Echos in the Dark

Chapter 36

The next morning I decided to help feed the chickens. Ace and Cass helped too. I also found out that there were some baby chicks here. Some of them were following Cass around like a mother hen. Dean was laughing but me and Sam laughed as some of the hens started picking at him.

Ace kept throwing food at the chickens and Cass was having a hard time trying to get the chicks to stop filling him. I walked up to him and took two from the little group.

"It's so adorable." I said rubbing my finger on its head.

"They don't have a mama."

"They have Cass now."

"Did we eat their mama?" I hesitated.

"We honored her..." I sighed. He frowned a bit but nodded and continued to feed them. I put the chicks back down and they ran off to find Cass. I saw Sam walk away and the chickens who attacked Dean came back to eat.

"They're evil."

"They can smell your ego from here."

"Hey!" I laughed

-/-

We were gathered around the truck again since we were getting new grids to search. Sam and Cass were in charge of taking care of Ace, since we had to keep it low key, Daryl was attacked, Sam was shot at, and we don't know when Cass might leave for heaven.

"The creek flows south, past that farmhouse Daryl and Daphne found. Maybe Sophia dropped the doll there and the current brought it downstream."

"So what you think she took this road here and she went north?" Shane asked Rick.

"Yeah. What's up that way?" He asked the guy who joined us.

"A housing development. Went in maybe 10 years ago." A guy from Hershel's people said.

"Take a run up there after gun practice. I'll hold down the fort here, but take back up, after what went down with Sam and Daryl, I don't want anyone going out alone or separating. We stay in pairs."

"I'll take a suggestion in a partner." Shane said.

"See how they do on the range then take your pick." Glenn came up to us and handed out peaches to us. I took one and thanked him before biting into it. I moaned in delight of its sweetness. Glenn looked a bit conflicted. I raised a brow.

"Binoculars." Shane said. He looked down.

"Yeah. Yeah." He handed them to Shane and picked up the basket of peaches.

"Okay, bye." Suddenly two girls walked up to us. Patricia and I remembered talking to the younger blonde. Beth was her name. Hershel's other daughter.

"We'd like to join you for gun training today." I raised a brow.

"Hershel's been very clear. I can't involve any of you in what we do without his okay."

"He doesn't like it. But he consented." Beth said.

"Otis was the only one who knew guns. Now that he's gone," I flinched at the memory of his funeral. "We gotta learn to protect ourselves. Her father saw the sense in that."

"No offense, but I'll ask Hershel myself." Me and Dean walked back to the Impala.

"Please! Please Uncle?" I looked at Dean who was also confused.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"It's nothing-"

"Can I shoot a gun too?" I was surprised at the question.

"Absolutely not!" I protest.

"Why not?! Carl's dad let's him!"

"He's older than you!"

"I want to protect you guys too!" He said. I tried to reason with him so I looked to my brothers for help.

"Guys?" They were quiet and had a look on their face. "You two know better than anyone how it feels to give a child a gun!"

"Daph, if the world wasn't like this, we would've been objecting," I heard a 'but.'

"But?"

"But look around. You were just shot not even five days ago! If anything...And you know I said the same thing to Ben. Times are different now." I ran a hand through my hair and shook my head. He's a Winchester...

"I hate it. I hate that you're right..." I looked to my son.

"Fine," he started getting excited. "But," He stopped jumping and looked at me. "Only at practice. And if me or your uncles see you're doing well, then we'll see about carrying a gun. But remember, these are not toys. You can get hurt. And I can never forgive myself if I loose you. I can't loose you. I just can't..." I said. He nodded.