Forfeit ~Shane Walsh/OC~

Chapter Thirteen

The next morning, everyone was silent in the camp. There was insane tension within the group. I avoided the Grimes and Shane. I couldn’t talk to any of them at the moment without running my mouth so I kept it shut. I refused to eat and just focused on sharpening knives while the scent of fresh eggs filled the air around us. After a while of nothing but the sound of forks scraping plates, Glenn stood up.

“Uhm, guys?” he got everyone’s attention. I could tell he was trembling and what he was about to say was seriously bothering him. “So… the barn is full of walkers.” You could feel the sense of unity come back to us because now we really needed to come together. Rick’s jaw clenched, as did Shane’s and everyone dropped their plates to rush off to the barn to see if it was true. Shane peeked in and quickly turned to the rest of the group.

“You cannot tell me you’re okay with this,” Shane turned to Rick, who always sides with whatever Hershel wants.

“I’m not but we’re guests here. This isn’t our land,” Rick said expectedly.

“Man, this is our lives!” Shane snapped, letting his anger get the best of him. Glenn tried to get us all to calm down but we were all terrified of the things on the other side of that door.

“We can’t just sweep this under the rug,” I said. “It ain’t right.”

“Not remotely,” Shane told me before talking to Rick again. “We’ve either got to go in there, we’ve gotta make things right or we’ve got to go.”

“We can’t go,” Rick immediately said. I knew exactly why we couldn’t leave but I wasn’t completely sure who else knew.

“Why, Rick?” Shane was getting even more defensive and I felt the need to stay close to him.

“Because my daughter is still out there,” Carol told him. Shane forced himself to calm down before talking to her.

“I think it’s time that we all start to just consider the other possibilities.” I’ll give it to him, he did say it in an extremely calm manner.

“Shane, we are not leaving Sophia behind,” Rick stepped forward and so did I. I was right behind Shane now, so close I didn’t have to fully extend my arm to touch him.

“I’m close to finding her. I just found her damn doll two days ago,” Daryl stood closely behind Rick.

“You found her doll, Daryl. You almost died for a doll,” I told him, praying he would understand.

“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” Daryl’s anger flamed up and he stepped closer to Shane and me but Rick was quick to stay in front of him. I know me siding with Shane bothers Daryl but I want to be safe and these things are the most dangerous nowadays.

“When you get a good lead it’s within the first 48 hours,” Shane was rambling at this point, just not wanting to let anyone else get a word in. “Let me tell you something else, man. If she was alive out there and saw you coming all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck, she would run in the other direction,” Shane said and Daryl snapped, lunging forward at Shane. I quickly grabbed the back of Shane’s shirt and Rick was standing between them, forcing his arms out to keep a distance between the two.

“Shut your mouth!” Daryl yelled in Shane’s face. I decided getting in front of Shane would reduce the chances of a fight so I did and Shane immediately stepped back, not wanting to get me hurt. Rick stayed closer to Daryl. After a second the two were calmed down.

“Let me talk to Hershel and figure something out,” Rick told Shane calmly but Shane wasn’t calm at all.

“What are you gonna figure out?” Shane snapped but I stayed in front of him, just looking into his angry eyes and my hands on his chest.