The screech was leading me now, taking me somewhere. I followed it through the darkness of the night, past unlit street lamps down a road I know from my dreams. It spoke to me, and I followed. It was hot, but I was so cold. I walked past walkers, but they didn't see me. I was approaching to someone lying on the ground, the screech told me to venture forward. Two nearby street lamps illuminated her. The light bounced off the puddle of blood forming around her body. I looked at her face, she was so beautiful even when she was dying. I wanted to go to her, I wanted to help her, I tried to run to her but the screech wouldn't let me. I was paralysed again. Her eyes were begging, and I could feel my insides breaking. But her face started to change, it wasn't her anymore. Suddenly, Beth was looking up at me covered in blood. I grabbed the knife that was next to me and sat right up, my eyes searching for whatever startled me. I found Glenn in the doorway of my tent with a terrified look on his face.
I sighed and rubbed my face, relieved I wasn't asleep anymore. "What's up?" I didn't bother to look up.
"Just thought you might wanna be woken up by now, I could hear you tossing and turning all the way over from my tent" He held his usual worried expression.
I frowned at my hands. "I appreciate it, just wish I didn't have to sleep" I started putting my t-shirt on.
"I worry about you, man"
"I know, just not right now, Glenn. Maybe later"
He nodded at that and left to let me get ready to come out.
I joined the others who were sitting around the campfire that wasn't lit or by their tents. Carol was sat by herself, so I joined her. Everyone kept looking at me, so that means I must've been screaming in my sleep again.
Carol pushed a basket of peaches towards me when I sat down, and I gladly took one. "Beth bought them around this morning" she told me, smiling.
I looked at the basket and frowned "How nice of her" I tried to sound normal, but it came out monotone.
"What happened between you two yesterday? You pretty much ran away from her" I could tell she wasn't asking out of curiosity.
I sighed, I couldn't keep anything from Carol, she was like my mom. "We had a little argument. She thinks walkers are people, and I got mad. I don't know what's wrong with me"
"Nothings wrong with you" she put her hand on my shoulder, smiling "but you have to respect other people's views. Maybe she only believes that because its the only thing that makes everything seem okay"
"I guess. But I just don't want anything bad to happen to her just because her dad put a bunch of walkers in their barn"
She looked at me for a while, and then asked me "Do you like this girl?"
I stared at her, I was offended that she asked that question but I realised it's so true that it hurts. "Yes, ma'am"
"Then don't be mad at her for this. I know what happened with your 'friend' was bad, but this isn't her fault"
"You're so full of wisdom" I laughed and kissed her on the cheek.
Before I knew it, I was standing on the porch looking at their front door. I felt rude even thinking about walking in and I'd feel stupid for knocking. She must've caught on though, because she came out before I could over think things.
"I wanted to apologize to you" I kind of blurted out before she could say anything.
"No, I should apologize. I didn't know about your friend, I'm so sorry" She pulled me into a tight hug and I felt like I could never let go of her ever again.
"I took my anger out on you, I'm sorry" I mumbled into her hair.
I took her hand and we sat down together and just talked. It felt like we were there forever, and I never wanted it to end. We talked about nothing and everything at the same time. Glenn and Maggie eventually joined us, and it was the first time I genuinely enjoyed myself since the world went to shit. Carl came over and we decided to have a tournament of slaps. Carl won, but I think we all had a secret motive that we've never spoken about to let him enjoy winning.
T-Dog and Andrea came over then, T-Dog asked me and Glenn "Do you guys know what's going on?"
"Where is everyone?" Andrea asked us.
"You haven't seen Rick?" Glenn wondered.
"He went off with Hershel, we were supposed to leave a couple of hours ago"
"Yeah, you were. What the hell?" Daryl and Carol joined us.
"Rick told us he was going out"
"Dammit, isn't anybody takin' this seriously? We got us a damn trail" He was obviously pissed off, and with good reason. I shouldn't be sitting here talking my ass off, I should be looking for Carol's little girl. "Here we go" he said as he spotted Shane carrying the bag of guns walking towards us.
Everyone was getting nervous seeing Shane with all those guns. I stood up, pointing to the duffel bag on his bag. "What's all this?"
"You with me, man?" He asked Daryl, handing him a gun. I guessed he said 'yeah' because he happily took it.
"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 we 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, big man?" He held out a gun for me, too. I didn't know what to do, I looked at Glenn and he slightly nodded, so I snatched it out of his hands.
"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 sounded older than he was.
"What is this?" Lori came out of no where.
"We ain't going anywhere, okay?" He assured Carl. "Now look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Okay? Well, he's gonna have to. Now we need to find Sophia, am I right?" He said as he got on one knee and handed Carl a hand gun. "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, making sure Carl doesn't take it. "Rick said no guns, this is not your call. This is not your decision to make" She spat at him.
"Oh shit" T-Dog was looking at something in the distance, and all of our eyes followed. Rick, Hershel and Jimmy had walkers in some kind of leash. This explains how Hershel got all of those walkers in the barn.
"What is that?" Shane asked no one and began sprinting towards them. I did the same, along with everyone else. "What the hell are you doin'?" Shane yelled at Rick when he was close enough.
"Shane, just back off" Rick told 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 us.
"I see who I'm holdin' on to"
"Nah man, you don't"
"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk"
Shane started 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, they 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 hand gun and shot the walker that Hershel was holding three times in the chest. This just made the walkers even more agitated.
"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!"
"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.
Hershel was on his knees, and you could see in his eyes that he was a broken man. Everybody but Shane and Rick were silent.
"Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone!" he yelled the last part as he looked at Carol. "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 got to fight for it! I'm talking about fighting right here, right now!" With that, he sprinted towards the barn doors, and everybody started shouting but I couldn't hear them, I was too busy concentrating on the hell that's about to be bought down on us. Shane was beating the shit out of the barn doors with a pickaxe, and he busted the lock off. He threw the plank away and made sure they were angry enough to come out by banging on the door a few times. He got back, and readied his gun. Andrea and T-Dog were quick to join him. And then Daryl with his shot-gun. Maggie told Glenn to go, so he did. I followed him with my hunting rifle. I shot one in the head, a boy. And all I could think about was how much this is killing the Greene family behind us. But I had no choice but to help my family right now. Every bullet found flesh to pierce, every bullet found a part of the Greene family's past. The gun shots died down, and the last walker finally hit the floor. There must've been about 20 bodies on the floor, and I felt like I was the world's biggest asshole. We all just stood there and took a look at the mess we just created. I looked behind me, and all I could see was Beth breaking down, sobbing. I realised one of these bodies on the floor was her mother. Fuck. Jimmy was holding her, but she was shaking hard. I couldn't look at her anymore, so my eyes went back to the bodies.
The sound of a small ragged breath told us that we wasn't finished. We all raised our guns and waited for it to emerge. A little girl came out, examining her dinner. We all dropped our guns out of shock, that everything was for nothing when Sophia was coming towards us.
I heard Carol starting to sob behind me but I couldn't look. I couldn't take my eyes off her daughter. She must've tried to run to her, but Daryl grabbed her and stopped her. She was sobbing her daughter's name.
I dropped to my knees out of defeat. I couldn't believe this was happening. Maybe it was a night terror, maybe life was one big night terror. Sophia's rotting body was tripping over the bodies on the floor, still trying to reach us. The grunts she was making, they sounded like her voice, but it wasn't her anymore.
Rick stood in front of all of us, his gun pointed at Sophia's head. But he hesitated. She was nearly on him, but he did it. I didn't hear the gunshot, the only thing I could hear was Carol's sobbing and pleading. Daryl was dragging her up "Don't look" he kept saying to her. He took her away, but my eyes didn't follow them. My eyes were fixed on Sophia's lifeless body among the rest.
With Carol gone, the only thing I could hear now was Beth's quiet sobs. There wasn't anything I could say to her to make it not hurt. She nearly ran to the corpses littering the floor, Rick tried to stop her but it didn't even look like she saw him. She found what she was looking for quick enough, and she pushed the other bodies off of her mother. But when she rolled her over, it attacked her, trying to grab her pig tails. I was the first by her side, I must've moved quick since I was on my knees, but things were bad enough already, I wasn't going to let anything happen to Beth. I pulled Beth away from the walker she calls 'mom', with a little help from others. T-Dog started stamping on the walker's head, but it didn't work. Andrea came over with the pitchfork and ended the walker's agitation.
Beth was shaking uncontrollably in my arms, and I told her to go to her dad. The two held onto each other for dear life. We started walking towards the house, all feeling deflated. But Shane disturbed us. "We've been out, we've been combing these woods looking for her and she was in there all along?"
"Leave us alone" Maggie told him off.
"It ain't the time, Shane" I told him as Rick tried to stop him.
"You knew, and you kept it from us" He pointed at Hershel.
"I didn't know"
"That's bullshit, I think y'all knew"
"We didn't know" Maggie told him again.
"Why was she there?" Shane demanded to know.
Hershel stopped walking now they were outside the house, the rest of the Greenes went onto the porch. "Otis put those people in the barn. Maybe he found her and put her in there before he was killed"
"You expect me to believe that? Do I look like an idiot?"
"I don't care what you believe!"
"Everybody just calm down" Rick was trying to defuse the situation.
"Get him off my land!"
Shane was getting in Hershel's face "Let me tell you something-"
Maggie cut him off with a slap to the face. "Don't touch him! Haven't you done enough?"
With that, the Greenes entered the house. Before Hershel closed the door, he said "I mean it, off my land"
Glenn joined Maggie inside and Rick and Shane obviously needed to talk, so I made my way to the others back at the camp. Carol was in the R.V. with Daryl, but the others were sitting silently around the campfire. Carl was quietly sobbing in his mother's arms.
I opened the R.V. door, and Carol was on the sofa sobbing into a pillow. Daryl was standing around awkwardly. "Give us a minute?"
He nodded and shut the door behind him. I sat next to Carol and gently rubbed her back. I didn't say anything, I couldn't say anything. She didn't need words, she just needed to know that I was here for her. She eventually sat up, still sobbing, and wrapped her arms around my neck. I could feel her tears dropping on my shoulder, but I didn't care. I held her as tight as I could, and I sobbed with her.
It felt like we were there for hours, we didn't talk, we just held each other. But I had to stop and stand up. "What are you doing?" she asked me, her voice breaking.
"Something that's got to be done"
She nodded, she knew what I was talking about. Daryl went back into the R.V. when I came out. Everyone was gone by now, so I met them at the barn. Rick, Jimmy and Shane were there, too. "Want us to start buryin' 'em?" I heard T-Dog ask Rick when I approached them. I saw that someone had covered Sophia's body with a blanket.
"We need a service, Carol would want that" Andrea sighed.
"Let's dig a grave for Sophia. And Annette and Shawn" Lori said.
"And the other's? That's a hell a lot of digging" Jimmy said.
"We bury the one's we love, and burn the rest" Andrea let him know.
"Let's get to work"
Shane went to get the truck, so I followed everyone to dig a grave. I didn't want to talk to anyone, or have any kind of communication. I just needed to do something.
Andrea had Annette's, T-Dog had Shawn's and I had Sophia's. Jimmy was trying to help me but he was just pissing me off even more, I just wanted to be alone. I was working myself as hard as I could digging Sophia's grave. It had to be perfect. Her lifeless body was lying next to me, and I couldn't stop looking at it while I dug. There was so much life in that body, so much happiness, fear, innocence. Now it's all gone.
Shane brought the truck over and was helping Andrea dig. We were all silent until I heard T-Dog say "That's it"
I looked over and him and Andrea were standing above their graves, finished digging. I carried on, this one had to be perfect for Carol. "Adam, that's fine" I heard Lori say but I ignored her, it had to be perfect. I felt a hand on my back and I froze mid-dig. "It's okay" Lori told me.
"It has to be perfect" My voice broke, betraying me.
"C'mon" She held a hand out to me and I took it. I stood over Sophia's grave and tears escapes from my eyes, but I quickly wiped them away.
Carol didn't come to the funeral. Hershel and his family were on one side mourning Annette and Shawn, and we were on the other side, mourning Sophia. No one spoke, there was no speeches. Just the sound of the wind blowing through the tree we buried them under. I'd only ever been to one funeral before all this happened, my parents'. But now, there's too many.
We decided to get it over and done with, we had to get rid of the rest of the mess outside the barn. I helped T-Dog and Andrea lift the bodies and load them onto the truck. They were heavy, but I was strong. Andrea and T-Dog helped each other with each walker they picked up but I only helped myself, avoiding conversation. "A few more trips" Rick came out of no where.
"We got lucky, if that barn had any more, we would've been overrun" Andrea said.
"Good thing Shane did what he did, when he did" I stopped what I was doing and looked at T-Dog, disgusted.
"You can't tell me this was right" Dale told him.
I blocked them out, carrying on with my heavy lifting. I wasn't in the mood for any of their dramatic shit and I felt like a ticking bomb. When they'd stopped talking and I'd stopped loaded, T-Dog got in the car and Andrea sat in the back with the corpses. I let them drive off without me because T-Dog was acting like an asshole.
I needed Beth. Not to talk to her, not to hug her. I just want to make sure she's okay. So I made my way to the house, I just walked straight in, too emotional to care right now. I found Glenn and Maggie in the dining room, but Beth was in the kitchen behind them so I didn't stop and say hello before I went to her.
I didn't say anything when I stood next to her, I just stared at her while she cleaned the dishes like a crazy person. I finally managed to force "Beth?" out of my throat, but she didn't reply. She didn't even look at me. She looked pale and worn down. I didn't know why I was here, standing beside her. I'm an idiot. But suddenly, Beth's body went limp and she fell to the ground. "Beth!" I shouted. I ran to her side, Maggie and Glenn following me. Maggie told me to take her to her bedroom, so I picked her up and held her in my arms as I walked up the stairs and into her room. I lay her on the bed, and Maggie sat next to her.
"Sweety, can you hear me?" Maggie was trying to get her to talk, her eyes were open but she was unresponsive. Lori came in, taking a look at Beth. "What's wrong with her?" Maggie asked her.
"She might be in shock. Where's Hershel?"
"We can't find him anywhere" Glenn replied.
Maggie and Glenn left me alone with Beth to go with Rick to investigate Hershel's room so they can find where he is. I was glad to be alone with Beth, she's the only person I could stand to be around right now. But I didn't know what was wrong with her or how to help her. I just sat next to her, held her hand and looked into her unseeing eyes. "I'm so sorry about what happened, Beth" I kissed her forehead and sat in silence.
Patricia and Jimmy eventually came up, and Maggie finally joined us. Patricia was making sure her heart rate was normal, and Jimmy was just standing around awkwardly, same as me. Maggie kept trying to get her to respond but she kept failing. Andrea kept popping in and out, clearly worried. She asked me how she was and I just shrugged.
It got dark real fast, and Patricia was cooking us dinner. I didn't want to join them, but Andrea practically dragged me downstairs by my ear. I sat next to Carl, not looking at anyone.
"They should've been back by now" Andrea said to Shane. I realised she was talking about Rick and Glenn, who went to find Hershel.
"Yeah. They just got hold up somewhere. We'll head out first thing in the mornin'"
Carol and Patricia were dishing out food. Carol had a blank expression on her face the whole time.
"Carl, I want you to keep your head up, okay? Your old man, he's the toughest son of a-"
"No cussing in the house" Patricia cut Shane off, giving him a deathstare.
Shane's face was full of amusement when he apologized to her.
"Lori, dinner" Carol raised her voice.
"She's not in there" Maggie let her know.
"Where is she?" Dale asked.
Everyone was looking to each other for answers but it didn't seem like anyone knew. "Carl, when was the last time you saw your mom?" Shane asked him.
"This afternoon"
"She was worried about Rick, asked me to look in on Carl" Andrea's face was full of worry.
"She went after them?" Dale's face was full of horror.
"She didn't say that"
"Nobody panic, she's gonna be around here somewhere" with that, everyone got up to look for her, but I stayed where I was.
"You gotta get some rest, Adam" Carol put her hand on my shoulder as I sat alone at the table.
"You do, too" I looked at her.
She held her hand out for me and I took it, she leaded me out of the house. When we got back to the camp, everyone was panicking about Lori being missing, no one found her.
"Where is she?" Carl asked no one and everyone.
"She asked Daryl to go into town, she must've gone herself" Carol informed.
Carl started to cry and ran off. Shane got straight into the car and sped off to find her. No one knew what to do with themselves, including me. I didn't want to sleep, and I wasn't tired. So I sat myself atop the R.V.
It was quiet, and I didn't let myself think. My mind was blank, all I did was watch. I watched the trees blowing in the wind, birds flying in the distance. It was too dark to see anything else, but the headlights on Shane's car were clear as day. Shane and Lori stepped out of the car when they stopped, Lori looked injured, holding a cloth to her head.
"Oh my god, are you alright?" Andrea ran to her. "What happened?"
"I was in an accident, I'm fine, I really am. Where's Rick?" when everyone fell silent, she asked "They're not back?" she then looked to Shane demanding to know "Where are they?"
"I had to get you back here"
"You asshole" She then started to push him.
"I will go after them and I will find them. But first things first I gotta look after you, I gotta make sure the baby's alright, okay?"
"You're having a baby?" Carl came back now, demanding to know. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Lori didn't say anything to him. They took her away to make sure she's okay, though. Carl followed her, demanding answers.
I was looking out all night for Rick, Glenn and Hershel to turn up but they never did. I didn't sleep, I still wasn't tired. I just wanted to know how Beth was. So I got down from my R.V. and made my way to the house. Again, I didn't bother knocking, I just went straight upstairs to Beth's room. I lingered in the doorway. "How is she?" I asked Maggie and Patricia. Beth's eyes were still open, still unseeing.
"Dehydrated. I'll set up an I.V., best I can do without Hershel" Patricia left the room.
Maggie moved up to Beth and held her hand. I sat myself on the other side of the bed, watching the two.
"Is there anything I can do?" I asked her, not knowing what to do with myself.
"No, I just wished my dad was here" I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She had to watch that mess with the barn, Beth collapsed, and her dad's missing.
"She'll pull through, Maggie. She's a fighter" I tried to smile but it probably looked creepy.
She started smiling as she was looking at Beth, remembering something. "You know, my first summer back from college, I drove home, dumped my stuff off, went straight out to the stable for a ride. My family comes back from church and Beth grabs my things and starts unpacking my stuff up stairs" we both laughed "and this one here starts rifling through my backpack. She finds this little plastic container with these pink and green candies inside. She didn't even know I was on the pill. She was so freaked out by the idea of me, and boys and sex, she runs outside and chucks them in the duck pond. And I ride up, I see this, I'm screamin'. She's crying and Shawn runs out, thinks one of us is drownin'. Soon as he figures out what's going on, the jerk busts out laughing so loud that my horse rears up and gets mud all over the three of us" she was laughing the whole time she was talking and I couldn't wipe the smile on my face. "My dad comes out "what the heck's goin' on out here?!" And she turns around, bats her eyelids and says "we're just swimmin', daddy". In her Sunday dress, all covered in snot and mud" She was still smiling, but crying a little.
I was looking at Beth then, imagining her younger and even more innocent than she already was. "I know you like her" I looked up and Maggie was staring at me.
I didn't know what to say, but I defiantly couldn't deny it. "Is it that obvious?"
"She loves Jimmy, you know?"
"Yeah, I know. I try to stay away, but I keep getting reeled in. I just want her to be safe"
She smiled at me then "You're a good guy, Adam"
"I'm funny, too" She laughed and I got up and left.
Everyone was prepping to go out and find Rick, Glenn and Hershel. I grabbed my hunting rifle from the bag and hung it on my back. My two knives were already in their holster on my hip and Daryl gave me a spare hand gun just in case. The sound of a not too distant car engine made us all stop in our tracks, I looked behind me and the car Rick and Glenn left in was coming up the road. They stopped right outside the house and everyone was already filing out. We jogged up to them.
Once they were out, Carl ran up to Rick and hugged him. Maggie ran past her farther to hug Glenn. "Patricia, prepare the shed for surgery" Hershel said as he was walking onto the porch.
"Who the hell is that?" T-Dog was pointing at the guy in the back of the car. He had a blindfold wrapped around his head and he was unconscious.
"That's Randall" Glenn told us.
"We couldn't just leave him behind. He would've bled out, if he lived that long" Rick sat us all down in the dining room.
"It's gotten bad in town" Glenn told us quietly.
"What do we do with him?" Andrea was frowning.
"I repaired his calf muscle as best I can, but he'll probably have nerve damage. Won't be on his feet for at least a week" Hershel informed us as he entered the room.
"When he is, we give him a canteen, take him out to the main road, send him on his way"
"Isn't that the same as leaving him for the walkers?" Andrea asked.
"He'll have a fighting chance"
"Just gonna let him go? He knows where we are" Shane doubted Rick once again.
"He was blindfolded the whole way here, he's not a threat"
"Not a threat. How many of them were there? You killed three of their men, you took one of them hostage, but they just ain't gonna come lookin' for him"
"They left him for dead, no one is looking" Rick was getting angry now, raising his voice.
"We should still post a guard" T-Dog suggested.
"He's out cold right now, will be for hours" Hershel told them.
"You know what? I'm gonna go get him some flowers and candy" Shane scoffed, leaving the room. "Look at this folks, we back in fantasy land"
"You know, we haven't even dealt with what you did at my barn yet" Shane turned around to look at Hershel. "Let me make this perfectly clear, once and for all. This is my farm. Now I wanted you gone, Rick talked me out of it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. So do us both a favour, keep your mouth shut" Hershel warned him.
Shane did as he was told, leaving the house. Everyone else followed single file, apart from the Greene family, Glenn and I. I went to see Beth. Hershel was already in there, listening to her heartbeat. "Have you slept, son?" he didn't look at me when I sat in the chair across the room.
"No, sir"
"You look awful. Night terrors still botherin' ya?"
"They're gettin' worse" I frowned.
"I know you've taken a fancy to my daughter. I ain't gonna lecture you about it right now, but if you get some sleep we'll talk in the mornin'. Sleep there" He ordered me and left the room.
I took a deep sigh and looked at Beth. I wanted to bad to climb into bed with her, but I stayed where I was. I still didn't feel tired, but when I closed my eyes I was back in that same street as I am every night.