Dead Man Walking | Rick Grimes

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LONG CHAPTER 

The silence that followed the gunshot was deafening. I almost didn't want to believe that it happened, but it did. It wasn't just a figment of my imagination. Before anyone could move a muscle, I darted toward the window and squinted, straining my eyes to catch some sort of familiar movement in the vast darkness before me.

"I'm going after them." Andrea broke the silence as she started towards the door.

"Don't." I ordered, sticking my hand out to stop her, "If that's Randall out there, he might not be alone. We need you here if shit hits the fan." Andrea nodded, thankfully without argument, and retreated to her original spot by the couch, her thumb popping in her mouth as she nervously chewed on her fingernail.

"Um," Glenn stuttered nervously as he looked around at us, "About Randall." This caught my attention, forcing me to tear my attention from the window to the nervous man in the center of the room. "We found him."

"Did you put him back in the barn?" I asked him, looking toward Daryl for confirmation. Daryl pursed his lips before looking at Glenn, both exchanging a look.

"He's a walker." Glenn announced, "Or was." I felt my eyebrows scrunch together as I processed his words, trying to piece the new information in my head. So, Randall escaped, took down Shane, and was bit by a walker? Something isn't adding up.

"Did you find the walker that bit him?" Hershel asked, his blue eyes scrunched in confusion as well. It's possible walkers are roaming around the woods. Hell, it's more likely than Randall busting Shane and running off. Daryl stood next to me, looking around at everyone before looking me directly in the eye and shaking his head.

"He wasn't bit." He informed us. He wasn't bit? So then, how did he turn into a walker? "His neck was broke." I felt my stomach drop as I finally connected all the pieces in my head. Shane busted Randall out and led him into the woods, where he then broke Randall's neck. But how would Randall come back as a walker if he wasn't bit? Why did Shane take him out and kill him? Unless...

"So, he fought back?" Patricia asked as she also tried to make sense of everything. Randall is scrawny. I can easily take him down without much of a fight. It would be no problem for Shane.

"The thing is, Shane's and Randall's tracks are right on top of each other," Daryl said as he looked back at me. That's when it clicked fully in my head. Shane had planned this. I don't know the desired outcome, but he planned this whole thing.

"Shane isn't a tracker," I said loudly enough for everyone to hear. "There's no way Shane snuck up on him or vice versa... They were together." Daryl nodded at me.

Tracking is hard. You have to have a trained eye to know what you're looking at. There's no way Shane learned how to track in the few weeks we've been here at the farm. I knew his story was complete bullshit.

"Will you please get back out there and find Rick and Shane?" Lori asked, her arms crossed over her chest as she looked at me. "Find out what's going on." Despite my smug feelings over the fact that she specifically asked me to go out there, I nodded at her. A little while ago, she told me my place was staying inside and playing house with her and the rest of the women. Now here she is, asking me to go out there and find her lovers.

"Of course," I answered her curtly, not letting my smile show through. I looked over at Daryl and Glenn, nodding once at them. "T-Dog, Hershel, and Andrea," I spoke, turning to look at them. "Stay here and protect everyone here at all costs. We still don't know the whole story, and I rather us be prepared than taken by surprise." The three nodded as I tapped the boys on the shoulders and led them out the door. I grabbed my gun and rechecked the chamber, ensuring the six bullets remained before shutting it. It's not nearly enough ammo, but it'll have to do.