The group walked back to the Greene house in silence.
Jimmy was the first up the steps, opening the door for the others. Maggie had her arm wrapped around Beth's shoulders, helping her up slowly. Patricia followed, pale and shaken, with Otis trailing close behind her with his head down, eyes locked on the porch boards.
Hershel was the last to reach the steps.
He paused. Then turned to face Rick.
"I want your people off my land. And I mean it… Off my land."
Then he turned and stepped inside, shutting the door behind him with a solid finality.
Nobody moved for a moment.
Then people exchanged nervous glances, slowly peeling away, drifting back towards the tents. Only Rick, Shane, and Itachi stayed behind.
Rick stared at the door a second longer, jaw tense. Then he turned to Shane and spoke with barely contained anger.
"What are you thinking?"
Shane didn't answer right away.
"He put us all in danger," he said finally. "Man kept a barn full of walkers."
Rick shook his head, stunned.
"So you just start an insurrection? Hand out guns? Massacre his family?"
Shane locked eyes with him.
"His family's dead, Rick."
Rick snapped back, eyes wide.
"Well, he doesn't believe that. He thinks you just murdered them in cold blood."
Shane answered immediately, practically shouting now.
"I don't care what he thinks."
Itachi stepped in, calmly.
"You can't put this all on Shane. Most of the group agreed."
Rick turned to him, voice rising.
"And now they want us gone."
Itachi raised an eyebrow.
"And bringing more walkers into a collapsing barn was your solution?"
Rick hesitated.
"I was handling it," he said. "I was handling it, and you just—"
Itachi cut him off.
"We opened his eyes to the truth. Was that the reaction of a man who truly believed we just murdered his family?"
Shane motioned towards the house, fed up.
"Rick, you're just as delusional as that guy."
He started walking away.
"You handling it, huh?"
Itachi placed a hand on Rick's shoulder, grounding him.
"Calm down. Not everything is lost, and I doubt he truly wants us gone."
Rick exhaled, long and slow.
"There were better ways to handle this. You could've waited, let me and Hershel figure something out."
Itachi nodded once.
"Maybe. But those ways take time. And no one here wants to sleep another night next to a barn full of walkers, or watch you bring more in."
He stepped away, heading back toward the tents.
"We did what we had to do to secure our safety, and I doubt you helping Hershel with his delusion would have done any good."
Everyone was gathered around the camp, eating in silence.
T-Dog was the first to break the silence.
"Well… that could've gone worse."
Glenn looked up from where he was sitting, not even bothering to hide the frustration on his face.
"How? They want us gone now."
Jacqui's voice came next, a bit hesitant.
"I get why we had to do it… but it still feels wrong somehow."
Daryl let out a breath through his nose, annoyed.
"Stop whining like little girls, we shoulda done it sooner. Now what, they cry a little and suddenly everyone's feelin' sorry for walkers? Don't gimme that bullshit."
Andrea glanced around at them all, voice flat.
"Hate to agree with him… but he's right. We just killed walkers. And might've have saved their lives by doing it."
Amy finally spoke from beside Itachi and Andrea.
"Well… it doesn't matter anymore. What's done is done. And I don't think what we did was wrong."
Daryl pointed at her without missing a beat.
"See? She gets it."
Dale cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable.
"We should at least bury their family and neighbors. That's the least we could do for everything we caused."
Jim stood up, brushing his hands on his pants, and started walking towards the tools.
"I'll get the shovels."
Glenn rose to his feet right after.
"I'll help you."
Dale looked around.
"What do we do about the others?"
Daryl didn't hesitate.
"Same as last time. We burn 'em."
T-Dog gave a quick nod.
"I'll bring the truck. We can use it to move the bodies."
A few feet away, Jenner glanced at Itachi, who was sitting close to Amy, speaking to her quietly.
"We should head to the barn."
Itachi met his eyes and gave a small nod. Then he turned back to Amy.
"I'll see you later."
Amy smiled, brushing hair behind her ear.
"Sure. Just… stay safe."
Itachi just nodded and, without another word, Itachi and Jenner stood and broke away from the group, heading towards the barn.
Inside the barn. Jenner and I sat across from it, not saying much. He had his notebook open, pen tapping against the paper as he kept tabs.
He looked over at me.
"So… did you see what happened clearly? How it get on the ground?"
I shook my head.
"No. The only thing I saw was that it was just lying on top of another walker. Almost like it was waiting for someone to get close."
Jenner nodded, stood up, and walked closer to the walker. He studied its arms, legs, and face. Then pointed at its limbs with his pen.
"It's been a long time since this one turned. Maybe even back at the start. Just look how rotten it is… skin's practically sliding off. That's more than a month."
He crouched, examining the eyes.
"But why it acted that way... I don't know. It doesn't look like a variant, not one of the ones we talked about. And I don't see how one could've gotten here."
He sighed.
"Have you ever seen anything like this before? Even remotely close?"
I thought back to the show, and only one really stood out.
"At the prison, there was a walker. Just lying there, motionless. Didn't move until we got close to it and we were in its reach."
Jenner stayed crouched, still watching it.
"From what we know… they don't need sleep. Don't need rest. It might've been like that since it turned. No noise, no movement, no stimulation, just… dormant. But this one—"
He stood up, backing off.
"This one stepped out of the barn. It walked with the others, fell with them. And then just… played dead."
He folded his arms, frustration creeping into his voice.
"Honestly, I'm running out of ideas here. Could be a different variant. Could be… something we're not factoring in. There are too many things we still don't know about them."
I looked at him.
"Any ideas?"
Jenner cracked a tired smile and nodded once.
"Only a couple."
A couple hours passed as Jenner and I tested theories, ran through old patterns, and tried to make sense of what we had.
It just sat there now, chained and harmless, jaw gone, arms and legs useless.
Jenner finally leaned back and sighed, pulling out his notebook.
"I think that's enough for today. I don't think we'll get much more out of it."
I gave a short nod and started sorting the notes we'd scribbled down.
Jenner tapped his pen once, then started speaking as he flipped back through his pages.
"So far, we've narrowed it down to two theories. Most of the walkers that showed similar 'playing dead' behavior… they were found in darker places. Tunnels. Buildings. Maybe... maybe some of them need sunlight to function. Like a battery. It could've been pushed down or trampled, and that somehow forced it into a shutdown state."
He paused, voice more serious now.
"Second theory… it's a mutation. Something new that has no human involvement."
He let out a long breath and shook his head.
"So either they're running on energy we don't understand... or something in them is changing. We could test it, lock one up in a dark place for a couple of months. See how it reacts."
I looked at him and spoke flatly.
"So… we figured nothing out."
Jenner smiled faintly and gave a slow nod.
"Yeah. Right now, it reacts like any walker. Maybe a little more passive, but nothing outside the range of what we've seen."
I glanced back at the restrained corpse one last time before we walked out of the barn and closed the doors.
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🧪 Author's Note:
Quick heads-up — I'll be tweaking a small detail in Chapter 32 tomorrow. The walker that reacted wasn't Beth's mom, but the one who was lying on top of her. No major changes — reactions and story flow will stay basically the same, so no need to re-read unless you want to. Just a slight clarification. 😄 And thanks to IDragonXYZ for the idea.
Hope you enjoyed this one! Let me know what you thought of the story and the character interactions in the comments — I always love reading your reactions.
Thanks again for reading 🖤