Transformation (2)

The transformation had been going on for two minutes now and their screams hadn't stopped. The sounds of bones breaking and healing echoed from their bodies, and a black, red liquid oozed from all orifices. 

A voice stopped, Shane was laying on his front using his forearm to prop him up. Breathing heavily sweat dripped from his face. He moved to stand up but fell on his face. Resigning himself to sitting on the sweat soaked ground covered in blood(?).

He set his focus on Carl. Watching intently, Carl's ankle started to heal rapidly.

Carl's screams stopped, and he lay silently. 

They sat waiting for Carl to open his eyes. 

Shane looked at Carl appraising his body, "Is he taller?"

"Uh-huh. So are you."

Suddenly full of energy, Shane shot up. Disoriented from his sudden growth spurt, he stumbled.

After balancing himself, Shane moved to stand next to Elliott, sizing him up. 

Grinning, Shane shows off, "I'm taller than you now."

Annoyed with his sudden cockiness, Elliott decides to cut him down. Using his telekinesis, he pushes the back of his knees, making him fall. 

"You sure about that?" Raising an eyebrow, Elliott quipped. 

Carl twitched on the ground, and his body shot up. His wide eyes revealed a massive change. 

What was once an intense blue was now a cloudy white, like a walker.

"Damn, that hurt."

"Yeah, tell me about it." Shane laughed.

Carl looked down, seeing a pair of legs beneath him once the entire length of him. Carl jumped up.

He followed suit and stumbled, disoriented from his newfound height.

"Woah, that's different." Carl said trying to steady himself.

"Yeah, that's not the only thing," Shane said, giving him an intense look. Your eyes have gone cloudy—like walkers."

Carl gaped, "You're joking." 

"I wish."

Elliott walked over to the pieces of walker scattered everywhere. 

"Hey, where are you going?"

He picked up a whole decapitated head of a walker, walked back and held it next to Carl's face. 

The walker's eyelids never fell, revealing cloudy eyes, the same as Carl's. "I hate to say it, but yeah, They're the same."

"Well, that's just brilliant." Not happy, Carl grabbed the head and drop-kicked it, blowing it into many pieces, blood splattering everywhere. 

Carl was shocked by the strength he exhibited. He then looked at himself, bits of gunk and blood splattered all over him, he cried out in frustration, "Brilliant!"

"Uh oh." Elliott said from behind him.

Shane looked to him. 

"I think he grew up a little too fast; this sarcasm and bursts of anger, I've seen it before."

Shane looked to him, understanding instantly. Raising his hand to his mouth to cover his smile, he said, "Yeah? What's that?" 

Carl looked between them getting nervous.

Elliott looked worried; staring into Carl's eyes, he said, "Puberty."

Shane bellows a loud laugh, and Elliott does the same. 

Carl, annoyed at the silly joke, picks up a severed walker arm and throws it at them. The arm travels between the two, spraying blood everywhere, "Hey, just because your as tall as your dad doesn't mean I can't still put you over my knee." Following up with the threat, Shane takes off chasing Carl around the clearing. 

Anyone looking at the scene would be baffled. Two men, one 6ft and the other 5ft 8', were moving at a speed blurry to the human eye, chasing each other around a field, weaving and dodging scattered body parts.

Elliott called to them from the side, telling them to stop. Rick and the others were almost here.

To be honest, they were very slow. Given Carl's screams, I would've thought they would get here faster. 

Elliott and Shane stood beside each other, with Carl behind them, waiting for the moment they broke into the clearing. 

Elliott looked at Carl, "Are you going to be okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, after running off as a 4ft 2' 10-year-old with sea blue eyes. You are now coming back as a 5ft 8' 10-year-old with cloudy white eyes; your parents are gonna freak."

"It doesn't matter." Shane and Elliott glanced at each other, waiting for Carl to finish, "I've given up on them."

"Carl..."

"No, Shane, I'm done. I don't want to deal with this anymore. I don't want to deal with them. He was back not two minutes today and they left me alone. When I go searching for them, what do I find? My own mother telling my dad their is something wrong with me. They don't deserve me, I'm done. 

"Ok," Elliott said, understanding Carl's point of view. "You gave them a chance, both of them, and they ruined it. So from now on, you're with us. Till the end."

Carl nods, repeating to Elliott, "Till the end." Shane does the same.

The three looked back towards the forest to see Rick running, followed by Glen, T-bone, and Andrea. The rest followed out slowly.

They couldn't believe the sight in front of them; the field looked like a battle zone. Dozens of corpses littered the ground. 

To the side of the field 30ft in front of them stood two people he recognised and another who he thought was familiar but couldn't pin it down just yet. He scanned Elliott and Shane, not realising they were walking towards, the group. 

As they got closer, the third person's features became clearer: his son, Carl. 

He looked so different, compared to the little boy who ran off into the woods not 10 minutes ago. 'What happened?' 

Rick started speaking to them, but the trio walked straight past them into the woods back to the camp. 

What Rick saw struck him still. As they walked past, his eyes met Carl's and the blue colour he had since he held him for the first time had disappeared, what was there was a cloudy, cold silver eye, that reminds him too much of the eyes of a walker.

Beside him, Lori screamed. She had seen them too—Carl's eyes.

 Carl's lips curled up in disgust as they walked into the woods, the trio's back dissolved into darkness, leaving the group standing in the graveyard.

Back at the Camp, Elliott Shane and Carl sat beneath the tree around the fire like they had a couple of days ago. But Shane and Carl had changed beyond recognition in these couple of days.

Shane had a short stack of muscle and thick dark hair. Now, he stood at 6 feet tall, with a lean body, his muscle still there but less obvious, his facial bones smoothed out, giving him a sharp nose, strong jawline and his eyes sharp and containing an intelligence that wasn't previously there. His hair, once short and standing firm on the top of his head, now slicked back with sweat, 5 inches long, giving him an intelligent but rough look.

Carl, who had once been a short boy, now stood at the same height as Elliott at 5ft 8 inches; his hair had grown around him, rounding it out. His freckles gathered around his nose, spreading across his face, giving texture to his face. He eyes a strong grey that appeared eerie making him look scary.

Elliott picked up some dried meat he had made some days ago and shared it out. "We're heading out tomorrow. Leaving the group and heading somewhere else. For now there's a farm we could go too. The rest of the group will eventually get there after they go to the CDC, but we'll be gone by then and onto the next world."

Carl looked up at Elliott excited. "Do you know where we will be going next?" 

Elliott shook his head, "Guess it will be a surprise for us all." 

Shane looked up from the fire, "Why are they going to the CDC?"

Elliott rolled his eyes "Foolishness. They went in search of a cure." He waved his hand around, indicating to the camp. "This place got overrun. People died, and you all left. Stupid idiots must have thought the things had no ears. Firing guns, being loud, and car alarms. Anyway, after Rick woke up, he met someone in Atlanta, Morgan and his son; they mentioned something about the CDC coming up with a cure for what happened."

"Did we... 'They' find it?"

"Nope" Elliott said with a popping 'p', "All they got was a harsh dose of reality. There was no cure. Ah, and something that Rick decided to keep from everyone." Flicking his eyebrows up, excited for the gossip and the chance to shit-talk Rick.

Carl, eager to find a fault with Rick asked what the secret was.

Elliott smiled, "Well, it turns out, you don't have to be bit to turn. As long as you don't get whacked over the head too hard, you can come back."

Shane and Carl raised their eyebrows, not too shocked. Carl smirked at his flippant language.

"Anyway, it's been a long day. How about we all get some sleep?"

"Sure, 'Dad,'" Carl said, describing it as more of a joke, but it came out a bit too serious. Expecting some type of correction, he looked at the other two around the fire, and they only had smiles on their faces.

"Good night, Son."

Carl smiled back; before anything more could be said, Carl jumped and landed in Elliott's usual spot in the tree.

Elliott laughed, "Good night."

Elliott and Shane sat on the floor next to each other. resting his head on Shane's shoulder they fell into a sweet silence.

~~~

Back in the woods.

"Rick, you saw that too, right? Carl's eyes looked like..."

"Yes, Glenn, I know what they looked like; we've both seen them before."

"So what are you going to do? People are already speaking against him and the other two. They are dangerous; you saw how many walkers they took down, and they did it super fast, too; they don't feel safe."

Rick stopped and turned around. Everyone around them stopped as well, waiting for Ricks's answer. 

"Is this how all of you feel? Do you want to get rid of them?" Rick looked around, and everyone nodded or agreed silently. Someone in the crowd, Rick, thought would disagree, shocked him. The loudest one of them all was Lori. "Lori, Carl is in that group you want to get rid of, your son, you understand that?"

Lori nodded, unashamed. 

Rick, unable to stop everyone, decided the most peaceful solution would be to ask them to leave.

"Alright, let's go back and get a good sleep first. It's been a long day for a lot of us. Tomorrow, I'll talk to Elliott, Shane... and Carl and ask them to leave."

A cheer erupted in the group.

From the shadows, nobody noticed glowing silver eyes listening to their talk. 

Silently, it retreated into the forest.

The group made it out of the woods without any incidents and went to bed.