We were gathered around the camp all doing our own thing before going back on the search.

"Think we should look in the trees today?" James asked me as we ate. "Dad and Sophia could be hiding up in trees at night to avoid the walkers."

"Good idea." I nodded.

"Um, guys." We all looked up at Glenn who was standing next to one of the tents nervously. "So... The barn is full of walkers."

We all gathered around the barn as Shane looked inside the barn from a crack in the wood.

"You cannot tell me you're all right with this," Shane growled at Rick.

"No I'm not, but we're guests here. This isn't our land," Rick reminded us.

"But we're living here," I told him.

"This is our lives, man!" Shane shouted at him.

"Lower your voice," Glenn told him.

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

"It ain't right," Shane told him. "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."

"We can't go," Rick insisted.

"Why, Rick? Why?" Shane asked him.

"Because my daughter is still out there," Carol reminded him. "And Jack."

"Ok," he laughed before covering his mouth with his hands with a sigh. "Ok, I think it's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility."

"We're not leaving Sophia and Jack behind," Rick told him.

"I'm close to finding these two," Daryl reminded him. "I just found her damn doll two days ago."

"You found her doll, Daryl. That what you did," Shane reminded him. "You found a doll."

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about," Daryl shouted at him.

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

"Shane, stop."

"Let me tell you something else, man. Is 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."

"Not with my dad by her side," I told him.

"The dad who would have killed him on sight!" Daryl and Shane started fighting while everyone else tried to stop them.

"Back off!" Rick ordered.

"Keep your hands off me," Shane ordered Lori before he started to walk off.

"Now just let me talk to Hershel," Rick told us. "Let me figure it out."

"What are you gonna figure out?!" Shane shouted at him. Lori stood between her husband and her friend placing her hand on his chest to stop Shane from advancing on Rick.

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

"Hershel sees those things in there as people," Dale told us. "Sick people. His wife, his stepson."

"You knew?" Rick asked him.

"Yesterday I talked to Hershel," Dale explained.

"And you waited the night?" Shane asked him.

"I thought we could survive one more night," Dale told him. "We did. I was waiting till this morning to say something. But Glenn wanted to be the one."

"The man is crazy, Rick," Shane told him. "If Hershel thinks those things are alive or no."

"Or doing what we all would have done and held onto some sort of hope that they could get better one day," I corrected. "I held my mother as she burned up and, for the first and only time, I prayed. I prayed that just this once humans would get one. Then she died and I did what I had to do so she'd stay that way."

"You got over it," Shane told him and I wanted to yell at him, but the walkers started banging on the door making the chains rattle as they growled.

I was standing next to an old plow with Shane when Rick made his way from the house. Rick stared at us and his face told us everything.

"That good, huh?" I asked sarcastically.

"What's it gonna be, man?" Shane asked him. "Which way does this thing go?"

"I don't know yet," Rick told us.

"Well, what did he say?" Shane asked him.

"We're negotiating," Rick said and I nodded.

"You're nego-"

"At least it's something," I told him.

"Clock's ticking, Rick," Shane told him.

"No, it isn't, Shane," Rick said. "That barn- the barn is secure."

"Rick's right. We didn't even know about the barn until this morning. You saw those things, they're just ambling around until someone gets close," I pointed out.

"Well, we know about it now," Shane pointed out. "Right? We know there's over a dozen walkers in there. We know that it's about a stone's throw from our camp, Rick- where we sleep. So look, if we're not gonna go in there and clear it out then we just got to go."

"We're not gonna clear it out and we're not gonna go," Rick told him.

"We at least need our guns," Shand told him.

"We can't have them," Rick reminded him. "Not here."

"Why do you want to stay here when it's not safe?" Shane asked him.

"We're safer here than we were out there," I reminded him.

"We can make it safe."

"How we gonna do that?"

"We will, okay?"

"No, man, it's not okay."

"Shane!" Rick shouted making Shane shut up. "Lori's pregnant." My mouth fell open at the news and Shane stared at him in disbelief. "We need to stay."

"We need our guns," Shane repeated.

"No," Rick and I said together.

"We can't risk Hershel telling us no with Lori pregnant," I said. "We need to stay where we know is safest and that's here."

"I can work this out," Rick said before walking away. "You good?" Rick asked turning to us.

"Yeah," Shane rubbed his head for a second before turning back to Rick. "Lori's having a baby, man! Congratulations."

"Congrats," I told him before offering him a pat on the arm while I went back to camp.

"Thanks."

"...Also shows they could be moving this way south," Rick told Andrea and me as we looked over a map for our next search for Sophia and my dad since today we'd been distracted. "If they kept in that direction, she might have gotten out of the forest and into the farmland. So we take 74 up to Ivy Road, then push down south on foot through the forest till we hit Christopher, go East a couple of miles and then double back."

"Got it," I said.

"Rick." We turned to see Hershel walking up to us while rolling up his sleeves.

"Hershel. We just have our guns out because we're gonna go look for Jack and Sophia," Rick explained.

"Before you do that, I could use your help with something," Hershel told him.

"Count me in," Andrea told him.

"Anything we can do to help," I said.

"Thank you, but I just need Rick." I looked between the two men before nodding.

"You go," I told him. "We'll be okay here."

"I'll be down at the barn keeping watch until you're ready," Andrea told him.

I joined the rest of the group as we gathered around the house with Maggie and Glenn sitting on the porch and talking.

"Do you know what's going on?" T-Dog asked as he and Andrea walked up from the barn.

"Where is everyone?"

"You haven't seen Rick?" Glenn asked.

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

"Yeah you were," Daryl told them. "What the hell?"

"That's what I would like to know," I told them as I walked up.

"Rick told us he was going out," Carol said.

"Damn it. Isn't anybody taking this seriously?" Daryl asked. "We got us a damn trail. Oh, here we go." We all looked to see Shane walking up with the guns.

"What's going on?" I asked him.

"You with me, man?" Shane asked Daryl handing him a gun.

"Yeah," Daryl told him.

"Time to grow up," Shane told us. "You already got yours?"

"Yeah," Andrea told him. "Where's Dale?"

"He's on his way."

"Thought we couldn't carry," T-Dog said as Shane passed out the guns.

"We can't," I told him.

"We can and we have to," Shane corrected and I scoffed at him. "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?" Glenn looked between the gun and Maggie before taking it. "That's it. Can you shoot?" Shane asked Maggie.

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

"We have to stay, Shane," Carl told him.

"What is this?" Lori asked.

"We ain't going anywhere, okay?" Shane reassured. "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." Shane held a gun out to Carl. "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."

"Rick said no guns," Lori told him harshly while pushing Carl away from him. "This is not your call. This is not your decision to make."

"Oh shit." Wel all looked to see something none of us ever wanted to see. Rick and Hershel were leading two walkers towards the barn with Jimmy helping them by being the bait for them.

"What is that?" We all ran after Shane as he ran towards Rick and the others.

"Shane!"

"Stop it!"

"What the hell are you doing?" Shane asked him.

"Shane, just back off," Rick told him.

"Why do your people have guns?" Hershel asked him.

"Are you kidding me?" Shane asked before turning to us. "You see? You see what they're holding onto?"

"I see who I'm holding onto," Hershel corrected.

"No, man, you don't," Shane told him.

"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk," Rick told him.

"What you want to talk about, Rick?" Shane asked. "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, shut up!"

"Hey, Hershel man, let me ask you something. Could a living breathing person," Shane pulled his gun and I held my breath at what he was about to do. "Could they walk away from this?" Shane shot the walker Hershel was holding three times with Rick shouting at him as Maggie fell to her knees crying.

"Stop it!"

"That's three rounds in the chest," Shane pointed out. "Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?! Why is it still coming?" Shane shot it again. "That's its heart, its lungs. Why is it still coming?" He shot it three more times.

"Shane, enough," Rick ordered.

"Yeah, you're right, man," She agreed walking to them. "That is enough." Shane shot the walker in the head then walked back to the barn as Hershel dropped to his knees. "Enough risking our lives for a little girl and a man who's gone!" I clenched my fists at his words. "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 ran back to the barn after his little speech.

"Take the snare pole," Rick ordered someone, but I wasn't paying much attention. "Hershel, Hershel, take the snare pole."

"Shane, stop it!" I shouted out as Shane picked up a pickaxe and started hitting the lock on the barn door.

"No, Shane. Do not do this, brother."

"Shane!"

"Wait!"

"Don't do it!"

"Rick!" She wasn't listening to anyone and used the point of the pickaxe to break the lock on the door.

"Please!" Shane removed the board holding the doors closed before banging on the door.

"Come on. Come on, we're out here."

"This is not the way! Please!" Slowly the doors opened and the walkers started pouring out. Shane started shooting them one by one with the others joining in. Those of us without guns were forced to stare and watch. I shook my head before grabbing a gun from Shane's belt and shooting the walkers one by one. The shooting seemed to take an eternity, but, eventually, the last walker was dead. I shook my head at what had happened.

"This shouldn't have happened," I whispered as Dale joined the rest of us. That was when we heard the low growling and the shuffling of feet coming from the barn. We waited as two small feet appeared wearing dusty blue sneakers. The child walker was a little boy with dirty blond hair with a bad walker bite on his shoulder. Seeing him made the fact that we hadn't found my dad and Sophia hit home. We watched as the boy shuffled towards us before Rick walked forwards and shot the boy in the head.

"Mom!"

"Jackie! James!"