Aim for the Brain

Shane’s pistol was already loaded again and ready to finish off the one loose end. Daryl was close behind him, ready to defend the dumb bitch to the very end. Everyone else seemed to still be preoccupied about the lost girl. Sure, it was shocking, but honestly? These days you were lucky just not to get ripped apart as someone’s dinner. It had always been life to live and die – sure, a little girl dying, that’s sad. But it’s life, it’s gone and done. Everyone needed to stop complaining about how hard life was – it was hard for everyone. Shane wasn’t about to let someone’s stupidity drag him down.

He was going to survive. Now here he was fixin’ everyone’s damn mistakes.

He felt Daryl talked him in Hershel’s hallway before he reached the girls room. He was a bit bigger than Daryl, so he was able to flip the guy over and pound on his face for a little while, it only took one jab to Daryl stitches, Shane was back up gun in his hand. He could hear the other comin’ he could hear them yellin’ his name. But they heard him yell out of frustration when he saw that the bedroom was empty.

Shane turned back to Daryl.

“Where’d you put her?” Shane asked. Daryl was still on the floor, in pain. “Come on you hillbilly fuck!” Daryl ignored, him. At least he didn’t hear a gun shot.
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Frankie had been fast asleep, dreaming of that day Merle had left her. To her this day wasn’t all this different.

In her mind she would replay running through the woods, he insecurities drove her to facing her fear of being alone. She couldn’t survive that way, not again. Merle had been a cranky, and arrogant friend, but she valued him nonetheless.

It was only Sophia that had caused her to stay behind in the first place. She remembered how hard it was to tear herself away from the hospital, leaving behind the baby girl she would never know – and the moment she saw that innocent face, she couldn’t leave her behind too.

The only reason she ever did was because she thought Merle was in danger.

-The guns fired-

Frankie awoke in a strange bed, in a strange place. But it didn’t faze her. She was back to being worried about Merle. The shots outside… he was there – still in trouble. She walked through the old fashioned home and stumbled out the back door. She was nearly naked, only wearing an oversized t-shirt and a pair of underwear. Her feet walked across the dry grass, she didn’t know where Merle could be now, it was day-light now, he had spent all night on his own. She could only hope he wasn’t hurt – or too angry with her for not finding him in time.

But now she didn’t know where she was, she didn’t know where to look.

There was no more gunfire to tell her where to go, there was only a ringing silence. So she just walked foreword. Trees and branches met her footing quickly, the rocks and spiny plants didn’t seem to bother her feet because in her head the panic was consuming her.

She just had to keep moving, and she’d find him eventually.
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Glen managed to get Daryl back on his feet. Both of them instinctively checked his stitches to see if they had torn, and luckily they hadn’t. Shane was still seething, pacing from room to room looking for any place their missing friend could’ve gone.

“Told ya!” Shane said, “She turned and got up and walked off.”

“If she had turned she would’ve followed the gunshots Shane, you know that.” Glenn told him.

“Yeah maybe she heard you shooting up the place and thought, ‘hell maybe I won’t stick around for this crazy asshole to shoot me too!”

“What happened out there was gonna happen with or without me. Keepin a bunch of those things locked up ain’t gonna help nobody!”

“What happened was you’ve gone fucking insane!” Glen said.

Shane’s anger was now directed at Glen, but Daryl took his side, hoping Shane would back off and not try to fight the both of them.

“SHANE!” Rick said, now entering through the doorway, “How could you do something like that? You know we need Hershel to let us stay!”

“We don’t need him, you know as well I as I that there isn’t a safe place on earth where those things won’t find us.”

“We’re safe now!”

“We weren’t with those things in the god damned barn!” Shane said.

“Well you fixed that problem now didn’t you? For all of us.” Rick said.

“Least we found the girl. Now we can leave.”

“We’re not leaving Shane!” Rick said. “Where is she? Where’s the girl?”

“Not here! Ain’t been here for a while now.”

“Well I reckon she walked out that door not too long ago.” Daryl added, noting the open back door. “I’d go out the back if I was running from a psycho too.”

“We gotta go find her, if she’s not completely better we could lose her… and-“

“Never find her.” Glen said.

“Or find her like Sophia.” Daryl said.

Daryl walked back to the door, irritated that Shane was among those following him. He made it all the way to the outskirts of the woods before he picked up any kinds of tracks. She was barefoot, moving quickly.

“Look, couldn’t have gone far, still have dry tracks.” Daryl said.

“Good. Maybe I can finish this after all.” Shane said.

“She’s obviously not a walker Shane, you can’t kill a perfectly fine human being.”

“We’ll see about that.” Shane said, “If she’s infected, I’m not letting her get back to camp.”

Everyone except Daryl was still armed from the firefight earlier. He had left his shot gun on the ground to keep Carol from running to Sophia, and now here he was, the only one without a weapon. Not exactly comforting with Shane around.

The group wanted to try to find her quickly before she got too far away to become a problem, but there was a very awkward feeling with Shane so close to them, he had forced everyone to pull the trigger, they had no choice.

It wasn’t long before the came across the girl, she was sitting the dirt, feet bleeding, her face stained with tears. But, she didn’t seem afraid of them, not at first. It was almost like they didn’t even faze her until Shane put a gun in her face. Then the fear was almost enigmatic, her breathing became erratic, almost like she was choking on some invisible substance. It was obvious she had more problems than just and infection. Daryl batted the gun away from Shane, trying to steal enough time to out himself between the Shane and her. She wouldn’t let Daryl touch her, or react to any of Rick’s questions. They were going to have to drag her back to the house, because it looked as though she wouldn’t go willingly.

“I told ya, she ain’t right in the head, she’s sick. Just actin’ different that usual.” Shane said.

“Shane you can’t kill her! She’s fine Shane!”

“Shane!”

“Look look at me,” Daryl said to her, “can you tell me your name? Will you come with us?”

She was frantic, only fixated on Shane’s gun.

“Shane get that out of her face, why would she trust us if you can’t get your gun out of her face.”

“It’s my life, I think I have a right to exercise a little bit of caution!”

“Shane stop!” Rick yelled.

“Then you get her to calm down!” Shane said.

Rick bent down next to her, “I’m Rick, this here’s Daryl, and that’s Glen. Feel free to ignore Shane.” She looked at Rick, almost with a hint of recognition.

“Do you know anyone, were you with anyone?” Daryl asked, hoping to coax a particular answer out of her. She looked back at Daryl, and tried to stand up on her feet, she looked like she was in pain the entire time they helped her up. Once standing she jerked away from them, and leaned against a tree.

Each man casually backed away from her, trying to give her space. So she ran.

“Hey get back here!” Shane yelled.

Rick, Glen, and Daryl all went after her, while Shane stayed behind cocking his pistol. He waited until the shot was a safe distance from the rest of them before firing a shot directly into the air.

The gunshot stopped her in her tracks, almost like it had brought her back to reality. She looked around realizing she was nowhere near the house, nowhere near finding Merle, and she was in danger. He feet were throbbing, she just wanted to keep crying, so she screamed out her frustration the only plausible way she knew she could.

Merle’s name surrounded them with shock, she had yelled for someone named Merle at the top of her lungs before she sank to her knees again. Rick looked at Daryl, everyone looked at Daryl.

Even Shane was confused. They all knew the name and wanted to know how she did too.