|discontinued| Stars Will Fall, twd

getting swarmed.

No one else bothered him when he came out into the main camp, they let him be to himself. Leo assumed Shane must have informed the rest on what happened, or they just looked at his face, because he was getting a lot of sympathetic looks but no one said anything.

Amy and Andrea brought back a big load of fish that made everyone happy, they hadn't had much other than squirrels the last while. The mood was brought back down when Dale brought their attention to Jim, who was up on a hill shoveling a lot of big holes.

The group all walked up, Jim didn't stop his task when they stopped and stared at him so Shane decided to speak up, "Hey, Jim. Jim why don't you hold up, alright? Just give me a second here, please"

The other sighed and stuck the shovel into the ground, "What do you want?"

"We're all just a little concerned man, that's all"

Morales nodded, "Dale says you've been out here for hours"

"So"

"So why you digging?" Jim looked away and Shane chuckled lightly, "Are you heading to China, Jim?"

"What does it matter? I'm not hurting anyone" Jim said and got back to digging.

"Yeah, except maybe yourself" Dale pointed out, "It's 100 degrees today, you can't keep this up"

"Sure I can. Watch me"

Lori stepped forward, "Jim, they're not gonna say it, so I will. You're scaring people. You're scaring my son and Carol's daughter" Leo got a glance back to the two kids that were binding themselves in Carols arms.

Jim also looked to them but shook his head, "They got nothing to be cared of. I mean, what the hell people. I'm out here by myself, why don't you all just go and leave me the hell alone?"

Shane spoke again, "We think you need to take a break, okay? Why don't you go and get yourself in the shade? Some food maybe. I'll tell you what... maybe in a little bit I'll come out here. I'll help you myself. Jim, just tell me what it's about. Why don't you go ahead and just give me that shovel?"

"Or what?" Jim snapped

"There is no or what. I'm asking you. I'm coming to you and I'm asking you, please. I don't wanna have to take it from you" Shane explained

"And if I don't" Jim panted, "Then what? My face gonna get beat in like Ed Peletier, ain't it? Y'all see his face, huh? What's left of it... See, now that's what happens when someone crosses another here"

Leo looked down to the ground in shame as Shane glanced back to him slightly then returned to glare at Jim, "That was different, Jim" he said sternly.

Amy defended Shane's words with a step forward, "You weren't there. Ed was out of control, he was hurting his wife. He was hitting Leo!" she cried in frustration.

"That is their marriage! That is nothing to do with him! And the boy started on him first, what I hear" Jim exclaimed and pointed to Shane, "And he is not judge and jury. Who voted you king boss, huh?"

"Jim I'm not here to argue with you, alright? Just give me the shovel, okay?"

Shane approached Jim and reached for the shovel but the other pushed him away and swung for him. Shane dodged it and tackled Jim to the ground, "Jim, nobody is gonna hurt you, okay?"

"That's a lie. That's the biggest lie there is... I told that to my wife and my two boys, I said it 100 times. It didn't matter. They came out of nowhere. There were dozens of 'em. Just pulled 'em right out of my hands...You know the only reason I got away was because the dead were too busy eating my family"