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ix
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 were happily having our breakfast, most of the people worrying about Ma and the baby, but she's not the only pregnant woman, yep Lori is as well, Ma told me not to tell a soul, only Rick and her know. "Are you sure that's all you need?" Dale asks Ma. "Yeah, if I need a carving I'll tell you." she smiles and Dale walks away.
"Um, guys." Glenn gets all of our attention. "So... the barn is full of walkers." I literally choke on my scrambled eggs and chug water. In no time, we were all up all walking over to the barn. The groans were enough to hear, Glenn wasn't joking. Shane looks in a crack of the door. "You can not tell me you're all right with this." he growls walking away from the door.
"No, I'm not." Rick denies. "But we're guests. This isn't our land." "This is our lives!" Shane sneers, I agree with him on this one. "Lower your voice." Glenn murmurs. "We can't just sweep this under the rug." Andrea sighs. "It ain't right. Not remotely." Shane shakes his head. "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 excuses. "Why, Rick? Why?" Shane asks. "Because my daughter's still out there." Carol speaks. "Okay, I think It's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility." he says. "We are not leaving Sophia behind!" I defend Rick and Carol. "I'm close to finding this girl. I just found her damn doll two days ago." Daryl argues.
Shane laughs. "You found her doll, Daryl. That's what you did. You found a doll." "You don't know what the hell you're talking about." Daryl spits. "I'm just saying what needs to be said. You get a good lead, it's in the first 48 hours." he explains. "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 and Shane start coming at each other, while the rest of us try splitting them up, when I say rest I mean the others, Zak and I were laughing at how girly it was. "It's like that film, innit?" I laugh. "What? Like a James Bond film?" he chuckles. "No... Elf!" I burst and we die.
"Let me talk to Hershel." Rick calms. "Let me figure it out." "What are you gonna figure out?!" Shane screams spitting. "If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land." Rick says. "Hershel sees those things in there as people, sick people, his wife, his stepson." Dale speaks
"You knew?" Rick questions. "Yesterday, I talked to Hershel." Dale answers. "And you waited the night?" Shane probes. "I thought we could survive one more night. We did. I was waiting till this morning to say something. But Glenn wanted to be the one." Dale says. "The man is crazy, Rick, if Hershel thinks those things are alive or no!" Shane yells.
The wooden doors begin rattling, the walkers inside were eager to get out and feast on us. I wonder if the girls knew about this- who am I kidding, of course they did.
***
𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐢𝐫𝐝, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 atmosphere felt so damn awkward, I felt like I couldn't even look at the girls, not in disgust, but from guilt, what if one of them had someone they cared about in there? The four of them were sitting where they were yesterday, laughing and joking.
I was sat with Carl, Lori and Ma doing equations or some shit, why do we even need to learn? I was too busy fixated on the girls, that I hadn't realised a conversation had started."-Mum, I'm not leaving until we find we find Sophia." Carl's voice snaps me back to reality. "And I don't want to go even after that."
"He's right." I speak, turning all attention to me. "Look at this place, crops, wells, beautiful scenery, milk and Ma you always told me milk gives you protein and calcium when I wrestled." She laughs and nods. "That's right, I did." "She's gonna like it here." Carl agrees.
"This place. It could be a home." "Home sweet home." I grin, carrying on with my questions. "Ma? What is this question? How can I even do that in my thick head? This isn't University Challenge, ya' know?" Whatever I had said made Carl laugh so hard he dropped his pencil. "Diva, just do the Bus Stop method." she giggles.
"I would if I could remember how to do it." I smirk. Lori and Ma begin explaining it to me and I pretended to look interested, spoiler alert, I did know how to do it, I just wanted to see how well they could explain it all.
After a while, they let Carl and I do whatever we wanted, I could feel Carl smirking next to me as we walked away. "You knew how to do it, didn't you?" "Yup." I answer. He laughs and picks up his sheriff hat and plonks hit on his head. We both sit down by some logs and begin reading something, when Shane passes.
"Hey, Shane! Can I talk to you for a sec?" Carl stands and approaches Shane, I avoid eye contact with him. "You okay?" he asks. "Yeah. I know you think Sophia's dead." Carl confronts. "And that we should stop looking for her. But that's bullshit." I had to suppress a laugh, Carl fucking swore, that's iconic.
"Hey, man, watch your mouth." Shane warns. "We're gonna stay here until we find her." Carl insists. "You think that's what we should do?" Shane questions. "It's what I know we should do." Carl nods. "Then we stay." Shane says. "That means we got to do whatever we got to do to make that happen." "Like help out with chores?" Carl asks. Shane hums. "Like help out with the chores." He leans down and places his hand on Carl's shoulder.
He looks at me dead in the eye, I sarcastically grin and shove up my middle finger so no one else could see.
I could tell his blood was boiling with anger. Thank, God for Lori Grimes. "Carl, Jade, come here for a minute!" I was already on my feet running towards her and Ma, they were cutting carrots. "Need help with the carrots?" I asks. "Yes, Baby." Ma smiles I sit down and start cutting them as Carl comes over and does the same.
***
𝐀 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫, Carl was playing a board game with Patricia and Beth, and I was chatting with Zak. "Do you think Letty likes me?" he asks. Everyone, meet the real Zak Moon. "Zak, if you think you have a chance with her, then you would be seriously punching above your own weight." I laugh.
"What is that supposed to mean?" he asks offended. I grin. "Well, you know- you're not exactly the next Leonardo DiCaprio, are you?" "Well you're no Megan Fox yourself, my friend." he scowls. "Never said I was." I smirk. "Where is everyone?" Andrea questions. She had a point, it seemed like everyone had just vanished into thin air. "You haven't seen, Rick?" Glenn questions.
"He went off with Hershel. We were supposed to leave hours ago." Andrea says. "Yeah you were." Daryl approaches with Carol. "What the hell?" "Rick told us he was going out." Carol informs. "Damn it. Isn't anybody taking this seriously? We got us a damn trail." Daryl seethes, turning around and seeing Shane. "Oh, here we go."
He was approaching us all with the gun bag, what in the seven shades of shit? "What's all this?" "You with me, man?" Shane asks. "Yeah." Daryl murmurs. "Time to grow up. You already got yours?" Shane asks Andrea. Um, hi Shane, I don't have mine! "Yeah. Where's Dale?" she answers. "He's on his way." Shane says.
"Thought we couldn't carry." T frowns, getting handed his gun. "We can and we have to." Shane insists, now giving me and Zak our guns. "Look, it was one thing sitting around here picking daisies when we thought this place was supposed to be safe. But now we know it ain't." He approaches Glenn with a shotgun. "How about you, man? You gonna protect yours?" Glenn reluctantly takes the gun, looking at Maggie in the process.
"Can you shoot?" "Can you stop?" Maggie sneers, I love Maggie even more now. "You do this, you hand out these guns, my Dad will make you leave tonight." "We have to stay, Shane." Carl speaks. "Yeah, Sophia. Remember?" I frown. "What is this?" Lori questions, coming from no where with Ma. "Why does my daughter have her gun?" Ma asks. "Jules, it's for a good cause." Pops calms, really? He's siding with that dickhead?!
"We ain't going anywhere, okay?" Shane assures me and Carl. "Now look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Okay? He- well, he's gonna have to. Now we need to find Sophia. Am I right?" He's gone absolutely mental, I want the old Shane back, the one who beat the crap out Ed Peletier. He kneels down to Carl, gun in hand. "Now I want you to take this. You take it, Carl, and you keep your mother safe. You do whatever it takes. You know how. Go on, take the the gun and do it."
Lori steps forward and stands her ground for her son. "Rick said no guns. This is not your call. This is not your decision to make." "Oh shit." T-Dog gasps. We look over and see that Rick and Hershel had a walker each on a snare pole and Jimmy was clapping to lead them here. "What the fuck?" I whisper under my breath.
All of us begin sprinting towards this odd event, Shane fuming. "What is that?!" he kept murmuring. "What the hell you doing?!" Shane exclaims at the pair. "Shane, just back off!" Rick warns. "Why do your people have guns?" Hershel asks. "Because we think these things are a threat to us!" Zak boldly states. "Zak, I got this." Shane assures. "Are you kidding me?! You see?! You see what they're holding onto?!"
"I see who I'm holding onto." Hershel insists it's still a person. "No, man, you don't!" Shane denies. "Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk." Rick excuses. "What you want to talk about, Rick?" Shane bellows. "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 killed you're Grandmother! They're gonna kill all of us."
He really brought our family into this?! "Don't bring her into this!" I sneer. "Shane, shut up!" Rick spits. "Hey, Hershel, man, let me ask you something. Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" Shane shoots the female walker in the chest three times, he is going way too far with this. "No! Stop it!" Rick yells. "That's three rounds in the chest." Shane says. "Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?! Why is it still coming?"
He shoots it more. "That's it's heart, it's lungs. Why is it still coming?!" And he shoots it even more. "Shane, enough!" Rick shouts. "Yeah,you're right, man. That is enough." Shane somewhat agrees. He walks straight up to it and shoots it straight in the head. Hershel falls to the floor with it, heartbroken?
"Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone!" He's gone too far now! If he hadn't already, he had now! Carol's eyes was welling with tears, Ma comforts Carol. "Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us! Enough! 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."
Without hesitation, Shane runs to the doors of the barn and begins unlocking it, well beating it with a pickaxe. "Stop! You've proved your point!" I hear one of the girls yell. Rick was yelling for Hershel to take to snare pole, but he was caught up in his own world.
After he destroyed the lock, he stepped back and got his gun ready and aimed it at the door. The first comes out and Andrea and T-Dog are the first to step up and help then Daryl. "Come on!" Zak beckons me and us two siblings run to the others and shoot the walker emerging from the barn.
It was just walker after walker, never ending corpses spilling out of the place. They all eventually stopped, until another high growl was sounding inside the darkened area. It eventually stepped into the light...
"Sophia..." I trail, my eyes slightly welling with tears. "Sophia? Sophia!" Carol screams running, Daryl and I stopping her from going towards her. Zak and Daryl keep on the ground, incapable of standing up. Sophia begins stumbling her way over the bodies. Whatever tears were forming in my eyes before were now pouring out of my eyes. Is anyone going to do it?
I begin walking up, but feel a hand on my shoulder, I turn and see Rick. "It shouldn't have to be you." he sighs. I unemotionally nod and he walks to a perfect distance away from the infected girl we all once knew as Sophia. Carol's wailing filled my ears as well as the gun shot, signalling Sophia had been finally laid to rest.
Ma appears next to me and pulls me into a hug I was in too much of a shock to move, never mind show any kind of emotion.
Poor Carol.
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~-g00dniqht