The campfire blazed as Carol and T-dog worked up their magic like they did every night. It was always a delight when those too did their magic with the food. I have no idea what they did to it but it was always so good. Some people already had their food and were already diving into it. I would be lying if I said I wasn't jealous right now. I was starved after the village thing. Who knew killing could work up such an appetite? Glenn cleared his throat which made us all look up to him, "Uhm guys... So the barn's full of walkers." We all snapped our heads to him. What? The barn was full of walkers all this time. All this time we were thinking this place was safe. Thinking we were fine.
We all huddled around the entrance of the barn as Shane peered in through one of the cracks. Lori stood in front of Carl guarding him as if a walker would escape and kill him right there and then. I was concerned she was standing protecting him when she had another life growing inside her right now. I understood her need to protect him but we need to protect her too and that little rascal taking a vacancy up in her stomach. I stepped a few feet in front of her which earned me a smile from Glenn. "You cannot tell me you're alright with this." Shane storms towards Rick. How could he be alright with it? We were basically knocking on death's door by staying here. "No, I'm not," Rick complained.
"Why haven't you done something about it then?" I glare at him, "You knew and just let us live here with a false sense of security. There's kids here. Your kid." I glance at Lori's belly and Carl.
"We are guests here. It isn't our land." Rick argues. Not our land but our lives at risk.
"Our lives though, man." Shane's volume increases as Glenn becomes seemingly nervous.
"Lower your voice." Glenn whispers-shouts at him. Rick was right that this wasn't our land but how could we live here thinking we were all safe, picking daisies and making daisy chains. We set up camp not far from the barn. It was like setting up camp in a bear's cave. It was pure danger. "This isn't right. They're not pets." I speak up. I felt weird agreeing with Shane. But for once he was right about something.
"We either gotta go in there, we gotta make things right or we just gotta go." Shane holds his hat as he paces up and down. He was speaking nothing but facts right now. We either sorted this problem out with Hershel or we had to go. Who knew where it was safer? Here or out there. We had the same possibility of death in either place. "We can't go." Rick's voice shakes.
"Why, Rick? Why?" Shane steps forward. Oh wow welcome to the dick measuring contest guys. Let's see who's cock is the biggest by arguing.
"Because my daughter's still out there." Carol speaks up with a sadness in her voice. That was also right. Never mind, I can't decide who's side I was on now. Shane put his hands to his face, "Ok..." he stammered and then sighs, "I think it's time that we all considered the other possibility." The other possibility? The other possibility meaning what?
"We can't leave Sophia behind. We're close to finding her." I declare. Daryl had just found her doll the other day. There was a chance she was still out there. No, she was still out there. He had to have hope. "I'm close to finding this girl. I just found her damn doll a few days ago." Daryl paces as he waved his arms around. Shane let out a laugh.
"You found a doll, Daryl. That's what you did. You found a doll." Shane stands defensively as he tries to spill his negativity on everyone. Daryl scowled at him.
"You don't know what the hell you're talking about." Daryl swings his arm up at Shane as he walks forward. His accent got thicker the more angry he got. She was out there. She was. Wasn't she?
"Look, I'm just saying. Now if you get a good lead, it's in the first 48 hours." Shane shouts as Rick tries to cut him off and talk some sense into him. Carol stepped back as she listened to Shane rave on about her child being dead. Her hand came up to her face with a saddened look. "Let me tell you something else man. If she was alive out there, saw you coming, all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck, she would run in the other direction, man." He shouts pointing away from us. Daryl shouts profanities at him and launches himself at Shane. Rick rushed between them trying to push them apart as everyone yelled at them to stop. I guided Lori and Carl out the way so they didn't get caught in the crossfire. Shane and Daryl yelled threats at each other as Rick came between them trying to act as a common ground. I watched Daryl as he charges for Shane. His muscles are shifting and flexing as he does. He then stops trying to get to Shane and wipes his face with his hand.
Rick pushes Shane to the side as Lori quickly comes between them and hits him in the chest. "Keep your hands off me." Shane points at Lori before walking away from her. I hold Carl behind me. He didn't deserve to be watching this. "Now just let me talk to Hershel." Rick pledges, "Let me figure it out." All rise for the national Ricktatorship anthem. Shane shouts at Rick again asking him what he was going to figure out. Like the answer wasn't obvious as we were just arguing about it. Lori pushes Shane back. "If we're gonna stay and clear this barn, I have to talk him into it" Rick spits at Shane, "This is his land." Then Dale butts in telling us how Hershel sees them as 'sick people'. If that wasn't schizophrenia then I don't know what was. Sick people did not eat people or die and come back to life. "You knew?" I shouted at Dale, "And you didn't say anything."
"I thought we could survive one more night." Dale replies. Is he stupid?
"One more night is all it takes." I flare up, "One more night and any of us could've died. Carl, Daryl, you." I point my finger at him. We could've all been dead by dawn.
"We survived." He argued, "I was waiting till this morning to say something. But Glenn wanted to be the one." Why was Glenn the holder of all secrets? Maybe he was secretly Gossip Girl. It only made sense.
"That man is crazy, Rick" Shane starts, "If Hershel thinks-" The barn doors shake as the growls of the rotters become louder. I grabbed Carl and began to back him away in case the doors flew open. This place was not safe at all while they stayed in that rundown barn. We weren't safe.
-
Lori had Carl sit at the picnic table practising some maths equations while I sat on a log fiddling with a feather I found on the floor. I don't see the use of her making the poor kid practise maths. What does he even need for these days? The world ended. Maths doesn't matter. What was he counting? How many near death experiences did he have? How many walkers were trying to feast on him? It was simply illogical. He should be learning some real skills instead of being home schooled. It wasn't like he was going to college. College didn't matter or exist anymore unless he was going to get a PhD in walker killing and survival tactics.
Glenn stood on top of Dale's RV taking watch. "Any chance you got an extra hat?" Glenn calls down to Dale. Dale slides his hat off his balding head and throws it up to Glenn before entering his RV. Standing up, I then begin to climb the RV and then sit on the lawn chair. I had never noticed the beautiful views of the farm before. Was a shame we might not be here for much longer. I should take advantage of the view as much as I could before we had to go. "Where's your hat?" I question Glenn, leaning my head back.
"Egg situation." he replies, vaguely. I lower my eyebrows at him in question. Egg situation? "Maggie slammed an egg on my head." Glenn purses his lip sitting next to me gripping his gun. I let out a snort. "Sex not good enough?" I joke. But he doesn't laugh with me. Instead, he shakes his head.
"She's pissed at me. About the barn." He confides in me. His hand wipes at his face as you can see the regret on his face. It was hard for him. He wasn't great at keeping secrets. We all knew that. "You had a reason to tell us. You were worried about everyone." I tell him, "She needs to understand you were protecting us all, even her." Maggie was lovely, she really was. You could tell she had some different views from her father but still agreed with him to keep the peace. She didn't want to hurt her father or make him upset. She shunned Glenn for coming between her and her family. But that didn't mean she didn't care about him. She was just pissed. Glenn nodded. "You should make things right with her." I advise him. You could tell what those two had was on the way to becoming something really special.
"Thanks." He smiled at me, "Where did you and Daryl disappear yesterday?" Shit he saw us leave. Shit so now our cover was blown. Glenn couldn't keep a secret to save his life. "Glenn, you have to promise not to tell anyone." I beg him. Glenn looks at me with panic. Gossip Glenn would not be able to keep his mouth shut about this one.
"I won't tell anyone you came back without a shirt on." He exclaimed, "I didn't know you and Daryl were..." Me and Daryl were what? He thought we were fucking. I'm not that much of a horny bitch. Yes Daryl's arms and veins made my lady parts scream out begging to be touched but no would I ever fuck him. He was Daryl. I just couldn't.
"Glenn-" I get cut off.
"I just thought you hated each other." He cuts me off. No, no. Glenn, could you just listen.
"We do!" I cry. But he continues to ramble on. "Glenn." Ignored again. "Glenn." Ignored. "Glenn. I'm not fucking Daryl." I shout at him. He stops rambling and stares at me, deadpan. His eyebrows furrow as he looks at me questioningly. "Then why did you come back shirtless and wet with Daryl?" He baffles. I slap my head. And I thought we were sneaky about coming back from looking for Sophia.
"We were looking for Sophia." I tell him, "Came across a small herd and walker guts smeared all over my top. We didn't want Rick knowing we were out there. Daryl was meant to be recovering and I wasn't supposed to be out there 'alone'." I motioned speech marks at the 'alone' part.
"Doesn't explain why you were both sweaty looking." He claims, still not believing me. Trust me if I had some hanky panky time I would not be this moody all the time.
"Water to wash off the blood." I told him. He puts the pieces together and nods his head. Thank god we got that cleared up. I couldn't have him going around on Gossip Girl and telling the whole world some foolish rumour. "Why did you think me and Daryl were-" I trail off.
"I see the way you look at each other." Glenn smiles. Ew cringe. I do not look at him in any way. "Look at each other like walkers look at us." What's he trying to say? We look at each other like we wanna eat one another. Seems cannibalistic. I'm not into that. And definitely not into Daryl.
"You're clearly imagining things." I state. He was in a high state of delusion. Crazy. "You should admit yourself into a psych ward." Glenn snickers at my half-assed joke. We both look up and spot Maggie. I tap Glenn quickly and he shouts for her then makes his way to her. She storms off and I can hear bits of their argument before they stop. Glenn places her bucket down on the floor as they bicker. Then he begins walking off. No Glenn. Is he stupid? You don't walk away. But Maggie walks over to him and pulls him in for a kiss. Yes, go Glenn.
"Woo!" I shout to them as I jump up and down on the roof of the RV. They both stare at me and Maggie pulls away laughing. "GO GLENN!" I encourage them as they both burst out laughing at me doing my celebratory dance. Jumping up and down, waving my arms in the air I let out a lot of Woo's and Woop's. Smiling, Glenn and Maggie walk off together with the bucket of god knows what. I keep smiling as I sit back down on the lawn chair keeping watch for Glenn. Oh shit. I forgot he was supposed to be keeping watch. Cheeky bastard. While he's having fun I'm sitting doing a boring job. A job which wasn't mine in the first place. But then I spot everyone making their way to the front porch of the farmhouse.
Hey who didn't tell me we were having a family reunion. I climb down from the roof of the RV, catching up with Carol and Daryl. "What the hell?" Daryl remarks, "Ain't nobody taking this seriously? We got us a damn trail." Throwing his arm up, he walks over to Shane who is carrying the bag of guns with one in his hand as he walks up to us angrily. "What's all this?" He points at the guns.
Shane grimaces, "You with me, man?" He holds the gun out and Daryl takes it without question. He didn't even know what he was siding with but just took the gun anyway. "Time to grow up." Shane shouts as he starts handing out guns to everyone. Shane begins a big speech about carrying the guns. "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 offers a gun to Glenn and he looks at Maggie timidly before shooting his eyes to me. I shake my head. Do not take that gun Glenn. You just fixed things don't fuck up again. But he grabbed the gun anyway. "Can you shoot?" Shane asks Maggie.
"Can you stop?" She replies rapidly, "You do this, you hand out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight." She's right. Hershel will not like this at all.
"We have to stay, Shane." Carl steps down from the porch. Immediately, I stand in front of him and glare at Shane. "Shane, stop it." I told him.
"What is this?" Lori storms over.
"We ain't going nowhere, ok?" He promises Carl. Don't make promises you can't keep, especially to a child. "Now look. Hershel- he's just gotta understand, OK? He- Well he is gonna have to." He holds out a gun to Carl. Pulling Carl closer behind me, I try to stop Shane from getting a kid involved.
"Don't get him involved. He's just a kid." I bend down to Shane. Lori comes up to him and begins to lecture him. She was mad. Don't mess with a pregnant lady, prick. "Oh shit." T-dog proclaims. Everyone quickly looks over to see what it is. Walkers growled in the distance and Hershel and Rick held two walkers at bay with long sticks like they were rabid dogs. Are they really bringing more pet walkers back? Like it wasn't safe enough. I understood who was in there already. It was their family. Their friends. But random walkers. Shane begins sprinting up to them, "What is that?" he bellows at them. Everyone walks fast up to them. I walked a few steps ahead of Carl and Lori who were holding hands. These walkers were going wild and I would not let them hurt the most vulnerable people here who held the future within them. Lifting his gun, Shane starts to shoot the walkers anywhere but their heads trying to prove to Hershel that these weren't sick people. They were dead and dangerous to us all. Rick shouts at Shane telling him to stop. And then he pops a bullet into the head of the walker Hershel had.
"Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's GONE!" He shouts in rage. Carol steps back holding her hands to her heart. "Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us! Enough!" He paces around. "It ain't like it was before." Shane shouts and paces around telling us to fight for what he has got. He runs up to the barn as Rick begs Hershel to take the snare pole.
"Pass me your gun." I tell Lori. She gives me a weird look before placing her gun into my hand as Shane slams on the barn door trying to open it as everyone yells for him not to do it. Lori yells for Rick. The barn door begins to open. "Get behind me. Go." I tell Lori and Carl as I lift the gun up to the walkers filing out of the barn. I rush forward to take a stance with everyone else and begin shooting at the walkers. Shooting them directly in the head without wasting any time. I couldn't let the people here die. Lori cradles Carl on the floor as we all fire at the walkers. Maggie weeping holding her dad.
And then something that shocked us all appeared out of the barn. A small girl growling at the sight of us and loud yelp escaped Carol's lips. Sophia. We all gasped at her. Carol calls out for her daughter as she runs forward, Daryl and I both grabbing her as she sobs in our arms. Everyone stood shocked. The breath from my lungs had run out as I let out a single tear as Rick went up and shot her in the head. Carol laid on the floor as Daryl cradled her and I stroked her hair. She was gone. The kid was gone.