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ACT TWO ; CHAPTER TEN ✎ . . . funerals & suspicions
𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐀, 𝐆𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐍, 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐄, 𝐓-𝐃𝐎𝐆, and a few of the people that lived at the farm piled rocks into a barrel for otis' funeral service. otis was the man who had accidentally shot carl and according to shane was eaten by walkers during a run for medical supplies needed for carl's surgery.
the sound of a vehicle approaching the farm made everyone pause to see who it was. a smile tugged at camila's lips as she could make out daryl on his motorcycle, the rv, and andrea's hyundai in the distance.
t-dog headed into the house to get rick and lori while everyone else waited by the front porch for the rest of the group to arrive. camila immediately went over to dale who pulled her into a hug as him, andrea, and carol left their vehicles, daryl climbing off his motorcycle. "how is he?" dale asked rick as he finally let go of camila and she moved to hug andrea.
lori smiled, "he'll pull through. thanks to hershel and his people. and—" rick spoke up, cutting lori off, "and shane. we'd have lost carl if not for him. "how'd it happen?" dale asked, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion and slight worry despite lori informing him that carl would be okay. "hunting accident. that's all.. just a stupid accident."
camila's eyes trailed over to shane, who had a freshly shaven head. it definitely did not suit him, in camila's opinion. he kept his eyes locked on the ground, his face stone-cold and void of any emotion as he shifted his weight between each foot.
"where's charlotte?" dale asked as the group started to head over to where otis' funeral would be held. before camila could answer the young girl came running out of the house with a smile. "dale!" charlotte all but threw herself at dale as she wrapped her little arms around the older man's leg.
dale crouched down, hugging charlotte. "hey kiddo, you being good for your mom?" charlotte nodded. camila and dale chatted for a minute longer before they made their way to the rest of the group.
camila held charlotte on her hip as beth placed a rock on top of the pile, hershel beginning the service as he read, "blessed be god, father of our lord jesus christ. praise be to him for the gift of our brother, otis." hershel paused for a moment and jimmy was next to add a rock, "for his span of years, for his abundance of character; otis, who gave his life to save a child's, now more than ever, our most precious asset. we thank you, god, for the peace he enjoys in your embrace." as hershel spoke, camila noticed shane looking uncomfortable and almost nervous. "he died as he lived, in grace. shane, will you speak for otis?" hershel asked.
camila furrowed her brows as a flash of panic filled shane's eyes, but only for a second. "i'm not good at it.. i'm sorry." he said dismissively. a though popped into camila's head, a thought that scared even her, could shane have had something to do with otis' death? could he be capable of doing a thing like killing a man? she quickly shook those thoughts away. shane would never, as much as she disliked the man she couldn't blame him for murder..
patricia shook her head, struggling to speak through her tears, "you were the last one with him. you shared his final moments. please. i need to hear. i need to know his death had meaning." she begged. shane finally conceded, nodding his head slowly, "okay.. we were about done. almost out of ammo. we were down to pistols by then. i was limping, it was bad. ankle all swollen up. 'we got to save the boy.' see, that's what he said." shane's voice cracked, making it sound almost believable.. but something in camila's gut told her it was a lie.
shane limped over to the barrel, grabbing a rock, "if any death ever had meaning, it was his." he said before roughly placing the rock down of the pile.
━━━━∞━━━━
𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐃𝐀𝐘, 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐀, 𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐊, shane, andrea, daryl, and hershel stood around hershel's car. "how long has this girl been lost?" hershel asked as maggie came over with a map of the area. "this'll be day three." rick answered.
maggie spread the map across the hood of the car, placing rocks in the corners to hold it down. "county survey map. shows terrain and elevations." she explained. rick gave a small smile, "this is perfect. we can finally get this thing organized. we'll grid the whole area. start searching in teams." he decided.
"not you. not today. you gave three units of blood. you wouldn't be hiking five minutes in this heat before passing out." hershel argued, then turning to shane, "and your ankle— push it now, you'll be laid up a month, no good to anybody."
daryl glanced over at camila as he leaned over the map, "guess it's just me and camila. i'm gonna head back to the creek, work my way from there. camila can go back up to the interstate, see if she made her way back." rick nodded in approval. "alright then. tomorrow, we'll start doing this right."
camila gave a short nod. "that means we can't have our people going around with just knives, we've got to give them the gun training we've been promising them." shane cut in. "i'd prefer you not carrying guns on my property. we've managed so far without turning this into an armed camp."
before shane could start to argue back camila cut him off, "and we'll respect that." she said, rick nodding in agreement. "we're guests here. this is your property, and we will respect that." he repeated, placing his python down on the hood of the car. he gave shane a stern look until he followed suit.
as everyone continued to talk, camila left to go find charlotte. as she entered the rv, charlotte was sat at the table coloring like usual. "hi mama." charlotte said with her adorable smile. "hey baby. i have to go for a little bit to look for sophia, dale's gonna watch you for me until i get back. okay?" charlotte nodded, rushing over to give her mom a hug before she left.
"love you, mama." camila smiled, kissing charlotte on her forehead and muttering an 'i love you too' before she left.
A/N sorry for not updating in a while !! school just started for me and i've been mainly focusing on that, but now i'm gonna try to go back to updating at least once a week. love you guys !!
