November 2nd, 2010

Winter was helping wash the vegetables when suddenly she heard quick footsteps. She turned and looked down to see the toddler who was called Nicky. He held his hand out as he gave Winter a smile. Winter's heart melted

"Aren't you just the cutest?" She asked before cutting a small piece of carrot off for him

"Shh, I won't tell if you don't" Winter said before she bent over to give it to him. He took it and ate it before running off. Winter was mindful with her ankle. She wanted to avoid putting as much pressure on it as she could so it would heal quicker. When she finished washing the vegetables, she left the house with some crutches that Hershel had provided for her. She wanted to see Sam. After finding out that Michael had left last night, Winter was deeply saddened. However, she knew it was nothing compared to what Sam had been feeling. She knew Michael was everything to him. Despite the way they would fight sometimes, she knew that Sam really looked up to Michael. As she made it to the RV, T-Dog and Dale looked at her shocked

"Should you be walking around all that much?" Dale asked

"Daryl got an arrow to the side and he's walking around just fine" Winter said

"Yeah, but that isn't his foot" T-Dog said

"Regardless, have you guys seen Sam?" Winter asked

"Yeah, he's in the RV. Though, be warned he is not in the best mood" Dale said

"I figured" Winter said as she entered the RV. She put the crutches to the side since there wasn't a whole lot of room for her to even use them

"Sam?" Winter asked. She got no response. She slowly made her way to the back room which had the bed. Sam was sitting on the side of it. She sat beside him

"Hey, Sam?" Winter asked

"Why did he leave me?" Sam asked as he stared at the ground. Winter was taken by surprise

"What?" Winter asked

"Why did Michael leave me? What did I ever do? Michael is just a fucking coward. All he knows how to do is run away" Sam said angrily. Winter put her hand on Sam's shoulder. He looked at her

"Why did he do this to me?" Sam asked her with tears in his eyes. Winter didn't know what to tell him

"I don't know" Winter said

"Are you gonna leave me too?" Sam asked as a tear streamed down his face. Winter felt her heart shatter at the look on his face. She brought her hand up and wiped his tear

"Sam, I'm not gonna leave you" She told him

"Yeah, well.. Michael said the same thing, and now he's gone" Sam said

"Sam, I'm not going to leave you. I promise" Winter told him before she wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her back as he began to cry

"It's okay, I'm here.. I won't leave you" Winter reassured him. Sam removed himself from Winter, and he stared at her. He wiped his tears

"Thank you.. I'm still not okay, but eventually I will be.." Sam said. Winter intertwined her hands with his

"And, I will be here for you every step of the way" She told him. He nodded before giving her a small smile

"Well, I should get up and go do something, huh?" Sam asked

"You should" Winter told him. Sam gave Winter a kiss on the cheek before he walked off. Winter had a goofy smile on her face as she brought her fingers to the spot where Sam had kissed her

Sam had left with a bunch of others to practice gun training. When they got there, those who needed the training were giving guns. Sam was one of those of helped them, as he knew his way around a gun. Gunshots were heard as people shot at the glass bottles that had been set up previously. Sam was helping Patricia. She shot the glass bottle and it shattered

"That's some good form" Sam said. Patricia smiled at him as everyone kept shooting. She continued as well. Sam watched her and was impressed at how quick she was learning

"Thank you" She said

"It's no big deal" Sam told her. After the training, they had all come back to the camp. Sam could see that Winter was helping Dale cook. Though, once Dale caught sight of Lori, he walked off. Sam approached Winter

"Anything I can do to help?" He asked. Winter turned and smiled at him before handing him a plate

"You could eat" She said. Sam nodded and took a seat. He began to eat

"This is really good" Sam said

"That's because I made it" Winter said before doing a pose. It made Sam laugh at how dorky she was, but then again, so was he. Sam was mentally in a really dark place, but somehow she knew just what to do. She made him feel at ease. That everything would be okay, and honestly, it kind of scared Sam of how much power she had over him

November 3rd, 2010

Carol was cooking breakfast. Sam had woken up before Winter. She was still asleep. Sam thought she was so pretty when she slept. He had left the tent, and walked over to Carol

"Good morning, Sam" She told him

"Morning, Carol" Sam said as Carol made two plates

"I'm assuming you'll want another for Winter" She said as she handed the plates to Sam. He took them both

"Thank you, Carol" Sam said

"It's no biggie" She said as Sam walked back to the tent. He sat down beside Winter and put a plate down

"Hey, it's time to get up" Sam told her. Winter stirred awake and sat up

"What time is it?" She asked as she yawned

"Time to eat" Sam said as he handed her a plate. She took it and the two began to eat. When they finished, they exited the tent. Winter was still using crutches but it would only be for a couple more days. They gathered with the others

"Um, guys. So.. the barn is full of walkers" Glenn said getting everyone to stop what they were doing. Sam thought he had misheard Glenn

"Can you repeat that?" Sam asked

"The barn is full of walkers" Glenn said. Sam's eyes widened as he was completely shocked by the news. So was everyone else. To think someone would keep them locked up in a barn instead of killing them was insane. So, the entire group with the exception of Winter went to barn. Rick asked her to stay back because it was dangerous since she couldn't move very fast. Shane had looked into the barn and then came back to the group

"You cannot tell me you're all right with this" Shane said

"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. Sam couldn't believe it was true. He couldn't believe there were actually walkers in the barn

"We can't just sweep this under the rug" Andrea said

"I kind of agree" Sam said

"It ain't right. Not remotely" T-Dog said

"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 told him

"Why, Rick? Why?" Shane asked

"Because my daughter is still out there" Carol said

"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" Rick said

"I'm close to finding this girl. I just found her damn doll two days ago" Daryl spoke up. Shane chuckled

"You found her doll, Daryl. That's what you did. You found a doll" Shane said

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about" Daryl said as he started getting pissed

"I'm just saying what needs to be said. You get a good lead, it's in the first 48 hours" Shane said

"Shane, stop" Rick said

"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 bloody face, she would run in the other direction" Shane said. Daryl went to get physical with Shane, but Rick stopped him as they all began to shout at eachother. It became very chaotic as everyone struggled to keep the two apart

"Back off!" Rick yelled

"Keep your hands off me" Shane told Lori

"Now just let me talk to Hershel. Let me figure it out" Rick said

"What are you gonna figure out?!" Shane yelled as he approached Rick. Lori pushed him back

"If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land" Rick said

"Hershel sees those things in there as people- sick people- his wife, his stepson" Dale spoke up

"You knew?" Rick asked

"Yesterday I talked to Hershel" Dale said

"And you waited the night?" Shane asked

"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 explained

"The man is crazy, Rick, if Hershel thinks those things are alive or no" Shane said angrily. Sam could hear the chains rattling and the walkers growling from inside the barn. Lori grabbed Carl and dragged him away as the others started at the barn. Soon after everyone else left the barn. There wasn't anything that Sam could do about it. It wasn't his call to make

Winter was on sitting on the Greene porch. She was currently playing cards with Beth. Nicky was seated in Beth's lap as he babbled to himself. Carl was playing checkers with Patricia. Sam had been helping out Andrea and T-Dog. Maggie and Glenn were talking. She had come to understand that they were seeing each other. She was happy that Glenn had found someone. However, she didn't understand why he was wearing Dale's hat. Winter turned and saw that T-Dog, Andrea, and Sam were approaching

"Do you know what's going on?" Glenn asked

"Where is everyone?" Andrea asked

"You haven't seen Rick?" Glenn asked. The conversation now had Winter's full attention as she put down her cards. Winter stood up

"He went off with Hershel. We were supposed to leave a couple hours ago" Andrea said

"Yeah you were. What the hell?" Daryl asked as he and Carol approached

"Rick told us he was going out" Carol said

"So what's going on?" Sam asked confused

"Damn it. Isn't anybody taking this seriously? We got us a damn trail. Oh, here we go" Daryl said as Shane was coming over. Everyone stared as Shane carried the bag of guns

"What's all this?" Daryl asked

"You with me, man?" Shane asked as he handed Daryl a gun. Daryl took it

"Yeah" Daryl said

"Time to grow up. You already got yours?" Shane asked Andrea

"Yeah. Where's Dale?" Andrea asked

"He's on his way" Shane said as he began handing everyone guns

"Thought we couldn't carry" T-Dog said

"We can and we have to. Look, it was one thing sitting around here picking daisies when we thought this place was supposed to be safe. But now we know it ain't. How about you, man? You gonna protect yours?" Shane asked Glenn. Glenn took the rifle and Shane looked at Sam before handing him a rifle. Shane looked at Maggie

"That's it. Can you shoot?" Shane asked her

"Can you stop? You do this, you hand out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight" Maggie told him

"We have to stay, Shane" Carl butted in

"What is this?" Lori asked as she rushed over

"We ain't going anywhere, okay? Now look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Okay? He- well, he's gonna have to. Now we need to find Sophia. Am I right? Huh? Now I want you to take this. You take it, Carl, and you keep your mother safe. You do whatever it takes. You know how. Go on, take the gun and do it" Shane told Carl as he held out a gun. Lori pushed Carl back and got in front of him

"Rick said no guns. This is not your call. This is not your decision to make" Lori said

"Lori is right" Winter said

"Oh shit" T-Dog said getting everyone's attention. They all turned to see Rick bringing a walker back. Jimmy was helping keep the walkers focus as Hershel had his own

"What is that?" Shane asked as he and the others began running. Winter took her sweet ass time getting over there

"Shane!" Lori yelled

"What the hell are you doing?" Shane asked

"Shane, just back off" Rick said

"Why do your people have guns?" Hershel asked. Winter and the others made it over

"Are you kidding me? You see? You see what they're holding onto?" Shane asked

"I see who I'm holding onto" Hershel said

"No, man, you don't" Shane said

"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk" Rick said

"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 ranted

"Shane, shut up!" Rick yelled

"Hey, Hershel man, let me ask you something. Could a living breathing breathing person, could they walk away from this?" Shane asked as he pulled out a gun and shot the walker in the chest. Nicky began to cry in Beth's arms

"Stop it!" Rick yelled

"That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?! Why is he still coming?" Shane asked before firing two more rounds into the walker's torso

"That's its heart, its lungs. Why is it still coming?" Shane asked before firing more rounds. Winter couldn't believe how much ammo he was wasting

"Shane, enough" Rick said

"Yeah, you're right, man. That is enough" Shane said before he shot the walker in the head. Hershel fell to his knees in shock

"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 said before he sprinted towards the barn

"Take the snare pole. Hershel, take the snare pole. Hershel, listen to me, man, please. Take it now. Hershel! Take it!" Rick yelled as Shane began trying to bust open the barn with a pickaxe

"No, Shane. Do not do this, brother. Wait!" Rick yelled as Shane continued. No one could move as Shane busted the lock

"Don't do it!" Glenn yelled

"Rick!" Lori yelled

"Please!" Rick begged as Shane took off the wooden board that kept the doors closed. Then, Shane began hitting the barn door

"Come on. Come on, we're out here" Shane said before backing up

"This is not the way! Please!" Rick yelled. Shane cocked his gun and aimed it. Walkers began to come out of the barn. Shane and Andrea began to shoot at them. Daryl and Sam joined in, along with Glenn and T-Dog. They didn't have a choice. Shane had shot the walker in Rick's snare pole. Walkers kept filing out before getting killed

"Stay back!" Rick yelled at Carl. Winter could only watched as they demolished the walkers. Then it seemed like it was over. No more walkers were coming out. Maggie and Hershel were crying. Beth who was holding Nicky was also crying as Jimmy tried to console her. Dale finally made it over and was shocked to see what happened. Then they all heard growling. Everyone got ready to shoot when they all froze, seeing who it was. Winter couldn't believe her eyes. Tears began to form as she stared at the little girl. It was Sophia. She covered her mouth as Sam dropped his gun in horror. Carol began sobbing as she went to rush over

"Sophia? Sophia! Sophia. Sophia. Oh no. Sophia. Sophia" Carol cried as Daryl stopped her from reaching the now dead Sophia. The reanimated Sophia approached the others slowly. No one could move. That's when Rick pulled out his gun and approached Sophia. Everyone watched him as he aimed his gun at her and cocked it before he shot her. Sophia's body went limp as everyone just stared

(2823 words)
11/30/22