I slept in a little the next day and found Beth cleaning the kitchen when I came down.
"What time did you get to bed?" She asked me.
"About two." I replied with a yawn. "How was shooting yesterday?"
"Not bad. I was better than Jimmy." She stated with a gleeful grin causing me to chuckle.
"I bet you were. Maggie up?"
"Yeah she's out on the porch." I nodded and went to find my other sister who was staring out at Rick's group.
"What's up?"
"I think Glenn's gonna tell them." She stated, not taking her eyes off the gathering people. Sure enough nearly everyone in the group got to their feet and from the distance we saw them all marching over to the barn.
I sighed. "Go back in, stay with Beth."
"What are you gonna do?"
"No idea." I replied, walking down the steps and beginning to follow after the group of new comers.
As I was approaching I saw Shane and Daryl arguing as the others pulled them apart, Shane slightly harder to restrain as Daryl just stepped back keeping his eyes on him. I managed to get closer without them noticing, side stepping around the barn so I could hear what they were saying.
"Now just let me talk to Hershel. Let me figure it out." Rick was yelling at Shane.
"What are you gonna figure out!?" Shane yelled back twice as loud.
I was about to make my presence know, see if I could talk to them, but when I stepped out from the behind the barn the first person to notice me was Daryl and when I caught his gaze he lightly shook his head and slightly nodded at me to go back to hiding. I don't know why, but I did.
"If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it." Rick stated. "This is his land."
"Hershel sees those things in there as people, sick people... his wife, his stepson." Dale stated.
"You knew?" Rick asked.
"Yesterday, I talked to Hershel."
"And you waited the night?" Shane demanded.
"I thought we could survive one more night. We did. 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!" Shane yelled. Their raised voices woke up the walkers inside as they began to moan louder, banging on the door.
"Alright, let's all just head back to camp, we'll discuss this more over there and I will speak to Hershel, but we can't just bust down this door right here, right now." Rick reasoned.
"I'm not leaving this unguarded." Shane said back.
"I'll take watch." I heard Daryl speak up suddenly. "We can alternate every hour or so."
"Shane?" Rick asked. I couldn't see what they were doing, but no one else spoke as I heard retreating footsteps. I rested my head up against the barn, letting out a deep breath.
"Care to explain?" Daryl asked as he rounded the corner where I was hiding.
"I don't think there's anything I could say that would make you understand this."
Daryl only stared at me for a long while as I remained leaning up against the barn, slightly looking up at the sky in almost defeat. Realizing that he wasn't going to say anything until I at least tried to explain, I sighed and pushed myself upright, turning to face him directly.
"My dad doesn't have the same beliefs as you. He thinks they can be saved, that there'll be a cure. The others believe it as well."
"Not you?" He asked curiously and almost surprised.
I glanced over at the house for a long moment before shaking my head and looking back at Daryl. "No and I think Maggie is changing her mind. I've seen what they can do, my dad hasn't, not really. Beth hasn't either or Patricia. Up until he died I don't think Otis had and Jimmy... I think he knows, but he doesn't want to say anything. Not after my dad let him in after his family died." I looked at the ground for a moment before looking back up. "We're so excluded up here that they've never really been a problem. They wander around usually on their own and Otis would put them in the barn."
"And your stepmother? Your stepbrother?"
"It happened on a run. I was with them. We went to the corner store to grab a few supplies. I was at the opposite end of the store when I heard Annette scream. I ran to them and found that two walkers had come out of nowhere, attacked them. One bit Annette and Shawn killed it, but while he was distracted another bit his arm. Annette was still on the ground when I got there as Shawn tried to get it off him, but...
I grabbed a hard cover book, of all things, that they used to sell in shop and smashed it over its the head. I didn't realize how hard I'd hit until it fell to the ground. Shawn pulled Annette off the floor and we ran.
They were already running a fever by the time we got back. We set them up in their rooms, Dad stayed with Annette and I stayed Shawn. I was alone with him when he turned. Tried to take a chunk out of my shoulder, but I got out and slammed the door shut, jamming it closed with whatever I could find before running to Dad and Annette's room. She was already dead. I had to drag him out of there and then lock the room up. Otis put them in the barn after. Dad had kept Maggie and Beth away the whole time... they never saw.
The next day was when Jimmy came stumbling out of the woods after running for hours. A small heard had taken his house, killed his family. Only he got out and ran straight for our place. We waited a couple of days and then I went out with Jim and Otis to check Jimmy's place, but... They'd torn his family apart, there was nothing left of them."
Realizing I had been rambling on for a while, getting completely lost in the memories, I shook my head. "To begin with I wanted to tell my dad, to explain how it was to him, but... I couldn't. He barely made it through my mother's death; I couldn't do it to him again. I couldn't do it to Beth and Maggie, especially Beth. She was so young when our mum died that..." I trailed off, sighing. "Look... you can hate what we've done and for keeping it from your group, but this is not your problem. Once you find Sophia you'll be moving on, my dad made that clear to Rick."
Daryl again didn't really say anything. He just continued to look at me with an expression that was near impossible to read. It was almost a combination of pity and understanding, but in a strange hard way that made me question it.
His silence almost enraged me a bit, so the next time I spoke it came out harsher than I was meaning it to. "We've helped your group... we've helped you, but not you or anyone else has the right to question this, it's not your land. If you're not comfortable with this then go back to group and continue to look for Sophia so you can move out sooner." I turned on my heels and headed back to the house, entering around the back so the others didn't see me coming from the barn.
By the time I had made it back, Rick had already beaten me. I walked through the back door and stopped just outside the kitchen and heard him speaking to my dad.
"Leave it be." Dad said, not all that surprised.
"Well, I'd like to talk about it, but either way... your barn, your farm, your say." Rick replied.
"I don't want to talk about the barn. I don't want to debate."
"Not a debate, a discussion."
There was a long pause before I heard my dad speak again. "I need you and your group gone by the end of the week."
"I talked to Dale. You and I have our differences with the way we look at the Walkers. Those people, they may be dead, they may be alive, but my people...us, we are alive right now, right here, right in front of you. You send us out there and that could change." Rick argued.
"I've given you safe harbor. My conscience is clear." Maggie and I always did know who we got our stubbornness from. Dad often said it was our mother, but we knew better.
"This farm... this farm is special. You've been shielded from what's been going on out there. Dale said you saw everything happen on the news. Well, it's been... It's been a long time since the cameras stopped rolling."
My attention was brought to Maggie as she came up beside me. I pressed one finger to my lips to make sure she knew to be silent before lightly pushing her back a little against the wall so Rick and dad couldn't see us.
Dad suddenly got up from his chair, sick of the conversation and began to head for the kitchen. I grabbed Maggie's hand and shuffled her around the wall so we remained hidden, but still able to hear.
"The first time I saw a Walker it was just half a body snapping at me from the ground and my inclination wasn't to kill it... but what the world is out there isn't what you saw on TV. It is much, much worse and it changes you. Either into one of them or something a lot less than the person you were. Please do not... do not send us out there again." Rick begged as Maggie looked over at me, but I continued to listen curiously.
"My wife's pregnant." Rick finally said after a long while and I had to suppress I frustrated sigh. "That's either a gift here or a death sentence out there. If we were to stay we could help you with the work, with securing this place. We can survive together."
"Rick... I'm telling you we can't."
"You think about what you're doing."
"I've thought about it."
"Think about it!" Rick persisted.
"I've thought about it!" My dad yelled back.
"Think about it again. We can't go out there." Rick finished before storming out.
Dad stepped forward, rounding a corner and seeing Maggie and I. Maggie slowly shook her head a little while dad sighed.
"Carl doesn't need any more of my help." He tried to explain.
"So that's it?" Maggie asked.
"Rick was trying to make his case. It'll be hard. They'll have to be careful, but he was being dramatic. They're a strong group. They've done well on their own." He tried to reason as if speaking to two ten year olds. "They're just gonna have to go out and find their own farm. There's plenty of them now to chose from."
"There aren't." Maggie stated.
"Everyone of them nearby is burned out or full of Walkers." I added.
"Walkers?" My dad questioned. "So we just keep these people here forever?" He asked, not bothering anymore with my wording. Normally I would always call them by their names or the sick when around dad and the others, but I had always said that he would need to see reason sooner or later. And that time was now. I didn't know how it would go, but it had to be done carefully and subtly which I was still trying to work out. I had had this conversation with Maggie before and I think she thought the same thing. "How are they my responsibility?" He asked.
"A new command I give to you: Love one another as I have loved you." Maggie stated simply as I got my proud older sister vibes. "That's what you told me, right? I was mad about mum. Mad about you marrying Annette. I was 14 years old and I was awful, to you more than anybody. All I wanted to do was smoke and shoplift." She explained. "Love one another. That's what you told me. You said the same thing to Kat when she was that age." Maggie nodded at me.
She was right. I was worse than she was, but that was before our mum had died. Her death was what had straightened me out.
"Maggie... that was different."
"No." She shook her head. "You're different."
"I am." Dad nodded. "But we're not. I love you. That's part of this." He paused for a moment. "Is this about the Asian boy? Do you want him to..."
"No." Maggie cut him off, shaking her head as he voice began to crack a little. "His name is Glenn." She said, looking up and taking a deep breath. "And he saved my life yesterday when one of the people you think is sick tried to kill me. How's that for dramatic?"
As dad looked at her, clearly shocked, I decided to speak. "Things aren't what you think they are, Dad. They aren't. You weren't there when Shawn and Annette were bitten." I shook my head as tears threated to come, but as usual I pushed them back. "I didn't say anything because I was trying to protect you, but it can only go on for so long." I paused.
I didn't want Shane staying, but despite what I had said to Daryl I didn't want to send them all out there in this new world, probably sending them to their death and if that meant Shane had to stay as well then I would have to get over that. But I couldn't send them out with kids and possibly a baby in the future, so, I was about to do the one thing I had been dreading for weeks.
"When Annette died I pulled you out of her room and you didn't understand why, but I couldn't have you in the room when she came back. When Shawn did, just before I ran to you... he tried to kill me... I don't want them to be gone any more than you do, but I don't want to lose anyone else over this. You've seen them... what they look like..." I shook my head, those tears I had forced back making my eyes a little red. "That's not sickness, Daddy."
"Don't do this." Maggie begged.
"Hershel!" We heard Jimmy yelling as he ran inside and into the kitchen. "It happened again." He said, meaning that he must have found more Walkers. A part of our land was covered in bog and sometimes the dead would wander into the mud and get stuck. That's where most of the walkers in the barn came from.
Dad looked at Maggie and I before standing and walking out silently. We ran to the door and saw him heading for Rick's group.
"Jimmy, go with him." I barely whispered as Jim nodded and ran after our dad who if I had to guess was going to explain to Rick how things were run, maybe come to some arrangement.
"Its something." Maggie stated.
"Yeah... but Rick's the easy one. It's how the others will react that worries me." I looked over at Maggie. "You should talk to Glenn."
"What?"
"Maggie... talk to him." I stated before heading over to the shed. We needed to plow one of the top paddocks, but the tractor was having a hard time running at the moment and I needed to fix the engine even though I'd rather be working on the truck, but priorities.
About half an hour passed when I saw Maggie and Glenn talking out the front of the house. Glenn stormed away, but Maggie stopped him, pulling him in for a kiss. I smiled a little before getting back to my task.
At least some people were working things out alright.
Alright, so obviously i can't write in every scene with different POVs when Kat isn't there because 1. it would be boring and 2. it would be too random and scattered, but after the scene at the barn where everyone is yelling among themselves the next time we see Daryl is up at the stables where he yells at Carol etc. clearly in a bad mood. In my story that would happen right after he speaks with Kat and she tells him to basically hurry up and find sophia so they can leave (not in those words, but yeah) so you can take from that what you like :)