In the Shallows

Night had fallen pretty quickly and it sent chills down my spine, I had a gut feeling that Randall wasn't roaming these woods alive and armed. I didn't have any proof but my gut feelings were typically spot on lately. I kept a little distance between myself and Shane, Daryl's words kept ringing in my head, ya don't know what he's capable of. And at this point, I really didn't know what he was capable of.

"Looks like it's busted pretty bad." Rick stated, his voice more or so filled with knowing. He flashed me a look and I knew what he was doing. I hung back a little more, my gun ready to shoot this son of a bitch in case he tried anything.

Shane stopped walking halfway, giving Rick a little stare, "It's fine, man." His tone was soft, but I could read between the lines. Like I said before, I knew guys like Shane. "Don't worry about me."

We cautiously took our time through these woods, my eyes scanning and taking a mental picture of everything I could remember. I wasn't as good as Daryl, but I could at least get us back to where we had first started. I kept my eyes on Shane, I didn't trust him and the silence that rested between the three of us was evident that something wasn't right. I kept my breath low as Rick stayed a few steps behind him.

Eventually, we had all slowed down. My heart racing now, it was dead silent and I was in the middle of the woods with an unstable pathological liar and a man who was naive for his own good. I took a deep breath at the look the two shared, realization is exactly what it was. I could feel it in the air, Rick knew what I knew. Randall was dead. Shane killed him and he was luring Rick out to probably do the same.

Shane was delusional. I had his plan figured out in my head, he was going to use Randall as an excuse for his murderous act on Rick. He would then thus become "head" of this group and have Lori, Carl, and that baby all to himself. It didn't take a genius to put it all together and I was a hundred percent sure that Rick knew it too. But, there was one problem with Shane's plan, I was here to protect Rick. Unless Shane was rethinking of his plan to get rid of me too, but he and I both should know that Daryl would have him in pieces.

"Does this way feel right?" Rick called out, his head turning slightly as Shane turned around.

He gave a little head nod, "As right as any."

I cocked my head, my gun still ready, "You really think he made it this far?" I pursed my lips, "I don't see any tracks but ours."

Shane scoffed, "Told you all tracking wasn't going to do us any good."

Rick nodded, "Snatched your gun, huh?"

"Yeah, it was my favorite piece too. Gonna wish he'd-wish he'd killed me when I find his sorry ass." That look on his face made my skin crawl, he motioned forward, "Go on." I froze when Rick walked first, Shane waited for me to and I shook my head.

My eyes narrowed, my finger hovering over the trigger, I clenched my jaw, "No sir, you first." Shane scoffed and continued behind Rick.

We came to a clearing, Rick's back still facing Shane, he spoke up, "You say he got you with a rock?"

"That's what I said."

I could hear doubt in his voice, "Inside the shed?" I squinted as Shane didn't answer, my mouth twitched as Rick continued, confirming that he knew what I knew, "Cause that door was shut when T-Dog rolled up."

"I saw that too," Shane said, licking his lips, "must've slipped through the rafters in the roof."

I stood a little bit back as Rick stopped, I looked around me, my heart still racing. Fog was started to sweep our feet and that moon was ridiculous. It was bright as hell and it casted a more than creepy vibe onto our little problem.

Rick put his gun back in his holster, "So this is where you planned to do it?" He asked, taking me by surprise.

Shane hesitated, "Good as place as any."

I started to back up slowly when Rick angrily said, "At least have the balls to call this what it is." I raised my gun at Shane as he took his out from his pant's waistline, "Murder." Rick gave me a reassuring look, he knew I had his back, "You really believe if you walk back onto that farm alone, no me, no Randall, no Alex." I froze, of course he wouldn't bring me back, I was living proof that he had killed both Randall and Rick.

Shane pointed, anger starting to bubble, "I want you to hush up."

"You really believe they're gonna buy whatever bullshit story you cook up?"

He scoffed, "That's just it, it ain't no story. I saw that prisoner shoot you and Alex down. I ran after him and snapped his neck. It ain't gonna be easy, but Lori and Carl-they'll get over you. They done it before. They just gonna have to." He raised his gun but I was quick.

"You pull that trigger and you're dead, Shane." My voice shook with fear but I gave him a look that meant business. "You really think Daryl's going to believe you?" I pressed, "Think about it. Daryl isn't stupid and he'll be quick to catch your lie." I kept my distance, afraid to get any closer, "We knew about your little lie about Otis, Shane. I betcha by now he's tracked and found where Randall truly is." He gave me an uneasy look after I said those words, "I told you to never underestimate me well honey, you should never underestimate the man who taught me all these little tricks."

Shane didn't answer me, he kept his eyes on Rick and his gun raised. I partially wanted Shane to shoot but not to injure Rick, I just wanted a reason to kill this son of a bitch. Rick gritted his teeth, "Why?! Why now?" He walked around, but careful to keep the gun aimed away from me, "I thought we worked this all out."

He gave an annoyed chuckled, "We tried to kill each other man. What you think? We just gonna forget about it all?" I was confused, but I was quickly brought back to when the two of them came back with Randall. They had acted strangely and a lotta animosity was bouncing off their cores. "We gonna ride off into the sunset together? You're gonna kill me in cold blood?"

"Screw my wife? Have my children-my children call you daddy? Is that what you want? That life won't be worth a damn. I get it, you think Lori and Carl will get over me, who says they will and who says they won't. " He pointed towards me, "But, you got yourself another problem. Her. You really think you'll be able to get yourself out of that one? Daryl knows Alex's instincts like the back of his hand, ain't no way she let Randall gun her down. Besides, I know you. You won't be able to live with this."

Shane lowered his gun, anger and venom present in his voice, "What you know about what I can live with? You got no idea what I can live with, what I live with. You wanna talk about what I can do, Rick?" Shane turned quickly and before I had a second to respond, I felt a piercing pain graze my thigh. I fell to the ground, "How about what you can do, Rick. What can you do."

I glanced down at my thigh, blood seeping it's way through the inside of my leg. I winced in pain, I tried so hard to fight the pain but I eventually gave into it. I dropped the gun, both my hands trying to apply pressure. All I could hear was murmurs, I knew they were yelling, I could see the veins in their necks pulsing, but the racing of my heart drowned out all their words. I squealed in pain. I tried to suck it up, taking in deep breaths, I lifted myself off from the ground just as Shane and Rick went down.

My mouth dropped open from what I saw, Rick's knife jabbed into Shane's heart. I watched him scream out words, none of them making sense. I limped over towards him as he started to cry out, I pulled him away from Shane, hugging him, whispering calming words. It was brutal seeing a man kill another living man, but this was life now. Survival.

"Dad?"

Our heads snapped up towards Carl, we both exchanged glances. What the hell was Carl doing here? Where the hell was Lori? He stood up, leaving me kneeling beside Shane's dead body. "Carl." I could see the anger, confusion, and hurt run it's course through his face, hitting him like stages. His eyes watered and his chest was rising up and down, "You know, you should be back home with mom." I stood up, limping towards Rick and Carl. My heart stopped as Carl raised his gun, my mouth twitched.

I screamed when he pulled the trigger, turning sharply behind me once I realized it hadn't hit me or Rick. My mouth dropped and a fit of heavy short breaths came from my mouth as I realized Shane had turned into one of them. I collapsed, the pain stinging again. My body felt limp and weak, our biggest worry was gone and for once since we had been on this farm, I felt like things were going to go so much smoother. I just wanted to cry for joy but I knew how wrong that was of me. A man still died today, regardless of how crazy and psycho he was.

Rick held back tears, biting his lip, he took a deep breath, "Come on Carl, let's get Alex to Hershel so he can fix up that wound."

I struggled to get up and gave in to Rick's hand, "It doesn't hurt that bad, as long as I keep moving."

He nodded, letting go of my arm, the three of us descended down the hill and back towards the house. I pressed my lips, I could only imagine what was going through his mind. His best friend and partner had tried to kill him, had brought him out in the fields like bait. I was partially regretting the whole tagging along thing, this was what Daryl meant about not doing anything stupid. Although Shane hadn't really shot me to kill me, but I still got hurt.

I guess I had a knack for that kind of thing.

I kept out of the little conversation between Carl and Rick, it wasn't my place to say how Shane had died. It definitely wasn't my place at all. We had all slowed down, I knew he was preparing himself to admit what real situation. I felt that sickening feeling creep it's way into my stomach, turning my head slightly, my heart started to race, "Rick."

He followed my gaze, "Oh my god. Go go go!" He half whispered, shoving Carl and I forward. He took us by a tree, his voice low, he glanced at me, "We gotta get to the barn, can you keep up?" I nodded, even though I wasn't actually sure, "Carl stay close. You too, Alex."

I squealed as walkers left and right started lunging at me, the pain in my leg was starting to burn again but I tried everything in me to ignore it. Rick spun around, his arm reaching around my waist, he pulled me inside the barn. We latched it close from the inside, but we knew that this barn was going to come crashing down in seconds. I had never seen so many, I never thought I would see so many. The herd on the highway wasn't anything compared to this herd.

Rick quickly sprinted over towards the other side of the barn, grabbing gasoline tanks, he started to flood the floors with them with Carl following his lead. I looked at him like he was crazy, what the hell was he planning on doing? Burning the fucker down and taking us along with it?

He motioned for us to follow up the ladder, but Carl stopped, "What about you?"

"I'll be right there, just follow Alex." He handed Carl something, "Drop the lighter when I say."

I was halfway up the ladder when I glanced down at him, "Are you fucking insane?" At this point I didn't care about Carl hearing me curse, this was a high pressure situation and the damn kid was going to hear words fly out of my mouth like I was some type of sailor.

Rick gasped in fear, "We'll stop some of them reaching for the house and distract the others. It's our only chance." He noticed the hesitant look on my face, "Hey, hey. We can do this."

I pulled Carl up from the ladder and watched in horror as Rick opened the barn doors and egged them to come on in, his voice was loud and more started to pile in. I squealed as Rick started for the ladder and arms were reaching, I could have sworn one almost got him if not for the fire that erupted in seconds. I could hear the gunfire outside the barn and I was only hoping that someone was coming to our aid. A barn doesn't just burst into flames.

"Alex! Come on!" I snapped out of my trance of watching them burn and sprinted towards the loft window, using Rick as leverage, I hopped onto the roof and then onto the RV that Jimmy had brought over. I could hear Jimmy's screams from inside and it only made my heart wrench. I started cover Rick and Carl from the roof of the RV as they started working their way down the ladder. As as they were on the ground, they covered me as well. "Come on head for the woods!" Everything was happening so fast and I couldn't even comprehend it.

All I kept thinking about was Daryl. Where the hell was he and was he okay? My mind raced and I couldn't keep track of all the thoughts playing rapidly in my head. Between the tears forcing their way through, worrying about Daryl, and the searing pain, I really thought I was going to die.