A/N: Sorry this is late. I had a combination of writers block, figuring out what to do, job hunting and tweeking my resume, spending time with family, procrastination and trying to binge watch SAOII before my Crunchyroll free trial expires. But I did work on this and wrote down whatever I could think of when I could and honestly I feel extremely confident and proud of myself with what I've done with this chapter! I went from being afraid I wouldn't make it over 3,000 words to typing over 6,000! So I hope you all enjoy it!
Review Responses:
Gingerman454: Thank you so much! I'm glad you love it and want to stay till the end (I do have an end planned, I just always have problems working on the middle.)
LadyCaysie: I didn't doubt but thank you for telling me sweetie :)
SenSen-Chan: glad you liked it and as for what Daryl was going to say I think you'll be very happy with this Chapter ;) I think I owe it to you guys because of all the other times I cut him off before he could finish what was going to say.
*Italics mean thoughts, kind of a spoiler but I just want to avoid confusion.
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to The Walking Dead... can't think of anything funny to say because it's almost one am and my brain is exhausted. Once I'm done this I'm going to bed and maybe have another dream where Norman Reedus and I are fighting zombies in Silent Hill. (Not even joking. The man has been stalking my dreams recently and frequently)
I'll spellcheck later!
Secrets
She kissed him on the cheek and left, closing the door behind her. He laid there in silence, thinking about everything that happened. Every now and then he would glance at the door like he was expecting her to walk through it at any moment demanding to know what he was going to say. What was so important that he tried to stop her from leaving?
"Do you need Hershel?" she asked him, worry filled her eyes.
"NO! I just want to know if you're really here. That you're not just in my head saying what you want to hear, and now that I know you are I wanna know why. Why do you say stuff like that? What do you want from me?"
"You're asking the wrong questions." She said surprising Daryl. She gets on top of him and straddles him, he tries to push her off but she pins him down. She was surprisingly strong. "You're never going to get answers this way. All you're doing is going around in circles. What are you afraid of? Your scars?"
She runs her right hand down his chest, tracing the faint scars that stain his skin. He flinches as she runs her fingers over his stitched up wound. Not in pain though, he touch is so gentle he can barely feel it.
"Why do you hide yourself from me? I've shown you most of myself. You've seen my tats but won't let me see yours. Afraid that I'll be scared off by the demon on your back or are you afraid of me finding out about the demons you've been fighting all your life?"
She frees his hands only to place both hands on his chest. She peers down into his face, her long brown locks fall down her shoulders framing her face. Her eyes are filled with fire and her lips are slightly puckered. Her gaze made him squirm, an uncomfortable feeling flowed through him.
"Who are you Daryl Dixon? What do you really want?"
He lunged at her and flipped her on her back. The small bed creaked loudly as she landed on her back with Daryl pinning her. She let out a gasp and tried to catch her breath but he slammed his mouth onto hers. She returned the kiss just as eagerly and feral as he was.
Daryl quickly sat up in his bed and snapped out of his dream. He grabbed his head in pain from the sudden movement and waited for the room to stop spinning. His heart was pounding and he could almost feel the blood rushing through his veins. Cursing to himself he fell back onto the bed and covered his face in embarrassment. Daryl tried to convince his himself that it was the injury and the medication messing with his head and he believed it for the most part. He had spent years hardening his heart but there was a part of him that knew it was a lie. A part of him that knew the pain he went through, knew his true feelings and what he really wanted. He wanted to move on from his past, he wanted to forget the pain, he wanted to find his brother, he wanted to feel accepted, he wanted to find a place where he belonged, and even though he was trying hard not to he wanted Natalie.
*The Next Day*/ Natalie's POV
"You coming?" Shane shouts at Glenn. Some of the others were going to go gun training but I decided to hang back, Maggie was going to teach me how to ride a horse before going out into town.
"I gotta help Dale clean the spark plugs on the RV." I turn and give him a look. He's been acting really strange today and I don't know why. He's been avoiding eye contact with people and acting skittish. "He said he's gonna teach me mechanics. I should probably go look for him.
"You found me." Dale says from behind us. "He's a good learner." We watch the others drive away. "Spark plugs, huh?"
"Yeah Glenn you've been acting weird. Is everything okay?" I ask him.
"Want to tell me what's going on?"
"You're old. I mean not you Natalie! Dale, you're... You know things."
"You really have a way with words Glenn. You know that?" I say
"So. What if somebody told you something that somebody else should know...?"
"Glenn, stop being dramatic. Spit it out." Dale says. Glenn looks at me uncertain.
"It's okay, you can tell Dale." I reassure him.
"There's... there's walkers in the barn and Lori's pregnant."
"See was that so… wait WHAT!" My jaw drops and I think Dale's eyes are about to pop out of his head.
"Wait hold up. When did you find out about the walkers and do you know why they are there?"
"Well I went there to meet Maggie last night-"
"Oh jeeze Glenn what did I say?" Dale says disappointed.
"What did you say?" I ask
"Can we please focus?" Glenn asks. "So I found out last night but she won't tell me why. Just that I shouldn't tell anyone."
"And we won't." Dale says.
"But-"
"Not yet anyway." Dales says cutting me off. "I saw Hershel go to the stables earlier. He must have a reason for all of this. I'll go talk to him and find out more about it."
"I'll come too. I have to meet with Maggie at the stables soon anyway."
"Okay but just remember that they probably don't know as much about Walkers as we do. They haven't had as much experience as us."
We make our way to the stables. Hershel is in there brushing a horse that is tied up.
"Nervous Nelly?" Dale asks. "She found her way home?"
"Found her in her stall this morning."
"She okay?" I asked.
"A little shaken but physically she's seem alright."
"I love your fields." Dale said out of the blue. "Took a long walk this morning. I ended up by the barn. I heard the moans."
"That's unfortunate." Hershel said.
"I'm sure you have your reasons for keeping this a secret."
"I understand everything's been really confusing Hershel." I say as calmly as I can. "But you do know that keeping them in there is dangerous right?"
"I saw the broadcasts before they stopped, saw the irrational fear, the atrocities, like the incident at my well."
"We put down a walker-"
"You killed a person."
"Well, if you watched the same broadcasts I did, you saw walkers attack, kill. They're dangerous." Dale said.
"A paranoid schizophrenic is dangerous too. We don't shoot sick people."
"Hershel it's different." I say "They've lost their humanity. They're only focused on food and don't care who they hurt to get it."
"I don't believe that. There are good and kind people in there. People who can't help themselves because they are sick."
"With all due respect, you are cut off from the outside world here." Dale said. "But I've seen people that I cared about die and come back, and they're not people."
"My wife and stepson are in that barn." Oh no… it's going to be harder than I thought it would. "They're people."
"I'm sorry." I say.
"Me too." Dale says. "Let me help. I'll speak to Rick. He's a good man. We can make the barn more secure, keep everybody safe."
"The barn is secure." Hershel says. "Keep this to yourself if you want to help. Rick is a man of conscience, but are you so sure about everyone in your group?"
He had us there. Even though Rick wouldn't like the situation he would at least try to be civil about. However, if Shane found out he won't hesitate to take them out and then Hershel will kick us off the farm. As much as I would like to have the walkers taken care of I don't think I can do it if it means hurting the Greene's and being exiled. But then that means I'd be keeping a huge secret from everyone else; a secret that could get us all killed if that barn isn't as secure as Hershel said it is.
"Hey Natalie, ready to ride?" I look over to see Maggie coming toward me with a smile on her face. "Am I interrupting something?"
"I was just leaving. Gotta set up the grill if I'm gonna make lunch for everyone." Dale says and walks out. He looked uncomfortable which made Maggie confused. I try to shake off the dread I was feeling and act like nothing was wrong.
"I'm ready."
"Good. Then meet Murphy, he's a little and slow but he's the best horse we have for beginners."
I look in the stall and see Murphy. He was a huge rust colored horse with an auburn mane. He had a white marking that reminded me of a cross on his forehead and long legs. I felt like a dwarf standing next him and I backed up nervously.
"Um, do you have anything in a smaller size?"
"Relax. I'll give you a leg up to get on."
"I'm more worried about falling off than getting on."
"You'll be fine. Murph is the gentlest horse we got. I'll go get his saddle and we can get started."
"Maggie when you'll done I want to talk to you." Hershel says undoing the ropes that held Nervous Nelly in place and leading her back to her stall.
"Okay." She says and goes to get the saddle.
I stand there awkwardly waiting for Maggie as Hershel puts Nervous Nelly back in her stall and walked out the barn looking upset. Why do I get the feeling he's gonna tell Maggie we know about the walkers? Great, and here I thought my biggest concern for the day was trying not to fall off a horse.
Maggie ended up taking me to a field to practice riding. She explained to me the basics like how to go, stop, steer, speed up and slow down before we started. Unfortunately when she gave me the leg up the horse started to move before I could actually sit on the saddle and I ended up falling on my butt. However once that was out of the way it wasn't that bad, Murphy really was the gentlest horse and he was pretty slow. My nerves calmed down and even though I still didn't like being off the ground I was able to balance myself well enough.
When we were done she went to find her father while I went to go eat lunch with the others. I was walking a little funny though because I was sore from riding; god I really don't get how some people could go riding for hours.
"So the shooting lessons went well?" I ask as I sat down on one of the folding chairs and ate with some of the others.
"Sure did." Rick says. "Everyone did pretty well."
"Yeah once Jimmy cut it out with the gangster shit." T-Dog chipped in which cause everyone to laugh.
"Seriously?" I ask.
"Come with us next time and see for yourself." T-dog said. "The way you used to shoot with that bow you'd probably get the hang of a gun in no time."
"I do miss the bow… I'll think about it but now I have to get ready to head out into town."
I get up off the chair and make my way over to the tents to grab my stuff. Along the way there though I see a plate of food sitting outside Daryl's tent. I bend over to shoo some flies away and check to see if it's still edible before calling out to him.
"Your food's going bad."
"I'll get it in a minute."
"I don't think the flies will give you a minute. What are you-"
"Stop barging in!" he quickly stuffs something behind him as I open his tent.
"What? Woodworking isn't exactly something to be ashamed of. What are you working on that's more important than eating?"
"Stuff, for hunting."
"Okay? I'm going out into town for stuff, you need anything?" I look around in his tent and see an open book, I pick it up and look at the title. The Case of the Missing Man. "Maybe a better book?"
"You read it?"
"It was required for one of my English lectures in college. The author puts in so much pretentious crap to try to deceive the readers into thinking they are reading an original masterpiece and not another cliché mystery novel."
"So it's not worth the read?"
"You're better off working on your mystery project. Okay I really have to go now. Do you need anything?"
"I wouldn't say no to a pack of smokes."
I leave his tent and go grab my backpack to dump it out for the trip. Some junk I don't need falls out but what catches my eye is the Polaroid's that flutter onto the ground. Staring back at me are pictures of Amy, Sophia and some of the others from the Atlanta camp. I pick up the one of Sophia, she's playing with Eliza and has a huge smile on her face. My stomach clenches as I look at it, she shouldn't be lost. She should be with us, with a big smile on her face and playing with Carl. I put the down with the others and push it off into a corner; focusing on gathering what I need to head out. After getting my hunting knife and throwing knives in their proper place I sling the mostly empty backpack on my shoulder and leave the tent. Glenn took a piece of paper from Lori before meeting up with me.
"She take your advice about taking care of herself? Wants prenatal vitamins or something for the baby."
"Yeah, yeah stuff like that." He says not looking at me.
"Glenn why'd you say it like that?"
"Like what?"
"Like that. All evasive, let me see the list."
He reluctantly hands me the list and I read it over. There's simple stuff like lotion, worthless stuff like conditioner (who needs to worry about that now?), and some other items but what catches my attention is the morning-after pill. I guess that explains why Glenn looks so uncomfortable and why Lori looked so skittish.
"Huh. Guess she figured out what she wanted to do. How do you think Rick reacted when he found out?"
"Uhh…" I hold out my arm and stop him as we were almost to the stable.
"She didn't tell him did she?"
"Not exactly…"
"Son of a bitch! How many secrets are we going to have to keep?"
"Just one more, I'll handle Lori on my own but can you help me with Maggie?"
"Glenn you shouldn't have to help Lori. This should be between her and Rick, the fact that she's dragging you into this and doing her dirty work for you is wrong. The longer secrets get dragged out it worsens the consequences."
"Even the barn one?" We get closer to the stables and see Maggie with the horses.
"Even the barn. I'll try to help you out with Maggie, it sounds like her dad thinks they're still people but they're just sick. She might think that as well." We reach Maggie and she turns to look at us.
"Hey Maggie." Glenn says. She glares at him and gives Glenn the reins to the horse.
"Why are there three?" I ask.
"I'm coming too."
She walks over to her horse and mounts it. I walk over to Murphy and try to get up on my own only to find that my short legs are getting in the way. Glenn has to come over and give me a leg up before he mounts his own horse and we head out. Only the sound of clopping hoaves can be heard as we make our way into town. There was a tension in the air as Maggie tried not to look at me or Glenn.
"You didn't have to come." Glenn said breaking the silence. "You could hate me from a distance." He takes a pause for her to respond but she doesn't. "Please say something. Maggie, I-"
"I asked for your trust and you betrayed it. And I found out that you knew Natalie because you confronted my dad, now he's pissed at me. Your turn."
"I'm sorry Maggie." I said. "But I had to find out why. Your dad may think they're sick but what about you?"
"Do you agree with that?" Glenn asked and she looks towards the ground to avoid answering. "Even after what you saw at the well?"
"I'm not sure what I saw at the well."
"Yes, you are." We reach the store and get off our horses to tie them up. "Look, if you'd seen Atlanta, you would not have a barn full of walkers."
"I wish you'd stop calling them that."
"What do you call them?"
"Mom, Shawn, Mr. and Mrs. Fischer, Lacey, Duncan."
Once the horses are tied securely to the pillars outside we go into the pharmacy. It looks mostly picked over but there is still some stuff left. Hopefully a good amount of it will be useful.
"What does she want now?" Maggie asks annoyed, finally someone else who shares my frustration with Lori.
"I can't say." Glenn asks.
"So when one of them asks you to keep your mouth shut-"
"Look can we please talk about this later?" I interrupt her. "Here's the list, can you please help since you know your way around?"
She takes the list from me and looks at it. When she sees the plan B she looks up at us angry before walking off and muttering something under breath. I split up from Glenn and start looking around. I pick up some stuff from the feminine hygiene section and other isles before I head back to the pharmacy. I pass Maggie as she's looking at the shelves and head to back room to look around, once she's done there I can look without her getting suspicious. In the back is a small room with a desk and shelves filled with boxes. I look on the desk and see a book with stock inventory, an old lamp, an empty dusty coffee cup and a pill bottle. I pick it up and read the label, temazepam , it's not the same amount I used to take but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I pocket it in my bag and I'm about to leave when something catches my eye. On the floor is a pack of cigarettes, I roll my eyes but pick it up anyway.
"No! No!" that's Maggie! "No! Glenn!"
"Maggie!" Glenn shouts.
I run out of the stock room and straight to Maggie's side. The walker was on the other side of the shelf and was trying to pull her through it by her arm. The shelves were shaking as they were fighting. I pull one of my throwing knives out of my belt and start stabbing at it's hands hoping it would let go of Maggie.
"Look out!" I look and shove Maggie out of the way as Glenn jumps on the counter and smashes the walker's head with a shelf he took from the front of the store. He then goes to comfort a distraught Maggie.
"Did it get you? Did it bite you?"
I look at the walker just as it rises to its feet. Its head was threating to fall off as the rip in the neck gets bigger. I reach for the machete in Glenn's belt and cut the head clean off. It falls to the ground and I stab at the head to really kill it. Behind me Maggie is sobbing in Glenn's arms.
"We should leave." I tell them "If there's more of them out there they'll be attracted to all the noise we made."
I move the head and body out of the way so Maggie didn't have to stare at it as she walked out. We got on our horses and made our way back to the farm. Maggie was silent the whole way there and wouldn't respond if Glenn or I asked how she was doing. When we got back we put the horses back in the stables and Maggie stormed off towards the camp. Glenn and I followed here worried about what she might do when she went up to Lori.
"Hey! We got your stuff."
"Maggie, hang on, please." Glenn called out to her.
"Come on in here." Lori said.
"Why? Nothing to hide. We got your special delivery right here. We got your lotion, got your conditioner, your Soap Opera Digest." She said as she threw the stuff on the ground.
"Maggie."
"Next time you want something, get it your damn self. We're not your errand boys."
"Honey, I-"
"And here's your abortion pills!"
She storms off and we stand there in silence. Lori has a shocked look on her face, Glenn looks torn between going after Maggie and comforting Lori, and I'm just standing there wishing I was anywhere but here.
"Go after her Glenn. I know you want to." He nods and walks away from us. I try to walk away too but Lori grabs my arm.
"Wait-"
"Don't." I pull my arm away from her. "Just… are you absolutely sure you want to do this?" I asked her.
"I…"
"That's what I thought. Look I'm not judging you for these." I say picking up the pills. "I just want to know if this is all worth it. Are you willing to lie to your husband and ruin your marriage if he finds out without you telling him? Are you willing to have Maggie, Glenn or someone else risk their life so you can keep this a secret? Is this secret worth losing the people that you care about?"
"You don't understand. It's more complicated than that."
"I know about Shane." Her eyes widen in shock. "I may not understand how being with that asshole was able to help you with your grief-"
"Don't call him that."
"But that's not important. What is important is taking care of your family who you should be grateful to still have and owning up to your mistakes. I'm talking about whether or not you keep the baby, I have no right to take that choice away from you, but I do believe that you should tell Rick about it because secrets only do more harm than good."
I walk away from her and down the trail wanting to get as far away from the farm as possible.
I ended up taking a longer walk than I thought. I was too deep in thought and focused on getting as far away from the camp as possible that I ended up not keeping track of where I was. The others will probably have a field day about this, especially given with what happened with Daryl yesterday, but I really don't give a shit right now as I stumble across a pretty lake. It looks so peaceful and serene with the little dock and boat in it and I definitely could use some peacefulness right about now.
I cross the marshy grass and make my way onto the dock. I take off my boots before sitting on the edge of the dock dipping my feet in. A chill runs through my body when I dip my toes in the water. I let out a deep breath, close my eyes and lean my head back to feel the sun on my face. The warmth radiates through my body as the rays shine brightly in my face making my tense muscles loosen as they finally relax.
"What the hell are you doing?" I tense but turn around to find the source of the voice.
"Me? Aren't you supposed to be resting?" I asked as Daryl walks onto the dock.
"I was but then I saw you storming off. No one else was going after you so I figured I'd have to haul your ass back."
"I'm fine. Just wanted to cool off and ended up finding this place."
"Reminds me of the quarry."
"Yeah it does. I miss swimming in it. It was always fun and peaceful."
"Till you found out Merle was poking around being a peeping tom."
"Hey it's his fault he got caught. He's about as quiet as a bull in a china shop and there weren't too many places to hide."
"He's not that bright. I'd blame it on his other head but his real head is just as dumb." I laugh at that.
"Speaking of heads how's yours?"
"Which one are you asking about?"
"Fuck you!"
"Finally! Been getting tired of all the sympathy. It's annoying as hell."
"Isn't everything annoying to you?"
"Watch it-"
"You're the one who's tired of sympathy. Besides you didn't even answer my question."
"I'm fine. You're the one that needed to cool off. What happened?"
I bite my lip trying to figure out what to say. Part of me wants to tell him everything in get it off my chest but then I'll just be burdening him. Besides Lori's pregnancy isn't his problem and if I told him about the barn he might do something drastic.
"We went to the pharmacy- oh that reminds me." I reach into my backpack behind me and pull out the cigarettes. "Got your cancer sticks."
"Good brand too. Nice job." He pulls on out and lights it with a lighter he had in his pocket for some reason.
"Gross. Anyway Maggie was looking through the pharmacy of the store when a walker popped up and grabbed her through the shelf. She's fine but shaken up from what happened."
"That why she was ranting and raving about something at camp?"
"Yeah. I think she was just upset because that was the first real time she was in danger. I don't blame her because I wouldn't want to die just to bring someone a magazine or some lotion."
"That what got you pissed?"
"Not exactly. It's kind of a little bit of everything. I feel like I'm going to explode if one more bad thing happens."
He doesn't say anything, just continues to smoke his cigarette as we sit in a comfortable silence. I watch the smoke blow in the wind over the pound and disintegrate in the air. The smell of tobacco lingers making me feel slightly tired and out of breath but I don't complain. I just sit there enjoying the nice weather while he finishes it.
"You ready to head back?" he flicks the cigarette into the water and stands up.
"Yeah." I take his hand and he helps me up. I try to take my hand away but he holds onto my wrist. There's a devilish smirk on his face and mischief in his eyes. He's not going to do what I think he is, right?
"Daryl don't you dare-"
Next thing I know I'm being hauled off my feet and I'm flying through the air. The last thing I see is his smirking face before I'm submerged in water and my vision goes blurry. My body is in shock as I sink in the water before rage takes over and pushes me to the surface. I gasp for breath as I tread water and look up to see that redneck bastard kneeling on the dock watching me.
"What the hell was that for?"
"Said you needed to cool off didn't you? You didn't look ready to go back."
"So you just threw me in? Do you have a death wish or something?"
"Pretty sure if I did I'd do something more reckless."
"Whatever." I reach out my hand to him. "Help me up?"
"You're just gonna try to pull me aren't you?"
"I highly doubt I'm strong enough to pull you in. Now will you please help me up? I think I fish is trying to get it on with my leg."
He rolls his eyes and reaches down. He grabs my hand and leans forward to pull me up, I gin evilly as I take advantage of his weight disproportion and pull him into the lake. He lets out an angry yell as we fall into the water with a loud splash. Underwater I watch him flail around angrily. I couldn't help but laugh to myself as I enjoyed the taste of sweet revenge. The flailing stops though as he calms down and looks right at me. Shit! I start to swim away from him as fast I could when I saw the rage in his eyes. He was probably going to drown me and leave my body here to be eaten by the fishes. My lungs start to burn as I swim and I make my way up to the surface. I gasp for air as I come up and look around for Daryl. I don't see him though, I don't even see bubbles to let me know where he is underwater.
"Daryl?" I call out worried, what if he can't swim? WHY AM I THINKING OF THIS NOW? Oh god I'm so stupid how could I-
Something wraps around my waist and pulls me underwater. I squirm to try to break free but the grip tightens around me. As I beat my fist against it I realize that it feels hard, I open my eyes to stare right into Daryl's and boy does he look pissed as he takes us up for air.
"You bitch!" He shouts as he gasps for air.
"It's your own fault-"I stop to laugh at the look on his face "I wasn't going to until you suggested it."
"It's not funny!" he says seriously which makes me laugh harder.
I think there might be tears rolling down my face from how hard I'm laughing but I don't care. Daryl's serious face softens and he starts laughing too, a nice deep throaty laugh. It makes me feel happier hearing it because Daryl rarely laughs. Sure I've heard him chuckle, snort or huff at something someone said but I don't think I've ever heard him really laugh before. It's infectious and makes me laugh even harder, so hard that I can barely tread water and have to throw my arms around him to support myself. His arms wrap around my waist and hold me up, my legs wrap around his torso before I realize what I did. But when I did, oh boy is this awkward! He stops laughing and looks me in the eye. Both of us are breathing heavily and water is dripping down us. His hair is plastered to his forehead, drops of water dripping down his face. My heart feels like it's going to explode out of my chest as I feel his breath hit my neck. My body feels tingly and I'm reminded of one of those sappy chick flicks that Reese would make me watch from time to time. I always hated the unrealistic situations and the way it romanticizes every situation possible. But I guess some of them lingered in me because I keep thinking about how hot and romantic it would be if we kissed right now. Fuck! Stop it!
I can't seem to stop my hand as I unwrap one of my arms from around his neck and brush his hair out of his eyes. Why? Why the hell would you do that? He catches his breath and flinches a little as my hand moves his hair out of his face. When he opens his eyes I see a look of shock and… something else? I'm still breathing heavily as I feel his arms slide from around my back and grips my sides, pushing me away.
"C'mon, stop messing around gotta swim back."
My throat catches and I have to nod my head to respond. We swim to shore and pull ourselves onto the grass. The water drips off our clothes and the dirt sticks to us turning into mud. Daryl's looking over my shoulder staring at something, I turn my head and see tall white flowers blooming at the edge of the lake.
"Cherokee roses." I say smiling.
"Yeah, a couple of them."
"That's a good sign then. Isn't it?"
"Yeah."
We start walking back to the camp. It turns out I didn't walk as far as I thought I did but just did a big circle around the farm. I'm glad that I don't have to walk too far back because I'm exhausted but I do wish that I more time for my clothes to dry. Now I have to think of an excuse about why Daryl and I came back all wet.
*Sometime later*
The sun was setting as Shane and Andrea drove up to the farm. Dale, Carol and I were waiting for them because they went to check out a housing development close by for Sophia. As angry as I am about Andrea shooting Daryl I'm trying to control it. Daryl doesn't seem to be holding it against her and obsessing over it isn't going to do me any good. When they got out of the car we walked up wanting to know what they heard.
"Anything?" Carol asked.
"Not today." Shane said.
"I'm so sorry. We'll cover more ground tomorrow." Andrea said.
"What happened out there?" Dale asked, he wasn't too thrilled to hear Andrea was out with Shane. He's been anxious for her to come back since everyone else returned from gun practice.
"Um, I"
"The place was overrun." Shane interrupted her.
"Yeah." Andrea agrees but she looks… a little happy? I look back and forth between her and Shane and feel weird vibes coming off them, vibes that make my skin crawl. Dale has the same look on my face as I do and then it hits me. Are you freaking kidding me? First Lori and now Andrea? Who else gonna take a ride on Shane's di-
"Let's go get you cleaned up."
Carol interrupts my thoughts and starts to lead Andrea into the house. Shane walks away but Dale tries to go after him. I follow from a reasonable distance to make sure Dale doesn't get himself into deep shit.
"Shane. Shane, I was thinking, you've got that nice new ride of yours, plenty of fuel, more than enough for you to get far from here." Whoa. I knew Dale was protective of Andrea but I didn't expect this.
"What, you telling me to leave?" Shane asks.
"I know you've been planning to. Maybe now is a good time." Did I miss something? When was Shane going to leave?
Shane scoffs at that. "Is this about Andrea?"
"I'm looking out for the group."
"You think the group would be better off without me, Dale? Why don't you tell that to Rick or Lori? Their boy would be dead if I hadn't put my ass on the line."
"And Otis's. You've been vague about that night, about what happened." So I'm not the only one that thought so huh? But there's no proof, confronting Shane about it now is just reckless.
"Otis died a hero."
"So you've said."
"A little boy lived because of what went down that night. I think you ought to show some gratitude." God he was such an ass! Who says stuff like that?
"I wasn't there."
"No, man, you weren't."
"But I was the time that you raised your gun on Rick." What? My stomach clenches at his words. When was that?
"Come on."
"You had him in your sights and you held him there." Shane neither confirmed nor denied it. "I know what kind of man you are."
"You think I'd shoot Rick? That is my best friend. That's the man that I love. I love him like he's my brother. You think that's the kind of man I am?"
"That's right."
"Well, maybe we ought to just think that through. Say I'm the kind of man who'd gun down his own best friend. What do you think I'd do to some guy that I don't even like when he starts throwing accusations my way? What do you think?" He glares at Dale and that sets me off. I walk forward to break it up.
"Hey. What's going on?"
"Just a simple conversation." Dale says with a hint of fear in his voice.
"None of your business." Shane says
"Maybe but it looks like a pretty heated conversation from where I'm standing. Can't help but want to make sure everything's okay." Shane turns and walks toward me.
"What did you hear?" he asks with a crazed look in his coal black eyes. My throat feels dry and I feel nauseas as he locks eyes with me but I try not to let my fear show.
"Not a lot." Not a lot that really surprised me. I had a feeling he did something to Otis.
"You better not be lying. Even though you haven't put up much of a fight with me lately I still don't trust you."
"Same here. How can I trust someone who gets all defensive about a simple conversation?"
"Watch your tone. I've been going easy on you but don't think I'm going to let you walk all over me. I will deal with you if you ever stand in my way."
He walks away from me and chills run down my back. It wasn't his words that scared me but the look in his eyes. Dale comes up to me and he also looks shocked over what just happened.
"Are you okay?" he asks me.
"Is it true?" I ask him.
"You heard?" he asks. I nod my head. "But you said-"
"I kind of lied. I heard everything but not all of it was news to me. I also thought his story about Otis didn't add up but I didn't know about him planning to leave or trying to shoot Rick. When was that?"
"Well I believe he was planning to leave around the time Sophia went missing but I was there when he tried to shoot Rick. It was after the walker attack at the quarry. We were doing a perimeter check and they were butting heads. I went to check on something but when I turned around Shane was aiming his gun at an unsuspecting Rick. He wasn't blinking or anything, just had this cold and determined look on his face. When I called out to him he snapped out of it and acted like nothing happened. I didn't bring it up because I wasn't entirely sure what was going on and I didn't think anyone would believe me if I did."
"I believe you."
"Did he threaten you? I couldn't hear but if he did we can't let him get away with it."
"It's not that. Shane's always been an asshole so his words never bothered me but this time was different. What bothered was his eyes. That cold blank stare, almost lifeless, those are the eyes of a mad man."
"How do you know?"
"I've seen them before." The image of the man shot me appears in my mind. Graying fair hair and crazed beady eyes staring at me from behind the barrel of a gun. There's something familiar about him but I can't put my finger on it yet. "And if I'm right, then were all in trouble."
to be continued. Hope you all enjoyed it, I ended up putting more in than I thought. A little drama, a little fluff, some suspense and some teasing. I really didn't plan ahead of time like I usually do to write the scene at the lake or the very beginning with Daryl. It just sort of came to me and I wrote it all down surprised by how much I got out of it and how right it felt to put it in here.
Please feel free to favorite or follow the story if you haven't already and as always all reviews are welcomed. Thank you guys so much for being so supportive especially when I have doubts about the story. But I won't give up because I do have a vision for the end and I want to see it through even if it takes a long time! I won't give up unless I absolutely have no idea what to do next and even if I ever do feel like working on other projects I would do it either simultaneously or wait until I have the new story mostly if not all the finished before posting it.
My words of nonsense for the day: Beware the addictiveness of binge watching! (I've have discovered the joy, craziness, and obsession with anime on Netflix and Crunchyroll. I'm ashamed it took me so long to try it because my dad still teases me because of how much I loved pokemon and other cartoons growing up.)
