Lauren blinked rapidly, trying to clear the fog of disbelief that clouded her vision, momentarily distorting her perception of reality. Tank's snarling transformed into excited yapping. His hair lay back flat and his tail began to wag. He went to move towards Sophia, not understanding that it wasn't actually her.
"Tank, no." Glenn said, moving forward to grab his collar, stopping him from going any further. Tank turned back, confused. Lauren swallowed the lump in her throat, willing herself to move, say something, or do anything at all.
She lowered her gun, reaching out beside her and clutching onto Glenn's arm. She looked over at him, searching his eyes for confirmation, seeking reassurance that what they had just witnessed was not a figment of her imagination. Glenn looked back at her, just as horrified.
No one moved, they were all just... frozen, unable to process what was in front of them. Carol let out a gut-wrenching sob and hurried towards her daughter... or, rather, what was her daughter. Daryl quickly stopped her, gently wrapping his arms around the woman, preventing her from going any further. She collapsed onto the ground, taking Daryl down with her.
Lauren felt sick to her stomach, she couldn't bring herself to raise her gun. They all knew what needed to be done, but talking about what needed to be done and actually doing it proved to be very different.
Rick did what no one else could. Moving forward slowly, he raised his gun to her head and ended it. Lauren's grip on Glenn's arm tightened, it seemed to be the only sort of movement she could will her body to do. Glenn pulled her in, wrapped her in a hug, and turned her away from the scene.
Sophia's body dropped to the ground and Lauren heard the impact of it as it hit the dirt but she couldn't bring herself to look. The only sounds after that came from Carol and Daryl. Lauren heard Carol's weak cries as she called out her daughter's name.
"Don't look, don't look." She heard Daryl muttering, presumably still holding her back. Lauren heard some shuffling and a frustrated grunt as Carol shoved him away, she turned around in time to see Carol running off towards the RV. She needed time to process what had just occurred... they all did.
Her eyes shifted to the Greene family. Most seemed to still be in shock, staring at the scene. Maggie was gripping her father's shoulder, who was still on the ground, and Beth was sobbing into Jimmy's chest. The boy was doing his best to comfort her, but there was only so much he could do.
She broke away from Jimmy, eyes fixated on a particular body on the ground. She wove through the group, heading towards the corpse.
"Beth-" Lauren said weakly, moving to stop the girl. Beth pushed past her, doing the same to Rick when he attempted to block her as well. Lauren watched as Beth continued, letting out hiccuping sobs as she stepped over a few scattered bodies until she finally reached the one she was looking for. She stopped in front of two walkers, one collapsed over the other. She took a moment before she gently moved one walker off of the other, touching it as little as she possibly could. Lauren watched as Beth knelt down in front of the body that had been on the bottom.
"Ma?" Lauren's heart broke when she heard Beth's broken voice utter the word. Her sobs turned into whimpers as rolled the body face up, looking at it closely.
Within seconds of being flipped over, the walker's eyes snapped open. Apparently, the brain hadn't been hit. It moved remarkably fast, reaching up to grab hold of Beth's pigtails, attempting to either pull her down or pull itself up.
Beth's cries suddenly turned to shrieks of terror as she tried to pull away. Lauren sprung forward, her body finally granting her the ability to move again. She rushed forward along with almost everyone else. She reached the girl at the same time Shane and Rick did. Lauren and Rick immediately grabbed hold of Beth, trying to untangle her from the walker's grasp. Glenn ran up as well, attempting to help Shane pry the walker off of her. Maggie and Hershel hurried over, this had seemingly snapped him from his trance.
"Pull her away, pull her away!" Shane shouted, still holding down the corpse. In any other circumstance, Lauren would have rolled her eyes at his command. What the hell else would they be trying to do? She didn't have time or energy for a witty remark, however.
Beth continued screaming as Lauren wrapped her arms around Beth's mid-section and Rick, her arm. The walker growled, snapping its jaw at her. A million hands and arms were working to try and separate the two.
The cold hands finally loosened their grip enough to allow Beth to be pulled away. She stumbled backwards into Lauren who still held onto her tightly. Lauren pulled Beth further away from the chaos as the rest of the group handled the walker. Beth turned around, pure terror in her eyes as she looked at Lauren. She simply held onto her tighter and Beth reciprocated, clinging to Lauren as the others struggled to finish the job.
T-dog stomped down on its head, enough to subdue it for a moment but not enough to penetrate the brain.
"Don't look," Lauren told her as calmly as she could manage. The last thing Beth needed to see was her mother's body being mutilated for a second time. "Don't look."
Beth took ragged breaths as she squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face into Lauren's shoulder. Maggie and Hershel hovered closely beside them. Andrea finally grabbed one of the farm tools beside the barn and swung it into the walker's skull, stopping its rampage.
"It's okay, it's okay." Lauren soothed, though she was fairly certain Beth could feel the rapid heartbeat in her chest. She passed Beth off to her father and sister, who enveloped her in an immediate embrace. They slowly began to gently guide her towards the house. Glenn glanced at Maggie, then gave Lauren a look before heading off with them. They made it a few yards before Shane noticed them leaving.
Lauren groaned as she saw Shane start after them. "Shane, please don't."
The last thing they needed was to traumatize the family even more. Shane ignored her, stomping after them. "We were out combing these woods for that little girl and she was in there this whole time? You knew."
"Leave us alone." Maggie said bitterly as they continued towards the house, Hershel and Patricia guiding Beth.
Rick and Lauren caught up to them. Rick placed a hand on Shane, trying to separate him from the Greene's.
"Hey, get your hands off me!" Shane snapped before continuing his accusations. "You knew and you kept it from us."
"I- I didn't know." Hershel muttered quietly, continuing forward and not looking at Shane. He still looked pretty shaken up.
Shane scoffed. "That's bullshit."
"We didn't know!" Maggie turned back to glare at Shane. Glenn turned around from where he was walking beside Maggie and caught Lauren's eye. He looked distraught, obviously put in a very uncomfortable position.
"Why was she in there?" Shane demanded.
Hershel turned around at the bottom of the porch steps. "Otis put those people in the barn. Maybe he found her and put her in there before he was killed."
"You expect me to believe that? What do I look like, do I look like an idiot to you?" Shane took another step forward.
Hershel didn't back down. "I don't care what you believe ."
"Okay, everyone just calm down." Rick took a step in between the two men.
"Get him off my land!" Hershel demanded, pointing to Shane.
Shane clenched his jaw and stepped towards the man again. Lauren grabbed his arm in an attempt to keep him back, but she was quickly brushed off.
Lauren stumbled back slightly as Shane continued to advance towards Hershel. "Lemme tell you somethin', man-"
A loud smack suddenly rang out as Maggie's palm collided with Shane's cheek. "Don't touch him!" She shouted, stopping Shane in his tracks. "Haven't you done enough?"
Shane took a step backward, shocked at her actions. Maggie glared at him before stomping up the porch steps, placing a gentle hand on Beth's shoulder and guiding her into the house. Hershel turned to follow his family inside but stopped when he reached the top of the stairs.
"I mean it," He told Rick, nodding towards Shane. "Off my land."
With that, Hershel turned around and disappeared into the house, slamming the door behind him. The sound of the door echoed in the silence that followed. Glenn glanced at the door, once again being pulled in two different directions. He locked eyes with Lauren, giving her a questioning look. He was unsure whether he should follow Maggie or stay and help Lauren and Rick deal with Shane.
"Go." Lauren told him softly, nodding towards the door. While she appreciated Glenn's loyalty, Maggie needed him more than she did right now. She had essentially just watched her already deceased family die again. And in the most gruesome way imaginable. Lauren and Rick would handle Shane.
His eyes flooded with relief and he nodded, hurrying inside the house. She turned her attention to Shane who had recovered from the initial shock of Maggie's hit.
Lauren crossed her arms and let out a frustrated sigh. "For the record: you totally deserved that."
"Daryl almost died looking for her." Shane huffed.
"Yeah, I know. I was there." She quipped. Since when did Shane give a shit about Daryl?
"Anyone of us could have. I'm telling you right now, that son of a bitch..." Shane pointed towards the house. "...He knew."
"He didn't know. He's not like that, he opened his home to us." Rick reasoned.
"He put us all in danger." Shane insisted. "He kept a barn full of walkers, man!"
"What even was your plan here, Shane?"Lauren shook her head. "Murder his family and colonize the farm?!"
"His family's dead, Lauren." Shane rolled his eyes.
"He doesn't believe that!" She shouted in utter frustration. What was he not understanding here? "As far as he's concerned he just watched us slaughter them!"
Shane huffed, equally as frustrated. "No, man, I don't care what he thinks."
"I was handling it, brother," Rick told him, stopping their argument from escalating. "I was handling it and you just-"
"You had us out in those woods looking for a little girl that every single one of us knew was dead!" Shane snapped. Lauren's jaw clenched at that. "That's what you did. Rick, you're just as delusional as that guy."
With that, Shane stormed back towards the barn, leaving Rick and Lauren to mull over his words.
"He's right..." Rick finally said after a moment.
Lauren's eyes shot up to look at him, confused. "What?"
"She was in there the whole time..." Rick looked down, letting out a sigh. "I have people counting on me, and I had us out there chasing a ghost."
"Hey, this is not your fault." Lauren furrowed her brows taking a step towards her brother. "Look, Shane's off his rocker right now, don't listen to that shit."
Her brother shook his head, not meeting her eyes. "Daryl almost died, Hershel nearly lost a horse, you could've gotten hurt, or Andrea, or T-dog..."
"Rick this is not on you." Lauren placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to finally meet her gaze. "Rick you didn't force anyone to go out there. I mean, have you met Daryl; or me for a matter of fact? Do you think either of our stubborn asses would've been out there if we didn't want to be?"
She saw him half smile at that and continued. "Every single one of us that was out there was out there by choice... we all believed she was alive just as much as you did. So cut yourself some slack."
Rick nodded but still didn't look completely convinced. He looked behind her towards the others still at the barn. "We should uh- we should help with the cleanup."
Lauren sighed, disappointed that her words hadn't been fully absorbed, but nodded anyway. "Yeah, okay."
Three graves were dug for Sophia and Beth's mother and brother, Annette and Shawn. They were in the ground within a few hours. Andrea suggested they hold a "service" to honor them, so that's what they did. Carol did not attend and Lauren didn't blame her. She was a grieving mother. Carol deserved space to process everything, especially given the fact that the tragedy had been mere hours ago.
Once their loved ones were buried, the Greene family headed back to the farmhouse, Glenn with them. The better part of the afternoon was then spent disposing of the remaining corpses. Lauren was helping Andrea and T-dog load the last bunch of bodies into the bed of the old pickup truck. It was their third and final truckload and Lauren couldn't believe the amount of walkers that had been trapped in that barn.
She was still furious with Shane. She simply couldn't wrap her head around his demeanor lately. Since their first night on the farm, when he and Otis had gotten the supplies to save Carl, Shane had been... different. It was like each day that passed Lauren could see the Shane she loved, that she called her brother, slipping away. She would catch glimpses now and then of the man she knew, but as of recently, they had been few and far between.
"This the last load?" Rick's voice brought her out of her thoughts.
Andrea nodded, helping T-dog hoist the final body into the truck. "We got lucky. If that barn had anymore we could've been overrun."
"It's a good thing Shane did what he did when he did it." T-dog said as he finished lifting the body.
Lauren's brows furrowed at that comment. Clearly feeling the same as her, Dale spoke up. "You can't tell me this was right ?"
"It wasn't. It'll cost us with Hershel." Rick said, leaning against the truck.
"He's grieving, he'll come around, see we had no choice." Andrea shrugged, clearly not understanding how big of an issue this truly was. She turned to Lauren. "Look, I shot too, and so did you, this wasn't all Shane."
"Yeah, I shot 'cause there were twenty-something walkers coming at us," Lauren said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Which wouldn't have happened if Shane hadn't lost it."
"Look, I got no qualms about it. Walkers in my backyard? Nuh-uh." T-dog shook his head.
Lauren crossed her arms and muttered to herself. "Wasn't really our backyard though..."
"Look, I'm not saying we shouldn't have taken care of the problem," Dale explained. "But creating a panic?"
"There's no use arguing about it now, it's done. There's nothing we can do about it." Lori shut down the conversation.
"We should get goin'..." T-dog said, nodding to the truck. Andrea nodded and jumped into the bed of the truck. T-dog got into the driver's seat and they took off, leaving Lori, Rick, Dale, and Lauren. Lori patted Dale's shoulder and headed off with Rick.
Lauren and Dale were left alone, standing in the now-empty dirt outside the barn. They locked eyes and Lauren sighed, crossing her arms.
"I'm with you on this." She told him quietly. "Shane was out of line."
Dale nodded, taking a step closer to her and lowering his voice slightly. "You remember what I told you?"
Lauren bit the inside of her cheek. She remembered, in fact, she couldn't seem to stop thinking about it. Each time she got into it with Shane, which seemed to be more often than not lately, she found both Dale and Hershel's words circling through her mind.
..."Your brother is a man of conscience, but are you so sure about everyone in your group?"...
..."Lauren, Shane is not the man you think he is."...
She usually tried to brush it off, but the more often it happened, the harder it was to shake off the feeling that something was seriously wrong. She shifted on her feet, unsure what exactly to tell Dale. She couldn't voice her concerns about Shane out loud, that somehow made them too... real. Like if she said them aloud she would somehow be speaking them into existence.
She opened her mouth to respond but before she got the chance to, Glenn's voice called out from behind her.
"Lauren!" Glenn came running down the porch steps and across the grass. He reached the pair, slightly out of breath and with a face full of worry. "Lauren, we can't find Hershel anywhere and you're the second closest thing we have to a doctor here...."
"What's going on?" Lauren felt her own anxiety grow as she waited for some sort of context.
"I- I don't know what it is exactly but, "Glenn looked back towards the house worriedly before he continued. "There's something wrong with Beth."