Shane remained at the barn, circling it, looking it up and down for any weaknesses. While everyone else went about their daily business, trying their best to keep their mind off the walkers nearby, Shane was obsessed. It seemed secure enough to Annie. After all, they'd been on the farm for, what, two weeks? Nothing had happened in that amount of time. Given the new circumstances, Shane refused to leave the farm, which meant the duty of searching for Sophia fell to Rick, Andrea and Annie. Rick was speaking to Hershel at the moment while Andrea collected a gun, claiming Shane wanted to set up a watch on the barn so she volunteered to do it with him until Rick was ready to roll out. Annie checked hers repetitively, clicking the safety on and off, pulling the mag out and counting the rounds. Her focus on the inane task was interrupted by the sound of shuffling feet.

"Annie, you mind keeping watch for a few minutes?" Dale asked nervously.

"I'm gonna be heading out soon, Dale," she reminded him.

"I know, I know but Glenn left to get me a water and there's something I need to do," he told her anxiously. "Please? Would you mind? I'll be back soon, promise."

Sighing, she nodded and rose to her feet. "Sure, no problem. Just hurry back." Dale thanked her and headed into the RV while she climbed onto the roof.

From the lawn chair, she watched Rick emerge from the house and storm over to Shane at the barn. From the hunch of his shoulders, Annie could guess that Hershel didn't have good news for any of them. When Rick finally came back and waved her down from the roof. Annie hesitated a moment, looking around for either Dale or Glenn but neither were in sight. A few minutes without someone on watch wouldn't kill them, she figured, especially since they hadn't seen any walkers since they'd arrived. Climbing down, she walked over to Rick and Andrea at the truck, both of them with guns and the map spread out.

"She could've been moving this way, south. If Sophia kept in that direction, she might've gotten out of the forest and into the farmland," Rick told them and pointed out their path on the map. "So we take 74 up to Ivy Rd, then push down south on foot through the forest till we hit Christopher. Go east a couple of miles, then double-back."

"Rick?" The three of them turned around and saw Hershel standing not too far from them.

"Hershel. We just have our guns out 'cause we're gonna go look for Sophia," Rick assured him, thinking the next words out of that man's mouth was a scolding for trying to have an armed camp.

"Before you do that, I could use your help with something." Rick stared at Hershel in surprise and looked at the two women.

"Count me in," Andrea told him with a smile, Annie nodding with her. It didn't matter what it was; if it kept them on the farm, they'd do whatever he asked.

"Thank you. But I just need Rick." Rick looked at them again and both nodded, Andrea telling him she'd be down at the barn keeping watch until he was ready. Glenn walked past them, looking around in confusion before climbing onto the RV's roof, and Annie figured guard duty was officially over.

"I'll be in my tent when you get back," she told him and he nodded, squeezing her shoulder and rubbing her back a moment. The two looked at one another and nodded before she walked away, head ducked and eyes focused on the ground. Someone calling her name, however, stopped her in her tracks. "Hey, buddy!" she greeted, affectionately hugging Carl to her side. "I heard you did real good at gun training."

"Yeah! Mom was worried, but Dad and Shane did a really good job." Jokingly, Annie told him she hoped this didn't mean he was going to stop reading because he found something more interesting. "Never! Especially if I get to read with you; you don't leave stuff out like Mom or Dad would."

"Might have to start doing that though if you rat me out again." Carl paused and guiltily looked at the ground. Annie nudged him with her hip, assuring him that she was kidding. Carl's mod instantly perked up but he still apologized. She'd never let him know that she was both amused and mildly impressed that he'd tattled on her. The pair walked to Annie's tent, Carl happily following her inside.

Carl sat on her cot and asked, "You're still going to look for Sophia today, right?" Annie dumped her pack on the tiny table and started rummaging through it, telling him that she would be as soon as Hershel was done with his dad. "Can I come?" The woman paused and turned to look at him, a hand on her hip. "I know that look. Mom gives me the same look right before she tells me 'no'." Annie immediately dropped her hand from her hip and sat beside the boy.

"I'm not saying no," she told him. Carl looked excited for a moment so she quickly followed up her statement. "But it's not up to me. It's up to your parents."

"But Mom doesn't even go looking!" he protested. Okay, so that was true. Lori hadn't been out looking for Sophia since the first days when they'd still been stranded on the highway. "Can't you just tell Dad to let me come?"

"Carl, no," she stated firmly. "Look, you want to help find her and that is great. It is," she assured him, squeezing his shoulder. "But...as I'm sure you remember, the last time you went looking for Sophia, you were shot."

"Now you sound like Mom," he grumbled. Annie blinked, unsure what to say. Did she really sound like Lori? She knew she cared about Carl a great deal, although she was unsure when it had happened, but was she mothering him?

"You might not agree with it, but all of us are cautious about you going out there again and for good reason. I think you know that." Carl looked at her and, after a moment, sighed and begrudgingly nodded. "You just learned how to shoot, but that was at a few cans and bottles. Not a moving target. That's totally different."

"Then can you teach me how to do that?" he asked. Annie almost rolled her eyes. What was with everyone wanting her to teach them how to shoot?

"I think it's best your dad or Shane do that, buddy."

"But Shane thinks Sophia is dead," Carl argued. Annie blanched and stared at him. She remembered Shane's words days before, when she and Rick had been looking for the girl with him. "Seventy-two hours and, after that, you're looking for a body. I mean, you honestly think we're just gonna find Sophia alive?" Shane always put on a good face for the others, especially Carol. Until now, at least. But it seemed his mask wasn't good enough to fool Carl. "He always did, didn't he?" The poor boy looks so depressed, and Annie wrapped him up in a hug that he gladly returned.

Quietly, she confessed, "I don't know. Maybe."

"He wants to stop looking. He just, he wants to leave! And we can't! We can't!" he cried, tears suddenly pouring.

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey, calm down. Shhh, it's okay, buddy," she said, pulling him back into a hug. Annie kissed the top of his head and held him tight, Carl squeezing her waist.

"If I was lost, he'd probably still want to leave," he whispered despondently.

"I don't think that's true. And I don't think you believe it either," she replied. Annie might have sounded sure in her statement, but she really was very uncertain. Shane had been harping on about Fort Benning for weeks. She wasn't sure Carl being lost or anyone else would keep his mind off that path. "We aren't leaving. Not till we find Sophia. Okay?" she insisted. Carl just nodded against her chest and she sighed, gently easing him off her. "Look at me," she said, cupping his face in her hands. Wiping his cheeks clean of tears, she waited until he was looking her in the eye before swearing, "We will not leave this farm without Sophia."

"Once we find her, can we just stay?"

Smiling sadly, she answered, "I don't think Hershel wants us to stay. But I think your dad is working on changing that. Either way, whether we stay on the farm or go back out on the road, we'll all be together." Carl nodded slowly, starting to calm down. It was a partial truth. All of them would be together and it would break her heart to leave, but she would eventually. "And nothing is gonna happen to you."

"Promise?" He held out his pinky to her and she grinned.

Locking her pinky around his, she answered, "Promise."

--------------------

After Carl had calmed down and cleaned off his face, Annie sent him off to his mother so he could continue his lessons. Carl didn't see the point in continuing his schooling when the world was like it was, but his education was important. At least, that's what his parents and the other adults kept telling him. Well, except for Daryl. Once he'd gone, Annie's plan had been to stay in her tent until Rick collected her for the Sophia hunt. But he never showed up. Before she knew it, hours had passed and the Great Gatsby was nearly finished for about the hundredth time in her whole life. Why she decided to read about the torrid love affair between the single recluse Jay Gatsby and married Daisy Buchanan was beyond her. She was not Gatsby, Rick was not Daisy, and this world was certainly not the party life that was the Roaring Twenties. Closing the book, Annie tossed it aside and rubbed her temples in frustration. A headache was forming and she didn't have aspirin, this was not good. If Rick didn't come back soon, then she was going to grab Glenn and go on a run.

A tapping on her tent flap made her look up and she invited whomever it was inside. Andrea and T-Dog opened the flap, peaking inside and asking her if she'd seen Rick at all. Not since he'd left with Hershel, she'd told them, and asked why. Apparently, the man hadn't been seen or heard from since that time. Worry gnawed at the pit of her stomach and Annie climbed out of her tent to help them search. Walking with Andrea and T-Dog to the porch, they found Maggie and Glenn sitting close together on the steps while Carl played checkers with Patricia and Beth. For a woman who claimed Carl was perfectly safe in camp, with her at all times, Lori never seemed to be with him lately.

"Do you know what's going on?" T-Dog asked, Andrea following up by asking where everyone was.

"You haven't seen Rick?" Glenn questioned confusedly.

"He went off with Hershel. We were supposed to leave a couple hours ago," Annie told him with a concerned frown marring her face.

"There you are," Daryl called from behind them, walking over with Carol. "What the hell?" Carol looked at the two women, telling them she thought they were going with Rick. Neither one answered, not wanting to tell her that the search for her daughter didn't happen. "Damn it, isn't anybody taking this seriously? We got us a damn trail!"

"We all take it seriously, Daryl," Annie sighed in annoyance, hands on her hips. "Hershel needed Rick for something and, if we want to convince him to let us stick around, you best believe Rick is gonna do whatever he asks." Shane walked towards the group, the familiar duffel of guns over his shoulder.

"What's all this?" Daryl asked, pointing at the bag.

"You with me, man?" Daryl nodded curiously, taking the shotgun as it was passed to him. "Time to grow up! You two already got yours?" Both Andrea and Annie nodded, trailing behind Shane curiously and asking about Dale's whereabouts. "He's on his way."

"Thought we couldn't carry?" T-Dog questioned as Shane handed him a pistol.

"Yeah, well, we can and we have to," Shane told him. "Now, look, it was one thing standing around here picking daisies when we thought this place was supposed to be safe, but now we know it ain't!" Annie scoffed and shook her head. "You got something you wanna say to me?"

"I doubt you'd listen," she sneered.

"How 'bout you, man? You gonna protect yours?" he asked, holding out a shotgun to Glenn's. Hesitantly, he looked at Maggie before taking it and Shane nodded proudly at him. Glenn didn't seem so proud though. "Can you shoot?" he asked Maggie.

"Can you stop?" Maggie returned. "You do this, you hand out these guns – my dad will make you leave tonight!"

Carl stepped down and said, "We have to stay, Shane."

"The barn is secure, Shane. We all checked it out," Annie told him, crossing her arms as Lori came out of the house and asked what was going on.

"We ain't going anywhere, okay? Now, look, Hershel...he's just gonna understand, okay? Well, he's gonna have to."

"Yeah, because a bunch of strangers on his land, people he welcomed when he didn't have to, going ahead and killing his family, that's real easy to understand," Annie snapped sarcastically. "I won't be apart of this," she added, walking away from the group. Shane walked over and grabbed her arms, forcing her to stop. "Get your hands off me! Let go!" she shouted, pushing against him as he shook her.

"Shane!" Glenn shouted warningly.

"His family is right here!" he roared at her, pointing to Maggie and Beth. "Those things in there are dead!"

"He doesn't think that!" she argued, pushing him off her and glaring at him. "He's thinks he's keeping his loved ones safe until a cure is found!"

"THERE IS NO CURE!"

"I KNOW THAT!" she roared back, pushing him away as he got in her face again. "Hershel doesn't believe it though! He's not hurting anybody—!"

"Not-not hurting anybody?" Shane laughed, shaking his head at her. "You telling me you're just fine sleeping a stone's throw away from the things that see us as steak dinner?"

"No, I'm not "comfortable" with it," she agreed with a sneer and Shane nodded, happy he had proved his point. "But it's also not your decision to make. You're not our leader. Rick is," she reminded him and the other cop glared at her.

"And where is he, huh?" Shane asked sarcastically. "He said he was gonna look for Sophia today, right? You two were supposed to go with him? What happened to that?" Annie shook her head at Shane as Andrea ducked hers, not wanting to look at Carol. "We need to find Sophia, am I right?" he asked, kneeling in front of Carl. "Now, I want you to take this," he said, holding out the butt of a pistol to the boy and Annie gasped. "You take it and you keep your mother safe. You do whatever it takes, you know how. Go on, take the gun and do it." Both Annie and Lori rushed over at the same time, looking at Shane in a mixture of shock and disgust, as Lori pushed her son behind her and Annie took the gun from Shane.

"Are you fucking kidding me? Have you lost your damn mind?" Annie snapped, putting the gun in the back waistband of her pants.

"Rick said no guns. This is not your call," Lori hissed at him. "This is not your decision to make!"

"Oh, shit!" Everyone turned at T-Dog's stunned exclamation and saw Jimmy coming out of the woods. The teenager was talking to Rick, who was behind a captured walker, leading it per Jimmy's instructions; Hershel was doing the exact same thing not far behind him.

"What is that?" Shane growled, breaking into a run towards the men in the field. "What. Is. That?!" Daryl, T-Dog, and Annie followed and the others close behind them, Lori calling after them to wait. Some of them were scared as they ran, confused as to just what Rick was doing. But not Shane. No, he was enraged and that was the only reason Annie was following him. The man looked like a bull, ready to charge and kill Rick. "Hey, what the hell are you doing?!"

"Shane, just back off!" Rick ordered. Hershel asked him why his people had guns.

"Are you kidding me? You see? You see what they're holding onto?" Shane shouted at the others who'd gathered, pointing at the snarling walkers.

"I see who I'm holding onto!" Hershel argued at him but Shane just argued back that he didn't.

"Shane," Rick shouted, trying to lead the walker to the barn, "just let me do this and then we can talk!"

"What you wanna talk about, Rick?" he shouted, getting closer and dodging the walker as it grabbed at him. "These things ain't sick! They're not people! They're dead! Ain't gotta feel nothing for 'em 'cause all they do? They KILL! These things, right here! They're the things that killed Amy!" he shouted at Andrea. Annie squeezed woman's shoulder as her face crumbled with grief. That was a low fucking blow. "They killed Otis!" he shouted as Patricia and Beth arrived at the scene. "And they'll kill all of us, unless we do—!"

"Shane, shut up!" Rick ordered.

"Hey, Hershel, man, let me ask you something," Shane said calmly, walking around to stand in front of the barn doors and face the walkers. "Could a living, breathing person, could they walk away from this?" He fired three shots into the female walker Hershel had been leading. Glenn nervously raised his shotgun at the walker, worried its recoil might lead to Hershel getting scratched or bit.

"Shane, stop it!" Rick shouted.

"That's three rounds in the chest! Could someone who's alive, could they just take that? Why is it still coming?" He fired another shot. "That's its heart, it's lungs! Why is it still coming?" Another two shots went into the walker. Annie put her hands to her mouth, watching Hershel very carefully.

"SHANE, ENOUGH!"

Ominously calm, Shane walked up to the walker and replied, "Yeah, you're right, man. That is enough." He didn't hesitate to shot the walker in the head and walked away. The walker fell over, truly dead, and Hershel fell to his knees with it in stunned silence. "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 wanna live, if ya wanna survive, ya gotta fight for it! I'm talking about FIGHTING! RIGHT HERE! RIGHT NOW!"

"Shane, don't!" Annie warned, pulling her gun on him as he ran to the barn. Rick told her to stop and started yelling for Hershel to take the snare pole from him but the older man was still on the ground, in shock. He kept pleading with the older man to get up and take the pole, but he wouldn't budge. Shane started banging on the barn door's lock with a pickax.

"No, Shane! Do not do this, brother!" Rick continued to plead with him, yelling at him with Annie and Glenn to stop, to not shoot the other cop, while Lori yelled for Rick. It didn't matter though. Shane wasn't listening as he continued to pry the padlock from the door. "Please!" Shane grabbed the piece of wood that had been used as a barrier and chucked it away, banging on the door that was finally completely unlocked. "This is not the way! Please!"

Shane backed up and aimed his gun at the doors. Slowly, they started to creak open and Shane killed the first one to come out. Andrea bolted to stand next to him, killing the walkers beside him. Daryl and T-Dog joined in soon enough, taking down the walkers as they poured out. There were at least a dozen of them. Annie stood there, beside Rick, not wanting to join in the fray. Shane turned to look at his partner and killed the walker he'd been holding and Rick helplessly dropped the pole. With a crying Maggie's permission, Glenn joined in and started shooting and Annie figured it was time to help. She moved around Rick to stand next to the tearful young man. Annie couldn't help it though and she looked over her shoulder back at Rick. She needed his permission, his blessing, to do this; she wouldn't do it otherwise. When Rick nodded at her, Annie bit her lip before turning around and firing alongside Glenn at the walkers. The damn things couldn't make it more than a few feet out of the barn before falling down, truly dead. It just seemed to go on and on until, finally, it stopped. All of them were out and dead, piled up at the door.

Annie lowered her gun and walked back over toward Rick. Lori and Carl were on the ground, Carl trembling in his mother's arms. Then he started crying and Lori's face grew incredibly pale. Annie didn't understand why until Carol ran past her, calling out for Sophia. Annie whipped around and let out a shuddering breath at the sight. It was, indeed, Sophia stumbling out of the barn. She hadn't been sure it was her at first. Perhaps she didn't want to believe it. But there she was, still wearing her worn sneakers and blue shirt with a rainbow. Her skin was pale and she was dirty, her neck bloody from where she'd been bit. Her eyes were sunken and glazed over, mouth drawn back in a snarl. Not a single person in the group raised their the gun as Sophia slowly stepped over the bodies of the slain walkers, inching toward the terrified group. Carol cried in anguish, desperately reaching out for her daughter, but Daryl kept her trapped in his arms and held her back.

Nobody dared to shoot, as if watching for any sign of the little girl who was once there. They agonized, realizing with horror that their worst fear had come true. Even Shane, who had been in a furious rage over the group's inaction, who'd led the tirade, was taken aback in stunned silence, unable to do what had to be done. Ultimately, it was Rick who stepped forward with resolve. Annie grabbed his hand, trying to keep him from doing it. She was responsible for what happened to the little girl just as much as him; it wasn't right to make him do it, not right to put more guilt on his shoulders. This was her burden to bear as well but he just waved her back, nodding that he was okay. As Sophia neared the group, Rick stepped forward with his gun and pointed it at her. He hesitated a moment, looked his failure in its dead eyes, and pulled the trigger.

Annie remembered Carol yelling at Jenner that her daughter didn't deserve to die in that place, not like him and Jacqui had wanted. A bite wasn't any better, Annie thought bitterly. This wasn't fair.