𝐁𝐘𝐄 𝐅𝐀𝐑𝐌 𝐁𝐘𝐄
once upon a time I was sweet and innocent, but then shit happened

"IT'LL BE TIGHT, sixteen people in one house," Rick told Hershel. The old man had thought — that since Dale easily was attacked -- it was best if everyone moved inside the house, where it was safer. 

"Don't worry about that. With the swamp hardening, the creek drying up..."

"With fifty head of cattle on the property, we might as well be ringing a damn dinner bell," Maggie announced, her eyes squinting thanks to the sun.

"She's right. We should've moved you in a while ago," Hershel told them, looking towards the ground.

"All right, let's move the vehicles near each of the doors facing out toward the road. We'll build a lookout in the windmill, another in the barn loft. That should give us sightlines both sides of the property." Rick paused as he looked around, then pointed towards T-Dog. "T-Dog, you take the perimeter around the house. Keep track of everyone coming and going."

"What about standing guard?" Izzy asked, her voice loud and firm. She was the only person who wasn't really affected by Dale's death. Yes, she was sad that someone died, a good human, but she wasn't attached to him.

"I need you and Daryl on double duty," Rick hesitantly spoke. He walked towards her and led her away from the others. "I know we don't know much about eachother, but, back there at the bar, you had a perfectly good chance to kill us all. And then, when we brought you here, which was a stupid move, you stayed and was there to stop that walker from tearing into Dale even more. You are obviously skilled and I know that you and Daryl would work well together."

Izzy pursed her lips, nodding. "Okay. Fine. But, I work better alone." She looked him in the eyes. "I only play nice when Jack is by my side, so..." She held out her arms, glancing to Daryl who was still out in the yard, his tent up and everything. He was staring right at her, too, with narrowed eyes. "Plus, Daryl doesn't trust me."

"That's why I want you two to work together," Rick stated before walking back over to Hershel, leaving no room to speak which angered Izzy.

"I'll stock the basement with food and water, enough that we can all survive there a few days if need be " Hershel announced, carrying a couple baskets.

"What about patrols?" Andrea asked.

"Let's get this area locked down first. After that, Shane'll assign shifts while me and Daryl take Randall offsite and cut him loose," Rick announced and then started to walk away from everyone.

"We're back to that now?" Shane questioned.

Izzy smacked her lips together in anger, her eyebrows raising up as she saw Jack with Sophia and Carl, building sand castles in a sand box. She walked towards them and couldn't help but smile once she saw all three of them smiling and laughing.

"What are you guys doing?" She asked, keeping her distance. The last time she bonded with children, they left her and is now probably dead.

"Watching Jack fail at making a castle," Carl spoke up, smiling up at Izzy who internally awed as she stated into his blue eyes which looked so much like his father's.

"I did not fail. I did as told and it just... didn't work out," Jack ordered lightly, frowning as he looked at his castle — half of it was sliding down. Izzy covered her mouth as a chuckle tried to escape. "Can you help me?" He pouted, looking up at Izzy.

She sighed and bit her lip, looking from Jack's puppy eyes to Sophia's and Carl's. She let out a fake irritated breath and was about to give in when Rick called out to her. She sighed and turned around to see Rick standing with Daryl.

"Sorry, kids," She apologized before walking towards Rick and Daryl, meeting them in the middle.

"HE'S GONE!" T-Dog panted, running towards Rick, Daryl, Andrea and Izzy. Jack was off learning to cook with the girls.

Izzy stood there before clenching her jaw. "Son of a bitch!" She cursed loudly, her eyes hard as she looked to Rick. "I knew that we should've just ended him."

They made their way to the little shack and looked around for any clues to where he had gone off and how he got out of the cuffs. And especially, how did he get out of the shack when the lock was latched and has a number to open it with. He couldn't of known the lock number, and how was the lock still locked when T-Dog went to go get him?

Many questions and possibilities flew around Izzy's mind as she allowed her dark eyes to glance around the crime scene. The first thing that popped in her mind was a monster —- the kid was some type of monster. But, that possibility went out the back door when her mind went straight to Shane who she hasn't seen since a few hours ago.

She placed her hands on her hips as she glanced back at Jack who stood beside her. She fucking knew that it was a bad idea to stay with these people because who knows how they really were deep down, especially the big nose douche.

"Rick! Rick!" The suspect shouted as he quickly walked up to them. There was blood running down the side of his face and smeared on his nose, nose was obviously broken.

"What happened?" Rick asked.

"He's armed! He's got my gun!" Shane yelled out.

"Idiots," Izzy whispered to herself, rubbing her face with her hands. She glanced over at Jack again. She sighed and knew that he had gotten attached to them by the look on his face as he glanced around at everyone.

"Are you okay?" Rick asked his bestfriend.

"I'm fine. Little bastard just snuck up on me. He clocked me in the face," Shane told Rick. Oh, how I wish that I could clock him in the face, Izzy thought.

"All right, Hershel, T-Dog, get everybody back in the house. Glenn, Daryl, come with us," Rick announced.

Izzy got a glimpse, only a glimpse, but she swears that she saw Shane's eyes turn black. Her eyes widened slightly and she stood straighter. "Rick. I can help, too," She stated, gaining his attention.

"You stay here just in case he comes back," He told her sternly, but she shook her head, about to protest when he spoke up again, "They need you to protect them, okay? I need you to stay and protect them. I can't be in two places at once."

Izzy smacked her lips and drummed her fingers on her hips before nodding. She knew that if she acted out, they would kick her and Jack to the curb, and no one would be around to save them. So, instead, she's gonna go in that house and them make an escape to take down the demon that was in big nose.

"Let's go, everyone!" Izzy shouted, shooing everyone to the house, except Daryl, Glenn, Rick, and Shane. She glanced back and saw Shane's eyes turn black before he winked and walked away, in front of the group.

"Izzy?" Jack questioned, concerned. "Wha—"

"There's a demon in the douche, so I'm gonna take care of it," She stated, huffing as they made their way in the house.

IZZY SAT ON the couch, bouncing her leg up and down, chewing on her thumb nail. "I'm going after them," she stated and stood up.

"Don't, they could be anywhere. And if Randall comes back, we're gonna need you here," Lori told her sternly which made Izzy glare at her, but she didn't do anything else.

Just as she was about to storm outside, the door was slammed open and in came Daryl and Glenn.

"Rick and Shane ain't back?" Daryl asked as he looked around the room, his blue eyes landing on Izzy's big brown eyes that was full of anger and worry.

"No." Izzy shook her head, biting her lip. She started to pace and Jack tried to calm her, but he knew that she wouldn't be calm until the demon is dead.

"We heard a shot," Daryl stated, his eyes finally leaving Izzy's pacing body, and then looked at the group.

"Maybe they found Randall," Lori commented as she looked at Daryl, biting her thumb nail.

"We found him," Daryl stated.

"Is he back in the shed?" Patricia asked as she looked at him with wide eyes.

"He's a walker," Daryl stated.

Izzy threw up her hands. "That's it, I'm leaving to go check on Rick."

Before anything could be said, she ran out the door, Jack following after her quickly. They ran towards two small figures in the distance, soon realizing that the figures were fighting.

When Izzy and Jack reached the figures, they saw that it was Rick and Shane fighting. Shane was on top of Rick, strangling him. Quickly, Izzy jumped into the fight and barreled straight into Shane, knocking him off of Rick. That led to Shane and Izzy fighting. At one moment, Shane got the upper hand, showing off black eyes.

Izzy gasped as he started to strangle her, but he was soon knocked off of her when Jack barreled into him.

She stood up and brought out her demon knife, twirling it around before she stabbed the demon in the shoulder. His shoulder lit up with an orange light, but other than that, nothing else happened, except that the demon punched her in the face, knocking her down.

Rick stood up and went to punch the demon, but it got the upper hand and sent a strong right hook to his temple, knocking Rick back to the ground. He had his eyes closed, so Izzy quickly got up and yanked the knife from the demons shoulder before kicking it's feet out from underneath it.

She quickly bent down and looked it in it's black eyes, the knife pointed at its heart. "What do you want, demon?"

"Winchester," The demon hissed. "I want you to watch everything unfold right in front of your eyes."

"So...possessing the douche was for what?" She questioned, raising an eyebrow. "Were you in him this whole time?"

"Oh, honey." The demon chuckled. "I only just possessed him after he set the boy loose. I found him in the woods with a bloody nose." He smirked. "I've been watching, waiting for a perfect moment, and when the opportunity came, I took it."

"And killing Rick was what? To get back at me for killing your kind?" Izzy tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. "Well, too bad, it's not going to make me stop." She plunged the demon knife into his heart, his whole body lighting up with orange.

"Ow!" Rick groaned, sitting up, running his head, his eyes instantly meeting Izzy's due to her bending down to check on him. "What—" his blue eyes landed on the dead body of his best friend, the knife sticking out of his heart. He looked at Izzy with wide questioning eyes.

"I had to, Rick," She told him, grabbing his hands to help him step up. "He was a danger to us all. He was literally just trying to kill you. He left me with no choice." She sighed and touched his temple, frowning when she felt a knot growing already. "That needs to be iced."

"Izzy." Jack walked up to them, holding the demon knife out to Izzy who easily grabbed it and tucked it in it's sheath.

"Dad?" They all three swiveled around just in time to see Carl standing there with wide eyes. "What happened?"

"Carl..." Rick trailed off, his eyes widening as he walked towards his son.

"Was he bit?" Carl asked, looking at Shane's body.

Izzy was the one who spoke up. "Yes, he was. He almost got your dad when I took care of him," She answered, saving Rick from having that conversation with his son.

"Oh, my—!" Jack gasped, pointing at something behind them all which made them all turn around to face a huge herd heading straight for them — for the farm.

"Go! Go!" Izzy whisper-shouted, grabbing Jack's arm as Rick grabbed Carl.

During their run towards the house, Rick and Carl, and Jack and Izzy ended up getting separated due to the zombies closing in on them.

Something happened to Izzy and Jack which made them both freak out — zombies were surrounding them from all ends. It was just like what happened to them when they were with the rest of the family.

Jack and Izzy were back to back, clutching to eachother as they held up the only weapons they had — knives and one gun.

"Fuck!" Izzy shouted, her eyes watering in anger and fear. The one time she doesn't bring her bag, of course she would need it. "Son of a bitch!" She kicked a zombie away from her which ended up tumbling info a couple others zombies, making a small path. Quickly, before she could regret it, she grabbed Jack and made a break for it.

Getting yanked back by her hair, Izzy shouted and used the demon knife to chop off the hand that was holding onto her. She pushed Jack in front of her, towards a bigger opening. If there was one thing she could do right now is make sure that he can make it out of this alive.

"I'm not leaving you!" Jack shouted, not allowing Izzy to push him to safety, instead, he let out a roar and stabbed a nearby zombie in the head. "I did it!" He cheered before they ended up going back to back, again, kicking and stabbing which seemed to be working just fine for the moment.

As Izzy stabbed another zombie, she tried to look around the herd to see if she could see anybody else just when the barn blew up in flames. She smirked, already knowing that it had to of been Rick's doing.

Feeling a little bit better knowing that they weren't the only ones on the farm, Izzy brought out her gun and started shooting the zombies that led to the house where she could faintly hear shooting coming from. She easily made a path, and she and Jack made a bee-line for the house, seeing Hershel standing his ground, shooting at the zombies which were closing in on the house.

"Hey!" Izzy and Jack turned around just as Daryl threw Izzy's bag at her which she easily caught.

"Finally." She smiled. "Better weapons." She threw Jack a hand gun and an angel blade, knowing that Cas had taught him how to use those specific weapons. Izzy grabbed herself a shot, fully loaded, an angel blade, and a grenade.

Smirking, Izzy pulled the pin before throwing the grenade into a spot of the herd which had the most zombies. She grabbed Jack and Hershel's arms, pulling them back as the grenade went off, sending exploding zombie parts everywhere. It rained down with zombie guys and parts.

"Yes! That was awesome!" Izzy cheered before slinging her bag over her shoulder. She steadied her shotgun before firing away at the closest zombies which happened to be about ten feet away. She smirked in satisfaction when the zombies flung back, dead.

One after another, there was less and less zombies on the farm, but there was still too many to take on, and they all knew that. But, still, nobody wanted to leave the farm to be torn apart, yet, they had to.

Rick came screeching by in a car. "Get in!" He shouted, gesturing to Hershel, Jack, and Izzy. Quickly, without protest, they all piled into the car, soon driving away from the farm, seeing the whole place blow up.

AFTER MEETING EVERYONE on the highway, they had all gotten in cars and drove as far away as they could get from the herd.

Jack and Izzy ended up in a van with Rick, Lori, Carl, Sophia, Carol, and T-dog. Hershel, his girls, and Glenn was piled into a another car as Daryl rode his motorcycle.

"Damn." Rick hit the steering wheel.

"What's wrong?" Jack asked, sitting up fully. He wanted to do something, anything.

"We've been riding red for the past hour," Rick told them, rubbing his face. Izzy frowned as she saw Rick's expression -- he was tired as hell and was trying to hold it all in. She knows that look because she has always done the same thing her entire life.

"Better make sure we don't get forgot," T-Dog told him. Rick honked the horn which made everyone else stop and get out/off of their vehicles.

"You out?" Daryl asked as he approached Rick, Jack, and Izzy who stood together. 

"Running on fumes," Izzy stated, rubbing her eyes as she tried to get rid of the tiredness in them. She did not want to sleep, especially after what had just went down.

"We can't stay here," Maggie spoke up, crossing her arms.

"We can't all fit in one car," Glenn told her, a love sick look on his face.

"We'll have to make a run for some gas in the morning," Rick told everyone.

"Spend the night here?" Carol asked, bringing her cardigan closer to her body.

"I'm freezing," Carl stated. Jack was the one to take off his signature brown jacket and put it on Carl who smiled up at him.

"We'll build a fire, yeah?"

"I'll go out looking for firewood, stay close. Only got so many arrows. How you doing on ammo?" Daryl asked Rick who looked at him.

"Not enough."

"We can't just sit here with our asses hanging out."

Izzy scuffed. She was tired, hungry, cold. She did not want to hear people complain. "Oh, stop complaining and listen to Rick, at least he says shit that makes me not want to punch him."

Rick chuckled lightly, running a hand through his hair. "All right, we'll set up a perimeter. In the morning, we'll find gas and some supplies. We'll keep pushing on."

"Glenn and I can go make a run now, try and scrounge up some gas," Maggie spoke up from her spot by Beth.

"No, we stay together," Jack stated. "Together is better. What happens if you get stranded without a car — I certainly don't want to know." Izzy couldn't help, but be proud of how far he had come from the day he was born.

"We're stranded now."

"I know it looks bad, we've all been through hell and worse, but at least we found each other. I wasn't sure... I really wasn't... but we did. We're together. We keep it that way," Rick announced as he looked around at everyone. "We'll find shelter somewhere. There's gotta be a place."

"Rick, look around. Okay? There's walkers everywhere. They're migrating or something," Glenn pointed out.

"There's gotta be a place not just where we hole up, but that we fortify, hunker down, pull ourselves together, build a life for each other. I know it's out there. We just have to find it," Rick practically hissed at everyone.

"Even if we do find a place and we think it's safe, we can never be sure. For how long? Look what happened with the farm," Izzy pointed out. "I even tried to not allow the place to feel like a haven in this world, but it was, and you know what? We — I — fooled ourselves into thinking that it was safe when it wasn't." She sighed. "No matter what, we will never be safe. It might take a few days, weeks, months, maybe years, but we will never be safe, a place will never keep us safe forever, it's just not possible, okay?"

Rick stared at Izzy for a second, knowing she was right, but not wanting to admit it out loud. "We'll make camp tonight over there." They looked over where there was a big stone wall. "Get on the road at the break of day."

"Does this feel right to you?" Carol asked Daryl, her eyes wide with tears.

"What if walkers come through, or another group like Randall's?" Beth questioned.

Jack walked up to her, sending her a small smile. "It's going to be okay, Beth. As long as we have hope, we will be fine. You just gotta believe."

"You know I found Randall, right?" Daryl asked Rick who looked to him. "He had turned, but he wasn't bit."

"How's that possible?" Beth questioned, pulling her blonde eyebrows together.

"Rick, what the hell happened?" Lori asked the man who she cared for. 

"Shane killed Randall. Just like he always wanted to," Izzy said, rolling her eyes. Daryl stared at her with narrowed eyes. He didn't know anyone else, especially her, knew what Shane was up to other than himself.

"And then the herd got him?" Lori asked.

"We're all infected," Rick stated after a few seconds of silence.

Everyone looked up at him confused. "What?"

"At the CDC, Jenner told me. Whatever it is, we all carry it," he stated after a beat.

Izzy and Jack looked to eachother, not sure why they would go to CDC.

"And you never said anything?"

"Would it have made a difference?" Rick questioned.

"You knew this whole time?" Glenn asked in disbelief.

"How could I have known for sure? You saw how crazy that mo—"He was interrupted before he could even finish his sentence.

"That is not your call. Okay, when I found out about the walkers in the barn, I told, for the good of everyone," Glenn told him, angrily pointing his finger at him.

"Well, I thought it best that people didn't know."

At that, everyone just stood there and stared at him until Rick walked off. Before anyone else could say anything, Izzy walked after Rick, knowing how he must be feeling. To take control as a leader is a hard thing to do. She and Jack had to take over a lot of things in the other apocalyptic world, they had to debate where they had the men and supplies just to save other people. Decisions like that is hard and to have a secret like Rick had, Izzy understood.

He stopped a fair enough distance away from the others, back turned to Izzy. She chewed on the inside of her cheek and gently laid a hand on his shoulder. "I'm here if you need an ear to rant to. And I can lend a hand or two if you want to punch something."

Rick closed his eyes and lowered his head, breathing through his nose. "I'm fine. Go over there with the others."

She sent him a small smile and a nod, even though he couldn't see her. She squeezed his shoulder once before moving to walk away.

"Isabelle?" Rick started, turning his head slightly, but still not looking in her direction. "Thanks."

She nodded once more and walked away from him. "No problem."

IZZY LAID HER head on Jack's lap, looking up at the sky, not understanding why God would allow something like this to happen to the world, to his creation.

Everyone quickly sat up and got tense as a twig snapping was heard. Daryl and Rick were closer to the woods and they looked around before shrugging.

"Do something!" Carol hissed at Rick which honestly pissed Izzy off. Everyone has been shitting on Rick after finding out that he kept one secret from them, and she was tired of it.

"I am doing something! I'm keeping this group together, alive. I've been doing that all along, no matter what. I didn't ask for this. I helped in killing my best friend for you people, for Christ's sake!" He yelled out. A few peopled gasped and looked at him in disbelief. Izzy rose an eyebrow at his choice of words. He had been passed out when she had killed Shane — the demon — but whatever. "You saw what he was like, how he pushed me, pushed Izzy, how he compromised us, how he threatened us." His voice was softer, "He staged the whole Randall thing, led me out to put a bullet in my back. He gave me no choice. He was my friend, but he came after me and if Izzy hadn't shown up, I would be dead."

"My hands are clean." Everybody stood around and looked at each other. "Maybe you people are better off without me. Go ahead." He pointed towards the opening between the stone walls. "I say there's a place for us, but maybe... maybe it's just another pipe dream. Maybe... maybe I'm fooling myself again. Why don't you... Why don't you go and find out yourself? Send me a postcard. Go on, there's the door. You can do better? Let's see how far you get." Nobody went to take a step forward. "No takers? Fine. But get one thing straight... you're staying. This isn't a democracy anymore."