Rosie nodded a thank you to Carol as scrambled eggs were scraped onto her plate. She grabbed her fork and quickly looked back to who she had been staring at for the past five minutes:
Glenn.
He was bouncing his leg up and down repetitively, looking back and forth between Maggie and Dale. Maggie was all the way up on the porch at the house with her arms crossed, shaking her head at Glenn, while Dale was standing by the clothes line, nodding his head at Glenn.
They were speaking with their eyes. Rosie hated that. It drove her mad. So she looked down at her plate and preoccupied herself with eating her eggs. She sat on the ground next to the fold up chair Daryl was sitting in. She'd been dying to ask him if he knew about Otis, and she wanted to last night, but by the time she worked up the courage to whisper his name, Daryl was already asleep. So she was postponing it until later.
"Um, guys," Glenn said awkwardly, rubbing his hand across his face.
Rosie looked up, her eyebrows raised. Was he going to reveal what he was talking to Maggie and Dale with his eyes about?
"So..." he breathed out, obviously nervous and unsure, "the barn's full of walkers."
•
Not even five minutes later, everyone was gathered around said barn. Shane was up close to it, peaking between the cracks at the walkers stumbling around inside. He flinched a little when one appeared right in from of him, and he backed away quickly. "You cannot tell me you're alright with this," he said to Rick.
"No, I'm not. But we're guests here. This isn't our land," Rick reminded him.
"Oh, God, this is our lives!" Shane shouted, putting his hat back on his head.
"Lower your voice!" Glenn hissed.
"We can't just sweep this under the rug," Andrea said.
"It ain't right. Not remotely," T-Dog agreed.
"Okay," Shane said as he began pacing back and forth, "we either gotta go in there, we gotta make things right, or we just gotta go. Now, we have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time-"
"We can't go!" Rick stopped him, holding his hand out.
"Why, Rick? Why?"
"Because it's safe here," Carl said, standing next to his mother.
Rick nodded in agreement, but Rosie wondered if there was another reason he wasn't saying out loud. She thought maybe he wanted to stay because of Lori's baby, because Hershel was a doctor. But she didn't even know if Rick knew about the baby yet. She'd been dying to tell someone, or at least ask someone her questions about it, but she didn't want to make Lori mad, so she didn't.
"Just let me talk to Hershel. Let me figure it out," Rick said.
Shane turned around quickly, lashing his arm out in Rick's direction. "What are you gonna figure out?!" he screamed, stalking towards Rick. Rosie hid herself slightly behind Daryl, remembering what she had overheard between Dale and Shane just yesterday, but she still made sure she could see both Shane and Rick.
"If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land," Rick explained.
Everything had been so tense for the past few days. All the yelling and fighting between everyone- between Maggie and Lori, between Dale and Shane, between Rick and Shane- all of it reminded Rosie of her dad. And it made her feel uneasy.
Dale stepped toward Rick, his hand raised a little. "Hershel sees those things in there as people. Sick people," he said. Rosie admired his ability to just speak his mind, even with the threat of Shane standing a mere six feet away, even after Shane threatened him just the day before. She was sure that she could never be that brave. "His wife, his stepson."
"You knew?!" Rick asked.
"Yesterday, I talked to Hershel," Dale said.
"And you waited the night?!" Shane spat, inching closer to Dale with an angry look on his face.
"I thought we could survive one more night. We did," Dale defended himself. "I was waiting till this morning to say something, but Glenn wanted to be the one."
"The man is crazy, Rick, if Hershel thinks those things are alive or no!"
At the sound of Shane's furious yelling, the barn doors started to rattle as the walkers pounded against them, attracted to the noise. Shane went up to the doors, checking the locks and chains. When the walkers pounded against the door again, he jumped back, reaching for his gun on his waist, but it wasn't there. He took his hat off of his head and threw it down, making Rosie jump back a little. She jumped again when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
Turning around, she saw that it was just Lori. "Come on," she said, placing her hand on Rosie's back. Not wanting to make anyone mad by disobeying, Rosie went along with Lori and Carl.
Much to Rosie's disappointment, Lori had Carl and Rosie sit down at the picnic table and placed math books in front of them. Upon seeing the math book, Rosie stood up to leave, but Lori put her hand on the girl's shoulder and made her sit back down.
"Your education is still important," Lori claimed.
Rosie rolled her eyes, leaning her chin on her hand. "Who cares if I know math if I'm just gonna get eaten by walker by the time I turn ten?" she muttered.
Lori's eyes widened as she stared at the girl. "Don't say that," she scolded, placing a pencil down on the math book.
"What? It's true," Rosie shrugged. Lori was appalled.
"It's not," Lori said sternly, looking Rosie in the eyes. Feeling a little uneasy, Rosie picked up the pencil and started tapping it on the table as she avoided Lori's eyes. "Now, what grade were you in?" Lori asked.
"Third," Rosie answered.
"Were you doing fractions?"
"I stopped goin' ta school before they got to that," Rosie said, shrugging.
Carl furrowed his eyebrows, turning to look at her. "You stopped going to school?" he asked.
"Kind of," Rosie said, not really wanting to get too much into it. Lori pulled the book towards herself and started flipping through the pages as Rosie watched with disdain. She hated math. Not because she didn't understand it, but because she found it boring. Everyone knows that three times three is nine, so why did she have to write it down in a book?
When Lori pushed the book back towards Rosie, it was on a page about fractions. Rosie looked down at the page, her eyes landing on a drawing of a pie cut up into three pieces, and she groaned.
They sat silently, each doing the problems Lori told them to while she watched over silently, keeping them on task.
"Mom," Carl said, looking up from his question about how many CDs he could buy from a CD store with $17. "Do you think we're really gonna have to leave?" he asked.
"We're not leavin', Carl," Lori assured him. She nodded down at the book page. "You finish those problems."
Carl obeyed, looking back down at his work, but kept talking. "I just think this place... it could be a home," he said, a small smile appearing on his freckled face. Lori looked into his pale blue eyes for a moment before leaning forward and pulling him into a hug.
Rosie watched the interaction quietly. Her head was tilted down as if she was focusing on the page in the math book, but her eyes were pointed up at Carl and Lori. She couldn't help but think about her own mom. She wondered who she was, if she was still alive. And she wondered if her own mother would hug her like that if she was there.
•
In search of Dale, Rosie made her way towards the RV. She had been wanting to talk to someone about everything she had overheard, so she could ask all of her questions, and the only person she was sure knew everything was Dale. He was a wise old man. He reminded her of a wise owl sometimes.
When she clambered up the steps of the RV, almost tripping due to her over-sized boots, she saw Dale standing in front of the gun bag, zipping it up.
"Mr. Dale?" she said, holding her hands behind her back.
Dale turned to her quickly, a surprised look on his face. He wasn't wearing the hat he usually wore, Rosie noticed. "Oh, Rosie," he said, putting on a small smile. "What can I do for you?"
"Um," Rosie began, "I got a question. Lots of 'em, actually."
"Well, I'll give you the best answers I've got," Dale told her. Rosie felt relieved, finally finding someone who would actually answer her questions.
"Did Shane kill Otis?" Rosie asked. She felt anxiety bubble in her stomach when Dale's eyes widened at her. She worried her question was a bad one, and he'd get mad.
But he didn't. He sighed and took a seat on the bench, his hands on his knees. "Where did you get that idea?" he asked.
"I heard ya talkin' to him," she said. She paused and thought about her words for a second before adding, "I wasn't eavesdroppin' though. I just... heard."
"I don't know what he did, Rosie. But I think it's best you keep your distance from him," Dale said, giving Rosie a serious look.
She nodded, looking at her shoes. "That's what I was thinkin'," she said. Dale nodded too, and gave her a small smile. "Do ya know how the baby got in Lori?" Rosie asked her next question. She watched Dale's eyes widen again.
"You know about that too?"
"Yeah. Saw Maggie yellin' at her about abortion pills, so I asked Daryl what they were and he said they were for when you're pregnant and don't wanna be. So I figured out that Lori was pregnant and maybe doesn't wanna be."
"You're a smart girl," Dale said, trying to distract her from her original question.
It didn't work. "But I thought people had babies on purpose, like ya had ta drink some medicine or somethin'. So how could ya get a baby in ya if ya don't want it?"
"That's not something you have to worry about."
Rosie huffed out a sigh. "That's what Lori said."
"Lori's right," Dale said with a nod. He stood back up, stepping back in front of the gun bag. "You know, I've been curious to see those dinosaur toys you've always got with you. I've got something to do right now, but when I get back, I'd love to hear about them."
"Really?" Rosie asked, a small smile gracing her face.
"Of course. Why don't you go and get them? I'll be back in just a little bit," Dale said.
Twisting her lips to the side to cover up her smile, Rosie nodded and hurried out of the RV to go to Daryl's tent and get her bag. She climbed inside and kneeled down on the sleeping bag that Daryl had been lending her. She assumed it was Merle's, but she didn't know for sure. Next to the sleeping bag was her backpack.
Looking down at the bag, her eyes caught sight of her father's belt with the knife attached at the hip. Thinking about Glenn's announcement at breakfast, Rosie slipped the belt around her waist and let it hand there, over her shirt. Knowing she wasn't allowed to have her gun, she thought she at least ought to have her knife on her at all times. If those walkers somehow got out of that barn, she'd need something to protect herself with.
After putting on the belt, she turned back to her backpack and unzipped the smaller front pocket on the bag. That was where she'd been keeping the dinosaur toys ever since Daryl put the velociraptor in there. She hadn't put anything in the smaller pocket before, but after Daryl did it, she thought it was smart to put the dinosaurs in that pocket so they didn't get lost or mixed up with the larger items.
The backpack still had the coloring book and the activity book in it, along with the crayons and markers, but she hadn't been using those as much because she'd been so preoccupied with reading the books Maggie gave her.
Her flannel was still in the bag too, but she hadn't been wearing it because it was so hot out. There was also her Black Sabbath shirt, but she didn't like to wear it as much anymore. It made her think of her dad and she didn't want to think of him. It was such a confusing topic for her.
Another thing in her bag was her pocket knife. When she first found it in there a few days ago, she was confused, remembering how she had left it stuck in the skull of the first walker she killed off of the highway. But she realized that Daryl, being much stronger than her, must have been able to get it out of the walker's skull when they were following her trail.
Finding the pocket knife left for her in her bag reminded Rosie of when she had slept on top of Merle's sleeping bag, back at the Atlanta camp. She thought her knife was gone then, too, thinking it was forever stuck in her dead father's eye socket. But when she woke up in the Dixons' tent, the knife was beside the sleeping bag. Rosie now realized that it was probably Daryl who had left it there.
Rosie gathered the small velociraptor, brachiosaurus, stegosaurus, and triceratops into a pile in front of her. She used her left hand to grab at the fabric of her shirt, pulling the bottom up a little. Using her right hand, she grabbed the dinosaurs and put them into the make-shift shirt pouch one at a time.
After all four dinosaurs were in her shirt pouch, she carefully stood up, making sure not to drop them. She walked slowly and carefully back to the RV, afraid that one of the dinosaurs would fall without her noticing. She climbed up the steps of the RV and made her way over to the table. Seeing that the gun bag was now gone, she dumped the four dinosaurs onto the table and sat down on the seat in front of it, patiently waiting for Dale to return.
She had been waiting for about three minutes when she heard Glenn, who was up on the roof keeping watch, speak.
"S'up?" Glenn asked someone. Rosie looked up from the table, expecting Dale to walk into the RV, but instead, Shane marched on in, an irritated look on his face.
Shane quickly stepped in front of the table, making Rosie shrink down into her seat. Shane looked at her for just a second, then resumed looking around the RV. He ducked down, looking beneath the table. When he came up empty, he grew even more frustrated.
When Shane slammed his hand down onto the table with anger, Rosie cowered back and scooted towards the back corner of the booth. She watched, frozen in her spot, as Shane started opening cabinets, looking through them, and then slamming them shut. He even went to the back of the RV and lifted up the mattress before throwing it back down.
After searching through the entire RV, Shane came back to the table. He slammed his hands down onto the sides of the sink, and Rosie flinched again, her heart racing.
He's acting like Daddy.
"Son of a bitch," Shane muttered to himself. He turned around and looked at Rosie, a dark expression on his face. "You see where he went?" he asked her. Rosie didn't say anything, afraid she'd give him the wrong answer. "Answer me, girl!"
"I- I don't know," Rosie squeaked out.
Shane sighed and quickly left the RV. Rosie heard him talking to Glenn, but she couldn't make out what he was saying. Once she was sure he had walked away, she walked out of the RV and climbed up the ladder to the roof, where Glenn was keeping watch.
"Hey," Glenn said, putting on a smile when Rosie sat down at the edge of the RV, dangling her legs off of the side.
"Hi," Rosie said.
"Do you know what Shane's all mad about?" Glenn asked, watching as Shane walked towards the woods.
"No. But I know Dale doesn't like him."
Glenn chuckled a little. "Yeah, I caught onto that too."
"He's bein' scary," Rosie said, looking down at her boots.
"Tell me about it," Glenn replied, scrunching his face up. Rosie was about to ask him about Maggie, but then Maggie herself appeared up the driveway, carrying some sort of basket. "Be right back," Glenn said before starting to climb down the ladder, calling out Maggie's name.
Rosie watched from afar as Glenn and Maggie had a seemingly intense conversation, but she couldn't quite tell what they were talking about. After talking for a long time, Glenn started to walk away, but then Maggie said something else, making him turn around again.
As Maggie walked closer to Glenn, starting to smile a little, Rosie grew a little confused. From what she could tell from afar, they were mad at each other. But now Maggie was smiling.
But then Maggie grabbed onto the sides of Glenn's face and pulled his lips towards her own. Rosie's eyes widened and she cringed back a little.
What the hell?
•
"Hell ya doin' up there?" Daryl called up to Rosie, using his hand to shield his eyes from the sun. Rosie looked down at him, kicking her legs back at forth off of the side of the RV.
"Glenn told me he'd be right back but then he kissed Maggie and they left together, so I'm waitin'," Rosie explained. Daryl scoffed, shaking his head a little.
"Come on down. Can't have some eight-year-old keepin' watch," Daryl said.
"I'm nine," Rosie corrected quietly as she climbed down the ladder.
Daryl started walking up towards the house, so she jogged a little to catch up to him before walking by his side. When they got to the house, Rosie found Glenn and Maggie sitting together on the porch steps and she furrowed her eyebrows at them, but didn't say anything.
"Left a lil' girl on watch ta go hold hands with yer girlfriend, huh?" Daryl commented when he saw Glenn and Maggie. Both Glenn and Maggie looked away, their cheeks heating up with embarrassment.
"Hey!" a gruff voice shouted from behind Rosie and Daryl. They both turned around to see Shane marching towards them with the gun back in his hands and a furious expression on his face. Rosie took a few steps back, standing slightly behind Daryl.
"What's all this?" Daryl asked.
"You with me, man?" Shane said, holding a shotgun out to Daryl, who nodded and took it. Shane pulled David's gun from the bag and held it out to Rosie, who hesitantly took it from his hands. She was grateful to have it back, but she didn't want Hershel to kick them off the farm, thinking about how Carl thought the place could be a home. "Time to grow up," Shane said. He turned to Andrea. "You already got yours?"
"Yeah. Where's Dale?" Andrea asked.
Anxiety flooded Rosie's stomach as she remembered Shane going out looking for Dale, who had taken the gun bag with him when he left. Now Shane was there with the gun bag, but Dale was nowhere to be seen. Is Dale ok?
"He's on his way," Shane grumbled, holding a gun out to T-Dog.
"Thought we couldn't carry," T-Dog said, but took the gun either way.
"We can and we have to," Shane told him. Then he turned to the group that was gathered on the porch. "Look, it was one thing sitting around here pickin' daisies when we thought this place was supposed to be safe. But now we know it ain't," he said.
He grabbed another gun from the bag, holding it out to Glenn. "How 'bout you, man? You gonna protect yours?" Glenn glanced at Maggie and grabbed the gun with a conflicted expression on his face. Shane turned to Maggie. "Can you shoot?"
"Can you stop?" Maggie shot back. "You do this, you hand out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight."
"We have to stay Shane," Carl said, stepping off of the porch.
"What is this?" Lori asked, joining the group.
Rosie looked away, not looking forward to listening to another stressful argument. What she saw when she looked away, though, made her feel even more stressed. Rick was walking with Hershel and Jimmy, two walkers on leads in front of them.
The girl's eyes widened and she took a few steps closer, stopping next to T-Dog, trying to see if she was seeing things right. She was. Rosie tapped T-Dog on the arm and he looked down at her. She pointed out at the field where Rick was and T-Dog eyes followed.
"Oh shit," T-Dog voiced, making everybody turn in the direction they were looking in.
Shane started sprinting towards the three men in the field, a furious look on his face. "What is that? What is that?" he hissed. Everyone began running after him, some to join him and some to try and stop him. Rosie just followed because she wanted to see what the hell was going on, and maybe even get some of her questions answered. "What the hell are you doin'?" Shane screamed.
"Shane, just back off!" Rick shouted.
"Why do your people have guns?!" Hershel yelled.
"Are you kiddin' me?! You see?! You see what they're holdin' on to?!" Shane shouted as he walked around the men, glaring at them and the walkers.
"I see who I'm holding on to!" Hershel fired back.
"Nah, man, you don't!"
"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk!"
"What you want to talk about, Rick?! These things ain't sick! They're not people! They're dead! Ain't gotta feel nothin' for 'em 'cause all they do, they kill! These things, right here! They're the things that killed Amy. They killed Otis. They're gonna kill all of us!"
"Shane, shut up!"
Looking up at Daryl, Rosie saw that he had his gun raised and pointed at the walkers. Rosie flicked the safety off on her gun, but didn't raise it, unsure of who to follow the example of.
"Hey, Hershel, man. Let me ask you something," Shane said, slowing to a stop as he pulled a gun out of his waistband. "Could a living, breathing person, could they walk away from this?" He raised his gun and shot the walker Hershel was holding onto three times. "That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?! Why is it still coming?!" He shot the walker twice more. "That's its heart! Its lungs! Why's it still coming?!" Three more.
"Shane, enough!" Rick shouted.
"Yeah, you're right, man. That is enough," Shane said, taking fast steps towards the walkers the two men held onto. He pointed the gun at the head of the one Hershel had and pulled the trigger. "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 you wanna survive, you gotta fight for it! I'm talkin' 'bout fighting right here, right now."
Rosie watched, her eyes wide and mouth slightly agape, as Shane ran towards the barn, picked up a pickaxe, and started slamming it down onto the chains. He broke them off and pulled off the wooden board being used to hold the door shut.
"Come on! Come on, we're out here!" Shane shouted, slamming on the wooden doors to the barn. He took a few steps back, getting his gun ready.
The barn doors creaked open and the first walker that stumbled out was wearing overalls and a white shirt. The next was a blonde girl with pigtails in her hair, who looked to be around Beth's age. More and more started stumbling out of the barn. Shane fired the first shot, and the other men soon followed.
Panicked, Rosie raised her gun. She wasn't sure what the right thing to do was anymore. Rick said not to shoot, but Daryl was shooting. Glenn was shooting. T-Dog was shooting. She thought back to when Maggie exploded on Lori, and she did not want to be on the other end of that, which made her not want to shoot. But then she thought about what Shane did at the CDC and what he said to Dale, which made her want to shoot, as not to make him mad.
Before Rosie could even make her decision to pull the trigger, Daryl glanced down at her. Seeing the scared and conflicted look on her face, he shoved her behind him, making her decision for her. Rosie stumbled back, letting her arms fall down to her sides. She looked around at Hershel, at Maggie, at Beth, at Patricia, and at Jimmy.
They stared and watched in horror as the people they thought were just sick, were slaughtered before their eyes.
After about fifteen walkers stumbled out of the barn and dropped dead, bullets piercing their skulls, the shots finally stopped. The barn was empty and every walker was dead.
Beth rushed forward, ignoring Rick as he tried to stop her. She knelt down in front of one of the female walkers, flipping it onto its back so she could see its face. The skin on its cheek was gone and maggots crawled on its flesh. Suddenly, the walker's arms shot up and its eyes opened. It started crawling and grabbing onto Beth's arms, making the girl scream.
Everyone rushed forward, Shane and Rick pulling Beth away, but the walker just wouldn't let go. Its mouth was wide open, hissing and growling at its daughter.
Her hand shaky, Rosie pulled the knife out of the sheath on her dad's belt and pushed the blade into the side of the walker's head, making it drop dead in the dirt.