SPIRIT

Season II

SEVEN | Live Bait

"It just seems like if there could be a cure for it, we wouldn't still be where we are."

TRYING TO CHANGE MY FATHER'S mind was like trying to convince Beth to share her candy when she was a toddler. After helping Rick and his group start planning out the search for Sophia, he had revealed that he wanted them gone once Carl recovered enough from the surgery. I had argued with him over it, knowing that it was no longer safe out there and sending them back out could very well be a death sentence for the entire group, but he wouldn't listen. He wanted them off the property as soon as possible.

Maggie and I sat together on the porch steps after Daddy had shut us both down.

"He's just being selfish!" ranted Maggie angrily.

"Daddy has a good heart, Mags," I said quietly. "He'll see eventually that he can't evict them like that."

She sighed harshly. I bit my lip and clasped my hands together in front of me. He wasn't keen on having a group of strangers around his family. They could end up being dangerous to us in his eyes. I could see where he was coming from, but from the stories I'd heard from them, I knew that they needed this safe place for them to set up camp during their search. He would have to come around at some point.

Maggie looked at me. "Why are you defending this? You know he's wrong."

"We all know he's wrong," I rebutted. "But he doesn't get how it is out there. He hasn't left the farm since this all started. Hell, he still thinks those things are just sick."

"And you don't?"

I turned my head towards her. The internal conflict she was dealing with battled itself out in her gaze. Our father had convinced all of us that the people who had fallen victim to whatever pandemic had swept the area were sick and could be cured in time as soon as a means became available. I had believed it myself for a while, but hearing what Rick's group had to fight through while they were out there started to tweak my thoughts a bit.

What kind of illness caused people to rot from the inside out, lose their entire sense of self and humanity, and chow down on anything with a pulse?

"I don't know," I admitted after a moment. "It just seems like if there could be a cure for it, we wouldn't still be where we are."

My gaze drifted towards the barn sitting ominously across the yard. It was where Daddy kept all of the infected until such a cure could be found. We had neighbors held there, friends, family. Annette and Shawn had been some of the first he had secured away after they'd fallen victim. If you got close enough, you could hear the snarls and growls. They sounded inhuman.

"Some cures take time." Maggie looked down as though trying to convince herself of that instead of me.

"Even longer if there's no one left to find it."

She sighed again and nodded her head. We had both heard of the CDC, how the last surviving scientist there had blown up the entire facility with himself inside. They had lost a group member who decided that this life wasn't worth living and stayed inside during the countdown while the rest of the group scrambled for their escape, for their chance to keep fighting.

It just made me wonder if anyone else was still trying to cure the infliction. Were there other facilities, more scientists, or had they all gone up in flames too?

We both looked up as we heard someone approaching the farmhouse. Dale stopped a few feet away from us.

"You should come look at this," he said. "There's one in your well."

Maggie and I shared a look before we followed Dale over to the well we used primarily for the cattle. A small group had already gathered around the well in question and were peering down into it. As we got closer, I could make out the distinctive snarls and growls. I peeked down into the well and was met with the sight of one of those things, as Dale had said, all bloated and waterlogged.

I grimaced. "How long do you think it's been down there?"

"Long enough to grow gills," said Andrea.

Lori sighed and placed her hands on her hips. "We can't leave it in there. God knows what it's doing to the water."

"We gotta get it out," agreed Shane.

The snarls increased as we all leaned over slightly to look at it again, trying to think of how to get it out of the well. It reached its arms up to us, desperate to get to us. My stomach churned slightly at the grotesque sight. It didn't look human, not anymore.

"Easy," shrugged T-Dog. "Put a bullet in its head."

"Whoa, whoa, guys," interjected Maggie before anyone else could suggest something. "No."

She put her hands on her hips and sent everyone an annoyed look. The conflict continued to be evident in her expression, and right now her own humanity was wrestling with the notion that they were still living beings.

Glenn frowned. "Why not? It's a good plan."

"It's a stupid plan," countered Andrea. "If this thing hasn't already contaminated the water, blowing its brains out will certainly doing the job."

"And y'all know how Daddy feels about y'all having guns," I reminded them. "He'll kick you out if you go shooting up the place."

"Lydia's right," agreed Dale. "We can't risk it."

"So it's gotta come out alive?" asked Lori.

"So to speak."

"How do we do that?"

Everyone fell into discussion on how to get the "swimmer" out of our well. Various ideas were exchanged back and forth. Even Maggie proved to be an active participant despite her reservations on the matter. She knew that we couldn't leave it there. It was contaminating our water supply. We had more wells to draw from, so if worse came to worst, we could always just block off that one and use the others.

With the plan set about to lure it out of there, I ran inside to grab a canned ham we had stored in the back of the pantry. We tied it to a rope and lowered it down into the well. Shane stood by with the other end, ready to throw it around the swimmer so we could help pull it out.

It sniffed at the ham for only a moment before returning its attention to us.

"He's not going for it," I sighed.

"Maybe 'cause a canned ham don't kick and scream when you try to eat it," muttered T-Dog.

Lori shook her head, running a hand through her hair with a sigh. "He's right. There's a reason the dead didn't come back to life and start raiding our cupboards."

"We need live bait," decided Andrea.

Everyone then turned to Glenn. He looked around at everyone and seemed to be about to protest when he sighed and nodded his head.

Once the ham was out of the well, they chucked it away and instead tied the rope around Glenn's waist. He sat on the ledge of the well uncomfortably. I could tell he was beginning to regret his decision as he peered down at the swimmer.

"Have I mentioned that I really like your new haircut?" rambled Glenn as Shane secured the rope with a knot. "You have a nice shaped head."

Shane patted his shoulder once the knot was secured. "Don't worry about it, bud. We're gonna get you outta here in one piece."

"Living piece. That living part is important."

Maggie stood behind a bit, disapproval speaking volumes over her expression. She chewed her lip anxiously and shifted her weight from foot to foot. Lori passed a flashlight to Glenn as the rope was then looped around the water pump for leverage.

Glenn started to climb over the ledge of the well. "Nice and slow, please."

"We got you," Dale promised.

Maggie scoffed and shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest. "You people are crazy."

"We gotta get it out of there, Mags," I pointed out. "Do you have another idea?"

"Yeah, just seal it off," she snapped. "There's no point in sending someone down there."

I just shook my head and came to take my place behind Shane, grabbing the rope for more leverage. Maggie glared at me with annoyance clear in her gaze. All I could do was shrug at her and widen my stance a bit to dig my heels further into the ground.

"Can you give us an eye there, Maggie?" asked Dale.

She glared at all of us for a moment before letting out a loud sigh and edging towards the well. Reluctantly she knelt down for a better view into the depths as we slowly began to lower Glenn into the darkness.

She leaned a bit further over. "Doing okay down there?"

"Yup, doing great." Glenn's voice echoed up to us. "Living the dream."

The snarls grew louder and more insistent as Glenn was lowered further into its reach.

"Little lower," instructed Maggie. "Little more."

As a group, we let the rope slide from our hands just a bit more to continue lowering him slowly. For a second, it seemed as though we were achieving our goal. Then the water pump snapped in half underneath his weight. We all lurched forward as Glenn's weight dropped him further down into the well.

We all scrambled to get a grip on the rope again.

"Get it! Get it!"

"Grab it!"

"Grab it!"

"Get me out of here!"

Maggie quickly joined us and grabbed the rope. Together we used our combined strength to get the advantage once more, struggling to pull him back up. My hands burned as the rope scraped away the flesh of my palms.

"Pull!"

"Pull! Pull!"

"Get me out! Get me out!"

"Glenn!"

"Pull him up!"

"Come on, pull him up! Pull him up!"

Frantically we moved backwards with his weight fighting against us. I grunted and groaned, my muscles screaming in protest. Finally a shaken Glenn was able to grab onto the ledge of the well and help pull himself up and over.

Maggie allowed the rope to slip from her hands as she ran over to him with Shane at her heels. Together they helped him off of the ledge and onto the ground, where he sat panting, horrified.

"Are you okay?!" worried Maggie.

Glenn gave her a nod, trying to catch his breath. I sighed in relief, running a hand through my hair and pushing it away from my eyes. My heart was racing as I then placed my hands on my hips, leaning forward slightly to catch my own breath.

Dale sighed. "Back to the drawing board."

"Says you," said Glenn as he sat back on his knees.

He held up the rope. I stepped over to the well and peered back down in it. The rope had been secured around the swimmer's waist. Seeing that made me let out a small laugh of disbelief.

Reaching my hand out to him, I helped him up to his feet with Maggie supporting him from the side. We gave him a moment to recover from the event before we all took our places at the rope once more.

"Come on, y'all," encouraged Shane. "Together."

With everyone on the rope, we began the process over again. Exerting more effort than I expected, we slowly started to pull the swimmer up out of the well. It proved to be much easier in theory than in practice as its bloated body stuck on the lip. We pulled even harder to get it up and over, only for it to split in half at the waist.

The bottom half fell back into the water with an audible splash while the front half lurched forward to the ground. Everyone flew backward, some losing their footing and falling back. I groaned as I fell back into Lori, who toppled over from our combined weight.

"Shit," I groaned, moving myself up to my feet and reaching my hand out to her. "Sorry. You okay?"

She nodded her head. We all gathered around the top half of the swimmer, standing just out of its reach as it growled and groped around for us with its bloated hands. A few curses were muttered as we all shook our heads in disgust, annoyance, and disappointment at the wasted effort on our part.

Glancing towards Maggie, I muttered, "Let's just seal off the well."

"Yeah," agreed Shane, rubbing the back of his head. "Might be a good idea."

"So what do we do about -"

Andrea was cut off as T-Dog charged forward suddenly. In his hand was a pickaxe which he brought down on its head repeatedly, smashing its skull in brutally. Maggie looked on in horror at the grotesque scene. Immediately I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and turned us away from the carnage, starting to lead her away from the area.

"Good thing we didn't do anything stupid like shoot it," muttered T-Dog.

Maggie shoved my arm off of her angrily and stormed towards the house. I didn't bother going after her. Instead I let out a sigh and let my head tilt back, closing my eyes momentarily as I collected myself. A quiet curse slipped from my lips before I continued on across the grass in search of some spare boards we could use to seal off the well.

The stables proved to be a much softer atmosphere. Listening to the horses calmed me as I took the moment to unwind. There were some spare boards propped against the back that I would bring back to the group once I was ready to go out and face the gore again.

Hearing someone enter the stables, I looked up from my station on the haybale to see Rick coming in. He looked around for a second before coming a bit closer to where I sat.

"Hey," he greeted.

"Hey, yourself," I returned, managing a small smile despite everything. "How'd the meeting with Daddy go?"

My father had taken Rick out to the fields for whatever reason shortly after the search for Carol's daughter had been planned. I found myself relieved that he hadn't been there for that. Seeing T-Dog obliterate that swimmer like that would have been the last we would have seen the group. It would be murder in his eyes.

Rick shrugged. "He kinda preached to me about God."

"Yeah," I sighed. "He's kinda good about that."

We lapsed into a small silence after that. Luna and Nellie snorted and huffed from inside their stables as though communicating to each other. I reached up and let my hand come to rub Luna's nose as she bumped the side of my head gently.

After a moment, Rick said, "Shane told me about what happened at the well. You all right?"

"I guess. Maggie took it the worst." I looked to him with a small smile and teased, "You really come searching just to ask me how I'm doing, Sheriff?"

He chuckled lowly, folding his arms as he leaned on a beam. "And if I did?"

It was my turn to chuckle softly as I shook my head. I let out a sigh and looked at Luna for a second before I turned my attention back to him.

"I'm sorry about Daddy," I said. "Maggie and I are trying to get him to let y'all stay."

"Don't worry about us. We'll be fine. I can't really ask him to let us stay forever, not after everything he's done for us."

"He just doesn't understand." I pressed my lips together. "Not really, anyway."

Rick sighed and raked a hand through his hair. "I don't really expect him to, Lydia. I'm sure y'all have had your struggles here, but this farm looks so untouched by what's going on out there."

I nodded my head in agreement with his statement. He knew that we weren't completely untouched, as I'd mentioned to him before, but he was right. The farm was probably like an oasis in the middle of whatever was going on in the rest of the world. Hearing the horrors that their group had to endure while out there, it was like something out of a horror movie. I couldn't even imagine what that had to be like.

That swimmer had probably just been the barest of tastes of what was waiting for us on the outside.