A Broken World

Thirty

Next Morning

Everyone was sitting around the camp eating breakfast. Hershel allowed us to have eggs from his chickens. It was peaceful until Glenn stood up asking for all of our attention. “Um…guys. So…the barn’s full of walkers.” Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up at him. “Excuse me? Did you just say that the barn is full of walkers? That barn over there?” I asked, pointing in the direction of the barn. Glenn nodded his head giving a small, “Yeah.” As A reply.

We were all up and out of our seats and headed down to the barn. Shane walked up and looked through the gaps in the boards of the door. He moved back from it and walked over to Rick. “You cannot tell me you're all right with this,” he said. How could anyone be alright with this? They were keeping walkers in the fucking barn! For what though was the question. “No, I'm not, but we're guests here. This isn't our land,” Rick told him. Was he insane? “Oh, god! This is our lives, man!”

“Lower your voice,” Glenn told Shane. “We can't just sweep this under the rug,” Andrea said, and for once I agreed with her. “It ain't right. Not remotely,” Shane argued. “We either gotta go in there, make things right, or we just gotta go, man. We have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time now.”

“We can't go!” Rick interrupted Shane. “Why, Rick? Huh?” He asked. I stepped forward but Carol spoke before I could. “Because my daughter's still out there,” she told him. Shane scoffed, putting his hands over his eyes before looking at her. “Carol, I think it's time we all just start to consider the possibility…” I cut Shane off before he could even finish his sentence. “We are not leaving Sophia! We are going to find that little girl!” I said. Shane rolled his eyes and shook his head. “We're close to finding this girl. Hell, we just found her damn doll two days ago!” Daryl said.

Shane started laughing, “You found her doll, Daryl, that's what you did, you found a doll!” He said. That pissed Daryl off, “You don't know what the hell you're talking about!” Rick put his arm out to try and stop them from getting to each other. Then Shane put his foot in his mouth even more. Talking about the first forty-eight hours is the most crucial. “Let me tell you something else, man. If she was alive out there and saw you comin’ all method out with your buck knife, geek ears around your neck she'd turn and run the other way!”

That was enough to send me flying at Shane. My fist collided with his jaw knocking him back a few steps before Daryl's arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me back and Rick stepped in front of Shane. “You fucking bitch!” Shane wiped the blood from his lip and tried to get past Rick. “Knock it off! Hey! Knock it off!” Rick yelled. Daryl put me down, standing slightly in front me just in case. Before any more fighting could happen Dale stepped in talking about how Hershel sees those things as people. Apparently his wife and step-son are in the barn, along with neighbors. Shane jumped down Dale's throat about knowing and not saying anything. Dale explained about Glenn being the one to want to say something. Shane was still raising his voice but when the barn doors rattled everyone was silent and still. Lori pushed Carl back further and Carol moved back too.

After everyone calmed down and went back to doing whatever Shane decided to take it upon himself to check the outside of the barn and keep watch. Andrea had been up his ass, which to be honest wasn't surprising. Dale was on top of the RV keeping watch until Glenn came back and took over, Lori sat at the picnic table with Carl doing school work. Which, I got why it's important but at the same time it seems useless to me. I was in my tent changing the bandage on my shoulder when Carol walked in. “Yn?” I looked up at her, “Hey, Carol, what's up?” I asked, standing up.

“I need you to talk to Daryl,” she said. I raised an eyebrow at her. “Why? What did he do?” I asked. She let out a defeated sigh. “I followed him to the stable. He was trying to saddle a horse to go out looking for Sophia. I told him not to because he needs to rest. He got mad when I said–when I said that we don't even know if we are going to find her, and he stormed off. I softly let out a sigh and walked over to her. “Which way did he go?” I asked. She led me out of the tent and pointed in the direction he went. I knew where he would be as soon as she showed me. The Greenes had a lake on their property with a small dock on it. I was sure that's where I would find Daryl.

I walked to the lake and as expected, Daryl was sitting at the end of the dock. His boots were sitting next to him and his feet were in the water. I stopped untied my boots, took them and my socks off, and walked down the small dock. I set my shoes down, then slowly sat down beside Daryl, dangling my feet in the cold water. Daryl side-eyed me but I didn't say anything. I waited until he spoke first. “What're ya doin' here?” He asked in his gruff southern accent. I shrugged and shook my head. “Nothing.”

“Carol told ya what happened, that it? Ya here to yell at me? Call me an asshole and lecture me about how I need to be nice to the woman whose child is missin’?” I looked over at him and studied his face for a few minutes before answering. “Doesn't look like I need to. Seems like you already know what you did was stupid. I think you have the most hope in finding that little girl. You've worked harder in looking for her than any of us. Shane is right in one way. Normally, in a normal world, the first forty-eight hours is the most crucial. After that we're prepared to find a body. But this isn't a normal world anymore. I don’t think that rule applies anymore. But I has been a few days and I'm starting to get worried we're not going to find her alive or dead. God, I hope we find her alive, I really do. You should apologize to Carol.”