"Austin, you are driving me insane." Lori spoke as she watched her son crawl around the ground. "What on earth are you looking for?"
"My knife, mom." he spoke in return, nodding to his brother. "Watch Carl feed all those chicken."
"You're scaring them." Carl argued with him. "Would you stop rolling around? You look like one of those monsters."
Austin sighed as he stood up. "I don't understand how it just goes missing."
"Maybe Hershel got it, why don't you go ask him?" Lori suggested.
"He makes me feel weird." he said back, getting a look of disbelief. "I feel like he's judging me."
"He's giving us somewhere to stay, and has treated us medically. You be respectful." she gave a knowing look. "He's done more then enough, i'm sure asking if he picked up your knife is the least you can do."
Austin side, walking off.
"Still haven't found it?" Shane asked as the guns went off all around them, handing Austin a gun. "Learn how to use one of these and you won't need that knife."
"Why? To draw more to us?" he asked, holding the gun up. Shane pushed on his wrist to get it lower. "I want my knife."
"It'll turn it." he patted his back. Austin pulled the trigger, shooting through the bottle.
"My boy." Rick grinned, standing with Carl as he watched Austin. "Told you all those days in the shooting range would pay off."
"Still loud though." Austin rubbed his ears.
Shane handed Andrea the next one. "Try this one. It's heavier. You get better balance, twice the rounds."
Rick gave a shrug, they all backed up. Andrea gripped the gun, holding it up before shooting the can. Austin grinned. Shane looked over. "I'd say they both got the hang of it."
"I'd say they're ready for the advanced class." Rick said in return.
"Advanced?" Austin rose an eyebrow in his direction.
"Might be worth your while after the rest of us head back to camp." Rick looked between her and Austin. "Austin, i'll take you tomorrow."
He nodded. "Okay."
Rick leaned next to Carl, leveling him up. Carl pulled the gun, shooting the can with a grin. "I got it."
"That's a great shot." Rick smiled, looking to Austin. "That friend of yours doesn't want to learn?"
"Beth?" Austin frowned his eyebrows, getting a nod. "No, no, I don't think so. She's still....struggling with all this."
"All right, well you gotta get good if you're gonna teach her one day." Rick nodded to the can. "Go on."
Austin faced forward again, gripping the gun. With an inhale, he shot the can straight off.
Austin ate his eggs, sat with his dad. He looked at his mom oddly, she laughed. "What?"
"You have a weird radiance." he said back oddly, eyeing her. "Something is weird."
Rick and Lori shared a look. Carl looked over. "What's a radiance?"
"Ugh, honey, I-" Lori stared, being cut off by Glenn.
"Ugh, guys." he rose his his feet, looking around when he got everyone's attention. "So, the barns full of walkers."
It wasn't long before Austin followed the group, Shane looking through a small crack in the door with a scoff. "You can not tell me you're all right with this."
"No, i'm not. But we're guest here. This isn't our land." Rick shot back.
"What if they've been feeding them to us?" Austin spoke up.
"What!" Carl called in a panic.
"Austin!" Lori scolded him immediately.
"We have and cook our own food." Glenn shook his head. "Believe me, they're not."
"This is our lives, man!" Shane shouted in anger.
"Lower your voice." Glenn scolded him.
"We can't just sweep this under the rug." Andrea pointed out with a shake of her head.
"It ain't right. Not remotely." Shane shook his head in disbelief. "We either gotta go in there, we got to make things right or we've got to go."
"Go where?" Austin shot in his direction. "Back to a little camp in the woods? Look how that turned out."
"Tone." Rick warned him. "Show some respect."
"For him?" Austin laughed toward Shane. "Are you serious?"
"Is there a problem with that?" Rick narrowed his eyes.
Austin looked back to his mom, seeing the pleading look. He huffed, shaking his head. "Guess not."
Rick knew something was up, not bothering to question it just yet.
"We have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time." Shane spoke up again.
"We can't go." Rick pointed an annoyed finger his way.
"Why, Rick? Why?" Shane asked in anger.
"Because my daughters still out there." Carol spoke before Rick could.
"Okay." Shane laughed, rubbing his hands over his face. "Carol, I think it's time we all start to just consider the other possibility."
"Shane!" Glenn cut in.
"We're not leaving Sophia behind." Rick spoke seriously and sternly to his friend.
"We're close to finding this girl. I just found her damn doll two days ago!" Daryl cut in in annoyance.
Shane laughed. "You found her doll, Daryl. That's what you did. You found a doll."
"More then you've found." Austin defended Daryl with a glare.
"You don't know what the hell you're talking about!" Daryl shouted at Shane as he tossed his cross bar aside.
"I'm just saying why needs to be said!"
Shane yelled back at him.
"All right, all right." Rick tried to wave him off.
"You get a good lead, it's in the first 48 hours." Shane went on as Rick continued to try and get him to knock it off. "Let me tell you something else, man. If she was alive out there and saw you coming all merged out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck, she would run in the other direction."
Daryl stared to yell at him, Rick getting between the two and shoving them both back. They all cut in to try and separate them, Austin stayed back with a shake of his head, rubbing Carols back and keeping a hand on Carls shoulder.
"Keep your hands off me." Shane warned Lori when she pulled him back. Austin narrowed his eyes, watching closely.
"Yeah, you better walk off." Austin threatened Shane as he walked away from his mom. "Don't you talk to my mom like that."
"Just let me talk to Hershel!" Rick called. "Let me figure it out."
"What are you gonna figure out?!" Shane yelled at him, swinging around again.
"If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk to him into it. This is his land." the Grimes man spoke bitterly, as if he needed to explain it step by step to a child.
"Hershel sees those things in there as people." Dale spoke up with a knowing look. "Sick people. His wife, his step son."
"You knew?" Shane asked in disbelief.
"Yesterday I talked to Hershel." Dale nodded his head.
"And you waited the whole night?" Shane got into his face.
"I thought we could survive one
more night." Dale narrowed his eyes. "We did. I wanted to wait till this morning to say something, but Glenn wanted to be the one."
"The man is crazy, Rick." Shane shot toward his partner.
"He's not crazy, he's caring." Austin defended Hershel with a glare. "He clearly thinks there will be an antidote or something to save the ones he loves that are in there. If you had a little bit of a heart, you'd understand that instead of standing here hurting Carols feelings and yelling like a banshee!"
"Austin!" Rick yelled at him. "Enough!"
The walkers growled and fought against the barn doors, making them all look over.
"Can I sit?" Beth walked onto the porch with most of the group, nodding to the space next to Austin.
"Yeah." he moved over more for her to sit down. "How are you feeling?"
She nodded. "Okay."
"That's good." he nodded, offering her one of the leaves he was messing with.
"Damn it, is anyone taking this seriously!" Daryl yelling caught their attention. "You got us a damn trial."
Shane walked over, multiple guns in hand. "Here we go. What's all this?"
"You with me, man?" Shane looked at him, giving him a gun. "Time to grow up. You already got yours?"
"Yeah." Andrea nodded.
"Austin?" Shane looked toward the boy.
"What the hell are you doing?" he leaned off the porch with an odd look.
"Thought we couldn't carry?" T-Dog asked as Shane gave him a gun.
"Well, we can and we have to." Shane mocked.
Austin looked to Beth. "I'm sorry for him."
"Look, it was one thing to sit around picking daisies when we thought this place was suppose to be safe. But now we know it ain't!" Shane yelled as he looked around at the group of people crowded around the porch. He looked toward Glenn. "How about you, man? You gonna protect yours?"
Glenn looked at Maggie, taking the gun. Shane then looked to Maggie. "Can you shoot?"
"Can you stop?" she shot back, Beth stood up, staying behind Austin but getting a better look. "You do this, you hand out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight."
"We have to stay, Shane." Carl walked down the steps.
"What is this?" Lori hurried outside.
"We ain't going anywhere, okay?" Shane looked back at Carl. "Now, look.Hershel.... he just gonna understand. Okay? He- well, he's gonna have to. We need to find Sophia, am I right?"
"Oh, so now you care about Sophia?" Austin asked in disbelief, walking down the steps. "Real convenient right when you wanna manipulate my little brother."
"I ain't manipulating no one!" he called back at him, kneeling down infront of Carl and holding out a gun. "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 the gun."
Lori shoved Carl back. "Rick said no guns. This is not your call. This is not your decision to make."
"Oh, shit!" T-Dog called, looking down toward the forest. They all watched as Hershel and Rick lead two walkers, a collar like thing around their neck, connected to a pole that Rick and Hershel were pulling.
"What is that?" Shane took off running, making the rest of the group do the same in fear of what he was going to do.
"Dad!" Austin called out as a warning.
"What the hell are you doing!" Shane yelled as he ran up to them.
"Shane, just back up!" Rick warned, keeping a tight grip on the walker.
"Why do your people have guns?" Hershel looked to Rick in disbelief.
"Are you kidding me!" Shane yelled in disbelief as he looked at the two walkers. "You see? You see what they're holding onto?"
"I see who i'm holding onto!" Hershel rose his voice in return.
"Nah, man. You don't." Shane shot back, circling the group.
"Shane, just let us do this then we can talk." Rick tried to plead with him, the walkers loud and reaching out for them.
"Whatcha want to talk about, Rick?" Shane looked in disbelief. "These things ain't sick! They're not people! They're dead! They ain't gonna feel nothing cause you know what they do? They kill! These things right here! They're the things that killed Amy! They killed Otis! They gonna kill all of us if we do nothing!"
"Shane, shut up!" Rick yelled, Austin put an arm before Beth as they stayed near the fence.
"Hay, Hershel, man, let me ask you something." Shane stood before him. "Would a living, breathing, person...do they walk away from this?"
Austin flinched as Shane shot the walker three times in the chest and stomach, though it hadn't done anything due to not getting a shot to the head. "That's three rounds to the chest. If someone who's alive-could they just take that? Why is he still coming?"
He rose his gun, firing it and hitting the walker in the chest again. "That's it's heart! It's lungs! Why's it still coming!"
"Shane!" Austin yelled at him. "You're acting like a psycho path!"
Shane shot at it again, Rick jumping in. "Shane, enough!"
"Hey, you're right man." Shane walked forward. "That is enough."
With his gun to its neck, he shot the walker in the head, having it fell limb. Hershel fell with it, Beth grabbed hold of Austin's right wrist with both hands.
"Enough. Risking our lives for a little girl who's gone!" Shane shouted again. Carol gave a gap of disbelief. "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 wanna live, if y'all wanna survive, you gotta fight for it! I'm talking about right here! Right now!"
"Shane!" Austin shouted as he ran toward the barn.
"Hershel!" Rick called, handing him the pole with his walking on it. Hershel was frozen. "Hershel! Listen to me man, please! Take it now! Hershel! Take it!
Shane started to beat the lock, Austin walked forward before Lori put an arm out to keep him back, Beth following his every move.
"No, Shane! Do not do this, brother!" Rick called as they all continued to yell to try and stop him.
"Rick!" Lori cried out as Shane broke the lock, hitting the barn.
"This is not the way!" Rick yelled out.
Beth cried, Austin put his arms around her as her face was shielded. Maggie held her father, crying. Lori made sure the boys were behind her. Austin's heart fell when walkers began to come from the barn, Shane shooting the first one, the chain reaction continuing. Daryl and Andrea went to help him, T-Dog doing the same. Glenn got the okay from Maggie, hurrying forward to help the dead that were flooding out.
"It's okay." Austin spoke quickly to Beth as she cried, keeping her face away. His hand clasped over her ear to ease the sound. "It's okay. It's okay."
Shane shot the walker Rick was holding, causing his old partner to guard his family while the rest of their group shot all the walkers. It came to a slow end, the walkers dying out as the world was silent. Beth still cried, Austin hadn't let her go yet. Shane looked back, they all just stared, standing still and frozen while the Greene sisters and Patricia cried.
There was one more sound, a faint growl as a small girl emerged from the barn. Austin's heart dropped, his eyes filled with tears. "Oh, no. No, Sophia."
"Sophia! Sophia!" Carol cried out as she ran forward, Daryl caught her to stay back as she sobbed in his arms. "No. Sophia. Sophia."
The small walker was slow, barley walking out. Austin looked away as his lip trembled, trying to keep it together as much as possible as the little girl got closer. Rick stared at her, Lori holding a crying Carl. Their dad walked forward, holding his gun up and shooting Sophia in the head.
Carol wailed in Daryl's arms, collapsing onto the sand.
•
kylie speaks
the way twd is popular for
it's plot but the fact that
people need to talk about how
fantastic of acting they can
reach? like i don't think i've
ever seen someone be able to
portray such heavy emotions
on screen the same way andrew
and jon did through out the
seasons on the show. coming
from someone who has been in
acting classes for years and has
been doing theater since middle
school, getting yourself to that
level of emotion is so exhausting and difficult and they both make it seem so effortlessly. don't even get me started on lauren's crying ability bc that shit is hard too and her crying always made me cry as well