Consequences of a Chance (The Walking Dead)

Chapter 6

"His family's dead, Rick," Shane said.

"Well, he doesn't believe that. He thinks you just murdered them in cold blood," I replied.

"No, I don't care what he thinks," Shane snapped.

"I was handling it, brother," Rick pointed out, "I was handling it and you just..."

"You had us out in those woods looking for a little girl that every single one of us knew was dead! That's what you did. Rick, you're just as delusional as that guy. You handling it, huh?" and with that Shane walked away.

I walked away too and saw Daryl walking into the RV, I wasn't sure whether I should follow or whether I should just leave him and Carol be. Instead I decided to head over to the barn and help with the clean-up I guess. I followed Shane to the barn where we found Carl and Lori sitting on the ground, Andrea was checking out all the walkers, probably making sure no one else came back for a bite. Dale was pacing for god know what reason.

"Dale?" I heard Lori say as we got closer.

"Yeah?" he replied.

"Could you take Carl up to the house?" she asked him, "I want you to rest."

"Okay," Carl nodded and headed off with Dale.

"You want us to start burying?" T Dog asked Rick who joined the group.

"We need a service," I spoke, "Carol would want that."

"Yeah, we all want that," T Dog added.

"Let's, let's dig a grave for Sophia, and Annette and Shawn, uh, over by those trees," Lori suggested, "And we'll need a truck to move the bodies."

"I'll get the keys," Jimmy offered.

"No, no. I got the truck," Shane said as he walked off.

"And the others?" Jimmy asked, "That's a lot of digging."

"We bury the ones we love and burn the rest," Andrea explained.

"Let's get to work," Lori said.

We all walked off, we started digging the three holes for Sophia and Herschel's family. It was a slow process, the ground was thick and full of rocks but we got there in the end. We laid the bodies next to the graves and covered them in a blanket.

"That's it," T Dog spoke as we all got out of the graves.

"I'll go let Carol know," I spoke softly, and I started to make my way to the RV, I had no idea what to say when I got there but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

I walked up to the RV and knocked on the side before going on. Carol was sitting at the table whereas Daryl was sitting on the cabinet next to the door.

"They're ready," I said softly.

Carol just shook her head softly and looked down.

"Come on," I spoke again.

"Why?" Carol asked still looking down.

"'Cause that's your little girl," Daryl replied.

"That's not my little girl. That's some other thing. My Sophia was alone in the woods. All this time I thought.... She didn't cry herself to sleep. She didn't go hungry. She didn't try to find her way back. Sophia died a long time ago."

I didn't know what to say, I looked at Daryl who quickly looked at me before looking back at Carol. Have to admit that hurt, so I left the RV.

"Oi," I turned to find Daryl following me.