Echos in the Dark

Chapter 27

Hershel shook his head and then looked at Dean. "You sit this out then." Dean looked surprised and confused.

"Me? Why?"

"You gave three units of blood. In this heat you won't make it for more than five minutes." I leaned close to Dean.

"Just sit out, it'll make this look less suspicious." I whisper. I heard him sighed.

"Alright fine, guess I'll babysit Ace."

"You make it sound like a bad thing."

"It's not."

"And your ankle, push it now, you'll be laid up for a month. No good to anybody."

"Guess it jus' me, Rick, Daph, yer friend, and yer brother." Daryl said. I nodded.

"I'm gonna head back to the creek, work my way from there."

"Want me to come?" I asked.

"Ye sure?" I nodded then looked at the boys.

"Go with Rick, get to know each other. And watch Cass." Sam nodded as I whispered the last part.

"I can still be useful. I'll drive up to the interstate, see if Sophia wandered back."

"Alright, tomorrow then. We'll start doing this right."

"That means we can't have our people out here with just knives. They need the gun training we've been promising them." Shane said.

"I'd prefer you not carrying guns on my property. We've managed so far without turning this into an armed camp." I furrowed my brows. Hershel was a hunter, he knows better than to have no guns around.

"With all due respect, you get a crowd of those things wandering in here-"

"Look, we're guests here. This is your property and we will respect that." Rick said looking at all of us before taking out his gun and placing it on the hood of the card.

"This is freaking unbelievable."

"Dean- not. Now." I muttered before taking out my gun and looking at it. I sighed and placed it on the hood too.

"First things first: Set up camp, find Sophia." Rick said.

"I hate to be the one to ask, but somebody's got to. What happens if we find her and she's bit? I think we should all be clear on how we handle that." He has a point. But I won't believe it. I refuse to.

"You do what has to be done."

"And her mother? What do you tell her?" Maggie asked.

"The truth." Andrea spoke.

"I'll gather and secure all the weapons. Make sure no ones carrying till we're at a practice rang off site. I do request one rifleman on lookout. Dales got experience." Shane said. I looked at Dean an motioned my head to his car. He understood and walked away.

"Our people would feel safer. Less inclined to carry a gun." Rick said. Hershel agreed.

"Thank you." Shane said. I took my gun and me and my brother walked away to Dean's Impala.

"Sweet ride." I heard Glenn say to Dean.

"Thanks." I rolled my eyes before we joined him and Castiel.

"What is he thinking? He knows more than anyone that we have to carry a gun at all times." He said.

"Dean, calm yourself. Look we can talk to Hershel later but for now," I turned to Cass. "I thought I asked to be nice to them. Not give them dirty looks."

"I don't trust him."

"Who? Shane? Why?"

"He lies a lot."

"What?" I asked confused.

"I believe you call it 'bull shitting.'" He did the quote thing with his hands. I always find it funny but not now. "When he was asked to speak about the mans death, he was lying. When I went to end his life, he had a gunshot wound on his left leg. He was still being eaten." I was shocked.

"Are you saying Shane killed Otis?" Sam asked.

"That's exactly what I'm saying." I looked back at Shane asking for weapons then back to them.

"Why?" Dean asked

"Look, if Shane really killed Otis then we need to be careful. Even when I've been with them, I couldn't help but watch my back when he was around."

"So what do you wanna do?"

"Nothing, Shane is Rick's best friend- His right hand man, if I tell him then I need to tell him about Cass, if the times comes and he starts to show his true colors, then we'll do something about it. But for now, we ignore it and focus our attention on looking for the girl." They nodded.