The Beginning Of The End (A Daryl Dixon Fanfiction)

Chapter Five: Pull The Trigger

The group arrived at the farm, there was alot of land, a large barn and a big family home with a green roof, it was in the middle of nowhere and seemed safe. Rick told them that Carl was recovering, he was still bed bound for the moment but he would be okay. They said that Hershel helped him, Hershel was an older man with thining grey hair, he owned the farm and was a veterinarian. He had two daughters who also lived there, Beth and Maggie.
Beths boyfriend Jimmy and a woman called Patricia also lived there, she fixed T-Dogs stitches,
"I'll give it to you," she said, "you did a hell of a good job with what you had."
"Thank you." Rain blushed.

Hershel let them set up camp under some trees just next to his house and even gave them a map of the area to help them find Sophia.
The next day they had been out to look for Sophia and come back, the only person who hadn't back yet was Daryl but that was expected, he knew what he was doing, he could go out way further than anyone else and find his way back easily.
They were all sat around the camp when Andrea suddenly shouted,
"Walker!"
She was on lookout ontop of the rv, everyone jumped up to have a look although none of them were that worried seeing as there was only one, just aware that there could be more. Andrea wanted to kill it from where she was but Rick said no.
Rain picked up her axe,
"Can I come?"
"If you can keep up." Shane replied.
They ran over to the walker that was slowly stumbling towards them, when they got close enough they realised something, the man covered in blood and dirt limping towards them wasn't a walker at all.
"Daryl?" Rain whispered,
"That's the third time you've pointed that thing at my head," he said angrily making Rick lower his gun, "you gonna pull the trigger or what?"
Suddenly there was a gunshot and he collapsed to the floor.
Rain knelt down next to him as Shane looked around,
"Andrea." he said,
Rick turned around too and screamed at her, "NO!"
Rain stroked Daryls hair, being careful not to touch the bullet hole in the side of his head, luckily it only grazed him. He suddenly stirred.
"Get the fuck off of me." he groaned and she pulled her hand away quickly, he opened his eyes,
"Oh it's you."
"Are you okay?" She asked him,
"I just got shot." he replied angrily, "I was kidding."
Shane and Rick lifted him up and he fell unconscious once again.

Rain closed the bedroom door behind her to see Carol stood outside,
"I brought him his dinner, is he awake?" She asked, holding out a bowl of stew.
She nodded and Carol went to open the door when Rain stopped her,
"He'll be okay, I promise."
"I know." Carol said.
Carol returned to see Rain waiting for her so they could walk back together.
"Why do you and Daryl care so much?" She asked. "About Sophia?" Rain shrugged,
"You and Andrea took me in and I saw how Amy's death effected Andrea, I don't want to see you go through the same thing. I hate to think of Sophia out there all alone but she is because she's not dead I promise you that Carol." Near the end of her sentence Rain found it hard to get the words out without choking,
"Is that what you think about your daughter?" Carol asked her. "That she's out there, she's not dead?"
Rain shook her head, a few tear drops falling from her eyes,
"This isn't a fairytale. There's no way anyone survived Atlanta."

~

The next day a group of them went down to a little shooting range that Shane set up so they could learn to shoot.
By the end of it Rain wasn't too bad, wasn't amazing mind you but she hit over half of the wine bottles set up, she was proud of herself.

They were all sat around eating breakfast, scrambled eggs fresh from the chickens being kept at the farm, when Glenn stood up, he looked nervous and he kept glancing at the barn behind him, the barn they had been banned from going near since they arrived here on Hershels orders.
"Guys..." He said, a couple people glanced at him but no one took much notice. "The barn is full of walkers."
This got their attention.

They went over to check and, clear as day, through a crack in the door, the barn was full of the dead, just walking around.
"You can not tell me you're alright with this." Shane said angrily,
"No, I'm not," Rick replied, "but we're guests here. This isn't our land."
"We can't just sweep this under the rug." Andrea spoke,
"It ain't right, not remotely." Shane replied. "We either gotta go in there and make things right or leave."
"We can't leave!" Rick shouted at him,
"Why not?"
"Her little girl is still out there." Rain yelled at Shane pointing to Carol who was stood by her,
Shane scoffed.
"We're not leaving Sophia behind." said Rick standing in front of Rain and Carol to protect them as Shane got closer,
"I'm close to finding this girl." said Daryl and Shane chuckled sarcastically.
This was all it took for Daryl, he lunged towards Shane shouting,
"Let me tell you something man," Shane shouted and Rick held Daryl back,
"If she was alive out there and saw you coming, all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck she would run in the other direction."
Daryl lunged again and so did Shane, Rick grabbed Shane and Rain, Andrea and Carol all held back Daryl.
The doors of the barn were starting to rattle aggressively, all this noise was probably working those walkers up.

~

It had been a few days since then and Rick instructed everyone to leave the barn alone until he spoke to Hershel and figured things out. It was a thing in the back of everyone's mind, while Rain was trying to sleep she would suddenly remember the ton of walkers just a stones throw away.
Everyone was waiting around when Shane walked over to them with a big bag full of guns,
"What's all this?" Daryl asked,
"You with me, man?" Shane asked and Daryl took a gun,
"Time to grow up," he said as he handed out rifles to everyone,
"How about you man?" He came to Rain, she was unsure,
"Do you have a pistol?" She asked and he pulled one out and handed it to her.
"Oh shit!" T-Dog shouted, he was looking off into the distance towards the barn, Jimmy, Rick and Hershel had two walkers on leashes and were pulling them towards the barn.
"What is that?" Shane yelled as he started to run towards them. "What is that?" Everyone followed and, when Shane stopped, he pulled out his gun. "Hey Hershel, let me ask you something. Could a living, breathing person walk away from this?" He shot one of the walkers in the stomach, "Three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive take that?" He shot it again, "That's its heart, it's lungs." Then he walked straight up to it and shot it in the head.
Next he did what they all feared, Shane opened the doors. He picked up a pickaxe and smashed the lock.
The walkers started to pour out, only a few at first, there was still a chain across the doors, making a small gap for them to get through. Shane shot each one that got out, Daryl and Andrea on either side of him helping. Then T-Dog and Glenn joined in and finally Rain raised her gun but something stopped her.
There was something different about one of the walkers, it was smaller than the rest and was wearing a little blue tshirt with a rainbow on that she recognised. As soon as she realised who it was she collapsed to the floor sobbing with her head between her knees, she felt someone behind her, hugging her tight as gunshots fired around them. She lifted her head slightly to see the hands wrapped around her knees, they were big and dirty and the nails were bitten down to the nub. He rested his head against hers and whimpered in her ear. Daryl wasn't trying to comfort Rain at all, he was comforting himself.
She turned around slowly making sure she didn't break Daryls grip and smiled at him weakly before using her thumb to wipe his tear away, he opened his mouth to speak but his lip quivered for a second,
"I-i-I was looking for so long."
"You did so well." she whispered but he shook his head,
"No," he said angrily, "I didn't look hard enough."
Rain wanted to argue with him but she noticed him looking behind her, she looked too. Carol was on the floor knelt next to her daughter who was now dead on the ground, she wasn't crying, she was just staring with no expression on her face, she was broken.

- Princexiero xx