"Walking" back into town

Shane couldn't believe what he was hearing, seeing. How could that crazy old man actually keep the filthy walking dead locked in his barn? Didn't he know what a huge danger they were to everyone there?? The walkers, their name for the re-animated bodies of the dead, had no humanity left in them. They no longer carried the memories, personalities of what made them human. Animals. That's all they were now. And dangerous ones too. Shane knew all of that. He had lost everyone to them. Everyone except his best friend Rick and his family, and the rag tag group of survivors that now made up his family.

Now that family was in danger, all because the insane old man who had let them find refuge at his farm didn't have the guts to put down his friends and family when they were infected. Of course that wasn't them, Shane knew, but apparently old Hershel didn't.

Shane decided to end the danger now, before anyone was hurt. He stormed out towards the barn, screaming at Hershel and Rick, this was over. Smashing open the locks to the barn, he backed away and waited for the dead to exit. As they did, Shane used his pistol to pick off each and every one with a clean shot to the head. The others gathered around, and seeing the oncoming danger, had no choice but to open fire as well. There must have been 25 or 30 of them. Finally, the last ones staggered forward and fell almost immediately. Just when all grew quiet, one more stumbled into the bright summer light.

It was a small girl, 6 years old. Blond hair, now dirty, just like the rest of her. Her eyes had turned the white of the infected. A wave of shock hit everyone present as they realized who it was. It was Sophia, Carol's daughter, who had gone missing in the woods a few days earlier after the group had narrowly escaped being attacked by a zombie horde. They had been searching for her every day since then. Now, with a wave of anguish, they realized they had found her.

Shane couldn't move. Paralyzed, he watched at she limped forward, listened to her animal-like growl. He had killed more walkers than he could count, without hesitating. But he'd never known who they were before they'd turned. He'd just seen them as the revolting monsters they were. To be exterminated without question. But now it was different. Before him was the once innocent young daughter of Carol, a member of his new family, whose pain he knew must be unbearable in this moment as she too watched her daughter, or rather what used to be her daughter, move towards them.

All he could do was watch, as if the world had frozen in time, the only movement the slow shuffle of Sophia, and now Rick as he moved forward and placed himself in front of her, only feet away. Shane just watched as he raised his powerful revolver, took aim, and pulled back the trigger.

 

The Walking Dead is back.