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Chapter Ten: Secrets Spilled
Written by: Indigo
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Having a meal these days is something that doesn't happen often. You have to find the food yourself, whether that be through hunting, stealing, or scavenging. And even after you get it, normally you have to cook it, and creating a heat source isn't as easy as you think.
So whenever Dale and Carol cook up some kind of meal for the group, Mercy thanks them immensely. Including today,
"Here mercy," Carol called quietly, her shaky hands griping the plate. Mercy took it with a soft, thank you. She sat down on the ground, the leaves underneath her crunching.
Today's breakfast was eggs. and just like at the CDC, mercy shoveled them into her mouth as if it was the last food on the planet. But unlike she did at the CDC, Mercy didn't ask for seconds.
The camp fell into an awkward yet comfortable silence. The only sounds consist of forks scratching plates, and teeth chopping down.
Glenn stands up abruptly, wandering around a bit. Mercy assumes that he just needs to walk around a bit, and stretch his legs from the night's rest, but instead, he perches himself at the front of the group.
"Um guys," He stutters, his hand coming to run down his face. Mercy stops eating and looks up at the man. everyone else copies, watching Glenn give his nervous speech.
"So..." he leads on. He turns to Mercy, asking for some kind of assistance. She is unaware of what he's trying to do, but she gives him a soft smile hoping it will help him. "The barns full of walkers,"
Mercys stomach drops. She was aware of the condition of the barn, but not everyone does. and in her opinion, some of these people shouldn't be trusted with that information.
Rick looks at Glenn with a stern look. one that asks Glenn if he's being serious. When he's unable to detect a lie in Glenn's words, he looks back to shane with a nod. The two friends stand up and walk towards the barn. Mercy attempts to grab Shane's arm as he walks past her,
"Dad, no" She mumbles but shane shakes her off and continues walking. Mercy finishes off her food quickly, thanking carol one last time before chasing after her father. The rest of the group was right on her trail, following the leaders towards the barn.
As mercy approached closer to the wooden barn, she began to hear low moans and growling coming from inside. Shane took a few cautious steps forward,
peeking his head to look between the crack in the large doors.
Shane backed away from the doors, turning around and stomping toward the rest of the group,
"You cannot tell me you're all right with this." Shane huffs, walking past rick.
"I'm not, but we're guests here. this isn't our land." The sheriff reminds. Shane takes off his hat, throwing his arms in the air.
"This is our lives, man!" Shane exclaims.
The group quarrels about what to do, or how they should be reacting entirely. Mercy steps forward just as her dad did, looking into the barn.
Inside it's dark, but mercy is still able to see enough to make out at least a dozen walking corpses. Her breath gets caught in her throat as she retreats,
"Okay, we've either got to go in there, we gotta make things right or we've just gotta go" Shane insists, placing his hat back on top of his shaved head. "Now we've been talking about fort benning for a long time." He adds.
Mercy is sick and tired of hearing about her father's Fort Benning plan. She agrees that it's their best bet, and eventually, yes, she would like to check it out and see what they can help out with. but her father is completely obsessed with the idea of getting there.
"We can't go," Rick exclaims. Shane shakes his head,
"Why, Rick? Why?" Rick goes silent for a moment, Mercy stands closer,
"We don't have enough supplies for the trip, let alone enough gas to get there," Mercy starts, "and have you completely forgotten that Sophia is still missing?" Mercy asks, taking a smaller step closer to her father,
Shane runs his hands over his face and turns to carol,
"Okay, I think it's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility," Shane starts, his hands pressed together in prayer,
"We're not leaving Sophia behind," Rick insists, Daryl steps out from his spot behind Carol,
"I'm close to finishing this Girl." He exclaims, pacing slightly, "I just found her damn doll two days ago." Shane stifles a laugh,
"you found her doll Daryl, that's what you did. you found a doll." Shane huffed, and Mercy shook her head.
"Yeah, her doll. the one she owned," She reminded, "has the thought ever dawned on you that she could be close to where she dropped it?" Shane shook his head again,
"You don't know what the hell you're talking about," Daryl said to Shane, swinging his arm around to emphasize his stress.
"I'm just stating what needs to be said, you get a good lead, it's in the first forty-eight hours," Shane continued. Rick kept pulling the other man away, begging him to keep his mouth shut and stop talking like the poor girl is dead.
"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." Shane insulted, pointing far away. Mercy pointed a finger at her father's chest,
"Oh, Go to hell!" She exclaimed. Daryl pushed himself away from the men holding him back. He kept swinging for shane, but with all the people separating the two, mercy would be surprised if he even got a punch on the other man.
The group was able to split the two men apart, Daryl was now calmed enough to not need to be held back,
"now just let me talk to Hershel. let me figure it out," Rick requested, his hand extended to his friend.
"What are you gonna figure out?!" Mercy placed a firm hand on Shane's chest,
"Knock it off!"
"If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. this is his land." Rick yelled.
Mercy pulled herself away from her father, physically and away from his piercing glare.
"Hershel sees those things in there as people," Dale reminds, looking at everyone surrounding him. "Sick people, his wife, his stepson." the older man adds.
The group faces furrow as they look at Dale,
"you knew?" Rick asked.
"Yesterday, I talked to Hershel."
"and you waited the night?" Shane yells, Dale turns to the younger man,
"I thought we could survive one more night. we did" dale confirms, glaring at shane "I was waiting until this morning to say something, but Glenn wanted to be the one" He admits, shame lacing his gaze.
"This man is crazy rick if Hershel thinks those things are alive or not!"
The groaning becomes louder, and the chain locking the walkers in is being shaken about. Mercy watches the barn doors scarcely, hoping that those walkers aren't strong enough to break the door down.
—
The group returns to their camp, attempting to resume their day as normal, even though fear is hovering over everyone's minds like a thunderstorm.
Mercy sits down at a picnic table with Lori and Carl. Lori is attempting to teach carl some school work. It's a smart idea, keeping him educated in hard times. especially since he was a fifth grader.
Mercy, on the other hand, was a sophomore in high school. she would complain and complain about how much she hated it but in reality, she loved it. Hanging out with friends, learning interesting material, and watching Jocks try to play pranks on teachers. Mercy doesn't necessarily think she needs any more schooling, but if she comes across a high school textbook. she'll probably give it a glance.
Carl is writing on a separate sheet of paper some math problems. he has a large math textbook laid out on the desk. From what Mercy can see, he's learning how to add improper fractions.
But he doesn't seem to be interested in the work. His hands are fiddling with the pencil and his eyes are glued to the ground.
"Hey," Lori says comfortingly, placing a hand over her son's shoulders, "Shane's just scared." She comforts. Mercy nods to carl when he turns to her, looking for a fact check.
"Of the walkers in the barn?" the young boy asks.
She knows her father's scared. She knows that he's trying to look out for the group. but the way he's going about it isn't the best. He's causing panic in everyone. they all believe that those walkers could break out any second and kill us all. and as much as there is a possibility, mercy thinks that it's a low chance. I mean, they've stayed in there for a while already, what would another month hurt?
"Guys," Carl starts. Mercy and Lori snap their heads to look at carl, "I'm not leaving until we find Sophia," Mercy smiles at the young boy,
"Don't worry," She assures, "I'm not either," Carls's expression doesn't move.
"I don't want to go even after that."
Mercy frowns. She has tried not to think about the topic, the fact that one-day Hershel might get fed up with them and kick them all out, with or without Sophia. She knows that eventually, they will have to leave. and Mercy won't ever see the few friends she's made here ever again. She'll never watch Elijah grow into an amazing artist, or ever see Beth break out of her anxious shell.
"We're not leaving carl," Lori promises. Her son nods at her. "Now finish those problems," Carl nods a second time, picking his pencil back up,
"I just think she's..." He starts, letting his sentence flatline as he thinks of the right words, "I think she's gonna like it here. This place, it could be a home."
Mercy smiles at the younger boy softly, as Lori pulls him into a hug, her chin resting atop of his head.
—
Throughout the afternoon, Mercy helps around the camp. Washing clothes, collecting plates from breakfast to wash, and cleaning up around the camp by picking up trash, and raking leaves.
The whole time Mercy tries to distract herself and her mind. She tries to pull away any thoughts about everything going on. because so much is going on.
She's terrified for Lori, she's terrified about the walkers in the barn, she's terrified about Sophia, she's terrified about Hershel kicking them out, and she's all around terrified that something horrible will happen.
Luckily, Mercy was able to distract herself when Elijah came by the camp and dropped off a comic book for her. The two had talked about comics the day before, and when Mercy mentioned she liked the spider-man comics, Elijah said he would drop a couple off some time.
She didn't think it would be so soon, but she was happy it was. Mercy thanked the younger boy greatly and walked off to find a spot to read it.
She picked to lean against a tree, it was hard against her back, but not too hard that she hurt herself. The paperback was thin against her fingers, only a bit thicker than that of a bible. She read each word of each panel, taking in the nostalgic feeling the book gave her,
"Hey shane, can I talk to you?"
Mercy glanced up, and across from her where Carl sat, shane stood,
"you okay?" He asks, Carl nods,
"I know you think Sophia's dead, and that we won't find her," Carl reminds. Shane shamefully nods. "I just wanted to let you know that's bullshit,"
Shane glanced around the small area, eyes only stopping on his daughter for a split second,
"Hey man, watch your mouth," He warns,
"We're gonna stay here until we find her," Carl says firmly. Shane glances to both sides, his face glistening with sweat,
"You think that's what we should do?" He asks. Carl doesn't even let the man get a breath before answering,
"That's what I know we should do" Shane shrugs his shoulders,
"Then we stay," Shane promises. "But that means we gotta do whatever we gotta do to make that happen," He adds.
Carl nods and begins to walk away. shane watches him leave, and just as he's out of the young boy's reach, he begins stomping his way to the RV.
Mercy stands up from her spot on the ground, using the tree behind her for balance. Her father exits the RV and begins yelling at Glenn for answers on where dale went. He seems to have gotten them because a second layer he's walking off towards his car.
Mercy walks over to the RV, her gaze still following her father,
"What the hell is he doing?" She asks, raising a hand to cover the top of her eyes to block out the sun. Glenn squints to where Shane is,
"No clue," He responds, adjusting his binoculars in his hands. Mercy brushed it off as him just being pissed at someone about something.
—
Mercy sat on the porch steps with Glenn and maggie who were both laughing and talking about the most random things. Mercy always thought you were supposed to get to know the person before you bang, but I guess not.
T-Dog and Andrea walked up to the small group,
"Do you know what's going on?" He asked,
"Where is everyone?" Andrea added. Glenn stood up and walked over to the pair,
"Weren't you supposed to be with Rick?" Glenn asks Andrea. She and Rick were supposed to go out and pick up Daryl's trail an hour ago.
"no, he went somewhere with Hershel, we were supposed to leave already," Andrea admits, stopping their pace in front of Glenn.
"There you are, What the hell?" Daryl asks, walking over to Andrea, Carol close on her tail.
"Rick told us you were going out," Carol says. Mercy stands up and walks over to Glenn. Mercy has a weird feeling, a feeling that something's going wrong.
"Damnit is anyone taking this seriously?" Daryl complains, "We got a damn trail," He adds turning towards the woods. As he turns around, he sees someone walking onto the land, "oh here we go,"
It's shane. He has the bag of guns around his shoulder, and his rifle clutched tightly in his hand. "What's all this?" Daryl asks. Shane pulls a rifle out of the bag and hands it to Daryl,
"you with me man?" Shane asks, holding the gun out for the redneck to take. there's a beat, and then he reaches out and holds the gun in his own hands.
"It's time to grow up!" He continues walking towards where Mercys standing. He pulls her black handgun out of the bag and places it in her palms, a stern but honest look on his face,
"What is this?" Mercy asks quietly, almost a whisper like it's a secret between her and her father. Shane shakes his head, the emotion in his eyes starting up again.
Mercy doesn't know what her fathers planning. and she doesn't know if she agrees with it, but she has a feeling that something's about to go wrong.
"We can't carry" T-Dog reminds and Shane presses a gun into his hand as well,
"We can, and we've got to," He says. The greenes exit their home at Shane's yelling. Edith is standing in front of both Beth and Elijah slightly, as a mother bear would.
"See 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," Shane announces. Mercy's eyebrows raise as she begins to realize her father's plans.
She doesn't want to do this. not because she believes it's a good idea to keep walkers in the barn, but because she knows that if they go through with this, Hershel will without a doubt kick them all out.
"What about you man? you gonna protect yours?" Shane asks, walking up to Glenn, and handing him a black shotgun. Glenn nervously glanced at Maggie before grabbing the gun with a firm but shaky grip.
"Can you shoot?" Shane asks maggie. The Greene woman looks at him with fierce,
"Can you stop?" She begs. "if you do this, my dad will make you all leave tonight," Mercy shifts the weight of the gun in her hands, trying to force her brain to make a decision.
"We have to stay shane," Carl reminds, walking down the steps of the porch. Lori exits the Greene home and walks over to the large group forming.
"What is this?" She asks, glancing at each person, and each gun in their hand.
"We ain't going anywhere, okay?" Shane reassures, "Now look, Hershel... He's just gonna have to understand. okay? He's gonna have to," Shane leads.
He walks over to carl, placing a smaller gun in the younger boy's hands, "now, we need to find Sophia am I right?" Shane asks, kneeling to carls level, "now I want you to take this, you take this and you keep your mother safe, you know how, go ahead and take it" Lori steps in front of her son, pushing his back behind her slightly,
"Rick said no guns. this is not your call, this is not your decision to make." Lori says through gritted teeth. Shane looks up at her, an angry expression growing.
"Oh, shit" T-Dog exclaims. Mercy turns to the older man, and when she sees what he sees, she can't help but tighten the grip on her gun.
Rick, Hershel, and Jimmy are walking out of the forest and towards the farm. Both Rick and Hershel are leading two walkers in front of them on sticks.
"you've got to be kidding," Mercy exclaims quietly. Shane, Maggie, and T-Dog take off towards the trio, And mercy drops every thought telling her to stay back and follows them, running just behind T-Dog.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Shane yells when he gets close enough for rick to hear him.
"Stay back!" Rick orders, the walker on his lead becoming aggressive.
"Why do your people have guns?!" Hershel asks Rick, once he notices the guns gripped in people's hands.
"Are you kidding me?!" Shane exclaims, "you see this?! you see what they're holding on to?!" Shane yells, pointing at the walkers attached to each person.
"I see who I'm holding on to!" Hershel corrects his attempts at getting closer to h the barn failing.
"Nah, man, you don't!" everyone takes a step back as rick and Hershel step closer, trying not to become the walker's next meal.
Shane continues to yell at the two men, trying to convince them that they're in the wrong. Mercy holds onto her gun tightly, scared that she might have to go against her host's wishes to protect herself and the people she loves.
"They're the things that killed amy!" Shane exclaimed looking at Andrea, "They're the things that killed Otis!" He adds, "and they'll kill all of us if we don't stop this!" Shane yells.
The barn is just out of their reach. all they would have to do is put the walkers in the barn, and they could all discuss this calmly, but instead, shane pulls his gun out of his belt and sims it at the walker,
"Dad! stop!" Mercy begs, taking a hesitant step toward her father,
"Hey, Hershel! could a living, breathing person walk away from this?" Shane asks, putting three rounds into the walker's chest. Mercy raises her gun slightly, finger hovering over the safety button.
Shane continues to shoot the walker, and every time it bounces back, attempting to bite, scratch, it kills anyone in its path.
"Why's it still coming?!" Shane asks rhetorically. Rick yells for shane to stop, he yells that this is enough and he needs to stop. the older Walsh just chuckles and walks closer to the walker.
"you're right man," He says aiming his gun at the walker's head, "that is enough" with that, he pulls the trigger, and the walker goes limp against the lead in Hershel's arms.
Mercy's aim becomes sturdy as she aims at the second walker's head, she doesn't shoot but keeps it there in case she feels she needs to.
"Enough of risking our lives for a little girl who's gone!" Shane yells. Carol watches shane with a shocked expression, tears building in her eyes.
"Will you stop it with that?!" Mercy yells, looking at her father. He looks at her with a furious expression,
"Enough, living next to a barn of walkers!" He adds, ignoring his daughter's pleas. "Rick, it's not like it was before," Rick glares at his best friend, "Now if y'all wanna live! if you wanna survive! you gotta fight for it! I'm talking about a fight, right here, and right now!" Shane finishes, sprinting towards the barn doors. Rick begs for Hershel to take the second walker but the older man's face is completely blank.
Mercy looks at the barn in fear, she can't tell who's side she's on, she just wants everyone to be safe. and if this is what she has to do, then so be it.
Shane picks up a pickaxe from beside the barn and begins hitting the lock over and over again until it's broken completely.
The sounds of begging and crying surrounding mercy are deafening, she can barely hear the sound of the walkers when they all begin to spill out of the barn doors.
but she was able to hear the sound of gunshots.
so she followed. Mercy raised her gun and aimed it at the heads of the walkers running toward her. Shane turned around and shot the walker that rick had in his grasp.
The walkers went down easily. Even with the few shots mercy did miss, she still was able to put down every walker who got too close to her.
Each and every walker was killed. The barn doors hung open as the walkers who were once in it, lay on the ground. Mercy took a moment to catch her breath from the battle that had just gone down.
but mercy was wrong, not every walker had been killed. there was light growling coming from inside the barn. Mercy cocked her gun again and raised it to aim in between the opening in the door. but when the walker revealed itself, mercy couldn't bring herself to shoot.
A familiar face exited the barn. one that Mercy had seen laugh and play millions of times. a face mercy held onto when Ed died. a face mercy wiped the tears from after Ed had hurt her. a face Mercy loved, and one she heavily missed.
Mercy almost fell to her knees as the young her walked closer to the group, almost stumbling over the corpses on the ground.
She was till wearing the same outfit she had the last time she saw her. the same blue shirt and kaki pants, the same blue sneakers, the same haircut mercy botched, and even the same pink bracelet mercy had made for her just a few weeks before.
Mercy didn't even notice she was crying until she snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of carol sobbing. Tears fell down mercy's face slowly, as they continued to build in her eyes. She couldn't even see the young girls face properly from the blurry vision she now had.
the young girl was growling and moaning as she walked closer and closer to the group, her eyes filled with hunger.
Rick slowly stepped infront of the group and pulled out his gun to bring it up to match with sophia's head. Mercy sobbed as she watched sophia look at rick, look at the entire group as if they were total strangers.
as he pulled the trigger, mercy fell to the ground, her gun being discarded somewhere else. the tears kept falling faster and her mind kept racing.
Glenn kneeled down to mercy and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Mercy turned into it and wrapped her arms around glenn's neck, hugging him tightly.
"It's okay Sadie, shh"
Sophia Peltier was one of the first people Mercades Walsh had ever met in the apocalypse. She was a kind and sweet girl who wanted nothing but to survive with her family. instead of getting what she wanted, she got lost in the woods for several days before being bitten, and kept in a barn. She was hidden from her family and friends, who were unaware that the little girl was just under their noses.
AN
sobbing, I hate this episode :(