𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐒•𝖳𝖶𝖣•

「𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍」there to stay

[season two, episode seven]

𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐋𝐀𝐇 𝐃𝐈𝐃𝐍'𝐓 𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃 why anybody would want to keep a barn full of walkers. She asked Layla while the others went to investigate the barn but the woman didn't have an answer for her. No one did. And as the day slowly carried on things around the farm became uncomfortable. A lot of the group decided to hang out on the front porch, while the others did their own thing.

"What the hell?" Layla muttered, standing up from the porch swing when she saw Shane walking towards the house with the bag of guns.

"What's all this?" Daryl asked, pointing to the bag.

"You with me, man?" Shane held a rifle out for Daryl to take.

The Dixon man took the gun from him. "Yeah."

"Time to grow up," Shane declared before glancing over at Andrea. "You already got yours?"

"Yeah. . . where's Dale?" The blonde wondered, noticing the old man's absence.

"He's on his way." Shane answered as he handed T-dog a gun.

"Thought we couldn't carry." T-dog said confused, watching as Shane gave Layla a gun.

"We can't." The Douglas sister slowly muttered, eyeing Shane.

The man scoffed. "Look, it was one thing sitting around picking daisies when we thought this place was supposed to be safe. But now we know it ain't."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Wyatt asked, standing protectively in front of Georgia and Delilah as the girls looked up from the dirt they were playing in.

"Don't pretend you don't know." Shane spat, shoving a gun in Glenn's hands and the Rhee man sent Maggie a worried look.

"He doesn't know. . . he's not pretending." Bowie muttered resulting in his older brother to send him a questioning look.

"Know what?"

"There's walkers in the barn." Maggie blurted, crossing her arms. "Daddy thinks they're sick."

Wyatt's eyes grew as wide as quarters. "What the hell?" And almost on cue Rick, Hershel and Jimmy came out of the woods with two walkers on snarepoles.

"What is that? What is that?" Shane growled and started running towards the barn. While the others ran behind him, Delilah stayed walking with her mom and Carl since Carl wasn't fully healed yet.

"These things ain't sick. They're not people. They're dead. Ain't gonna feel nothing for them 'cause all they do, they kill!" Shane was saying when the three reached the others. Delilah had never seen him like that and for the first time in her short life, she was scared of Shane. "These things right here, they're the things that killed Amy. They killed Otis. They're gonna kill all of us!"

Carl grabbed onto Delilah's smaller hand as their mother pulled them closer to her. The young girl felt relatively safe with him and her mom. Safe, such a funny word nowadays.

"Hey, Hershel man, let me ask you something. Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" Shane fired three bullets into the walker at the end of Hershel's snarepole. "That's three round in the chest. Could someone who's alive, could they just take that? Why is it still coming?" He shot another three rounds. "That's it's heart, it's lungs. Why is it still coming?"

"Shane, enough!" Rick screamed and Shane scoffed.

"Yeah, you're right man, that is enough." He sent one final bullet into the walker's brain and Hershel fell to his knees in defeat.

"Enough, risking our lives for a little girl that's gone!" Shane yelled.
Carol's lip quivered as she held back tears while Layla held her close.

"Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us! Enough! Rick, it ain't like it was before. Now, if y'all wanna live, you gotta fight for it. I'm talking about fighting right here, right now!" There wasn't much anyone could do when Shane broke the locks on the barn's doors.

"Stay behind me." Lori said, pushing her two youngest behind her as Kenzie ran over to stand in front of the three with her gun raised and Georgia by her side.

The Grimes woman reached forward and grabbed ahold of Georgia before moving her to stand behind her with her kids. Kenzie sent her a greatful look as the walkers started to spill out of the barn.

Gunshots filled the air and walkers piled up, dead for the final time. Once the last walker was put down, Kenzie turned to her daughter and pulled her into her arms.

Lori pulled her kids to the ground and held them in her lap as they cried.

Bowie bit down on his bottom lip as his eyes trailed over each bodies. Most of them were the corpses of the people he grew up knowing. Mom. . . Shawn. . . Denis. . . his kindergarten teacher Ms. Franklin. They all were finally set free, no longer trapped as mindless monsters. It felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He could finally let them go.

A small growl came from the barn followed by the smallest walker of the bunch stumbling out of the doors. A little girl. "Sophia." Carol whispered, shoving Layla's arms off of her. "Sophia!" She sobbed, running towards her babygirl.

Daryl jumped forward and wrapped his arms around her and they both lowered to the ground. Carl and Delilah's cries turned into sobs, mixed with Lori's own tears as she held onto them tighter than she ever had before.

"Don't watch." She whispered as Rick pointed his gun at the girl they had spent so much time looking for.

When he pulled that trigger everything changed. Any parts of Sophia left were now gone as her body hit the ground with the others.

The new world was cruel and scary, and it was there to stay.

𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑
2.19.24
9:59𝐏𝐌
967𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐒

not edited