Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead. I also have no claim on any pop culture references that I may use throughout my writings. I only own my OCs. Enjoy the read.
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~211 ~ 3690
Hours had passed and Daryl still hadn't returned from wherever he had run off to with Carol. Isabell wasn't worried about him, but she was worried about him coming back to yell at her about not telling him that there were walkers in the barn. She was a bit worried about what trouble he might have gotten into, but Daryl was going to do whatever he wanted to. Isabell couldn't control him even if there was an ounce of her that wanted to.
Isabell groaned, waking up from her sleeping state. She had fallen in and out of her consciousness throughout the day, trying to pass the time for Daryl to come back. There wasn't much that he been going on during the day since Rick was mostly trying to figure out why there were walkers in the barn.
Isabell pushed herself off of the cot and left her tent, stretching her arms high over her head. She took around the camp, and she saw Carl, Beth, and Patricia sitting on the porch. Glenn and Maggie were close by, sitting on the porch steps, cuddled together. Isabell climbed the few stairs around the couple, landing on the platform. She stood behind Carl, with a hand on his shoulder. "How ya doin, bud?" Isabell asked, looking over at his game of checkers with Beth. "Are ya winnin'?"
"He's doin' pretty good." Beth bragged for him, sending the boy a smile.
"It's only checkers." Carl said, waving it off.
Isabell laughed at his dismissal and sighed. She gave his shoulder a light squeeze. "Maybe one day we can work you up to chess, huh?"
Carl nodded.
Isabell looked out into the land, and she saw that Andrea and T-Dog were coming from one direction and Carol and Daryl were coming from the other. She studied Daryl for a moment seeing that he looked better. It put Isabell at ease knowing that Carol might have gotten through to him.
"Do y'all know what's goin' on?" T-Dog called, stopping a few paces from the porch.
Isabell furrowed her brow. She moved back around Glenn and Maggie to put her boots to the grass. "What do you mean?" Isabell asked, standing equally between Daryl and T-Dog.
"Where is everyone?" Andrea asked.
Glenn stood from the steps, along with Maggie. "You haven't seen Rick?"
Andrea shrugged. "He went off with Hershel. We were supposed to leave a couple hours ago for another search."
"Yeah you were." Daryl said. He joined Isabell by her side, taking her by surprised. "What the hell's goin' on?"
"Rick told us he was going out." Carol added.
Isabell scoffed. "So no one knows where Rick is and no one went out to look for Sophia?" she questioned angrily.
"Dammit." Daryl cursed. "Isn't anybody taking this seriously? We just got us a damn trail." Daryl turned in his spot to see Shane coming towards him.
Shane appeared from the tree line with the bag that held their guns.
"What are you doin' with that?" Isabell asked.
"Here we go." Daryl chimed, getting more confused as Shane came towards him. "What's all this?"
"You with me, man?" Shane asked, holding a shotgun out to Daryl.
Daryl looked at the shotgun for a moment before realizing what he was trying to do. The barn. "Yeah." Daryl said simply.
"D, wait." Isabell said, signifying that it was always a bad idea to start siding with Shane on anything. Especially this mess they've got themselves in. Isabell tried to continue to argue with Daryl, but Shane shoved a gun into her hands. "Shane, stop!"
"Time to grow up!" Shane pressed before he looked to Andrea. "You already got yours?"
"Yeah." Andrea responded, gesturing to the piece in her hand. "Where's Dale?"
"He's on his way." Shane said. He reached into the bag again and handed a gun to T-Dog.
T-Dog looked down at the gun in his hand, torn. "Thought we couldn't carry."
"Yeah. We can and we have to."
"Shane, we can't do this." Isabell said, following Shane's steps.
Shane ignored Isabell, still, addressing what little of the group was around them. "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." Shane stood in front of Glenn, offering him a shotgun. "How about you, man? You gonna protect yours?" He asked with his eyes shooting over at Maggie.
Glenn looked to Maggie standing next to him momentarily before deciding to take the shotgun from Shane.
"That's it." Shane encouraged. "What about you? Can you shoot?" The deputy asked the oldest Greene daughter.
"Can you stop?" Maggie countered, a strong glare on her face. "You do this, you hand out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight."
"We have to stay, Shane." Carl whined.
"Carl's right." Isabell backed up. "We haven't found Sophia yet. This is the safest place to stay while we look for her."
Lori rushed from around the backside of the house, hearing the ruckus from the fight. "What is this?" She asked.
"We ain't goin' anywhere, okay?" Shane promised the child, meeting his eyes. He turned away, looking to the group. "Now, look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Okay? He — well, he's gonna have to."
"Except that he won't!" Isabell insisted. "He's an old man that is stuck in his damn ways and will make us leave. You can't do this!"
"We need to find Sophia." Shane said, kneeling down in front of Carl. "Am I right?" He asked the child.
Isabell scoffed at the deputy. "This morning you were damn sure that she was dead."
Shane shook his head, eyes narrowing at the sound of Isabell's voice. He kept his attention on Carl. "Now, I want you to take this." Shane said, holding out a handgun for Carl to take. "You take it, Carl, and you keep your mother safe. You do whatever it takes. You know how." Shane paused while Carl hesitated to take the weapon. "Go on, take the gun and do it."
Lori stepped in front of her kid so that he couldn't take the gun from Shane. She looked down at him. "Rick said no guns. This is not your call. This is not your decision to make."
"Oh, shit!" T-Dog exclaimed.
Isabell turned her head towards T-Dog.
The man was staring off behind the group, towards the trees.
Isabell saw Rick was coming from the path with Jimmy and Hershel. They both had a couple walkers on some sort of leash.
"What is that?" Shane asked, seeing the same thing and getting to his feet. He took off running towards Rick, wondering what the hell was going on.
Isabell scoffed and rolled her eyes. From the corner of her eye, she saw Daryl take off after Shane. "Daryl, stop!" Isabell shouted, hurrying after him. "You shouldn't be running." As she approached Hershel, Rick, and Jimmy, Isabell almost couldn't believe what was right in front of her. She saw it, but it was all wrong.
Daryl quickly raised the gun he had, aiming it at the walker that Rick was holding onto.
"What the hell you doin'?!" Shane asked Rick.
Rick shook his head. "Shane, just back off." He pressured still holding the walker.
The old man looked around at the group members. "Why do your people have guns?" Hershel asked.
"Are you kidding me?" Shane asked. "You see? You see what they're holding onto?"
"I see who I'm holding onto." Hershel stressed.
"No, man, you don't."
"Shane, just let us do this, and we can talk." Rick promised.
"Rick, even I've got to admit this is…." Isabell searched for the right words. "This is so wrong."
Daryl stepped forward as Isabell did, making sure that he always had himself between her and the walkers.
"What you want to talk about, Rick?" Shane asked. "These things ain't sick. They're not people. They're dead. Ain't gonna feel nothin' for them 'cause all they do is kill. These things, right here," He gestured to the walkers. "They're the things that killed Amy." Shane said to Andrea. "They killed Otis." He reminded Patricia. He stood next to Isabell and pointed a finger in her face. "They killed your kid.
Isabell pursed her lips and tightened her grip on the gun in her hand. For the second time, she had the strongest urge to punch Shane.
"They're gonna kill all of us."
"Shane, shut up!" Rick ordered.
"Hey, Hershel, man, let me ask you something." Shane reached for his handgun in his waistband. "Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" He shot the walker Hershel was leading three times.
"No!" Rick shouted. "Stop it!"
"That's three rounds in the chest." Shane clarified loudly. "Could someone who's alive, could they just take that? Why is it still coming?" Shane shoots the walker twice more. "That's its heart, its lungs. Why is it still comin'?" There were three more shots let off into the walker.
Rick looked to Shane. "Shane, enough!"
"Yeah, you're right, man." Shane said, taking angry steps toward the walker. "That is enough." The deputy shot the woman walker in the head, point-blank."
Isabell jumped at the sound of the gun. She and everyone else had bewildered looks on their faces. They all knew that Shane was seriously out of line.
"Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone!" Shane yelled.
Isabell's eyes shot to Carol as the other woman took a step away from the group. The blonde shook her head at Carol, telling her that she still believed Sophia was alive.
"Enough living next to a barn full of things that are tryin' to kill us! Enough! Rick, it ain't like it was before!" Shane preached. "Now, if y'all wanna live, if you want to survive, you gotta fight for it. I'm talking about fighting right here, right now." Shane turned and ran straight for the barn, ready to break it open.
"Take the snare pole!" Rick shouted to Hershel. "Hershel, take the snare pole."
Hershel ignored the man. His attention was lost, staring at the dead walker in front of him. Hershel was so much in shock that the old man had fallen to his knees.
"Hershel, listen to me! Man, please, take it now. Hershel, take it now!"
Shane picked up the pickaxe he saw leaning against the barn. He used it as a lever to break the lock off of the hinge.
"Wait!" Lori shouted.
"No, Shane!" Rick shouted, not being able to let go of the walker that he was holding onto. "Do not do this, brother. Wait!" He begged.
"Don't do it!" Glenn shouted.
Isabell looked to Daryl on right. "Daryl, we have to do something. We have to stop him. We…. We have to stop this." Isabell noticed Daryl's eyes glance towards her quickly before landing back on the walker Rick held.
"Rick!" Lori shouted, trying to get her husband to do something.
"Please!" Rick begged, wanting the madness to end.
Shane pulled the wood plank, holding it closed from the door. He let both barn doors swing open from the walkers that were already pushing on it. Shane smiled. "Come on! Come on!" he shouted at the walkers. "We're out here!"
Rick was still trying to plead his case about not unleashing the walkers, but it was too late. "This is not the way. Please."
Isabell looked around at the group surrounding her.
Hershel and his family were watching, devastated, as their safe haven fell apart around them.
Glenn was trying to comfort Maggie to the best of his abilities.
Carol was standing alone and holding a hand to her chest. She was nearly shedding tears, afraid of everything that was happening.
Lori was holding onto her child, wondering how Rick was supposed to stop Shane.
Shane stood in front of the doors to the barn. He cocked his handgun and aimed it at the crack in the door as the walkers started to pour out.
Isabell looked at Daryl, who was staring out at the madness. "Daryl!" She shouted, pulling him from his trance.
The man shook his head and took a step forward. He finally moved towards the barn to stop the walkers that were piling out of the barn. Daryl helped Shane in shooting down walkers as they came out.
Andrea and T-Dog move to do the same.
Isabell watched on, wishing there was something she could do to calm the surrounding people. She looked to her right.
Glenn quietly asked Maggie for permission to help bring down the walkers.
Shane looked back at Rick and the walker that he was holding onto. He aimed his gun at the walker, shooting it in the head.
Isabell swallowed her pride and stepped up to stand in the firing line next to Daryl. She took aim and shot down a couple of walkers before they started to thin out.
In the background, Rick was telling those shooting to stop. It wasn't possible now, it was too late to.
Daryl shot the final walker from the barn and the entire group took a deep breath.
Isabell looked over at Daryl. She bit her lip and closed her eyes, having no words for the situation they'd found themselves in. Isabell opened her eyes when she heard a soft snarl coming from inside the barn. She looked towards the building, her grip on her gun hardening. Isabell raised the weapon, poised to shoot whatever came out.
A little girl stumbled out from between the barn doors. The tiny person is nearly unrecognizable, but Isabell has seen the shirt before.
Isabell knew exactly who it was. She dropped the gun from her hands and took a step forward. "Sophia?" Isabell whispered as a trembling feeling came over her and a lump formed in her throat. "No, Sophia…." Her heart dropped further when she thought of Carol. Isabell turned in her spot to glance at the woman.
"Sophia?" Carol questioned. She took a few slow steps forward before breaking into a jog, heading for her child. It was her daughter. "Sophia!" Carol cried out.
Isabell rushed to grab Carol before she can get to Sophia. Isabell caught her and held Carol tight. The two of them fell hard to the ground, kneeling in the dirt.
Carol continued to reach out for her daughter. Her tears were falling heavily now, sobbing for Sophia. "Oh, no, Sophia!"
Isabell held onto Carol tightly, so that she couldn't get away from her. She is crying just as hard for the little girl as Carol was. There was nothing Isabell could do. She took a deep breath. "Oh, god." Isabell cried out, trying to stop the tears.
Sophia took a few steps towards the group over the bodies of the fallen walkers. She's growling.
Isabell looked at Daryl. "Daryl, do something!" She screamed at him.
Daryl didn't move forward to take care of Sophia. Instead, he joined Isabell kneeling next to her and putting a hand on her shoulder.
Isabell let out a small sob and then groaned. "Somebody fucking do something!" She shouted angrily as the tears were still staining her face.
Rick squared his shoulders, taking harsh steps around the front line. He raised his gun to the little girl. Rick hesitated, wishing that he wasn't seeing what was in front of him. He wished the child in front of him was anybody else but the little girl that had the group holding onto so much hope.
That was it. Sophia was gone. The little girl that Isabell had grown to love and care for like she had been her own daughter was one of them.
Sophia was a walker.
Isabell couldn't help but blame herself for not being able to find the girl before. She swore to herself Sophia wouldn't become one of those monsters.
Isabell took in a deep breath. She gripped hard to Carol, preparing herself for when Rick finally fired his gun. Isabell jumped at the loud sound of gunfire.
Carol's head fell into Isabell's lap as her sobs deepened for the loss of the last person in her family.
Isabell draped her own body over Carol's. She hid her face and cried into the woman's shirt. "I'm sorry." Isabell whispered to Carol. "I'm so sorry."
Daryl had overheard her and shook his head. He needed to get her out of here. Daryl pushed Isabell into a seated position. "Don't look." He said to Isabell and Carol.
Isabell quickly pushed Daryl away from her. "The hell do you think yer doin'?" She asked.
"'M tryin' ta help. Now get off yer ass." Daryl ordered, pulling on her arm.
For some reason, Isabell listened. She sat up, giving Daryl access to the crying woman under her.
Daryl grabbed Carol under her arms and pulled her up. He made her stand, facing away from the barn. "Don't look." Daryl said to her, knowing that Carol didn't need to see Sophia's corpse. He led Isabell and Carol back towards their camp circle.
As reluctant as Isabell was to leave the barn, there wasn't much else she could do but listen to Daryl. Beating the shit out of Shane wasn't going to do any good. Everything was lost. Sophia was gone. Harley was gone. There wasn't anything else for her to live for.
Daryl stopped at the RV, leading Carol into it. He gestured for her to sit at the table inside.
Carol had stopped crying and took the seat. She was emotionless now, staring out at nothing.
"Iz, c'mon inside." Daryl called softly, looking out at her through the screen door.
Isabell shook her head. She leaned against the RV, putting her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. "I'm good."
"Izzy, come on." He urged.
"I said no, Daryl." Isabell snapped. She stayed where she was for a while, not knowing what was happening inside the camper. Isabell opened her button down shirt and wiped her face with the tank top she had on underneath. She took in a shaky breath. Isabell's brain was still having a hard time catching up with what happened.
Isabell wasn't sure how long it had been before Lori came walking towards her.
Lori put a hand on Isabell's shoulder as a sign of comfort to her, but Isabell shied away from touch. Lori shook it off, and tried to catch Isabell's eye. "I'm sorry." The brunette said.
Isabell stood up straight, pushing off of the RV. She shook her head. "Don't be. Wan't my kid."
Lori nodded anyway. She knocked on the RV door once, before she opened the door and climbed into the vehicle. Lori hesitated before she spoke, looking between Carol and Daryl. "They're ready." She said, looking out to Isabell through the window.
Carol shook her head, not wanting to go.
"C'mon." Lori urged, waving her along.
"Why?" Carol questioned darkly.
"'Cause that's yer little girl." Daryl said plainly.
Carol looked up at Daryl, her head moving back and forth just slightly. "That's not my little girl. That's some other….thing." Carol paused, looking back out the RV window. "My Sophia was alone in the woods. All this time I thought…." She shook her head, crying. "She didn't cry herself to sleep. She didn't go hungry. She didn't try to find her way back. Sophia died a long time ago."
Lori stayed for another moment before she decided she wasn't wanted there anymore. Pleading to Carol about a case to see her daughter's funeral, wasn't something that would be an easy task.
Daryl clenched his jaw. He nodded at Carol before leaving her alone. Daryl stormed off towards the burial site, leaving Isabell standing at the RV.
Isabell shook her head, watching him leave. She held her hands together tightly, almost hurting herself. Isabell was trying to fight the urge to yell at Carol, but she wasn't doing a great job. She burst into the RV, frightening Carol. "God!" Isabell shouted, stopping to look at Carol. "I know you're angry Carol, and I'm so sorry that we didn't find her in time." Isabell said, feeling the tears sting her eyes again.
Carol studied Isabell carefully, wondering why she was so angry.
"But walker or not, that little girl was yer daughter at one point. You raised her and hugged her when she was sad or scared. You tucked her in every night and you protected her from yer jackass of a husband." Isabell reminded Carol. "Sophia was and is yer daughter. I'll tell ya right now, I would give anythin' to have had the chance to bury Harley. To put her to rest and put my heart at ease." Isabell put her hand to her chest and took a deep breath.
Carol was starting to cry all over again, hearing Isabell's strong words.
"But instead I have a hole. And it hurts so much." Isabell's voice cracked towards the end of her sentence. She shook her head and wiped at the tears falling down her face. "You might not be able to handle seein' her like this and I get that. I just hope you soon realize, yer gonna wish you were there for yer daughter like you were her whole life." The blonde quickly left the RV, slamming the door behind her. Isabell followed Daryl's path to the place where the other had planned on burying the three loved ones.
Isabell stopped, standing directly in front of the hole that was meant for Sophia. She stared at the small body that had been wrapped in a sheet. Isabell cleared her throat. "Daryl, help me." She ordered, thankful when he didn't argue.
"Where's Carol?" Andrea asked, knowing that they probably shouldn't be burying Sophia without her mother around.
"She's not coming." Isabell answered. She and Daryl each gently grabbed an end of the little girl. They lowered her into the grave that was dug for her. Isabell was breathing heavily as she pulled herself up. She grabbed a shovel and decided to fill up the hole herself.