The Fear (The Walking Dead / Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 9 - Echoes

"Maggie!" I called, coming back over to the house and leaving the tractor for a bit, once again covered in oil. "Dad not back yet?" I asked and she shook her head. I didn't like Dad and Jimmy handling the walkers. Odis knew what he was doing, I'd seen him do it before. Hell I'd even helped on occasion, but they had been gone for about an hour and a half, maybe two.

"What's going on? Where is everybody?" Andrea asked as her and T-Dog came over.

"We were supposed to leave a couple hours ago to look for Sophia." T-Dog added.

"Yeah you were. What the hell?" Daryl chimed in, obviously not impressed as he and Carol joined the gathering.

"Rick told us he was going out." Carol said.

"He left with my dad." I stated.

"Damn it. Isn't anyone taking this seriously? We got us a damn trail." Daryl responded. "Here we go." He then said as we saw Shane walking over to us.

Shane looked like he was on a mission, which wasn't really anything out of the ordinary, but he had the group's guns slung over his shoulder in a bag plus another rifle in his hand, making nervous.

"What's all this?" Daryl asked.

"You with me, man?" Shane asked him, holding out the rifle for Daryl to take which he did. "Time to grow up." Shane announced to the group. "You already got yours?" He asked Andrea.

"Yeah. Where's Dale?" She asked.

"He's on his way."

"Thought we couldn't carry." T-Dog stated.

"You can't." I interjected, not at all impressed, but Shane ignored me.

"We can and we have to. Look, it was one thing sitting around here picking daisies when we thought this place was supposed to be safe, but now we know it ain't." Shane yelled out for everyone to hear. "How about you, man?" He asked Glenn. "You gonna protect yours?" He held out another rifle for him to take. Glenn did once he threw a nervous glance over at Maggie. "Can you two shoot?" He then asked Maggie and I.

"Can you stop?" Maggie shot back.

"If you do this my dad will make you leave tonight." I added.

"We have to stay, Shane." Carl of all people spoke up as he, Lori, Beth and Patricia all came outside.

"What is this?" Lori demanded.

"We ain't going anywhere, okay? Now look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Okay? He... Well, he's gonna have to." Shane said adamantly and I instantly regretted not speaking up sooner about him. I wasn't sure what good it would have done, though. "Now we need to find Sophia. Am I right?" Shane asked Carl as he walked over to the boy and held out a small handgun for the kid to take. "Now I want you to take this. You take it, Carl, and you keep your mother safe. You do whatever it takes. You know how. Go on, take the gun and do it." Lori stepped in front of Carl, pushing him behind her and away from Shane.

"Rick said no guns. This is not your call. This is not your decision to make." She said almost viciously.

"Oh shit." T-Dog's voice snapped everyone's attention to where Rick, Jimmy and my dad had returned with two walkers on poles, ushering them over the barn.

"You've got to be kidding me." I muttered to myself, not liking this timing in the slightest.

"What is that?" Shane asked no one in particular as he walked through the group and then took off at a full sprint towards them that everyone then followed after. "What the hell are you doing?" Shane demanded of Rick as we caught up just as they made it out front of the barn.