feeling was intoxicating and Elide felt really safe for the first time in a long time since she had been through so much.

She opened her eyes and saw how close Carl was to her by now. His eyes were dilated while his breathing was rapid. Elide also felt this tension between them and wanted nothing more for Carl to come even closer to her. Tense, Elide leaned against the counter as Carl was already almost touching her with his upper body. "You have to promise too," Elide whispered, which made Carl gulp.

As close as he was to her right now, that was one of the best feelings he'd felt since he'd known her. Her skin literally glowed under his hand and he wanted to feel her lips on his. These thoughts frightened him inwardly, for he had never asked for anything like this before.

"I promise, El," he breathed and was about to place his lips slowly and gossamer on hers when a loud noise from the garage made them both stop their movements. Carl slowly let go of her and looked in wonder at the slightly open door.

He ran to it and was bright red in the face just thinking about what had almost just happened. His emotions were going crazy and even Elide, who was running behind him with soft knees, had to collect herself.

The two teenagers ran into the garage and found Ron inside, standing at the table.

Confused, Carl glanced back at Elide, who only shrugged back.

"Ron?" Carl sounded cautious, which was a pretty good idea. Because even if Carl didn't see much danger in Ron, you didn't really know what was going on inside a person.

Elide turned and closed the door to the garage so Ron knew he could talk to them privately.

"Hey, you all right, man?"

"Enid's dead," came the muffled sound from Ron, who put his head in his hands. "We're all dead."

Elide watched as Carl tried to think of something that would make Ron feel better. He was visibly devastated and doubted as much as Elide that this whole thing wouldn't work.

Carl exhaled loudly and took a step towards Ron. Elide continued to stand by the door, her hand hovering inches above her knife in case of emergency that Ron would do something stupid.

"Look, my dad's gonna figure something out. He always does."

Ron jumped up from his position and came close to Carl, causing Elide to immediately run behind Carl.

"That's bullshit," Ron hissed, tears visible in his eyes.

"Your dad's just gonna get more people killed," Elide felt an icy chill run down her spine. "'Cause that's what he does. That's who he is. Your dad's a killer," he murmured, blinking vigorously as more tears found their way out.

Carl felt a rage inside him that he only felt a few times in the same way, because of Elide. Because of his family. And he would never let anyone call Rick a killer; Rick had a reason for each of those people to die. He wanted to protect his people and if Carl were in his place, he would do the same.

"So was yours," however, Carl simply replied. It amazed Elide how calm Carl was; she herself was seething with anger inside.

"We need to work this out-," Carl was immediately interrupted.

"I'm dead, Carl. My mom is dead. My brother is."

Elide bit her inner cheek.

"No. They're not," Carl replied. "We're gonna make it."

Elide watched quite closely as Ron was unconvinced by Carl. He walked to the door and actually Elide assumed he was leaving.

"You're both dead too," he said after locking up and pulling a gun out of the blue from his pants. Elide reacted quickly, but Carl was quicker.

He pushed Ron to the ground, which caused the gun to fall out of his hand and land far away on the floor. Elide froze as the two boys fell against the shelf. Carl managed to avoid Ron, but at the latest when he had a shovel in his hand and hit Carl, Elide pulled out her knife.

Carl was standing at the door and could not avoid it, but Ron still struck and luckily only hit the glass window on the door. Elide took advantage of this situation and reached behind Ron to hold the knife to his neck.

Carl nodded at her and immediately panicked as a dozen walkers were attracted by the noise and now brutally tried to get through the door.

"Carl!"

Rick's voice kept yelling the children's name, however they had a much bigger problem.

Carl pushed the shelf in front of the door and pushed against it, which caused Elide to let go of Ron and help Carl, but immediately as she did, the door opened.

Carl let go of the cupboard and ran to the door, Ron did the same. Elide wanted to go after it too and cursed herself as she went back and picked up Carl's hat. "El, come on!"

Elide ran as fast as she could to the door and immediately fell into Carl's arms, who pulled her to him.

Gabriel and Michonne, meanwhile, had fetched a sofa, which they braced against the door with all their strength.

Carl noticed that Rick needed help, so he also braced his weight against the sofa. Elide tried to calm down again and decided to keep an eye on Ron.

"We need more. And we need to be quite," Rick said in a loud whisper.

"I'll see what I can find." Michonne ran into another room with Gabriel.

"Hey, what happened in there," Rick wanted to know from Carl and Elide, his gaze going back and forth between the two teenagers. Elide swallowed and looked at Carl, who shook his head ever so slightly before turning to his father.

"We were looking for tools and knocked over a shelf," he explained, and it almost made Elide smile how quickly Carl could lie, even though his dad was a cop.

"We heard yelling," Jessie interjected suspiciously.

"Yeah, Ron saw them break through the gates. We had to move. That's what happened."

Elide nodded her head quickly as Rick turned to her scrutinisingly. Her heart was pounding with excitement.

"Carl, Elide, there's nightstands in my mom's room," Ron said to the two of them, for which he collected a confused look from Elide. Carl, on the other hand, remained completely calm.

"Hey, it sounded like you were fighting," Jessie interjected again.

"Yeah, we were fighting them!"

Ron ran off to his mother's room, which is why Elide followed him, and shortly after Carl came into the room and closed the door behind him.

He unlocked his gun and pulled Elide behind him. Rolling her eyes, Elide sighed as Carl again pushed her backwards, pretending she couldn't defend herself, but the feel of his large hand closing around her thin wrist kept her from doing something stupid.

"Hand me the gun, grip first," Carl demanded, aiming the pistol squarely at Ron, who turned around, visibly overwhelmed.

"Guys, I'm sorry."

Elide gently disentangled himself from Carl and stepped out from behind his shadow.

"We know that, Ron. Just give us the gun." Her soft voice entered Ron's head and caused him to step forward and hand Carl his gun.

"Look, man, I get it," Carl began as he put his gun away. "My dad killed your dad, but you need to know something. Your dad was an asshole."

Elide exhaled audibly and stifled a grin. She didn't feel sorry for Ron, she just found it sad that he didn't understand what an abusive idiot his father was. But as she had said from the beginning, weak people wouldn't make it and maybe today was the day that fact would be proven.

Ron gave Carl a look that would have definitely killed him, were that possible, before leaving the room, nudging Elide's shoulder in the process.

The door slammed loudly, leaving Carl and Elide alone in the room. Silhouettes of the walkers could be seen at the windows, groaning as they scratched at them.

"You okay?" Carl wanted to know as he turned to her.

"Yeah. I always knew there was something wrong with him," Elide quipped, prompting Carl to playfully punch her in the shoulder.

She laughed too and then lowered her gaze to her shoes. They were completely filthy, though you could hardly tell by the way they were so brown.

"We'll make it."

Elide looked up into Carl's blue eyes.

"But if we don't make it, Carl, I want you to know that I-," immediately the boy interrupted her.

"No, no goodbyes. We'll all get out alive."

"But Carl-," again Elide couldn't finish.

"No. I'm not even listening to you," Carl purred, his hands covering his ears.

Laughing, Elide shook her head and put Carl's hat back on, which she had been holding in her right hand the whole time.

And before she stood up straight again, she gathered all her courage and pressed a kiss to Carl's cheek. Under her lips his skin felt so damn soft she was afraid her heart would explode.

Carl's heart stopped as he slowly lowered his arms and stared wide-eyed at Elide, who smiled shyly at him with red cheeks.

Never would he have thought that Elide, the girl who initially pushed everyone away, now kissed him on the cheek and actually liked him...In a way he was proud of that and he was even prouder that he knew Elide.

"Come on, let's join the others," she said softly, nodding outside.

"Yeah," Carl breathed and smiled.

If he'd known it might be the last time he enjoyed a moment like this with Elide, he would have taken any chance he had.

__

okay, I just haven't updated anything since April, but I also had zero motivation oop.

hopefully it'll be faster now - plus I want to change all the gifs in each chapter too - I just don't like the designs

feel free to check out my new Star wars story !!!

-ally