Chapter 20: Otis
He loved the farm. He loved the countryside. It was what he grew up with, living a simple but honest life in the country, working from dawn till dusk.
He loved the animals, even though he had to kill the pigs and chickens he sometimes came to regard as family. He had a soft heart for animals.
He provided for his own family, until Hershel told him he should come live there for his own safety. He and Patricia had never had children of their own, as she was unable to make children. He just worried for his elderly parents, who lived out a little ways from their farm.
At first, he'd heard from them on his phone, but then the internet went out, followed by the television. They were stranded.
Otis was afraid for the first time in a long while.
Mr. Hershel, on the other hand, was not scared and told them it would be all right. He chose to believe in his words. However, things turned horrifying when his stepson and wife became one of those…things.
Otis had wanted to kill them, but Hershel refused. For some reason, he still thought of them as people. He devised a plan for Otis to follow.
As his neighbors and friends died, it felt like Hershel lost his mind, to Otis, at least. He and his wife did not like the walkers. They did not like them or trust them, but they had a place to stay. Why jeopardize that?
The plan was for him to snag whatever walkers he could find and imprison them inside the barn until treatment could be found for them. In went the stepson. In went the former stepmother. In went Louise. In went the neighbors he'd known for years.
They weren't them anymore.
He knew they weren't. Even so, his wife took over the duty of feeding those things food. It didn't stop the awful moans and banging. It haunted his nightmares.
Sometimes he dreamed of running away from this dystopian farm. Why couldn't they see how dangerous they were?
One day, things changed. He found a young girl walker wandering around in the woods and felt sorry for her. He put her in the barn not thinking much of it.
He noticed then that a young boy was in the woods. He had shot him accidentally. He didn't mean to.
He didn't think there were any live humans left. The bearded man and the scruffy-haired man cursed and yelled at him for hurting (their?) son. He soon learned the bearded man was the father and the scruffy-haired guy was..not someone he liked. At all.
He seemed dangerous.
He watched as Hershel operated on the young boy and saw the despair on the young mother's face as her son was in pain.
He couldn't watch this.
"There's a school. We can get supplies there."
Normally, he avoided the place. It gave him the creeps.
This was a bad idea from the start.
When did so many of those things get here? Why were there so many?
On top of that, why did he have to be around Mr. Psycho, who he knew hated his guts?
Still, they got to talking. At least he was a man of action.
Then, the worst happened. He got injured throwing himself out the window and he was slow moving. Now what?
Otis offered to let Shane go but he refused.
Otis turned up in time to help Shane, amazed at himself for being thst badass. Usually he was a sniveling coward.
As the two of them slowly attempted to outrun the hundreds of walkers on their tail, Otis quickly realized how much deep shit they were in.
Shane turned to look at him. He saw the taut line in his jaw.
"I'm sorry."
He didn't sound sorry, but somehow he did. It was weird. Why was he saying that?
Then a gunshot rang out, and holy fuck he shot me, he shot me, he shot me.
He fell to his knees, bleeding from the leg. Why would he do such a savage thing?
He watched in horror as the primal Shane attempted to grab the things from him, as the walkers drew closer. That's what he intended on doing.
'You son of a bitch. I'm not gonna die.'
Otis wrestled against Shane, but the man was like a monster. You couldn't shake him off.
Otis grabbed at his hair and yanked it out, which made Shane howl painfully. Now anyone could see exactly what happened.
Shane shot him again and grabbed his stuff off of him.
Otis realized too late what was happening.
"Don't leave me here!" He shouted at the coward, who ran away, leaving him to die.
The walkers were around him. He heard their breathing and then they sank their teeth into him. He screamed as they beset him on all sides and munched down on his body. His face was chomped on by the walkers and he screamed in pain, cursing Shane Walsh until the very end.
As Shane gave his heroic soliloquy, someone watched him in suspicion.
How could any of dem fools be so goshdarned stupid? It was obvious as hell to him that Shane was a terrible person, and several others seemed to agree with him, he thought, gazing at the young girl, Maggie, the sheriff, Rick, the young wife, Lori and Carol. All of them seemed to look skeptical as well, but Rick seemed the most menacing.
There were so many holes in his story it was obvious. He was a bad liar but maybe some just wanted to believe a lie.
Either way, he knew he was never going to trust Shane Walsh with anything. That man was a monster.