𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐘 𝐌𝐔𝐂𝐇 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐀𝐋𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐘

𝟐𝐱𝟎𝟕

AFTER the whole thing with Lori yesterday, I did think I needed to talk to Daryl I just didn't know when. The group had been gathered around the tents as we all ate breakfast, courtesy of Carol. I was sitting by Glenn who was looking off into the distance.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Huh?" He turned toward me. "What's wrong with you?" I questioned. "Nothing." He answered as I saw Maggie shaking her head in the distance and Glenn sighing looking up at her. He then turned around and made eye contact with Dale who nodded. What the hell is going on? He then stood up and walked over in front of everyone. I turned around and looked at Daryl for a split second to see him already watching me.

I turned to look at Glenn with my eyebrows visibly scrunched up in confusion. "Um, guys. So... the barn is full of walkers." He told us fumbling with his fingers. We all looked mortified hearing the news and put our food down. We were heading to the barn.

Shane then walked up close to the barn to take a peek inside to see if he saw any walkers. We heard silence until we heard snarling, which prompted Shane to walk away from the barn.

"You cannot tell me you're all right with this." Shane accusingly said to Rick. "No I'm not, but we're guests here. This isn't our land." Rick said. "This is our lives!" Shane shouted. "Lower your voice." Glenn urged. "We can't just sweep this under the rug." Andrea added. "It ain't right. Not remotely." Shane voiced.

Shane then walked over to Rick. "Okay, we've either got to go in there, we've got to make things right or we've just got to go. We have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time." Shane suggested. "We can't go." Rick gritted. "Why, Rick? Why?" Shane questioned. "Because my daughter is still out there." Carol chimed in.

"Okay." Shane scoffed rubbing his hands over his face. "Okay, I think it's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility." Shane suggested. "Shut the hell up Shane! You don't know shit." I exclaimed angrily. We're not leaving Sophia behind. "I'm close to finding this girl. I just found her damn doll two days ago." Daryl chimed in.

"You found her doll, Daryl. That's what you did. You found a doll." Shane argued. "You don't know what the hell you're talking about." Daryl yelled. "I'm just saying what needs to be said! You get a good lead, it's in the first 48 hours." Shane shouted. "Shane, stop." Rick yelled. "Let me tell you something else, man. If she was alive out there and saw you coming all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck, she would run in the other direction." Shane yelled.

Daryl got closer and put his hand near Shane's face and got close enough to him until Rick came in. They were gonna fight each other. Some of us pulled each of them away from each other and I had been close enough to Daryl to keep him away from Shane by putting my hand on his chest. If it was any other time I would feel all tingly, but now had been far from the time or the place.

"Back off!" Rick shouted. Lori had kept Shane back with her hand on him. "Keep your hands off me." Shane said to Lori with his finger in her face. "Now just let me talk to Hershel. Let me figure it out." Rick told Shane. "What are you gonna figure out?!" Shane hollered getting closer to Rick until Lori stepped in. "If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land." Rick told Shane.

"Hershel sees those things in there as people, sick people, his wife, his stepson." Dale explained. "You knew?" Rick questioned. "Yesterday I talked to Hershel." Dale stated. "And you waited the night?" Shane started getting riled back up. He was getting me agitated. "Shut up!" I yelled. "I thought we could survive one more night. We did. I was waiting till this morning to say something. But Glenn wanted to be the one." Dale said.

"The man is crazy, Rick, if Hershel thinks those things are alive or no!" Shane yelled. The chains started to rattle the doors leading into the barn and the walkers were growling loudly. So we all headed back to the tents.

I was going to go out and attempt to find Sophia again. Shane doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. She was gonna be okay, she has to. For Carol. I obviously had my sword draped over my shoulder as I walked into the barn to get a horse. I guess Daryl wanted to go out and look for her too. Great minds think alike...

I heard Daryl grunt in pain as he lifted the stuff to saddle on the horse on top of a stool. "Woah there, what the hell are you doing?" I questioned as I jogged over to him. "Same thing you were just gettin ready to do." He answered as if reading my mind. "No, you can't, you need to stay here." I disagreed. "I'm fine." He dismissed. "No your not. Your not even supposed to be standing. You need to heal and get better, while I go find her." I disagreed.

"Yeah, I don't care. Why do you?" He questioned, making eye contact with me as he did so. "Because I care about you and your safety. Now Rick's gonna be out to look for her later and follow the trail. I think it'd be better if you stay here or at least go with him later so you won't be alone." I suggested. He was preoccupied trying to get the horse out. "Yeah well, I ain't gonna sit around and do nothing." He disagreed.

"Yes you are. You're just going to make your injury worse, that's why I'm going." I asserted. He turned around at looked at me as if I was crazy. "Your gonna go on out there by yourself and get hurt or worse die. Imma come with you." He said. "So? Who the hell cares? I'm not gonna let you go back out there to die, so your staying, that's it. I can't lose you too." I told him sternly. He looked like he didn't like my answer. He dropped the stuff in his hand and started walking away.

He grabbed the saddle gear he put on the stool initially and threw it on the ground in anger. As he did, he groaned in pain. I jogged over to him and bended down to help him. "Daryl-." I started before he cut me off. "Just leave me be!" He yelled and swatted his hand and I stood up. "Dumbass china lady." He uttered while walking away. "I'm still Korean!" I yelled at his retreating figure.

I sighed before grabbing the saddle gear off the ground. I'm going out there and looking for her, like I planned on doing. I put the saddle on the horse and mounted her from the left side. "You ready for this?" I asked the horse while petting her. The horse neighed in response as if it knew what I said. "Yeah me neither." I said.

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I successfully rode the horse into the wilderness without being seen. I was going to do this real quick and be back before anyone would notice I was gone. At least I hoped so.

I was heading south, hopefully Sophia kept that trail and if she did, she could have gotten out of the forest and into any farmland in the area. Here's to hoping. I didn't bring any guns, mainly because walkers are attracted to sound among other things but I don't need them to hear me coming. So, I've gif my handy dandy sword and some extra knives I could throw at the walkers from a distance. Now all I need is for the horse to have my back.

I dismounted the house as I came upon an abandoned house. I tied the horse to a nearby tree and treaded lightly over to the house. "Sophia." I whispered as I walked into the house. It had been semi okay. There was some trash littered around the house. I walked up the rickety stairs and looked through each of the rooms. I made it to the last door and a slightly opened it. I was met with the decomposing skin of a walker. It started to snarl and grab at me. I grabbed one of the knives I brought and stabbed it in its cranium.

I was breathing heavily and made my way down the stairs to search the rest of the house. I came up short and found nothing. I walked out of the house and saw four walkers heading for my horse. Oh hell no. I ran up to the one closest to the horse and chopped its head off before stabbing the head. I sliced and diced the rest of them and made sure they were dead before turning to the horse. She seemed agitated and scared so I rubbed the top of her head and kissed her.

"I got you girl. Little protects big." I told the horse as I pointed at myself referring to her as big and me as little. I mounted her and we ventured off further into the forest.

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I was making my way back to the farm after an hour of searching. I hate that I had come up short again. I hated seeing the look on Carol's face every time we told her that we didn't find her. As the horse and I were making our way back to the farm, I saw Hershel, Jimmy, and Rick. Rick and Hershel had been manhandling walkers with snare poles while Jimmy was in front of them.

"Rick!" I yelled as I saw him struggling with the walker. "Ara, stay back. Just stay right over there." He advised. "What the hell are you doing?!" I questioned. "I'll tell you later." He answered as he struggled to hold the walker. They started walking in the direction of the farm. I started to walk fairly close behind them. Rick was gonna tell me what the hell was going on. The group was never gonna settle for this. 

We had made it to the outer fence that you walk through before you go to the farm. I saw the group running towards us and Rick looked back at me. I shook my head at him. Shane ran out of the gate first. "What the hell are you doing?" Shane questioned. "Shane, just back off." Rick warned. "Why do your people have guns?" Hershel asked. "Are you kidding me? You see? You see what they're holding onto?" Shane shouted during his series of questions. "I see who I'm holding onto." Hershel retorted. "No, man, you don't." Shane disagreed.

"Ara, your in on this?" My brother questioned with a rifle in his hand. "Hell no." I answered. "Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk." Rick advised. "What you want to talk about, Rick? These things ain't sick. They're not people. They're dead. Ain't gonna feel nothing for them 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 shouted. "Shane, shut up!" Rick yelled.

"Hey, Hershel man, let me ask you something. Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" Shane asked as he pulled out his gun and shot the walker that Hershel was holding onto. I quickly dismounted the horse and got my sword out. "No! Stop it!" Rick exclaimed. "That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?! Why is it still coming?" Shane yelled as he shot the walker yet again. "That's it's heart, it's lungs. Why is it still coming?" Shane questioned angrily while shooting the walker again. "Shane, enough!" Rick shouted. "Yeah, you're right, man. That is enough." Shane said as he shot the walker in the head. The walker came tumbling down along with the snare pole Hershel held in his hand.

The group just stood there for a second, it's like time had slowed down, there in lies the calm before the storm. "Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone! 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 want to live, if you want to survive, you got to fight for it! I'm talking about fighting right here, right now." Shane shouted as he ran toward the barn. He had lost his mind, he was completely deranged.

"Take the snare pole. Hershel, take the snare pole. Hershel, listen to me, man, please. Take it now. Hershel! Take it!" Rick begged, shouting at Hershel who seemed to be in a daze. Shane had grabbed an axe and was banging on the lock that kept the barn closed. "No, Shane. Do not do this, brother. Wait!" Rick begged again. Shane wasn't listening and kept banging on the lock successfully breaking it. "Don't do it!" Glenn yelled. "Rick!" Lori yelled. "Please!" Rick shouted. Shane took the wood holding the door together off and threw it to the side.

"Come on. Come on, we're out here." Shane yelled as he banged on the door, trying to get the walkers attention. "This is not the way! Please!" Rick shouted. Shane got his gun back out and aimed it at the barn door along with everyone else. Now we were gonna have to fight to kill these walkers. The walkers successfully made it out the door and started hurriedly limping toward us. Shane shot at the first walker, T-Dog, Andrea, Daryl, and Glenn followed in suit and started shooting the walkers. I was standing in front of Lori and Carl and kept the behind me just in case they missed any walkers. Shane turned around and shot the walker Rick had in his hand. Rick dropped the snare pole as the walker came tumbling down to the ground. "Stop!" Rick yelled as everyone was shooting up the walkers coming out of the barn. Hershel was distraught, Maggie was crying along with Patricia and Beth, and Jimmy was on his knees on the ground.

Believe me I hate walkers just as much as anyone else, but I genuinely felt bad for the Greene family. All the walkers had came out the barn and they were all shot up. Everyone stopped shooting, not hearing any walkers. All the walkers everyone had killed had been piled in front of the barn. Then, we all heard another growl and feet shuffling against the ground. We all saw it was Sophia, as a walker. I covered my mouth as tears pooled in my eyes.

I heard Carol sobbing and yelling Sophia. She ran up to the front and she was gonna run up to Sophia until Daryl stoped her. "Oh no. Sophia. Sophia." She sobbed as she fell on the ground and Daryl held her. Carl was sobbing from behind me as Lori held him tightly in her arms. Sophia had been staggering forward and walking toward us. I wiped the tears away that were streaming down my face.

Rick started to walk towards Sophia and grabbed his gun out of his holster and shot her in the head. Carol was wailing uncontrollably as Sophia tumbled to the ground. This was one of those deaths that would change everyone in the group.

And that's another chapter. Very depressing. I was just as shocked when I saw this episode for the first time. I was like damn they really had the little girl die and come out of the barn. Whelp we'll get to see how everyone handles her death, considering she was a kid, Carol's kid no less. Until next time folks. I love you guys 3000.