July 20, 2010
Shane's first indication that something is very wrong at the Greene Farm is when Xander, set free of the confines of Daryl's old Ford by Micah, loses his damned doggie mind.
The big black German Shepherd, who normally is an affectionate animal, circles the intended campsite a few times, fur bristling. Then he begins herding the children with nips and barks toward vehicles, growling and circling between them and the buildings of the Greene Farm itself, not the woods.
"What the hell is wrong with the dog?" Andrea asks, pausing in unloading a tent from one of the trailer roofs.
She's just voicing what all the adults are thinking. Combined with Quinn's quiet request that no one go armed except the officers and herself, everyone's already a little on edge. They haven't even had time to give Quinn and the other women the information they gleaned from their captives.
To their credit, all of the children have allowed the dog to push them toward the vehicles, climbing into Daryl's truck while the dog continues to growl and whine, pacing and shaking his head. Only Jesse and Micah seem to have escaped the dog's oversight.
"Something's setting him off," Micah says. The teenager kneels by his dog, who continues to whine, petting him for a minute. "Xander, seek."
The command releases some of the uneasy tension in the dog. He sets off across the farm, his search reminding Shane of the one K-9 they had in King County as he tracks whatever has set off his canine senses. He reaches the barn and goes into the alert stance Shane remembers from the night of the quarry attack, tapping one paw and growling. Something moves, hard, against the chained doors.
"Get your guns back out," Shane orders. Only Dale, up on the RV, is armed aside from him and Rick, although all of the Dixons have bows or crossbows. "Guard the kids. Rick, Daryl? Follow me and Micah."
By the time Shane, Rick, Daryl, and Micah reach the dog's side, there's no mistaking what the dog smells. Even their human noses can smell the unearthly stench of rotting walkers. The growls and rattling doors only confirm their suspicions.
"Who chains up walkers in a goddamned barn?" Daryl looks as wary and sickened as Shane feels when he speaks.
"Get away from that barn! You don't have permission to be there!"
They all four turn to see the elderly veterinarian making his way across the farmyard, his hired hand and the teenage boy behind him. When he appears, Quinn hops off the protective stance she's taken using her Expedition as high ground and jogs to intercept.
"You let our kids play within full sight of a barn full of walkers. Pretty damned sure that's information you should have conveyed before they ever left a vehicle," Shane replies when the man's in earshot.
Quinn's glare would make most men's balls exit the planet, but Hershel Greene stands strong even as the man and boy behind him visibly flinch. "Shane's right. You have cannibals chained in a barn, and those children were unprotected because you asked my people not to go armed on your property."
"They are sick people, and they're locked securely in the barn. They're only sick, and we have to keep them safe until there's a cure."
"Dr. Greene, I was pretty sure when you had a girl making supply runs all by herself that you weren't in touch with the outside world," Quinn interrupts. "But now I know you don't have the first clue what's going on off this farm if you think there's a cure coming for that."
"This is my land and that's my choice to make."
Quinn looks to Shane and he shrugs. "We don't need to be here, Quinn. Only came because you wanted to look out for the girl that got attacked."
"Micah? Daryl? Take Xander and go tell everyone to load back up. If we get back on the road, we can be back on our planned route by nightfall."
The two male Dixons give a jerky nod, with Micah commanding Xander to heel. With his people alert to what the dog was scenting, the German Shepherd trots off at his owner's side without hesitation.
"Thank your daughter for entertaining the children this afternoon, Dr. Greene." Quinn's pale green gaze studies the locked door and the glimpses of decaying bodies within. "I hope that the group that attacked Maggie doesn't find your farm, but you shouldn't send her into town alone anymore."
Shane's not sure which this naive man's family will fall prey to first - the walkers or the bandits.
"We've been just fine so far. It is not your place to lecture me."
Quinn snorts and Shane doesn't think he's ever seen her expression turn so forbiddingly arctic. "Here I thought you had some care for your daughter's safety earlier. I suppose I was mistaken. Shane? How big is that group again?"
"Bastards that attacked the girl say near thirty," Shane replies, remembering Quinn's quiet caution when they arrived that the captives died of injuries sustained during the attack regardless of how they actually ended. He understands her warning now that he's meeting Hershel Greene. "And she's not the first female they've attacked. Lucky ones die where they're found. Unlucky ones? They make it back to the camp."
Hershel's near gaping at the assessment. Otis and Jimmy look outright ill. Even Jimmy isn't young and innocent enough to not glean why that's unlucky for the women.
"Place like this is gonna be a target for bandits. Food, water, shelter…" Quinn's eyes flick toward the porch, where Beth and Patricia are hovering. "Do them a favor and make sure they don't outlive you if those men find you here. Kindest thing you can do is put a bullet in their brains."
She turns on her heel, heading toward their caravan, which is already active with sorting everyone back into vehicles. Shane and Rick follow, not needing any further conversation with the obviously delusional old man, who doesn't seem able to formulate a reply anyway.
"Wait!"
Shane's reached Quinn's side when Maggie's voice carries to them. She's limping across the farmyard toward their vehicles, one arm pressed tightly to her side where Quinn earlier assessed she probably has broken ribs.
Quinn turns, waiting on the young woman, who looks near frantic to reach her. His co-leader looks genuinely regretful.
"Please don't let Daddy push you into leaving."
"He isn't pushing for us to leave, Maggie, but I cannot stay anywhere that actively endangers the children in our group. We sleep in tents. Any part of that barn fails and we're as good as dead."
The brunette nods, looking near tears. The bruising from the earlier attack is blooming across her pale skin. "I understand that. But the men? They weren't alone. I know that much from what they said to me." Terror shakes her frame, even as she tries to stand strong, making Maggie's voice waiver.
Quinn's expression shifts to that sly expression she wore right before she swept her shirt off with Lori barging into Shane's sleeping area back at the last camp. "I don't think any of my group intends to leave those men roaming the area, Maggie. It would have been easier, to leave the children and those still training here while we hunt, but this isn't the only farm in the area."
Comprehension dawns on Maggie's face, and her expression twists to something vicious. "Good." She looks over her shoulder, but her father hasn't made any attempt to approach the group. "Back at the highway, turn west. Pass the first driveway on the right, but take the second. That's the Cooper farm, and they're all dead and gone. I've been raiding their fields and orchards off and on."
Shane suppresses the smirk that threatens when he realizes Maggie wants them close enough she can reach them. Hershel Green may be living in a dream world of a future cure where rapists don't roam the land like they own it, but his daughter has no such rose colored glasses about the outside world.
"Sounds like a decent enough base." Everyone's loaded up and waiting on Quinn and Shane now.
"I'll check in tomorrow, if that's okay?"
"If you feel up to riding by then. But Maggie? You need to be armed with more than that baseball bat you had on the horse's saddle. Do you know how to shoot?" When Maggie nods, Quinn turns to Shane. "You've done our inventory. What can we spare?"
Shane considers the various pieces they've picked up from raiding houses or vehicles. "The most spare ammo we have is 9mm, so we can leave her a Glock and a few boxes down in the mailbox. You familiar with the Glocks?"
Maggie nods. "The shooting range up near my college had them."
"Carry a knife of some sort too, if you can. Two or three is even better," Shane tells her. "Pocket, belt, and boot. Hell, if you can find one small enough, tuck it in your damned bra if you have to."
"I can find those. Knives don't give Daddy the willies like guns."
Quinn accepts the impulsive hug the young woman gives her. Shane heads for his waiting Humvee, while Quinn aims for the ambulance, its bright coloring already obscured by cans of paint liberated from the hardware store in town before they ventured out to the farm on Quinn's summons. He leads their caravan down the long and winding driveway.
Maggie's directions are sound, and they pull into another farm with trees forming the border at one distance or another in all directions. But where the Greene Farm had a few buildings, pastures full of cattle, and a small garden meant to support a single family, the Cooper Farm is at least eighty acres of neglected cropland and orchards. Shane doesn't care much for the broken lines of sight created by the treelines between some of the fields, but at least the lack of large and noisy farm animals should keep the walker attractants low.
The farmhouse is smaller than the one on the Greene Farm, but they clear it anyway. Generator out back is propane, which gives them some access to bathing facilities for a little while. The sheds and small barn yield no hidden dangers, although there are actually still chickens using the coop despite the gate being wide open. He guesses home is home, even if people aren't around to take their eggs or give them feed anymore.
They park all the vehicles for ease of leaving in a hurry, but Merle's grin is a bit grim when he backs the troop carrier Humvee up close to the porch. "We can let the kids sleep in a bit more comfort, but keep their getaway vehicle right nearby. Gonna make sure the mamas all know how to get it started and drive it, while we're here."
Shane nods, understanding the plan. With three bedrooms inside, they can let the kids sleep under fans and indoors for a few nights. There's a storm shelter out back, too, which is another line of defense against anything more intelligent than walkers coming up on the farm.
"That is a lot of food going to waste," Glenn mutters, staring out at the fields. He's quieter than Shane likes, and he promised himself back when they interrogated the bastards in town to keep an eye on the kid. Wanting to be part of something like that is one thing. The reality of the questioning is likely to give the Korean nightmares now that it's done. At least the blood's not actively on Glenn's hands, and Shane made the Dixon boys, Morales, and Dale stand as guards.
"Why don't you pull together a team and see what can be salvaged?" Shane suggests. "I'm pretty sure the Dixon kids and Carol have a general idea about gardens. Might ask the others."
"We aren't going back out today?" Glenn asks, sounding anxious. "What if that group moves?"
"It's possible they might, but the assholes seemed pretty thrilled with the fact that they were bright enough to take over a furniture store. Doubt they'll give up beds for the unknown if they don't have to, and the men not returning isn't an instant red flag that they ran into people. I imagine they have losses to walkers, too."
Tomorrow's plenty of time to start assessing the group holed up in Senoia and figuring out the best way to take them down with the least risk to their own people.
"Gonna go hunting," Daryl announces as he and Quinn approach Shane. "Taking Micah and Jesse both. Leaving the dog for the kids."
"Sounds good." Shane's figured out by now that at least half of Daryl's hunting trips are as much scouting as actually looking for fresh meat for the group.
"Daryl? Take Carol too. She could use the experience tracking in a new place."
Shane thinks the hunter may refuse Quinn's request at first. His nerves are probably as on edge as Shane's own, after the interrogation. But he jerks his head in a nod and goes off to collect his hunting party.
Quinn sighs as she watches the tenseness in the man's shoulders. "He doesn't like it, but she can't be sheltered, and if she catches on that he's trying, she'll have his balls. Let's take a walk while you fill me in on what you got out of the assholes."
It really isn't a lot to tell, but Shane stays silent until they're halfway to the peach orchard. Even this far away, he can smell the sickly sweet odor of rotten fruit. He figures animals are taking their share, but an orchard on this scale isn't one scavengers can completely finish off. There should be plenty to treat their own people, because the branches are still heavy with fruit, too.
"What are we looking at?" Quinn asks, voice as serious as he's ever heard her.
"Close to thirty, like I told the old man. Bit of a mix of those who already crossed the law before the fall and those who decided they were willing to afterward. No captives in camp right now, which is why they were so excited to happen upon Maggie." Shane shudders. The man with the head injury was either already a sociopath, or the bat shook loose the last of his humanity. He was fucking happy to brag. "They seemed to be far enough down the totem pole to not follow orders and bring her back to camp first."
He lets Quinn draw her own conclusions on that. She takes a deep breath and squares her shoulders. "Guess we all got lucky to get the damned peons and not the smarter ones. Maggie might not have gotten the chance to scream if they just took her captive."
"Gotta take the small favors when they come," Shane mutters. "They're holed up at a furniture store in Senoia. Leader seems to get his kicks outta sleeping on expensive beds while they strip the town of resources."
"Those two scouting the next town?"
"More or less, although they seem to be heading steady north like goddamned locusts. Might not ever find the old man's farm, but we can't take a chance they'll drift west towards us either." Especially with their growing certainty that Fort Benning is gone. "They send out groups of two to six to look for supplies or targets. They didn't think Sharpsburg was viable, so they just sent the pair of idiots."
"What did you do with the bodies?"
"Tossed the bodies into a tow truck impound yard with a few trapped walkers so their buddies figure the bastards died by their own stupidity. Hate leaving the walkers alive, even trapped like that, but for now, we need the smokescreen. It's on the other side of town from where they attacked Maggie, and we parked their truck over there too."
Quinn laughs softly. "Probably a good thing you stayed on the correct side of the law, deputy, with that much thought to setting the scene."
The unexpected levity lifts Shane's own mood a little. "Can't take all the credit. I'm gonna estimate back in Merle's law breaking days, they didn't catch him at everything he got up to."
"I will avoid incriminating a family member," she replies lightly. They've reached the peach trees, and she reaches up to drag a branch down and inspect the fruit. "Who do you want to take out for scouting tomorrow?"
Shane plucks a peach and gingerly bites into it, taking a larger bite when it proves not to be overripe. He thinks over his selection criteria. "You staying to head up camp?" She nods. "Daryl, Merle, Glenn, Jacqui, and Andrea for scouting. Leaves you some decent shots and good muscle if needed at camp, and the ones who might object to thinning numbers if we can."
"That include Rick?" she asks. She has her shirt untucked, inspecting peaches and piling them in her shirt tail.
"Yeah. He didn't leave when we interrogated, but you can tell he has doubts the whole group is bad. Maybe not as strong as Dale, but definitely not a hesitation I want out in the field. He's better here, where he's defense and not offense."
"And Glenn? You think he's going to cope with that?"
Quinn's fondness for the young man is only slightly less than her own family members, so he understands why she asks about him, and not the women.
"I think he's capable, yeah. Probably more than Rick or Andrea."
She nods thoughtfully. "Kid's got sisters, back home in Michigan. It's probably damned personal for him to want the world to have fewer monsters that prey on women. You'll keep an eye on him?"
"Of course." He'll keep the kid as his own partner, pairing the two women between the Dixon men.
"We'll harvest what can be transported easily, while your group is out. Meet with Maggie tomorrow and find out just how far off his rocker her daddy is."
"I'm betting somebody in that barn is related to him." Shane is almost completely certain of that theory.
"Maybe more than one. Didn't introduce a wife. I wish I asked Maggie a bit more about her family on the ride over there."
"We gonna offer for any of them to go with us regardless of the old man's delusions?"
"I don't want to turn any of them down."
He sighs, flipping his own shirt out to let her pile peaches into it too. "Then we don't. If they feel they have to leave him behind to be safe, we take them with us."
That settled, they both head back toward the rest of the group busily making camp on the abandoned farm. It would be easy, in a way, to leave the Greenes to fend for themselves once their group eliminates the bandits, but there's still too much of the cop in him to think of those youngsters being left to die for the patriarch's delusions.
Hopefully, the girls are smarter than their father.
A/N: The problem with a dog in the camp is that there's no way the barn stays hidden from his senses. Took me a while to decide how I wanted to handle it, but without a wounded kid and pregnant woman, no one is going to push to stay. This is not a Judith as Shane's daughter storyline. I wanted to do ONE that let her be an actual Grimes. :)