"The barns full of walkers"

At Glenn's words my morning shattered. I stood up abruptly and my eyes shifted from Glenn to the barn behind him. I knew it wasn't my business, hell it wasn't this groups business, it was Hershel's farm, but they were so close that it was of concern to us all. My curiosity was peaked as we all walked towards the barn. Once we were in front of it I walked ahead of the group and towards the barn, putting my eye up close to a crack between the wood. A small gasp escaped me at the sight. Over a dozen lurkers roamed the barn, groaning and moaning as they grasped at empty air.

I stood in shock as Shane went on talking, something about Fort Benning came up, though I knew myself Fort Benning was most likely overrun. Carol began to talk about Carol, and I ignored them until I heard Shane say "If she was alive, out there, and saw you coming, all methed up with your buck knife, an geek ears 'round your neck, she would run in the opposite direction!" to Daryl. My anger peaked, no one spoke about my cousin without expecting some back lash. "Shane you best shut the fuck up, from what I heard you've been sittin actin all high and mighty while Daryl looks for this little girl, so shut the fuck up and leave it" I yell, my face tinted red. "Listen here you stupid hick, You aint know nothing so butt the fuck out" He growled out. "You askin for another shiner? 'Cuz I'd be glad to hit you again" I yelled.

Before Shane could throw back a smart ass comment Daryl stepped in, and began throwing punches. Rick fought to stop the two from fighting and no one else helped. I turned and stormed off towards the woods, angry shouts being drowned out by my anger. How dare Shane talk shit about Daryl, talk shit about me? What gave him the right? I don't even know him.

I walked and walked, stopping after walking for half an hour. I stopped at a large twisted tree that slightly reminded me of the Whomping Willow from Harry Potter, though without all the leaves and with less branches. This tree was just as big with thick branches and few leaves near the bottom. I began to pull myself up the tree, climbing to the lowest branch that hung about seven feet off the ground. I put each leg on different sides of the branch and leaned back against the tree trunk, my eyes closing. The sun felt good against my skin and I let myself relax against the tree, my legs swinging in the light breeze. I zoned out for a while, not noticing the telltale sound of groans until I felt something nudge my foot. I snapped out of my daze and looked down, seeing a male lurker reaching up for my boots. I jumped, looking in surprise at the stupid creature who was failing miserably at grabbing my boot.

I pulled my feet up and shimmed around the tree trunk, pushing myself to the opposite side of the tree before dropping to my feet, the lurker quickly taking notice that I was closer now. He came at me as I quickly reached down and pulled my knife out of my boot. The lurker rushed me and made me fall onto my back, his teeth reaching for my neck as I held him back. I struggled against him, rolling us over so that I was on top before bringing my knife down onto the lurkers head, striking it twice before rolling off of it. I let out a breath as I pushed myself up and away. I staggered a step before walking forward again, I must've landed harder than expected.

I headed in the general direction of the farm, the sun that once made me feel relaxed now made me uncomfortable. I realized that Daryl would probably be mad at me when I got back, I had stormed off and by the time I get back I would've been gone at least an hour and a half. I shook that thought off and walked faster, desperate to get back.

When I emerged from the woods, Daryl was immediately storming toward me, a pissed off look on his face like expected. "And where the hell were you?" he growled, gripping my wrist and dragging me towards my truck. "I went to cool off and lost track of time, chill out" I groaned, slapping away his hand. "Lost track of time? You didn't think that telling me you were leaving as a good idea? Heck, you didn't tell anyone. You could've got bit and I wouldn't have known where you were!" He yelled, trying to make himself taller to intimidate me. "Daryl, chill the fuck out. I went for a walk and I'm fine" I said, somehow managing to keep my voice even as I tried to calm Daryl down. "Well next time you let me know" he gruffly said, glaring at me before he stormed off.

I shook my head, Daryl had always been over protective, and as nice as it was to know someone cared, it got annoying practically always being on house arrest. I was the only girl in our group of cousins, not to mention the youngest, and he knew the tendencies of the fathers in our family all too well.

My thoughts soon became jumbled up so I shook my head, efficiently clearing my mind. A figure in the field caught my eye, I had thought it as a lurker but it started to look a lot like Shane. He was walking quickly through the field towards the barn, a black Sheriffs duffel bag thrown over his shoulder. I looked closer and noted that the bag was full of guns, riffles and pistols, and ammunition bouncing around the bag. Shane began to hand out guns.

I was confused? Hershel didn't want guns on his property right? So what are they doing? I grabbed my pistol from my truck and put it in the waist band of my pants, just in case. I then stormed off towards Shane, hearing the girls scream at him as he tried to hand Carl a gun. I didn't get a chance to say anything before everyone was following Shane as he raced off towards Rick, Hershel, and Jimmy who were dragging walkers towards the barn with snag poles. Shane began talking nonsense about walkers not being people, saying they killed Amy and Otis and that we were next. Shane pulled out a gun "Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" Shane fired three times at the female walkers chest. "Now that's three rounds in the chest, could someone who was alive, could they take that? Whys it still coming?" Two more shots. "Shane! That's enough!" Rick screamed. "Yeah. Your right man, that is enough." He shot the walker in the head, her groans becoming silenced as she fell to the floor. Hershel dropped to the ground in shock, as Shane continued. "Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone! Enough living next to a barn full of things trying to kill us, enough! Rick, it ain't like it was before! If you wanna live, If you want to survive, you gotta fight for it, right here, right now!" As soon as his speech was finished he ran towards the barn and began bashing a cow bar against the lock on the barn until it fell. Rick and the group were begging him to stop, but I stood frozen in shock, watching the events unfold. I knew that something with Shane, but this? This was crazy.

Then the gun shots began. Walker after walker poured out of the barn, arms outstretched as they reached for us. Gun shots rained down on them, some missing the head but most hitting their mark. I stumbled towards a crying Maggie and a shocked Hershel. I put one hand on Hershel's shoulder and my free hand gripped Maggie's hand tightly. As the last few walkers were taken out everyone stood silently. That is until a tiny groan rang out. A little girl no older than 12 stumbled out of the barn, a huge bite mark where her neck met her shoulder. Her clothes were in shreds and her skin was sickly pale. "Sophia? Sophia!" Carol cried out, struggling to get out of Daryl's iron grip. We all stood still as the girl ambled closer, until Rick pulled out his gun and aimed. He hesitated a minute, hand shaking before he pulled the trigger and little Sophia fell to the floor.

Carol stormed off, tears trailing down her face. Beth pushed away from Jimmy, running towards who I could only imagine to be her mother. Rick tried to stop her but she pushed past him, pulling a dead walker off her mom before falling to her knees. Her moms eyes snapped open and her cold hands reached up for Beth's face, tangling her fingers in Beth's hair. Beth screamed, and I ran forward, helping the men pull Beth away. Andrea took that as the signal to grab a scythe and plunge it through Annette's head. Beth pushed away from everyone and ran towards her family who were slowly walking towards their house with Rick, Glenn, and Shane in tow.

My gaze landed on the bodies as I stood up, Daryl walking towards me and blocking my view of the bodies. "Madison go do something else, let the rest of us take care of this" He said, gently pushing me towards the house. "I can handle it Daryl, I don't know any of these people, it'll be easy for me to think of them as just random people. I won't let you guys do this alone." I say, pushing past Daryl and walking over to Andrea. Shane had already walked off to get the truck. "And the others? That's a lot of digging" Jimmy asked. "We burry the ones we love and burn the rest" Andrea said with finality, glancing at the dead scattered around us. Daryl walked over to me, "Madison.." he trailed. I knew he didn't want me to do this, didn't want me to see what had happened. "I'm not a little girl anymore Daryl. I know you want to think of me as the little girl who cried every time she shot something, but I'm an adult now and I can handle it. So just let me do what I can to contribute" I demanded, walking towards the barn, not once glancing back.

I quickly walked towards a table inside the barn that had blankets on it, and grabbed three blankets, one for each loved one. I walked out and handed T-dog, and Andrea a blanket, keeping one for myself. I watched as Andrea headed over to Sophia and T-dog walked towards Shawn, so I headed towards Annette. I dropped the dusty blanket and grabbed the ankles of a walker draped over Annette. I slowly dragged it off, grunting because of the weight. There was only one other walked on Annette, this one admittedly a little… larger than the other. I grasped his angles and tugged, though he didn't move much. I yanked as hard as I could, resulting in him sliding off and me falling on my ass. I ignored Daryl's laughs as I pushed myself to my feet and walked towards Annette. I unfolded the blanket and draped it over her, folding it underneath her hands and feet. I looked up once she was covered and looked around. Jimmy was leaning against the truck with tears in his eyes as he looked around. I pushed myself up before walking towards him. "You don't have to be here, I know these people were your family" I said, leaning on the truck beside him. "I can't leave. You guys can't do this alone, I want to help" He said, forcefully wiping his eyes. "You don't have to help like this, I know someone who probably needs you right now" I said. "Who?" He asked, clueless. "Your girlfriend? For starters, why don't you just run in there, she's hurting right now" Jimmy nodded and pushed off the truck, jogging towards the house.

I looked back towards the people working and saw that T-dog and Andrea were already separating the walkers we'd burn from the ones we'd burry. The pile was close to the truck and only four walkers were in the burn pile, Shane had just began throwing the burn bodies into the truck. I joined him, grabbing ankles while he grabbed the wrists and then we'd lug them into the bed of the truck. We constantly repeated the process, as the bodies needed to be burned grew smaller. I took brief notice of Hershel tearing down the road, and not five minutes later Rick rushing towards us. "You said you went to pre-med, correct?" He questioned, panting slightly. I nodded "Three and a half years" "Come with me" He then turned on his heels and raced off towards the house, me on his heels. "What happened?" I asked, growing worried. "Beth collapsed, she's unresponsive, and Hershel's gone, we don't know what's wrong" He explained, holding open the front door. I nodded and followed him into the empty room that Beth was in. I took note of Rick and Glenn leaving as I checked over Beth's condition. "She's only in shock, mourning I'd guess. I need an IV, and a sedative. We've got to keep her body from working too hard if we want her up soon" I briefly explained. Maggie nodded and ran out of the room, and returned a few moments later, handing me what I had asked for. The IV bag was already filled so I inserted the IV into her arm and injected the sedative into the water bag. Maggie glanced out the window "They are startin the funeral outside" She said, glancing back at me. "Go ahead and attend it, I'll watch Beth, pay some respects for me" I said, shooing her away.

She nodded and closed the door before walking to join her mourning family. I pulled up a chair beside Beth and grasped her hand, resting my forehead on the bed and closing my eyes. Today had been an eventful day, the excitement (If you could even call it that) had worn me out. I was in need of relaxation so I let my mind run blank. I began humming quietly.

I'm so tired of being here,

Suppressed by all of my childish fears

And if you have to leave

I wish that you would just leave

'Cause your presence still lingers here

And it won't leave me alone.

These wounds won't seem to heal,

There's just too much that time cannot erase.

I slowly stopped humming, my eyes dropping

When you'd cry I'd wipe away all your tears

When you'd scream I'd fight away all your fears

And I held your hand through all these years

But you still have

All of me

As the final words rang out, my eyes finally closed and darkness swallowed me, and I fell into a fitful sleep.