A/N: I do not own The Walking Dead in any way, shape or form.
A/N: So I realize that I updated chapter 6 a few days late and I felt kinda bad about it so I decided to make it up to yall (and myself) and give yall an extra chapter this week. I'll still be uploading another chapter this coming Sunday just to keep myself on track. I hope everyone reading my revised version had been enjoying the story so far.
Chapter 7
The next morning Adrian woke up a more than a little sore. Not only from all of the physical labor she went through with Daryl in the woods yesterday, but also because she spent half of the night asleep in a hard wooden chair, but at the time she had been too tired to be uncomfortable. Adrian had woken up in the middle of the night, what had woken her she wasn't sure, and had realized she was sleeping in the chair in Daryl's sick room.
She looked over at the bed to see Daryl sleeping soundly and quietly walked out of the house and to her tent. When she woke up a few hours after sunrise she felt like a troll. Her face felt a little crusty, she was pretty sure her hair looked like Medusa's, and her mouth tasted like something had died in it. The first thing she did was dry wipe her face to make the crusty feeling go away. Then she grabbed her hair brush and toothbrush case from her pack. She couldn't stand the taste in her mouth any more so she tackled her morning breath before she brushed her hair out, wanting to leave it down for the day.
She didn't feel like changing her clothes so she decided to stay in them. She may have slept in them the night before but they were still clean so there was no sense in changing clothes in her opinion. She grabbed her boots and pulled them on, leaving the laces a little loose since she was staying around camp today. Adrian stepped out of her tent to see everyone up and about. Kale stepped up beside her when Glenn came by offering them some peaches. Adrian grabbed four and thanked him, noticing that he seemed troubled.
"What's up with him?" she asked Kale as she bit into one of the peaches. Peaches were a much better breakfast option than granola bars. "Don't know." he said as he bit into his own peach. "He came back to the tent last night all jumpy. I asked him what was up but he just blew me off. I tried to ask him again this morning but he's been in this mood since he got up." he told as he took another bite of his peach.
"Well, I'm gonna go check on the cripple. I'll see you around." she told Kale, tapping his arm as she walked past. She was approaching Daryl's tent when she seen Andrea step out.
"But hey, if you ever shoot me again, ya best pray I'm dead." she heard Daryl say to Andrea, who smiled at the comment and left.
Adrian walked into his tent without an invitation and looked down at him.
"I love your pillowcase. It matches your eyes." she said mockingly as she looked at the ugly pillowcase he was laying on.
"Shut up." he told her.
"Now, is that any way to speak to someone who brought you a treat?" she asked, holding up the two extra peaches she had grabbed. Daryl held his hands up for them and Adrian tossed them at him, aiming and hitting him in the stomach.
She let out a soft laugh at Daryl's grunt of surprise.
"Damn it, woman. What'd I tell you last night?" Daryl said giving her a glare that didn't really have any actual heat to it.
"Oh, shut up. You can take it and it didn't even hurt." she told him.
"When did Hershel release you from the house?" she asked him, sitting down across from him.
"This mornin'. Said I needed to take it easy for a while to heal right." he told her as he started to eat one of his peaches.
"Well you certainly look comfy." she said before something on the floor caught her attention.
"What's this?" she said picking up the book she seen.
"Andrea brought it by." he told her as she flipped through the book.
"I'm genuinely surprised." she said, her eyebrows raised as she looked back at Daryl.
"About what?" he asked her.
"I didn't know you could read." she said, grinning at him.
"Bite me." he said as he tossed his peach pit out of his tent door.
"Hey, there's no need to tempt me with a good time." she said, her smile getting larger as she noticed Daryl's ears starting to turn a little pink.
"Stop it." he mumbled.
"You started it." she said laughing at him.
"Well, I'll leave you to rest instead of sitting here teasing you all day. I'll stop by later with something actually worth reading." she said as she got up to leave.
"Later." Daryl said in farewell.
Adrian was standing by the RV a little while later talking to Carl and teasing him about his new hat, when she overheard about the gun training Shane and Rick were having later that day. Beth and Patricia said they wanted to join before Shane started walking over towards she and Carl, who had been doing a poor impression of sharpening a stick.
Shane walked by, flicking Carl's hat and turned to sit on the front bumper of the RV.
"I wanna learn how to shoot too. Can you teach me?" Carl immediately told Shane.
"I don't know man, it's up to your parents." Shane told him.
"Can you talk to them? They listen to you." Carl tried to reason with Shane.
Shane let out a bitter scoff at the statement of them listening to him.
Adrian eyed Shane as he and the boy spoke. She didn't have a problem with Shane personally, but she had noticed his odd behavior the last few days. He would get angry when his suggestions weren't followed and she could see that he resented Rick now being leader of the group. From what she had seen over the last few days, she was more than happy with Rick being in charge. Rick seemed to care about the group as a whole, as to where Adrian, and she as sure everyone else, had noticed that Shane only really cared for Lori and Carl.
It must have really sucked for him to fall in love with his dead friends wife, only for his friend to turn up alive. Adrian had started sensing a bad vibe coming from Shane ever since he came back from the run with Otis, but she hadn't known what it was at the time, but the longer she watched Shane, the more she seen it. He was down spiraling, and fast. She was afraid to find out what he would do when he hit the bottom of that spiral, because from the looks of it, he wasn't going to stop any time soon.
"We'll see." Shane told Carl.
Carl turned to leave when they heard a small click come from Carl.
"Hey." Shane said, drawing his attention. "Let's see what you got there." Shane told Carl. Carl reluctantly lifted his shirt to show Shane the gun he had tucked into his pants. Shane threw his half eaten peach in a small fit of anger before he took the gun from Carl and walked to Rick and Lori, showing them the gun.
"Why would you take that, Carl?" Adrian asked him as she walked him over to sit on a bench.
"Because I want to help look for Sophia and help to protect the camp." he told her as he sat down.
"Oh sweetie." she said to him before Lori walked over to her son, the gun in her hand.
Adrian went over to stand next to Dale, who was standing beside Rick and Shane.
"How the hell did this happen?" Lori demanded as she walked to the small group, tucking the gun into her back pocket. "It's my fault, I let him into the RV." Dale said, feeling responsible since he was in charge of keeping track of all of the guns.
"He said he wanted a walkie, that you sent him for one?" Dale said, pointing to Rick.
By the look on Rick's face, he most certainly did not send Carl for one of the walkies.
"So on top of everything else, he lied." Lori said.
"He asked me to teach him to shoot. Now, it's none of my business, but I'm more than happy to teach him, but it's up to you." Shane told Carl's parents.
"Well, I'm not comfortable with it." Lori said, giving a humorless laugh.
Everyone got quiet at her statement.
Lori caught on very quickly by the looks on all of their faces that none of them agreed.
"Oh, don't make me out to be the unreasonable one here. Rick?" she said, looking for her husband to support her decision, which he certainly did not.
"Look, I have my concerns too, but" Lori cut him off quickly.
"There is no but. He just got shot. He's barely on his feet, and he wants a gun?" she said trying to talk sense into her husband.
"Better than for him to be afraid of them." he told her, and Adrian had to agree.
"I don't want my son carrying around a gun." Lori told him heatedly.
"How can you defend that? How can you want to send him anywhere without protection?" Rick asked her.
Adrian seen where Lori was coming from. Her son had just been shot and was still healing and in her eyes, he was still he baby boy and shouldn't be allowed to hold a gun, much less carry one around. But what Lori refused to accept was that they lived in a world now where if you didn't have a gun on you at all times, it could mean the difference between life and death.
Lori refused to let go of her way of thinking from before.
But before was long gone and never coming back.
Now, you had to adapt or you died.
"He's growing up, thank god. But we have to start treating him like an adult." Rick told Lori.
"Than he needs to start acting like one, he's not mature enough to be holding a gun." Lori snapped.
"I'm not gonna play with it mom, I know it's not a toy. But I wanna look for Sophia and I wanna help protect the camp and I can't do that without a gun." Carl told her.
Adrian was impressed by Carl for standing up to his mother.
Lori was so desperate to keep him as her little boy and to keep thinking by the rules from life before zombies, but in Adrian's opinion, it just wasn't a realistic way of thinking anymore.
Lori's eyes caught Adrian's.
"Surely you agree with me." Lori said to her.
Adrian was quiet for a second before she spoke.
"Do you really want to hear what I think?" she asked the woman.
"Yes." Lori said.
"My son had his own BB gun at age 8 and by the time he was 10 he had his own .22 rifle that he would take when we went hunting together. It's a dangerous world now, Lori. I think it's a smart idea for him to know how to shoot. Imagine if he didn't get the training and got a hold of another gun. He could accidently shoot either himself, or someone else, because he didn't know how to properly handle it." Adrian said.
The look in Lori's eyes said that she wished she had never asked her.
"Look, Shane is the best instructor I know. I've seen him teach kids younger than Carl." Rick told his very stubborn wife. Lori looked at Rick for a few moments before she walked over to Carl. She lectured Carl about taking the training seriously. Rick promised that Carl wouldn't disappoint them and she finally gave her consent to letting him learn how to handle the gun he would soon be carrying.
TWD
Adrian was on her way to the RV after having just dropped off a book for Daryl to read, calling him an uncultured swine when he looked at the front of the book and telling her he had never heard of it before. Adrian thought she might give the others a break from guard duty, usually done by either Dale or Glenn, when she heard someone yelling from across camp. "And here's your abortion pills!" the person, who sounded suspiciously like Maggie, yelled.
Adrian saw Lori pick up the pills off the ground as Maggie and Glenn walked away from her. Lori, looking upset, took the pills into her tent and she didn't come back out. Adrian decided to see if Lori was okay but stopped a few feet from the tent when she seen Glenn walk inside of her tent. It seemed that Glenn had also gotten Lori a bottle of prenatal vitamins along with the morning after pills she asked for. Lori mentions how that was one hell of a decision, to keep the baby or not, and Glenn responded by saying he was glad he didn't have to make it but that she shouldn't make it alone.
Adrian walked up to the opening of Lori's tent after Glenn left.
"Hi." Adrian said a bit awkwardly.
"Hey." Lori said to her, a little confused.
Lori didn't know what to make of the red headed woman. When Lori usually thought of her it was followed by a feeling of frustration. Lori didn't like how familiar the woman was with her son or how often she ended up with Rick in the woods since they lost Sophia at the highway.
Adrian never crossed any lines or anything, Lori just didn't like how close the woman was to her son and husband, so for Adrian to seek her out, it struck Lori as odd.
"I, um, I heard Maggie earlier. And what you just told Glenn. Can I come in?" she asked Lori.
"Sure." Lori said, even if she didn't sound happy about it.
"Does Rick know?" Adrian asked her.
Lori just shook her head no.
"What about Shane?" she asked again. This time she got a reaction from the brunette.
"Excuse me?" Lori asked, as if offended.
"I know about you and Shane. I unintentionally happened upon you two a few times at the quarry." Adrian told her sheepishly.
Lori said nothing because she was in utter disbelief.
"No, Shane doesn't know either. Just Dale, Glenn, Maggie, and you." she said.
"Do you know what you're going to do?" Adrian asked nodding towards the table that held both morning after pills and prenatal vitamins.
"No. I mean, if I kept it, wouldn't it just be cruel to force it into this harsh world where it would be forced to live a short and brutal life? Wouldn't it be kinder to just take the choice away so it would never have to know pain? It would never know happiness, or get to grow old, and constantly having to fight for it's life every day." Lori told her, not really understanding why she was telling the woman all of this.
They weren't friends, or even close, but she felt that she could confide in the woman.
"How do you know?" Adrian asked her.
"What?" Lori asked, not understanding the question.
"How do you know that it will never know happiness or grow old and that every single day will be a fight for it's life?" she explained.
"Look at the world we live in now. I can keep going because I live off of my memories of the life I used to have, the joy and happiness of it all. This child won't know any of that." Lori told her.
"None of those things were ever guaranteed before, Lori. Happiness, getting to grow old? None of those things were a guarantee before. My mother had a happy childhood, but eventually, she lived every second of her life in fear of my father. She was no older than I am when she was killed. No one is ever certain if they will be alive tomorrow, that holds true for now just as much as before, and you can try to deny it all you want, but the only difference is that it's just a little harder now." she told Lori when she seen the woman about to argue.
"I was in your position, when I was pregnant with my son." she told her.
Lori looked at her surprised.
"I was devastated when I found out I was pregnant. I was just so overwhelmed at the time. I was only 14 years old and my grandfather, who had raised me, had just died. I was forced to live with my great-aunt and her husband in Atlanta, so on top of trying to come to terms with being a statistic in teen pregnancy and being crushed by the grief brought on by my grandfather's death, I was having to deal with such a big move and the last thing I wanted was a baby. My aunt had been made aware of my condition before I had moved in with her so she had made me an appointment at a Women's and Children's hospital. I had already decided that I didn't want the baby and I was going to tell the doctor when I walked into the office, but my aunt talked me into doing just one ultrasound, and I agreed just to shut her up." Adrian told her, her eyes glazing over as she replayed the memory in her head.
"What changed your mind?" Lori asked her, now understanding the reason behind her visit.
"I seen him on the screen of the ultrasound machine. I was no more than two and a half, maybe three months along at the time. He was barely more than a black and white blur on the screen, but the second I seen him on that screen and I heard his fast little heartbeat, I couldn't imagine why I wanted to give him up. I instantly fell in love with him and I promised myself that not only would I keep that baby but that I would be a better parent to that child than my parents were to me. And I never regretted the decision, Lori, never." Adrian said, looking into Lori's blue eyes.
"But your son was ripped away from you because of all of this. How could you ever think it would be okay to raise a child in this?" Lori asked her.
"Seth was taken from me, yes. But then I found another boy who needed me, that I kept alive this time. This world isn't all bad memories. My worst one is loosing my son, but I also have a lot of fond memories of the times I've spent with Kale, and even the short time that Carl was with us. Those are the memories I cling to. I'll always look back to the past, but I can't cling to it so tightly now. Because if I focus too much on the past, then I'll miss any good memories I could make in the present." Adrian told her as she stood up.
"This decision is yours to make, but while you think about what to do, don't just think about the bad because while this world is harder than the old one, it doesn't mean we can't find happiness." Adrian left Lori with those words.
TWD
Adrian had been on watch since she had left Lori's tent and everything was quiet.
Hot and quiet.
A few hours later Adrian seen Rick walking though camp and had walked through the gate that lead to the dirt driveway of the farm. She watched as Rick walked over to Lori, who had been sitting in the tall grass by the fence of the field. Lori stood up as she seen Rick walking toward her and, from what Adrian could tell, the discussion got pretty heated between the couple.
After a few minutes Rick walked away, seeming to want to be alone. Adrian seen him stop by some trees close to where they had left the pile of rocks for Otis and watching as he started to pace.
"Hey, Kale." Adrian said calling down to the boy who was inside the RV cleaning his shotgun.
"Yeah." she heard him call back.
"Come take over for me?" she asked.
"Sure, just give me a sec to finish this up." he told her.
"Sure." she mumbled as she kept her eyes on Rick.
Adrian thought it was weird for her to feel the urge to go and talk to Rick. Clearly his mind was troubled or else he wouldn't be pacing, but really it wasn't any of her business. But she felt the need to see if he was okay nonetheless. She and Rick had formed a somewhat odd friendship over the past week or so. Maybe it felt odd because the foundation of their friendship was due to their concern for the children.
First, only she and Rick had gone into the woods to run after Sophia after the walkers started chasing her and then when they couldn't find her at the end of the day and Carol tried to lay the blame of Sophia missing at Rick's feet, she had felt a connection with Rick. Rick had felt conflicted about his decision of leaving Sophia alone but Adrian had faced the same choice he had when she had first found Kale and had made the exact same decision as Rick had. The only difference was that Kale was still there when she came back.
And then when Carl had been shot, Adrian had done everything she could to help Rick and Hershel save the boys' life. She didn't love Carl the same as Rick did but she cared about the boy tremendously and didn't want to see anything bad happen to him. She could see how thankful Rick was after Carl had pulled through the surgery and had told Rick he never had to thank her for saving Carl's life, and she had meant it. She should never have to be thanked for being a decent human being and trying to save a child. Children had always been the future of the human race and that was a truth that would never change.
Adrian was pulled from her thoughts at the sound of Kale climbing up the ladder to the roof of the RV. Adrian turned from her spot and walked to the end of the roof where she met Kale and handed him the rifle to keep watch.
"Thanks." she told him.
"No problem." he told her as he walked to the lawn chair that was kept up there for the person on guard duty could sit. She climbed down the ladder and started to walk in the direction where Rick was still pacing.
Rick didn't hear her walk up to him because he jumped when she called out to him.
"Hey." he mumbled as he kept up his pacing.
"So, I seen you talking to Lori." she said as she rocked back onto her heels, her hands feeling useless since she was still in her yoga pants from the night before. Rick finally stopped pacing and turned to look at her.
Something in her face must have given her away because a knowing look crossed his face.
"You knew." was all he said.
"About Lori being pregnant?" she asked.
Rick nodded.
"I found out a few hours ago. Which did she choose, pills or vitamins?" she asked him.
"The pills. But she says she threw them up. She says she doesn't know if she really wants this baby, but if that was the case she wouldn't have thrown the pills up." Rick told her.
"She says that it's not right to bring a baby into all of this. That it's life would constantly be in danger and that it's every cry would put everyone in danger too. That it's cruel to force a life like this onto a baby." he told her.
She was about to speak when she seen he wasn't done.
"But isn't it just as cruel to not give it a chance? I mean, if we could stay here, at the farm, where we have safety, food, shelter, we could make it work with this baby. It would be safe here." Rick said, needing to get it all out. "I mean, what would you do, if you were in Lori's position?" Rick asked her.
"That's a tricky question there Rick, there's a lot of different factors that go into this." she told him.
"Please." he pleaded, needing to hear her answer.
Adrian was quiet for a minute, thinking her words over carefully.
"I'm not sure, honestly. I can see both sides of your argument and agree with you both, but there are other things to consider." she told him.
He quietly waited for her answer.
"Having a baby in a situation like this, it would be hard. The constant need to keep it safe, make sure it had enough food, water, clothes, shelter. Yeah, we've got all of that now, but I would also be planning for a time when we weren't. If we were forced back out onto the road, where none of those things were guaranteed for us, and then the constant need to keep an eye out for danger, and then to be afraid of every time it would cry, knowing that the noise would bring danger to us...but at the same time, if it can survive all of those hardships, doesn't it prove that it would have a real chance of surviving this world?" she asked, not really expecting an answer.
"Lori says that this baby would have no memories of how life used to be, like all of us, and even Carl. And that's true, but it's not like everyone's memories of before were all sunshine and rainbows. And wouldn't it be better for it to not have any memories of how life used to be, because it wouldn't be able to live like that now. Isn't it better for it to only have memories of how it is now, it would grow up knowing how to survive in this world, an advantage none of us had." she finally asked him.
"That's what Lori's afraid of. That if the baby did grow up that all it would know is how to survive, that it would be just like any other animal, only living to survive." he told her.
Adrian thought that over before she spoke.
"Would you let that happen?" she finally asked him.
"What?" he asked, as if he didn't fully hear her question.
"You said Lori is afraid that the baby will grow up to be like an animal, only living to survive. Would you let that happen?" she asked him again.
"No." he said. "No, I wouldn't." he told her again.
Adrian gave him a small smile. She turned to leave but turned back, calling his name.
"To answer your original question, I would like to think I would choose to keep it. I would protect it until it was old enough to protect itself and I would teach it to survive in this harsh world. But I would also teach it how to love and to hold onto all of the good memories that it would make throughout it's life. Because while this new life is harsh, it's not all bad memories." she said to him.
TWD
The next morning, Adrian decided she hated Glenn.
Carol and T-Dog were around their cook fire cooking everyone eggs for breakfast, and if there was one thing Adrian had missed since the fall of market stores, it was eating eggs. Adrian and Kale had just received their portion of breakfast and started to dig in when Glenn stood up and asked for everyone's attention. And his next words set a series of events into motion that no one was prepared for.
"The barn's full of walkers." he said.
Everyone went still and silent. Nobody cared about breakfast after that, nobody but Adrian that is. As far as she was concerned, those damn walkers could wait until she was done eating, but no one else agreed with her.
Glenn had officially ruined her happy mood.
They all walked down to the barn that Hershel had been very adamant that they all stay away from.
Now they knew why.
Shane walked up to the barn and looked through the crack in the barn doors, seeing if he could see anything. Then they all heard the growl. Things escalated very quickly after that. No one felt comfortable now knowing that there was an immediate threat to their lives only a stone's throw away from where they all slept at night.
Then Shane told Rick they either needed to clear the barn or leave for Fort Benning, in his eyes those were their only options. But then Shane had to be a real dick and throw fuel on the fire of everyone's already simmering tempers.
"Carol, I think it's about time we all consider the other option here about Sophia." he aggressively told the older woman.
"Man, what the hell you talkin' about, I just found her damn doll two days ago." Daryl, who was now up and walking around, said to Shane.
"That's right, Daryl, all you found was a damn doll." Shane told him.
Everyone had considered the possibility that Sophia may not still be alive, but no one said anything about it because they all wanted to believe that she was still out there, just waiting to be found. No one wanted to be faced with the possible truth that they had all failed that poor little girl.
"Man, you don't know what the hell you're talkin' about." Daryl yelled at Shane, walking to get in the other man's face before Rick held out an arm to hold him back.
"Let me tell you somethin' else man, if Sophia had seen you out there all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears, she would've run in the other direction!" Shane yelled at Daryl , just angry about everything at this point.
"Daryl wasn't the only one out there, dipshit. If she had been close enough to see us then she would've seen me to, so you shut your damn mouth." Adrian yelled at him but her words did nothing for Daryl's explosive temper. Daryl jumped to hit Shane but Adrian and Rick pushed the two apart before a real fight could break out. Rick was pushing Daryl back while Adrian shoved Shane back, who roughly shoved against her shoulder, making her stumble back.
Then Adrian's temper exploded.
Kale had come to her side when he seen her stumble but then had to hold her back when she jumped toward Shane.
"Don't you dare touch me like that again!" she yelled at him, but he didn't seem concerned about her anger.
"Or what, huh, what the hell you gonna do about it?" he said, mocking her.
"Motherfucker, you have absolutely no idea what I can do. You ever touch me like that again and I will put your ass in the ground!" she yelled at him as Kale and Glenn pulled her back to stand by Daryl, who was now standing at the back of the group, breathing hard from holding his anger back.
Glenn walked away once they had gotten Adrian far away from Shane but Kale still stood behind her, holding her arm in a gentle yet firm grip. He knew that if she tried to get to Shane again that he might not catch her if he didn't already have her in his hold. Even though Adrian had been pulled back, the yelling match continued.
"Let me talk to Hershel, figure something out." Rick told Shane.
"What is there to figure out?!" Shane screamed at Rick.
"This is Hershel's land, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it." Rick said.
"Hershel sees those things as people. Sick people. His wife and stepson are in that barn." Dale said as he walked up to Rick.
"You knew?" Rick said in disbelief.
"Yesterday, I talked to him." Dale explained.
"And you didn't say anything?" Shane yelled at the older man.
"I thought we could make it one more night, and we did." Dale said, defending himself.
Everyone was splitting their attention between Rick and Dale and Shane, but Adrian was solely focused on Shane. Adrian knew that Shane had temper, that he was down spiraling into anger to the point where it was almost the only emotion he was showing. He would pace a lot, like a caged animal, and reeked of angry frustration. She knew he was becoming dangerous, she had even briefly had a quiet discussion with Dale while he was on guard duty the other day and he was noticing everything she was about Shane, so she knew it wasn't just her seeing things.
Shane kept yelling, which eventually caught the attention of the walkers inside the barn, who started to harshly push against the locked barn doors. Everyone was instantly on guard and very few of them were armed with any weapons.
"Well, now that we've caught their attention, how about we move this yelling bitch fit somewhere else." Adrian said.
TWD
Adrian seen Daryl walking toward the barn and opened the tackle room, coming out with a heavy saddle.
"What the hell are you doing?" she asked, walking up behind him.
"I'm goin' back out, what's it look like." he told her throwing the saddle onto a saddle stool with more difficulty than he had a few days ago.
"Alright, fine then, let me rephrase my question. Are you out of your damn mind?" she said, standing in his way so he had to face her.
She wasn't sure if she expected an answer or not but she didn't get one.
"Is this about what Shane said?" she asked.
"Because if it is, than that's just stupid. Fuck Shane and what he said. Let him spout whatever shit he wants because he's not the one going out every day to find Sophia, you are. You know you're trying and so does everyone else around here." she told him, putting her hands against his chest to hold him still, which he did but only because he allowed it.
"What good has that done, huh? She's still out there." he told her.
"But you're looking! You told me about how you got lost in the woods when you were a boy, that you were gone for 9 days before you found your way home. How likely do you think it is that you would've been found any faster if you only had a few people out there looking for you? How likely it is that they could've just missed somewhere you had been." she told him, making him pause.
"You are trying Daryl. You are. Don't let anyone make you feel like you aren't doing enough to find her, because you are. If you believe nothing else, believe that." she told him.
Neither said anything as they starred at each other intently.
Adrian hated that that shitstain Shane made Daryl feel it was his fault that Sophia hadn't been found yet when Shane was doing nothing to help find her. All of his attempts had been halfhearted at best because all he cared about was Lori and Carl.
"You can't go out there." Carol said as she walked into the stable.
Adrian and Daryl turned to look at her and Adrian took a step away from him.
"I'm fine." he told her as he turned away from Adrian and grabbed the reins for the horse he was about to get ready to leave on.
"Hershel said you need to heal." Carol told him.
"Yeah, I don't care." he said as he opened the door to the horse's stall.
"Well, I do. Rick's gonna head out later and follow the trail." Carol said, still trying to reason with the stubborn redneck.
"Yeah, well, I ain't gonna sit around here and do nothin'." he told her.
Adrian knew that Shane's words had cut deeper than Daryl had let on.
"No, you're gonna go out there and get yourself hurt even worse. You'll get yourself killed, Daryl." Carol told him.
"I wouldn't let that happen, Carol. I'll look after him if he goes back out there until he's fully healed." Adrian told her.
"I don't need no keeper." Daryl snapped at her, her comment pricking his pride.
"We don't know if we'll find her." Carol said suddenly.
Adrian looked at her while Daryl got really still before he turned to look at Carol.
"You don't." she told him, shifting uncomfortably at the look Daryl was giving her.
"I don't." Carol whispered, looking at him.
Neither Adrian nor Daryl could believe what they were hearing.
"I can't loose you too." Carol said, tears running down her face. Daryl walked up to Carol and looked at her for the few seconds she could hold his gaze. Daryl threw down the horse's reins to the ground beside Carol before he turned away from her and threw the heavy saddle across the stables in a fit of frustration. The harsh movement caused his injured side to make him double over in pain.
Adrian took a step toward him before she stopped but Carol ran to his side to check on him but Daryl was in no mood to be mothered over.
"Just leave me be!" he yelled at her before he stood up and stalked away from the women.
"Stupid bitch." Adrian heard Daryl grumble as he walked away.
It was quiet in the stable until Adrian spoke.
"You shouldn't have said that to him. If you had to tell someone you should have chosen anyone else but him to say that to." she told Carol.
Carol turned and looked at the younger red headed woman.
"But it's true. We don't know if we'll find her." Carol said.
"Carol, if you don't have any hope of us finding Sophia alive, then why should any of the rest of us have any hope left? If you don't think we'll find her then why are we still looking?" Adrian asked her.
Carol said nothing so Adrian decided to leave to look for Daryl. She knew Carol's comment had upset him, even if the only way he was willing to show it was through anger. Anger seemed to be his default setting for everything.
Adrian stopped at the door of the stable and turned to look at the crying woman behind her.
"If it were me, if it was my child out there, there would be nothing anyone could say to make me loose faith in finding my child alive. The only way I would believe my child was dead would be if I seen their dead body myself." she said, leaving Carl with those words ringing between them.
Adrian seen him walking not far from her so she ran to catch up to him.
"Daryl." she called out to him.
"Daryl." she said again reaching out to grab his arm.
"Just leave me to hell alone." he said, throwing her hand off of him.
"Hey, stop and listen to me." she said, grabbing his arm and jerking him to a stop.
"I said to leave me the hell alone!" Daryl shouted in her face as he turned around to look at her.
"First off, if you yell in my face like that again, I'm gonna punch you in your arrow hole." she said pointing to his still injured side.
"Second, I need you to listen to me. I know that what Carol said made you angry because she's ready to give up on Sophia, but Daryl, she has no hope left. Every time one of us have come back without Sophia chips away at her hope more and more and her hope is about to run dry." she told him.
"So. What the hell you want me to do about it? I been out there looking for that little girl every damn day. What more you want me to do?" Daryl yelled at her.
"Make her believe. Give her a reason to hope that Sophia is still out there and alive. No one believes that she's out there and alive more than you do, so make Carl believe it too. This is something only you can do." she told him, the tone of her voice making him listen.
"Why me?" he asked her, most of the anger gone from his voice.
"When I first met you, I never would've believed that you would put so much time and energy looking for someone else, especially a lost little girl. You hated being around the people in the camp, didn't trust any of them, which is why you always volunteered to go hunting. But you have more belief than anyone here that she's out there, surviving, because you've done the same thing and no one was even looking for you. So, if you, the one who believes the most, looses hope of us ever finding her, than Sophia truly is gone forever." she told him.
He had gotten annoyed at her when she first started talking but it drained away the longer she spoke. He did believe she was still out there, which was why he went out there so much. But he also really had nothing else better to do, so why not help to find a little girl lost in the woods, just like he had been so many years ago. Daryl nodded his head that he understood what she was telling him and then calmly walked away, having something in mind to help restore some of Carol's hope that he girl was still alive and that they would find her.
TWD
Adrian seen Hershel writing something in a notebook and gently knocked on the doorframe. She had seen Maggie when she first walked into the house and had asked if she could point her in the direction of her father.
Hershel looked up from his writing to see her standing there quietly.
"Who's hurt?" he asked her.
Adrian scrunched her face in confusion.
"What?" she asked him, having no idea what he was talking about.
"I only ever see you inside the house when someone's hurt, so who's hurt?" he told her as he closed his book.
"Oh. No, no one is hurt. I was just wondering if I could talk to you privately?" she asked him. Hershel pointed to an extra chair that sat beside his desk.
Adrian walked inside, closed the door, and sat in the chair he had offered.
"What can I do for you?" he asked her politely.
"Why do you believe they're still people?" she asked, jumping straight into it.
"Because they are, they're just sick people." he told her. "You haven't been off this farm since before all of this started, have you?" she asked him.
"No, but I seen all of the news broadcasts before everything shut down. I know how bad it is out there." he told her.
"If you actually knew how bad it was out there now, you wouldn't believe they're just sick. Those things are extremely dangerous, Hershel." she said, scooting closer to the edge of her seat.
"A paranoid schizophrenic is dangerous but we don't shoot and kill them. I told Rick the same thing when he told me they were dangerous." he said.
"Yes, but a paranoid schizophrenic won't chase you down so it can eat the flesh off your face and then rip you open so it can eat your insides." she told him.
"Everyone will be fine again once a cure is made." he said, firmly believing his words.
"And who's going to make this cure, huh? The group told me that before the CDC in Atlanta blew up the scientist there had lost contact with all other hubs around the world, which leads me to believe that this infection is all over the world." she said.
"Humans have been fighting diseases for centuries, and we always make it out fine after heavy loses." he said.
"Hershel, this isn't like the Black Plague. There was never a cure for that. It killed millions of people before it decided it was done killing us. And the people it killed, they had the good sense the stay dead." she said but she could tell none of it was registering with Hershel.
"Okay, every human needs their brain to live, right?" she asked him, trying to think of it in terms he might accept better.
"Of course." he agreed.
"When a person becomes infected with this thing, they get seriously sick. Extremely high fever and hallucinations." she explained.
"I'm well aware. I had to watch my wife and stepson go through it." he said, a bitter tone in his voice.
"Then you know fully well that they died after so long. Their heart stops, they stop breathing, all of it." she said.
"Yes. What's your point?" he asked, starting to get impatient with her.
"The scientist at the CDC told them that when they come back, their entire brain is dead and the only things they can do when they come back is to walk and eat. It's all they want. Everything that was them, that made them human, is gone. And can you honestly tell me that even if there was a cure, that any of the people cured would be able to live with themselves afterward? Be able to live with the knowledge that they killed people, friends, family, that they started to eat them while they were still alive? Would you be able to live with that?" she asked him.
Hershel said nothing so Adrian stood up, prepared to leave.
"I'm not going to tell you how to think when it comes to those things, no one can make you believe something you refuse to see. But I hope that you're prepared to do whatever you have to when those things eventually get out, because those things don't listen to reason. When they get out, one of two things are going to happen. Either you will have to kill them, or you let them kill you and everyone else you love here." she told the silent old man.
She closed the door quietly behind her when she left.
TWD
After Adrian had left Hershel she walked back to the camp to see what was going on. She seen Dale standing by the fence and decided to go talk to him. On her way through camp she seen Carl and Kale sitting on the ground, each holding a piece of rope, as Kale taught him how to tie different knots.
After their first fishing trip Kale had told her that his grandfather used to be a fisherman both in his professional and personal life, but after an accident that had left him paralyzed from the waist down, he had wanted to leave everything he knew about tying knots to his only grandson. He had told him that not everyone needed to fish in their life, but there was always a reason to tie a decent knot.
Adrian smiled at the boys and walked up beside Dale to see him looking across the field to the barn, the barn that Shane was pacing in front of. Adrian could see that he was angry even from so far away.
"He's loosing it." Adrian said quietly to him.
"He's slipping fast and no one is doing anything about it." she said.
"What can we do? Like you said, everyone knows he's slipping but no one has said anything about it, not even Rick." Dale said to her.
"Dale, Andrea wants you." they heard Glenn say as he pointed down to the RV.
"Alright." Dale said as he turned to walk to the RV.
"Any chance you got an extra hat?" Glenn asked him as he squinted from the bright rays of the sun.
"Nope." Dale told him as he took the hat off of his head and tossed it up to Glenn.
Adrian laughed out loud when Glenn put the hat on.
"What?" he asked her.
"You look ridiculous." she told him before she turned to look back toward Shane, who was still pacing in front of the barn.
Adrian heard Andrea walk out of the RV and turned to look at it but Dale never came out.
"You okay?" Glenn asked Dale.
"Yeah. Can you go get me some water? I just need a second." she heard Dale ask Glenn.
"You'll keep watch?" Glenn asked him.
"Yeah. Sure." Dale told him.
Glenn nodded and climbed down from the RV. Adrian knew Dale was up to something, she could hear it in his voice.
Once Glenn was far enough away Adrian walked to the RV to see Dale zipping up the gun bag and grab a large black trash bag.
"What are you going to do?" she asked him.
"I'm going to hide them. I don't know what's going to happen around here, but I thinks it might be a good thing if the guns were gone when it happens." he said.
"You mean for when Shane finally snaps?" she asked, knowing full well that he meant.
"Yeah." he said.
"Give me my gun. I'll come with you, watch your back." she said, holding out her hand. Dale looked at her for a second before he opened the bag for her to reach inside and find her gun. Once she had her gun in her hand she ejected the magazine and counted the number of bullets inside, unsurprised to find it full. She slid the magazine back and then tucked the gun into the back of her pants.
"Okay, let's go." she said as she turned and walked out of the RV.
Adrian had her hand on the hilt of her knife since she and Dale had entered the woods.
Dale seemed to know where he was going because Adrian had no idea. The area seemed more swampy than Adrian had seen around the farm so far.
"I'm afraid for the group, Dale. Especially Rick." Adrian said, breaking the silence they had walked in so far.
"What do you mean? Because of the barn?" he asked her.
"Shane." was all she said.
"Ah." he said, now understanding.
"Shane has changed a lot since we got to the farm. Ever since we found out that Carl would be alright, he just..." she trailed off, not knowing how to put it into words.
"I know. It all started after he killed Otis." he said.
"What?" she asked him, completely taken by surprise.
"Yeah. He hasn't admitted it but I think he did. And then I caught him holding Rick in the sight of his gun while they were out in the woods together. He tried to play it off, but I seen the look on his face. He was prepared to fire that gun." Dale told her.
Adrian had known something was up with Shane at Otis' memorial, but she never would've thought to accuse him of murder. After his behavior lately though, she wouldn't have as much of a problem with that.
"I guess it's a good thing we're hiding these guns then." she said before they fell back into silence.
A few minutes later Dale had stopped by a tree mostly surrounded by water and then pulled out the garbage bag. Adrian was looking around when they heard Shane's voice.
"Man, this is a good hidin' place. We haven't seen him the swamps much, huh?" he said.
Dale sighed in defeat while Adrian kept her eyes locked on Shane.
"Imagine if you applied your tracking skills to find Sophia." Dale said.
"How about you just hand me that bag." Shane said as he walked over to them.
Adrian stood a little ahead of Dale and grabbed her gun, holding it at her side.
"I'm not gonna do that." Dale told Shane as he looked back at him.
"Yes, you are or...you know, you do still have that rifle over your shoulder." Shane said, making his threat clear.
"What're you gonna do, shoot me like you did Otis, tell another story?" Dale asked, calling Shane on his bluff.
"Give me the guns, Dale. Right now." Shane told Dale.
Clearly he didn't see her as a threat because he didn't pay her any attention, other than to occasionally flick his eyes her way.
"Rick, it trying to talk to Hershel-" Dale started, only to be cut off by Shane.
"Dale, shut up. Just shut up and give me the damn guns." Shane told Dale, done messing around.
Dale gently leaned the guns against the tree behind him and pulled the rifle off of his shoulder. Adrian had done the same, knowing from his tone of voice that he was prepared to get violent if he had to.
"Am I gonna have to shoot you? Is that what it's gonna take?" Dale asked in a shaky voice, and Adrian knew right then that no matter what, Dale wouldn't be able to shoot Shane.
Apparently Shane didn't think Dale would kill him either because he walked closer and closer until his chest hit the barrle of Dale's rifle.
"That's what it's gonna take." Shane told him.
Dale lowered his gun after a few seconds, looking at Shane in disbelief.
However, the sound of Adrian cocking her gun sounded very loud in the extreme quiet.
Shane finally acknowledged her at the sound.
Shane didn't believe that she would shoot him any more than he had that the old man would, but then he really looked at her.
Her stance was perfect and he could tell that she was aiming for his face. Her eyes hard. Her face stone cold and her hands were steady. She could see the realization that he came to on his face.
"Oh, I will. And when I tell everyone it was in self defense, do you really think they wouldn't believe me? Especially after how you acted by the barn this morning?" she said to him.
"I can get to that gun before it every goes off." he told her.
"Maybe, but then again, I won't need a gun if it comes down to it. I learned how to fight and to defend myself a long time ago." she told him, neither her aim nor her voice wavering.
"We'll see about that." Shane said.
"You belong out here." Dale spoke up.
"How's that?" Shane asked.
"This world, you were meant to be here. And I may not make it long, but at least I can say that when the world went to shit, I didn't let it take me down with it." Dale said, about to hand Shane the guns.
"Don't Dale." Adrian said, her words pausing the old man's movements.
"Yes, Dale." said Shane.
"No." Adrian said, stepping in front of Dale, adjusting her aim, the barrel of her gun now pressed against his chest.
"You better give me those guns, little girl." Shane growled down at her.
"Notice how I'm not shaking in my boots." she said, her hands still steady.
"You want those guns? Clear out the barn?" Adrian asked, keeping her eyes locked on his.
"Yeah." was all he said.
"Then you better be prepared. You take those guns from this swamp, everything that happens next is your fault, and you better be prepared to own up to all of it. Because you'll have no one to blame except yourself." she told him, her tone soft but hard.
"What, kill a bunch of walkers that wanna eat us and keep everyone safe? I'll gladly accept that." he told her, a cocky smirk on his face.
"Lori and Carl." she said.
Shane looked at her confused.
"You mean keep Lori and Carl safe. You don't give a damn about the rest of us, so do pretend like you do." she told him, finally lowering her gun, but keeping it out.
When she was far enough away from Shane, Dale shoved the guns into Shane's arms. Shane took the guns, turned, and left. Once Shane was gone Dale huffed in disappointment.
"Don't beat yourself up too much Dale. If you hadn't given him the guns, somebody would be laying dead in this swamp. He was fully prepared to kill us both to get to those guns." Adrian softly told the man.
Dale looked over at her sadly, knowing she was probably right.
TWD
Adrian and Dale heard the gunshots as soon as they walked out of the woods. Adrian took off running, knowing that it could only be coming from the barn. Sweat was dripping into her eyes as she ran through the fence that lead toward the barn, one last shot going off before everything was quiet. There were dead walkers littered across the ground in front of the barn, Shane, Andrea, Daryl, T-Dog, and Glenn all standing up front with guns in their hands.
Carol stood in the far back behind everyone else, while Patricia held onto a crying Beth. Maggie was crying as she held onto a shell shocked Hershel and Lori was on the ground holding a terrified Carl, Rick standing in front of them in disbelief, while Kale stood behind them, holding his shotgun.
"Jesus Christ." Adrian mumbled, looking around at everything as she stopped beside Daryl.
Then everyone heard it, the low growl of a walker still in the barn. They didn't have to wait long for it, but that lone walker shattered them all.
It was Sophia.
They had been out looking for her for so long, desperately holding onto their dwindling hope of finding her alive, and the whole time she had been in the barn right beside them, dead.
"Sophia?" Carol called from behind them all.
They all turned to see her running toward her daughter. Adrian and Daryl reached out at the same moment to grab onto her, their arms getting tangled, to stop her from going any farther. Carol's weight couldn't hold up to the grief of seeing her daughter like that, so she collapsed to the ground, taking Adrian and Daryl with her.
Rick walked in front of everyone and raised his gun.
He looked down at the girl, blaming himself for her being like this.
Everything was silent before Rick pulled the trigger, the shot ringing in the air, and Sophia's body fell to the ground, dead for the final time.