This Is How We End It

Chapter Twenty-One

The hot forest was muggy. Bugs, sounds, crackling leaves. Everybody had sweat dripping off of them, as they walked toward wherever. They didn't know where they were going, they just were searching. Mikaela kept her knife close to her, just in case. It was one thing to talk about being able to kill walkers, but performing the action was different. She'd never killed a walker. What did it feel like? Shane stayed behind the group, taking the back. He searched around, looking. To see any footprints, or signs of Anthony. There was nothing. Carol stayed close to Rick, as Nick had taken the front. 

"Hey, get back a little." Rick said as he watched Nick.

Nick shook his head. "I've got it."

"No. Get back some." Rick said, walking ahead.

Nick rolled his eyes. "I want a gun. I can shoot, you took me to that gun training course with Ethan when I was 13."

"I can shoot too, dad. Please." Mikaela said as she overheard the conversation.

"Really." Ethan sighed.

Rick shook his head. "No, we don't have enough for all of you."

Lori sighed. "It's good you're all growing up. We can get you guns soon."

"I had a gun back at my house, I should've taken it." Brittany muttered, walking.

Glenn watched everyone as he stayed quiet. Andrea stayed close to Shane, knife in hand. 

Suddenly, there was a tent ahead. It had a small amount of supplies around it, as it stayed idle. Rick looked back to Shane.

"Hey. You think he's in there?" Rick asked, keeping quiet just in case.

Shane stepped forward, as Carol and Brittany watched him. "Might be. Unlikely though."

Adam watched carefully. "Just check already."

Lori eyed Adam before looking at Shane. "You gonna check?"

Shane gave a small nod, taking his shotgun with a sigh. He stepped toward the tent, and opened it slowly. An awful smell arose from the tent as he opened it, seeing a corpse sitting in the chair, maggots covering it. He gagged a bit, and saw that the corpse had shot itself. He looked at the gun in his hand, and slowly reached forward to grab it. He slowly took it off of his hand, and quickly got out of the tent.

"Nothing." Shane sighed, raising the gun. "Found this. Did what Jenner said, 'opted-out'." 

Adam sighed, looking at the gun. No sign of Anthony. As Andrea opened her mouth to speak, a sound echoed from the distance. Adam's ear rose as Mikaela quickly turned to the sound. It was church bells, as they banged, making sounds. 

"Church bells?" Carol asked, looking to Rick.

"Maybe Anthony's there." Adam said, looking to Shane.

Andrea looked at Shane too. "Or maybe someone's signaling that they found him."

Shane began to run toward the sound, everyone following. They ran out into a field with graves, as Shane made his way to the building. It didn't look like a church, but it didn't matter. Shane needed to check. They looked around, as Glenn made his way to a small box on the side of the wall. He quickly opened it, and pressed a switch.

"It's a.. a timer." He panted, not being used to so much running. 

Adam sighed, looking at Shane. "We've gotta check inside, we've gotta,"

"Just take a second.. if they could hear the alarm getting shut off, they'll hear us." Nick said as he looked at the door. "We don't know what's in there."