Feral Citizens

Funeral

The only sound that could be heard was faint sobs from some of the Greene family. Beth broke away from Patricia's arms and climbed over the bodies. She found her mother and started to cry. "Ma..."

Annette's eyes snapped open. She growled and tried to pull Beth down to her face. Beth began to scream. It was a bloodcurdling, frightened screeching laced with grief.

"Come on! Pull her away, pull her away!" T-Dog and Shane separated the girl from the monster. Andrea thought faster yanking a scythe down from the barn wall. Annette snarled one last time, and then she was gored by the scythe. Beth just cried even more after that.

Hershel, aided by Maggie and Patricia, was walking back to the farmhouse. Shane took off after Hershel and shouted, "We've been out- we've been combing these woods looking for those kids and she was in there all along? You knew."

"Leave us alone." Maggie snapped. "We didn't know! Otis was in charge of putting those- things- inside the barn." Shane continued to argue. I didn't care anymore. We'd spent so much time looking for those kids. Even now, we'd only found one.

What would happen now? Hershel wanted us gone, and with Eliza dead, the chances of her younger brother surviving were looking less and less likely. He was out there, alone. We could only guess why they'd separated. All we had as evidence was a doll that belonged to Eliza.

All I could do was hang back, my mind tumbling down a hole as it tried to make sense of what had just happened.

The Morales siblings ran. Glenn had mentioned that one set of prints had been heading the right way, but then turned to follow the other set leading into the woods. Meaning that one of the siblings had tried to run away from the highway for some reason. But what had scared them? We would have seen a walker- unless it hadn't noticed the siblings, and then wandered further up the highway to re-join the herd. The kids wouldn't have risked going to the highway if they thought a walker was still there.

Maggie had said Otis was in charge of putting walkers inside the barn. Meaning that he had to have found Eliza the morning we went searching, just HOURS before Carl was shot. The only explanation then, was that Eliza had been bitten the night before that.

And the doll. Daryl had found it by the creek. That would explain why Otis found Eliza- she was close to the farm when she was bitten. She might have dropped the doll when she got bit. If her brother was with her, he'd have likely run away. That girl had been torn into on her neck and arm; she wouldn't have gotten far before she lost too much blood and died.

Shane approached me as Hershel and his family flocked into the farmhouse. Rick had already began walking to camp. He cast a confused look our way before continuing his journey.

Shane's face was red. He looked at me with rabid eyes. I shuddered under his deranged gaze. Whatever had happened back there was still going on inside his mind.

"This is such bullshit," he ranted. He rubbed the back of his head hard enough to pull skin from bone. "we've been looking for two dead kids for nothin'. These people are crazy, man, they're crazy."

"Maybe," I agreed. "but you made that situation worse."

"Me?" he spat.

I pressed my lips together firmly, but it wasn't enough to hold back the flood. "What you just did was crazy, Shane. I wanted the walkers dead, I did, but I didn't think we'd be killing 'em in front of Hershel and his family!"

"So, what- what? You thought we were gonna nicely ask if we could kill his wife? His son?" Shane stepped closer, much to close for me to feel safe. The hairs on my arms stood up straight. I tensed the muscles in my legs, ready to run if I needed to.