"What!?" I angrily yell. That redneck asshole left us AGAIN. "Everyone check your belongings. It wouldn't be the first time he's robbed us." I explain. Everyone retreats to their living space to check their equipment and personal items. Lori and I begin to check ours as well. I'm somewhat surprised that everything seems to be in order. After a few minutes everyone reports back that nothing is missing. Now I'm baffled as to why they left, and where they went. Even though I don't fully trust Daryl, he was the best weapon we had outside of Andrea. I thought I could count on Pete, but after the whole ordeal with Belle, I know that that's not the case. "Okay, listen up!" I shout, to grab everyone's attention. "I'm goin' to look for him. I need two people. Anyone up for it?" I look around and see that Glenn, Andrea, Belle, and Pete have their hands raised. "Glenn, Belle.. Let's go." Andrea needs to stay and protect Fort Benning and I can't trust Pete to have my back. The three of us gear up and head towards the rear entrance where Daryl and Beth were stationed.
I'm not much of a tracker but I immediately notice two sets of footprints, one considerably bigger than the other, in the dirt leading into the woods. "Let's follow the tracks, see where they take us. Stay alert, just incase they could be waiting to ambush us." I instruct. "Ambush us?" Belle questions. "You never know. Daryl has robbed from us before and we don't know much about the girl, so just stay on point." I reiterate. "What do we do if we find them?" Glenn asks. "Well that depends on HOW we find them, Glenn. If they ambush us, I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch first chance I get." Glenn looks at me, and then nervously at the ground, before looking up at me once more. "How can you do that? Just decide you may have to KILL a person, and not even hesitate." He asks. "Hesitation will get you killed Glenn. He's lucky he's gotten a pass for robbing us. If he ambushes us, that's the last straw. 'Sides, look around Glenn. It's not like we can set a trial or put him in jail, and he wouldn't deserve to roam free." I explain. "I guess that kinda makes sense." He concedes.
After about fifteen minutes of following shoeprints, we come up on a tall grassy area making it difficult to see their prints. "Shit. Now what?" I ask. "Look." Glenn says pointing into the grass. "There is a narrow path of grass that looks hacked up. Could be from them walking through it." He explains. That's as good a theory as any, so we follow it. Just a few minutes later we come to a clearing, that looks down on the highway leading to Fort Benning. At the end of the clearing we can see Daryl and Beth looking down at the road. "Stay quiet." I instruct Glenn and Belle as I move up on Daryl, gun drawn. As soon as I'm within range, I press my Glock to the back of his head. "What the hell are you doin' out here?" I ask.
He puts his hands up. "Calm down, Shane. I wanted to see if I could find those guy's camp, and I did. Look." He points out towards the highway. There's about 20 to 30 armed men on the highway gathered around a dozen or so vehicles. I lower my gun. "Sorry, 'bout that, but ya know.." I dismiss the fact that I put a gun to his head. He looks at me seemingly understanding. "So what do you think? Hit 'em now, before they hit us?" Daryl inquires. "Seeing how many men they have, we can't sit around waiting for them to attack us. We need to catch them off guard. We'd need all of our people for a group that size." I explain. Daryl nods. "We can have an attack ready within an hour tops, if we head back now." I say. "Let's do it than." Daryl answers. The five of us start the trek back towards Fort Benning to inform the others of the situation.
We get back to Fort Benning and get everyone gathered in the main post. "Listen up, everybody! Daryl and Beth found the group that attacked us yesterday. They're a large group, all men, all armed from what we can tell. They're close by, and although we can't know for sure, I suspect that they're planning a retaliation attack for killing some of their people. I figure we hit them before they hit us. We can catch them off guard and end this before it gets ugly. I need volunteers." I look over the group and everyone has their hand raised, except for Sophia, and Lori, who both look genuinely frightened. "Alright. Good enough." I proclaim. "You're going to take Carl?" Lori asks nervously. "Yeah, he's ready. This'll be easy Lor, trust me." I give her a passionate kiss. "Keep Sophia calm. We'll be back before you know it. Everyone get your shit together and meet up by the back entrance!" I order. Despite Lori's plea to leave Carl at the fort, we all move out to the rear entrance.
As we walk back to the clearing I go over the plan with the rest of the group. "We're gonna have high ground so as long as everyone makes their shots count we can take them down clean, quick, and unnoticed. When we're done rainin' bullets on 'em we go down there to finish off any survivors and gather anything that may be useful. I don't want anyone advancing forward alone. We move as a unit. Any questions?" Dale puts his hand up. "So this is what we're turning into?" He asks. "Give me a break Dale. YOU volunteered!" I snap. "I didn't know I was volunteering for genocide. I thought we were gonna scare them off." He says. "Then turn around and go back Dale, 'cause we're definitely doing more than scaring them and we don't have time to have this conversation right now. We need to act, before THEY act." I explain. "Fine." He says as he holsters his weapon and turns back towards Fort Benning. "Anyone else wanna turn your back on the rest of us?" I look over the group. Nobody budges. Good.
After a few minutes we all approach the clearing, looking over the rival group stationed on the highway. "There they are. Everyone line up your first shots and wait for my signal." I instruct. "If there is anyone here that can't do this," I look at Carol and Pete. "I need to know NOW. Not when we're in the middle of a shootout." They nod, signifying that they're ready. We all ready and aim our weapons. "On my signal." I tell the group. Please let this all go smoothly. THREE. If something happens to Carl, Lori would never forgive me. TWO. Focus Shane. Clear your head. ONE. "Fire!"
YOU ARE READING
The Walking Dead: The Shane Walsh Alternative (Season 2)
FanfictionWe've followed Shane and his group as they fled the hilltop camp outside of Atlanta. We've followed them as they made their way to the King County Sheriff's Department. We've followed them to what was left of the Center for Disease Control. With lit...
