"So you and Glenn huh?"
I turned my head a little to get a side glance of Maggie sitting down on the porch steps next to me. I rose an eyebrow, not getting what she was saying. "What?"
"You and Glenn?" she repeated.
I turned my full gaze on her, staring at her confused as she looked at me with an amused look. "What are you talking about?" I questioned.
She smirked. "You two seem to be getting along well lately," she commented.
"Yeah, he's the only one who won't send me back to the house."
"So you two are a thing then?"
Oh. My face widened in realization, shaking my head quickly, my cheeks becoming warm as I blushed in embarassment. "Woah woah, you got it all wrong. There's nothing between me and Glenn," I corrected quickly. "I don't even think we're friends."
She nodded, staring straight ahead. "I think he likes you," she told me. "He seems to care about your well being a lot."
"Yeah well I think he's more of a jerk than anything," I admitted. He was ignoring me earlier and still is. I still don't see what his problem is.
"Well that's a little harsh."
I gasped, my face becoming hot as I let me head fall back, staring up at Glenn who stood behind me. Maggie laughed, standing up and going over to stand by Beth and Patricia. I instantly looked down at my feet as Glenn took a seat in the place Maggie was at a few seconds ago. I mentally cursed myself, mad that I had put my hair up in a ponytail so I couldn't use it to hide my cheeks right now.
I didn't dare to look at Glenn -already feeling bad for him hearing me call him a jerk. It was silent, the only talking heard was the girls behind us. "How's that ankle?" Glenn asked, breaking the silence.
"Fine," I replied back quickly.
"Glenn if you go get your hat, I'll wash it for you," Maggie suggested.
I didn't look to him to see if he nodded or not. "I'll be back, stay here," he whispered in my ear, making me tense up at how close he was. I nodded quickly as he stood up and walked down the porch steps. I sighed in relief and finally looked up at Glenn's back. Thank goodness.
"Do you know what's going?"
My attention was turned to T-Dog and Andrea as they walked over.
"Where is everyone?"
"You haven't seen Rick?" Glenn asked confused.
"He went off with Hershel," Andrea answered. "We were supposed to leave a couple of hours ago."
"Yeah you were. What the hell?" Daryl said, observing everyone as him and Carol came over.
Carol walked on the other side of Daryl. Where were they at together? "Rick told us he was going out."
Daryl looked at Carol with a weird expression. "Damn it. Isn't anybody taking this seriously? We got us a damn trail."
I stood up, catching sight of Shane walking back with guns. Why does he have so many guns? What the hell is he up to? I used the rail of the banister to hold me up as Maggie hurried down the steps.
"Oh, here we go."
I moved my way to Maggie and Glenn, leaning a bit on Maggie for support. "What's all this?" Daryl asked Shane who had a determined look on his face.
"You with me, man?" He asked, handing Daryl a shotgun.
What the hell.
"Yeah."
"Time to grow up," Shane barked out to us. "You already got yours?"
"Yeah. Where's Dale?" Andrea asked worriedly.
I stared angrily at Shane, shooting Glenn a disapproving look. He should have just kept his mouth shut. Maggie told me he was the one who leaked the information about walkers in the barn. It was none of his damn business, now look at what's going on.
"He's on his way," Shane spat.
"Thought we couldn't carry?" T-Dog reminded confused even though he grabbed a gun.
"We can and we have to," Shane said back, passing out guns. "Look it's one thing sitting around here picking daisies when we though this place was supposed to be safe, but now we know it ain't."
He walked to Glenn, holding a gun out to him. "How 'bout you man? You gonna protect yours?" He asked, his eyes flickering to mine for a second. Glenn looked at Maggie then to me, lingering there for a minute before huffing out and grabbing the gun. Stupid.
"That's it. Can you shoot?" Shane asked Maggie.
"Can you stop!" she barked. "You do this, you hand out these guns , my dad will make you leave tonight," She warned angrily.
Shane shook his head, holding out a small gun to me. "Fuck you," I spat, sticking by Maggie's decison. "You're all being stupid."
Carl walked down the steps, rushing to my side. "We have to stay Shane."
"What is this?" Lori asked in panic as she came from the side of the house.
"We ain't going anywhere okay. Now look, Hershel . He's just gotta understand."
"This isn't your land to decide that," I snapped. Glenn looked at me worriedly as I stepped to Shane defiantly. "You're lucky Hershel even let you stay here in the first place!"
Shane glared down at me. "Watch that mouth of yours sunshine," he warned lowly, sending shivers up my spine. His look was deadly so I happily moved back as Glenn pulled me away from him by my shirt.
"Okay? He-- well he's gonna have to. Now we need to find Sophia am I right?" He asked, walking to Carl. "Huh? 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 and take it the gun and do it," He ordered to Carl, kneeling down in front of him.
Lori rushed towards Carl, pushing him back away from Shane. "Rick said no guns, this is not your call. This is not your decision to make," Lori shot harshly at Shane.
"Oh shit."
We all turned our attention to T-Dog, seeing why he suddenly said that. Jimmy came out of the woods, clapping his hands and calling out to two walkers that Hershel and Rick were guiding through the fence.
"What is that?" Shane questioned angrily before taking off.
"Shane!" Lori shouted.
Everyone seemed to move at once, following him. I ignored the pain in my ankle as I ran after Shane. I had to stop him. He'd get Rick's group kicked off the farm with his dumb decision. I kept up with Maggie, going as fast as I could.
"Hey man, what the hell you doing?" Shane demanded as he pushed the gate open and ran towards Rick and the walkers.
"Shane, just back off!"
"Why do your people have guns?"
Shane circled around them, his whole demeanor giving off bad vibes. "Are you kidding me? You see? You see what they're holding onto?" he shouted.
"I see who I'm holding on to!" Hershel shouted back.
Adrenaline pumped through my veins at the scene in front of me. Hershel still saw them as people. He didn't understand yet. That still didn't give Shane any right to try to force things on other people.
"No man, you don't!!"
I stepped forward, pushing angrily at Shane's back. "Shane, just let them do this!" I yelled angrily. "You can talk about it later!!"
He turned around, rage all over his face. "Don't fucking touch me right now sunshine," He spat, pushing me back. I tripped over my feet, being caught by Maggie and steadied.
"What is there to talk about, Rick?!" Shane continued to shout, dodging the grasp of the female walker. "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!"
I stared wildly at Shane, wishing I was strong enough to knock him to the ground. I stepped forward to try to stop him again to only be stopped by a hand firmly on my chest. I looked up angrily at Glenn, smacking his hand away from me. "Don't you dare touch me," I spat, earning a hurt look from him.
"These things right here, they're the things that killed Amy. They killed Otis. They're gonna kill all of us unless-"
"Shane!" Rick shouted in pure anger. "Shut up!"
Shane didn't seem to care that Rick, the leader of the group told him to do something. "Hey Hershel, let me ask you something," He spoke in a fake calm. I noticed Daryl side stepping around the walkers, his gun raised. "Could a living, breathing person, could they walk away from this?"
I gasped, widening my eyes as Shane pulled his gun out and fired 3 rounds into the female walker. "Stop!" Rick yelled.
"That's three rounds into the chest! Could someone who's alive, could they just take that? Why is it still coming?" Shane shouted, firing his gun again into the walker.
I watched desperately as Hershel tried to move the walker away from Shane, bullet holes in the poor things chest. "That's its heart, its lungs" Shane added. The walker fixed itself back up, growling out loudly towards Shane. "Why is it still coming?" He repeated, firing into it once again.
"Stop it you asshole!" I screamed, not moving from my position because I didn't want Shane pointing that gun at me.
"Shane enough!"
Shane nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you're right man. That is enough," he disobeyed, walking up to the walker and shooting it right in the forehead and walking away as it fell to the floor.
Tears sprang to my eyes, watching Hershel fall to the ground in horror. He looked so defeated. They don't understand. This town is small and by the age of Hershel, he probably knew many of this people. Shane shot someone Hershel felt he could save.
"Enough risking or lives for a little girl who's gone!" Shane still went on. He was never going to stop. This man is crazy. "Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us! Enough! Rick, it ain't like it was before!"
Rick stared at Shane with the coldest stare I've seen on the man. Shane was pushing him and he was going to snap soon.
"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!" Shane bellowed out, running to the barn and picking up the weapon on the ground.
"Take the snare pole!" Rick ordered to Hershel. "Hershel! Hershel take the snare pole. Hershel, listen to me man please," Rick begged, his voice cracking as he tried to gain the aging mans attention. "Take it now. Hershel! Take it!"
Shane began banging on the barn, hitting the axe against the locks.
"No, Shane. Do not do this brother! Wait!"
Shane didn't listen to him as he continued to hit against the locks, breaking the top one off. "Don't do it!" Glenn begged.
"Rick!" Lori yelled in panic.
"Please!"
I shook my head in panic, Shane pulling the wood holding the handles of the doors together off and banging on the doors. "Come on! Come on, we're out here," he taunted to the walkers, pulling his gun out from the back of his pants.
"This is not the way!" Rick tried to coax. "Please!"
I looked around, noticing Maggie was holding onto her father crying, everyone else standing in shock and panic. I screamed as the doors opened, walkers pouring out of the barn. Gunshots rang through the air, my head pounding as Rick's group began shooting at them. I fell to my knees, recognizing some of the decaying faces that came out.
That's why Hershel kept them in the barn. How could he just kill people he knew so personally? I wouldn't even be able to do it. My gaze fell on Glenn as he stood in front of me; almost in a protective way and shot at the walkers coming out.
"Stop," I begged, covering my ears with my hands and staring down at my knees. I struggled to breath as my breathes came out short and ragged, the growls of walkers and gunshots still being heard. I squeezed my eyes shut. Count to 10 Claire and it'll be over. Just count to ten.
1 mississippi. 2 mississippi. 3 mississippi. 4 mississippi 5 mis-
I snapped my eyes open, feeling someone shake me gently. I looked up into the worried eyes of Glenn, his mouth moving, but I heard no words. He shook me again, panic and worry evident in his facial features. He yanked my hands away from my ears -allowing me to hear what he was saying. "Are you alright?" He asked in panic.
I nodded my head slowly, not sure what my emotions were right now. All those people in the barn. I knew them one way or another and now they're all really dead. They weren't bothering anyone in the barn. They were perfectly fine. I stared blankly at Glenn, feeling a wetness on my cheeks as he cupped my face in his hands.
"Claire, please tell me why you're crying?" He begged.
I didn't say anything -instead I just pushed him away from me, standing up shakily to my feet. He stood up too, watching me cautiously as I backed away from him and the people crowded around the barn. I shook my head from side to side, my voice coming out weak. "I-i-i hav-have to get away from here," I spoke barely above a whisper.
Glenn took a step towards me. I quickly turned around and ran for the farm house, not even feeling the pain in my ankle as my only thought was to get far away, ignoring the calls for me. I went to the front of the house, not once stopping to look back as I ran straight for the woods. They wouldn't notice I was gone until they checked the house. I wasn't staying here. Not after that. I'm determined to find my way back to town now and get back to my brother Randall. I wasn't staying at this damn farm one more day.
The last thing I heard as I ran through the trees was a loud cry and a single gunshot ring through the air.