Chapter Nine

- Day Seventy One -

I felt a lot better the next morning that I was able to walk out to where everyone was getting ready for breakfast. All by myself and with very little pain. I did all but fall to the ground, though. As soon as I was situated on the ground, I tossed the blanket I had brought out down towards my feet. Figured that I would keep it elevated when I was sitting, doing nothing.

"Here you go, Ally" Carol smiled as she handed me a plate.

"Thanks Carol" I smiled, stabbing into the eggs. The woman smiled back at me as she moved on to give Daryl a little more. The second she turned her back, Daryl leaned over and scraped half of his eggs onto my plate. I had plenty already, I don't know why the hell he did that.

But I knew better than to argue or ask questions. Especially with that man.

"Um, guys..." Glenn all but stammered as he stood up in front of us all. "So...the barns full of walkers.

What the hell did he just say? The barns full of... Oh fuck...

My heart damn near stopped as my fork dropped down onto my plate.

Everyone looks at the guy. I totally don't envy him right now. The entire group had the 'shoot the messenger' look in their eyes. Especially Shane. As if it was Glenn's fault someone had trapped a bunch of walkers in a feeble ass barn.

Which was a two minute walker from where I camp was. Literally. Two minutes later we were all gathered around the outside of the barn. Sure we stood a safe distance outside of the barn doors, but we could still hear the snarls. Smell the decaying flesh.

I didn't even realize that I had moved until I was looking at the barn over Daryl's shoulder. I wasn't there a minute ago.

"You cannot tell me you're alright with this" Shane scoffed as he walked over to where Rick stood. Shane was the only one crazy enough to actually approach the barn.

"No I'm not" Rick told him. "But we're guests here, this isn't out land."

"God this is our lives!" Shane shouted, causing the walkers to grow louder at the prospect of fresh meat.

"Lower your voice" Glenn told him. I really hoped Shane did. I could tell that there were at least a dozen walkers in that barn, just by their growls alone. And if Shane kept going on this way, he could cause them to compromise the only thing keeping them in there.

"We can't just sweep this under the rug" Andrea spoke up.

"It ain't right. Not remotely" Shane shook his head. He had that look in his eyes again, the one that made me want to cower.

No. I wasn't weak.

"We either got to go in there" Shane continued "We gotta make things right, or we gotta just go. Now we have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time."

"We can't go" Rick told him.

"Why, Rick? Why?" Shane asked.

"Because my daughters still out there" Carol answered for our leader. But I could tell that Rick didn't want us to leave the Greene's farm for a different reason.

"Okay" I swear Shane almost laughed. "Okay I think it's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility."

"We are not leaving Sophia behind" Rick shook his head.

"I'm close to finding this girl." Daryl finally spoke up, taking a step towards Shane. "I just found her doll two days ago."

"You found her doll, Daryl, that's what you did . You found a doll" Shane told him.

"Why don't you stop being a fucking dick, Shane?" I asked. I honestly didn't mean too, it just sort of slipped out. The look Shane gave me was like ice down my spine. It was one I had seen all too often not even a month ago. So why stop now? "I mean seriously, you went out to look for her, what, once?"

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about!" Daryl all but shouted, taking Shane's attention off of me.

"I'm just saying what needs to be said!" Shane defended angrily "You get a good lead, it's in the first forty eight hours."

"Shane stop!" Rick shouted, trying to hold back his friend.

"Let me tell you something else, man" Shane continued. "If she was alive out there and saw you coming, all methed out with your buck knife, geek ears around you're neck... she would have run in the other direction!"

Wrong move on Shane's part. He knew better than most that Daryl had a temper. I don't think he cared, I think he wanted Daryl gone and was trying to do it without killing him.

"Back the fuck off Shane" I growled as he fought to where I stood near Daryl. Then, suddenly, I was on the ground. With a wince I stood and looked towards Rick. "Control you fucking mutt."

And with that I limped back towards camp.


I spent most of the rest of the day in my tent. Daryl had gone to try and take another horse out. I didn't bother trying to talk him out of it. There was no point, sure we've gotten close since I've been with the group, but it wasn't like he would listen to me.

Besides, I wasn't sure if I was staying. Not with Shane being the way he was.

I don't know how much time had past before I made up my mind. But when I finally did, I left my tent with a sigh to go and get my gun. Look for Sophia one more time then go from there.

As I walked to the RV, I waved to Glenn as he walked by wearing Dale's hat. I wasn't even going to comment on that one. Inside, I saw Dale staring at the bag of guns. What was he planning?

"Hey Dale, think I can get my gun back?" I asked.

"Why would you need that?" he asked.

"Just gunna look for Sophia one last time" I shrugged. "Whether or not I come back after is still up in the air."

"Do you think that's a good idea on that ankle?"

"Do you think it's a good idea to stick around with Shane going bat shit?" I retaliated. Dale seemed to understand what I was saying before unzipping the bag and grabbing my gun. "You know, I know where you can hide that."

"How did you..." Dale didn't need to finish his sentence before I shrugged.

"I could tell by the look in your eye. Come on, you're gunna need a trash bag." I told him as I holstered my weapon.

A few minutes later, I led Dale into the swamp. If he was going to hide the guns he was going to do it right.

"You hide a lot of guns in your life?" Dale asked me as I pulled out the large black trash bag.

But before I could answer another voice spoke through the tree.

"Man this is a good hiding place" Fuck it was Shane. "We ain't been in the swamps much, huh?"

"Wow Shane. You found us pretty well, Now imagine if you applied your superior tracking skills to finding that kid. Hell, we'd already be at Fort Benning." I really need to learn how to shut my fucking mouth.

"How about ya'll just give me that bag, huh?" Shane 'suggested' as he walked over to us.

"I'm not gunna do that" Dale told him simply.

"Yea, you are Dale" Shane stated. "Unless, well, you do have hat rifle over your shoulder. And you got your cannon, now, don't you Ally?" he asked and my hand instantly went to my desert eagle.

I could end him and I wouldn't loose a wink of sleep over it. Dale could probably sense that and he discreetly shook his head at me.

"You gunna shoot us like you did Otis?" Dale asked. So he had put it together too.

"You gunna spin another story, Shane?" I questioned, folding my arms over my chest.

"Nah, man." Shane chuckled. "Hell, when you really look at it in the cold light of day, you're pretty much dead already. Just give me the guns. Do it now."

"Do you really think this is going to keep us safe?" Dale asked Shane.

"Or that clearing that barn will make you king shit?"

"I know it is." I choose to believe that the psycho chose not to acknowledge my question.

"Rick is trying to get Hershel..."

"Dale shut up. Just shut up and give me the guns."

Instead of handing Shane the bag, Dale did something I wasn't expecting him to do. He took his rifle and aimed it straight at Shane's chest.

"Am I gonna have to shoot you?" Dale asked "Do I have to kill you, is that what it's gonna take?"

As if calling the old mans bluff, Shane walked forward so that the nose of the rifle was resting directly above his heart.

"Yea. That's what it's gonna take."

"He's not worth it Dale" I said quietly. Sure I thought Shane deserved it, but it wasn't worth Dale's soul.

Thankfully Dale heard me and lowered his weapon.

"This is where you belong, Shane" Dale told the crazy man.

"Hows that, Dale?"

"This world. What it is now, this is where you belong" Dale answered with a shake of his head as he shoulder his rifle. "I may not have what it takes to last for long, but that's okay. 'Cause at least I can say when the world goes to shit I didn't let it take me down with it." He added, shoving the bag of guns into Shane's chest.

"Fair enough" was all Shane said before he left.

"This is gunna be bad" I told Dale not even a minute later.

"How did you know that he lied about what happened with Otis?" Dale asked.

"I've known the kind of crazy that's living inside of him" I told Dale as I started limping beside him. "Plus. He came back with the dudes gun."


When Dale and I heard the gunshots we ran. Well, I ran the best I could on my ankle. We reached the others just in time to see a dead girl walking out of the barn.

Sophia.

Thankfully Daryl caught Carol before she threw herself to her walker daughter. Nobody could pull the trigger on her. I don't blame them. This was Sophia. I didn't know her all that well, but even I couldn't pull my gun on a child. Walker or not. When Rick started walking forward with his gun in hand, I turned my back.

I jumped when Rick pulled the trigger. I didn't even notice when Carol ran past me.

But when I heard Beth screaming, I turned and walked towards her. Everyone worked to get the distraught girl away from the walker. The second Beth was pulled away from the living corpse of her mother, I fired two bullets into the dead womans' brain.

The sound of Shane's rant found my ears as I walked back to my tent. There was no way Hershel and his family knew that that little girl was dead and in the barn. From what I could hear, Otis put the walkers in the barn, this was Hershel and Jimmy's first attempt at it. Sophia had to have died that first night.

This was all Shane's fault. Shane killed Otis. If Shane hadn't of killed Otis none of this would have happened. We wouldn't have been patrolling the woods looking for her.

I needed to leave.


I was procrastinating, I knew that. There was nothing wrong with this group, nothing at all. Just Shane. No matter what, that man was too far gone. While everyone was digging the graves for Sophia, Shawn and Annette, I was helping Daryl break down his tent.

When I moved to take down the one he had given me, I got a funny look from the red neck. I couldn't meet his eye for some reason.

And of course I had to stay for the funerals. When Carol didn't show up, I sent Daryl a questioning look. He just shook his head.

"So you leavin'?" Daryl asked as I helped him set up his tent further away from the group. It was he didn't want to stay either.

"I haven't made up my mind yet" I told him.

"You took down the tent" he pointed out.

"Yea" I sighed, sitting down on the ground as Daryl finished. "I just... I just can't be around Shane. At all."

"So set your shit up out here, whats the big deal?"

Well, I suppose I could do that.


No, I didn't end up end up moving my stuff up to Daryl's solo camp. Instead I was in a car with an erratic Lori.

Apparently Beth had collapsed from the trauma of the day. With his own trauma, Hershel decided to start drinking again and snuck away from the farm. Rick and Glenn went after him. I don't know why Lori was freaking out, Rick and Glenn could handle themselves, and they've only been gone for like half an hour. If that.

We hadn't been driving for that long when Lori decided to navigate by herself. Thankfully I was able to grab the wheel for her and swerve out of the way of a lone walker. But the shock caused Lori to accelerate and we ended up crashing.

The next thing I knew, the sun had set. And there was a walker trying to force itself through the cracked windshield. On the upside, Lori was awake and alive. So there was that.

But there was one main issue right now. I didn't have my gun, I had left it with Daryl. And I couldn't get to my knife.

"Out my side" I told her, since the walker was getting in on the drivers side. But instead of listening to me, Lori made herself as small as possible on the floorboards. And apparently there was a screwdriver down there because it was shoved through the walkers eye.

But we still had to worry about the walker in the center of the road. Apparently we had hit it and it was just now starting to get up.

I couldn't get to Lori's side of the car fast enough. My leg was still really messed up. Just as I rounded the car, there was a gunshot. Apparently Lori had thought to bring a gun with her.

Letting out a deep sigh, I leaned against the back of the now totaled car. That was too close.

We should have gone back to the farm, if Lori wasn't on a mission that is. That woman could power walk like a mother fucker.

I was in pain. My ankle was throbbing and there was a pain in my shoulder. But I was able to keep Lori in my line of vision as she walked ahead of me.

Not too long later, I let out a temporary sigh of relief. Headlights meant a car, and I could only hope that that car had our people in them We weren't the only group of survivors in the world, Let alone the state.

Just my luck. It was fucking Shane.

"I'll walk back" I told him after he told Lori that Rick, Glenn and Hershel had gotten back to the farm already. It was bullshit of course, but it got Lori's stubborn ass into the car. And of course it was after Shane tried to rip me a new one for letting Lori crash the car.

Asshole.

"On that leg? Get in the car Ally" Shane tried to order. Fuck, he had me there. As uncomfortable with it as I was, I knew that he wouldn't try to kill me just yet. Not with Lori there.

Then there was a sound that made my heart soar in relief. A motorcycle.

"Get on the bike Talulah."


AN: Wow, at 2,700 words, this is my longest chapter yet! I honestly almost didn't get it out today (tonight) at all. So far out of all the days I've written so far, day 71 is the longest. Three episodes.

Okay so I'm wicked exhausted right now and my baby wants to eat, so I'm not really gunna get into everything that happened in that chapter. So I'm just leave it at: let me know what you think!

As Always, Leave Love

)0( Iris RainbowWolf )0(