Impregnable {A Walking Dead Fanfiction}

Forty-Three

    "Don't look...don't look..." Daryl said as Carol continued screaming. "My baby!" Carol sobbed into Daryl's arms. Shane sat his rifle on the ground before walking over to me. I stared at him in shock with tears streaming down my face. "Hollie..." He breathed as I took a step back, shaking my head and holding Mable close. "Grab her, get her away from them!" Carol yelled, struggling to break Daryl's grasp. Shane turned his attention to them, returning to Sophia. "We've been out there combing the woods for here and she's been here all along?" Shane asked as he helped Daryl pull Sophia out of the pile of corpses. "You knew," Shane growled, turning his attention to Hershel. "Leave us alone," He replied. "You knew, and you kept it from us." "I didn't know." "That's bullshit. I think y'all knew," Shane said. "I don't care what you think," Hershel said bluntly. "Everyone just calm down...please," I said. "Off my land, I mean it," Hershel said, glaring at Shane before walking toward the house. 

    "We told him we were looking for a little girl with blonde hair. He put us all in danger," Shane growled. "She'd been rotting in there for a long time. Merle died and Daryl got bitten by a rattlesnake looking for her. Any one of us could've died out there looking for her while she was in that barn." "I was handling it, brother, and you just..." "Rick, I'm sorry but I couldn't stand around and keep arguing about our safety with a delusional man," Shane replied. "So you just start an insurrection and massacre his family in front of him?" Rick asked. "You know that wasn't his family," Shane sighed. "That's what he just saw," Rick said bluntly. "Well I see that we've been chasing a ghost in a forest while he knew she was here this whole time," Shane replied. "It shouldn't have happened like this," I said as they turned their attention to me. "This isn't how we handle things," "Hollie, I..." Shane said, starting towards me. "No," I said, putting up my hand to stop him.  I stared at him for a moment before shaking my head and walking away. 

    "Carol...I'm so sorry," I said, bending down next to her. She took in a deep, shaky breath before speaking. "That's not my baby girl, that's some other thing. ... All this time I thought she was alone in the woods. She didn't go hungry, she didn't try to find her way back. My Sophia died a long time ago," She said. "At least we finally have an answer," I said, smiling weakly at her before walking back to camp. "Hollie!" Andrea called out as she approached. "Are you okay?" She asked, walking next to me. I shook my head, passing Mable to her, "I mean, we've lost others but this is Sophia. This one was different..." I said. "I know it was foolish, but I never lost hope that we'd find her out there," She said. "I thought I'd find her," Carl said after overhearing our conversation. "We all did," Lori said. "I mean me, that I'd be the one. Like, maybe she was hiding somewhere in a cave or tree. She'd be safe and I'd find her and bring her back before it was too late," He said. "I'm sorry, Honey," Lori said, wrapping her arm around him. "He did the right thing, shooting her like that. I would've done it too," Carl said bluntly. Lori looked at him in shock. "You can't tell me this was right," Dale said. "It wasn't, and it'll cost us with Hershel," I said, glancing over my shoulder at Shane. "I know the threat had to be eliminated, but we didn't have to make enemies like this," I said. "Hershel's grieving, he'll come around and see we didn't have a choice," Andrea said,  "Look, I shot too. This wasn't all Shane." "I'm not saying that we shouldn't have taken care of the problem, but it shouldn't have been handled like this. We didn't need to create this panic," Dale said. "I didn't create shit," Daryl said as he walked past us. "There's no point in arguing about it, it's done. There's nothing we can do to change the past," Dale said. "Unfortunately," I replied. 

    "Hey guys?" Maggie called out as she approached us. "Daddy took off in his truck," She said, her green eyes bloodshot, "We found this on his bed. He gave up drinking years ago," She held out an antique flask. "We'll go after him, where do you think he went?" Glenn asked, walking over to her. "Hatlin's, if I had to guess. He practically lived there in his drinking days," She said. "I've heard of it. You comin' with, Rick?" Daryl asked. Rick nodded, taking a moment to say goodbye to Lori and Carl before walking over to Cameron's SUV where the others had gathered. "Hollie, can I talk to you?" Maggie asked over her shoulder as she walked back to the house. "Daddy said that you and Mable can stay when the rest of the group leaves," She said after we'd reached the porch. "Just the two of us?" I asked, sucking in a deep breath. "He said Dale could stay too, but he wants Shane gone by sundown," She said. I closed my eyes and took in another breath, trying to slow my racing heart. "I understand," I said weakly, "I'm sorry about your people. It shouldn't have gone down like that." She didn't respond, only staring down at the dirt and nodding. 

    I made eye contact with Shane and he started walking towards me. I hesitated, wanting to run inside and avoid him. What do I even say to him, and how do I say it without screaming?  I sucked in a deep breath and glanced at Maggie before walking down the creaky stairs. "Hollie, I had to protect us, I had to..." He said, stopping a few feet away from me. "I don't want to hear you justify it," I said, cutting him off. "I can't believe you would fly off the handle and take matters into your own hands like that! I thought that we had to be able to trust each other." I said, failing to keep my emotions from controlling me. He took a step back, not responding. "That wasn't okay, Shane. Hershel took off because he just watched you massacre people he loves. The same man who saved Carl's life. This could've been handled civilly, we're not goddamn barbarians," I said. He stared at me with his mouth open, starting to say something and then stopping. "I'll talk to you later," I sighed, turning and walking towards the house.