Evelyn// Daryl Dixon

11.

Shane bolted towards the barn, screaming towards Rick in anger for working with Hershel. Helping him fill up the barn with flesh hungry beings next to their camp. Rick asked Shane to calm down and put down his gun as if it was going to work. Everyone had followed behind Shane in a sprint to be apart of the scene that was going to unfold in a matter of minutes. Shane was ruthless and he wouldn't stop until he or Rick was dead. That might soon be the ultimatum for this group to coexist with Hershel's family, on their land.

"Do you see? Do you see what they're holding onto?" Shane yelled, circling Hershel and Rick, trying to hype up the group.

"I see who I'm holding onto" Hershel clarified Shane's statement.

"No, man, you don't"

"Just let us finish what we're doing and then we can talk" Ricks voice was strained from holding back a walker while fighting with his riled up partner.

"What do you wanna talk about, Rick? These things ain't sick. They're not people. They're dead! Ain't gotta feel for them because all they do is kill people!"

Daryl held a gun up, ready to shoot the walker in Ricks grasp if it got out of hand. The walker was sending Rick in circles trying to follow Shane in his frantic rage.

"These things are the things that killed Amy! They killed Otis! And they won't stop until they kill us next!" Shane continued his preachings.

He sounded like a cult leader, trying to convince his people that his ways were the ways they had to fall in line with or else.

"Shane, shut up!" Rick shouted realizing reasoning with Shane wasn't an option anymore.

"Now let me ask you Hershel," Shane loaded his gun "could a living, breathing person, walk away from this" then he proceeded to shoot the walker in Hershel's hold three times.

There was a percussion of 'no's' and gasps from the crowd. No one wanted to rebel against Hershel's way. Most of them were working with peacefully living on his land, trying to stay here as long as they could. Being out on the road was no way to live. Glenn raised his gun, ready for hell to break loose as Daryl had been for several minutes. Shane's mission turned from finding Sophia to a slaughter of the barn walkers.

"No! Stop it!" Rick screamed at Shane.

"Three rounds to the chest. Could someone living just take that? Why is it still coming?" Shane fired two more shots "that's it's heart, it's lungs! Why is it still coming!"

Shane fired more until Rick stopped him.

"That's enough!" Rick told him only for Shane to stop for a second.

"Yeah, you're right man. That is enough" he spoke as he approached the walker before swiftly shooting it in the head.

Hershel fell to the ground with the dead walker. Ricks words weren't encouraging Shane to stop but instead they provoked. Everyone was taken aback as if they didn't see this coming. They were blinded to who Shane really was, clearly. Rick fell in line with those who were blind.

"Enough risking our lives for a little girl that's gone!" Carol jumped back, feeling his attack personally "enough living next to a barn full of things trying to kill us! Rick, it ain't like it was before" Shane tested Rick "if you wanna survive, you gotta fight for it! I'm talking about fighting, right here, right now!" He finished his ramblings before he ran to the barn doors.

Rick was trying to get Hershel to take his snare pole from him so he could contain Shane. Hershel was still in complete shock and mourning, not responding to anything Rick was saying.

Shane banged at the barn doors with a pickax trying to break the lock. The walkers inside were riling up, growls growing louder as pure adrenaline pumped through Shane's veins. Rick tried to stop him the best he could with the walker he was restricting. There were more protests for Shane to stop but it wasn't enough, nor would it be enough. The lock broke and he pulled the barricade of wood off of the door waiting for the dead to evacuate the barn. His gun was raised, ready to take them on. Maggie comforting Hershel, crying and begging Shane to stop for the sake of her father.

As the walkers flooded from the barn, their was no choice left than to kill them. There were too many to try and contain. Either way, Shane would mow them down, with or without anyone's help. Greyson and Evelyn joined the militia shooting the walkers. Evelyn couldn't help but feel guilt towards Hershel. The man who took them in, who fed and showered them. Who saved Carl.

Carl was crying in Loris arms. Carol stood back in surprise and horror. She held her stomach with one hand and her mouth with another. Daryl pumped the shotgun, shot after shot. Evelyn followed suit, Greyson firing rounds. Evelyn heard her brothers cry for them to stop and she turned around.

"There isn't another way" she said empathically, not wanting to hurt his feelings.

The sounds of gunfire ceased, echoing throughout the empty land. It was a breather for everyone, for them to process the massacre they all participated in. She closed her eyes for a moment of peace before hearing one more small growl. It was alone, a straggler. Opening her eyes she saw the color drain from Ricks face. As she turned around, a small girl stumbled out the barn, a bite on her neck, her eyes sunken in and carrying no emotion. She stepped over the dead, making her way towards her prey. With the hesitance of any gunshots, and everyone watching in shock, this had to be Sophia. Shane didn't even have to guts to pull the trigger while he was the first to earlier.

Evelyn heard Carls cries grow into sobs. She turned to see Carol running towards Sophia as she cried out her name. Daryl had caught her, dropping his gun and falling to the ground to keep her from getting closer. Evelyn knew that those two were going to take the loss the hardest out of the crew. The line of people who were firing shamelessly minutes ago were now stepping back slowly with every step Sophia made towards them. Rick walked towards her, not having shot one single bullet today. He raised his colt towards the girl who was given a second life as a monster. He waited as he grew the courage to do the deed himself, Sophia making her way towards him.

When he pulled the trigger everything changed, the whole power shift was felt. Carol crying in the silence, wailing at the second death of her daughter. The moment that Rick fired that gun at Sophia, he had reserved the role of the leader of this group. That one single bullet placed him higher than everyone else in the group. For once and for all.