Kaiya's Watergarden: Thanks! Here's the next one!

Galwidanatitud: Lol, Daryl snapped and went for the kiss.

reyesrachel805: Lo siento, la actualización lleva un tiempo, pero quiero asegurarme de que el capítulo salga bien y lo reviso para ver si hay algún error o si quiero agregar algo. El mensaje no me molestó, no te preocupes! No recibí eso de tu mensaje, mi amor. No leo el mensaje con hostilidad. ¡Gracias por leer y espero que les guste este capítulo!

Lucy Greenhill: Thank you! Here is the newest one!

Hershel was having lunch while reading his Bible, something he has been doing for years, when a knock came at the door.

"Come on in." Hershel called out.

The door opened to show Rick, who walked over to Hershel. "A little light readin' for lunch?"

"Been workin' so hard lately I get my studyin' where I can." Hershel took another bite of his lunch.

"You know we can help you out with your work." Rick told him as he leaned on the chair in front of him.

Hershel tore his eyes away from the Bible to look up at Rick with a hard look. "It's my field to tend."

Rick stayed silent for a moment as he watched the old man go back to reading and eating. "We found the barn."

Hershel signed. "Leave it be."

"Well, I'd like to talk about it, but either way- your barn, your farm, your say."

"I don't want to talk about the barn. I don't want to debate."

"Not a debate, a discussion." Rick spoke to him in a smooth tone, one that won't seem like he was pushing Hershel.

Hershel looked up at Rick and wiped his mouth with a napkin. "I need you and your group gone by the end of the week." He took a swing of his wine and continued to read.

Rick felt fear rise up but he kept his tone smooth. "I talked to Dale. You and I have our differences with the way we look at the walkers. Those people," When Rick had mentioned them as people, Hershel looked up at him again. "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."

Rick was becoming annoyed but kept his cool. He sat on the chair and leaned closer to Hershel, so they can see eye to eye. "This farm— this farm is special. You've been shielded from what's been goin' on out there. Dale said you saw everythin' happen on the news. Well, it's been- it's been a long time since the cameras stopped rollin'."

Hershel didn't want to hear anymore and rose with his plate and glass to get away from Rick, but Rick followed after him. "The first time I saw a walker it was just half a body snappin' at me from the ground." He remembered Hannah, the walker that was snapping at him that day. "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 somethin' a lot less than the person you were. Please do not- do not send us out there again."

Rick started to plead, using that as a last attempt. "My wife's pregnant." Those words made Hershel turn around in shock. "That's either a gift here or a death sentence out there. If we were to stay we could help you with the work, with securin' this place. We can survive together."

"Rick, I'm tellin' you we can't."

Rick closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "You think about what you're doin'."

"I've thought about it."

"Think about it." Rick told him, his patience for the man shrinking.

"I've thought about it." Hershel yelled.

"Think about it again." Rick glared at Hershel, his smooth tone now gone. "We can't go out there." he needed to protect this group, protect his family from the dangers outside of this place.

The door closes as Maggie watches from the other room on what had happened.

Hershel spots her and freezes.

Maggie sighs and leaves his sight.

Shane watched as Miri walked up to Daryl with Alice playing with Burnie behind her. Miri, looking brighter than Shane has seen her in a long time, pointed to the forest and then at Alice, who was wearing a yellow and white sundress, denim Bermuda shorts, and some brown slouchy boots.

Daryl looked at the forest then to the little girl. He nodded.

Alice cheered and Miri gave Daryl a smile, one Shane knew meant more than just a simple friendly smile.

Shane heard footsteps coming towards him and saw it was Rick. By the look on his face, Shane could tell it wasn't good.

"What's it gonna be, man? Which way does this thing go?"

"I don't know yet." Rick shook his head.

"Well, what did he say?"

"We're negotiatin'."

Shane scoffed. "You're nego—" he chuckled sarcastically. "Clock's tickin', Rick."

"No it isn't, Shane. That barn— the barn is secure. We didn't even know about it till this mornin'."

"We didn't. Well, we know about it now." Shane frowned. "Right? We know there's over a dozen walkers in there. We know that it's about a stone's throw from our camp, Rick—where we sleep. So look, if we're not gonna go in there and clear it out then we just got to go."

Rick sighed, growing annoyed with his friend's need to leave. "We're not gonna clear it out and we're not gonna go."

Shane didn't look at him as he continued to talk. "We at least need our guns."

"We can't have them, not here." Rick yelled.

Shane sighed. "Why do you want to stay here when it's not safe?"

"We can make it safe."

Shane scoffed again. "How we gonna do that?"

"We will, okay?"

They started to raise their voices now. "How we gonna make it safe?"

"We will, okay?"

Shane hit the tractor he was leaning on. "No, man, it's not okay."

"Shane, Lori's pregnant." Shane got quiet, thinking about Lori and the last time they had sex. What if this was his child? "We need to stay." Rick told Shane slowly.

Shane was still in shock at the news. "We need our guns."

"No, I can work this out." Rick started to walk away to get calm. "You good?" He called back to Shane.

"Yeah." Shane chuckled. "Lori's havin' a baby, man. Congratulations."

"Thank you." Rick told him as he walked away.

Shane turned around to glare at the spot Miri and Daryl were before looking back at the barn.

Hershel walked into the kitchen where Maggie was making lunch. "Hi, honey." Maggie said nothing as she angrily continued working. "Carl doesn't need any more of my help."

"So that's it?"

Hershel sat down in front of her. "Rick was tryin' to make his case. It'll be hard. They'll have to be careful. But he was being dramatic. They're a strong group. They've done well on their own. They're just gonna have to go out and find their own farm. There's plenty of them now to choose from."

"There aren't. Every one of them nearby is burned out or full of walkers."

Hershel noticed the word she had used for the people he was trying to help. "Walkers? So we just keep these people here forever? How are they my responsibility?"

Maggie stopped chopping as she remembered something her father had told her when she was younger. "A new command I give to you, love one another as I have loved you." Maggie paused, trying to hold herself back from crying. "That's what you told me, right? I was mad about mom. Mad about you marryin' Annette. I was 14 years old and I was awful, to you more than anybody. All I wanted to do was smoke and shoplift. Love one another. That's what you told me."

Hershel looks down. "Maggie. That was different."

Maggie shook her head. "No. You're different."

"I am. But we're not. I love you. That's part of this. Is this about you and the Asian boy? Do you want me to—?"

"No." Maggie's voice cracked. She sighed. "His name is Glenn. He saved my life yesterday when one of the people you think is sick tried to kill me. How's that for dramatic?" Hershel was shocked, he didn't know about this. "Things aren't what you think they are. They aren't. Don't do this. Okay? It's not about me and Glenn. It's not about me and you. It's about you. It's about who you are, who you're gonna be."

Jimmy's voice came from the door. "Hershel!" he ran in, all sweaty and a bit out of breath. "It happened again."

Hershel rose from his chair. He knew what he needed to do.

Rick was planning the search grid for Sophia with Andrea, who was one of the only other person that could help him that wasn't put to do something.

He did not want his sister or Daryl to overdo themselves so he gave them time to relax. "This also shows she could be moving this way south. If Sophia kept in that direction, she might have gotten out of the forest and into the farmland. So we take 74 up to Ivy Road, then push down south on foot through the forest till we hit Christopher, go east a couple of miles and then double back."

"Rick." Hershel called out, making Rick turn around.

"Hershel." Rick greeted the old vet. "We just have our guns out because we're gonna go look for Sophia."

"Before you do that, I could use your help with something."

"Count me in." Andrea eagerly piped in, wanting to feel like she was doing something other than guard duty or helping with 'women work'.

"Thank you, but I just need Rick." Hershel looked at Rick.

Andrea caught the note Hershel was trying to say. "I'll be down at the barn keeping watch until you're ready." She put her gun at the waist of her pants and walked away.

Hershel prayed Rick would agree with that he had planned.

Daryl, Miri, and Alice were taking a walk along the stream when Daryl spotted a Cherokee rose among the creek.

He stopped the girls and pointed it out. "You see it?"

"See what?" Alice tried to jump up to get a good look at it but she was too small.

"I think I see it." Miri and Alice followed after Daryl when he stopped in front of the flowers.

Alice smiles as she finally sees the pretty white flowers. "They're pretty!" she turned to Miri. "Can we bring some for Aunt Carol?"

"That's a perfect idea, baby." Miri went to grab one when Daryl stopped her, not wanting her to slip. He cut one off and handed it to the little girl. "What do you say?"

"Thank you, Daryl!" Alice took it and started to show it to Burnie.

Miri gave a small smile. "I hope she's okay when we find her."

Daryl bumped her softly for her sad hopeful tone. "We'll find her."

Miri heard how sure he was and nodded. "I know, sorry."

He watched her, noting how she bright she looked today. "Hey, I'm sorry about what happened this morning."

Miri gave him a confused look. "You wanted to look for her and I stopped you."

Daryl shook his head. "Not what I meant, Aussie. I meant throwing you to a wall and attacking ya."

Miri laughed, showing her imperfect front teeth that Daryl secretly adored. "You don't have to say sorry for that, that's the first time that's ever happened to me without a camera rolling in my face." Her smile faded as she remembered something. "Why did you want to go alone?"

Daryl paused. "'Cause I think she's still out there."

She gave him a look. "That doesn't answer why you wanted to go alone, Daryl."

He sighed and looked out to the stream. "Truth is, what else I got to do?"

Miri didn't like the way Daryl thought he was useless. "We'll find her. We will." Daryl tensed up as Miri moved closer to him and gave him a kiss on his cheek. "You shouldn't talk like that, like you're useless." Daryl opened his mouth but Miri continued to speak. "No one is useless, Daryl." She looked at the flower in Alice's hand. "We better get back before we lose the flower." She joked.

As they walked back to the farm, Daryl noticed a couple of verbena's that were in a beautiful shade of purple. He plucked a couple of them in one stem and handed it to Miri, who smiled and pulled him into a kiss, which made Alice tilt her head to the side in confusion

"Are you two together now?"

Miri and Daryl looked from Alice to each other, none of them knew what to say to each other. "Wh-what makes you ask that?" Miri turns to Alice.

Alice points to the flowers in Miri's hand. "He gave you flowers, just like my step-daddy did for my momma."

Daryl looks at Miri. "Would that bother you?" Daryl asked the small girl, who shook her head no. "Alright then."

Miri held her smile behind the flowers, a blush on her cheeks.

When the trio made it back to camp Alice quickly ran over to Carol to give her the Cherokee rose.

Maggie was sitting with Glenn at the steps of her porch, just talking after making up.

She looked at the fisher hat he wore. "You look like you should be in line for the early bird special." She took it off. "Go get your cap. I'll wash it for you, okay?"

Glenn gave Maggie and smile and stood up but stopped when T-Dog and Andrea were making their way quickly towards him and Maggie. "Do you know what's goin' on?"

"Where is everyone?" Andrea asks.

Glenn knit his eyebrows together in confusion. "You haven't seen Rick?"

"He went off with Hershel." Andrea answered. "We were supposed to leave a couple hours ago."

Daryl, Miri, Carol, and Alice walked towards them, hearing their conversation. "Yeah you were." Daryl frowned. "What the hell?"

"Rick told us he was going out." Miri frowned as well, wondering what was going on.

Alice went over to sit with Carl, who was sitting with Beth and Patricia, excited to tell him what they saw by the stream.

Daryl scanned everyone before cursing. "Damn it. Isn't anybody takin' this seriously? We got us a damn trail. Oh, here we go." Daryl exclaimed as he saw Shane coming toward the group with their pack of guns. "What's all this?" he pointed to the bag of guns.

Shane stared into Daryl's eyes as he held out a hand, a hard look on his face. "You with me, man?"

Daryl peeked at Miri before taking the gun and cocking it. "Yeah."

"Time to grow up." Shane told the group. "You already got yours?" he asked Andrea.

"Yeah. Where's Dale?"

"He's on his way." Shane took out a hand gun and gave it to T-Dog.

"Thought we couldn't carry."

"We can and we have to." Shane turned to the rest of the group. "Look, it was one thing sittin' around here…" he spots the flowers in Miri's hand. "Pickin' flowers when we thought this place was supposed to be safe. But now we know it ain't." he hands a gun to Glenn and motions to Maggie with his head. "How about you, man? You gonna protect yours?" Glen took the gun and Shane praised him. "That's it." He turned to Maggie. "Can you shoot?"

"Can you stop?" She spat at him. "You do this, you hand out these guns, and my dad will make you leave tonight."

"We have to stay, Shane." Carl called out.

Lori came running from inside the house. "What is this?"

Miri glared at Shane. "Shane's being a fucking idiot," she turned to the kids. "Do not repeat my language."

"We ain't goin' anywhere, okay?" Shane put the guns down as he spoke to the group again. "Now look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Okay? He—Well, he's gonna have to."

"Why? Because you say so?" Miri saw Shane glare at her, but she kept her stance and glare strong. "You have no right to choose what to do on his land."

"Now we need to find Sophia. Am I right?" Shane pulled out a pistol and bent to towards Carl eye level. "Huh? Now I want you to take this. You take it, Carl, and you keep your mother, aunt, and Alice safe." Miri quickly went over and pushed Carl behind her as Lori came out behind him, but Shane continued to try and give Carl the gun. "You do whatever it takes. You know how. Go on, take the gun and do it."

"What the fuck is wrong with you Shane?" Miri spat acidly at Shane. "Rick said no guns. This is not your call. This is not your decision to make. So get off that high horse and back off."

The dark moment was cut off by T-Dog. "Oh shit."

Everyone turns to see Rick, Hershel, and Jimmy bringing in 2 walkers on leashes.

Shane was the first to move. Everyone ran towards them, some with their guns ready.

"What is that? What is that?"

"Shane!" Lori screamed to stop him but he kept going full sprint.

Shane caught up to Rick and Hershel and pointed at the walkers. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Shane, just back off." Rick grunted as he tried to control the walkers, they got more excited at the site of living flesh.

"Why do your people have guns?" Hershel asked Rick as he tried to control his walker.

"Are you kidding me?" Shane started to yell. "You see? You see what they're holding onto?" Shane pointed to the walkers as he screamed at the group.

"I see who I'm holding onto." Hershel answered.

"Nah, man, you don't." Shane stomped around them in a circle, looking a lot like a lion ready to pounce.

"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk." Rick tried to get his friend to stop screaming and calling the walkers attention.

"What you want to talk about, Rick?" Shane didn't lower his voice, it only got higher. "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."

Miri held Alice to her as she started to cry.

"Shane, shut up!" Rick yelled at Shane.

Daryl was behind Rick, his gun readied at the walker Rick was dealing with.

"Hey, Hershel man, let me ask you something. Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?"

Everyone jumped as Shane shot the female walker Hershel was holding onto in the mid-section threw times. Hershel stared in shock as the female continued to walk as if the bullets didn't hit her, yet he could see the black blood ooze onto her once pink dress.

"No!" Rick screamed. "Stop it!"

Shane ignored Rick's screams as he continued. "That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?! Why is it still coming?" he shot the walker in the heart now. "That's its heart, its lungs. Why is it still coming?" he taunted then shot it twice more in the chest.

"Shane, enough." Rick yelled.

Shane nodded and walked up to the walker. "Yeah, you're right, man. That is enough." He shot it in the head, finally stopping the walker, and walked away from it.

Hershel fell to his knees in shock. All this time, he had thought that they were just people, sick people, but Shane was right… how could they survive that many bullets without even stopping on account of the pain?

"Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone!" Shane's words brought tears to Carol's eyes as she held the flower tight and Miri tensed her jaw, ready to attack Shane if she needed to. "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."

Shane ran towards the barn doors, ready to unlock it.

Rick turned to Hershel. "Take the snare pole. Hershel, take the snare pole." Hershel was in a state of shock. "Hershel, listen to me, man, please. Take it now." Hershel still did nothing. "Hershel! Take it!"

Shane got a pick axe and tried to break the lock with it. "No, Shane." Rick yelled over the group screaming. "Do not do this, brother. Wait!"

Shane finally broke the lock.

"Don't do it!" Glenn yelled.

"Rick!" Miri yelled to her brother in pleading him to stop Shane's madness.

Rick tried to call out to stop Shane. "Please!"

Shane removed the wood board that held the doors closed and banged on them. "Come on. Come on, we're out here." He moved away so he was far away when the walkers came out.

"This is not the way!"

Maggie held onto her father, Lori held Carl back, and Daryl kept Miri, Alice, and Carol behind him as he readied his gun.

"Get behind me." Lori told Carl as she moved him behind her.

"Come on." Shane whispered as he waited with his gun ready.

The first walker stepped out of the door, making Andrea, and T-Dog run forward near Shane.

"Aussie, stay here." Daryl told Miri before running up next to Shane and shooting walkers down.

"Maggie." Glenn looks at her, wanting to get rid of the walkers that could mean harm to her, but doesn't want to hurt her since some of them were her family.

"It's okay." Maggie tells him, her heart at her throat, before he runs forward and helps.

Shane turns around, a dark look on his face before he shoots the walker Rick was trying to control, then turning around and shooting the rest of the barn walkers.

Carl runs around his mother and runs forward but Lori holds him down.

"Stay back!" Rick tells them.

Hershel watches as the people he once knew were being downed in front of him.

Everyone looked at the bodies in front of the barn doors, the guns shots still ringing in their ears, when the sound of feet shuffling and snarling is heard from inside the barn.

A small footsteps out, showing a child's white sneaker and then the walker completely walked out.

The blonde hair and outfit makes the group realizes in horror that it is Sophia, still wearing her shoes and blue rainbow t-shirt, but her skin is pale and her face is in a snarl as she sees the group. There is a bite mark on her shoulder that showed the skin had been ripped off.

Carol sobs as she spots her daughter, now a walker instead of alive and roaming the woods around them. "Sophia? Sophia! Sophia. Sophia. Oh no. Sophia." She ran forward in anguish, desperately screaming out her daughter's name as she clenched the Cherokee rose in her hand, but Miri grabs onto her, bringing them both to the ground near Daryl's feet. "Sophia. No." Carol sobs in Miri's arms as the woman holds onto her tightly.

Sophia growled as she came staggering toward the group, the cries of her mother attracting her attention.

Nobody dares to shoot as they stared in shock. They struggle as they watched for any signs of the little girl that was once there.

Even Shane, who moments ago was in a furious rage over the group's inaction, is now taken aback in a stunned silence, unable to do what must be done.

"Don't watch." Lori tells Carl and Alice, who she pulled into her arms when Miri ran to stop Carol.

"Sophia." Carol cried as she weakly fought against Miri's hold.

It is ultimately Rick who steps up with resolve, his shoulders squared as he takes this load of burden once again. As the girl nears the group, he steps forward with his gun, points it at the little walker, and pulls the trigger when she is only inches away.

She falls to the ground as Carol wails in Miri's arms.

Rick in the end, was the one who had the strength to do what had to be done in the post-apocalyptic world.