Consequences

I passed the cabin and truck as I kept running back to the camp. As much as I would rather just travel with Rick, I knew it would hurt him too much to lose his family and friend. Even if there seems to be something going on between Lori and Shane.

I also knew that he would likely blame me if I told him that I went to warn them in Atlanta instead of going back to the camp to help them. So that's what I did, I ran hard as sun slowly sank in the sky. All I could hope is that Rick and them realized the box truck was gone and made their way to the car with the guns in it.

When I got back the camp was all sitting around their campfires, eating the fish we had caught. Daryl's deer was still hung up from a tree, as it seems nobody wanted to break it down to cook. Thankfully Daryl at least did this much and let the blood drain or the meat wouldn't taste very good.

I found Shane with the same group from the night before minus Rick, Glenn and T-Dog.

"Can I speak with you? Alone?" I asked after having looked at the others around the fire.

"How about you tell us where you've been?" Shane asked in return, eyeing me suspiciously.

The others seemed equally interested in where I had been, but I ignored them.

"Later. This is important." I urged, but still keeping a look of calm. It wouldn't do to start a panic throughout the camp.

"I think you should let us worry about what's important, and tell us where you've been!" He hissed as he stood.

"Lori, Carol, Amy, Andrea and everyone else in this circle was worried about you when we noticed you had disappeared." He continued.

"Doesn't seem like you worried too much." I gestured to them all eating around the campfire.

"Judging by the laughter I'd say there wasn't much worrying going on at all. Now are we going to keep arguing here, or are you going to talk with me alone?" I said losing my patience. It's not like I cared that they had been eating and enjoying themselves, but at least don't lie about being worried.

Shane narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth, seems I wasn't the only one getting annoyed.

"You need to watch what you say." He whispered as he leaned close to my ear. Not that the whispering meant much as it I'm sure the whole camp could hear with how loud he whispered.

"Trust me, I am." I responded, stepping back. I knew I was pushing it at this point, and I knew I probably could have went about this a less confrontational way. But, this was the only way I was going to be able to separate myself from just being another kid in their eyes. They had to know I wasn't going to back down or submit just because they were adults. If they wanted my respect they were going to have to earn it.

"Shane, just go with him. He may be acting out because he's lonely." Lori spoke up, seemingly trying to be concerned, but it just felt condescending to me. Shane stared at her for a moment before sighing and dropping his hands to his hips.

"Fine. Come on kid." He said gesturing with his head towards the camper. We stepped behind it out of sight and earshot of the others.

"Alright. What is it? What's so important that you were acting like that?" He asked, his stance and demeanor basically screaming for me to not mess with him right now. Straining my hearing I could barely make out the distant approach of the group of walkers from the road. We maybe had a 5 minutes at their ambling pace.

"Walkers. I saw walkers heading this way through the woods, a little over 20 of them." I finally said, my eyes never leaving his. I could see his body tense and then his face contorted in anger. He thrust his finger against my chest.

"I warned you not to mess with me. You think this a game? You run off and come back with a story to try and scare the group. I guess you at least had the courtesy to not come running into the camp shouting it." He growled and waiting for him to finish.

"You done?" I asked and his face scrunched even more as he looked at me warningly.

"Good, if you don't believe me then why don't you follow me and I'll show you?" Shane shook his head at my words and he sighed in annoyance.

"I thought you were going to be a good kid. You seem smart, but you try to act older than you are and you're getting on people's nerves." He said.

"The only people that seem to have a problem with me are you and Lori." I shot back. During the argument I hadn't kept listening out but when I did I realized the walkers had picked up speed. My mind went to the smell of the blood of the deer, the cooked fish over the fire, and the talking.

"You caus that yo-" Shane tried to speak but I cut him off.

"They're close, right at the treeline. Maybe 30 yards from the edge of camp." I said pulling out the pistol from the holster at my back.

"Whoa, where did you get that gun, Adam?" Shane asked and tried to grab it, but I sidestepped him as I pulled the slide back to chamber a round, and flicked off the safety. I could hear the sound of a car, and looking down towards the path I could see mine and Rick's car barreling up the road.

"Shane you have to listen to me! There are walkers in those woods, I wouldn't joke about this, regardless of what you think of me I wouldn't do that. Now if you like those people I suggest you get them together, it'll be harder to fight the walkers if you have to worry about hitting someone that's alive." I finally barked at him. But I realized this had been futile to begin with, I should have just went the stupid route and came running into camp yelling. I can't believe this guy is so stubborn.

"Go!" I finally just yelled.

"I'm going to go tell Rick and then what's going on. That's the car we came to Atlanta in." I continued, but Shane didn't say anything and when I followed his eyes to the noise I was hearing I knew what he saw. Turning I lined up my sights on the walker's head and fired. Chaos it was then.

With the shot fired, it seemed like everything happened at once. As if it was waiting for something to tell it to start, the starting pistol of a Walker attack. I dashed past Shane and headed to where Rick and them would be pulling up so that I could grab another gun. We hadn't had the ammo bag so the pistol I had only had 4 more rounds in the magazine.

I could hear the screams, but I did my best to ignore them as I ran at the car, it slammed on brakes right behind the car Glenn had brought as they jumped out.

"Trunk! Open the trunk!" I yelled and though frozen at first, Rick leaned back in and pulled the lever to open the trunk.

"What's goin-?" He went to ask but was cut off by the sound of gunfire.

"Walkers! Now go help them, I gotta get more ammo." I said while already rifling through the gun bag for the ammo. I saw that Glenn and T-Dog didn't have guns yet, so I tossed T-Dog a shot gun, and Glenn a pistol.

"T-Dog you have 5 shots in yours. Glenn yours comes with 10, aim for the head and make them count." I said sliding bullet after bullet into the magazine, cursing myself for not having loaded a couple while we were in the car. One of the most important rules was to always be prepared and I, as well as the people of this camp, had failed that.

Sliding the last bullet in, I slammed the mag into the gun and took off. Eventually passing T-Dog and Glenn. There was a family I didn't know that had gotten separated from the main group, the husband was fending off 2 walkers with his bare hands trying to protect his family. Sadly he bites and scratches all over his arms, he would be turning before long.

I fired 2 quick shots while moving and kept going, not giving the family a second glance as I heard T-Dog calling out to them. I stayed along the edges, making sure to stay out of the line of fire, picking off walker after walker that came out of tents from eating people that had been asleep already.

I didn't know these people, but still with each former camp member I found dead I felt a weight settle upon me. This wasn't the kind of thing I had been trained for, but I still had never made the wrong choice in any of the trainings. Now I couldn't help but wonder if I should have tried to kill all the walkers by myself in the woods. I was smart enough and skilled enough that I probably could have, but I had went the way of trying to do right by everyone.

I had wanted to dispel some of the worry that these people had about me, and become an important part in their camp like Rick. He had been solely attributed with saving the ones that were in Atlanta, and I wasn't jealous by any means. I just wanted to fit in as well. I was tired of being different.

I skirted the edge of the forest listening for anymore walkers after we had taken down all the ones inside camp. I had to take down the three I came across with my knife as I had run out of bullets. It seemed more than the original 20 I saw earlier had ended up making their way to the camp. Now it seemed that there had been a group of 35, more if you count the ones in the camp that had already risen again and had to be put down.

I stepped out of the forest as everyone was gathered around the camper. Shane, Lori, Carl, Rick, Glenn, T-Dog, Jacqui, Jim, Dale, Morales and his family, Sophia and Carol, several families I didn't know, and Daryl were all standing around the camper when I walked up.

"Where's Amy and Andrea?" I asked as I looked around. Shane went to step forward that same fierce expression darkening his face.

"Wher-!" But he was cut off as both Amy and Andreas bust out of the camper and wrapped me up in a hug.

"Adam, where did you go? When I saw that you weren't with Shane anymore I got so worried." Andrea said with tears pooling in her eyes. Amy just nodded tears equally falling from her own eyes. I just sort of stood there stunned, absently patting their backs.

Maybe some of these people really did care for me.

Eventually I slipped out of their hug with a thank you and walked up to Rick.

"Glad you made it back." I said and he nodded with a slight smile, but didn't let go of Lori or Carl.

"Glad to see you safe, Adam. Where did you go, though? T-Dog and Glenn said you passed them guns and then you disappeared." I nodded at his words and went to speak but Shane cut in.

"Ya what were you thinking popping off a round like that ?" He said stepping forward, and gestured around.

"All these people are dead because you wanted to play games and get me away from everyone to talk. If you knew these walkers were coming you should have just said so to everyone!" He yelled and I was genuinely taken aback. He's accusing me?

"Shane what are you talking about, Adam is just a kid." Rick began but waved a hand for him stop and I stepped up to Shane. He was almost a foot taller than me and he is definitely bigger than me, but I wasn't scared of someone like him. Though truth be told I didn't really know what being scared was like, not when it was something like this at least.

"This." I gestured around at the dead bodies.

"This is all on you. This is the consequences of your decision making based on your dislike of me. I tried to come in and warn you man to man to try and keep the panic down and prevent all of this." I said feeling some anger seep into my words.

"But you're not a man, you're a child!" He barked back and I scoffed.

"That's your argument? Really? Regardless of my age you should take warnings about walkers seriously don't you think? Or is the only head of yours that works the one in your-" He tried to lunge at me when he saw my gaze drop low and he realized what I was insinuating. Before he could reach me, Rick and T-Dog managed to grab ahold him.

"Shane! What the hell are you doing?! Like you said he's a child!" Rick yelled, until Shane finally stopped pulling against them. When they eased their grips he ripped his arms from their hands and huffed as he stormed off.

Rick sighed and turned to me.

"Did you have to antagonize him, you are still a kid you can't talk to adults like that."

"Rick. The sooner everyone realizes that age, race and gender no longer hold the same weight as they did before we'll never survive this apocalypse. There's no more men do the fighting and women do the chores, we're going to need everyone. To an extent there's no more children either, the walkers aren't going to discriminate and I promise you a lot of surging humans aren't going to care either. Everyone is in the same boat now, whether everyone likes it or not." I finished before walking off.