Welcome to Reality

"Let's go Glenn!" Me and Rick looked at each other and laughed at the lover boy who was convincing Maggie to let him go.

Glenn thinks he has been sneaky when everyone can clearly see him flirting with Hershel's daughter.

Finally Glenn hopped in the truck bed and they sped off toward the bar where Rick said Hershel used to drink before he quit.

"So, you and Amy huh?" Rick smirked

"I don't know yet." I chuckled.

"I see the way you look at her, Shane, and the way she looks at you." Rick said seriously.

"So?" I asked, annoyed.

"So what's stopping you? " Rick said while glancing at me.

We sat in silence for a minute before finally I answered.

"I guess I'm just scared."

"Scared of what?" Rick asked while looking at me.

"Scared of what I'll become to protect what I love." I stared into Rick's eyes before he looked back at the road but I could see his eyes widen a little bit.

'It's hard, when you realize what you'll have to do to keep what you have.' I thought.

We drove the rest of the way in silence before finally we stopped at the bar.

We walked into the bar and found Hershel drinking at the counter.

"They got anything good?" I asked while grabbing a bottle of vodka.

"Heh, I guess people's first thought isn't to grab liquor when the world is going to shit." Hershel chuckled darkly before downing another shot.

"Oh no it definitely is. They just didn't have the chance." I looked at Hershel who looked at me.

"I understand you feel like shit but let me tell you, things could be a thousand times worse."

Hershel contemplated before he just downed another shot.

"Hershel, your family needs you. Come back with us."

"I let them down. I didn't let them grieve when they should have." Hershel said.

"Everyone makes mistakes, not everyone has the chance to make them right. You do." Rick said.

Finally a few hours later we convinced Hershel to come back with us but right when we were getting ready to leave two ugly rednecks walked into the bar making me frown.

"Son of a bitch. They're alive." One of them said.

We listened to them spout bullshit for a few minutes and they told us fort benning was overrun.

That's when the smarter of the two rednecks steered the conversation toward us.

"You hold up somewhere else?"

Everyone sat in silence for a minute when Rick was about to respond but before he could I already had my gun drawn.

"Bang!" The bullet pierced Dave's forehead sending blood and peices of brain flying back.

I quickly aimed my gun at Tony who was already reaching for his shotgun but before he could get any further I put a bullet between his eyes causing his fat ass to slump down the bar causing multiple glasses to fall over.

Quickly walking over to his body I put another bullet in his head for good measure.

"Woahh!" Glenn said with a nervous breath as he looked around shocked.

"Shane! That wasn't necessary!" Rick said with a growl while looking at me.

"They were asking where we live, Rick. You really think they would have just let us go?"

Rick frowned but didn't deny.

"And let's be honest, we would never let these two clowns anywhere near our people." I said with a chuckle but everyone else seemed to still be absorbing the feeling of killing two people.

"They definitely weren't alone." I said

"How do you know?" Glenn asked with a confused look.

"Just like we don't have any of our stuff on us neither do they, and they didn't pull up in a car meaning they were dropped off. They probably have friends nearby who heard the shots."

Rick, Hershel and Glenn seemed to realize what I said was true and frowned.

"We can't go back because they could potentially follow us. We could also accidentally run into them on a supply run in the future, meaning we have to get rid of them now."

"I don't think that's necessary. Maybe we can work something out." Hershel Said.

I just looked at Rick.

"Remember what I said. About what you'll have to become to protect what you love."

A minute later Rick reluctantly agreed so me and him both set up on opposite sides of the streets in nearby alleys with clear views of the street in front of the bar.

Hershel was behind a dumpster and would wait till they were busy looking at me and Rick before popping out behind them.

Glenn was in the bar with a shotgun.

Finally a few minutes later we heard the sound of a truck pulling up near the bar and I spotted four men hop out, all armed.

I looked at Rick who was in the alley across from me and we both nodded before I stepped out and took aim at the kid who was holding a sniper.

Taking down the sniper first was always the most crucial in any situation as once they got set up they would pin you down for days.

Bang!

The bang echoed throughout the quiet town and he watched as the kid's body slumped to the ground and the sniper slipped from his grasp.

"Fuck!" One of the other men screamed while trying to grab his weapon but before he could me and Rick tore the man a new asshole.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

His body spun around before it hit the

pavement.

"Fuck you!" A white man with an m16 started firing in the direction I was in, causing bullets to fly by my head.

All I could hear was the sound of wasps by my ears as a broken brick fell atop my head.

Bang!

Finally the shots stopped and he peaked up to see the other two men were already dead and Hershel was pointing his gun at them.

Grah!

Hearing a growl I quickly turned around to see a bunch of walkers walking toward me.

"Well that ain't good."

"Shane!"

I ran out into the middle of the street where the others were already done looting the bodies.

"Hershel take the truck you came in. Me and Rick we'll ride in the truck we came in. Glenn, you take their truck."

"Got it." Glenn nodded before hopping into our new truck.

Glancing over at Rick I see him looking at the pile of dead bodies

"We gotta go Rick." I said

"He was just a kid." Rick whispered.

"Yeah, a kid with a sniper rifle." I said and he nodded before we ran toward our truck and threw the guns into the trunk bed before driving off leaving a town full of walkers.

The ride back to the farm was quiet as Rick seemed to zone out.

He knew Rick and the others would get over it eventually so he wasn't worried.

What he was worried about now was getting enough food and supplies for the winter.

Looking outside the window he saw the trees, the grass and the sky.

Everything seemed so full of life despite almost everyone being dead.

'Is this really a curse? Or is it a blessing? The chance for humanity to restart, to build a future where the world isn't drained of its life and resources. But all futures are built atop mountains of corpses.'

The sun just disappeared on the horizon when we made it back to the farm where everyone was waiting for us.

"Daryl, did anything happen?" I asked Daryl who was cleaning his crossbow.

"Besides sitting on my ass all day? Not much." He said without looking up from his crossbow.

"A boring day is a good day." I said

"Ain't that the truth." Dale said while looking at the four us who came back with suspicion.

I was acting completely normal but the other three were a little down and the others noticed but no one said anything yet.

Rick and Lori went to check on Carl who was apparently up and moving again which was good.

Hershel went to make sure his family was okay and Glenn went with him to find Maggie.

Finally later that night everyone was sitting around a campfire before bed.

Rick and Glenn could both be seen staring into the fire with glazed over eyes.

It seems they were still thinking about what had been done earlier.

"Shane, Rick told me what you guys did but I don't think you made the right decision this time." Lori said with a small frown.

Everyone else had already heard the rumors and just looked at me waiting to see what I would say.

"Doesn't matter." I said, still looking into the glowing fire.

"What doesn't matter?" Lori asked with a confused frown.

I looked over at Lori before responding.

"It doesn't matter what you think because I make the decisions.

If we did what you think and what Dale thinks and maybe what all of you think, then eventually we would suffer more than you can imagine.

Eventually a lot of people here would be dead or worse. It's because you're not yet willing to do what it takes to survive.

I am.

If it's Carl's life or some hillbilly rednecks whose life are you choosing?

If you made the decision to let those people go and they followed us back to camp and they killed all the men but kept all the women alive to have fun with then who are you going to blame but yourself.

If you have two cans of food and they want both, are you going to give them both and walk away starving?

How many times are you going to bend backwards to stay out of trouble?

And eventually you're gonna meet the people who want to find trouble with you even if you don't want to.

Can you bare the weight of a wrong decision?

That's the decisions you'll all have to make eventually, but not today since I will make the decisions from now on."

Looking around everyone had different expressions on their faces.

Some fear, some worry. Some didn't have any expression at all.

"Don't get me wrong though. We are a team, but some people aren't ready to make the hard decisions. I am."

With that, I got up and left to my tent leaving them with the stark reality of our world- a world where decisions were no longer merely choices but matters of survival.