Ch. 3
Sam didn't really understand what his job was around the camp. No one had assigned him anything and all the runs seemed to be taken care of by Glenn and Maggie. Well at least whenever they weren't avoiding each other. Or screwing.
But he was happy that he had nothing to do. After months on the road and constantly looking over his shoulder he felt relaxed.
"Um guys," Glenn spoke up just as everyone was finishing up their breakfast. "So, uhhh… the barns full of Walkers."
Well there goes my good mood, San thought as he strapped on his belt, his machete clinking as he fastened it.
After Glenn's shocking revelation the entire group made the long walk to the barn.
Sure enough the moans of the Walkers could be heard from th outside clear as day.
"You cannot tell me you're okay with this?!" Shane demanded.
"I'm not!" Rick spat back, "But we're guests here. This isn't our land!"
"This is our lives!"
"We can't just brush this under the rug," Andrea added.
It ain't right, not remotely," T-Dog added.
"Okay, we've either gotta go in there, we've gotta make things right, or we've just gotta go! Now we've been talking about Fort Benning-"
"What the fuck about Fort Benning?" Sam asked.
"You mind shutting you goddamn mouth!" Shane shouted into Sam's face.
"Right I'll just keep quiet about the complete death trap you want to march the group into," Sam said sarcastically.
"What?" Rick asked as he pushed past Shane.
"Oh Rick he don't know what he's talking about!"
"Enough Shane! Let him talk! What'd you saw about Benning?"
"It's gone. Nothing but ash and the Dead. My friends and I tried to go there when everything started. When we got there it was overrun with 'em. I'm sorry, but Fort Benning's a pipe dream."
"Well then we'll find somewhere else to hole up!" Shane insisted.
"Why would we try and find somewhere else when we've already found a safe place?" Lori demanded.
This sparked an argument among most of the group while others like Sam, Carol, Daryl and the kids stood off just observing. As voices got raised Sam noticed shadows from within the barn shifting more and more. But he didn't say anything. Let the pounding on the door be their wake up call.
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When everyone had calmed down they all moved back to the camp. Slowly, most keeping a wary eye on the chained wooden doors of the barn. Fresh memories of the loud creaking and constant moaning and snarling still playing in their minds.
"Conall! Get over here!"Sam heard Shane call out.
He reluctantly turned and took his sweet time shuffling toward the quick tempered man.
"Any day now!"
Sam hid his smirk and walked normally.
"What do you want Shane?"
"I need your help on keeping watch on the barn. I don't want us to get caught with our pants down if that damn thing breaks down."
"It's lasted this long, why shouldn't it last any longer?"
Shane gave him a look of disbelief. "What you think they're people too?"
Sam gritted his teeth. "Those things, killed three of my friends, and stopped me from goin' home. You better believe that I know that they aren't people. But I'm not about to put down a group of Walkers just because you want to. They aren't hurtin'
anyone."
"Not yet. But what happens when that door breaks down and they start eating Lori, or Carl, or hell man even Sophia!"
"Until that door breaks down I won't kill any of 'em. But just for you, I'll stand watch," Sam said before turning and making his way back to the barn.
If Sam had to guess he would have thought that he would have just been in watch for an hour before someone came to relieve him. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. He had been staring at the barn for three hours without anyone coming to check in on
him.
Shane was probably laughing his ass off at how he tricked Sam into taking the shitty watch.
The sound of boots crunching in dirt alerted Sam that someone was coming his way.
He turned and saw Beth coming toward him carrying a glass of what appeared to be lemonade. At least that's what Sam hoped it was. That and it was for him.
"Hey, thought you could use something cold to drink,"she said, offering him the glass.
"Is that actual ice?" Sam asked as he took it.
She laughed. "Yeah, daddy always makes sure that we have some ice in the freezer."
"Generator fuel well spent," Sam said as he placed the cool glass on his neck and face. "I don't even know why I'm out here anymore."
"You're people really are scared of them aren't they?"
Sam gave her a look. "Aren't you?"
"My momma and brother are in there. They never so much as raised their hands to me. All that's wrong with them now is that they're sick."
Sam laughed bitterly. "They're sick alright. They're sick and dead, Beth."
"They ain't dead."
"Yeah they are. Doctors and corners everywhere agreed that they were dead. Didn't you see the broadcasts?"
She shook her head. "Daddy didn't let me. Said he didn't want to scare me."
"I didn't see the broadcasts either. I saw pretty much everything up close. Men shooting the Walkers, and yet they kept coming. I've seen the Walkers eating the living. I've seen them eating kids. It's hell on Earth. They aren't living Beth. They're
dead. They just don't know it." There was no malice in his voice. He was just telling her the truth, as much as he knew.
"But… what if they're still in there? What if they're still alive?"
"They aren't. If they were they wouldn't try and eat their family. Or their friends. I'm sorry Beth, but they're gone."
Beth didn't say anything after that. She just stood there and tried to process what he had just said.
Beth eventually left. She gave Sam some excuse about chores.
Glenn eventually came over and Sam felt a bit of relief surged through him, thinking that he was finally getting relieved from guard duty.
"Please tell me you're here to take over," he said.
Glenn grimaced. "Sorry. Shane just thought you would want some company… and an extra hand just in case the doors broke."
"How considerate," he remarked dryly. "Did he at least give you a gun?"
Glenn shook his head. "No he didn't."
"Well it looks like he sees us both as equally expendable."
"Come on, it's not like the doors are gonna break down."
"I don't think they will. But Shane does, otherwise he wouldn't have us out here."
Sam pulled out a deck of cards. "You play Poker?"
"Oh uh, I'm not good at it. I suck at lying."
"It's either this or we don't do anything at all."
Glenn opened his mouth to respond but something caught his eye and he ran off.
"Glenn?" Sam asked. He turned and saw What the other boy was running to, then he understood.
Maggie Greene was walking across the field and Glenn was going to her.
"Alone again." As Sam watched Glenn go and talk to Maggie he said screw it and made his way to the Greene house. He was done with waiting by the barn for something that wasn't going to happen.
Most of the group was standing on the porch of the house as well by the time that Sam reached it.
Most were just discussing where the group's de facto leaders were since they had been missing for most of the day. Not a word from any of them besides guard the barn.
"Here we go" Daryl said as he spotted Shane carrying the bag of guns walking towards them.
Everyone was getting nervous seeing Shane with all those guns. Sam stood up, pointing to the duffel bag. "What's all this?"
"You with me, man?" He asked Daryl, handing him a gun. Daryl grabbed it without hesitation.
"It's time to grow up. You already got your's?" He asked Andrea.
"Yeah... where's Dale?"
"He's on his way"
"I thought we couldn't carry" T-Dog grabbed a gun.
"We can and we have to" he raised his voice now, making sure they could all hear him. "Look, it was one thing sitting around here picking daisies when we thought this place was supposed to be safe, but now we know it ain't. How about you, man?" he
walked up to Glenn, holding out a gun. "You gonna protect your's?"
He looked at Maggie and looked at the gun, grabbing it but looking furious with himself.
"What about you Paddy?" He held out a shotgun fro took the gun and pumped a shell into the chamber.
"Can you stop? You do this, you hand out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight!" Maggie told him.
"We have to stay, Shane!" Carl shouted.
"What is this?" Lori came out of nowhere.
"We ain't going anywhere, okay?" He assured Carl. "Now look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Okay? Well, he's gonna have to." He said as he got on one knee and handed Carl a revolver. "You take it, Carl, and you keep your mother safe. You do
whatever it takes, you know how. Go on, take the gun"
Lori quickly stood in between the two and snatched the gun out of Shane's hands. "Rick said no guns, this is not your call. This is not your decision to make."
"Oh shit" T-Dog was looking at something in the distance. The group looked over and they all saw Rick, Hershel, and Jimmy walking... Walkers with animal catchers.
"What is that?" Shane asked no one and began sprinting towards them. Everyone else followed. "What the hell are you doin'?" Shane yelled at Rick when he was close enough.
"Shane, just back off!" Rick ordered him as he was struggling to control the walker on the leash.
"Why do your people have guns?" Hershel shouted to Rick.
"Are you kiddin' me? You see what they're holdin' on to?!" Shane asked the rest of the group. Sam nervously clutched the rifle as he saw SHane become more and more agitated and hostile.
"I see who I'm holdin' on to!" Hershel spat at him.
"Nah man, you don't!"
"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk"
Shane began to pace as he yelled. "What do you wanna talk about, Rick? These things ain't sick. They're not people. They're dead. Ain't gonna feel nothing for them cause all they do, is kill! These things right here, they're the things that killed
Amy. They killed Otis. They're gonna kill all of us!" With every word that Shane yelled, the walkers became more and more agitated.
"Shane, shut up!"
"Hey, Hershel man, let me ask you somethin'. Could a living, breathing person, could they walk away from this?" Shane asked as he pulled out his handgun and shot the walker that Hershel was holding three times in the chest.
"Stop it!" Rick was shaking with anger.
"That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?! Why is it still comin'?" He shot at the walker two more times "That's its heart, it's lungs. Why is it still comin'?!" He shot at it another three times.
"Shane, enough!"
Sam raised his gun and leveled it at Shane. "Fuckin' stop this! That's enough!"
Shane slammed his fist into Sam's face and threw the shotgun away.
"Yeah, you're right man. That is enough" He was about five feet away from the bullet ridden walker when he shot it in the head. The sudden deadweight on Hershel's leash nearly pulled him down. "Enough living next to a barn full of things that are
trying to kill us. Enough! Rick, it ain't like it was before. Now, if you wanna live, if you wanna survive, you gotta fight for it! I'm talking about fighting right here, right now!"
Sam slowly stood up and wiped the blood from his nose. He looked up just in time to see Shane ripping the chains off of the barn doors.
"Oh fuck!"
Sam scrambled for the shotgun that had been ripped out of his hands while the others had formed a U around the barns doors and began firing at the emerging Walkers.
Once Sam grabbed the shotgun he got to his feet and took aim.
The gunfire that they had caused was deafening. Sam would have winced at the amount of noise if he wasn't already used to hearing such things.
During the beginning of the outbreak the sound of rapid and constant gunfire was constant. Sam's ears had rung and rung during that time. But he got used to it.
Walker after Walker fell to the ground as the group sent bullets flying into the deceased family and friends of the Greene family.
Sam was sure he could hear their sobbing. If only just barely over the sound of the guns.
When the last Walker hit the ground Sam had to fight the urge to put a bullet in Shane's head.
He had done this. He was the reason why the Greene's and their friends were on the ground crying. They didn't need to do it. To kill their already dead friends. But they had, all because of Shane.
Then they heard it. The sound of a Walker shuffling toward the barn entrance. Sam checked his gun. Empty. He knew that the others must've have the same problem as most of them turned to Rick.
The Walker came into the light, and Sam's breath hitched in his throat.
"Michael?" his voice sounded hoarse.
The Walkers head snapped to Sam. It's decaying body still showing signs of Sam's friend. The torn and bloody green shirt, the mud covered black boots, it's face.
It was Michael.
"Fuck, I thought you would've made it," he threw the gun to the ground and faced Rick, "can I borrow your gun?"
Rick nodded and drew his pistol. "I can do it, if you want."
"No, he'd kick my airse if I let someone else do it," Sam took the pistol. "Sorry Michael. I'll see you again."
The shot cracked through the air, and Michael's body fell to the ground. As lifeless as it had been when it was walking.
Hey guys! So here's chapter three. I hope you guys like it and don't forget to drop a review! Until next time! ~Pacco1
