After dinner everyone cleared out of the house. I caught Rick on the porch before he returned to their tents. "Hey, Rick, can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Yeah, what can I do for ya', Clarke?" he asked, stopping on the first step.

"So, I've talked it over with Claire, and we've decided that we'd be willing to give it a shot, staying with your group. That is, if it's okay with everyone."

Rick's expression was surprised. "Really? You mean that?"

I nodded. "I do. This decision, of course, is tentative. Your people seem like good people."

"They are," he interrupted.

"And Claire, she really wants to stay, so." I shrugged my shoulders. "We'll see if it fits."

"That is – that is fantastic news, Clarke. Really." He glanced behind him and then around me, before he stepped back up on the porch. His voice was much quieter when he said, "Between you and me, Lori – she's, uh, she's pregnant."

"Really?" I nearly exclaimed, beyond surprised. He nodded slowly. "Right, wow, uhm." I couldn't really wrap my brain around apocalypse and baby.

Rick didn't give me enough time to even attempt to. "I'm real glad you're choosin' to stay. It'll fit." He smiled.

When I woke the next morning, Claire was still in bed beside me. I turned my head to look at her, and saw that she was wide-awake, staring at the ceiling. "I'm sore," she whispered.

I gave a quiet huff of a laugh. "That means it's working."

"I can't feel my legs," Claire responded.

"Then how do you know you're sore?"

She groaned. "Don't make me get up."

I sat up, despite her protests, throwing back the sheets. "I'll tell you what," I said as I slid out of bed and walked over to my duffle bag. "We'll do something fun today."

"Fun?" Claire repeated incredulously. "You don't know the meaning."

I rolled my eyes. "I resent that. I can be fun."

"A key component in 'being fun' is niceness. There's nothing fun about a mean person." Claire was slow to get up and start picking out clothes.

I snorted. "I may not be nice, but I can be fun. You'll see."

Not three minutes after we got set up outside Claire asked, "We're doing yoga?"

I rolled my eyes. "We are doing a variation of yoga meets training meets stretching meets be quiet and do as I say."

To warm up, I led us through sun salutation, which was always my favorite sequence for morning yoga. As we moved into downward facing dog, Claire asked, "Why the knives if we're doing yoga?" I had instructed her before we got outside to strap a knife to both her legs.

"You'll see."

When we finished all twelve poses of sun salutation, I shook my arms out moving side-to-side in place. "You ready to pump it up?"

"Oh yeah," Claire deadpanned making me grin.

I was big on workout classes before. My favorite was cardio kickboxing; my instructor had focused more on self-defense moves that felt more like a dance than a workout.

I moved in front of Claire, turning around so we were facing each other. "I'm going to do it slow the first few times so you can follow me." She nodded. I raised both my arms in front of my chest, clenching my hands into fists. Claire did the same.

"Jab left," I said throwing a punch to the left with my right hand. "Then up," I reached up into the air, my hands forming a wide 'W', as if I was choking someone. "And down." I bought my hands down and lifted my right knee to them. "Follow?"

Claire was squinting at me, and nodded her head slowly.

"Alright, do it with me. Jab left, up then down." Claire's movements were stilted, but she had the moves down. "Okay, now the right side. Jab right. And up and down. Perfect. Altogether now. Left, up, down. Again. Jab right, up, down, again. Left. And up. Down. Now you've got it. Right, and up, down. Pick the pace up. Left, up, down, again. Right, up, down, two more sets. Left. Up. Down. One more. Right. Up. Down!"

I was panting, and had to brace myself against my knees. My blood was flowing that was for sure.

"Are we pretend-kicking someone's ass?" Claire asked laughing and coughing at the same time, winded.

"Hey, language," I scolded not too seriously. "Alright, you ready to have some fun with those knives?"

We did a similar sequence using our knives. It wasn't very practical but it was fun to swing knives through the air like we were in a krav maga class. Claire got into it and started making up her own fighting moves.

"Watch this!" Claire cried as she holstered her knife, before doing a forward flip.

"Oh, yeah, check this out." I holstered my own knife before I did a spinning kick I'd learn in one of my classes. Claire was amazed and demanded I teach her. I stood beside her and guided her through the movement slowly before I let her try it at a normal pace.

Rick's group was up and moving by the time we decided to call it quits. Rick asked us to join them for breakfast by the fire. Claire wanted to, so I didn't stop her. We were sitting on the ground, eating, granted rather bland, eggs off plastic plates when Glenn walked up. Everyone was preoccupied eating, and didn't notice him at first. Glenn looked around nervously like he was waiting for the right moment to speak.

"Uhm, guys," he said to the quiet group. I watched as Shane and Dale turned to look at him curiously. Daryl was sitting across from him in a lawn chair, eating vigorously from his plate and didn't pay much attention. Carol stopped pouring the eggs onto the frying pan to give Glenn her attention. "So. The barn is full of walkers."

I watched as everyone raised their heads to give Glenn their attention. Andrea was staring with shock evident in her eyes. T-Dog was mid-spoonful as he looked on.

Shane's eyes went wide, his stance going rigid. "You wanna' repeat that?" Shane practically barked at Glenn.

I watched Glenn shirk back. I would've said something but I was more curious as to what he meant exactly. Had infecteds gotten into the barn over night? That threatened my idea of how safe the farm exactly was.

"Hershell, he uh, he saves them. The walkers. And so he's got them in the barn," Glenn explained.

Shane was moving before anybody could react. Rick was hot on his heel, following him towards the barn. Everyone else went, too. Claire looked at me expectantly.

"Yeah, alright, alright," I said getting up and following everyone over towards the barn. I watched as Shane walked up to the doors, and peaked his eye between the wooden slates. The familiar raspy groaning sound filled my hears. There had to be something like twenty dead people in there. I felt a chill run up my spine.

Shane spun around walking up to Rick. "You cannot tell me you're all right with this!" he spat angrily at Rick as he passed him.

Rick stayed where he was, muttering, "No, I'm not. But we're guests here. This isn't our land."

Shane was behind Rick now, and he turned around screaming, "This is our lives."

Glenn quickly snapped, "Lower your voice." He looked around cautiously.

Andrea placed both her hands on her hips, saying, "We can't just sweep this under the rug."

Shane nodded. "It ain't right. Not remotely. Okay? We've either gotta' go in there, and make things right or we've just got to go. Now we have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time."

"We can't go." Rick pointed his finger at Shane.

Shane looked at him like he could slice him in half with his eyes. "Why, Rick? Why?"

Carol stepped forward. "Because my daughter is still out there."

I swallowed a dry mouth knowing where this was going to go. I didn't want Carol to be hurt by this, but there was nothing I could do to stop Shane.

Shane ran his hands down his face. "Okay, okay. I think it's time that we all just consider the other possibility."

Daryl pushed past Carol getting ready to say something, expression hard to read but Rick got in front of him. "We're not leaving Sophia behind," he said.

Daryl pushed past him, too. "I'm close to finding this girl. I just found her damn doll two days ago."

Shane laughed maliciously. "You found her doll, Daryl. That's what you did. You found a doll."

Daryl swung towards him. "You don't know what the hell you're talking 'bout."

Rick put up a hand between the two of them, trying to slow things down. But Shane cried, "I'm just saying what needs to be said. You get a good lead, it's in the first 48 hours."

Rick tried again. "Shane, stop."

"Let me tell you something else, man. If she was alive out there, and saw you coming, all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck, she would run in the other direction."

That was it. Daryl came in swinging at Shane, but Rick got in-between them trying to hold Daryl back. I wasn't one for resulting to violence. But I wanted to go and knock Shane out myself. He was such a fucking asshole.

I crossed my arms to keep myself from jumping in. I didn't need to be involved in any conflict.

I watched as Lori, and Glenn tried to get in between them too. Lori grabbed at Shane, pulling him away. Rick cried, "Back off!"

Shane poised a warning finger to Lori. "Keep your hands off me." Shane started to walk away.

He stopped though as Rick said, "Just let me talk to Hershel. Let me figure it out."

Shane burst back towards Rick but Lori jumped in between. "What're you gonna' figure out!" he screamed at Rick.

Rick said, "If we're gonna' stay, if we're gonna' clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land."

Dale stepped forward then, saying, "Hershel sees those things in there as people - sick people. His wife. His stepson."

Rick raises a questioning hand to Dale. "You knew?"

"Yesterday, I talked to Hershel," Dale answered.

"And you waited the night?" Shane asked.

"I thought we could survive one more night," Dale responded. "We did. I was waiting till this morning to say something. But Glenn wanted to be the one."

"The man is crazy, Rick," Shane said. "If Hershel thinks those things are alive or no." Shane stormed off then. Everyone was quiet as they watched him leave.

Claire was staring at the place Shane had been, wide-eyed. "Let's go," I said to her quietly, nudging her arm. When we got back to the house, Lori was leading Carl towards the picnic table. "I'm going to do some math equations with Carl, if you wanna' join us Claire?"

"Not uh," Claire said stubbornly, making me laugh despite the rudeness of her remark.

"Claire," I scolded when I got a hold of myself. "Thank you, Lori. Claire will definitely join you. I don't want that brain of yours wasting away."

"Oh come on!" Claire whined dragging her feet as she walked towards Lori. I grinned and waved at her.

As I turned around I saw Maggie and Glenn by the chicken coop. I paused, watching them, only to catch Maggie as she slammed an egg on Glenn's head. I chuckled, waiting for her to walk away before I walked up to him.

"I take it she's not too happy you told us about the walkers?" Glenn shook his head dismally. "Hey, you did what you thought was best. Can't fault you for that."

Glenn nodded sadly. I tried to give my most reassuring smile as I walked away. I wasn't paying much attention as I walked, and didn't see Daryl barreling out of the stable until he was ramming into me.

"Watch it," he snapped as I shoved away from him.

"You ran into me," I snapped back as I got my bearings. I looked at him levelly. He was very obviously still pissed about what Shane had said. I frowned. "You're bleeding. You've reopened your stitches."

"I'm fine," he grunted starting to walk away.

I caught up to him, grabbing his arm. "You're not fine. I need to close that up again."

He yanked away from me. "I'm fine. Leave me the hell alone."

"I know you're angry about what Shane said. That's not an excuse to be stupid and reckless. That's not going to bring Sophia back."

He swung around, getting right in my space. "You don't know nothin'."

"I know you care for that little girl. I know you want to find her. But if you die doing it that's not going to help anyone, and it's certainly not going to help Sophia. So just, Jesus, use your god damn brain."

"Fine," he said angrily.

"Fine!" I repeated back to him, not entirely sure what we were agreeing to. I waited, staring at him, not sure if was going to follow me back or walk away.

"You gon' do this or not?" he asked snippily.

"My bags in the truck." He followed me across the farm to my truck and waited as I lifted the lid on the back and grabbed my medical bag off the top.

"What is all this shit?" he asked looking around the trunk curiously.

"It's not shit," I responded reaching back up and closing the lid. "Now, sit."

Daryl rolled his eyes, but sat down on the edge of the truck, lifting his shirt. His bandage had a bright red mark on it. After I put on gloves, I peeled back the bandage and cleaned up the wound with an alcohol pad.

"You need to take it easy or this is going to get infected." He didn't answer so I looked up at him. "You hear me?"

He clenched his jaw but I remained staring at him. "Yeah, alright, I hear ya."

I put a couple stitches in and then rebandaged the wound. Daryl lingered once I was finished, looking like he wanted to say something, but he took off instead.

Later that afternoon, Claire and I were sitting on the porch. I'd made easy mac and cheese, which Claire and Carl devoured. They were playing gold fish on the floor while I re-read A Farewell to Arms. Maggie and Glenn were sitting on the steps, talking quietly, when T-Dog and Andrea walked up. Daryl and Carol followed, but I wasn't paying all that much attention to them.

I stopped reading when Daryl hollered, "Damn it. Isn't anybody taking this seriously? We got us a damn trail."

Shane started walking up then, looking crazier than usual. I put my book down and sat up. Claire noticed and looked over to Shane curiously. "What is going on," I whispered questioningly to myself.

Everyone was staring as Shane stormed forward carrying a bag of guns. Daryl pointed to the bag. "What's all this?"

"You with me, man?" Shane asked.

Daryl paused and then nodded. "Yeah." Shane passed him a gun.

"Time to grow up," Shane shouted. "You already got yours?" he asked Andrea as he passed her walking further into the group.

Andrea nodded. "Yeah. Where's Dale?"

"He's on his way," Shane answered passing a gun to T-Dog.

"Thought we couldn't carry?" T-Dog asked taking it nonetheless.

Shane answered, "We can and we have to. Look it was one thing standing 'round picking daisies when we thought this place was supposed to be safe. But now we know it ain't. How bout you man?" Shane walked over to Glenn holding out a gun to him. "You gon' protect yours?" Glenn took it. "That's it. Can you shoot?" Shane asked Maggie, who was standing next to Glenn.

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

Carl jumped up, going down the steps towards Shane. "We have to stay Shane."

Lori burst out onto the porch then, asking, "What is this?"

Shane said, "We ain't going anywhere, okay? Now look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Okay, he - well he's gonn' have to. Now we need to find Sophia. Am I right?" He kneeled down in front of Carl. "Huh now I want you to take this. You take it Carl. You keep your mother safe. You do whatever it takes. You know how. You go on and take the gun and do it."

Lori shoved Carl out of the way before he could take the gun. "Rick said no guns. This is not your call. This is not your decision to make."

Shane stared at Lori, challengingly. I didn't think they'd break their stare until T-Dog exclaimed, "Oh shit", drawing all of our attentions to where he was looking, across the field. Rick and Hershel were bringing two walkers to the barn.

I jumped up, pushing Claire back. She stood up, anyway. Our knives were still strapped to us but our guns were in the truck. Like she was reading my mind, Claire asked, "Do you want me to grab our guns?"

I shook my head watching Shane as he pushed to the front of the group to get a look. "What is that?" he said as he took off running, everyone following after him.

"What're you doing? Let's go," Claire cried pulling my hand as she took off down the porch.

"Hey! Claire, wait." I chased after her following them all to the barn. I grabbed onto Claire, pulling her back towards me as Shane started screaming at Rick.

"What the hell you doin'?" Shane cried.

Rick was struggling to hold the walker, saying, "Shane just back off."

Hershel looked at the group of us. "Why do your people have guns?"

Shane said, "Are you kidding me? You see? You see what they're holding onto?"

Hersel said, "I see who I'm holding onto."

"No, man, you don't," Shane responded pacing in front of Hershel and Rick. "These things ain't sick. They're not people. Ain't gotta feel nothin' for them cause all they do, they kill. These things right here. They're the things that killed Amy. They killed Otis. They're gonna' kill all of us. Hey Hershel man let me ask you somethin'? Could livin' breathin' person, could they walk away from this?"

Shane drew his gun and aimed it a one of the walkers, shooting three rounds into its chest. I flinched, and pulled Claire closer to me.

"That's three rounds in the chest. If someone who was alive, could they just take that? Why is it still comin'?" Shane shot at it again. "That's it's heart. It's lungs. Why's it still comin'?" He shot again.

"Shane enough!" Rick screamed.

"Yeah you're right man, that is enough." He walked right up to the walker Hershel was holding and shot it in the head. He kept walking, heading towards the barn doors, as Hershel fell to his knees. "Enough riskin' our lives for a little girl who's gone! Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us! Enough. Rick it ain't like it was before. Now if ya'll want to live, if you want to survive, you gotta' fight for it. I'm talkin' bout fighting right here, right now."

Shane took off running towards the barn doors. Claire looked up at me and said, "He's crazy, Clarke. There's something wrong with him."

"Shut up, Claire," I hissed, fearful that Shane might just pull his weapon on us next. I agreed with Claire. He was crazy. And I was rethinking my decision to stay with the group. It wasn't safe for either of us to be around someone who was unhinged.

Shane was taking a pickaxe to the lock on the barn door. "Claire unsheathe your knife. Take your knife out, now."

Rick was screaming at Shane but there was no stopping him. He broke the chains. Glenn and Lori were screaming, too as he took the plank off the door. Shane was screaming at the walkers as he backed away from the doors. Lori pushed Carl behind her but I was focused on Hershel. Patricia was holding him and he was red-eyed and teary.

The first walker burst through the doors, followed by the others. The groaning was loud now. I felt my stomach coil as I raised my knife. Andrea was the first to run forward and start shooting. Then T-Dog. Three walkers came our way. I lunged forward shoving my knife into the first's head, before pulling out and reaching for the second. I pulled it down and Claire stabbed it upwards under its jaw. It went limp in my arms. The third came at me, arms reaching out. A bullet cut it down at my feet. I looked around, but couldn't tell who had shot it.

Lori screamed, "Claire!" We both looked at her as another walker cut its path towards us. Lori waved Claire over, holding onto Carl. Claire stayed where she was, as I kicked the walker at the knees and it tumbled over. Claire plunged her knife into the top of its head. She anchored her foot on its shoulder to pull her knife out.

The rest of the group had made an assembly line as they shot at the remaining walkers. I glared at Shane angrily. They had wasted too many bullets on his little show. Again, I questioned my decision to join their group.

I glanced between the dead bodies on the ground and Maggie and Hershel. They had their heads bowed and Hershel was crying. The walkers in the barn were definitely a problem, but this wasn't the way to handle it.

I sheathed my knife, wiping my sweaty hands on my leggings. Dale walked up beside me, his expression one of shock and confusion. "Shane went nuts," I whispered to him. "He's out of control."

"He is," Dale agreed quietly, tone empty.

Beside him Beth was crying into Jimmy arms. It was tough to witness, and I started to turn around and leave but then I heard movement in the barn. There were more walkers in there? How many had we already killed?

A little girl emerged from the barn and I watched as nobody raised their weapons to shoot. She was slow, wobbling forward. Carol screamed, "Sophia! Sophia!" running forward. Daryl grabbed her, pulling her into her arms. Hot liquid rushed up my throat, and I had to look away.

I heard the shot, didn't know who had taken it. I had to turn my body full away as I threw up, acidic liquid burning my throat and nose. I brushed the back of my hand across my mouth, standing up right. I felt Claire's hand on my forearm.

"Come on," she said quietly leading me away.

I could hear Carol sobbing, it made my stomach roll again. Claire led the way back the camp and I took a seat at the picnic table. Claire was sitting across me. She asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm supposed to be asking you that," I responded.

She nodded slowly. "How many kids have you lost… in the hospital?"

"Twenty-seven."

"I guess it doesn't get easier, huh."

"No, it doesn't."

"Carol's going to be okay, right? She'll get through it?"

I shook my head. "I don't know that she will, Claire."

Claire nodded her head, looking down. She asked the table, "If it were me, if it were me in that barn, would you be okay? Would you get through it?"

I swallowed a dry throat. I'd never really thought about what Claire meant to me. I'd known her for so long, taken care of for so long, that it only felt natural. I was fiercely protective of her like she was my own daughter. Because it felt like she was.

Standing up, I said, "No. I wouldn't."