Ok, for future chapters, so that I don't have to keep writing the same thing over and over, I'm gonna leave a few things out of the episodes while writing the chapters either so it's just about Echo or to keep the chapters short
It was a bright day and everyone sat around the camp as Carol and Echo cooked breakfast, Sophia and Carl were playing with Nuna with a cat toy wand, Andrea was sharpening her knife against a grater, Shane ate alone near a tree, Lori and Rick sat close to each other, T-dog was near the fire pit with Daryl behind him and Glenn was sitting a little farther away, feeling uneasy. He looked at the house and saw Maggie standing on the porch, who shook her head, then he looked at Dale and he nodded his head. Glenn then stood up and stood in front of everyone.
"Um, guys" Glenn said uneasily and most people turned their attention to him "So… Barn's full of walkers"
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him with alarm, hoping what he said wasn't serious, but his face said otherwise. Everyone soon stood up and walked towards the barn and just stood a few feet away, then Shane took it upon himself to take a further look, he looked in the cracks to get a clear view, then he stepped back and stomped towards the group.
"You cannot tell me you're alright with this?!" Shane questioned Rick.
"No I'm not; but we're guests here, this isn't our land" Rick answered.
"Oh god, this is our lives man!" Shane shouted.
"Lower your voice" Glenn advised.
"We can't just sweep this under the rug" Andrea stated.
"We either got to go in there, we got to make things right, or we just got to go, now we've been talking about Fort Benning for a long time" Shane said.
"We can't go!" Rick said.
"Why Rick, why?" Shane questioned.
"Because this is the best place we can get, we don't know about what's happening at Fort Benning, it could be the same as the CDC" Rick answered.
"Well we don't know that, we have no reason to stay here, we have Sophia now; why else should we stay?" Shane questioned.
"Just let me talk to Hershel, let me figure it out" Rick said.
"And what are you going to figure out!" Shane shouted angrily, talking steps towards Rick, but Echo tried to keep a distance between them.
"If we're going to stay, if we're going to clear this barn, I have to talk him into it; this is his land" Rick said.
"Hershel sees those things in there as people, sick people; his wife, his-his stepson" Dale informed.
"You knew?" Rick questioned.
"Yesterday, I talked to Hershel" Dale said.
"And you waited tonight?" Shane questioned.
"I thought we could survive one more night, we did; I was waiting till this morning to say something, but Glenn wanted to be the one" Dale said.
"That man is crazy Rick, if Hershel thinks there alive, they're not!" Shane shouted.
Suddenly there was a loud hissing sound and banging noises and every turned to see the doors pushing and creaking and everyone stepped back away from it. Shane decided to check the security of the barn while everyone just walked away and try to relax.
"Why is Hershel keeping the walkers in his barn?" Sophia asked, trying to keep her nerves down.
"I don't know" Carol answered.
"It's because he loves them" Echo answered, almost half of the group turned to look at her, "He cares for them and he just want to keep them safe, even if he knows they're dangerous, he just doesn't want any danger to come to them"
Sophia seemed to understand a little, but everyone else didn't understand and they just brushed her off. Lori and Carol then sat down with Sophia and Carl to do some school work; even if it was the end of the world, they still had to keep their education up.
"How do you like it here so far?" Carl asked Sophia.
"I really like it, it's so beautiful" Sophia answered.
"Yeah, I'm hoping we can stay, make it our home" Carl prayed, showing a small sad smile.
"Yeah, I'd like that too" Sophia answered.
Carol and Lori exchanged looks and just continued their lesson. While Echo was pumping some water, she spotted Daryl with a saddle and he looked like he was struggling, so she followed him to the stalls and watched as he placed the saddle on a metal rack.
"Should you really be straining yourself?" Echo questioned, walking towards him with the bucket of water and offered him some.
"I'm fine" Daryl grunted, taking a few sips.
Echo reached forward and lifted his shirt, though he tried to brush her off, she still managed to lift his shirt and took a look at his wound, it was still wrapped in gauze.
"Placing strain on your wound won't make it heal faster and it'll take longer for you to recover" Echo advise, pulling his shirt back down.
"I don't care" Daryl said.
"Well I do, everyone does; why do you think no one cares?" Echo asked.
"Stop thinking you know me, just leave me be!" Daryl shouted and stormed off. Echo just sighed and left where she came in, while she walked back to sit in the RV to relax, she passed by Rick.
"Where're you going?" Echo asked.
"I'm going to try and convince Hershel to let us stay" Rick answered.
"Ok, good luck" Echo said with an encouraging pat on the shoulder and walked away. Rick soon walked to the house and knocked on the door.
"Come on in!" Hershel called from the table, eating a lunch and reading the bible. Rick walked in and moved towards the dining room.
"Little light reading for lunch?" Rick asked.
"Been working so hard lately, I get my studying where I can" Hershel answered.
"You know we can help you out with your work" Rick offered.
"It's my field to tend" Hershel denied.
Everything was quiet for a few seconds.
"We found the barn" Rick confessed.
"Leave it be" Hershel said.
"Well I'd like to talk about it, but either way, you barn, your farm, your say" Rick said.
"I don't want to talk about the barn, I don't want a debate" Hershel said.
"It's not a debate, it's a discussion" Rick corrected.
Hershel stopped eating and turned to Rick.
"I need you and your group gone by the end of the week" Hershel said, then took a sip of his drink and continued to read.
"I talked to Dale, you and I have our differences, the way we look at the walkers, those… people; they may be dead, they may be alive, but my people, us, we are alive, right now, right here, right in front of you. You send us out there, that could change"
"I've given you safe harbor, my conscious is clear" Hershel took another sip and continued to read, but Rick pulled a chair out and sat down, hoping to have a firm discussion.
"This-this farm is special, you've been shielded from what's been going on out there; Dale said you saw everything that's happen on the news, well, it's been a long time since the camera stopped rolling"
Hershel gathers his plate and glass and made his way to the kitchen, and Rick followed him.
"First time I saw a walker, it was just half a body snapping at me from the ground, and my inclination wasn't to kill it; but what the world is out there isn't what you saw on TV, it is much, much worse and it changes you. You're either one of them or something a lot less than the person you were, please do not send us out there again" Rick begged, but Hershel remained quiet, leaning against the sink counter.
Rick walked a few paces away and tried to keep calm.
"My wife's pregnant" Rick confessed and Hershel looked at him. "That's either a gift here or a death sentence out there… if we were to stay, we could help you, with the work, with securing this place, we can survive together"
"Rick, I'm telling you we can't"
"Just think about what you're doing"
"I thought about it"
"Think about it!"
"I thought about it!"
"Think about it again, we can't go out there" Rick soon left Hershel to think about it.
The day continued by, though not much to do but relax since Sophia came home, but they still had to watch out at the barn and Rick was just sitting on his car alone, just think about what should be done if Hershel was to send them away. Rick sat on the hood of the car for a few minutes when Hershel came out to him.
"Rick" Hershel called out. Rick looked up and had some hope in his eyes.
"I thought about it for a while, if you follow my rules and help me out with something's, I'll let you stay" Hershel said, and when Rick was about to stay 'thank you', Hershel stopped him and continued to speak, "But I need your help with something first"
Hershel soon lead Rick down the road. While things were going down out of the farm, Echo was sitting up on top of the Winnebago with Glenn, reading a book and relaxing when Shane came by and looked in the RV and made a lot of noise.
"What is he doing?" Echo whispered. Glenn just shrugged his shoulders and continued on look out, and then Shane came back out.
"You see where he went?" Shane questioned.
"Who" Glenn asked.
"Don't even try to shit me ok" Shane said.
"What?" Echo questioned, wondering what's gotten into him.
"Dale, Glenn, you see where Dale went?"
"Yeah, he asked me to run and get him some water, said he cover me on watch" Glenn explained.
"And he was gone when you got back huh?"
"Yeah? You think he's ok?"
"He's fine"
"Why'd he bail then?"
"So you wouldn't tell me which way he went"
"I don't get it"
"No man, you don't" Shane soon stormed off in the direction towards the woods, leaving the two on top of the RV confused.
"Glenn, can I tell you something?" Echo asked, looking at Glenn with a small worried look on her face.
"Yeah, shoot" Glenn said and sat back down.
"I feel something… like something bad is going to happen" Echo confessed.
"In a world like this, something bad always happens"
"No Glenn, with Shane" Glenn looked at Echo with a confused look. "I feel like he's going to cause something, I'm not trying to accuse or be rude since I just got here, but I feel like I don't trust him"
"I know that Shane has been doing some extreme things, but he's doing it for the best for the group"
"I know, but it's starting to scare me" Glenn stood up and walked to sit beside of Echo and wrapped his arm around her to comfort her.
"Everything will be alright, even if the barn is full of walkers, this place is secure and we're all trying to start a new life here" Glenn comforted.
Echo looked at Glenn and smiled, then gave him a hug. Once the hug was over, Echo climb down from the RV and walked over to Carl and Sophia, who was playing Nuna. After a while, almost everyone gathered to sit around the porch and Carl and Sophia sat down with Beth and Patricia and Echo spotted a guitar sitting near the corner.
"Is that a guitar?" Echo asked, lightly touching the strings.
"Yeah, it's mine" Glenn answered.
"I know a few cords; do you mind?" Echo asked.
"That would be nice, hearing some music" Beth said.
Echo carefully picked the guitar up and sat down in a nearby chair and positioned her fingers, once she was ready, she played soft simple cords, over and over again, and it brought smiles to everyone's faces. While everyone was relaxing, T-dog and Andrea came by.
"Do you know what's going on?" T-dog asked.
"Where is everyone?" Andrea asked.
"You haven't seen Rick?" Glenn asked.
"He went off with Hershel" Andrea answered. Echo stopped playing the guitar and placed it back in the corner and everyone gathered around.
"What's going on?" Carol asked as she walked behind of Daryl.
"Rick went somewhere with Hershel" Andrea answered.
"Then where's Dale and Shane?" Daryl questioned.
Echo looked behind him and pointed and everyone turned to see Shane walking towards them with the bag of guns around his shoulder.
"What's all this?" Daryl questioned.
"With me man?" Shane questioned, handing Daryl a shot gun.
"Yeah" Daryl said as he grabbed the gun.
"Time to grow up; you already got yours?" Shane asked Andrea.
"Yeah; where's Dale?" Andrea asked.
"He's on his way" Shane answered, "Look, it was one thing sitting around here picking daisies when we thought this place was supposed to be safe, but no we know it isn't" Shane then grabbed another gun from the bag and handed it to Glenn, "How about you man, you're gonna protect yours?"
Glenn looked at Maggie, then grabbed the gun.
"Can you shot?" Shane asked Maggie.
"Can you stop" Maggie said, "You do this, you hand out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight!"
"We have to save Shane" Carl said.
"What is this?" Lori questioned as she came from around the house.
"We're not going anywhere, ok; now look, Hershel, he's just got to understand, ok, well he's just gonna have to" Shane said, then he pulled out a hand gun and tried to hand it to Carl. "Now I want you to take this, you take it Carl and you keep your mother and Sophia safe, you do whatever it takes, you know how, now take the gun and do it" Shane ordered.
"Rick said no guns, this is not your call, this is not your decision to make" Lori said as she placed Carl behind her for protection.
"Oh shit!" T-dog shouted.
Everyone soon looked to where he was looking and saw Jimmy coming out and Hershel and Rick were leading two walkers on a leash. Soon Shane started to run off and then everyone started to follow.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Shane questioned furiously once he got to them.
"Shane just back off!" Rick said.
"Why do your people have gun?" Hershel questioned.
"Are you kidding me?! You see what they're holding onto?!" Shane said, still in a rage.
"I see who I'm holding onto!" Hershel said.
"No man, you don't see!"
"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk!" Rick said.
"What do you want to talk about Rick?! These things aren't sick, they're not people, they're dead! Ain't got to feel nothing, cause all they do, they kill! These things right here!" Shane shouted, "They're the things that killed Amy, they killed Otis, they're gonna kill all of us!"
"Shut up!" Rick shouted.
"Hey Hershel man, let me ask you something, would a living, breathing person, do they walk away from this?" Shane said as he pulled his gun and started to shoot at the woman the Hershel was holding.
"Stop it!" Rick shouted.
"Three rounds to the chest, someone whose alive, could they just take that, why is it still coming?!" Shane questioned as he started to shoot at the woman again. "That's its heart, its lungs, why is it still coming?!" Shane started to shoot at the woman again.
"Shane, enough!" Rick shouted.
"Hey, you right man that is enough" Shane said and walked up to the woman and shot her in the head, bringing her down with Hershel to his knees.
"Enough, living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us! Enough, Rick it ain't like it was before!" Shane shouted, "Now if yall want to live, if you want to survive, you got to fight for it, I'm talking about fight, right here, right now!" Shane then ran towards the barn and grabbed the pick axe that was next to the door.
"Hershel, take the stick, Hershel!" Rick shouted as he tried to hand the stick to Hershel, but he seemed to be in shock.
Rick was shouting to try and stop Shane from what he was doing, but he started to hit the lock with the pick axe. Echo ran forward and grabbed onto the axe to try and stop Shane, but he threw her off and she tumbled across the ground pretty hard.
"Echo!" Sophia shout and ran out of Carol's arms and to Echo's side.
Carol and Daryl were soon by her side as well and saw that Echo was knocked out cold. Shane continued to hit the lock until he broke it and took the board off, and then he started to hit the door to attract them out and got into stance. Soon the walkers came out one by one, then the people with the guns stood beside of Shane and started to shoot at them, and each one went down. Hershel, Maggie, and Beth watched in horror as all they're family, friends, and neighbors were being shot and killed. And soon, the nightmare was over.