As it turned out, Cassandra's catch was more than enough for the family and almost half was saved for tomorrow in the fridge. After dinner, the girl was helping clear up, washing the dishes when Hershel came up to her with a proposal. He wanted to offer her one of the bedrooms in the house now that Carl and Daryl were both off their feet and occupying less space. She thanked him but declined, saying (and genuinely believing) that his family needed the space more what with the girls having shared while Rick's group members were sick. Besides, Cassandra was perfectly happy in the stable loft; it had running water, a roof and heating from the horses themselves as well as a safer and more comfortable place to sleep than she had had for months prior.
Shocked by her selflessness, Hershel's view of the young stablehand began to evolve. Particularly after seeing the haul she had returned from the forest with. He watched with fatherly interest as she almost skipped back towards the stable for the night.
The next morning, Cassandra was working on the bike outside the stable after feeding the horses their morning hay. It was just past dawn, not yet time for breakfast at the farmhouse, and she could see Rick's group starting to stir. Dale had come up to relieve Andrea from the night watch, Glenn was shifting uncomfortably near the RV, Carol was making breakfast by the fire, and Lori was sitting with Rick and Carl eating.
It was a while before Cassandra finished up the job she was doing and went inside to wash up for breakfast. When she came back out... Well, let's say breakfast was not the first thing that happened.
*****
Glenn sat on one of the camping chairs away from the campfire. He had just seen Cass go back into the stables after working on the dirtbike for a while. Looking towards the farmhouse, he saw Maggie standing there in her green t-shirt, face like thunder, shaking her head. God this was going to be awful. He looked to Dale for reassurance and saw him nod, eyes wide as they so often were these days. Oh, Jesus. Well, here goes nothing.
He got up, slowly walking toward the circle of his group eating their scrambled eggs around the fire.
"Um, guys..." Now he had their attention. Next step. "So... the barn's full of walkers."
It was as if someone had just hit pause on everyone. forks stopped halfway towards people's mouths, eyes stared at him, unmoving. And, like the play button, everyone got up, leaving whatever they were doing, and strode towards the barn as a pack. There Shane approached the barn alone to recon. the situation.
He saw them.
"You cannot tell me you're alright with this!" He hissed at Rick, striding back past him.
"No, I'm not! But we're guests here. This isn't our land."
"God, this is our lives, man!" Shane raised his voice in anger.
"Shh! Lower your voice!" Glenn said in a panic.
"We can't just sweep this under the rug!"
"It ain't right, not remotely."
People kept chiming in.
"We either gotta go in there, make things right, or we just gotta go. Now we have been talking about Fort Benning for a while-" Shane was interrupted by Rick.
"We can't go."
"Why, Rick? Why?"
"Because my daughter's still out there."
"Okay, I think it's time we all just consider the other possibility."
"Shane!" Glenn exclaimed in shock.
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Greek Tragedy | Daryl Dixon
Fanfiction"He's not a walker, he's just stupid!" - Wandering the Georgia wilderness in a world where the dead walk the earth, a girl's unexpected salvation comes from a terrified horse and its hallucinating rider. Cassandra doesn't trust easily. She knows wha...
