It Comes With The Name

Chapter 16: Not Your Circus, Not Your Monkeys

Hershel stopped abruptly, clearly surprised by his words.

"We heard them ." Lauren added.

Hershel looked at her quickly before once again turning his focus back to Nelly. "That's unfortunate."

"I'm sure you have your reasons for keeping this a secret..." Dale told him, trying to ease into the confrontation.

"I saw the broadcasts before they stopped," Hershel explained. "Saw the irrational fear-"

"Irrational?" Lauren raised an eyebrow at the man. What about their fear of the literal dead rising and eating people seemed irrational to him?

"I saw the atrocities." Hershel continued, ignoring her comment. "Like the incident at my well."

"We put down a walker." Dale acknowledged.

Hershel stopped what he was doing to look at them both earnestly. "You killed a person."

"I'm sorry?" Lauren looked at him with an incredulous look. There was no way he was being for real. She exchanged a look with Dale. "That thing wasn't even anything close to a person."

Dale stepped forward, trying to keep the situation as calm as possible. He turned back to Hershel. "Well, if you watched the same broadcasts that we did, you saw walkers attack, kill . They're dangerous."

"A paranoid schizophrenic is dangerous too." Hershel countered. "We don't shoot sick people."

"Yeah? Well, if a paranoid schizophrenic tried to eat me I might consider it." Lauren quipped.

Dale shot Lauren a look. "Look, with all due respect, you are cut off from the outside world here." He tried to reason with Hershel. "But, I've seen people that I cared about die and come back. And they're not people."

"My wife and stepson are in that barn," Hershel said adamantly. "They're people."

Lauren pursed her lips, taking note of the slight edge in his voice, almost like he was trying to convince himself. She sent Dale a 'what now?' look. Trying to convince Hershel that walkers were anything other than sick human beings was obviously a lost cause. He was in full-on denial. Usually, Lauren would say to each their own. If he wanted to be delusional about the danger surrounding them then he could go right ahead. But, unfortunately, the walkers in the barn were a ticking time bomb. It was only a matter of time until something went wrong, and that put them all in danger.

"I'm sorry..." Dale's gaze softened. "Let us help. We can speak to Rick. He's a good man. We can make the barn more secure, keep everybody safe."

"The barn is secure." Herschel assured him.

"Yeah, but for how long?" Lauren questioned. "It's an old barn, Hershel. With the amount of walkers you seem to have in there, it's only a matter of time until they bust out."

"I wish you wouldn't use that word."

Lauren had to hold back an eye roll. "Walkers, people, whatever they are, they aren't safe."

He stares at her for a long moment before finally speaking. "Keep this to yourself if you want to help. Your brother is a man of conscience, but are you so sure about everyone in your group?"

He directed the end of his sentence to Dale, whose eyes flashed in recognition. Lauren raised her eyebrows, crossing her arms defensively and looking between the two men. They clearly had some unspoken understanding. Dale finally nodded slowly, before turning and walking back down the stable corridors.

"Wha-" Lauren was thrown off by Dale's sudden exit. She gave Hershel one last weary look before heading down the hall behind Dale. She caught up to him outside the stables, continuing their walk back to camp. "What the hell was that supposed to mean?"

Dale flicks a worried glance at her as he continued walking.

"Dale?" Her brows furrowed with deepened interest as she evaluated the man's reaction to her question. "You know something... what the hell did he mean by that? Who was he talking about."

Dale stopped walking abruptly, feeling her burning gaze on him. Turning to face her, he sucked in a sharp breath. "Shane."

"Shane?" Lauren half laughed. "He's "not a man of conscience"? Until Rick showed up Shane was the one keeping all of us alive."

Dale looked at her sincerely. "Lauren, Shane is not the man you think he is."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Lauren asked with a challenging gaze.

Dale glanced around before taking h step towards Lauren. He placed a hand on her shoulder, a pained expression on his face. Lowering his voice slightly. "Back at the quarry, the day before we left for the CDC, Rick and Shane did their perimeter sweep."

"Yeah, so?"

"Wel, I saw them, and there was a moment-" Dale looked away for a split second, obviously not enjoying telling her this. "A moment where Rick turned around... and Shane raised his gun on him."

Lauren gave an unamused laugh. "That's ridiculous."

"I know what I saw, Lauren. He had Rick in his sights and he held him there."

Lauren shook her head, turning and heading back towards the tents again. "I don't know what you think you saw, Dale, but it wasn't like that. Shane is Rick's best friend. Hell, he's practically our brother. He wouldn't do something like that." The last part of that statement didn't come out as certain sounding as she wanted it to.

"I gotta go check on Tank." She muttered, picking up her pace. Dale sighed. She veered off towards Daryl's tent. She hadn't seen Tank since that morning and she was willing to bet anything that since she was gone he would be with the archer.

Lauren approached Daryl's tent, trying to calm her rapid heart rate. Why had Dale's accusation bothered her so much? Shane was a good person, he had practically helped raise her. He would never do anything to hurt her brother... he wouldn't.

She made her way towards the tent, crouching down a bit to look through the large opening of the unzipped entrance. She felt her body un-tense just a bit when she heard the familiar snore of her dog that she knew all too well.

She saw Daryl lying on top of his sleeping bag, flipping through a book Lauren recognized from Dale's small collection. Tank was curled up beside him, leaning against the archer's leg happily asleep. Daryl glanced up from the book and nodded a greeting as she reached the tent.

"Figured he would be in here." She smiled to herself as she stepped inside the tent, taking a seat.

Daryl half laughed, glancing at Tank. "Been sawing logs all mornin'. It's a miracle you ever sleep with all this damn noise."

"I'll take Tank's snoring over Merle's any day." Lauren countered light-heartedly. "The man sounded like he was suffocating in his sleep."

"You ain't much better," Daryl said, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. "Wakin' up in the middle of the night screaming yer damn head off."

"Alright, fair enough." Lauren rolled her eyes in amusement.

"They stopped? The bad dreams." Daryl asked, or rather, observed. "I ain't heard ya havin em since we got here."

Lauren thought for a moment. He was right. She hadn't given much thought to it until now, but she hadn't had them since arriving on the farm. "Yeah, I guess they did."

Although they had seemingly subsided lately, with the news of the walkers in the barn, Lauren had a feeling they would be returning soon. She was taken out of her thoughts when the sound of vehicles approached. She heard a car door open and close, followed by the voices of those who had been at gun training. Lori was back, meaning that Lauren could no longer delay the conversation she knew she needed to have with her sister-in-law. She felt her stomach twist into knots.

"Y'aight?" Daryl asked, studying her face.

Lauren nodded. "Mhm, yeah. I just uh, gotta go deal with some things. Is it cool if Tank stays here with you for a while?"

Daryl looked at her questioningly but nodded, obviously curious as to what exactly had her so anxious. She mumbled a thanks, quickly leaving the tent before he had the chance to ask any further questions.