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┏━━━━━━━━━━┓ chapter five: the barn ┗━━━━━━━━━━┛
WHILE THE REST OF THE GROUP WAS GOING OVER PLANS TO GET SOPHIA BACK, GLENN AND MAL SAT ON THE PORCH. Glenn was lightly strumming the guitar Dale found on the highway while Mal just watched the farm. Before everything, Mal used to sit on the porch and listen to music or talking with one of her siblings.
When they died, Mal completely shut down. She spent so long just staring at nothing. Her eyes were always wide, as if she was reliving it all over again. In reality, she was reliving it. Mal couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that her parents, her sisters, the people she grew up with and loved more than herself were just gone. She couldn't make sense of it all.
But she had to be there for Glenn. So while she still couldn't make sense of it, she could at least distract herself by doing chores for the camp and being there for Glenn. She had to be a light for him.
"Mal, you alright over there?" Maggie broke her out of her thoughts.
"Oh, yeah." Mal cleared her throat, standing up. "I'm okay."
Glenn looked at her sympathetically. It wasn't hard to figure out what she was thinking about. He knew she felt responsible for Laura's death.
"I'm just gonna . . ." She pointed to the tents. "Yeah." As she walked over to her tent, she saw Lori carrying a bucket of water. "Hey, Lori." Mal sped up to her.
"Is everything okay?" Lori asked as she placed the bucket on the ground.
"Well, um. Are you, you know, pregnant?" Mal questioned, cringing at her words. She felt like she was invading her privacy, but she needed to know so she could get medicines for her or know that she needed to get more food than usual.
Lori's head shot up to her. "You can't tell anybody, okay?"
Mal's eyes wandered behind Lori to Shane and Rick. Lori looked behind her and then to Mal with pleading eyes. "You haven't told him yet." She concluded. They began walking their way. "I'm gonna just . . ." Mal awkwardly walked away.
She walked into the RV, where Glenn had been sitting at the table. She sighed as she sat in front of him.
"Everything okay?" He asked carefully.
She paused. "What if someone told you something huge in the middle of the apocalypse and you don't know what do do with the information? What would you do?"
"Mal, what happened?" He asked her in a warning tone.
"She said I couldn't say anything."
"Does it involve the group?"
"Yeah."
"Could it hurt the group?"
"Not directly."
"Mal!"
"Okay, okay!" She exclaimed, putting her hands up in surrender. "But you can't say anything, okay?"
"Okay."
"Well, um." She trailed. "Lori is, uh . . . pregnant."
He coughed. "She's what? Does Rick know? We have to say something."
"Glenn, no." She warned him. "Lori has to be the one to say something. She might not even decide to keep it. But none of that is our business. Just act like you know don't know anything about anything and be casual, you know? Let's talk about something else." She took a water from a cooler. She didn't even get to open it before she heard shouting outside. She and Glenn shared a look before rushing outside.
Apparently, there was a walker coming this way and Rick was scolding Andrea for having her gun pointed at it. He was also scolding Shane for wanting to kill it instead of having Hershel deal with it. Glenn told Mal to stay put as he, T-Dog, Shane, and Rick ran after the walker.
Andrea shot her rifle with no warning, and it was quickly followed by Rick shouting no.
"What on Earth is going on out here?" Hershel yelled.
Rick and Shane dragged a body that Mal made out as Daryl's. And after explaining that he was okay, and Andrea just grazed him, Hershel took him in for treatment.
✶
LATER, EVERYONE WAS IN HERSHEL'S DINING ROOM FOR DINNER. Mal sat next to Maggie with Jimmy and Beth. Mal felt like she was intruding, she felt almost embarrassed. It was clear Hershel did not want them there.
"Does anybody know how to play guitar?" Glenn suddenly asked. "Dale found a cool one. Somebody's gotta know how to play."
"Otis did." Patricia said.
"Yes, and he was very good too." Hershel added.
Mal took a deep breath as she rubbed her hands together under the table.
Maggie placed her hand on Mal's, also passing her a note. Mal frowned at first. Where the hell did she get paper from? She opened the folded paper and it read, are you okay?
Mal looked up to her, giving her a soft smile and nodding. Maggie smiled back at her before her smile had faded. She was looking past Mal, most likely at Hershel.
Later, after the most awkward dinner of her life, Mal was out taking a walk. She couldn't sleep, and she knew that if she just sat there and waited to sleep she'd get lost in her own thoughts.
The barn door shook. Mal thought she was seeing things at first, but then it happened again. The door had a barricade and a lock on it, so Mal climbed the latter on the other side of the barn. The barn smelt like walkers, and her suspicion was confirmed when she heard the growling. They all tried to get to her at the top, causing Mal to put a hand on her knife that was on her side.
"You weren't supposed to see this."
authors note, this is such a boring and horrible chapter but i needed to post something bc it's been months lmfao
