Everything is silent for a moment after Rick shot Sophia.
Carol's cries filled the air, and Carl sat in my lap on the ground.
"Don't look. Don't look," Daryl tells Carol as he tries to help her up.
She shoves him away angrily, and storms off, mournfully, away from the group up to the camp to the R.V.
I help Carl up. He loosely wraps his arms around my waist as we stand.
Beth's crying also fills the air as she mourns her mother and brother. She breaks from Jimmy's arms, and walks up to the dead walkers.
"Shh shh shh. Wait wait wait wait," Rick tries to stop her. She jerks away from him and rolls another dead walker off her mother. She rolls her mother onto her back, the walker's head resting in her lap.
"Ma," she whimpers. The walker in her lap springs to life, and grabs Beth. I rush away from Carl to the danger, and along with others try to get the walker off of Beth.
We attempt to pull Beth and the walker apart, but the walker has a fairly tight grip.
After a few seconds, Beth is free.
T-Dog grunts as he kicks the walker, keeping it down, and Hershel holds his shaken daughter. Andrea drives the pickaxe Shane had earlier used through the walker's head. Everyone diverses. Glenn, Shane, and Rick followed the Greene's to the house. I see Carl now with his mother. They sat on the ground.
The rest of the group starts to deal with the bodies eventually.
I follow Daryl into the R.V., the two of us still holding our guns. We both sit on the counter to the sink. Carol glances at us but none of us say anything. She stares back out the window. We stand in silence as Carol stares out the window and Daryl and I stare at Carol, the occasional eye lock with each other.
We stood in the R.V. for a long while, long enough for a few graves to be dug.
There was a knock on the open door, and Lori steps into the R.V.
"They're ready." Carol shakes her head lightly as she stares at her lap. "Come on."
"Why?" Carol asks.
" 'Cause that's your little girl," Daryl spoke. She looks at him.
"That's not my little girl. That's some other... thing." Carol looks back out the window. "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." Carol nods as she finishes.
I look at my brother and he has a not unfamiliar hardened look in his eyes. He glances at me and hops off the counter, expecting me to follow.
I do.
The funeral for Sophia, Shawn, and Annette is a somber one. It's full of tears from multiple people. The people of the group and the people of the Greene family stand in a line in front of the graves.
But not Daryl and I. Daryl and I stood off to the side of the far left grave, Sophia's. Something changed Daryl as we spoke to Carol, that much was obvious to me.
After the funeral, the whole group walked back toward the house area. But not Daryl and I. Daryl diverged in a completely different direction, and I followed.
"I wanna move the tent," he told me roughly, not bothering to look at me. I know what he meant, he wants to move the tent away from the group, basically isolating ourselves.
I take a moment to think about it. He glances at me in my silence and then back ahead. I nod my head.
"Alright. Yeah," I agree. I fall in line with him.
The two of us move quickly to our tent, and we rush the stuff out. Daryl packs the tent up, and slings it over his shoulder. We grab the rest of our gear, making wherever Daryl planned to move a one way trip.
Daryl led me to a place fairly far from the house. It was by a few trees and was placed by an old stone wall. We set up the tent, and put up our stuff inside of it. We made a small fireplace made of stones.
A while later, pretty late in the evening, the sun is about to go down in about maybe half an hour, Daryl and I are sitting on the stone wall. The both of us are carving new bolts with our hunting knives made of wood for make up of lost, broken, or too worn down ones and to even just have extras. The both of us did this in silence, not finding a need to talk. That was a thing about Daryl and I—we didn't need to talk. We were able to enjoy each other's presence silently.
The both of us noticed out of the corner of our eye Lori jogging up to the camp.
"Movin' to the suburbs?" she began. "Listen, Beth's in some kind of catatonic shook. We need Hershel."
No one bothers to tell me anything, I think to myself. Neither of us turn our attention, continuing the carving.
"Yeah, so what?" Daryl grumbles. Lori crouches down.
"So I need you to run into town real quick and bring him and Rick back," she says. We ignore her. "Daryl. Darcy." Daryl and I glance at each other, and then to Lori.
"Your bitch went window shoppin'. You want him, fetch him yourself. We got better things to do," Daryl rejects. The two of us turn our attention back to our carved bolts.
"What's the matter with you? Why would you be so selfish?" She glances between the two of us.
Both Daryl and I sprang up.
"Selfish?!" I begin.
"Listen to me, Olive Oil," Daryl continues. "The two of us were out there looking for that little girl every single day. I took a bullet and an arrow in the process. Don't you tell us 'bout getting our hands dirty!" Daryl pointed his knife in her direction.
"You want those two idiots? Have a nice ride. We're done looking for people," I finish. The two of us sit back down, and continue carving our bolts.
We sit carving the bolts for a little, and Daryl starts on our own dinner. Time passes very quickly and soon the sky is black.
"Imma go grab something from the house, I'll be back," I look at him. He nods and I hurry my way up to the house.
I step inside the house and they're setting up for dinner. I slip into the kitchen quietly and no one notices my presence.
"Lori, dinner!" I hear Carol call.
"She's not in there," Maggie informs.
"Where is she?" Dale asks. It's silent for a moment. "Carl, when was the last time you saw your mother?"
"This afternoon."
"She was worried about the small group. Asked me to look in on Carl," Andrea informed.
"The idiot actually went after them?" I bring attention to myself.
"She didn't say that."
"Sure she did. She asked Daryl and I to go into town after them. We said we're done being everyone's errand boys."
I head toward the door, already forgetting what I had come here for; suddenly with the group all gathered, it didn't seem so important.
I heard everyone jump up from their seats, following me.
"And you didn't say anything?" Carol asks as I walk down the steps. I don't respond.
I hear Carl whimper, and turn around.
"Hey." Andrea puts a hand on Carl's shoulder in an attempt at comfort.
I groan to myself and run my hands through my hair, tugging at it.
"But don't worry," I chuckle dryly to myself. I turn around and head toward a car. "I'll find her myself. Because that's apparently what I do," I growl sarcastically. I walk speedfully to Shane's green car and chuck my crossbow in the passenger seat.
I drive the car down the dirt road driveway, speeding. I didn't bother giving them the chance to respond. I drive the car silently, following the roads and not bothering to stay in between the lines into where I know to go to town. I drive quickly, just wanting to get back to my brother.
I see a rolled car, Maggie's car I recognize, and pull the car over to a quick stop. The car rolled over onto it's drivers side. Grabbing my crossbow, I get out of the car and head over to the wreckage. A few walkers are lying dead. I look inside the window that was facing the sky as a result of the roll; she isn't here.
"Lori," I whisper shout. There was nothing, so I got back in the and continued driving toward the town. I eventually come across her walking down the side of the road. I pull the car over. Getting out, I stare at her.
"I'm fine."
"I saw the wreck. What happened?"
"Looked down at the map and I hit a walker."
"Well, next time you stay put and you won't need a map. Come on, I have to get you back."
"No no no. We gotta find the group."
I groan internally to myself again and glare at her.
"Look, I get you back now, and I'll look for them first thing in the morning. Shane, Otis, Rick, Glenn. The whole lot of them," I bargain.
"Really?" she asks.
"Yup," I grumble and turn back to the car. She follows.
We drive in silence. She obviously noticed my tenseness and short temper at the moment. Apparently, I couldn't even last twelve hours without being everyone's bitch boy. I glowered at myself for it while glaring daggers at the road in front of me.
I drove through the gate and pulled up at the camp. A few group members started walking over.
"Oh my god, are you alright? What happened?" Andrea inquires.
"I was in an accident. I'm fine, I'm fine," she insisted.
"Tomorrow. I'm going out. Whoever's coming needs to be ready. I mean it," I growl, turning back. I started heading to my camp with Daryl.
"Where were you?" Daryl asks as I walk up.
"Doing exactly what we said I wouldn't," I grumble to myself.
___________________________________
The next morning, Daryl, Andrea, and I plan to go out. We throw the last bit of the gear we were going to take in the car I used last night.
We see the car, and it drives speedily up the driveway and parks in the drive. They start to get out.
"Dad!" Carl calls as he wraps his arms around Rick's waist.
Shane, Glenn, and Hershel get out. But no Otis... Maggie runs over and hugs Glenn.
"Patricia. Prepare the shed for surgery," Hershel instructs.
"Otis?" she asks. Hershel doesn't say anything as he heads back inside.
Daryl and I look at one another, eyebrows raised.
"What happened to you?" Shane asks as he sees Lori. He has a slightly crazed look in his eyes, as if he did something he just can't forget. A look I've noticed he had looked at Rick with a few times. But this was more intense.
"I was in a car accident."
"Accident?"
"I went looking for you."
"Snuck out on her own. I brought her back," I informed.
Lori and Shane continue. Rick turns to me as they talk and starts whispering.
"Maybe you should take it easy. All this isn't good for the baby."
"I thi—" I get cut off.
"You're having a baby?!" Carl asked pretty loudly. I shut my eyes tightly as everyone turns to look at me. Looks of shock and confusion, and even a little judgement from a few
I slightly nod while looking at Carl, avoiding people's eyes.
There's a silence for a second as people stare. My eyes flash to my brother. He is surprised, no shocker, but not as much as he should have been.
"Who the hell is that?!" T-Dog demands in the silence.
"That's Randall," Glenn informs.
My attention falls to the car. In the backseat, a young boy sits in the back seat. He's blindfolded and his head lolled back.
I glare at Rick for his big mouth.
A few people got the boy in the barn, and the people sat at the dinning table inside, discussing what to do with him. Daryl and I are still out front.
"Is it true? You're having a kid?" Daryl asks as we sit upfront on the step.
"Uh... Yeah. It is. You don't seem surprised."
"Guess 'm not... Thought I'd heard Rick and Glenn talkin' about it. Thought I'd heard wrong. Or somethin'. Guess not."
We sit in silence for a second.
"Is it Rick's?" I look at my brother staring for a second and he nods, getting the message.
"It was stupid... at the C.D.C. After all those drinks so..."
Daryl nods once more. "Com'on," he urges and leads me inside.
"Isn't that the same as leaving him for the walkers?" we hear Andrea say.
"He'll have a fighting chance," Rick counters.
"You're just gonna let him go. He knows where we are," Shane argues.
"He was blindfolded the whole way here, he's not a threat."
" 'Not a threat.' How many of them were there? We killed three of their men, you took one of them hostage, but they just ain't gonna come looking."
"They left him for dead. No one is looking!" Rick insists.
"We should still post a guard," T-Dog voices.
"He's out cold right now, will be for hours."
"You know what? I'm gonna go get him some flowers and candy. Look at this, folks. We're back in Fantasyland!" Shane starts walking toward the door.
"Y'know, we haven't even dealt with what you did at my barn yet. Let me make this perfectly clear, once and for all. This is my farm. I wanted you gone. Rick talked me out of it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. So do us both a favor. Keep your mouth shut."
Shane said nothing and ran his hands over a freshly shaved head as he walked out.
"Look, we're not gonna do anything about it today. Let's just cool off."
People, for the most part, went outside.
A very little while later, we held a funeral for Otis. It was under a tree, even though there was not a body to bury. Shane hesitantly told the story of how Otis and Shane got split from the group and trapped by walkers. Apparently, at that time, Otis said he'd cover for Shane, and when Shane looked back, Otis was taken down.
I knew my brother at least could tell the story was complete bull. I think Rick and Dale thought the same thing too, and other people were suspicious, though they didn't exactly know what of.
I sighed as I stepped up to Rick's tent.
"Hey," I called out.
"You can come in."
I stepped inside the tent. I sit down on a fold-up stool next to Rick's cot while he sits on the cot.
"I think Shane killed Otis." I state. "He's dangerous... Delusional. He's threatened people."
"I think so too," Rick nods. "Those gunmen left that kid behind today. I killed two people myself. For the baby, Carl. It was gonna be me, and not them, no matter what."
I leaned forward, closer to Rick.
"You killed the living to protect what's yours?"
"That's right."
"Shane thinks Carl is his... I've seen it when he's with him. He thought, or thinks, Lori is his... He took her. He says that you can't protect us. That you're gonna get us killed. He's dangerous Rick. And he won't stop." My voice is in an almost whisper as I finish.
Killing a stranger—a threat, is one thing. But today, Shane killed Otis.
He killed one of our own. He's become a threat.
I know at this moment in time, Shane has to die. I would do it myself.
It is either going to be Rick or I who does it, but it will happen. I wouldn't provoke anything, but I know in this moment in time if Shane does something, I won't hesitate. Even for a second.
He looks forward with a new, dangerous gleam in his eyes.