Shane's Lil Sister (And Daryl Dixon's Lover)

Don't Watch

Shane and Rick had called a meeting, which I guess was more along the lines of them arguing. They weren't exactly letting anyone else have their input on the matter at hand: the walkers in the barn.

"You cannot tell me you're all right with this." Shane says, sounding like a young child.
"No I'm not, but we're guests here. This isn't our land."
"This is our lives!" He screeches.
"Lower your voice." Rick orders.
"We can't just sweep this under the rug. It ain't right. Not remotely." Shane says. He thinks of a compromise, "Okay, we've either got to go in there, we've got to make things right or we've just got to go. Now we have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time."
"We can't go." Rick says.
"Why, Rick? Why?"
"Because my daughter is still out there." Carol says, crossing her arms.
"Okay. Okay, I think it's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility." Shane says and I speak up then.
"We're not leaving Sophia behind." I order.
Daryl speaks up, "I'm close to finding this girl. I just found her damn doll two days ago."
"You found her doll, Daryl." Shane says, advancing on Daryl, "That's what you did. You found a doll."
"You don't know what the hell you're talking about." Daryl spits back.
"I'm just saying what needs to be said."
"Ye get a good lead, it's in the first-."
Shane interrupts, "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." Daryl hurls himself at Shane, punching him across the chin, and Shane fights back. Rick and I step in between, and we literally have to pull Daryl off of Shane.
"You sumbitch!" Daryl yells at him.
"Keep your ducking hands off me you hick!" Everyone calms down soon enough.
"Now just let me talk to Hershel. Let me figure it out." Rick reasons.
"What are you gonna figure out?! If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land. Hershel sees those things in there as people-- sick people-- his wife, his stepson."
"The man is crazy, Rick, if Hershel thinks those things are alive or no."
"Hershel is not crazy. He's just holding onto something he doesn't want to lose." I tell him. "Don't judge him otherwise." I tell Shane, walking off to the porch, sitting next to Coral.

"Does Shane think Sophia's dead?" He asks me.
"Shane's scared."
"Of the walkers in the barn?"
"Yeah." I sigh, "And so much more."
"Sara, I'm not leaving until we find Sophia." He looks at me, "And I don't want to go even after that."
"Well, we're not leaving, Carl." I look at him, "Even if we do, we'll make it, alright?"
He nods, "You're not weak, Sara. Just wanted you to know that." He gets up and walks over to his mom, leave me to think about what the eleven year old just told me.

Glenn walks up to me next.
"Where's your hat?" I ask him. I have never seen him before without that little red baseball cap on.
"It died when a rotten egg killed it." He answers, leaning against the support beam. He slides down against it so we're facing each other on the steps.
"Girl problems?" I ask, knowing the look on his face.
"Is it that obvious?" Maggie storms between us and walks inside, slamming the door.
"Yeah it's pretty obvious." I say nodding. He leans his head back and groans. "Do you wanna talk about it?" I ask in a sing song voice.
He looks at me, smiling, and says, "I saved her from a walker on our run yesterday. She put a rotten egg in my hat as a thanks, I guess. I don't understand women."he rubs his face with his hands, and before I go full therapist mode, he asks, "Are you on your period?"
"What?" I ask quickly.
"I read somewhere that girls periods align when they spend so much time together and they all get hormonal at the same time."
"I'm hormonal right now?"
"You've been acting pretty weird."
"No I'm not on my period but I should be starting sometime next week, I think. And about your Maggie problem, just try to talk to her again. Girls love commitment, but don't make it pestering. Then it just gets weird."

A few minutes later, somehow, Shane got me over to the gun bag, and he's handing out guns to all of our people. Daryl looks at his like it's inhuman. I already had mine on me, but this is still wrong.

"Rick said no guns." I tell Shane, "This is not your call. This is not your decision to make." I say.
"Just shut up for once in your life, whore." Andrea says.
"What the fuck you just call me?" I advance on her, intent to kill, but Shane stops us both.
"Both of you stop. I'm just doing what-."
"Oh shit." Glenn says. We all turn around and we see Rick and Hershel with walkers on poles I've seen dog impounders use. My throat goes dry instantly and I look to the barn behind us, knowing that they're doing.
"What is that? What is that?" Shane walks up to the pair holding the walkers as they got closer to the barn.
"Shane!" I call after him.
"What the hell are you doing?" Rick asks. Shane draws his gun.
"Shane, just back off." Glenn calls to him.
"Why do your people have guns?" Hershel asks.
Shane loses it then, "Are you kidding me? You see? You see what they're holding onto?"
Hershel argues, "I see who I'm holding onto."
"No, man, you don't."
"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk." Rick tries to reason.
"What you want to talk about, Rick? These things ain't sick. They're not people. They're dead. Ain't gonna feel nothing for them 'cause all they do, they kill! These things right here, they're the things that killed Amy. They killed Otis. They're the things that got my sister, Rick, and your parents, and everyone else we care about. They're gonna kill all of us."
"Shane, shut up!" I yelled at him. Carol was right. He was using his own grief as an excuse.
"Hey, Hershel man, let me ask you something." He ignores me and loads his gun. "Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" He shoots the Walker in the chest three time.
"No! Stop it!" I yell, knowing he's just making our living situation worse.
"That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?!Why is it still coming?" He shoots it twice again, "That's its heart, its lungs. Why is it still coming?"
"Shane, enough." Rick orders.
"Yeah, you're right, man. That is enough." He shoots its brains out. "Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone! Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us."
"Enough." Rick orders again.
"Rick, it ain't like it was before! Now if y'all want to live, if you want to survive, you got to fight for it! I'm talking about fighting right here, right now." He opens the barn doors.
"Shane you idiot!" I yell at him. I look to Rick, who looks down in defeat, still holding that damn Walker. Hershel is looking at the Walker Shane killed, on his hands and knees. I can't imagine...
"Do not do this, brother." Rick tries to reason again.
"Come on, we're out here." Shane taunts. As the walkers start to pour out, I unload fire, along with everyone else.
"This is not the way! Please!" Maggie yells. I can hear the Greenes crying behind us.

I'm sorry. Is all I can think about as I shoot one Walker down after another.

All of the walkers are down and dead.

All of the 'people' Hershel wanted to save.

All of them...

Except for one, I can see, still trying to get out the door. I hold my gun up, motioning that I'll take it. And then Sophia walks out, walkerfied. My gun slips from my hand and falls to the ground as I see the little girl I came to love moan and walk from the barn towards me. I can hear Carol's sobs behind me. He world seems to move in slow motion until the gun goes off. It speeds up twenty fold and the little girl falls back, the undead dead.

Don't watch. I think to myself, turning away.