Winter Pt 7

Carl Grimes tapped his pencil on the table and stared blankly at the textbook in front of him. He’d loved school before the world went to shit. Now he couldn’t imagine why in the hell he had to still attend it. So what if he could accurately identify the subject in a sentence or properly use participles? So what if he knew facts about the Civil War. Would knowledge of fractions, or memorization of the periodic table save his ass if he was surrounded by a pack of flesh eating zombies?

All around him kids of varying ages worked on their lessons without question. Even Beth sat scribbling notes as Mrs. Jennings lectured on history. Did none of them see how pointless it all was? Marva Jennings looked over at Carl and paused in her lecture. Their eyes met and Carl didn’t bother to hide his annoyance. He had nothing against her personally but he objected to having to waste time on school when they could be doing something useful…like saving his father.

“That’s it for the Renaissance,” Mrs. Jennings said. “I want you to write a two page, single space report on chapters six through ten. It’s due on Monday morning. Before you get out your math books for Mr. Barry’s class, I have a little something I want to talk to you about.”

The students paused in their shuffling of books and waited for Mrs. Jennings to speak just as Mr. Barry took a seat behind her.

“By show of hands, how many of you here feel that school is pretty much a dumb idea in the end of the world?”

Carl was the first to raise his hand. He was also put off that he was that easy to read. After a few moments of waiting, a lot of the other kids raised their hands too, except Beth, and that really annoyed Carl.

“I don’t blame you for thinking that way,” said Mrs. Jennings. There was no anger in her voice when she spoke, but there was a touch of sadness. “Look how hard life has become. Life expectancy is short. Let’s be honest here: we could die at any time. So why bother with remembering our past? Why bother learning about science and grammar and math? What good does it do us? Can anyone give me an answer to any of those questions?”

Beth raised her hand and Carl’s annoyance cooled just a bit. He liked Beth. Hell, he even thought he could love her. He certainly respected her and he always liked to hear what she had to say.

“Beth, tell us what you think.”

“We need math to help us learn to measure and count so we can build things. We can use science to try to understand the world around us, especially the virus that makes us into walkers when we die. We need history to remember who we used to be.”

Mrs. Jennings nodded with a look of pride on her face. “Those are all true statements, Beth. We need to keep education alive so that we don’t go backwards. We need to move forward and we can’t do that if our children can’t read or write. We can’t have architects without math,” Mrs. Jennings added, looking back at Mr. Barry with a smile that he returned. “We can’t understand our world without science. Most importantly, we need to remember history so we remember, as a people, who we were and where we can go. So for those of you who think school is a waste of time remember these things. You guys are the future of humanity. We can’t hope to survive in any meaningful fashion without education. That was true before the apocalypse and it’s even truer now. I have one more assignment for extra credit. I want you all to submit ideas on how we can fortify our home to make it safer against the walkers who pile up at the fences. Come up with emergency plans, including drawings of the prison, to deal with something like fires, flooding, and invasions by the walkers. That’s it for my class. Now get your math books out and be ready for Mr. Barry’s class.”

Beth looked over her shoulder at Carl. She smiled and his face warmed, partly from embarrassment, partly from affection.

Mr. Barry came to the front of the room and picked up the chalk to write some problems on the board. “All right, class, today we’re continuing our studies of fractions…”

*****

The first shot almost took Maggie’s head off. She dropped behind a tree as another bullet passed close enough to ruffle her hair. She wanted to keep moving but she was too scared. She knew that literally, at any second, she could take a shot that brought her life to an end.

Her father, sister, and Glenn were first in her mind. They would be devastated if she died.

“Maggie!”

“Glenn!”

She caught sight of him. He was in the base of a rotted tree. Bullets were blowing it to pieces and she feared one would come through and hit Glenn directly. Thankfully the shots came to an end.

Please, God, don’t make me watch him die.

Where the hell was Daryl? Had he been shot?

Maggie searched the woods for any sign of him but he was gone. She felt a felt a mix of worry and betrayal. Surely Daryl wouldn’t cut and run. Not Daryl of all people. He’d been too steady in too many tight spots to doubt him, but his sudden absence worried her.

The shots stopped. Maggie looked around, feeling snow slip into the waistband of her pants, turning her warm skin cold.

“Do you see anything?”

Glenn shook his head. He had a pained look on his face that concerned Maggie.

“Are you okay?”

“My arm. I’ve been grazed. I’m okay, though.”

“Wait.”

He thrust a hand up, urging her to stay put. “Don’t! Stay where you are.”

Maggie waved her hand outside the safety of the tree, expecting a shot to ring out, but there was nothing. She didn’t trust that her would-be killer wouldn’t take a shot at her if she moved to Glenn’s side.

“Please, Maggie, don’t. I’m okay.”

“I can’t let you bleed out. I need to look at your arm.”

“You’ll expose yourself. Stay--”

Maggie sprang from the relative safety of her hiding place. Three shots followed her, tearing up the frozen ground right behind her feet, as she ran, coming damn close to hitting her. She slipped in beside Glenn and smothered an angry admonishment with a kiss.

“If I’m gonna die I want to do it beside you.”

Glenn sagged against the rotted tree, all the fight going out of him. He stayed quiet while Maggie looked over his wound.

“It’s okay. Not so bad,” she reported.

Glenn smiled wanly. “Told ya.”

Maggie continued to press her hand to the long, jagged cut on Glenn’s arm until the bleeding stopped, keeping her eyes on the forest all the while.

“I can’t see Daryl,” Maggie said. “Where the hell is he?”

“He may have circled around to get the truck,” Glenn speculated. “Or he’s sneaking further in. I know one thing--we’re pinned down.”

Maggie agreed with a nod. She looked deeply into Glenn’s eyes. “I love you.”

“Don’t do that. Don’t say goodbye.”

“Do you love me?”

“You know I love you. Just don’t get in that mindset. We’ll get through this. We’re unstoppable.”

Maggie’s lips tugged up in a grin. “Yeah, I thought so too. Until now. Listen, if it comes down to it I want you to leave me--”

“Shhh!”

Maggie assumed Glenn didn’t want to have a talk about leaving her behind, but before she could press the issue she heard what he’d heard. There was the familiar moaning, grunting sound of walkers. They were close.

Carefully, Maggie peered around the tree.

“Oh, shit,” she whispered. Her belly filled with cold dread at the sight of a small herd of walkers. They were heading in their direction, and Maggie feared that they would smell the blood from Glenn’s wound, even in the cold, which tended to suppress odors. If they saw -- or smelled -- them, they would have to make a run for it. If they made a run for it, they would surely be shot. Probably not fatally. Their enemies would undoubtedly wound them and leave them to be eaten by the walkers.

Maggie didn’t want to go out like that. She looked at Glenn fearfully.

“What do we do? What if they already got Daryl?”

Glenn nodded to his left. “Head into the trees. I’ll distract them.”

“No.”

“Maggie, we don’t have time to argue this. You can circle back to the truck and come back for me.”

“I can’t just--”

This time Glenn smothered her objections with a kiss. “Get back to Hershel and Beth. Let them know what’s happened out here. They need to know not to send anybody else after us. Please, Maggie. Do this for me.”

“Damn it!” she whispered.

Maggie got up to a crouch and was just about to start for the trees when two walkers lurched into her path. She used her knife to take them out, but more of them arrived.

“Maggie!”

Glenn didn’t bother being quiet now. He jumped to his feet, expecting a shot to ring out, but nothing did. He stood beside Maggie, backing up into the trees, striking out at one walker after another. It didn’t take long before they were overwhelmed.

So this is it. This is how I’ll meet my end, he thought.

“Hey!”

They both recognized Daryl’s voice. They risked a glance around and saw he’d returned. He wasn’t alone. He had a tall, burly, bearded man in his grip who was bleeding from a wound in his shoulder. The walkers were momentarily distracted by Daryl’s arrival.

Without hesitation he shoved the man right at the herd. The strangers' screams were visceral and ugly as the herd descended upon him, Maggie, Glenn and Daryl were quickly forgotten in the face of easier prey.

“Come on. The coast is clear…for now.”

Maggie spared one last look at the now dead man on the ground. Walkers were now a writhing pile atop his corpse as they pushed and shoved in an effort to join in the feeding frenzy. 



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