WHITE FLAG

chapter twenty-two : lost and found
{ season two - episode seven }

NERVOUSNESS WAS PRESENT in Glenn's expression. After Maggie had whispered something into his ear, he seemed more hesitant to walk over to the youngest Schmidt girl. He ended up doing it anyway, Maggie directly behind him.

Kloe took a deep breath as she waited for the two to come over. Eventually they did and she looked up at both of them and asked, "How was story time?"

Glenn and Maggie both shared a glance before staring back down at the younger brunette. Glenn parted his lips to speak, "You heard?"

She inhaled and nodded, "Mhm. I still miss your cap." The two chuckled while Kloe made room for them to sit beside her and patted on the rough wood, "Come sit." They nodded and sat down, smiling widely. "You two are in a good mood. Even though you just had a small argument or whatever it was."

"No, it was just Glenn pointing out all the facts," Maggie corrected, taking a deep breath before continuing, "I'm sorry, Klo. I've been acting like a jerk to the two of you and I'm sorry for that."

Kloe shook her head, "Don't be sorry. You were just worried."

"Hey, Glenn," Maggie averted her gaze to Glenn, who looked up instantly with a look of inquiry present on his face, "Sorry for ruining your cap."

Kloe heard faint rattling from behind the three, causing her to turn around. She noticed Patricia, Beth and Carl playing something on a small square table. Were they there the whole time? She didn't know. Not that it mattered.

She faced back to the two others and Glenn had stayed silent the whole time. Kloe stared at him and he had put Dale's fishing hat back on. "I still can't get used to you wearing that. It's definitely not a good Glenn look," she laughed, extending her arm out to pat the top of the boy's head.

He laughed back, relinquishing the hat from his head, revealing his jet black hair which Kloe adored. Maggie grinned along with her friend, "She's right, you look like you should be in line for the early bird special. Go get your cap. I'll go wash it for you, okay?"

Kloe's head shot over to Andrea and T-Dog, who were both walking side-by-side and had their eyes set on Glenn and Kloe. She tapped Glenn's shoulder and pointed over to the two and immediately arose to his feet. He extended out his hand and she took it gratefully.

"Do you know what's going on?" T-Dog asked as Kloe steadied herself.

"Where is everyone?" Andrea then inquired, waiting for Glenn and Kloe to answer.

"You haven't seen Rick?" Glenn questioned back, even more confused than the other two. Kloe was confused, too.

T-Dog shrugged and parted his lips to speak, but Andrea beat him to it. "He went off with Hershel. We were supposed to leave a couple hours ago," she answered, a strong frown present on her looks.

Unexpectedly, Daryl appeared with the same look he always had: A scowl. Behind him, was Carol who had a jacket around her waist that was the same color as the dead grass, "Yeah, you were. What the hell?"

"Rick told us he was going out," Carol added. A familiar presence was by Kloe's side and she knew exactly who it was - Zayn. He stood there with Maggie beside him. They were all gathered around, and she was growing more concerned every new second.

"Damn it," Daryl hissed. "Isn't anybody taking this seriously? We got us a damn trail," he growled, until his eyes set on Shane who had the duffel full of guns over one shoulder and a rifle in his hand. "Oh, here we go."

Daryl began walking over to him harshly without hesitation. Glenn, Zayn and Kloe shared a brief glance as they watched the two men who had extreme noticeable anger. "What's all this?" Daryl questioned with annoyance, gesturing towards the duffel Shane was holding onto.

"You with me, man?" Shane questioned with lowered eyebrows, eyeing both Daryl and the rifle in his hand. Daryl muttered out an instant 'yeah' and took the rifle out of his grasp, cocking it. "Time to grow up," he continued, announcing to everyone. "You already got yours?" he asked directly to Andrea.

"Yeah?" she answered, still exceedingly confused with the situation. "W- Where's Dale?"

"He's on his way," he muttered out, a sense of aggravation in his tone as he handed a pistol over to T-Dog.

"Thought we couldn't carry?"

"Yeah, well, we can and we have to," he got closer to Glenn, Zayn, Maggie and Kloe and looked up at Carl, Patricia and Beth who were now in the gathering. "Look, it was one thing around here picking daisies when we thought this place was supposed to be safe. But now we know it ain't," he then eyed Glenn and Zayn and stepped towards them with a rifle in his hand and offered it to Glenn, "How about you man? You gonna protect yours?" Glenn hesitated for a moment, glancing at Kloe as if he wanted her approval, except she only stared in shock, not sure on what to do. So, he looked at her older brother, who was nodding. He reluctantly took the rifle, clenching his jaw. "Yeah, that's it. What about you, Zayn? We all know here how much you wanna protect your sister, are you gonna protect her now?"

"I don't really have much of a choice, do I? I'll have to take it either way," the elder Schmidt replied, already taking the gun out of the duffel before Shane could.

"That's the spirit," he then turned to Kloe and she was already shaking her head furiously, but he only scoffed and turned to Maggie, "Can you shoot?"

"Can you stop?" she retorted, "You do this, you hand out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight."

"We have to stay, Shane," Carl spoke up, stepping down the steps. Kloe only realized then that he had his dad's sheriff hat on, which was visibly far too big for his small head.

"What is this?" Lori suddenly appeared, swiftly walking towards her son.

"We ain't going anywhere, okay?" he assured Carl, but it clearly didn't work, "Now, look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Okay? He- well, he's gonna have to." He cocked a super small gun before making his way over to Carl, "Now we need to find Sophia. Am I right?" He knelt down in front of the young boy so he was eye level with him, and offered him the small gun, which took everyone by surprise, "Now I want you to take this. You take it, Carl, and you keep your mother safe. You do whatever it takes. You know how. Go on, take the gun and do it."

Lori harshly placed her hand on her son's chest and stepped in front of the man with an extreme look of anger on her face, "Rick said no guns. This is not your call. This is not your decision to make."

While Lori was saying those things, Kloe heard the all too familiar growls in the distance. Walkers were there. She parted her lips to say something, but she didn't want to interrupt Lori and by the time she was finished, it appeared T-Dog had already noticed.

"Oh, shit."

Everyone simultaneously turned around to where T-Dog was looking. Everyone couldn't believe what they were seeing. Rick and Hershel had walkers connected to snare poles with Jimmy clapping, leading them a certain way.

It was then when Shane began to sprint his way over, everyone on his heels. Zayn's arm slid around his younger sister's waist so he could help her run. They all began to race their way down to the barn. Kloe's chest heaved heavily as she sprinted as hard as she could, Zayn mainly helping her the whole time.

Shane pushed open a wooden fence with force, "What the hell is this?!" he bellowed, his jaw clenching as hard as it had ever been.

"Shane, just back off!" Rick growled, his arms repeatedly moving from the walker that was attached to the snare pole.

Hershel, who noticed that most of the group had guns, frowned deeply and turned to Rick, "Why do your people have guns?"

Kloe stared at Rick and Hershel in disbelief. As much as she hated to believe it, Shane was right throughout all of it, he just did it the wrong way.

"Are you kidding me?! You see? You see what they're holding onto?!" Shane furiously pointed to the walkers, circling them.

"I see who I'm holding onto!" Hershel corrected, emphasizing on the specific word 'who'.

"No, man, you don't."

Glenn continuously peered over his shoulder to check if they were okay, judging by the look on his face. Although, Kloe would nod and push him aside to watch what was going on, which she felt a little bad about because he was only worrying about them.

"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk," Rick reasoned, eyeing Shane. If looks could kill, Shane would definitely be dead by then. One of the walkers stretched out its arms, causing Jimmy to jump back in panic.

"What do you want to talk about, Rick?! These things ain't sick! They're not people! They're dead! Ain't gonna feel nothing for 'em 'cause all they do, they kill! These things right here, they're the things that killed Amy. They killed Otis! They're gonna kill all of us-"

"Shane, shut up!" Rick yelled, cutting him off. Kloe felt a soft small hand grab her upper-arm and she saw that it was Isabelle, who had a very frightened look.

"Hey, Hershel, man, let me ask you something. Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" he pulled out his gun, cocked it, then aimed it straight at one of the walker's bodies and shot it three times in the chest, causing the group to jolt back from the sudden loud noise.

Glenn took a few steps back, repeating 'woah' over and over again as he stood in front of Zayn, Kloe and Isabelle.

"Shane, stop it!" Rick pleaded, getting more aggravated by him.

"That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive, could they just take that? Why is it still coming?!" he then shot the walker again three times in the chest once again, but it never fell, only walked like a walker does. "That's its heart, its lungs. Why is it still coming?" Then again he shot it three times.

"Shane, enough!"

"Yeah, you're right, man," Shane took harsh steps towards the walker he had been shooting, "that is enough," he shot the walker straight through the head, making it fall to the ground.

Everything felt like it was in slow motion as Kloe stumbled backwards, her free hand over one of her ears from the loud noise. Hershel fell to his knees and stared at the now dead walker as he hesitantly looked back up at Shane.

"Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone!" Shane scolded, earning a gasp from Carol who had tears in her eyes. "Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us! Enough! Rick, it ain't like it was before. Now if y'all wanna live, if you wanna survive, you gotta fight for it! I'm talking about fighting right here, right now!"

Shane then bolted toward the barn entrance as if he was ready to burst it open, which highly frightened Kloe since she was basically useless. Her bottom lip slightly quivered, and she didn't know why, she wasn't ever the type to get scared. She guessed ever since the pharmacy, she had been traumatized or something along those lines.

"Take the snare pole," Rick ordered Hershel, but he knelt on his knees, frozen still. "Hershel! Hershel, take the snare pole!" he pleaded more, but the old man stayed still. "Hershel! Listen to me, man, please! Take it now, Hershel! Take it!"

Shane seized onto a pickaxe that lay right beside the chained up gate and bashed it against it, causing me to jump back.

"K- Kloe, what is he doing?" the teenaged girl beside her muttered, on the verge of tears. Kloe stood still, not taking her eyes off the man who was putting them all in danger.

"No, Shane. Do not do this, brother! Wait!" Rick continued to plead.

"Shane!" Lori called out in the distance with her son, Carl.

"Don't do it!" Glenn then yelled, still stood in front of Zayn, Kloe and Isabelle.

"Rick!" Lori called again.

"Shane, just stop!" Kloe shouted out, her voice cracking.

"Please!"

The threatening man managed to pry off the wooden board that kept the walkers inside of the highly secured barn and threw his pickaxe to the side as he pulled off the board. He pushed it over next to the pickaxe and repeatedly banged his palm against the gate. "Come on. Come on, we're out here!"

"This is not the way!"

Shane took a few steps back, reaching for his gun that was in the back of his pants and aimed directly at the entrance of the barn. Everyone took numerous steps back except for the ones with guns.

The walkers began to pile out one-by-one as they limped over to them, very slowly. Andrea jogged over to be beside Shane and raised her gun, while T-Dog and Zayn did the same. Kloe felt an enormous amount of weight get put on her once Zayn had let go. She was about to fall to the ground but Isabelle kept her steady and held on tighter.

Then, Daryl stepped forward too. Endless amounts of shots rang out through the air as the walkers fell to the ground lifelessly. The only person who didn't go forward was Glenn. He turned around to face Kloe with an expression that was difficult to read. But she could definitely see that he was petrified, but she also saw a look that wanted answering.

She nodded her head rapidly, a little confused as to why Glenn was staring at her, searching for something. He nodded back and ran forward to the rest of the people with guns. So he was waiting for approval to attack? By Kloe?

She heard soft whimpers coming from the eldest Greene daughter, who had both of her hands on her still frozen father. Kloe quickly made her way over to her, dragging Isabelle along with her for support and placed one hand on Maggie's shoulder.

It startled her for a moment, but her glossy eyes softened just a little bit when she noticed it was Kloe and burst into tears. She squinted her eyes shut and looked away from the scene.

The shooting continued for a while. Kloe wouldn't have been surprised if someone said that there were tears streaming down her face. She hated this. She hated this with passion. She stared at the ground, a drop of some sort of liquid dripping from my cheek. She didn't know if it was sweat or a tear. She forcefully sealed her eyelids as she waited for the gunshots to stop firing.

The end came a lot quicker than expected and Kloe hesitantly looked back up to make sure it was over. Turned out it was, or so she thought. Her ears were ringing and all she could hear was the shortness of breath she was having.

At first, she thought it was because of her asthma, but it turned out it wasn't. It was actually Isabelle, who was hugging her so tight that it was hard to breathe. Kloe didn't really pay much attention to it, though. The poor teenage girl had to witness it all. The girl who possibly had no family left. The girl who was alone before Kloe had found her.

Kloe's heart suddenly dropped into the pit of her stomach as she heard another faint growl coming from inside of the barn. It wasn't over. She narrowed her eyes at the dark entrance, her lip quivered as she waited for the next appearance.

It came into view, and it felt like Kloe's whole entire world had gone upside down. It felt like the same pain of getting stabbed, but in the heart instead. The hand that was resting on Maggie's shoulder for support quickly dropped to Kloe's waist as she stared at the walker that had just stumbled out of the barn.

A young girl, one that Kloe recognized within seconds, growled at everyone. Her blue shirt with a rainbow in the middle and her sand colored baggy jeans. Her skin, that was all dirtied up and was extremely pale. The huge bite mark that was on her neck. Her short, golden hair all knotted up and covered in dirt. Her eyes that were once pretty, now lifeless and bright white.

The girl Kloe had seen as a younger sister. The girl she had snuck out to find. The girl she risked her life for. The girl that had been only a few meters away from her the whole time.

"Sophia!" Carol ran after her, tears spilling out of her eyes only to be stopped by Daryl wrapping an arm around her waist to prevent her from going near the girl. "Sophia..." she sobbed loudly, not taking her eyes off her now deceased daughter.

Kloe's lips parted in shock as she attempted to hold back the cries, but she failed. She didn't make a sound, though. Tears just poured out of her sockets as her body began to tremble.

Sophia stepped over all the dead bodies while snarling loudly, making her way closer to the group. Rick reluctantly walked in front of everyone, lifting up his gun as it cocked and aimed it straight at Sophia's head.

She reached out her arm as a chance to grab the man, but he pulled the trigger right before she could. She fell to the ground even more lifeless than the others.

Zayn, who turned around quickly knowing full well how much Sophia meant to his younger sister, saw her current state and rushed over to her quickly and wrapped an arm around her.

"I'm sorry," he whispered just loud enough so she could hear. His voice cracked with tears and rubbed her back comfortingly.

Carol's loud sobs filled the air and she couldn't take her eyes off of her daughter. The voices in Kloe's head were laughing at her, knowing that no one else except Beth Greene and Carol Peletier were crying. She looked weak.

She wasn't weak.

Kloe scrunched up her face, forcing the overwhelming sadness to come to an end. The trembling that was quaking through her small body came to a stop. The tears stopped. But the sadness didn't stop. She was still on the verge of tears, except she managed to keep them in.

"Don't look. Don't look," Daryl repeated, lifting the whimpering Peletier woman off the ground, only to earn a shove from her as she pushed herself out of his grip.

Kloe watched carefully as she jogged away, still crying loudly. She couldn't even imagine the grief that she was going to go through. She lost her husband, and now her daughter. Who else could she lose?

Now, the sobbing that once belonged to Carol's, was now Beth's. Her small head rested against her boyfriend, Jimmy's, chest and his arms were around her. She began storming over to the pile of walkers on the ground while crying loudly.

Rick raised his arm and told her to stop in a whispered tone, but she swatted him away and knelt down in front of a certain walker.

She lifted another walker's arm that was over the walker that she was crying over, and pushed it away. She crouched down onto her knees and lightly pressed her hand against the walker's shoulder.

At first, Kloe was confused as to what she was doing. But then it made more sense that it was probably someone she cared about-

"Mom..."

Kloe's heart sank yet again. So it was someone she cared about - deeply cared about. Unexpectedly, the blonde's mother let out a growl and reached for her daughter, causing her to scream.

The first intention for everyone was to pull Beth away from her dead mother. Kloe quickly hurried over to help the girl, despite the small pain growing in her side. Although, Shane and Rick had already beat her to it and grabbed onto her, pulling her away.

She still wanted to help, though. So that's what she did. Kloe wrapped her fingers around the decaying skin of the walker's left arm and tugged at it. Just a second later, Glenn was at her side, grabbing onto the right arm and began pulling.

"Pull her away! Pull her away!" a male voice yelled over the screams and growls.

Kloe glanced up as she continued pulling, noticing everyone was gathered around, helping to save the girl. The second she was free, her father, Hershel, hugged her tightly, except she didn't take her eyes off her mother.

T-Dog levitated his leg and kicked the walker's head as hard as he could, but he wasn't strong enough. That's when Kloe realized that the walker was no longer growling toward her daughter, but toward her and Glenn instead.

As Kloe went to let go, a bony hand gripped tight onto her, preventing her from doing so. The walker had wrapped its fingers around both Glenn and Kloe's arms and was snapping its teeth toward the pair.

The growling came to an immediate stop when something sharp went straight through its skull. Andrea, she had picked up a scythe and swung it into the head of the walker. It fell to the ground as Kloe felt Glenn turning her to the side slightly and checked the arm the walker had grabbed onto.

She averted her gaze away from her arm and up to Glenn's worried eyes. He glanced away from her arm and stared into her dark brown eyes, and she could tell by the look he was giving her that he was asking if she was okay. She nodded slowly, glancing back at the rest of the group, who were silently looking around at each other while Beth cried into her father's shoulder.

Oh, how Kloe wished she could do that right now.

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Words: 3671
- 19th March 2022

okay so much happened and idk if it was rushed or not-