Chapter 25 The Barn

John woke up in the morning and did his training. When he finished Amy and Maggie had come over and were ready to start their training as well. John then followed along as they did their routine, John giving them morale support when they were starting to get tired.

When the training was done, John and his girls, washed themselves within their tent. When they were just about finished, they heard a commotion in the camp. Going out after dressing, they went towards a group of people and asked about the situation.

Apparently, Glen had gotten curious yesterday and last night he walked over to the barn. He looked around for a while and saw that it was heavily locked. Wanting to know why the barn was so tightly locked Glen knocked on the barn door. Right after he knocked a banging sound came from the other side, along with the sound of walkers.

The group was very upset about this threat being right next to their camp. John seeing that the situation was going to escalate called everyone's attention. He said, "Don't worry about the walkers, if they ever get out, I will end them myself". The group calmed down a little, but they were still upset, they looked to Rick.

Rick seeing everyone staring at him, said that he was going to talk to Hershel about the barn. Rick then walked off to the barn to talk with Hershel, while Rick was inside, Shane got that crazed look in his eyes. He ran off to the RV and grabbed the bag of guns, he then handed them out to the group, while riling them up. Leading them to the barn, he uses a pickaxe lying on the ground, to pry open the door.

Rick and Hershel were somehow able to hear the banging on the barn, they came out of the house as fast as they could. Rick sprinting over to Shane trying to talk him out of doing this. Hershel came speed walking over, the rest of his family walking over with him.

By the time he had reached the group, Shane had already opened the barn doors. Walkers came shambling out and the group started to shoot them, quickly killing around 24 walkers. While this was happening, Hershel had collapsed onto the ground, along with Beth and some other members of his family. Maggie was crying a little, into John's shoulder, it wasn't a heavy cry though. John had convinced Maggie that the walkers weren't people over the last 2 weeks, and she now saw them for what they were. She was only crying because she saw walkers that used to be people that she knew and was sad at the thought of never hearing their voices again.

With the walkers taken care of, the group stands there looking at the bodies. Beth unable to hold herself back, runs toward the corpse of her mother. Moving a dead walker of her mother's body, she then sobbed, while touching her mom's hair.

Suddenly, her mother grabbed her arms and was trying to bite her, eliciting a fearful scream. John seeing this dashed forward, before stabbing his knife in the back of the walker's head. Beth hugged him tightly and started to cry while in shock. John seeing this stroked her hair and rubbed her back.

Rick walked over to Hershel, trying to explain, but Hershel didn't listen to him and rushed toward his house, Beth and his family following him. Rick also followed trying to explain on the way. When Hershel was at the door, he said, "I want Shane off my farm now!". He then slammed the door and went inside to drink for the first time in years.

Everyone seeing that the drama was over, went back to camp and started to eat the food that was prepared for lunch earlier. When finished they went to bury the walkers that were in the barn. While they were doing that, they noticed that Hershel came speeding out of the house. He hopped into the old, baby blue truck and drove away, heading towards the town.

Seeing this John and Rick went to the house, while the group continued to bury the walkers. Arriving at the door, they entered the house and talked to Maggie asking her where Hershel was speeding off to. She said, "He is going to the towns bar, where he used to go during his drinking days.", Hearing this Rick, being Rick says that he has to go after him, John agreeing.

They suddenly heard a crash; it came from the kitchen. Rushing over to the kitchen they see Beth sprawled out on the floor. Maggie quickly went to her side and tried to get her to react, but Beth was unresponsive, her eyes staring off into the space in front of her, in a daze.

Maggie seeing her sister like this, asked John, "Would you carry her upstairs for me?", John nodded. Picking her up gently, John couldn't help but notice that she was extremely light. She had to weigh at most 110 pounds. John being extra careful carried her up the stair and into her room. He lay her in the bed gently and softly squeezed her hand for a second.

He then looked at Maggie and asked, "What is wrong with her?", Maggie said that she was in shock. Bringing her a little further away from Beth, John asked Maggie why Beth was so light.

Maggie said "She had some mental problems in the past and that she had always had trouble when eating. Maggie continued by saying that this experience may have caused her to hide within herself, in order to try and forget her pain. The only person that could really help her was her mother, they had a special connection and after Beth lost her, she had been worse off, the only other person who could help her was Hershel.

John looked over at Beth saying he would go into town and get Hershel. He told her to keep an eye on Beth to make sure she doesn't try to commit suicide.

Maggie nodded, as John went over to Beth and brushed her hair with his hand. He bent down and whispered into her ear; Beth I know how you are feeling right now. But you can't give up hope. It only takes one man to inspire the masses, and anyone could be the spark that ignite a blazing fire of hope within the hearts of others. He then stood up and looked at Beth, her eyes had regained a small amount of sparkle.

John then said, "goodbye", as he walked out of the room and down the stairs. John reached the living room and saw Rick and Glen sitting on the couch waiting for him. John said, "We need to get Hershel back here, as soon as possible, because I fear that Beth would do something foolish in the absence of Hershel".

John, Rick, and Glen then walked out of the house, they split up and geared up. John and Glen were waiting by the car, Rick came over a while later because Lori started to argue with him about going after Hershel. They hopped into one of the cars, then They sped off in the direction of the town, Rick speeding as fast as he could down the winding roads, towards the town.