𝓗𝓮𝔂 𝓐𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓵 | 𝓓𝓪𝓻𝔂𝓵 𝓓𝓲𝔁𝓸𝓷

Chapter 31: Goodbye Sanctuary

"Rick and Shane ain't back?" Daryl asked the worry group all huddled in the living room. I felt a pang of guilt. If something happened to Rick...I don't know what I'd do and maybe if I had held my ground with him I would've been there to stop it.

"We heard a shot on the way back, anyone know where it came from?" I questioned scanning the pack of panic-filled faces.

"Maybe they found Randall," Lori suggested silent worry filling her. I think more than anyone she knew that wasn't true but the other alternative was unthinkable.

"We found him," Daryl answered.

"Is he back in the shed?" Patricia spoke up from behind.

"He's a walker," The redneck said.

"Did you find the walker that bit him?"

"That's the weird thing he wasn't bit," Glenn said.

"His neck was broken and the tracks Daryl found made the whole thing stranger," I cut in looking Daryl for him to continue.

"Shane and Randall's tracks...they were right on top of each other. And Shane ain't no tracker, so he didn't come up behind him, no they were together."

"Look, Lori, you know Shane best here, surely you've seen how he's become? If he and Rick are okay I think we need to decide what to do with-"

"Would you two please just get back out there and find Rick and Shane and find out what on earth is goin on," Lori pushed in placing a hand on Daryl's shoulder and looking at us with a pleading gaze.

"You got it." He and I said together despite the sense of dread of not having a plan for what to do with the man I had once called a friend.

"Thank you."

I headed back outside at Daryl's side ready for what I might have to do. If it came down to it I was prepared to deal with Shane for the good of the group. He's become too unstable and I'm not sure if even Rick could talk him out of anything drastic at this point. After all, this was what Shane had wanted all along. Randall dead and he got it.

Stepping out the door and onto the veranda, my eyes widened.

"Please tell me, that is not what I think it is Angel," I glanced to Daryl who was still staring out through the mass of walkers slowly getting closer. There seemed to be no end to herd heading straight for us.

"Wish I could fancy pants."

"Patricia, kill the lights," Hershel instructed.

"I'll get the guns," Andrea whispered ducking back inside the house.

"Maybe they'll pass like the ones on the highway. Should we just go inside?" Glenn questioned with some hope.

"Not unless there's a tunnel downstairs I don't know about, herd that size would rip the house down," Daryl surmised.

"We need to come up with some sort of plan and fast. It's either we abandon ship now or come up with a pretty impressive clearance method," I muttered more to myself than anyone surrounding me looking over the giant number of walkers headed our way.

"Carl's gone," Lori rushed out in a panic.

"What?"

"He, he was upstairs. I can't find him anymore," she explained whilst attempting to catch her breath.

"Maybe he's hiding?"

"He's supposed to be upstairs. I'm not leaving without my boy," She cried shaking her head.

"We wouldn't ever make you do that, Lori. We would never leave without him or Rick," I assured noting that no one noticed the fact I'd left out Shane.