The Middle of the End

Fourteen

Random song: Can't Save Myself - AS IT IS

Chapter Fourteen: You'll Never Know

Shane went berserk. Hershel and Rick had gone off somewhere; he took the guns from the RV and handed them out to everyone. When Hershel and Rick returned with a walker attached to a metal pole, Shane shot it multiple times to prove to Hershel that they weren't sick people, but dangerous reanimated corpses that would KILL you.

Daryl told me to take Alfie, who was scared and crying, to his tent and wait until he came for us. We waited, and heard many a gunshot. Alfie was absolutely terrified and clung to me like there was no tomorrow. I couldn't cry, couldn't let him know that I was just as scared as he was because I knew that would only upset him more. I heard a woman crying hysterically, the RV door slamming shut. Alfie let out a scream when he saw the tent being unzipped and I tried calming him down.

"It's just me!" Daryl crawled in, zipping the tent shut. "She was in the barn. All the searchin'..."

"What do you mean? Who?" I looked into his eyes and knew. The crying woman had been Carol.

"Sophia. She was a walker. The last one to come outta the barn... Rick shot 'er, no one else could." he turned his attention to Alfie, who was crying softly. My shirt was covered in tears and snot, and now that I'd learned what happened to Sophia, I wanted to cry. "He alright?"

"Other than being scared outta his mind, yea." I rubbed Alfie's small back.

"You're my Mommy." he whispered up at me, "Can Daryl..."

"Can he what, sweetie?" I felt my eyes tear up, not expecting him to address me as 'Mommy' quite just yet.

"Be my Daddy?" he sat up and looked expectantly towards Daryl.

"Only if ya want me to be." Daryl shrugged, turning red when Alfie jumped on him and gave him a hug.

TWDTWDTWDTWDTWD

"Hershel wants us off his land in three days." Lori said, "It's all of us or Shane. Now he's gone off somewhere, and Beth's catatonic or somethin'."

"I don't wanna leave, I wanna stay here." Carl frowned.

"Me too." pouted Alfie from his cot. I didn't want to leave the tent until things calmed down a little and all the walkers outside of the barn had been taken care of. Along with Sophia, Hershel's wife and stepson had been in there.

"I thought I'd be the one to find her. In a tree, or hiding in a cave somewhere. Safe." Carl told us. "How Dad shot her like that... It was the right thing to do. That's what I would've done."

Lori and I exchanged looks, shocked at what had came out of her son's mouth. "Watch him? I wanna talk to Rick."

"Mhm." I nodded and she left. I listened to Carl and Alfie talk about kid stuff for a bit, eventually getting anxious and taking them over to the RV. Lori and Daryl were trying to convince Carol to go to the funeral for Sophia, Annette, and Shaun. She was refusing, said that wasn't her daughter but a monster.

"Andrea an' T-Dog are burnin' the walkers. C'mon, let's go." Daryl nodded, and Alfie and I followed him outside. Everyone gathered around a gravesite close to the barn, except for Carol, Beth, and Hershel. Beth was in bed running a fever, no one knew where Hershel had gone. As soon as the burial was over Rick and Glenn planned to go out and bring Hershel back. His daughters needed him, Beth especially.

"Pick me up?" Alfie whispered, tugging on Daryl's pants. Daryl picked him up, holding him with one arm.

"Hey, where's Shane?" I muttered so no one else could hear me, as they were speaking for loved ones.