Sydneys POV
"Hey Uncle Daryl, I'm going shooting with Shane" I walk into his tent and take my gun.
"Hey. Give me that back, not allowed to have Em at camp." He orders from his bed.
I narrow my eyes, putting it into my waistband
"I mean it. Hershel will kick us out" He holds his hand out.
I tense my jaw, pulling out of my jeans and placing it in his hand. "Since when do you take orders from people?"
"Since we gotta home. And you don't need trainin, I taught Cha everythin you need ta know" He scoffs.
"With a crossbow."
"Fine. Go. You'll shoot the target every time and realize what a waste of time it was" He waves me off.
I leave the tent, meeting with Carter in Shane's car. He's coming along because he really doesn't know how to use any weapon.
"Ready?" Shane asks as Carl jumps into the car.
"Ready" He answers for the three of us.
~~
Daryl was right, every shot I took hit a bottle, even if I wanted to miss.
"Looks like ya don't need training. Why'd ya come?" Shane approaches me.
"Maybe I just wanted to shoot" I fire the gun again, breaking a red bottle.
"Fair enough" he moves to the next person.
I look over to Carter, who is struggling a bit. I look at his stance, tight and stiff.
"Carter, try to relax. Your too stiff" I tell him, placing my hands on his shoulders.
He nods, separating his feet so that they aren't together. His shoulders relax, and he brings the gun to his face. Pointing the pistol at the bottle, he pulls the trigger.
"Bullseye" I smile.
"Alright, if I hit that no trespassing sign over there, right on that R, you have to kiss me" He smirks.
"Oh really? You got a deal" We shake on it.
He stays relaxed, bringing his gun back up. He fires the gun and looks towards the sign.
"Did I get it?" He squints his eyes
"Nope, you missed" I laugh. He sighs, and Rick tells us it's time to go back.
~~
When we get back from shooting, I immediately go to my tent. I begin to think back to the time where my dad and I went shooting, one of the only times he was sober.
He actually treated me well that day, limiting the number of times he called me a disappointment to once. We laughed quite a bit that day, surprisingly. It's times like that I miss my dad. I even miss the times when he was getting high in his bedroom, despite Daryl telling him not to when I was home. I miss that because I knew he was safe.
Now, I'm not so sure that he is.
"What ya doin in here?" Daryl walks in, standing above me.
"Just thinking about things" I play with my pocket knife.
"Things?" He sits beside me
"Yea. Like how I miss my dad" I frown, knowing that if I start crying I will get a lecture on how Dixons don't cry.
"Why? He was nothin but a jerk to ya" Daryl scoffs
"Well he was still my dad. I love him. Or, loved"
Daryl takes a long pause, "I was right Bout shooting practice wasn't I?"
"Yes." I laugh.
" that's what I thought. Lets go eat, shane got a deer" He tells me, pulling me up from the ground.
Together, we walk to the center of camp where everyone is already sitting. I decide to sit alone, Carter grabbing two plates and walking over to me. He hands me one of the plates and smiles. I scoot over on the log to make room for him.
"Uhm, guys." Glenn stands before us, stuttering. We all pay our attention to him.
"So, the barn is full of walkers" He spits out. My eyebrows furrow, and I quickly look to Daryl. He continues munching on his food, but still shocked.
I don't have any concern for this, so I continue eating while the others go inspect the barn.
~~
I sit in my tent, sharpening a stick with my knife. The barn is in fact full of walkers, and Shane wants to leave. I can officially say I hate that guy.
"Hey beautiful" Carter unzips the tent door, winking. I scoff, closing my knife and putting it in my pocket.
"Hello" I hum.
"Whatcha doin?" He flops down next to me.
"Hiding from the group. I don't fit in with them. I'd rather be alone anyway" I tell him.
"You and your uncle both." Carter laughs.
I smile at him, and then move closer to his face. I connect our lips together, shocking him at first, but he eventually goes with it. I pull away and there is a smirk on his face.
"What was that for?" He asks.
"For hitting the target earlier" I tell him, standing up.
"But I missed?"
"You were close enough" I smirk, unzipping the tent.
"No, I think you just wanted an excuse to kiss me" He chuckles.
"I'm kinda thirsty, I'm gonna go to the house and get water. Want any?" I ask him.
"No. Get back here, I'm gonna make you admit that you wanted to kiss me!" I can hear him shoot Up from his position, so I take off running towards the house.
I laugh when I can hear him chase me, sprinting to the house. Carter is much faster than I am, so he ends up catching up to me, wrapping his arms around me and picking me up into the air. I squeal, hugging his arms. He sets me down on the ground, and together we walk to the house, hand in hand.
"What's all this?" I ask when I see Shane holding guns out to everyone.
"Here. Take one" He holds my pistol out. I widen my eyes in excitement, taking my gun with no hesitation.
"Sydney, Rick said no guns" Carter lets go of my hand. Shane holds a gun out to him, but he declines.
"We need to protect ourselves. I'm not going to give up the opportunity to have my weapon with me again" I tell him, sticking it into my waistband.
"Oh my god" I hear T-dog mutter. This guides all of our attention to the barn, where Rick and Hershel have two walkers on leashes and are guiding them to the barn.
Everyone sprints down there, but I am still out of breath from running from Carter. So I jog instead.
"These things are dead! They're the things that killed Amy! Otis, Merle! They're gonna kill all of us!" I hear Shane shout. At the mention of my father, I jog to Carter's side and he takes my hand into his.
"Shane shut up!" Rick yells, still holding the walker.
"Hey Hershel, let me ask you something man. Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" Shane asks, shooting a bullet into the walkers stomach. I don't flinch, but instead widen my eyes. My hand reaches for my gun, and I pull it out. I do nothing with it, just point it to the ground.
"Could someone that's alive just take that? Why is it still coming?" Shane raises his gun again, two more bullets into the walker
"That's it's heart, its lungs. Why is it still coming?" Shane yells.
"Shane, enough!" Rick hollers back
"You're right man, that is enough" He fires one more bullet, this time through the walkers head.
"Enough, risking our lives for a little girl that's gone!" Shane yells. I immediately look to carol, who is cowering to the side of the group.
"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 you want to survive, you gotta fight for it! I'm talking fighting. Right here, right now!" Shane shouts, running to the barn and shooting the lock off. I raise my gun and walk to the front lines, but Carter grabs my hand and pulls me back towards him. When I look to him, he shakes his head.
I bring my head to Carter's chest when the walkers start pouring out of the barn. I watch each one drop to the ground, each taking a bullet to the head. It feels like hours when the last one drops.
Everything is still and quiet, until I hear one small, faint groan coming from the entrance of the barn. I look over, seeing a small girl covering her eyes from the sun. Except the little girl is dead, a walker. My heart throbs seeing this, and I clutch Carters shirt with my fist.
My heart breaks even more when Carol tries running to the barn, shouting the name "Sophia". This little girl isn't any little girl, it's the Sophia my uncle searched for day and night.
Tears begin to fall down my face when I see Daryl laying over Carol, holding her so she can't reach her dead daughter. I let out a sob, even though I haven't ever spoken a word to this girl in my life.
She slowly maneuvers around the dead bodies that are much larger than she is. It looks like her legs could snap with one more step, they are so skinny.
Rick makes his way to Sophia, raising his gun to her head. When she is close enough, he pulls the trigger, sending the little girl to the ground. I pull my gaze away and lay my forehead in the crook of Carter's neck. He is crying as well, a sob escaping his lips
We are left scattered in front of the barn, all shocked and speechless.
~~
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