At the end of the world- A walking dead fanfic, Book 1

15- One more

The reaction to Glenn's news had been a lot more tame than Kyllian had expected. He thought people would reach for their weapons immediately. Maybe they would've if Rick hadn't taken control of the situation immediately. He had everyone remain calm.

"How long have you known about this?" Rick asked.

"Last night."

"Why didn't you tell us immediately?" Leland crossed his arms. "This seems like information we all have a right to know."

"We're guests here and the barn is Hershel's private property." Theresa spoke up. "I think he has a right to do with it as he pleases. Now, I don't personally don't like that there are walkers in there, but it's his right."

"We need to do something about it. Kill them. Make sure they can't hurt us." Shane insisted and Andrea agreed.

"No, hold on." Rick urged calmness again. "We'll investigate first and go from there."

"It's padlocked shut. Unless they figure out how to crack a lock open, they're not getting out of there." Kyllian said.

"You knew about this too? Why didn't you tell us, man?" T-Dog asked.

"Yes, I knew. And I didn't tell you because of him." He waved his hand at Shane. "If we kill those walkers we'll have lost our place here."

A fight threatened to break out, but Rick got everyone to calm down again. "We'll investigate first."

He began walking towards the barn and the others followed him. Once they got there most were smart enough to keep their distance and stay quiet. Everyone knew getting too close would only agitate the walkers inside. But Shane had to act though and approach. He went as far as pressing his face against the door to catch a glimpse of what's inside through the planks. He jumped back when one of the walkers banged against the door.

"You cannot tell me you're all right with this." Shane grumbled as he stormed back towards the group.

"No, I'm not, but we're guests here. This isn't our land." Rick shot back.

"God, this is our lives, man!" He yelled.

"Lower your voice." Glenn urged.

"We can 't just sweep this under the rug." Andrea insisted.

"We're not going to do that, but we can't deal with guns blazing." Kyllian said. "Not if we want to keep living here."

"This ain't right." Shane pointed at the barn and shook his head. "Not remotely." He began pacing back and forth. "We've either got to go in there, we've got to make things right, or we've just got to go."

"There's a third option. We could accept it."

"Accepting it is ignoring it." Leland shook his head.

"I'm not saying we pretend it's not there." He shook his head. "Hershel has people he lost in there, people he cares about. We've all lost people we care about. We all react differently to it, and he can't say goodbye."

Theresa tilted her head. "You want to play the long game?"

He nodded. "I think that's our only option."

"No." Shane bit back. "We can still go. We have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time."

"We can't go." Rick almost growled.

"Why, Rick? Why?"

"Because my daughter is still out there." Carol said quietly.

"Okay." Shane dragged his hand down his face and tried his best not to laugh. Kyllian could feel his fist clenching involuntarily. "Okay, I think it's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility."