When The World Ends

Dead Already

I roll over not wanting to get up. I exposed my eyes to the ceiling of my tent, the beige color getting old. I pulled my covers off and got up deciding to wear the same clothes as yesterday but not the jacket.

Walking out I heard it was really quiet around camp beside a rare metallic sound. I make my way over to Carol who is preparing eggs. Lori was sitting with Rick and Carl. Daryl is sitting in a chair. T-dog tending to the fire, Andrea sharpening her knife, and everyone else merely standing around not talking. I give Carol a confused look, and she just shrugged while scooping me some eggs.

I sit down next to Glenn and see him looking at the house. He looks back to Dale who nods his head, then to me with a questioning look. I nod answering 'yes' to what he was asking. He stands up and walks towards the middle of the camp. No one paying him a bit of attention until he speaks up.

"Um, guys." Only a few people look at him. "So," he follows a pause. Everyone now starts looking at him. "The barns full of walkers." Everyone stops.

Next, we are all lined up outside of the barn. From the outside, it looks untouched and calm only because the monster hasn't discovered you yet. Shane goes up to the door and sticks his eyes to a crack. He stays there trying to gain a look in when he jumps and walks away.

"You can not tell me you are alright with this," Shane says to Rick.

"I'm not, but we are guests here. This isn't our land." Rick makes a point.

"This is our lives, man!" Shane shouts.

"Lower your voice," Glenn notes the barn doors moving now due to the noise. While everyone bickers, I look towards the barn. It contained three locks. A chain one up at the very top. A smaller latch padlock in the middle. And a big 4x2 crossed the doors a foot or two under the padlock.

"We can't go!" I hear Rick shout. I turn to look towards them now.

"Why Rick, why?" Shane questions.

"Because Carol's daughter is still out there," I add my two cents in while I walk to Carol. Shane turns to me.

"Jade...Carol, I think it's time we all start to consider the other possibilities." Shane starts to imply.

"Shane, we're not leaving Sophia behind," Rick says reassuring Carol and telling Shane at the same time. Daryl comes from behind me.

"I'm close to finding this girl. I only just found her doll two damn days ago." He points out facts.

"You found a doll Daryl, that's what you did. You found a DOLL!" Shane acts like it's nothing.

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about!" I yell pointing and walking towards Shane.

"I'm merely saying what needs to be said here." He walks to me too. Rick puts his hand out in between both of us while muttering 'Alright, alright.'
"Now, if you get a good lead in the first 48 hours!" He rambles on.

"Shane! Shane! Stop!" Rick places a hand on his shoulder.

"Let me tell you; something man." Shane focuses back on Daryl, who is directly beside me. "If she saw you coming all methed out with your buck knife," Daryl stepped towards him shaking with anger. "and geek ears around your neck, she would run in the other direction!" Shane yells.

Daryl goes to throw a punch and so does Shane but Rick being in the middle uses one hand to knock away both of their fists. But Daryl goes to the other side and tries once more. Jumping up to attempt and punch him but Shane steps back. Everyone starts yelling 'Hey' and separates everyone.
I grasp Daryl and push him away leaving my hand on his chest. Everyone gets in between them now. I look at Daryl, and he has calmed down quite a bit and his breathing returned to normal. I look down at my hand and examine his on top of mind holding it there or just holding it. Feeling a bit uncomfortable, I take it away and look in his eyes. A bit of hurt goes through his face for a second before he recovers his unbothered look. I look back to see Rick and Lori gripping Shane. He steps out of Rick's grasp and looks at Lori and says "Keep your hands off me." And walks away from her.

"Just allow me to talk to Hershel. Let me figure it out." Rick says serenely.

"Man, what are you going to figure out?!" Shane screams at him. This time I run in between them forcing Shane away.

"Enough," I say and Rick cuts me off.

"If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn. I have to talk to Hershel. I have to talk him into it. This is his land!" Rick sternly says pointing at the barn.

"Hershel sees those things as people. Sick people" Dale interjects. "His wife his step-son." He continued.

"You knew?" Rick asks.

"Glenn told Jade and I. But I talked to him yesterday," Dale tell.

"And you waited till now to say anything?" Shane steps forward.

"I thought we could survive one more night, and we did." Dale states. "I was waiting till this morning to mention something but Glenn wanted to be the one."

"The man is absurd, Rick. If he thinks those things are alive or not" Shane shouts but is cut off by the barn door shaking and walkers growing.
Everyone starts backing away towards the camp to do there own things. I walk towards camp and see Daryl and Carol walking to the horse barn. Daryl is only there for a couple of minutes before he storms out holding his side. I wait for Carol to come out, and she does, slowly. She has a sad look on her face. She looked up at me, and we met each other in the middle and I hugged her.

"We're gonna find her," I whisper in her ear. She just nods and moves her arms around my waist while I leave one of mine around her shoulders. When we get back to camp, we start to clean up dishes.

***

After the dishes were done Rick had already talked to Hershel and told us that he was "reconsidering" us leaving at the moment. Rick had brought us over to the map again to make a new plan. Rick was saying something about going south down Ivy Road when Hershel came over asking for just Rick to help him with something.

They walked off, and I went to my tent and went to grab a book but my hair fell. It had gotten long over the last few months. About 3 months before the apocalypse was my last cut. It had grown from the middle of my back down to my waist and I decided it was time for a cut. I grab my scissors and walk over to Carol.

"Hey sweetie, need something?" She stands up from her stump. I give her my scissors.

"Would you mind taking 7 inches off for me?" I ask. She nods sitting back down and pats in front of her. I sit down on the ground and make eye contact with Daryl he gives me a confused look.

"How much?" He asks sitting in front of me. He sits so close our knees are touching.

"Seven, getting to be too much of a hassle for me," I respond.

He looks me in the eyes and grunts out "I kinda liked it long." I laugh and close my eyes listening to the small clips of the scissors while focusing on my breathing. The small talk of Sophia between Carol and Daryl faded after about five minutes as did the feeling of him at my knees. I came back when Carol whisper in my ear that she was done.

I stand up blood rushing to my legs and tell her thanks while taking my scissors back. Carol left to follow Daryl for something and I went back to my tent. I looked at myself in my tiny handheld mirror. My hair was significantly shorter but still a nice long length. I brushed it over my shoulders, and it reached the bottom of my boobs which I was okay with. I put my weapons all on and did two tight French braids in my hair when I heard yelling from outside my tent. I look and see Rick and Hershel coming out of the forest with two walkers on poles. Jimmy is leading the way towards the barn.

I look and see everyone running towards the barn, so I sprint to catch up. When I get there Shane and Rick are yelling at each other.

"Are you kidding me? You see, you see what they're holding on too?!" Shane points at the walkers. I clutch my side from the running. I'm gonna have to get it restitched.

"I see who I'm holding on to!" Hershel spits.

"No man you don't," Shane says.

"Shane, let us just do this then we can talk." Rick advances in the direction of the barn.

"What do you want to talk about Rick? These things ain't sick. They're not people. They're DEAD!!" Shane yells.

I walk forwards and pull my gun out having the bad gut feeling something bad is going to happen.

"Ain't gonna feel nothing for them because all they do, they KILL! These things right here. They're the things that killed Amy! They killed Otis! They're going to kill all of us."

"Shane, shut up!" Rick tries to put a stop to his speech.

"Hey, Hershel, man let me ask you something," Shane walks around Hershel's walker. Rick looks at me as if to try and stop Shane but I can't. I don't agree with anything, but I can't stop Shane because of my stitches but I do walk a little bit further now being in front of the whole group.

Shane pulls out his gun and aims it at the walker. "Could a living breathing person survive this?" He shoots three rounds into its abdomen. Rick yells again. "That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who is alive walk away from that? Why is it still coming?" Shane asks a rhetorical question.

He shoots two more times into its lungs and heart. "That's its heart and it's lungs. Why is it still coming?" Shane shoots twice more aimlessly into the walker's abdomen.

"Shane enough!" Rick shouts still trying to keep ahold of the pole.

"Yea, your right man." Shane walks up to the walker. "That is enough." And shoots the walker in the head. Hershel falls with it completely hopeless. Everyone goes silent. Daryl still keeps his gun trained on Rick's walker. "Enough, risking our lives for a little girl who is gone!" He comes up and yells in my face. I slap him and push him away from me. But he continues his tangent.

"Enough of living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us! Enough! Rick, it ain't like it was before." I take a glance at Rick. Him still struggling to contain the walker. "Now if you want to live. If you want to survive, you will get to fight for it! I'm talking fight. RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!" Shane turns and walks towards the barn.

At that moment everything was a mess, people, my thoughts, actions.
Rick was yelling at Hershel to take his snare while Shane was breaking the locks on the barn. Lori was yelling at Rick. Glenn was yelling at Shane. Rick was yelling at Shane. Everything was a mess. But as soon as those barn doors open I had to make a decision. Fight or flight. Daryl, T-dog, Andrea, Glenn, and Shane all lined up on my sides getting ready.

The sound of Rick faded in my ears and all I could hear was gunshots. I lift my eyes to the walkers coming at me and bring my gun up. Shooting one after another. The dead men and women falling from either head or body shots. I forgot about how they were people and just shot. Shane turned around and shot Rick's walker and returned to shooting at my side.

The walkers quickly decreased and slowed down. I stopped shooting when Daryl shot the last walker. I took a big breath and let my gun fall by my side. It was silent now everyone relaxed for a second until there was another growl. Except this was a smaller growl. We all looked back at the barn waiting for it to make its appearance.

Slowly it came out, and I recognized who it was. Who was she...she walked out slowly covering her face slightly when the sunlight hit her eyes. Carol came running screaming her name but Daryl caught her before she could get to close. Everyone backed away leaving me, Shane, and Rick upfront.

The little girl we spent days looking for. Who I got shot for was here. 100 yards from our camp all along. I let out a shaking breath as I tried blinking away my watery eyes. Shane backed up not being able to shoot her. That left Rick and I. We both lifted our guns knowing what had to be done. But he couldn't do it his gun dropped down and it was just me. Through my blurry vision, I aimed. My gun was shaking so much I didn't think I was going to hit her and she was going to kill me. Her and growls growing nearer and near. I put my finger on the trigger, and a gunshot rang out and she fell.

But it wasn't mine. I look to see Rick's gun back in the air. I blinked tears falling onto my cheeks. I dropped my gun and ran to Carol. I took her in my arms and hugged her while we both cried into each other's shoulders.
Another pair of arms went around us, and I knew who they belonged to. And I didn't care that I was being vulnerable in his presence right now. I just sat there in his embrace. His face nuzzled into my neck and his hot breath whispering 'it will be okay' over and over again.