"Maggie!" I called, coming back over to the house and leaving the tractor for a bit, once again covered in oil. "Dad not back yet?" I asked and she shook her head. I didn't like Dad and Jimmy handling the walkers. Odis knew what he was doing, I'd seen him do it before. Hell I'd even helped on occasion, but they had been gone for about an hour and a half, maybe two.
"What's going on? Where is everybody?" Andrea asked as her and T-Dog came over.
"We were supposed to leave a couple hours ago to look for Sophia." T-Dog added.
"Yeah you were. What the hell?" Daryl chimed in, obviously not impressed as he and Carol joined the gathering.
"Rick told us he was going out." Carol said.
"He left with my dad." I stated.
"Damn it. Isn't anyone taking this seriously? We got us a damn trail." Daryl responded. "Here we go." He then said as we saw Shane walking over to us.
Shane looked like he was on a mission, which wasn't really anything out of the ordinary, but he had the group's guns slung over his shoulder in a bag plus another rifle in his hand, making nervous.
"What's all this?" Daryl asked.
"You with me, man?" Shane asked him, holding out the rifle for Daryl to take which he did. "Time to grow up." Shane announced to the group. "You already got yours?" He asked Andrea.
"Yeah. Where's Dale?" She asked.
"He's on his way."
"Thought we couldn't carry." T-Dog stated.
"You can't." I interjected, not at all impressed, but Shane ignored me.
"We can and we have to. 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." Shane yelled out for everyone to hear. "How about you, man?" He asked Glenn. "You gonna protect yours?" He held out another rifle for him to take. Glenn did once he threw a nervous glance over at Maggie. "Can you two shoot?" He then asked Maggie and I.
"Can you stop?" Maggie shot back.
"If you do this my dad will make you leave tonight." I added.
"We have to stay, Shane." Carl of all people spoke up as he, Lori, Beth and Patricia all came outside.
"What is this?" Lori demanded.
"We ain't going anywhere, okay? Now look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Okay? He... Well, he's gonna have to." Shane said adamantly and I instantly regretted not speaking up sooner about him. I wasn't sure what good it would have done, though. "Now we need to find Sophia. Am I right?" Shane asked Carl as he walked over to the boy and held out a small handgun for the kid to take. "Now I want you to take this. You take it, Carl, and you keep your mother safe. You do whatever it takes. You know how. Go on, take the gun and do it." Lori stepped in front of Carl, pushing him behind her and away from Shane.
"Rick said no guns. This is not your call. This is not your decision to make." She said almost viciously.
"Oh shit." T-Dog's voice snapped everyone's attention to where Rick, Jimmy and my dad had returned with two walkers on poles, ushering them over the barn.
"You've got to be kidding me." I muttered to myself, not liking this timing in the slightest.
"What is that?" Shane asked no one in particular as he walked through the group and then took off at a full sprint towards them that everyone then followed after. "What the hell are you doing?" Shane demanded of Rick as we caught up just as they made it out front of the barn.
"Shane, just back off."
"Why do your people have guns?" My dad asked.
"Are you kidding me?" Shane yelled. "You see! You see what they're holding onto?" He yelled at the group
"I see who I'm holding onto." Dad corrected as I stopped breathing for a moment, pacing back forth behind Shane, having no idea what to do.
"No, man, you don't." Shane began to walk around Rick, my dad and the walkers, furiously.
"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk." Rick said.
"What you want to talk about Rick? These things ain't sick. They're not people. They're dead! Ain't gonna feel nothing for them 'cause all they do, they kill!" Shane's voice rose with each word.
Everyone had his or her guns at the ready, Daryl pointing his at the Walker on the end of Rick's pole. I couldn't seem to stand still, constantly fidgeting and wound up finding myself standing between Glenn and Daryl.
"These things right here, they're the things that killed Amy." He yelled over at his group. "They killed Otis!" He then yelled at my family and I had to resist the almost overpowering urge to grab Daryl's gun and shoot Shane then and there. "They're gonna kill all of us."
"Shane, shut up!" Rick yelled, unable to deal with his friend, to busy hanging on to the walker.
"Hey, Hershel, let me ask you something." Shane began, pulling out his gun from his belt. "Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" He asked, calmly firing three shots into the chest of the Walker my dad held on to.
"Stop it!" Rick demanded.
"That's three rounds in the chest." Shane stated. "Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?! Why is it still coming?" Shane fired two more shots. "That's its heart, its lungs! Why is it still coming?" He fired another three shots and the Walker, that I now recognized as Louise; a women who lived on a nearby farm, continued to try and claw her way over to Shane.
"Shane, enough!" Rick yelled.
"Yeah, you're right, man." Shane nodded, walking over Louise, "That is enough." He fired a single shot straight through her head. The Walker fell to the ground as my dad went down with it, falling to his knees helplessly. I immediately ran to him, resting a hand on his back as I looked up at Shane, pure rage written all over my face, but I didn't have a gun.
"Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone!" Shane yelled, pointedly at Carol who took a step back, her eyes watering. "Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us! Enough! Rick, it ain't like it was before." He said to his friend. "Now if ya'll want to live, if you want to survive, you got to fight for it. I'm talking about fighting right here! Right now!" Shane turned his back and sprinted to the barn, no one daring to stop him.
It happened so fast. Rick yelled at someone to take the snare pole so he could stop Shane, but when I went to grab it from him there was another gun shot and Shane had already shot opened the padlock keeping the barn door secure. He lifted up the wooden plank, tossing it aside and stepping back, allowing the Walkers inside to open the doors up themselves.
Everyone with a gun ran forward, taking aim. Maggie came up beside me and dad, distraught over what was happening and when I looked back I saw Beth in Jimmy's arms with Patricia to their side.
The Walkers piled out, one by one as everyone fired.
"Maggie?" I heard Glenn faintly call, asking for permission to join.
"It's okay." She nodded quietly, knowing that there was no other way to deal with this now.
Shane fired, Glenn fired, Daryl fired, Andrea and T-Dog. Shane paused for the briefest moment, turning around to face Rick before shooting the walker on his pole in the head and then turning back to continue shooting. Rick stood back, watching what his friend had done.
My dad remained on his knees, watching helplessly as Maggie comforted him, both hands on his shoulders. I stood up straight, stumbling back a step as one by one the bodies fell to the ground.
It was when Annette's frail, rotted and dead corpse dropped that I heard a loud cry from Beth behind me and then I saw Shawn. Denim jeans, long sleeved faded yellow top and dark curly hair. The first shot hit him in the chest, but the second ripped straight through his skull.
That's when I look away, covering my mouth to stop from screaming and closing my eyes.
I had always known they were dead, but to see them actually go down like this tore something inside me.
Then everything went silent.
I slowly turned my head back, dropping my hand from my mouth and breathing heavily. I felt a strong pair of eyes on me as I feebly took a few steps forward, but I didn't look up to see who it was, my sight fixed on my brothers rotted and motionless corpse.
Then more moans were heard, faint, quiet moans coming from inside the barn as the last remaining Walker made its way out into the daylight.
A young girl; short blonde hair, maybe 12 or 13 years old wearing a blue t-shirt with a rainbow on the front.
I expected Shane, at least, to fire right away, but he didn't. No one did. They stared at the approaching figure as Carol ran for it only to be caught by Daryl as she collapsed to the ground. I could just make out her calling the name, "Sophia," in a desperate whispered cry.
It was Rick who slowly walked to the front, raising his gun and firing a single shot that echoed around us.
I know this was all scenes that were taken from the show, but you know... important stuff.