16 Chapter 16

Hershel had deemed Daryl well enough that he could move back out to the tent you shared. He was laying on his cot with you sitting on the edge of it next to him. "Will you stop poking holes in that. I don't want to get ate alive by bugs." "Better then being ate alive by walkers." Daryl said smirking "Alright smartass." You chuckled. But he continued so you leaned over him trying to grab the arrow. Daryl grab you pulling you down on top of him with one arm holding the arrow over his head away from you. You were both laughing when Andrea can in clearing her throat. And you sat up standing beside the cot. "Hey. This is not that great, but..." she said handing a book to Daryl. "What, no pictures?" He said flipping through the book. "I'm so sorry. I feel like shit." "Yeah, you and me both." "I don't expect you to forgive me, but if there's anything I can do..." You just scoffed at that. "You were trying to protect the group. We're good." She just smiled and starting walking out of the tent. "But hey, shoot me again, and you'd best pray I'm dead." Daryl called after her. She chuckled and turned but before she could leave you walked closer to her. "And if he is dead you best kill me after before I kill you." You whispered to her. She just stared at you with wide eyes and walked away.

You were gathered around the car with Rick and Shane looking at the map and getting ready to take everyone somewhere for gun practice. "The creek flows south, past that farmhouse Daryl found. Maybe Sophia dropped the doll there, the current brought it downstream." You said "So what, you think she took this road here and then she went north?" Rick asked "Yeah maybe." "What's up that way?" "A housing development. It went in maybe 10 years ago." Shane said "Take a run up there after gun practice. I'll hold down the fort here, but take backup." Rick told him. "After what went down with Daryl, I don't want anyone going out alone. We stay in pairs. He was lucky Y/N was there with him." He continued

Glenn came over with a crate of peaches and some jerky. Everyone took some of each. "Thanks." You said. "My binoculars." Shane asked. "Yeah yeah." Glenn said handing them to Shane. "Okay, bye." Shane told him. "What an ass." You thought. "We'd like to join you for gun training today." Hershels youngest daughter Beth said walking up to you all. "Hershel's been very clear. I can't involve any of you in what we do without his okay." Rick told her. "He doesn't like it, but he consented." She told him. "Otis was the only one who knew guns. Now that he's gone, we gotta learn to protect ourselves. Her father saw the sense in that." Patricia said. "No offense, but I'll ask Hershel myself." Rick told them.

You were waiting for everyone to get ready to go to where You had decided to go for gun practice. Looking at Glenn you asked "You coming?" "I gotta help Dale clean the spark plugs on the RV. He said he's gonna teach me mechanics. I should probably go look for him." He told you. "You found me." Dale said standing behind Glenn. "Alright see you guys when we get back."

"He's a good learner." Dale told you. You just nodded your head and walked away getting in one of the cars.

You got to the field setting up cans and bottles as targets on the little fence that was there. Since you already knew how to shoot you helped the ones who didn't. You were standing with T-Dog helping Jimmy, Beth and Patricia. "Hey, come on, man. Don't give me that gangsta shit." T-Dog told Jimmy who was holding the gun sideways. You assumed he was just trying to look cool in front of Beth. "Good work." You said when he hit the target. You seen Rick and Shane talking to Andrea it looked like she was actually doing a good job. After a while you all went back to the farm. You got out of the car and going to look for Daryl you missed him. You found him still in the tent resting and trying to read the book Andrea gave him. "Any good?" You said walking in and sitting down on the edge of his cot. "Nah, it fuckin sucks. How was practice.?" "Not to bad. Every one did pretty well. But I missed you." Daryls face flushed and the corner of his mouth twitched up into a smile. "Missed ya too." He said quietly. You leaned down connecting you lips. You felt his hand on the back of ypur neck pulling you closer. You pulled away looking at him smiling then leaning back in whispering in his ear "I suck too just so you know." Pulling back you smiled and laughed seeing his wide eyes and beat red face. "Get outta here." He pushed you. You both just laughed.

The next morning everyone was sitting around the camp fire eatting breakfast. Carol and T-Dog were making the eggs and meat. You were sitting beside Daryl. You were eating your eggs when Glenn started to talk. "Um, guys." He said and everyone looked up giving him your attention. "So... The barn is full of walkers." He said. Everyone stopped doing what they doing and looked at him in shock.

You were all down at the barn checking it out. And there was indeed walkers in the barn. "What the fuck! Is Hershel fucking crazy? You said standing beside Daryl. "You cannot tell me you're all right with this." Shane said to Rick. "No I'm not, but we're guests here. This isn't our land." Rick said "This is our lives!" Shane yelled. "Lower your voice." Glenn said guessing he was worried about Maggie finding out he said something. Andrea decided to pipe in saying "We can't just sweep this under the rug." "It ain't right. Not remotely. Okay, we've either got to go in there, we've got to make things right or we've just got to go. Now we have been talking about fort Benning for a long time." Shane said "We can't go." Rick said "Why, Rick? Why?" Shane asked clearly frustrated with his best friend. "Because my daughter is still out there." Carol stepped forward saying. "Okay. Okay, I think it's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility." Shane said "We're not leaving Sophia behind." You told him. "I'm close to finding this girl. Me and Y/N just found her damn doll two days ago." Daryl growled "You found her doll, Daryl. That's what you did. You found a doll." Shane said to Daryl. "You don't know what the hell you're talking about." You and Daryl said at the same time. You were getting sick of Shane shit. "I'm just saying what needs to be said. You get a good lead, it's in the first 48 hours." Shane continued to be an asshole. "Shane, stop." Rick warned him but he kept going. "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 said to Daryl. Daryl went after him pushing him.

Every one started shouting at them to knock it off. You had had enough and punch Shane swore in the jaw. Daryl grabbed up picking you up by the waste carry you backwards. Lori going over to Shane putting her hands on his chest to stop him "Back off!" She yelled at him "Keep your hands off me." Shane told her. "Keep ypu bitch on a lesh." Shane pointed at Daryl. "Oh fuck you asshole. I'm sick of your fucking shit. Trying to be the alpha male." You spat at him trying to get out of Daryls grasp. "Now just let me talk to Hershel. Let me figure it out." Rick said. "What are you gonna figure out?!" Shane yelled at him. "If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land." "Hershel sees those things in there as people... Sick people... His wife, his stepson." Dale stepped in. "You knew?" Shane said. "Yesterday I talked to Hershel." Dale told him. "And you waited the night?" "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 told him "The man is crazy, Rick, if Hershel thinks those things are alive or not." Shane said. The doors on the barn rattled and you heard the growls from the walkers. Everyone backed away from the barn.