Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead

Chapter Three - The Beginning of the End

Carl found himself going to school in a foul mood. The whole ride to school with his mother was awkward; Lori desperately tried to force conversation the two of them, but Carl wasn't interested. He would've much rather stayed home with Kona (who was currently digging around in the backseat since Lori didn't trust her yet to stay home alone).

Carl turned back to Kona, reaching his hand out to her. This caught her attention and she tried to reach towards him, but she was strapped in with a seat belt, though Carl was able to scratch her behind her ear.

"Are you even listening to me?" Lori asked. Carl just shrugged his shoulders, keeping his attention on his dog. Lori sighed, turning her attention back to the road. "I'm sorry about this morning. It got a little... out of hand."

Carl huffed out a breath in annoyance at his mother's pathetic apology. His attention stayed on Kona as she managed to lean forward enough to lick Carl's hand. "It doesn't matter."

Lori didn't seem to know what to say to this, as her mouth opened and closed, trying to formulate a response. Pulling up to the school, Carl gave his mother a quick kiss on the cheek and then reached back towards Kona. He undid the seat belt and pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly. This resulted in Kona licking his face excitedly, her tail wagging madly. Carl chuckled and kissed her forehead. "Be a good girl. I'll see you later and we can play then, okay?" Kona simply licked his face more in response.

He set the dog in the front seat, strapped her in, waved once more to his mother and then got out of the car and closed the door.

Lori watched him leave without a chance to even say goodbye to him. She glanced down at the newest member of their family, who was staring at her innocently with her tongue lolling out the side of her mouth. She huffed, "The dog gets more of a goodbye than his own mother." She shook her head and let out a laugh. "Let's go."

Kona barked in response as Lori drove away from the school.

The day was dragging all too slowly for Carl's liking; he didn't particularly enjoy school on the best of days, but being in a foul mood just made the day even worse. Plus, a few teachers and students were missing from school, some kind of virus going around. It had made the day slow and boring; he'd rather have a teacher actually be there and do a lesson rather than just sit there and do simple math problems or homework to pass the time.

At least he would have no homework to do once he got home and could go out and play with some friends with Kona. That meant not dealing with his parents' drama, which the boy was more than happy to avoid. Despite this, he was desperate for the bell to ring and for his mom to come and pick him up.

He glanced at the clock for what felt like the hundredth time that day; five minutes until the end of school. He tapped his pencil against his desk, his knee bobbing up and down as well in anticipation to see get home and play with Kona. Carl kept his gaze intently on the clock, listening intently for the bell when a sudden coughing fit caught his attention instead.

Turning to the source of the coughing he saw that it was his English teacher, Miss. Howard. She was pretty new, only being at the school for six months. Carl liked her a lot because she was friendly, funny and pretty easy-going. She was quite young and Carl's first memory of her was her introducing herself as Judith.

Carl frowned as she coughed and coughed and coughed. She had a tissue in her hand and was using it to cover her mouth. She was ghostly pale and sweating and was practically hunched over her desk as she coughed. Carl bit his lip in worry and looked around. He noticed his classmates seemed worried about their teacher and had all stopped reading to watch her.

Making up his mind, Carl made to stand up and see if their Miss. Howard needed him to get the nurse or something, but the school bell rang before he could open his mouth. Miss. Howard simply flapped her hand towards the door, managing to weakly tell the students, "Go on home." Students did as she said, but Carl was slower in gathering his things.

He made his way towards the desk, biting his lip and wringing the strap of his bag in his hands tightly. "Are you sure you're okay, Miss Howard?"

The English teacher looked up at his question. Carl gulped at her glassy eyes. It was almost like she couldn't focus on him. She blinked a few times and took a few deep breaths, though her chest still rose and fell harshly as if she couldn't get enough air to her lungs. Miss. Howard shook her head slowly, "I'm fine. Probably shouldn't have come in today..." She had to take a breather at the end of her sentence. She swallowed deeply, "Go on now. I'm sure your mom is waiting for you."

"Um... do you want me to get you a glass of water, or, or the nurse?" He didn't know why he was stuttering so much. There was nothing to be nervous about anyway.

The teacher shook her head more firmly this time. "No, it's okay. I'm fine. Go play with that little dog of yours, Carl."

Carl hesitated for a second, contemplating whether he should go and get the school nurse quickly before she left. She seemed to notice he was still there and forced out a smile to him. "It's probably a bad chest infection. I'll sleep it off by Monday."

Carl gave her a little smile in return and began to make his way towards the door to leave. "Okay. Hope you feel better."

"You're a sweet boy, Carl." Miss. Howard said quietly as he reached the door.

Carl blinked his eyes at this statement. She sounded sad. Carl waved back at her and made his way out of the classroom and out of the school altogether for a few days. Hopefully Miss. Howard felt better soon.

As he made his way out to meet his mother who was waiting for him by her car he noticed a few kids appearing to be in the same condition as Miss. Howard was. This must be a really bad sickness if it was spreading around the school like this.

His attention was pulled away from a boy that was coughing in his mother's arms by a loud high-pitched bark, one he knew anywhere. Turning towards the sound of the bark Carl saw Kona a few yards away from him with his mother and Shane. Carl was curious as to why Shane was there but his attention was completely on Kona who was now barreling towards him as his mom had accidentally let go of her lead.

Carl got down onto his knees and opened his arms. Kona sped up and as soon as she was close enough she lept into his arms and immediately began licking his face. "Hey, girl!" He greeted his dog. She let out a little yip and bounced away from him playfully. "We can play when we get home." Carl laughed as he saw what she wanted already. He patted her head and then reached for her lead. "C'mon. Let's go see mom." He began walking with Kona trotting by his side.

Carl had seen Shane gesture towards him and Kona as they were getting closer to them both. He waved at his mother, his bad mood from this morning appearing to be lifted. His mother met him halfway and Carl smiled at her as she got down to his level.

"Carl, honey, I..." She practically choked out, words seeming to be lost to her.

Carl frowned in confusion at this. "Mom, what's wrong?" Kona tugged on her lead, trying to get Carl's attention.

Tears had gathered in his mother's eyes but he could see that she was trying to hold them back. She took a few deep breaths, steeling herself to tell her son the bad news. "It's your dad, honey... he..."

"Dad? He's in work, isn't he?" He glanced down at Kona as she continued to pull on her lead/ "Stop, Kona," He told her as firmly as he could. She seemed to understand and quickly sat down to wait.

Lori blew out a breath and put her hands on his shoulders. "Yeah, he was. You see, the thing is... he... he got hurt. He got hurt really bad and now he's in hospital."

Carl's face completely paled at this. "What? Hurt? W-w-what do you mean? I-I-I don't-"

"He got shot, baby." She told him quietly. "He's in the hospital now and the doctors are doing everything they can to help him."

Tears began to sting his eyes, his bottom lip beginning to wobble at the news of hearing his father's life-threatening condition. Lori placed a hand on his cheek and pulled him into her arms to comfort him. Carl wrapped his arms around his mother tightly as he began to sob uncontrollably.

Kona tilted her head as the two embraced and cried openly. She didn't understand what had happened but she could see that it was something bad. The noises that her boy was making were not sounds of joy or happiness, but ones of sadness or pain. Kona stood to full attention suddenly; had someone hurt her boy? He had seemed fine when they greeted one another five minutes ago. But now he was crying and holding onto his mother.

She whined in worry, pawing at the boy and mother's feet. The two pulled back and Lori kissed his forehead and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, holding him to her. Carl continued to cry and Kona yelped at this. Carl tightened his grip on the lead as the family made their way over to Shane. Lori had said that they were going to the hospital to get all the information on Rick, but Lori had insisted that Carl would not be staying long and would be staying with her next door neighbour for a little while.

Lori piled Carl and Kona into the back seat and strapped the boy in, seeing as he was too devastated to do anything else other than cry at the moment. Kona pawed at Carl who sniffled and glanced at her. She tentatively stepped into his lap, curly up and licking his hand gently.

Carl sobbed harder at this and pulled her to him and hugged her tightly. For a moment he thought that maybe he was holding her too tightly, but she didn't appear to mind as she simply settled in his arms quietly. Hs tears mixed in with her fur as he scrunched some it in his grasp, burying his head in the crook of her neck.

Carl wished he'd only known that this was only the beginning of the end.

Thank you so much for the reviews, faves and follows! I really do appreciate it! Sorry I've been so slow with this story. A lot of stuff has been going on and I have had zero time for anything. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter.