The Walking Dead: The Shane Walsh Alternative (Season 2)

Battle At Fort Benning: Part II

Andrea and I rush back inside of the fort together, to see a bunch of smoke. Through the smoke we can faintly see barrel flames from guns firing, but can't tell who's who. "Lori! Carl!" I begin yelling. "Shane!" I can hear Lori shout back. With that, Andrea and I start running towards her screams, firing a few shots wildly in the other direction. When we reach Lori, I see that she has taken cover with Sophia, while Carol and Carl are shooting at the general's small army. "What do we do? We're gonna die!" Lori starts panicking. "No we're not. Listen to me. You four need to get to the van, go the way we just came from, we'll cover you." I explain. "What about you?" Carol asks. "I'll be fine. I have to get everyone out of here first. Go. Now!" I demand. They start dashing for the van through the hole in the wall and Andrea and I cover them the whole way. Once they're out safely, we survey the area and notice Dale in the tower, shooting at our invaders.

"I'll get Dale, find the others and meet me by the van." I instruct Andrea. She nods her head and disappears into the smoke looking for Belle, Daryl, Beth, and Glenn. "Dale! Forget it! Get down here, we gotta move, now!" I yell as loud as I can. He appearantly was able to hear me, because he swings his rifle over his shoulder and begins climbing down the tower ladder. I start sprinting in his direction firing a shot here and there to keep the enemies on their toes. In an instant though, Dale is shot in his leg about midway down and falls off the ladder, about 25 feet. He hits the ground hard and is in excruciating pain on the ground. "Shit. Can you stand?" I ask him. He shakes his head. "I think I broke my back, just get out of here." He urges me. If he's broken his back there may not be much that we can do, but I grab him under his arms anyway and begin to drag him. "No can do, old man." I inform him.

"Shane!" I can hear Andrea calling. I look up to see her and Glenn rushing over to help me drag Dale to the van. As we reach the hole in the wall Andrea dispatches a few of the general's men. She stops to cover Glenn and I as we pull Dale through the hole and outside of the fort. Once we're through, Andrea follows, but we have a major problem. The van is gone. They must've encountered a few enemies and fled without us. "What now?" Andrea asks. I'm stunned. I spend a few seconds playing out possible scenarios in my head before Dale grabs my leg. "Leave me! Get out of here now before they find us." He insists. "I can't do that." I answer. "You're gonna be fine, we're all gettin' out of here together." Glenn tells Dale. "C'mon grab him. We go east through the woods, there's a clearing just a couple of hundred feet in. They won't find us there. We can regroup." Glenn continues. Sounds good to me, so we grab Dale again and pull him through the woods, despite his pleas to leave him.

Once we reach the clearing I go over our current equipment, which is almost depleted. I have my Glock with 3 rounds left, and my Mossberg with 6 rounds. Andrea's Lady Smith has 4 rounds, and her Browning Safari Rifle has 8. Glenn's Glock has 2 rounds, while his shotgun is empty. Dale has 10 rounds in his Glock, and just 1 in his Remington. We have 2 cans of beans, and 4 water bottles in Glenns small backpack. "We're in deep shit. We can't keep pulling Dale around, he needs to rest. We're gonna have to stay here the night. We have enough supplies for tonight, but we need to do some searching at first light." I instruct the group. We set up a small perimeter with string and emtpy cans so that we can hear any geeks that may stumble our way, and start a small fire to cook our beans. Once we've all eaten, Andrea suggests we get some rest, and volunteers to be on watch. I'm mentally exhausted so I take her up on her offer and get comfy under a tree. It's no time at all before I'm out like a light.

Lori, I'm sorry for everything.

I'm sorry I couldn't save Rick.

I'm sorry I had sex with Andrea.

I'm sorry I wasn't there with you at the van.

I'm sorry.

I don't want to lose you.

I don't want to lose Carl.

I don't want to lose our unborn child.

Why did you leave?

Just come back to me, please.

Come back to me...

BANG!

The sound of a gunshot wakes me up. I look around to see Glenn also just waking up, and Andrea holding her Lady Smith, standing over Dale's body outside of our perimeter. "What did you do?" I ask her. "What he wanted. I ended it for him." She replies. "What!? You killed Dale?" I angrily respond. "He was suffering. He wanted me to." She retorts. "He could've made it. He could've been okay. A broken back isn't the end." I explain. "He wanted it to be the end." She answers. "Why? Because he said it? How many times have you felt like you wanted to die when things didn't go right? But we don't actually do it! He couldn't have known what he wanted. You made a decision about a mans life behind my back!" I lecture her. "No, he made his own decision, Shane. Why can't you see that?" She inquires. "Well in a few seconds none of you will have to make any more decisions." A familiar voice says in the darkness. A tall figure steps into our clearing with a sawed off shotgun pointed right at my head. It's BK, from the general's army.