VITRIOL | Shane Walsh

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"Pricilla I need to talk to you-"

Maggie stormed in through the stable doors, red-faced and stressed. I didn't take my attention away from the horse I was brushing and simply ignored her. Call it a petty sibling fall out but I wasn't going to start playing nice when she needed me to do something for her.  

"They know about the walkers in the barn."

"So what?" I scoffed, "There's only Mom and Shawn. It's not that big a deal." 

From the corner of my eye, I could see Maggie shake her head. When I turned towards her and saw the fear-stricken expression on her face, my body ran cold.

"He told me not to tell you-" I threw the brush into a nearby bucket with a loud clang and charged towards the house in blind rage. Dad was calmly sat at the dining table enjoying his fried eggs like he wasn't hiding a bunch of flesh-eating corpses on the property.

"You tried to keep the barn a secret from me!" I seethed.

"Because you have no respect for them-"

"-Monsters"

"-Sick people." He enforced.

"Do you even know how many are in there? How long is it before the doors give way and we're eaten in our sleep? If you don't let me sort this out then I'm leaving with Shane, Caleb, Maggie, Beth- I'll take everyone besides you."

"Don't threaten me Pricilla! You will stay here with your family. You vouched for those people not so long ago. They are safe here."

"No, they're not! Not anymore." 

He opened his mouth as if to shout back but stopped when the front door creaked open. 

"Hershel, have you got a minute?" It was Rick.

"He's all yours" I snapped and walked out to the tent I was sharing with Shane. He saw me tear through the camp and decided to follow after me with a whole host of questions. He threw the tent flap back, stepped in and slightly crouched down so he could fit.

"Did you know about the walkers?" His tone was harsh yet we talked in a hushed whisper so no one outside could hear.

"I knew about two...that's it, I swear." I held my hands up in defence.

"That's beside the point. You let us sleep with them things a stone throw away."

"Oh don't act like you've never kept a secret before." I whipped around, finally facing him.

"That's a hell of a difference Pricilla."

"Oh, so it's Pricilla now huh? No baby?"

"Don't be ridiculous..."

"Just get the guns"

- - -

Ten minutes had passed and Shane had been gone for just too long. When I checked inside the RV, the interior was wrecked with no sign of him or the guns. Stepping back outside, I looked up towards Glenn who was on watch. 

"Hey, you see where Shane went?" 

He looked down at me, squinted and didn't respond.

"What...Maggie tell you not to talk to me?" 

He dropped his head signalling that was it. 

"Tell me where he went Glenn...please."

He sighed in defeat before pointing to the woods where a creek was sheltered behind the treeline. I'd crossed the field in a few minutes and stumbled into a tense situation between Dale and Shane. The former had the barrel of his gun pressed into the other's chest with a serious look in his eye.