The Walking Dead: Survival of Shane (S.O.S.). Chapter Two: Roadside Rage.

Here's chapter two; Roadside Rage. Please remember to Read & Review. I had fun writing this one. Funny thing: I had written this before, but then it got backed up to a previous date. I tried to find a way to recover the file, but I couldn't. Oh well. ENJOY!
Chapter Two: Roadside Rage
Rick, Shane, and Carl ran as quietly as they could, heading for the house. "I think we should think about another plan." Shane whispered. They could hear gunshots coming from every which way, but none close enough to tell where they came from.
"What do you mean?" Rick whispered back. "We can't just leave everyone, leave Lori!" Rick was loading Carl's gun with bullets.
"I didn't say that!" Shane said whispered. "I just meant that we should head somewhere else; they probably left the house, I mean look around! Do you think they stayed?!"
Rick thought of what Shane said. He finished loading Carl's gun and handed it back to his son. "Don't waste the bullets; choose your shots carefully." He looked to see how close they were to the farm. "We're close. We'll check the surrounding area; if it's surrounded, then we have to go back."
"Fine." Shane looked at Carl, whose finger, he noticed, shivering, whether from fear or being trigger happy, he didn't know, though he guessed a lot of both. "Don't be so jittery Carl. You don't wanna miss any shots; you're on a roll." Carl smiled, though his finger still shook.
They got closer to the house when they heard a gunshot that was close to them. They looked to where the shot sounded from, and ran to it. Rick lead the way, and soon saw Hershel shooting at Walkers, standing his ground, not moving an inch. Rick wondered why he wasn't running.
Rick saw a Walker heading for Hershel from behind, unseen by the farmer. Rick took aim and shot it dead. Hershel looked to his right, seeing the trio head for him. "Hershel, where're the others? Where's Lori?" Rick asked.
"They went on ahead." Hershel told him. "I don't know where they are now." He aimed his gun at a Walker near them, and shot it.
"Well we gotta go, now!" Rick told him, grabbing Hershel's arm. He pulled him but the old man wouldn't move.
"I'm not going." He said. "I'm staying here; I'm dying with my farm." Rick looked him in the eye, and saw that he meant what he said.
"What?" Shane said, surprised at Hershel's words. "You're insane. You wanna stay, stay." Shane went to Rick's side. "Rick, we gotta go, now! Leave him if he wants to stay."
Rick looked at Shane. He clearly didn't realize that they needed Hershel. He looked back to Hershel. "What about Lori?" He asked. "We need you to deliver the baby. We need you!"
Hershel looked at him, and relented; he was the only doctor they had, and he couldn't let Lori deliver without him. "Alright." He said. "Lori and the others left the house already; we're not going to be able to find them."
"What do we Dad?" Carl asked. "We can't just leave Mom and the others here!" He looked around, taking a quick survey of his surroundings.
"We stay we die Carl." Shane said. "Besides, they're not gonna stay here; if anything, they'll go somewhere familiar."
"Shane's right." Rick said. "For now we have to get out of here." Rick looked around for a car, hoping for a way to escape. He spotted Hershel's station wagon, and headed for it. "We'll go back to the highway, where the herd of Walkers passed us before. Hopefully the others'll be there."
"Good idea." Shane said. The four of them ran to car, keeping an eye out for the others as they did. They made it to the car, and got in. Rick drove, with Carl in the passengers seat, and Hershel and Shane in the back. "Go!"
Rick started the car, and began to drive away. He was hoping to come across someone, but saw no one as he drove. He headed for the road, leaving the farm behind, to be overcome with Walkers.
The four of them drove in silence as they neared the highway where they supplies for Sophia; they hoped that the others had also thought of going there. The car soon began to slow. Rick looked at the gas meter, and saw it was on empty. The car died a few yards away from the highway.
Getting out of the car, they headed for the car where they left the supplies. They saw no one. "Why aren't they here?" Carl asked. "Dad, you said they'd be here."
"I said I hoped." Rick went ahead to search for stray Walkers. He saw one, and hid behind a car until it passed. He then took out his knife and stabbed it in the back of the head, killing it. "We'll just wait here. They're bound to show up."
"Your Dad's right." Shane stood a few feet away, keeping an eye out for Walkers. "Chances are they'll come soon."
"Rick." Hershel walked away from Carl and Shane, gesturing for Rick to follow. They went off the road and stood there. "You have to leave; you have to get Carl somewhere safe."
"What are you talking about?" Rick asked him. "We've gotta wait for the others, for Lori!"
"You've got to think about Carl's safety; we don't know how long it'll be until they get here, if they come here at all. We don't even know if they're alive." He looked Rick in the eyes. Neither wanted to admit it, but they both believed that they were all dead. "I'll stay here, just in case they show up. But you have to get your boy to a safe place, away from here."
Rick looked at him with confusion; he didn't want to leave, just in case they showed up, but he didn't want to risk Carl's life. He ran back to Shane and Carl, trying to figure out what to do. When he came back, he saw Carl talking with Shane; Rick could only think that he was asking about his mother.
Shane saw him coming. "Rick!" He yelled. "How long you think until the others show up?" Rick prepared himself for what he was going to say. He walked up to them. Shane saw the look in his eyes and became worried. "What's the matter?"
Not waiting any time, he decided to come straight out with it. "We have to go. It's too dangerous to stay here." He looked at Carl, whose face churned with fear.
"But Dad!" he yelled, "what about everyone else? What about Mom?" Rick was about to speak, but was cut off by Shane.
"Carl's right!" Shane yelled at him. "We can't just abandon them!" He walked up to Rick, anger in his eyes. "For Christ's sake Rick, Lori's pregnant!"
"Don't you think I know that!" Rick looked him in the eye. "But I've gotta think about Carl; we don't even know if they're alive." His voice cracked a little at the end. "We have to think about Carl, right here, right now."
Shane looked at him, thinking of Carl. He didn't want abandon Lori, abandon the baby, but chances were that they wouldn't see each other again. He looked at Carl, and saw in his eyes that he thought he was going to side with him.
"You're right." Shane lamented. "We have to go."
"But we can't!" Carl argued. "We have to wait for Mom!"
"We can't do that Carl." Rick told his son. "We have to think of what's happening now."
"But-" Carl began.
"Carl, you and your Dad go on." Shane interrupted him. "I'll stay here, just in case they come back." Rick looked at him.
"But you can't!" Carl told him. "I want us to stay together!" Carl began to break down; he didn't want to leave his mother behind, the unborn baby.
"Carl." Rick said. He got down to look his son in his eyes. "We have to go. We don't know if your mother's coming here. We don't even know if she's alive." Rick felt a few tears going down his cheeks. "We have to make sure that you're safe."
"But Dad!" Carl began. "We can't just-"
"Carl!" Rick interrupted. "I don't want to leave her either, but we've got to think about right now." He looked at Shane and Hershel, then back to his son. "Shane and Hershel will stay here, just in case. But we have to get you somewhere safe." Rick's voice cracked. "O-"
Rick stopped talking when he saw a familiar car approaching the highway. He stood up, and began to walk to it. Shane, Hershel, and Carl turned around to see T-Dog parking one of their cars. Next to T-Dog was Lori.
"MOM!" Carl yelled. "MOM!" He ran to Lori as she quickly got out of the car. She ran to her son.
"Carl!" Lori yelled. They hugged the moment they got to each other. "Thank god, you're okay!"
Rick slowly walked to his wife, shocked that she was there, that she was alive. He saw T-Dog get out of the car, looking at the reunited family. Rick then saw another car pull up, this one containing Glenn, Maggie, and Beth. They all got out of the car.
"Dad!" Both Maggie and Beth yelled. They ran to Hershel, who looked like he about to cry. They hugged their father as tightly as they could.
"Maggie." Hershel said. "Beth." He hugged his daughters, happy that they were safe and with him again. "Thank god you're okay!"
"Glenn made sure we were safe." Maggie said. "He saved us."
Hershel looked at Glenn with admiration and pride. "Thank you Glenn." He released his daughters, then hugged Glenn as tightly as he could. "Thank you so much." He was happy that his daughter had chosen such a good man to be with. He knew he made the right choice in giving Glenn his family's pocket watch. Glenn returned the hug awkwardly.
A loud revving sound made everyone look back to cars. They saw Daryll approaching them on his motorcycle, with Carol sitting behind him. Stopping his bike, Daryll nodded his head at the group. "Sup." He said nonchalantly. "Everyone here?"
Everyone looked around. "Where's Andrea?" Shane asked.
"I saw her on the farm." Carol told them. She stood next to Daryll, keeping close to him at all times. "I was with her before we got separated by the Walkers."
"I'm going back for her!" Daryll said., walking to his bike. "I'll be back soon."
"You're not going anywhere." Rick told him. "We're not separating, not again."
"You want us to leave her there?!" Daryll asked. "What if this were Carl, or Lori?" He got closer to Rick.
"We don't know if she's alive." Rick said. "Even if she is alive, she's not gonna be at the farm."
"Rick's right." Shane spoke up. "Either way, she's a lost cause."
Daryll didn't say another word; he didn't want to admit it, but they were probably right. He walked passed the others and sat down on one of the many abandoned cars.
"We have to get off the road." Rick told everyone, speaking up so everyone could hear him. "Let's gather as much fuel as we can from these cars, then get off the road."
The group gathered all the fuel they could muster from the abandoned vehicles, though not much remained after their first scavenging venture. They headed out once they filled up the tanks.
The group passed no buildings as they drove, or at least ones that wasn't infested with Walkers. As night drew near, the group decided to stop at a clearing off the side of the road; they made camp in the center of a formation of rocks.
Rick stood, looking at his group. Shane sat next to Lori and Carl; Glenn was with the Greene Family; Carol was sitting next to Daryll, who Rick thought looked a little uncomfortable with the woman so close to him. They sat in silence as the fire crackled, contemplating the loss of the farm, their safe haven, their home.
"We should try and get some rest." Rick said, deciding to break the awkward silence. "Get up early so we can find somewhere safe in the morning."
"I'm gonna go look for something to eat." Daryll said, getting up from his spot next to Carol. He grabbed his bow and began to walk to the woods. "We're gonna want to conserve our canned goods. See if I can find anything."
"Don't go too far in," Rick told him, "we don't need to lose anymore people."
"Shane and I'll survey the area, make sure nothings around that can hurt us."
"Alright." Shane said, getting up. He held his shotgun in his hands. "Carl, keep an eye on everything."
"Alright." Carl said. No one laughed; it wasn't meant as a joke.
Rick and Shane walked around the area surrounding their camp, keeping an eye out for anything hostile.
"We have to talk." Rick said once they were far enough away from the camp. "About earlier."
"I was kinda hopin' you would've forgotten about that." Shane admitted.
"I didn't." The two of them stopped, and they looked each other in the eye. "You tried to kill me."
"I know. I was there." Shane began to look around, just in case a Walker was near and they didn't notice; neither of them wanted a repeat of what had happened earlier.
"You aimed a gun at my head!" Rick told him, loudly whispering.
"I remember!" Shane told him. "I tried to kill you; to murder. Okay? I admit it!"
Rick looked at Shane with intensity. In the blink of an eye, Rick grabbed Shane's revolver, and held it up so he could see. "Then why was your gun empty?" He opened the barrel, revealing that there were no bullets in it whatsoever. "Who tries to shoot someone with an empty gun?"
They looked at each other. Shane couldn't think of an excuse for the empty gun. "You wanted me to kill you, didn't you?" Rick pushed him. "DIDN"T YOU?!" He screamed as low as he could, so as to not alarm the others.
"Yes!" Shane said back. "Okay? I did!" He did not push back.
"Why?" Rick asked. "Why would you make me kill you?"
"Because you ain't built for this world." Shane told him. "You can't protect Lori and Carl as well as you think you can!"
"What do you mean?" Rick asked. "I've protected them! I've killed for them!"
"But you have to get better. You're not hard enough, not like me." Shane felt some tears fall down his cheek. "If you were harder, then you could protect them better, better than either of us could now."
They looked at each other, and didn't say a word to each other. Rick finally broke the silence. "I understand." He turned back and began to walk back to the camp, with Shane following behind. "But I can protect them; I showed you that. So no more of this idiotic behavior." He turned around to look at Shane again. "Understood?!"
"Yeah." Shane knew that Rick still felt ill will towards him, but he didn't press the matter for fear of making things worse. "Understood."
They walked back to their camp in silence.

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How did you like it? Good? Bad? I feel that my original draft was better, but I couldn't remember how it went; only that it sounded better. I finished this early as a Christmas gift to you all. Except for you. Remember to Read & Review!