Remember Me (Daryl Dixon)

Chapter Eight: Family Jewels

"What the hell is going on?" I demanded as I approached Shane and his people. The only acknowledgement I got was Daryl and Maggie glancing over at me. I had slept most of the day due to my need to avoid Daryl. Now I didn't care about that, I only cared about the guns that Shane was handing out.

"How about you, man? You gonna protect yours?" Shane asked Glenn as he handed him a gun. Glenn looked uneasy, but he took the gun anyways. This caused Maggie to show a look of disbelief.
"Now, you," Shane said when he saw me hurrying over, "Can you shoot?"

He held a pistol out to me but I slapped it out of his hand. There were no weapons on this farm. What the hell was he doing? He would be kicked out whenever daddy showed up. Hell, they all would.
"What the hell is going on?" I demanded once more.

Shane scoffed at me and gave me a dirty look, "That barn of yours," he said as he pointed in the direction of it, "now that's gonna be a problem. A problem that's about to be solved right here and right now."
"Stop!" Maggie spat at him, anger growing inside her.

"If you continue handing these weapons out, your ass is gonna be out of here. Do you understand that?" I asked, folding my arms.
"What is going on?" Lori's voice demanded from the shadows. I was shaking with anger at this point. Who did he think he was? My family was in there, he couldn't do this. This wasn't his call.

"Hershel is gonna understand. He's gonna have to. This is about finding Sophia, she could be in there," Shane continued. Sophia? Why on earth would Sophia be in our barn? We hadn't put anyone in there in months as far as I knew.
Lori pushed Carl behind her and began ranting at Shane, "Rick said no guns. Don't you understand? This is not your call. This is not your decision to make!"

"Oh, shit!" T-Dog's voice rang through my ears. I snapped my head towards the direction that he was pointing along with everybody else.

"What is that? What is that?" Shane growled as he began running. Somebody shouted his name, but he kept on going. I ran a shaky hand through my hair and sighed. What a perfect time to show up, daddy. You just fucked us all up.
I watched daddy and Rick lead two walkers towards the barn and followed behind like everybody else. I didn't understand why daddy kept doing this. We had our family in there, it was supposed to be just for our family.
Shane and Rick began arguing and I made Beth stay behind me. I knew she was as scared as I was.

"What do you wanna talk 'bout, Rick? These things aren't sick. They're not people. They're dead. Ain't gonna feel a damn thing for them because all they do is kill! These things right here, they're the things that killed Amy. They killed Otis. They're gonna kill all of us," Shane began.

"Shut up!" I screamed as I ran towards Shane and attempted to push him on the ground. He dodged me and I ended up busting my ass due to him pushing me back. I stared up at Shane in disbelief. I didn't care that he pushed me, I only cared about protecting my family. Why would he do this? What did we ever do to him?

"You're outta your goddamn mind, girl! These things aren't your family anymore. These things are gonna kill you. And if you don't check yourself, they ain't gonna be the ones to end your life," he growled at me with anger. This caused Daryl to jump in. While daddy looked angry at Shane for his words, he didn't say a word to him.

"Hey man," Daryl growled as he pushed Shane back. "Don't talk to her like that, you understand me?"
Shane gave Daryl a disgusted look, but he quickly dismissed him and turned his attention back to Hershel. Daryl offered his hand, but I ignored it and got up on my own. I didn't see him doing shit to stop this. He didn't care either.

"Hey, Hershel, man, let me ask you something. Could a living breathing person walk away from this?" he asked, shooting the walker in the stomach several times. Beth held onto my arm, whimpering. I buried her face into my chest as Shane shot a final shot, making the walker's corpse collapse to the ground. He's crazy. He's a complete lunatic.

"Enough riskin' our lives for a girl who's gone. Enough livin' next to a barn full of walkers. Enough of this! If ya'll wanna live and survive, ya gotta fight for it. I'm talking about fightin' right here, right now!" Shane screamed as he began fumbling with the barn doors.

"No!" I screamed as he opened them. Rick tried to stop him, but it was too late. I gasped as I watched Shawn and Annette emerge from the barn. No, don't do this. Don't make us watch this.

Maggie ran to dad and held him as they both cried. I felt as if this wasn't real. I felt as if it was all just some horrible dream. I held Beth close as they began shooting the walkers one by one.
"Please," I begged. "Please stop."

Daryl and the others continued shooting the walkers and ignoring our pleas. I thought I might faint due to the shock, but I had to stay strong for Beth. I could feel her trembling and I could hear her sobbing as she held onto me.
The silence that fell afterwards was almost deafening. They stopped shooting and our family and friends were on the ground, dead. Tell me this isn't happening. Tell me this isn't real.

After the silence, a little girl exited the barn. A little girl I had never seen before. I didn't even know she was in there. But when I watched Carol collapse to the ground with Daryl by her side, I understood.
Shane was correct. Sophia was in the barn and I didn't even know about it. Nobody knew that it was her when they put her in there. Carol's pleas grew stronger when Rick let go of a final shot.

The final shot that rang through the air and filled us all with complete shock.

I apologize in advance for the short chapter.