Put down the gun, put down the gun.
No, was all I could think.

Carl Grimes is out with his father and the others kicking ass in the zombie apocalypse when Carl finds a girl. Her name is Carter, and she's one hell of a shot. Carl sees the gold in Carter and let's her tag along with the group. But Carl somehow ends up falling in love with her. As everybody clambers for civilization they stumble upon a military fort. Rick says its Fort Sumpter and Carl agrees. What will this come to?

Rick stared up at the sky. The whole group was stuck in a small restaurant, and Rick was on guard. He'd decided that it was too stuffy in there and it was giving him a headache, so he'd gone outside and now looked at the sky. He'd never seen the stars clearer. With no light pollution, no gases, the atmosphere clean, and this far out in the country, you could see the stars as if they were 2 feet in front of you. Rick decided that that was one good thing the apocalypse had stirred up. Less pollution. Rick had great memories he tried to hold onto from before civilization's downfall. But he was happy with the people he was with- the people in his group. He'd lost people- and it was hard. But this group was all he had left. Speaking of the group... The group made up of Abraham, Glenn, Carol, Maggie, Michonne, Daryl, Carl, Rick, and Judith.

"Hey," the voice scared Rick, and he turned his head to see Carl.

Carl looked at his father with respect, although the respect had been lost, regained, lost, regained, lost again, and regained again.

"You scared me," Rick said.

"Sorry," Carl replied, although not actually sorry.

"What's wrong?" Rick asked.

Why did everything have to be about what's wrong? Carl wondered. "Nothing. Just... Can't sleep."

"You should watch Judith," Rick said.

"Carol has Judith," Carl said.

Rick sighed. "It isn't safe out here."

"Isn't any safer in there. If we get trapped in there, it'll be bad. Probably it's safer out here, and you know that." Carl shrugged.

Rick thought of every time he'd been trapped- especially the city. Rick shuddered.

"What's wrong?" Carl asked, seeing his dad's new mood.

"Just thinking of the city- we were surrounded... by thousands of walkers." Rick said. Carl had heard the story many times. It was a miracle his dad had lived.

"Yeah, I know..." Carl said. "And Glenn said there were walkers in the sewers."

"Yeah, which is pretty... Odd..." Rick said. "It's scary they could be anywhere like that."

A walker wondered out of an open door across the street, hearing Rick and Carl's conversation. He looked around, cocking his head back and forth. The thing wasn't a threat. It was only one, after all. And it was pretty far away.

Carl sat down beside his father. "Look what I found." He popped the top off of a can of Dr. Pepper.

"Where'd you find that?" Rick asked.

"Inside. There's a whole box of 'em- a 24 count box." Carl smirked.

"Nice." Rick said.

"There's also $50 in the cash register." Grinned Carl. He brought the wad of cash out of his pocket.

"Carl, why'd you take it?" Rick asked.

"Because I wanted to feel like a regular teenager- some money in my pocket." He smirked.

"I don't think regular teens would've had $50 in there pockets... Maybe 10 or 15..." Rick smiled.

"Well, it's not exactly $50... It's actually $50.72." He brought the coins out next. They jingled in his hand.

Rick rolled his eyes in the fatherly jokingly way. He smiled, as he watched the Walker across the street wonder around aimlessly. Then the Walker tripped over the curb and fell on his face. His intestines fell out of his stomach in the gap where he'd been eaten while he was still alive.

"Ew," Carl said. What has our world turned to? Carl thought.

Suddenly, a huge bang let out. It was obviously a few miles away.

The Walker across the street shot his head up, and Carl could see a red streak across the sky.

"A flare," Rick said. Carl watched the Walker across the street begin trotting towards the flare.

"How far away?" Carl asked.

"Maybe 3 miles..." Rick said. "We'd better go inside and be quiet. More walkers will come and pass the restaurant."

"Ok," Carl agreed. "We'd better lock up and keep Judith quiet."

"Yeah," Rick agreed. Rick held the door open for Carl before going in himself, and locking the door. The curtains on the windows were closed.

Carl took a spray paint bottle that was on the restaurant. Carl shook the bottle and then on the wall and wrote God protect us, and forgive the dead.

Rick exhaled and got back on his pallet. Some of the group members stirred, and Judith's eyebrows moved. Rick smiled upon her in Carol's arms.

Daryl rolled over, and let out a groan, before jerking the covers back over his shoulders.

Carl crawled under his covers and watched his father, wondering about his mother, about Shane. What if his father hadn't of made it back to camp? Would his mom still be alive? Would Shane be his dad? Would it have been better? What if Shane had killed Dad?

That would've been bad, he decided. Really bad. He wanted his real dad more than Shane. He remembered the worry, and how he missed his dad. His mom missed Rick too, but she tried to make the best of it for Carl... It was still hard for Carl to believe that his mother had cheated on Rick.

Another flare rung out in the distance, and Glenn and Daryl's eyes shot open.

"Shh," Rick said. "It's a flare, 3 miles or so away."

Daryl and Glenn inhaled and sat up, watching for walkers and helping Rick father on guard duty from their pallets.

"God forgive the dead..." Carl whispered. "God forgive them..."