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"Don't look so worried." Carl told his mom as he threw more bird seed at the chickens. Hershel had said the boy could get out of bed, Cassian was eager to show her new friend around the farm, they ended up in the chicken coop with Lori.
"It's my job." Lori smiled at her son, thanking Cassian when she brought over more seeds.
"No, it's not." Carl denied. "You're a housewife."
Cassian let out a snort as Carl giggled a little. "Yeah, punk?" Lori threw seed at Carl. "You see my house around here?" Cass sat down and crossed her legs, smiling goofily at Lori as the small chicks fled to her.
"They don't have a mother." Carl observed.
"She might be somewhere else." Lori dismissed. Cassian shook her head. She didn't know what happened to the Mama chickens, but she knew they weren't here.
"Maybe she got eaten." Carl prompted. Both kids looked to Lori at her silence.
"Everything is good for something else." Cassian thought out loud. "Mice can be food for cats. Chicks can feed dogs. Just like walkers eat people."
"Have you seen somebody get eaten?" Carl asked Cassian, ignoring Loris protests.
"Yeah." Cassian told the boy. He looked at her in expectation, but the girl didn't budge. Lori threw more seed at the kids, causing them to giggle. Cassian liked her new friends, she just wished they could stay.
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Cassian held Beth's hand as they walked with Patricia over to Rick. The man was speaking with Shane and Jimmy. "We'd like to join you for gun training today." Beth spoke.
"Hershel's been very clear." Rick told the girls, eyes briefly on Cassian. "I can't involve any of you in what we do without his okay."
"He doesn't like it but he consented." Beth clarified.
"Otis was the only one who knew Guns." Patricia spoke up. Cassian squinted, both her and her father knew guns too. "Now he's gone, we gotta learn to protect ourselves. Her father saw the sense in that."
"No offence, but I'll ask Hershel myself." Rick smiled. "And Judd."
"Oh, come on!"
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"If you keep sulking like that, somebody's gonna think somethings wrong, girl." Judd said to his daughter as she rolled her eyes at him. "Come on." Cassian sighed, following after her father.
"Where we goin?" The girl asked as they walked through the grass. Cassian didn't get an answer, but she didn't need one. The pair stood by Daryl's tent.
"Hey, man." Judd spoke to Daryl. The man turned around, looking at the two, he nodded in greeting. "How's the head?" Daryl grimaced. Judd had spoke with Cassian about Andrea. He told the girl to not hold a grudge, she was just trying to protect camp. Cassian had promised to be nice to her, but she was still mad.
"Still on my shoulders, I guess." Daryl sighed. He looked to Cassian. "What's with her face?"
"Papa wouldn't let me go shootin'." Cass complained, glaring at her father.
"I told you, there's no point in you goin' if you're just gonna show 'em all up." Judd recited, Daryls eyebrows shooting up as he stepped away a little from the family drama.
"You don't care any other time." Cassian argued.
"Okay fine. I don't want you round Shane, okay?" Judd groaned in frustration. Daryl looked to the man as Cassian frowned in confusion.
"About Otis?" Daryl asked.
"About Otis." Judd confirmed. The two men had a silent conversation. They were on the same page. Cassian, however, was not. "Shane... he showed up with Otis' gun." Judd told his kid. "At the funeral, he told us Otis covered him. How could he do that without his rifle?"
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"So, let me get this straight... the CDC blew up?" Cassian asked Carl. Carl was telling the girl about the last few days, she now knew his dad had been in a coma, but had found his way back to his family. She knew that they went to the CDC, nearly got locked in and then watched it blow up.
"Yup." Carl grinned. "It was really loud."
"What then?" The girl questioned.
"Well... we drove for a while, and then we got stuck on the highway. That's when the walkers came... we got under cars and Sophia got out too early. Two walkers chased her into the forest, but my dad followed." The boy was quick to add. "It didn't matter though. She's still missing."
"I think we'll find her." Cassian nodded. "We gotta, right?"
"Yeah." Carl smiled. "I think she'd love you."
Cassian grinned at the boy. That was until he screeched.
"What? What is it?" Cassian panicked as the boy leapt up off of the floor, breathing heavily.
"A beetle!" Carl cried. "It was nearly on me." Cassian started giggling as she looked on the ground for the insect, smiling when she found it. The girl let the tiny thing climb onto her hand, despite Carl's noises.
"Beetles are so cool." The girl begun. Carl looked at her like she had ten heads. She gestured for the boy to come close, he did. "You know, it can't hurt you, Carl." Cassian smiled. "Do you like chameleons?"
"Huh?"
"Do you like chameleons?" Cassian repeated.
"I guess..." Carl spoke.
"Then you like beetles." Cassian told the boy. "Some beetles can camouflage. How cool is that?"
Carl looked at the girl and then to the beetle in her hand. He couldn't wait to find Sophia.
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The next morning, Judd had agreed to eat breakfast with Ricks group. Cassian was excited and after walking over, receiving lots of greetings, Cassian sat beside Carl.
"What you two giggling about, huh?" Shane asked the kids. Judd looked up from his plate, eggs hanging out of his mouth. Cassian and Carl cracked up more. The adults around them shook their heads in amusement at the two.
Eventually, they were nearly finished. While Rick wasn't looking, Cassian stretched over Carl and stole a piece of bacon off of the Sheriffs plate. She teared it in half and gave some to Carl. Rick looked to his plate, then to his wife, then to the two troublemakers and laughed slightly.
"Um, guys." Glenn called out nervously. Cassian looked to him as she sipped her drink, as did everyone else. "So... the barns full of walkers."
Cassian choked on water.
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Judd couldn't say he didn't have his suspicions. He had offered Hershel to fix up the barn in his first week here, the old man had declined.
He had also suggested that they move some of the cattle there in the winter. He denied again. Maybe he should have investigated more. Cassian stood beside him as the group loitered around the barn.
"You can not tell me you're okay with this." Shane growled at Rick.
"No, I'm not." Rick admitted. "But we're guests here. This isn't our land."
"Oh, God. This is our lives, man!" Shane snarled. Judd pulled Cass a little closer to him.
"Lower your voice." Glenn sounded. Cassian looked to Carl as the adults began talking amongst themselves. They boy looked scared. Truth be told, she was too.
"We've gotta go in there and make things right, or we gotta go." Shane stressed to Rick. "Now, we've been talking about Fort Benning for a long time." Cassian looked to Judd, he shook his head.
"We can't go." Rick growled.
"Why, Rick. Why?"
"Because my daughter is still out there." Carol told him weakly. Shane scoffed.
"Okay, I think it's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility." Shane almost laughed. Judd growled.
"We're close to finding this little girl." Judd spoke up, stepping from Cass. "We found her doll a few days ago."
"You found her doll, Judd. That's what you did. You found a doll." Shane laughed.
"It's more than you've done, and I don't even know the damn kid!" Judd retaliated, stepping closer.
"Cassian, baby, come here." Lori called quietly. The girl took Loris hand as she pulled both kids away a little more.
"You don't know what the hell you're talking about." Daryl yelled swinging his arm out a little.
"No, I'm just saying what needs to be said! Now, you get a good lead, it's in the first fourty-eight hours." Shane recited as Rick called for him to stop. "Let me tell you something else, man. If she was alive out there and saw you two coming all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your necks, she would run in the other direction!" Shane then shoved Judd.
Judd would like to think he had control of his temper, but when somebody shoves him, he wasn't gonna stand there and let them. The man shoved back a little harder, sending Shane stumbling.
Lori jumped forward going for Shane, while Rick pushed away Daryl and Judd. There was a lot of yelling. Cassian and Carl stood there just watching.
Glenn pulled Judd a little, and the man backed off calmly, Daryl too. Shane on the other hand, he was still angry. He started walking away.
"Now, just let me talk to Hershel. Let me figure it out." Rick bargained. Judd winced as he rolled his sore shoulder.
"What are you gonna figure out?" Shane yelled, Cassian flinched back.
"Enough." Lori pushed Shane from 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 pointed out.
"Hershel sees those things in there as people." Dale spoke as Judd cocked his head. "Sick people. His wife... his step-son."
"You knew?" Rick accused.
"Yesterday." Dale nodded. "I talked to Hershel."
"And you waited the night?" Shane quipped.
"I thought we could survive one more night." Dale began. "We did. I was waiting till this morning to say something. But Glenn wanted to be the one."
Judd groaned and rubbed his face as Shane began yelling at Rick again. The man was acting worse than a child.
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Cassian was sat next to Carl on the porch. The two kids, Beth and Patricia were playing cards as some of the others gathered at the front of the house. Apparently Rick and Hershel had disappeared into the woods a few hours ago, they weren't back yet.
"What's all this?" Daryl questioned as Shane got closer.
"You with me, man?" Shane asked Daryl, the man nodding and accepting a rifle off of Shane. "Time to grow up." Cassian and Carl made their way to the steps, Carl going to Lori and Cassian to Judd. "You already got yours?" Shane asked Andrea as he passed her, advancing on the house.
"Yeah, where's Dale?" Andrea asked.
"He's on his way." Shane muttered to the blonde woman.
"Thought we couldn't carry." T-Dog spoke, obvious confusion in his voice.
"Yeah, well, we can and we have to." Shane then stood at the bottom of the steps to the house. "Now look, 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. How about you, man?" Shane approached Glenn. "You gonna protect yours?"
Glenn glanced to Maggie before accepting the gun. "Can you shoot?" Shane asked Maggie.
"Can you stop?" Maggie snapped back. "You do this, you hand out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight."
"You with me, Judd?" Shane looked at the bigger man. Judd was on the fence with the situation. Hershel originally had gotten mad when walkers approached and Judd killed them before piling them up to be burned.
Judd had ended up not alerting the man of the dead in the end, just using a knife and disposing of the bodies in the woods. He didn't think anything of it. Maybe he should have.
With an apologetic look to Maggie, Judd took both a rifle and a pistol from Shane. He turned to Cassian and handed her the pistol. Cassian swallowed thickly before nodding slightly. She checked the safety was on and then put the weapon in her belt. She knew her father didn't really want her to use it, but he felt better knowing she had it to protect herself.
"We have to stay, Shane." Carl told him.
"What is this?" Lori asked.
"We ain't going anywhere, okay." Shane ignored Lori, looking to Carl. "Now look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Okay? He... well he's gonna have to. Now we need to find Sophia, am I right?" He asked while walking to the boy. Cassian looked to her dad, his jaw was clenched.
"Rick said no guns, this is not your call." Lori snarled, pushing Carl behind her. "This is not your decision to make."
"Oh, shit." T-Dog spoke. Everyone looked over to where the man was facing. Cassians eyes were wide. Rick, Hershel and Jimmy were walking out of the woods with walkers on snare poles. She rubbed her eyes and.. yep... it was real.
Shane ran first, then Glenn, T-Dog, Judd. Cassian stayed by Maggie's side as they all made their way towards Rick and Hershel. Towards the barn.
"Are you kidding me?" Shane asked rhetorically, chest heaving. "Do you see what you're holding on to?"
"I see who I'm holding onto." Hershel panted.
"No, man. You don't." Shane denied as he paced.
"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk." Rick reasoned as he held tight to the snare pole. Maggie pulled Cassian back as the walker lunged a little too close for comfort.
"What you want to talk about, Rick? These things aren't sick. They're not people. They're dead. Ain't gonna feel nothing for them cause all they do, they kill!" Shane fumed. "These things right here, they're the things that killed Amy. They killed Otis. They're gonna kill all of us."
"Shane, shut up!" Rick hissed.
"Hey, Hershel, man, let me ask you something." Shane ranted as he pulled his gun from his belt. Judd stood infront of Maggie and Cass. "Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" Maggie felt Cassian stiffen from the gunshots.
"No! Stop it!" Rick yelled to his former partner.
"That's three rounds in the chest." Shane concluded. "Could someone who's alive, could they just take that? Why is it still coming?" There were more gunshots. "That's it's heart, it's lungs. Why is it still coming?" Gunshots echoed through the farm.
"Shane, enough!" Rick scolded.
"Yeah, you're right, man." Shane agreed with a sharp nod as he walked up to the walker that Hershel was holding. "That is enough."
Cassian watched as the walker dropped to the floor with a final bang.
"Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone! 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 want to survive, you got to fight for it! I'm talking about fighting. Right here, right now."
Shane ran to the barn doors, ripping away the decaying wooden barriers.
Rick began to panic, pleading at Hershel to take the snare pole so he could try to stop Shane, but the older man was still, glued the ground by his knees.
Shane grabbed a pickaxe from nearby and began smacking the lock. After a few whacks, the metal broke and the chain was flung to the floor, much like the pickaxe. The man hit the wooden doors a few times before walking backwards and aiming his gun.
Maggie ushered Cassian towards Lori and she went over to Hershel. Lori pulled both Cassian and Carl close. She told the two to stay behind her.
The group watched with baited breath as the first of the walkers exited the barn. Shane didn't hesitate. Cassian heard her father curse before he ran to the front with Andrea, readying their weapons. Shane shot first.
T-Dog ran to help, not long after was Glenn and Daryl too.
Cassian held Loris hand tighter as the shots got more frequent. Not only was she scared of the walkers right now, but she knew that they were attracted by sound. What if more came because of the noise?
Shane looked back briefly, he caught eyes with Rick and shot the walker still on his snare. Rick dropped it as he watched. Cassian startled as Carl ran forwards, Lori chasing after him. Cass was left to stand on her own.
Not long after, the shots dwindled down to silence. There were bodies everywhere. Nobody spoke. It was silent. Cassian looked to her side, where Dale approached her. He put his hand on the girls shoulder and squeezed.
Their attention was stolen as more shuffling was heard. The barn door creaked as a small walker stepped out. Dales hand tightened.
"Oh, god." Carol gasped as she stumbled her way towards the walker. One look at Dale confirmed Cassian's thoughts.
It was Carols little girl.
"Sophia! Sophia..." Daryl caught the sobbing woman before she could reach her dead child. "Oh, no. Sophia. Sophia."
Judd stiffened as he looked at the child walker. He stepped back a little and looked at Cassian.
As it became clear nobody was making a move to put the walker down, Cassian watched as Rick straightened up and walked forward with a purpose. He raised his gun
Rick shot the dead girl down.
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Who do we want to see have more scenes together?
:]
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