I follow Rick up the porch steps as he knocks on the door. Hershel tells us to come in so we do so quietly. "A little light reading for lunch?" Rick asks as we see Hershel reading the bible as he eats off his plate.
Rick puts his hands on the chair in front of him and I stand with mine in my jean pockets. "Been working so hard lately, I get my studying where I can." Hershel responds.
"You know we can help you out with your work." Rick offers.
"It's my field to tend." Hershel says with force.
Rick pauses and looks at me, I barely nod him on to continue eyeing him with caution "we found the barn."
Hershel answers without looking up "Leave it be."
"Well, I'd like to talk about it, but either way, your barn, your farm, your say." He says, letting him know we understand his rules here.
"I don't want to talk about the barn. I don't want to debate." Hershel says back.
I step in then "Not a debate Hershel, a discussion."
Hershel stares at him, chewing the rest of the food in his mouth. He wipes it with a napkin and calmly says "I need you and your group gone by the end of the week."
Rick breaths for a moment "I talked to Dale. You and I have our differences with 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 and that could change."
I wait where I am, not feeling the need to jump in yet "I've given you safe harbor. My conscience is clear." Hershel responds.
Rick sits down at the chair now and I step up behind it. "This farm.. This farm is special. You've been shielded from what's been going on out there. Dale said you saw everything happen on the news. Well, it's been. It's been a long time since the cameras stopped rolling." Hershel takes his plate off the table and moves to the kitchen while Rick follows him in "The first time I saw a walker it was just half a body snapping at me from the ground. 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. Either into one of them or something a lot less than the person you were. Please do not" he pauses for only a second "do not send us out there again." I stay where I am behind the chair, still able to see everything that's going on, still able to hear it. "My wife's pregnant." Rick tells him. He then looks at me and I force the emotion of shock of my face with a small smile. "That's either a gift here or a death sentence out there." He tells Hershel. "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." Hershel says with a heavy look on his face.
" Hershel says with a heavy look on his face
"You think about what you're doing." Rick argues.
"I've thought about it." Hershel says back.
"Think about it." Rick says again
Hershel yells back this time "I've thought about it."
"Think about it again." Rick says to him. His body language intense from where I am standing "We can't go out there." And he leaves the house from a side door.
I walk into the kitchen and stop right at the doorway "I know you don't know me.." I pause "or any of us really, but we're not bad people.." I say.
"That's not the reason" Hershel says back to me.
I nod my head "I know." I respond with a small smile "have you killed one of them things before?" I ask him out right. He looks at me, baffled I'd ask the question. When he doesn't answer I keep going "Cause I haven't.. I've been with Rick from the start and I haven't once had to hurt one of those things."
"They aren't things" he answers me now.
"They aren't people Hershel" I respond "what happens when you get too many of them in that barn, huh? You gonna' move em in here, put em up in your bedroom?" I push softly. "They don't sleep, they don't stop, they just eat.. They aren't what they used to be." I try to explain.
He sighs "So we just kill them all?"
"No" I respond with a small smile "you don't kill them. You have a clear conscious now, but what happens when one of those things bites your daughter cause you didn't let someone take it down? Would it be clear then?" He looks at me, his eyes changing at the mention of his daughter being bitten "I'm sorry." I say back not meaning to upset him "just remember, you don't have to be the bad guy here. Let us help you." And with that, I leave the house the way I came from and go back to the camp.
T-dog and Andrea come up from the barn a little while later "do you know what's going on?" He asks
"Where is everyone?" Andrea asks next. I sit on the porch with Hershel's daughter Beth and Carl, playing a game of chess.
"You haven't seen Rick?" Glenn asks getting up off the ladder.
"He went off with Hershel. We were supposed to leave a couple hours ago." Andrea explains.
"Yeah you were." Daryl arrives now "What the hell?"
Carol is next to him "Rick told us he was going out."
Daryl retorts annoyed "Damn it. Isn't anybody taking this seriously? We got us a damn trail." He turns "Oh, here we go." he points out towards Shane who's walking up with all the guns. I stand where I was sitting before, nervous. "What's all this?" He asks.
"You with me, man?" Shane holds out a gun for him. Daryl accepts it with a yeah. letting their argument from earlier go. "Time to grow up." He says to everyone there "You already got yours?" He asks Andrea.
" He says to everyone there "You already got yours?" He asks Andrea
"Yeah. Where's Dale?" She asks looking back to where he came from.
"He's on his way." Shane assures her.
"Thought we couldn't carry." T-dog asks accepting a hand gun.
"We can and we have to. 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." He turns towards Glenn "How about you, man? You gonna protect yours?" Glenn accepts and looks to Maggie. "That's it. Can you shoot?" He asks willing to give her one as well.
She doesn't take it "Can you stop? You do this, you hand out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight." Her tone his serious and she stands firm on her feet.
"We have to stay, Shane." Carl walks down the steps with worry in his little face.
"What is this? We ain't going anywhere, okay?" Lori comes rushing out of the house.
"Now look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Okay?" Shane speaks "He... Well, he's gonna have to. Now we need to find Sophia. Am I right? Huh?" Shane looks at the little boy "Now I want you to take this. You take it, Carl, and you keep your mother safe. You do whatever it takes. You know how. Go on, take the gun and do it." He tries to hand Carl a small gun and memories flash through me in spurts.
"Rick said no guns." I yell out from where I am, leaning over the table now knocking down the chess pieces.
"This is not your call. This is not your decision to make." Lori grits through her teeth to Shane.
"Oh shit." Daryl calls out. We all look to see what he's cussing about. From a distance we see Jimmy clapping out towards two walkers. One being held by Hershel and the other Rick.
"What is that? What is that?" Shane begins to dart towards the men while yelling. A few of us call out to him but he doesn't stop running, we all follow behind him. "What the hell are you doing?" Shane spits with rage as he gets closer to his friend.
"What the hell are you doing?" Shane spits with rage as he gets closer to his friend
"Shane, just back off." Rick demands, trying to keep control of the walker he's holding on a leash.
Hershel also tries to stay focused but quickly becomes aware of everyone carrying "Why do your people have guns?"
Shane laughs something wicked "Are you kidding me? You see? You see what they're holding onto?" He asks his friend.
"I see who I'm holding onto." Hershel responds to him, believing it to be an old friend.
"No, man, you don't." Shane disagrees with him.
"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk." Rick tries to talk to him while moving forward.
"What you want to 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." He tries to rile everyone up standing in front of the group.
Rick shouts "Shane, shut up!"
"Hey, Hershel man, let me ask you something. Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" Shane asks, pulling his gun out and shooting it at the walker. I freeze where I am and turn from the shots.
Rick shouts as the rest of us stare and gasp "No! Stop it!"
Shane yells some more "That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?!" His eyes wild. "Why is it still coming?" He shoots it two more times. Powder emitting into the air. "That's its heart, its lungs. Why is it still coming?" He gets off more rounds.
"Shane, enough." Rick demands.
"Yeah, you're right, man. That is enough." Shane walks closer to the walker and I try to help Lori block Carl from seeing him shoot it in the head. Silence is what follows, everyone shocked by his actions. He speaks more though, still riled up "Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone! 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 y'all want to live, if you want to survive, you got to fight for it! I'm talking about fighting right here, right now." He moves towards the barn.
"Stop, Shane!" I yell out as some others do to try and discourage him.
Rick yells down at Hershel, whose on his knees in dismay "Take the snare pole. Hershel, take the snare pole. Hershel, listen to me, man, please. Take it now. Hershel! Take it!
"No, Shane. Do not do this, brother. Wait!" Rick calls, still holding onto the pole.
I go to move to try and stop Shane but Daryl holds out his hand to stop me. He shakes his head and I know. I know it's too dangerous.
"Don't do it! Rick!" Lori yells to her husband afraid.
"Please!" Rick begs of him.
Shane gets the lock undone and starts to bang on the door "Come on. Come on, we're out here."
"This is not the way! Please!" Rick still begs from where he is standing, holding the leashed walker.
The dead begin to pile out of the barn at full force, eager to attack the living. Shane takes the first one down with a head shot. Andrea soon to get next to him to take a stand. T-dog follows as does Daryl, shooting them all down. Everyone holding a weapon starts to shoot, and I stand off to the side with Carol, watching in horror as they fall finally dead to the dirt.
All of them dead now, small sobs coming out of Hershel and his family as they yearn for the ones they just lost. Another growl comes out of the barn and everyone looks to it, waiting for the last one to make it's way into the sun for execution.
Another growl comes out of the barn and everyone looks to it, waiting for the last one to make it's way into the sun for execution
"Sophia?" Carol recognizes her daughter from the distance and I try to stop her from running. She brushes past me and I run to follow "Sophia!" She calls out to her. Daryl grabs her with one arm and holds her back as we all stare at the little girl whose blinded momentarily by the light. "Oh no. Sophia. No." Carol wails on the ground, reaching her arms out wanting to hold her just one more time.
"Don't watch" I tell her as Rick raises his gun to stop her from moving any further towards us. She covers herself into Daryl's chest. I watch as the bullet goes through her skull, her body hitting the ground in one swift movement. Tears stream my face as she just lies there motionless, never to move again.