Iris (Glenn Rhee x reader)

23| Barn

Y/n POV

"There's a barn" Daryl shouted as he looked at us. A barn, good. That means shelter.

"Where?" Rick asked. The rain was coming down even harder than before.

It wasn't a far walk. We packed up everything and we quickly followed Daryl. When we got there, Rick was ahead of us to do a look out. It was an old barn, it still looked decent shape as well.

When we made it inside of the barn, it had old tools, books, papers scattered around everywhere. It looked like some people tried to make a living out of the barn before things went south.

Once we settled in, we made a fire. It got pretty dark but the thunder didn't settle at all. It was just a small fire. The sticks were to wet and we couldn't make a decent fire out of it.

"I'll try" Glenn offered as he saw Daryl throw the sticks to the side as he leaned back.

"Nah, to wet" Daryl said, he reached out his arms and I passed a sleeping Evie to him. He smiled as he held on to her. Most people were sleeping.

I looked around and I saw a quiet conversation between Gabriel and Christopher. Maggie was laying down and it seemed like JJ was talking to her softly, Maggie was going through it and JJ seemed to be helping.

"He's gonna be okay. He bounces back better than the rest of us" I said as I smiled as I saw Carl sleeping. I could tell Rick was worried about his son.

"I used to feel sorry for kids that have to grow up now. In this. But I think I got it wrong. Growing up is getting used to the world. This is easier for them." Rick said as he looked between his kids and Evie.

"This isn't the world. This isn't it." Michonne said as she leaned on the barn wall.

"It might be. It might." Glenn said as he played with his knife and traced circles into the ground.

"That's giving up" Michonne said to him.

"It's reality." Glenn said.

"Until we see otherwise, this is what we have to live with." Rick said as he looked over at Michonne. "When I was a kid...I asked my grandpa once if he ever killed any Germans in the war. He wouldn't answer. He said that was grown up stuff, so...so I asked if the Germans ever tried to kill him. But he got real quiet. He said he was dead the minute he stepped into enemy territory. Every day he woke up he told himself, rest in peace. Now get yo and go to war. And then after a few years of pretending he was dead...he made it out alive. This yes the truck of it, I think. We do what we need to do and then we get to live. But no matter what we find in DC, I know we'll be okay. Because this is how we survive. We tell ourselves...that we are the walking dead." Rick said, there was a sound of thunder that came in when he finished.

"We ain't them." Daryl said as he looked down at his niece who was sleeping in his arms.

"We're not them. Hey we're not." Rick said to Daryl as he watched him stand up.

"We ain't them" Daryl said as he passed Evie back to Glenn and Grabbed his bow and walked away.

It was later on in the night and the sound of thunder was hard for me to stay awake. I heard the sound of grunting and banging.

"Daryl?" I asked as I got up and went over to him. He had his back up against the wall and he was keeping the door shut and it seemed to be like he was struggling.

"Walkers" He grunted out. I ran over to him and helped him keep the barn doors close. I felt them push against us and I had no idea how long we could keep them up like this.

Soon enough more people came over and helped us keep the door closed. I stood beside Sasha and I used all my strength to keep the door closed. I looked back and I saw that Carl was with Judith and Evie.

We were all piled up together pushing against eachother trying to keep the doors shut. Everyone was here doing our best. My shoes were slipping in the mud but we had to do this.

I woke up with a pounding headache. I walked over and saw Daryl sitting down leaning against the barn door. It looked like he had been up all night.

"You should get some sleep" I said to him as I leaned my head against his shoulder.

"Yeah" Daryl muttered.

"It's okay to rest now." I said to him. We looked over at Sasha who had finally been able to get some rest as well.

"He was tough." Daryl said at the mention of Tyreece. Poor Tyreece.

"He was" I agreed with him as I looked up at him. I know he was hurting but I didn't know what to say to possible make him feel better.

"So was she. She didn't know it, but she was." Daryl said at the mention of Beth. It was probably the first time he had ever talked about her after her passing. "The gearbox had some grit in it" Daryl said as he passed me some box.

"Thank you" I said to him. I went over to Sasha and tapped her on the shoulder. "Come on"

We slowly slipped out of the barn in the daylight. I gave her back her gun and I had my katana with me. When we opened up the barn door you could smell the smell of rain. You know the smell you can smell as soon as you walk out, like when it's about to rain. The wood smelled like it was rotting and the air felt heavy. But I didn't prepare myself for what to happen next.