wastelands → the walking dead ¹

[ 017 ] the storm to come.

— CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
the storm to come.

ODESSA SITS IN A camping chair with her legs in the criss-cross position, a plate of eggs and bacon in her hands. She doesn't eat much, she mostly just picks at it with her fork.

She watches as Glenn stands. She already knows what he's going to say as soon as he starts to walk in the direction of everyone.

"Um, guys." He starts when he reaches them. A few pair of eyes move to him at the tone of his anxious voice. "So. . . the barn is full of walkers."

Carol's head snaps towards him and T-Dog looks over the rim of his mug. Andrea stops sharpening her knife. Shane stops moving. And Odessa is the only one with no reaction.

"Oh, boy," she mumbles.

Not even a five minutes later, Shane is running toward the barn with everyone hot on his heels. He stops when he comes to the barn doors. He carefully steps closer and peers inside.

Not a second later, a walker on the other side appears at the crack Shane is looking in at. The man snaps away from the door. Shane turns back to the others, "you cannot tell me you're okay with this."

"No I'm not, but we're guests here. This isn't our land." Rick replies.

"This is our lives!" Shane shouts loudly. Odessa's eyes immediately cut to the barn.

"Lower your voice!" Glenn hisses.

"We can't just sweep this under the rug." Andrea speaks up.

"It ain't right. Not remotely," Shane tells her. "Okay, we've either got go in there, we've gotta make things right or we gotta go. Now we've been talkin' about Fort Benning for a long time."

"We can't go," Rick shakes his head.

"Why, Rick? Why?" Shane harshly questions.

"Because my daughter's still out there," Carol adds, finally finding her voice.

"Okay," Shane brings his hands to his face as if he is in distress. "Okay, I think it's fine that we all start to just consider the other possibility."

"Are you serious? You did not just say that," Odessa steps up, her fists clenched.

"Shane, we are not leaving Sophia," Rick tells the man. He holds his hand out to stop his daughter from doing anything rash.

Daryl quickly steps in. "I'm close to findin' this little girl. I just found her damn doll two days ago."

Shane laughs mockingly. "You found her doll, Daryl. That's what you did. You found a doll."

A second of silence passes over the group until Daryl bellows, "you don't know what the hell you're talkin' 'bout!"

"I'm just sayin' what needs to be said here. You get a good lead, it's in the first forty-eight hours." Shane informs them.

"In the case of a kidnapping! Sophia wasn't kidnapped!" Odessa argues loudly.

Shane ignores her despite her being right. "Let me tell you somethin' else, man. If she was out there alive and saw you comin' all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck, she would run in the other direction."

And that's it for Daryl Dixon.

Without hesitating, the redneck lunges for Shane. As quickly as Daryl lunges, everyone is quickly stepping in between them to hold them back.